Some of you know that I lived in Washington, DC for a couple of years and still visit it every 3 months. During my last visit I took a day off, rented a bicycle and biked all over the city. Washington, DC only has about 600,000 people (yes, smaller than Mississauga) but it has a lot of character. There are a few things we can learn from DC :-
Category: ‘ Opinion ’
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Common Sense vs Imagination
Do you value realism and common sense, or imagination and innovation?
Common sense tells us that the Earth is flat, imagination gives us the correct answer. Einstein worked out that the speed of light doesn’t change, instead time speeds up or slows down. That’s anything but common sense, even though it has been proven repeatedly since then.
Why is it that when it comes to public policy, we chug imagination out the window and rely exclusively on ‘what has worked before’, even if it didn’t work all that well?
Hospital Funding Poll ….
I’ll leave technical details out, but the Province requires municipalities to fund certain hospital expansion expenses that add up to around 30% of the project cost. The Province, in its infinite wisdom, also prevents municipalities from charging developers for this money. Thus the money has to come from property taxpayers. Read the rest of this entry »
Anger at the pace of construction
The stretch of Derry, from Bronte to Tremaine, was supposed to finish in 2008. You would think that being so late, they’d be working overtime, trying to finish it as fast as they humanly could. Yet I haven’t seen any progress on the stretch from Scott Blvd to Bronte Road since June. JUNE!
What I cannot figure out is, why in the world did they have to rip out the sidewalk and dig the entrance to the First Capital plaza (where Shoppers is) if they were not ready to pave it for another 6 months? This morning I passed by Derry four times between 9:30am and 10:30am and did not spot a single worker between Scott and Bronte. Not. Even. One. Why?
That’s why it is important to have someone from the community in the council. My opponent lives near the Metro grocery store on Thompson. We have these issues because our current council representative does not live anywhere near us. They should be up in arms, questioning staff and asking for reports on progress. But they don’t care (in case you’re curious, the person who should be calling for heads to roll is Barry Lee, the Regional Councillor from this area who is a member of the Public Works committee. Have you even heard of his name? I thought so).
As for my opponent, he wants the job, but he has yet to attend a single council meeting or a committee meeting or an open house on issues that impact the community. Heck he did not even bother to show up to the first all-candidates meeting.
On October 25th, ward 8, please choose carefully. Do you want this mess to continue for another four years or do you want to elect someone who has already been working tirelessly for you, from (successfully) petitioning for the underpass to representing you to the best of his ability even without being elected.
I am your neighbour (third house from Scott Blvd, just north of PL Robertson) and I work for us.
Why Many Sustainability Initiatives Fail
I am Milton’s sole citizen representative in the Halton’s Inter-Municipal Sustainability Committee. As a result, I get a lot of questions about sustainability initiatives that fail. Here’s why: many well-meaning sustainability initiatives are doomed from the start because they focus on problems and sacrifices, instead of improving the quality of life.
What does a councillor do
While canvassing, I often get asked about what a councillor actually does. Anyone can make general statements (they run the municipal government, they represent their constituents). Let me give specifics that separate good councillors from bad ones. It’s important to look at your council candidates and their past behaviour to determine what type of councillor they’ll make.
Councillors solve problems for constituents. Good councillors take a planned and systematic approach to decision-making, often anticipating problems and solving them before they arise. Average councillors wait for their constituents to raise issues and they tackle them one-by-one.
Councillors also serve as a source of information for their constituents and help residents navigate the mess we call bureaucracy. To enable that, good councillors write blogs and send newsletters to keep people informed. They also act as a liaison between municipal staff, bylaws and policies, and people they serve. Average councillors only research questions when they come up. Poor councillors do not stay connected with staff and do not participate in subcommittees, and are always poorly informed themselves.
Effective councillors put right policies in place that allow staff to solve problems themselves. Though it’s fun to hear council argue about stop signs and debate sidewalk (both happens, sadly), it’s not an effective use of their time. Their time should be spent debating issues that non-elected staff cannot, or should not, handle.
Councillors do not just represent, they also lead. That’s what distinguishes an average councillor (a representative) from a good one (a leader).
Voters should look at candidates and analyze their past involvement. Are they already leaders? Do they regularly volunteer in the community? Do they already represent their neighbours in subcommittees? Do they attend council and committee meetings? Do they attend public meetings?
Council Meeting Last Night
Last night’s council meeting was a marathon session that went past 11pm. Bernadette Mason did an excellent presentation on traffic calming devices that I‘ve been talking about for years. You can see it here.
I actually wanted to talk about something else.
I attend every Council, Planning Committee and Community Services Committee meeting, provided that I am not traveling. For half of the meetings this year, I actually had to get baby sitters so I could attend.
In addition, I sit in the Transit Advisory Committee and Halton’s Inter-Municipal Committee on Sustainability. I attend both those meetings as well. In addition, I’ve attended most public input sessions.
Candidates should attend for following reasons:
1 – To learn. You don’t want to be a rookie councillor with no idea on how to handle the job
2 – To demonstrate that you care – If you cannot even bother to attend meetings when you are trying to impress voters, what expectations can they have from you when you are already elected?
3 – If you win, you’ll vote on issues that are discussed. If you haven’t been attending these meetings and did not participate in the debate, how will you vote?
A number of candidates have attended 0 meetings, 0 public info sessions and 0 open houses. I know my opponent hasn’t been to any meeting. I am not mentioning it as a ‘negative campaign’, I am saying it because I live in Ward 8 and would like to be represented by someone who actually cares about the community (even if it’s not me). Someone who lives nowhere near ward 8 and is completely uninvolved isn’t the right choice.
Next four years are tricky for both Milton and ward 8. The issue of education village will come up, construction in and around ward 8, further Tremaine expansion, Milton Heights neighbourhood that potentially has an impact on ward 8, hospital funding and expansion, library issue and so on.
Vote, and vote carefully.
Social Media & Candidates
You may want to read Christina Commisso’s excellent article on candidates using social media to campaign before reading further.
Candidates really have a lot more social media presence this time around, but all presence isn’t equal. Simply creating facebook and twitter accounts, and registering a blog isn’t enough. If they are not engaging in a meaningful two-way conversation then they might as well have no presence.
Many candidates use social media sites purely for marketing, and not to form connections and start dialogues. Those candidates are not getting it.
cul-de-suck, err, cul-de-sac
Image on the left is from Woodinville, WA. On the right is from Ballard, WA. Both in the Greater Seattle Area. Which one do you think is efficient for people, emergency response vehicles, transit and traffic? In fact, research shows that traffic goes up when there are cul-de-sacs in a community. Also, another research shows that as neighbourhoods become walkable, more people start walking and biking (makes sense).
Milton actually discourages cul-de-sac. A resident during door knocking asked why because she liked them. Luckily I found this picture that really says it all.
What Scott Blvd should look like
This is Sutton Drive in Burlington. Parking spots are raised, there is a median, bike path is painted and actual driveable area is narrow. Notice how the median has no grass?
This is what Scott Blvd should look like. Aesthetics are important, they have a positive impact on your property values. Homes on Scott Blvd would be worth more if it looked like this, not to mention the road would be significantly safer for pedestrians.
More bike lanes could calm traffic, says councillor
I am glad to see that the issue of traffic calming is getting some attention. Unlike some other municipalities, Milton does not have a traffic calming policy. That’s why we end up with expressways like Scott Blvd.
The Champion recently covered a story with some quotes from your truly. The piece is here. My quotes are:
A similar argument was made to council last month by Zeeshan Hamid, who’s vying to become the local councillor for the new Ward 8 in west Milton, south of Derry Road.
[Correction: Ward 8 actually starts at Steeles and ends on Britannia]
“In general, Milton needs to narrow collector roads and require traffic calming devices at least near elementary schools and parks,” stated Hamid in a submission given as part of a public meeting on the Town’s update to its official plan. “Halton police recently caught 127 speeders on Scott Boulevard, travelling on average 50 per cent faster than the speed limit. Recently, a seven-year-old boy was hit near P.L. Robertson school while he rode his bike.”
Unfortunately:
The Town’s policy is that traffic-calming devices aren’t warranted on collector roads, according to a 2009 report on residents’ requests for them to be installed along Woodward Avenue in old Milton.
Wait, if they are not warranted on collector roads (like Scott Blvd), then where are they warranted? Major roads should be optimized for traffic flow, neighbourhood roads should have traffic calming.
We have it backwards with lack of turning turn lanes and uncoordinated traffic lights on major roads but wide open neighbourhood streets.
Urban Village
Urban Village is an anti-sprawl urban planning and design concept. A good urban village is characterized by a strong urban design, a high level of self-containment (people live, work and play in the same area), use of alternate transportation (transit, walking, biking) and a strong community attachment.
Though there is no perfect urban village in practice, this blog focuses on initiatives that have successfully taken communities closer to the goal. The purpose is to turn my home – Milton, Ontario – into an enviable Urban Village.
Suburbia-driven sprawl is not sustainable. Post WW-II development was driven by single-use zoning that fuelled sprawl by separating residential and manufacturing areas. Urban Villages, on the other hand, bring back traditional neighbourhoods by mixing employment and residential activities, thus allowing people to live near their work rather than relying on long distance commuting.
What can turn Milton into an urban village? For starters:
- Lay out communities in a transit friendly way (do not have to further increase population density for this).
- Employ pedestrianization techniques in neigbhourhood designs to facilitate safe human interaction (Scott Blvd is the exact opposite of this).
- Focus on traffic flow on major arterial roads to reduce pollution and improve air quality (that includes synchronizing and properly timing traffic lights, and adding dedicated right-turn lanes on major intersection).
- Have a hardcore business plan to attract high employers in Milton.
- Make aesthetics a required part of site-planning.
- Increase Milton’s urban forest canopy.
- Aim for a 1:1 ratio between jobs and residents (rather than the current 0.5:1. Mississauga has more jobs than there are people in the work-force. Milton aims for 0.5:1 to begin with, not a high goal at all).
This is just a brief part of a more comprehensive list that can turn Milton into an enviable Urban Village. What would you like to see (it has to be something that can be done as part of urban planning)?
Urban Streets and Parking Lots
I lived in Seattle for a few years. Seattle reduced the total volume of storm water leaving streets simply by reducing paved surfaces and planting trees. It not only resulted in lower future operating costs, but it also ended up cleaning air and beautifying neighbourhoods. End result is roads like these :-
Notice the centre heavily landscaped centre median? In Redmond, WA almost all 4-lane roads are decorated with a landscaped median. Another benefit is that it creates a perception of narrowness and acts as traffic calming. Bike lanes are off road, for cyclists’ safety.
Here’s a view of another road that not only shows the landscaping that goes on the median, but also the heavy landscaping they do to screen parking lots from main roads. This is a highly commercial area. Compare this to our commercial areas, like Steeles Ave.
This is how buildings are screened from main roads. That way even highly urban areas get a very ‘foresty’ feel.
I worked in one of these buildings for five years. Notice the setback and landscaping around buildings.
Another road showing landscaped median, trees screening the building and landscaping and trees screening the parking lot.
The above view shows something else as well. Parking lots in that area are designed such that each row of parking is divided by a landscaped median. With time parking lots get a forest canopy and start to feel like parks, instead of concrete slabs.
Another parking lot, another road with median and another building screened by trees. Notice how pleasant the sidewalk becomes in this case. You get trees on both sides providing you with shade.
Yet another parking lot illustrating my point. There seem to be just as many trees as cars (if you include trees along the parameter).
As already mentioned, all these pictures are from a densely populated highly urban area. However, they all show that all urbanization do not have to look same.
Milton should adopt some of these ideas to set itself apart from all other municipalities in the GTA.
Milton Is Regressing … :(
Trudeau Drive, with a beautifully landscaped median and multiple rows of trees: 
Holly Ave that came later. Not as nice is Trudeau but still a nice looking median with nice street lights with hanging pots: 
Scott Blvd, that came after. Tiny, ugly median with no beautification:
We should be learning from old construction and making new ones better, not worse.
Shameless promotion: This also underscores why it is important to have councillors who actually live in the neighbourhood (I live near Scott Blvd). If Ward 8 councillors actually lived here (and spent time thinking about residents instead of writing borderline-racist document demonstrating questionable intellect – yes, this guy is our current councillor), we would have a safer road and a beautiful neighbourhood.
Instead we are represented by a local councillor who almost lost his seat four times in last couple of years because he skipped meetings for almost three months in a row. Even now, instead of representing residents on subcommittees (he doesn’t sit in a single one), attending public meetings (I attend all of them and have never seen him in one), council meeting on budget (he skipped) or council meeting to take feedback on the official plan that could make roads like Scott Blvd nicer and safer (he skipped it); he chooses to spend time writing on how all other cultures are destroying Canada and and causing “us to lose our moral compass”, how all other countries are “moral and/or financial cesspools”, Canadians who got stuck in a war zone and asked to be rescued were “bitching” and, well, go read for yourself and then decide if you want to elect a councillor from among your neighbours or an outsider who doesn’t live in ward 8.
My Biggest Pet-peeve in Milton
The City of Portland optimized traffic signal timing at 135 intersections on 16 streets in Portland. This optimization work has resulted in saving motorists over 1,750,000 gallons of gas each year. This reduction in gasoline consumption is equivalent to 15,460 tons of CO2 each year.
I wonder how much gasoline we waste idling at horribly timed traffic lights and Milton’s aversion to right-turn-lanes (seriously, why do we not have dedicated right-turn lanes?)
As if it wasn’t bad enough to have major arterial roads where traffic doesn’t flow, neighbourhood roads like Scott Blvd have no traffic calming devices whatsoever. When taking a neighbourhood road, like Scott Blvd, from Derry to Main is faster than traveling on major arterial roads then we know that planners messed up. After two close calls on Scott Blvd I now drive my children to village square, which kills the purpose of having village squares that people can walk to.
I have been asking for traffic calming devices and signalled crosswalks near schools and parks. Recently a 7 year old boy was hit by a vehicle while he rode his bike (and the vehicle promptly fled the scene, shame on the driver). Fortunately the boy’s injury was not major but Scott Blvd is a disaster waiting to happen.
I went up to the council on May 10th asking for different things. One of them were traffic calming devices. We must figure out how to make traffic flow on major roads (by synchronizing traffic lights and putting dedicated right-turn-lanes) and we must figure out how to make neighbourhood roads pedestrian friendly (by adding traffic calming devices and signalled crosswalks). It is borderline criminal to build high-density neighbourhood with busy roads and put parks and schools next to those roads without doing anything to make them safe for pedestrians.
Driving on Scott Blvd, with no traffic calming, is noticeably faster than driving on major arterial roads. People should leave Scott Blvd to drive on Derry and Bronte, not the other way around. I truly believe that we’ll have a pedestrian death on Scott Blvd unless something is done to control traffic.
One of the first things I intend to do if I am elected is to make neighbourhood roads like Scott Blvd safe for pedestrians and to make arterial roads (like Derry) better for traffic flow.