This Monday’s council meeting has a motion jointly requested by both Councillor Di Lorenzo and myself in regards to “Open Data”.  Before I explain, let me thank Councillor Di Lorenzo for doing all the leg work in drafting and scoping this motion.  He really is a true asset for us in Milton.

Basically we’re asking the town to :-

• freely share as much data as it can after satisfying privacy and security concerns
• move as quickly as possible to adopt prevailing open standards for data, documents, maps and other formats of media
• use Open Data Principles to operate an open and transparent form of local government
• report back to council on gradual steps taken on existing data that takes it towards practical applications of above principles

You can read the motion in all its glory right here.

This should take some traffic off Scott and make it easier for people on Savoline. 

Main Street will turn into a beautiful street once these trees mature.

I’ll even take a picture at this intersection for today’s entry of my Z365 “A Picture A Day” blog. 

China is unveiling the world’s first 300 passenger bus :

Many cities in China already significantly restrict car ownership.  New bus will have a dedicated lane in local highways, and has five doors for easy entrance and exit. 

China also just unveiled a 500 km / hr train :-

That’s not it, China is also committed to adding 16,000 kms of new high speed rail by 2020 (are you listening metrolinx and Via Rail?)

The problem with North America is that people are expected to make sacrifices for public transit.  Make public transit a better alternative to drive and watch people leave their cars behind.  I would love to catch a train to Ottawa or Montreal rather than flying or driving. 

(I am taking  Shinkansen [aka  Bullet Train] in Japan in May.  300km / hr is a bit slower than China’s 500 km / hr, but still significantly faster than anything I have experienced on ground before). 

Thanks to Councillor Di Lorenzo’s leadership and creativity, and hard work by countless others. 

So you want to erect a 30 story building that can resist a 9 magnitude earthquake, is 5 times more energy efficient than a conventional building,  has 6” thick glass curtain wall insulation, four-paned windows with built-in shades, a heat recovery system and a 3-stage air filtration that purifies indoor air to be 20 times purer than the air outside. 

Wow, you say, that’s going to take forever.

Yes, if forever is 15 days long!  Check out the video. 

Some history first:

Back in early November a report came to the council about the velodrome.  PanAm Games needed an indoor track cycling arena and Milton could be a possible location. My first reaction was “no freaking way”.  However, I, along with most of my colleagues in the council, asked staff to see if they could come up with private sector money for the project.  We  made it clear that we did not want to use any property tax money for a cycling arena people in Milton cared little about.

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There’s a bit of confusion about Milton’s current snow clearing standards.   Town of Milton does not plow every street. 

This webpage explains Milton’s snow clearing procedures.  Specifically, you can use this map to see the classification for your street.  Because of flash freeze two nights ago, many streets ended up with ice buildup.  Trucks were sent out yesterday and today to salt and sand these streets.  However, streets with classification D or E still will not be plowed. 

If your street needs attention then please call 905-878-7252, ext. 2500 during business hours and 905-875-5409 afterhours / holidays. 

Cities that are designed with strict Urban Design always stand out from the rest :-

(the Mathematician in me can stare at this screenshot from Google Maps for hours)

From Milton Canadian Champion

The province’s 40^th general election was marketed as ‘easy’ by Elections Ontario.

With 10 days of advance polls and 28 days to vote by a special ballot, the agency sought to make it harder than ever to give people an excuse not to vote.

Tell that to the residents of southwest Milton.

Many of them were required to go to north Burlington or Campbellville to cast their ballot. And some, in turn, didn’t vote.

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Ontario, Newfoundland & Labrador, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and PEI are all headed for elections this fall (yes, five provinces).  I wanted to see how different provinces in Canada choose to organize their legislative assemblies :-

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One of the things I miss about both Seattle and  Washington, DC is abundance of public art.  Milton, being much smaller and really only going through serious urbanization now, is seriously lacking.  Click through to see some examples of simple, but creative, public art. 

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If my Math is correct then tonight’s Rosh Hashanah.  Shana Tova everyone!  For those who still haven’t kept up with their new year resolution (like, ahem, myself), the Jewish New Year tonight is giving you another chance :). 

Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating Eid today or tomorrow.  Those not celebrating, have a feast anyway :).

In case you haven’t heard, Minister of Health Deb Mathews today approved a 320,000 sq. ft. expansion of the Milton District Hospital.  Great news!  The surgical department will expand by 70%.  Full 80% of beds will be in private rooms.  Basically the hospital will triple in size and will include a lot of new equipment, including new MRI machine.