EPC ignores public consultation promises: why the public needs a watchdog

This powerful episode, recorded live on location, explains more background and ties together media reports about Red River College's privacy law woes, the scrambling of the CMHR plans to hire staff and open on - well it isn't on time cause it was already late - and their "Orwellian" question and answer exercise; and lastly, what happened at city hall when the Downtown Parking Plan was rubber-stamped with no regard for the unconnected common folk who are being denied input.

This is the third neighborhood this week to report an absence of fair treatment by city "planning".

Listen for an online comment about the difference between Coun. Eadie's tirade about his own backyard and the silence of councillors when other areas get steamrolled by city processes.

We explain how this ties in to the launch of a new website next week, and why the general public needs resources like our Podcast and our coverage of city hall, the Legislature, and local blogs to help them stand up to decision-makers and hold them accountable. Listen for how you can be part of the next stage.

Plus :
- more on homicides number 36 and 37,
- a Level 5 car thief tries to injure cops twice,
- the price of cocaine in Winnipeg plummets, and
- are the HA's picking up stakes?

A newspaper columnist and a local clothing designer now follow us on Twitter- you'll hear who they are!

LISTEN HERE:

http://tgctspod.podbean.com/2011/12/08/epc-ignores-public-consultation-promises-why-the-public-needs-a-watchdog/

TWITTER: @TGCTS
PS -- WATCH FOR A STORY ABOUT OSBORNE HOUSE IN TOMORROW'S METRO !

Fed-up Residents ask: Are trees being chopped down for the Berry Street Bike path?

The alternative media influence in this city and on the civic election is being recognized by MSM. Two weeks after we showcased blogger Brian Kelcey and pointed to the criticism leveled by Policy Frog, the two former city hall insiders were quizzed in todays Free Press about their opinions. In fact, Froggies attack of not only the consultation process but the safety elements of the bike lane designs is believed to have been a turning point in the credibility of the stories our listeners have brought forward.

Graham Hnatiuk, whose attempt to alert the city auditor about the planned waste of taxpayers' dollars and dangerous conditions created in South Broadway was diverted to Assiniboine bike path honcho Kevin Nixon, furthered his coverage with pictures of a tour bus coming from the legislature, that was stranded on the new extended raised curbs at Kennedy St.

Another bus got stuck last Friday; we have reported that police were never consulted about how street direction changes could affect 911 response; and seniors on Edmonton St. are trapped in their homes by the high curbs and canceled transit route.

This weekend, Cherenkov discovered that the bike path on Archibald doubled as the sidewalk for Windsor Parks' second busiest bus stop at Elizabeth going south. Not only are pedestrians being endangered by design, but so are the cyclists. The 2.4 meter path is almost bisected by a giant thick metal pole. Why, you ask?

Well, to support the red light camera that produces the fewest tickets in the fleet, as in 1 per week. Still, as revenue trumps all, cyclists will be squeezed between the pole and the fence of the St. Boniface Golf Club.

All of these examples, brought to light by the work of the alternative media, demonstrate that there are many serious implications to altering our urban terrain, including the safety of pedestrians, the disabled, seniors -- many of the 3 aforementioned are also high-rise dwellers (another endangered group), and of course now we see, of the cyclists themselves. Plus adding to air pollution, gridlock, added business costs, and the admission by Coun. Gerbasi she'd be happy to spend money next year to fix the mistakes but let's build it wrong first.

It is like the city planners, coordinators, consultants and politicians, cannot see the forest for the trees.

Speaking of trees, the residents of Berry Street have had a fire lit under them after the purple paint on their boulevard, outlining the bike paths on the Portage to Ness stretch, included a couple of trees that logically would be chopped down and paved over.

The city has issued repeated denials today from the forestry office, bike lane czar Nixon, Marr Consulting, and the project engineer, that ANY trees are going to be removed. The residents don''t buy it.

The people of Berry fought to plant trees and cared for them.
They see the paint surrounding the trees.
Grass is being paved over for a bike lane.
A bike lane that they never asked for and that has changed shape and design is being forced on them.
They do not trust the officials or Councillor Scott Fielding.

The original letter in August was vague on the fate of the trees, and showed 2 straight pathways parallel to the road.



The second letter, dated Sept. 24th, gave them 4 days notice of their street being closed and torn up for the bike lane construction, says nothing about trees being lost or not, and does not have a pretty picture of the bike lanes so clean and straight, as the revised design would have to show a curving path that goes over manholes, across car driveways and right-of-way sidewalks to the roadside, and is forced to veer a specific distance away from light standards - and at one point on the west side of Berry, curves to run right beside the sidewalk directly in front of the gate of one homeowner. No wonder no one has ever seen a rendering of the final design.




The working class and retired homeowners of Berry Street have waited in vain for sidewalks to be repaired and replaced - let alone made level.

After being embarassed after learning that the boulevard water mains would break and require the bike lane be dug up, the city hurriedly tore up the water lines, leaving behind a half-block long patchwork of mudholes and mini-swamps on both sides of the street.

The residents see busted sidewalks, mud-pitted boulevards, and trees being outlined for demolition in front of their homes --- all for an unknown number of commuter cyclists to ride through in front of their doors.

BREAKING NEWS: FP got it first: KATZ TO HALT MCDERMOT/BANNATYNE BIKEWAY DUE TO POOR CONSULTATION;

(Co-incidentally, very close to the Goldeyes ballpark. It appears his awakening was spurred by our asking the Mayor last week via email, if he knew as either Mayor or Goldeyes owner that McDermot St. was being turned into a 1-way from Rorie to Waterfront.)

Councillors push back against bike lobby/ exclusive bike counts for Osborne Village and Downtown

TGCTS has once again proven there is LOTS of news out there that MSM newsrooms don't bother to look for, because it doesn't fit in with their 'where's the press release' summertime work ethic.

Yesterday on our show, St. James councillor Scott Fielding praised our work to dig out the truth about bike lane "demand" and hold officials to account for poor consultation and concealed costs. Fielding assailed claims by the bike lobby and city Active Transportation coordinator Kevin Nixon that property values rise because of the addition of the paths to neighbourhoods as being unproven.

After stating that social engineering by "Egghead Elitists" was never going to get Winnipeg families out of their cars, Fielding vowed to put the brakes on the Berry Street project if he finds out city staff misled him about any added costs or work to enable completion of the project.

How Fielding has more power with the mandarins at 510 Main Street than Daniel MacIntyre Councillor Harvey Smith is unclear - as every objection Smith has lodged against the bloated Sherbrook bike lane plan has been ignored not only by Nixon but by fellow councillors on the Public Works committee. They did not care that the bike lobby backstabbed West End Biz and area residents by reneging on compromises agreed to in June, and rammed through approval of the 'Use it or Lose it" crowds' desired proposal despite what the area councillor or residents want.

Last week, on the eve of announcing his surprise re-entry into the 2010 civic election, Smith told the Kick-FM audience he was taking his complaints directly to Nixon's bosses and that Nixon has exhibited bias by refusing to answer key questions about the nature of "consultations" or produce "bike counts" as proof the AT projects are hunky-dorey.

Also yesterday, we heard from Jean Hird, a resident of Roslyn Street who said Nixon had ignored her requests for an explanation of the Roslyn Road bike lane that would eliminate handicapped and seniors parking. The lane has NEVER been discussed at any open house or public meeting, and TGCTS has reported that it may have been implemented on the basis of as few as 5 residents suggesting they liked the concept, even though 500 or more may be negatively affected by it.

Hird made the most obvious statement yet about the folly of the AT rollout -- why would seniors have paid any attention to the city brochures about AT Open Houses - "we're seniors, we don't ride bikes !". One listener told us "This lady should be hired and our seniors should be consulted. They seem to have a better grasp then consultants and engineers."

Hird was also shocked to learn that a flyer about Nassau Street AT construction- which she said was going to cause worse traffic jams than ever - was not provided to Roslyn Road apartments.

A listener provided that flyer, with these comments :

Hi Marty,

Was just listening to you talk about the residents of Nassau and Roslyn Road on my way home from work. Ironically rushing to get off to Gord's Bike Club Wednesday Night Ride!
I am one of those people who would ride to work if I felt more safe doing so, but not at the expense of regular traffic flow. Osborne Village and Confusion corner is already over congested at rush hour. Taking the roads away is not going to help.

I live on Nassau, and have noticed signs along Nassau promoting the new bike lane, and having listened to your show, wondered how they were going to pull that off. Already an incredibly narrow, and incredibly busy street, I couldn't imagine them taking out any of the huge old trees that line both sides of the street. So, I've been watching my mail to see how the plans would be conveyed to Nassau residents. Also note that the signs stop at River, they do not show up between River and Roslyn.

Finally last week, I saw a notice go up in our mail room (and one other in the parkade). It's a full page of tiny text, in amongst the posted building classifieds - guaranteed to be read by very few people, busy getting home and collecting their mail, or seniors who aren't going to stand there and read a page of miniature text. I was shocked that this was not being delivered to each and every mailbox.

I also find it very interesting that it mentions nothing of the traffic diversion and the reduced parking you spoke of on Roslyn Road. I took a few brief notes.

- dated July 14th, notes that construction is set to being mid July (thanks for the notice) - bike path to be built on the west boulevard of Nassau
- several traffic circles to be installed (sounded like every 4 way stop, not the light controlled intersections, seems like a lot for one short road)
- Gertrude to McMillan will become one way north traffic
- Corydon to Jesse will be one way south traffic
- they only make one reference to parking, and that was to say it would not be disturbed in one of the one-way sections, which leads me to believe it will be affected in the other section.
- Jeff Crang is listed as the "sender' of this letter - phone 928-8428 (haven't had a chance to call yet, but have noticed that the intersections have been spray painted, so assume that work is starting soon)

This is such a major route during rush hour traffic, I can't imagine how turned around people are going to get with one way sections in there. I also feel that people in this city are not accustomed to traffic circles, especially when combined with bikes. I think that is going to be much more dangerous that a few four way stops on a narrow road.

A.


******************
In an attempt to gauge the true need for the Roslyn Road railroading of residents, the connectivity theory with Assiniboine, and the usefulness of the downtown bike lanes, we once again sent Kim the Traffic reporter and Allan the Bike Guy out to the streets to do a bike count.

From: Kim the Traffic reporter

Subject: Osborne Bridge/Assiniboine Ave bike counts

Good Morning Marty, This count performed on Thursday July 22, 2010 from 07:00-09:00 was done in 5 minute increments. There are two separate counts for this report. One for Assiniboine Ave and one for the Osborne St. Bridge. Weather conditions were: warm, no wind, mostly cloudy with some sunny areas.

The first set of counts will deals with East bound Assiniboine Ave., most of the riders came off the Osborne Bridge with exception noted below. Cyclists who came off Assiniboine and didn't turn onto the Bridge were NOT counted.

Note: Of the total tally, 8 cyclists turned onto Assiniboine either off Osborne (southbound) or off Mostyn. There were 6 in the first hour and 2 in the second hour.

Assiniboine Ave.
7-8: 51 total cyclists (minus 6 = 45 came off the bridge)
8-9: 53 total cyclists (minus 2 = 51 came off the bridge)
---- 104 total cyclists ( 96 came off the bridge)

The next set of counts deals with the Osborne St. Bridge both directions as well as both East and West sides. Cyclists on the road and sidewalk were counted. Please see note below:

Note: Cyclists turning onto Assiniboine were NOT counted for the bridge count, though the numbers will be posted to also include those additional counts.

Osborne St. Bridge
7-8: Eastside Westside Total Bikes
Road: 22 10 32
Sidewalk: 3 27 30
Total Bikes: 25 37 62

Total Bikes (including those coming off the Bridge) onto Assiniboine Ave. 62 + 45= 107

8-9: Eastside Westside Total Bikes
Road: 34 10 44
Sidewalk: 7 24 31
Total Bikes: 41 34 75
Total Bikes (including those coming off the Bridge) onto Assiniboine Ave. 75 + 51= 126

Combined Osborne Bridge (not going down Assiniboine) Totals, 7-9 AM:
Eastside Westside Total bikes
Road: 56 20 76
Sidewalk: 10 51 61
Total Bikes: 66 71 137

Total bikes (including those coming off the Bridge onto Assiniboine Ave):
107 + 126 = 233 total bikes from Osborne Bridge
(or, 96 Assiniboine plus 137 Not Assiniboine = 233 total bikes)

96 out of the 233 --- 41%, appeared to use Assiniboine Avenue to commute to downtown.

I noted a few things along with the counts. There were a number of cyclists on Mostyn who turned off onto the existing paths by the Bridge on the West side as well as those using the paths on Assiniboine.

Kudos to the cyclists who followed the rules and I saw quite a few of them. Bigger kudos to the man on the bike who called out to pedestrians to let them know he was there.

As I sat and watched, I was a little surprised at the amount of people communting (Hail Aurtarlia! - ed.) as pedestrians. Though I didn't do an official count, I do believe the amount of pedestrians out numbered the cyclists. It was not unusual to see 7 people walking for every one or two cyclists. If I had to rank in quantity I'd go: vehicles/pedestrians/cyclists/skateboards/ rollerblades

I found this interesting. Kim

(at the same time...)

From: Allan on his bike

Hello all.

I was on the road for just under two hours this morning, plus the 45 minutes for my regular commute, and I can tell you I'm feeling it now.

I did loops as follows:
Ellen/Carlton to Assiniboine
Assiniboine to Fort
Fort To Notre Dame
Notre Dame to Garry
Garry to Assiniboine
Assiniboine to Hargrave
Hargrave to Bannatyne
Bannatyne to Ellen/Carlton

I broke it down into approximately half hour intervals, 7:00-7:30, 7:30-8:00, 8:00-8:30, 8:30-8:50.

One thing I was very surprised about was the lack of traffic in general on those streets at those times. I was sharing the road with no more than 4 or 5 cars most of the time. Often, I had whole blocks of the street to myself. There were more on Assiniboine and more cars as you got close to Portage, but really it was very light. Even at Portage and Fort for example, I was waiting at the lights with a maximum of 14 cars. Most lights, I waited with 5 cars or less.

Traffic was much heavier on Portage, St. Mary & Assiniboine, where there are no bike lanes. On two of my trips down Ellen, I was the only traffic moving on the road until I got to Ellice. In my opinion, and I want to be very clear, the bike lanes downtown have an absolutely minimal effect on traffic flow (in the morning).

I saw zero situations where the bike lanes caused any backups or congestion of any kind on any streets. There were two instances where drivers had to wait a few seconds for me to clear the lane before they could turn right, but that was it. I felt much more in the way and crowded on Assiniboine, where there is no bike lane. This is the same feeling I got when I did the afternoon count last year.

Anyway, the counts are:
7:00 - 7:30
Bikes in Lanes: 5
Bikes on Sidewalk: 0
Bikes on Cross streets: 2

7:30 - 8:00
Bikes in Lanes: 18
Bikes on Sidewalk: 6
Bikes on Cross streets: 1

8:00 - 8:30
Bikes in Lanes: 24
Bikes on Sidewalk: 8
Bikes on Cross streets: 4

8:30 - 8:50

Bikes in Lanes: 7
Bikes on Sidewalk: 1
Bikes on Cross streets: 0

TOTAL Downtown observed bikes (7:00 - 8:50):
Bikes in Lanes: 54
Bikes on Sidewalk: 15
Bikes on Cross streets: 7
Total: 76
***********************

This week, TGCTS

- broke the news about Manitoba Lotteries buying the Days Inn property on McPhillips for over $6 Million;

- skewered the hypocritical complaints of "we weren't consulted about Chief Peguis" from the bike lobby on CJOB

- interviewed St James-Brooklands candidate Fred Morris about his platform

- analyzed the "apology" of FP columnist Lindor Reynolds for her gossip-rag story on Mayor Sam Katz' private life, an "apology" which lacked any comprehension of how she had been used by a political operative to run a hit piece

- explained the reason the Crime Severity index might really be held artificially low by plea bargains and bleeding heart judges

- wondered aloud why MSM accepts construction inflation as a reason for the rising price of the first leg of rapid transit, but for years ignored how that factor meant the announced cost of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights was a deliberate fiction
by the panhandling millionaires who promote it

- featured RRC student Breanna Bouchard's work on Assignment Saving Lives, her donor recruiting effort on behalf of Canadian Blood Services;

- spoke with Winnipeg Dodge dealer Walt Morris about the rise of new car sales this spring in Manitoba and his labour of love Red River Co-op Speedway http://www.victorylane.mb.ca/

LOTS to come in August including HOT 103's Ace Burpee, CTV's Kelly Dehn, NCI's Scott Taylor, Mayoral candidate Judy W-L. on August 19th, more Canad Inns Classic rock concert tickets, and your emails at talk@kick-fm.

(Enjoy next week's replays !!)