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The City category

Thursday, September 15, 2011

City's website feeds mistrust and suspicions

Is it really that hard to find the counter petition forms on the City’s website? Christina Mader, an opponent of the proposed Lorne Street parkade, would have us think so. Her reasoning is that the website uses the formal term “alternative approval process” instead of counter petition.

What she doesn’t mention is that there a big graphic on a ballot box on the home page, which should be an obvious clue. And even if it isn’t, there is a clear explanation underneath, which includes the word “petition,” along with a direct link to the forms labelled “Lorne Street parkade.”

The fact that her complaint has received any credence points more to the mistrust that City council has generated in this whole parkade process. Many people feel, with some justification, that councillors are ignoring their wishes and going ahead with a project that is clearly not wanted. So it’s only natural that they’re suspicious.

Would it have killed the City to used the words “counter petition” when explaining the alternative approval process? No. So why didn’t they? You don’t have to be very cynical to wonder if there might be some ulterior motive.

By the why, I have a bone of my own to pick with the City’s website. Why don’t they use a picture of Kamloops in the banner? I have nothing against the Indian reserve, but a photograph of the city itself would seem a more obvious and appropriate choice.

When it comes to policing, it's all about money

Much of the debate about whether Kamloops should dump the RCMP and go with its own police force — or possibly a provincial force — revolves around whether a local force would be better able to deal with crime. While this might be factor in any decision made down the road, it will be dwarfed by the biggest bone of contention: who pays and how much.

In May, I created a bubble graph based on spending by category in the City’s draft financial plan for 2011. It shows that expenditures on police services come to a whopping $22,704,000. The only other category that comes close is parks, recreation and culture with $21,535,000.

Why so expensive? Much of the cost comes from salaries, which include generous medical plans and pension benefits. There is also the cost of equipment.

Municipalities, including Kamloops, would like to bring those costs under control, and that’s what is driving the negotiations between the provinces and the RCMP for a new contract. But if it comes down to salaries and benefits, then you have to wonder how a municipal or provincial force would cost less.

We could pay them less, but that could be a dangerous path to take. One of the reasons Canada has professional police officers willing to take on criminals is because — for the most part — being a good guy pays better than being a bad guy. It would be in our best interests to make sure it stays that way.

Take more than five minutes and do the job right

After a bad accident recently at the intersection of Second and Columbia, a lot of people have been quick to offer the simplistic solution of closing it off. This was even proposed in an editorial by The Daily News called Wait five minuets, then seal Second.

If we ran around closing off intersections every time there was an accident, there wouldn’t be any left. Instead, we need to look at the bigger picture. In this case, the problem is that almost all the traffic headed downtown from Columbia is forced into the chokepoint at Third.

The city made the left-turn lane longer, but there is still a massive volume of traffic being forced around one left turn. The city has tacitly admitted the problem with construction of wider sidewalks, which are designed in part to slow down traffic.

What makes things worse is that all this traffic is being funnelled through a school zone, which creates unwarranted danger for the young students at Stuart Wood elementary school.

Many of the people who turn left at Second could indeed be blamed for taking a shortcut. But in a sense they are demonstrating what we need to break the bottleneck at Third — more ways to get downtown from Columbia.

The first thing the city should do is make First a two-way street and put in a left-turn lane and left-turn signal at First and Columbia. This would siphon off much of the traffic that is now forced down Third.

And really, we don’t need a three lanes of one-way traffic going up First. Those lanes are never full of traffic, even in rush hour. Two lanes going up would be more than enough. One lane could go down and connect with traffic headed to the Overlander Bridge.

Further, left-turn lanes and left-turn signals should be placed at Fourth and Sixth to encourage more people to use these options to get downtown.

With downtown traffic spread over four intersections, the one at Second could indeed be closed off. West End residents would not be forced to take a longer route home and they would not have to worry about commuter traffic through their neighbourhoods.

A five-minute solution sounds tempting, but in this case it would wind up causing more problems than it solves.