351 Assiniboine Avenue
Winnipeg Manitoba, R3C 0X9
September 7, 2010
To the members of the City Centre Community Committee
Councillor Jenny Gerbasi
Councillor John Orlikow
Councillor Harvey Smith
Re: Assiniboine Avenue Bike Boulevard
Dear Councillors,
I am writing to request that your committee put an immediate stop to the construction on this project and convene a special City Centre Community Committee meeting to hear the concerns of neighbourhood citizens that to date have had no say on how their lives will be impacted by this illconceived and poorly planned bike boulevard project on Assiniboine Avenue. This project was
dropped onto the neighbourhood without a fair and meaningful public consultation process or
discussions with those directly affected. Because the consultation process was badly flawed, those who live and work in this neighbourhood were taken by complete surprise.
Please review the following supporting information.
Background:
On the weekend of August 28th/29th barriers and traffic signs went up on Assiniboine Avenue
demarcating the proposed traffic flow pattern changes on Assiniboine avenue to accommodate a
new cycle boulevard on the street. The cycle boulevard will take up the south lane, reducing the
three lanes of traffic on Assiniboine to two lanes.
Changes will see portions of Assiniboine Avenue changed to one way traffic in many directions. Assiniboine Avenue traffic will be diverted to Broadway Avenue.
A letter dated July 13, 2010, announcing the start of construction, was delivered to mailboxes and taped to doors of large apartment buildings and businesses in the area. When these letters were received varies from place to place and to date there are residents, building and business owners who have not seen the letter and did not know the nature of the work to take place on Assiniboine Avenue until the work started. Even after work started they thought that these were street works and that the traffic diversions were only to be temporary ones, since signage used throughout the construction zone shows directions to be “temporary”.
In my case I found the letter in my mailbox. In the case of a neighbouring building (33 Hargrave) the letter was taped to the door of the building that has over 250 apartment units and a population of over 500 residents. The building managers were notified of the posting by a resident and when they City Centre Community Committee Letter September 7, 2010
Page 2 of 8 investigated they found the remnants of the tape on the door but no letter. In the case of the building at 10 Donald (Campbell Marr LLP), the letter was taped to the door of the building off of the Donald Street bridge, a door that the firm does not use.
It was only when one of the employees in the building went out to water some flower pots that she found the letter. The plan included in the letter of July 13, 2010 calls for Assiniboine Avenue to become a one way street between Navy and Hargrave among many other changes to the avenue. This change will have an adverse affect on all residents, business owners, and building owners south of Hargrave place, west of the Donald Street bridge and East of Hargrave Street.
This includes a fleet of 250 or so taxi cabs and over 550 residents along with at least 9 businesses. These residents, businesses and buildings will now be prevented from going east on Assiniboine avenue and their access to the south west part of the city has been cut off.
Access to that part of the City now can only be by way of a very busy Broadway adding considerable distance and time to travel to those destinations. The retricted access to this area can only lead to congestion and devalued properties and businesses.
Requests For Meetings Were Denied:
I have been informed by Douglas Mackenzie, of Campbell Marr, that shortly after the letter was
found, he contacted the City and set up a meeting to see if that portion of Assiniboine Avenue could be kept as a two-way street all the way to Hargrave Street. He, and one of his partners, met with the project manager, Bill Woroby, Cindy Desjardine, City traffic engineer, Michael Jack, City solicitor, Ruth Marr of Marr Consulting and Michael Bradley of Stantec Engineering.
Mr. Mackenzie was told that that part of the avenue had to be a one way street since Assiniboine
narrowed under the bridge (narrowed by approximately 2 feet) and was not wide enough to
accommodate two lanes of traffic and the bicycle boulevard.
After suggesting many possibilities on how this narrowing of the avenue could be addressed so that it would be able to accommodated the cycle boulevard and the two lanes of traffic he was told that changes were not possible at this stage.
Mr. Mackenzie asures me that no one advised him that Handi-Transit was an issue in respect of the stretch of Assiniboine from Navy Way to Hargrave Street. (This is relevant to discussions below). Mr. Mackenzie contacted Councillor Swandel (Chair of Standing Policy Committee on Downtown Development) to ask for a meeting and after Councillor Swandel met with the City staff his reply to Mr. Mackenzie was … “I went over this thing every which way and I think the current proposal is the best case scenario for all concerned”. Mr. Mackenzie had requested that he and myself be present at the meeting to give our viewpoint and suggestions. The request was denied.
All this took place before construction started. I had offered my services as a design professional to work with staff on finding a solution but the offer was not considered. I contacted Concillor Gerbasi to bring this situation to her attentions and in her email of August 20 she said that she had asked the project managers to provide a detailed explanation “ … in writing of the reasoning behind the one way changed under the bridge to be provided to those concerned After we were denied being able to meet and offer solutions for how the narrow street could accommodated both the cycle boulevard and a two way traffic I began to research how this plan came about.
City Centre Community Committee Letter September 7, 2010 Page 3 of 8 City Centre Community Committee Meeting September 8, 2009:
At the meeting of the City Centre Community Committee of September 8, 2009 a report prepared by City administration was received and adopted by the Committee. The report was called “Development of the Assiniboine Bike Boulevard”. According to the report, the City staff claimed that public consultations were carried out and that there were a number of public information letters sent out with the last one going out on August 10, 2009. Therefore, one would assume that by the time the report was prepared all public consultation would have been carried out and the final design prepared for submission and adoption at the September 8, 2009 meeting.
Appendix No. 2 in the report clearly stated that Assiniboine Avenue would remain a two way street between Main Street and Hargrave Street. This is the change we were looking to make to the plan distributed in the letter dated July 13, 2010 but were told that it could not be changed.
In the same report, Appendix No. 3 (which appears to be a “flyer” type document) it also clearly
stated that Assiniboine Avenue would remain a two way street between Main Street and Hargrave Street.
In the report there is also Appendix No. 1 which is a list of those that were directly contacted by the City to take part in the initial consultation in the Active Transportation Plan. Please note that most of those of the list represent the cycling community. Those who live and work in this
neighbourhood who are most directly affected by this plan are not on the list. On a radio interview (noted later in this letter) Mr. Nixon stated that they had sent out 32,000 letters yet a public meeting at the Norwood Hotel resulted, from what I have heard, in an attendance of fewer than 100 people.
Most of them would most likely have been from the cycling community. Neither I, nor any of the many residents or businesses I have discussed this with, received any information until the July 13, 2010 letter was distributed.
Along with the fact that there never was any meaningful public consultation with the residents, business owners, and building owners, I was taken by surprise to find that that even though the Committee adopted a plan that had Assiniboine Avenue slated to be a two way street all the way to Hargrave, the plan in the July 13, 2010 letter had changed that portion of Assiniboine Avenue to be a one way west bound street.
How Did This Change Come About And How Was It Justified. Those of us between the bridge and Hargrave could have lived with the changes proposed for Assiniboine Avenue that were adopted at the September 8, 2009 City Centre Meeting. However, I cannot speak for all those located west of Hargrave Street but can guess that they are also greatly impacted. There was no communication with the neighbourhood between the City Centre Committee meeting and the July 13, 2010 letter.
City Centre Community Committee Letter September 7, 2010 Page 4 of 8 When I discovered this, I wrote to Councillor Gerbasi (email of August 30) to let her know that I had not heard from Mr. Woroby and to inform her of the above. In the email I requested It appears that the changes were made arbitrarily by City staff after the September 8, 2009 City Centre meeting without any public notice at all.
In that same letter to Concillor Gerbasi I asked for the project to be stopped and that a meaningful consultation process be initiated. Construction was just getting underway at the time and this could easily have been done.
That same day I received a call from Mr. Woroby which I was not able to return until the next day (August 31st). I specifically asked Mr. Woroby about the process in making changes once the Committee adopted the report last September and was told that that report was only submitted for information and that they could make whatever changes they wanted in finalizing plans.
I find this astonishing. I also asked Mr. Woroby why the changes were made to Assiniboine between the bridge and Hargrave and he now told me (contrary to the advice Mr. Mackenzie received) that it had something to do with having heard from Handi-Transit in the interim and they required that their bus doors had to be on the north side of the street to load and unload passengers. In order for this to happen they would have to travel in an westerly direction.
I found it odd that they would have not consulted Handi-Transit before the plan was finalized for the report submitted to City Centre for the September 2009 meeting. Mr. Woroby’s answer now contradicted the reason they had given to Mr. Mackenzie when he first met with them (that the road was too narrow under the bridge). I could not make any sense of this since there are no buildings on this part of Assinboine that do not have a place for a handi-transit vehicle to drop off or pick up their passengers.
This issue was now becoming public and in a Free Press article “Businesses Pushing City About
Bike-Path Change” (September 3, 2010) the reported asked the same questions to Mr. Kevin Nixon, the general manager of the City’s active transportation program, who gave a reason that is now on public record and quoted here:
Kevin Nixon, the city's active transportation manager, said the Assiniboine Bikeway plan was
tweaked when it became apparent Handi-Transit vehicles would be required to open their
doors on the wrong side of Assiniboine Avenue on one of the blocks in the neighbourhood. The
change did not require council approval, as the plan was presented last year as information,
not as legislation.
Mr. Nixon used the word “tweaked” to describe a major change that is affecting a large number of people in the area who have been there for many, many years. I myself have been at that location for over 20 years.
The reason given by Mr. Nixon is both misleading and untruthful and also contradicts the reason
given by City staff to Mr. Mackenzie earlier in the process (street too narrow by 2 feet). I have in my possession confirmation from the City of Winnipeg that the address on Assiniboine that Handi- Transit was concerned about is 375 Assiniboine Avenue. This is located west of Hargrave Street.
That portion of Assiniboine was to be a one way street in the plan submitted for adoption by the City City Centre Community Committee Letter September 7, 2010 Page 5 of 8 Centre Community Committee in 2009, and maintaining Assiniboine as a two way street to Hargrave would have impact on the Handi-Transit system.
Why was the plan changed?
It was not for Handi-Transit as Mr. Nixon and Mr. Woroby have stated. The question still remains. Through Campbell Marr LLP, the group of businesses and building owners in this area that are directly affected wrote to Mr. Laubenstein on August 31 to also ask for a stop to the project until meaningful consultations could take place. That letter was shuffled off to the Director of Public Works who was on holidays at that time.
Public Consultation Process:
The changes to Assiniboine Avenue have been dropped onto the residents, business owners, and
building owners without a proper, fair and meaningful public consultation process contrary to the
claim by the City that an extensive public consultation process was undertaken.
Recently it was very interesting to read a comment by Councillor Orlikow in a Free Press article
“Cycle Projects Get Rolling”, (August 30, 2010) from where the following is quoted: Many residents only became aware of the work after construction started, despite a series of mailouts sent out early this year, River Heights-Fort Garry Coun. John Orlikow said.
"There was an enormous amount of attempts at public consultation by our office and the city,
but I don't think people were engaged prior to it happening," he said. In the same article a comment by Mr. Nixon:
The city also put up information displays in malls and at some public events. But due to the
tight construction deadlines, much of the consultation was conducted in the winter, when
people aren't thinking about construction, Nixon said.
Even if general public consultation took place on some level, it would have been generic in nature
and appeared not to be tailored to specific areas. It is important to note that this area is a high density neighbourhood and plans that may work in single family residential districts may not be
appropriate here.
People move in and out of apartments which brings large moving vehicles to the area that need places to load and unload. One vehicle blocking a traffic lane will result in a traffic
nightmare. The public lane beside my building is often blocked by moving vans. When emergency vehicles respond to emergencies in this area they will also block the narrow lanes and result in total cut off to the residences and businesses.
Were any of these addressed?
A case in point happened today when I and a number of the people in this area were returning to
their offices or homes after lunch. A truck had gotten stuck under the bridge, as happens on a
regular basis, and emergency vehicles were blocking the only lane we had to access our properties.
A line of vehicles had to back up in the narrow lane back to Navy Way. Photos of incident included. During the incident I had a chance to talk to a person who has their office just on the east side of the bridge and asked her if she knew what was happening on Assiniboine. When I told her she reacted City Centre Community Committee Letter September 7, 2010
Page 6 of 8 with shock.
Notice the police vehicles blocking the lanes and the cars having to travel in the wrong
direction. I also had the opportunity of listening to a recording of an interview that Mr. Nixon did on 92.9 KICK FM radio earlier this year. As a design professional it was painful to listen to, hearing how “loosy goosy” the rational and base behind this massive cycle path infrastructure has been.
I paraphrase some of the statements and would encourage all of you to listen to it so that better
processes can be put in place in the future and this is never repeated. It can be heard at
http://www.archive.org/details/TheGreatCanadianTalkShow-InterviewWithKevinNixon This is only a brief list of comments made. Comments like:
-We were learning on the fly.
-32,000 letters went out yet fewer that 100 showed up at a public workshop.
-Assiniboine was presented to residents as a “bike path” and not a “bike boulevard” – big
difference apparently- one is only lines on the road and the other takes up a whole
lane and includes traffic calming. Not for the sake of the neighbouhood but for the
sake of the cyclists.
-We have not failed to try, we were disappointed that we did not get more turn out. We are
struggling with the rest of the 35 projects –how best to get people out.
-We do not want to do anything to screw thing up in any neighbourhood.
-Would have been a good idea if a traffic person were sitting on our committee.
-Consultants and city staff met with bike interest groups before design started but not with
citizens until a plan was developed.
-Are we going to send letters to that neighbouhood – I am not sure yet, we were disappointed
by the effectiveness of that method.
-There have been no complaints about the traffic on Assiniobine Avenue. The traffic calming
goes hand in hand with a bike boulevard.
-One week’s notice for public meetings.
-There is no way we would do anything in any neighbourhood that any Councillor would be
opposed to. (what about the citizens)……….
City Centre Community Committee Letter September 7, 2010 Page 7 of 8
When was the approval for these projects given. Does it not take the signing of a petition by a
certain percentage of residents in the area before changes to traffic patterns are made?
The public most affected by this project was not engaged or involved in planning this project,
consultation attempts failed and it now appears that decisions were made without a solid foundation or consensus by those that will be most affected.
There are 9 businesses and several hundred residents just in the area immediately west of the
midtown bridge who find themselves, unlike before, without ready access to at least one third of the city. Emergency vehicles will have more difficult access to us. Distance and time to the St
Boniface hospital is significantly increased, threatening the lives, let alone safety of the citizens
here.
Only a few examples are offered below.
The diverse make-up of our neighborhood also includes a vulnerable segment of the population.
This group of people on any given day can require immediate responses from The Winnipeg Police, Fire and Ambulance Services. Any delays could mean the difference between life and death. Our long time neighbours (who have never been consulted about this until the July 23rd letter) have also advised an increase in the number of individuals parking on their premises illegally.
When the illegal parkers have been asked to leave, threatening confrontations have followed leaving our neighbors with no recourse but to call 911. People claim they are parking there as they have nowhere else in the neighbourhood to park. Additional parking provided by this plan on Kennedy, which is many blocks away, will not help this group.
Taxis, delivery/moving trucks and service providers are part of everyday life on this street and how will they conduct their business with these changes? All businesses and residents here have the same concern but in the case of vulnerable people, we must ensure response times from emergency service providers remain unchanged.
Yet, emergency vehicles, including fire, ambulance and police, will be forced to go longer indirect distances, and/or the wrong way down even narrower one way streets, and access to the St Boniface hospital will be worse. Who on the city will stand up and take responsibility when the first person suffers or dies because of the problems created by this project?
The pressures caused by taking up a lane of traffic, reducing parking and narrowing streets, has
ramifications that it is apparent the planners never heard about, because they chose not to directly approach any of the affected operations, businesses or apartment blocks in the area. As a result, they never addressed these and many other issues.
Narrowed roadways, loss of 2 way traffic and reduction of parking spaces and loading zones impact the ability of taxi services to pick up and drop off passengers in this densely populated area. Similarly, vehicles dropping off or picking up friends in the area have new problems, never before seen. Unicity Taxi, with 250 taxis in their fleet, find restricted access to large parts of the city harming their operations.
Moving vans that wish to travel west on Assiniboine cannot gain access under the Assiniboine
bridge and yet cannot legally travel against the one way flow from Hargrave. This dilemma became apparent this week when a van had to find its way illegally against the one way flow down Assiniboine, blocking the only lane of westbound traffic, in order to be able to move goods from City Centre Community Committee Letter September 7, 2010Page 8 of 8
Yellow Quill College building.
Gridlock resulted.
Other buildings will be in a similar dilemma. As well, planners have not taken into account the realities of moving vans that from time to time block access down a lane or street when residents are moving, or which, because of their size and the reality of the operations in the area of garbage trucks, buses, delivery vehicles, emergency vehicles etc, will completely block access to traffic at any given time on any street.
Removing alternate routes from residents and businesses, and those serving them, will create traffic chaos and complete gridlock on a regular and ongoing basis. We who live and work in the area are familiar with how it functions, and has done so successfully, with relatively modest difficulties for many decades.
Unfortunately the planners have clearly shown that they did not and do not understand this neighborhood and did the least possible to engage its citizens in a fair and meaningful process.
The damage that will be otherwise caused can be avoided if officials will be prepared to listen now.
My Request:
I am requesting that the City Centre Community Committee immediately stop the construction on this project and convene a special Committee meeting to hear the citizens that to date have had no say on how their lives will be impacted by this ill-conceived and poorly planned project on
Assiniboine Avenue.
The consultants and the City did not fulfill the requirement of engaging citizens in the planning of
this project. Citizen’s rights, a disruption to citizen’s lives, detrimental impact on businesses,
limited and convoluted access to properties and homes, and property devaluations are bound to
result from this unless it is stopped and reversed.
Yours truly,
Giovanni Geremia
Cc
Mayor Sam Katz
Mr. Glen Laubenstein, CAO Winnipeg
Mr. Brad Sacher, Director, Public Works
City Clerk’s Office
Councillor Swandel
Councillor O’Shaughnessy
Councillor Steeves
Councillor Pagtakhan
Councillor Lazarenko
Councillor Wyatt
Councillor Browaty
Councillor Fielding
Councillor Thomas
Councillor Vandal
Douglas Mackenzie, Campbell Marr LLP
Joseph Pollock, Campbell Marr LLP
Unicity Taxi
Yellowquill College
33 Hargrave Place
Avanti Vending
Mane Event
N. Budyk
Councillors Gerbasi's reply read as followed...
Dear Giovanni,
The authority to stop a project such as this lies NOT with the City Centre Community Committee but with the Standing Policy Committee on Public Works, Chaired by Councillor O’Shaughnessy.
Furthermore, the project is funded under the Federal Stimulus program which means the project must be completed this construction season. Delaying it would result in a loss of the funding.
The primary issue with the bikeway appears to be regarding one-way/directional changes. These matters can be reviewed and adjusted if in fact there are serious problems once the project is implemented.
Secondly, I have been advised that the CAO, Glen Laubenstein, will be responding in writing to Mr Doug Mackenzie in regards to the concerns raised by your group.
Most sincerely,
Jenny Gerbasi
Jenny Gerbasi
Councillor, Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry
