Firstly, our debut column in the Winnipeg Sun
City hall’s irrational love of bike lanes
"For the businesses and residents in the South Broadway area, this has provided a unique opportunity for the city to demonstrate utter bumbling and wasteful incompetence year-round, right on their own doorstep."http://www.winnipegsun.com/comment/columnists/2010/12/15/16563596.html
TO our new readers from the Sun, welcome!Check out our archive using the search engine for our leading about terms like Assiniboine Avenue, bike lanes, bike counts, traffic circles, active transportation, and city officials like Jenny Gerbasi, Harvey Smith, Mayor Sam Katz, Kevin (whatever happened to him?) Nixon, and Bill Woroby.
A great compendium of all sort of original research and news stories, is at Graham Hnatiuk's blog
http://progressivewinnipeg.blogspot.com/search/label/Assiniboine%20Avenue
and his hub collection of a lot of Blog posts:
http://progressivewinnipeg.blogspot.com/2010/09/assiniboine-avenue-bike-path-info-hub.html
* Thank you to all our readers, new and old, who hail from
- local organizations such as the Manitoba Pork Council, Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, Manitoba Public Insurance, and the Seven Oaks School Division;
- Canadian media such as National Post, Macleans, Globe and Mail, APTN, CBC, CTV, Sun Media, Vancouver Province, Global TV, and the Winnipeg Free Press,
- educational institutions such as Red River College, Sheridan College, Algonquin College, and NorthWest Community College; and the Universities of Winnipeg, Manitoba, British Columbia, Simon Fraser, Lethbridge, and Calgary;
- Canadian locations like Brandon, Morden, Dauphin, The Pas, Thompson, Beausejour, Selkirk, Pine Falls, Pinawa, Burnaby, Vancouver, Richmond, Port Coquitlam, Prince George, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Cranbrook, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Toronto, Hamilton, Sarnia, Barrie, Thunder Bay, Ottawa, Kanata, Fredericton, Oromocto, Halifax, Whitehorse, and St John's;
- international locales like Tel Aviv, Israel; Frankfurt, Germany; Helsinki, Finland; San Jose, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Scottsdale, Arizona; Battlebro, Vermont; Winchester, New Hampshire, New York, New York, and Washington DC.
** Some supporters, including RRC alumni, have now filed official complaints with the Red River College Board of Governors which is meeting tonight.
*** Official complaints have also been filed by concerned listeners with the CRTC about the operation of the non-profit Cre-Comm Inc, which has again designated 4 commercial radio station executives as "community members" of the Kick-FM Board of Directors. One of them, as chairman, declared they would not answer any questions or ask any of presenters at their stage-managed Annual General Meeting on December 9th.
*** Thank you to all who supported our first ever TGCTS Live edition. It was much easier technologically than I had expected, and the interaction with the audience was very beneficial.
- The podcast will be posted in 2 parts to ensure fewer server crashes etc, as it was a long presentation. Kenny advises Part 1 should be ready for this weekend.
- The audience was very impressed with the participation of eyewitnesses from Mynarski ward, who put the lie to the claims our reporting of the civic election was flawed.
- The presentation made clear to all, that the real story of the cancellation of TGCTS has nothing to do with "the best interests of students", and everything to do an attack on the style and substance that set TGCTS apart as the platform for the alternative media to become known to a broader Winnipeg audience and to journalism and radio students from RRC and other courses, and to raise awareness of otherwise untold news angles and stories;
See http://progressivewinnipeg.blogspot.com/2010/12/we-arent-holding-gun-to-your-head-stop.html
***** As announced at the live event, a local radio commentary gig will be starting in January.
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Speaking of the utterly disgusting, walk-on, scam-tastic, no-Asper-included Stadium payed for by YOU:
First of all, candidates in the October election, who on my show on Kick-FM swore they would never turn their back on the public when it came to public consultation, the 'it'll never happen again crowd" - Jenny Gerbasi and John Orlikow, step up - demonstrated why we need recall legislation in this city and province.
Notice how not one MSM reporter asked Jenny if her support for the stadium is tied to her beloved Leg 2 of rapid transit - has anyone heard a single reporter or talk show mention that yet? No ?, because it's just more added expense for you taxpayers they don't want you to be reminded of.
And Orlikow simply has no excuse. After what John went through in River Heights, and he said he learned his lesson? I think Orlikow could have stood up with Russ Wyatt and Harvey Smith for the people of this city, and not for Greg Selinger's re-election campaign.
Blogger plays the timeline game:
http://policyfrog.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/what-a-difference-a-year-makes/
Menno Zacharias should get a medal for this one:
Councillor Justin Swandel has characterized the move by Councillor Wyatt (to oppose the walk-on) and the other councillors as a childish stunt.
This prompts questions:
If the exercise of their rights by councillors is viewed as a stunt, then why not change the rules so that the Mayor and Councillor Swandel can walk anything onto the agenda at any time?
Why do the Mayor and Councillor Swandel view this attempt to promote transparency and accountability for public spending as a negative?
Has the obvious lack of due diligence, cost guesstimates and flawed decision-making not already created a large enough mess? The big hole in the ground at the University of Manitoba says that it has.
http://mennozacharias.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/stadium-funding-debate-sparks-gun-play/Colin Craig of the Taxpayers Federation breaks down the REAL math:
http://www.winnipegsun.com/comment/columnists/colin_craig/2010/12/14/16551841.html
Brian Kelcey asks all the smart questions:
http://www.stateofthecity.ca/front-page/2010/12/13/lingering-questions-on-winnipegs-stadium-deal-60.html
Another great post by John Dobbin:
The provincial NDP should fear the boot. Greg Selinger is showing little restraint and no matter how many times we hear that we need these projects, the question of how to control spending will not go away. So many worthy causes, none worth cutting leads to unimaginable deficits.
As far as city councillors and the mayor, they should fear the nightmare at Polo Park from their development plans and realize it is likely to cost them a lot more to fix traffic problems than they think. Fear the boot. Sam Katz should be particularly ashamed by the last minute walk on for a critical vote
http://johndobbin.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-stadium-walk-on-fear-boot.html
Tom Brodbeck looks into his crystal ball and correctly predicts the future for this boondoggle:
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/columnists/tom_brodbeck/2010/12/15/16569916.html
--- And speaking of the boot, how come we NEVER hear of this provincial election projection from MSM outlets in Winnipeg ??
"With these poll numbers, the Progressive Conservatives would win a majority government with 32 MLAs, two fewer than my last Angus-Reid projection for Manitoba. The New Democrats have gained those two seats and would win 24 in total. The Liberals would win one seat."
http://threehundredeight.blogspot.com/2010/12/pcs-projected-majority-diminishing-in.html
