Official Brian Bowman Thread
 

Let me be one of the first to congratulate Brian Bowman on his election for Mayor last night. Well done!

Mr. Bowman has suggested that he will post to public media, his itinerary, so that he can let the people of Winnipeg what he is doing for them today, this week, this month, etc. I would like to offer him a place here, on skyscraperpage.com , so that he can bring his ideas to the people that are in the building trades in Winnipeg.

I'm sure that we can learn from him and he can learn from us, what the people in Winnipeg are talking about and what is needed to make Winnipeg, the city we care about. Social media is the wave of the future and this forum is one of the places to express your opinions. Let's work hand in hand.

Note to Brian Bowman:

Last night you were elected Mayor of Winnipeg and already they named streets after you, as well as an Industrial Park. Such a City, this Winnipeg is.
(Brian St. and Bowman Ave. , Bowman Industrial Park.)

So is Bowman being portrayed as "Winnipeg's Nenshi/Iveson?" Young, progressive, urbane; a leader.

I hope this is a trend in western Canadian cities. Saskatoon so desperately needs our own Nenshi. I can't wait until October 2016...

They say that Bowman was already on the job this morning, doing an interview at the corner of Portage and Main.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0pFua_CQAA-vUG.jpg

Well, he's young, but that's about it.

Bowman is far from being a Nenshi or even an Iveson. He is a typical 40-something upper middle class suburbanite... the kind that fill the concourses of the MTS Centre during Jet game intermissions. He's more urban in mindset no doubt due to the generational shift that has taken place in that regard (baby boomers were the low water mark), but he hasn't really shown himself to be an urbanist. Still, it's hard to imagine that he won't be a profoundly vast improvement over the outgoing mayor.

Hey, at least he works downtown. Pitblado is at Portage and Main.

He's got some fresh, innovative ideas relative to the other former mayoral candidates (save RFO), he's even took a few things from Edmonton's mayor platform wise it seems

And he's very pro-small business, which is a huge plus for the city.

The difference between Bowman and Katz on the business side of things. Bowman isn't a millionaire who owns a bunch of companies and is in business with all his buddies. I'm not privy to Bowman's finances obviously, he may be a millionaire. Just not a millionaire business owner. Katz had a nice circle of rich friends with businesses that can gain from Katz position. Sure Bowman's got buddies, and support from companies such as TNSE. But at this point in the Cities history, I'm going to speculate there aren't going to be any land swaps, fire halls or police HQ fiascos. We'll see how the Transit things plays out. But that seed is already sowed for the Southwest portion anyways. Bowman is left to pick up the pieces on that front.

Yes, congratulations is in order to the new mayor.

He seemed like the best representative to fill the position that was available during this municipal election.
I also remember the excitement surrounding our Ex mayor when he was elected. Pro-Business stance and progressive ideal's on how to change the City for the better.

I see Mr.Bowman as an upgraded version of what we saw at the start 8 years ago, very similar.

I think I'll wait for the change at all costs jubilation happening and the new car smell to wear off before jumping into the parade. Of course I hope he can point this city in the right direction but my enthusiasm will be tempered until tangible results are seen. He has, after all walked into quite a mess. I'd be interested to see him commenting here as well as his law practice was involved heavily in social media issues, cyberbulling, privacy etc..

I would expect the SW corridor to be completed post-haste now. No excuse on that one. There should be shovels in the ground on the east corridor by the end of the first term too.

Even if he doesn't see through the completion of all 6 corridors, just getting those two done will be a significant triumph.

if he gets rid of property taxes and puts in that civic sales tax, I'm going to lose it. I'm a renter, I shouldn't have to pay more for roads and services out to your crappy McMansion in another unneeded suburb.

So only property owners should have to pay for roads and services you use?

I live downtown in an apartment, I never use the roads or firehalls or sewers in River Park South or Waverley West and I'm not about to start paying more for some plastic family that does.

I sometimes wonder what people would think of their property tax bills if Unicity never happened. I'm fairly certain that the neighbourhood I live in would be in dire straits, along with many others.

the north end would probably be a smouldering pile of ash with no schools, police or fire stations.

What a nice sentiment. I for one am intrigued by the idea. I would pay less tax if I paid no property tax and a 3% city sales tax. Your attitude makes me like the idea even more.

This is so dumb. I live in a mature neighbourhood that isn't downtown and, frankly, your mobility and lack of investment in the city offends me then. It also offends me that your area uses a disproportionate amount of fire and police resources that I think need to be scaled back even further.

We can play this game all day long. Some plastic family? Where do you even get this stuff...

Fuck I never go downtown (not really). Just bomb it and it'll save me money. Just let it burn.

apples and oranges, people. We've talked at length about how new sub-developments and sprawl are hurting the city and how we can't support it. Now we have a guy who doesn't think those people should pay their fair share. It's garbage pure and simple.

My mobility and lack of investment? Because I don't have the cash nor wish to spend the cash on a house? What the hell do you know about what I spend and how I spend it? And mobility? What the fuck does that have to do with anything? I suppose I'm a crappy person because I don't visit the 'burbs.

^ How do you think the food you eat gets to you? By hovercraft?

Sheesh, some people.

Firstly, mobility refers to your macroscopic ability to move; not your day-to-day movement down the sidewalk or across the street. I'm trying to make you see how thoughtless your point is. You have freedoms property owners don't. You can move to an area to be closer to your job with one months notice. You can leave the province if the labour market takes a dive. You are not invested in the city in the same way that property owners are. If the neighbourhood becomes overrun by crack houses and derelicts, you can abandon your suite and take up residence elsewhere. You are incented in a backwards fashion. All of that ownership and investment costs money and creates the stability necessary for decent communities to prosper, irrespective of where they are.

The idea that you're subsidizing anything other than somebody's mortgage is hilarious given that you pay month to month rent to live in somebody else's property. Worse yet, you enjoy protection from the whims of the market and true costs of living by virtue of a government arm created solely to ensure you're subsidized, the Residential Tenancies Branch.

So tell us all a little more how much you're subsidizing the lifestyles of those living in the suburbs with your rent...