$100 per project, out of your pocket. What local projects would you spend money on?
 

After many, many nights of debating and philosophizing with my friends, we sort of agreed that a good way for a municipality to tax people and spend money on infrastructure, would be to do it on somewhat of a volunteer basis. Think of it as a referendum with money being your vote. If enough people put their money behind a project, it goes ahead. If not, people who contributed are refunded their money, and the project is scrapped.

Say the city would like to build a new LRT leg. With this system, it would basically be a matter of citizens choosing whether or not to pledge money toward it. In doing so, people who don't care and don't want it aren't paying for it, while the people who do care and do want it are paying for it. If enough people want it, it happens. If not enough people want it, it doesn't happen.

So, whether or not you think the idea is stupid, I want to test it among more than 4 people in a dark basement at 1 in the morning ;)

Let's just assign an arbitrary amount of 100 dollars per project. I have no idea if that's realistic or not, but I have to start somewhere. It seems like an amount of money that people wouldn't just arbitrarily throw around. I'd hope that, in general, if people are going to put 100 dollars towards something, they actually really want it.

List any or all of the municipal projects you would be willing to contribute 100 dollars to. LRT, convention centre, stadium, bridges, overpasses... whatever. If you'd be willing to contribute more than 100 dollars to certain projects, make note of that. Remember: This is YOUR money!

What I really want to see here is just how much people actually care... if the Peace Bridge (random example) is something they'd be willing to directly contribute a non-trivial amount of money to. The main point of contention among my friends and I, is basically if people would actually spend their money on anything, if they were actually given the choice. Or, if all these nice infrastructure projects going on in the city aren't worth 10 bucks to the people who claim to want them. I've been arguing the more optimistic viewpoint, but it would be cool to be able to back that up.

I'll start. I would write 100 dollar cheques to help make each of these projects happen:

- Full LRT grade separation. I think, while costly, this would help the city immensely. It would make the train significantly more efficient and it would take stress off traffic downtown.

- North LRT.

- South East LRT.

- A new stadium. I don't give two shits about hockey, but I'm sick of great concerts bypassing the city because the Saddle Dome doesn't cut it.

- A new or expanded convention centre.

- An upgrade to Crowchild Trail from 24 ave to Memorial Drive. Overpasses or something where there are traffic lights, fewer disappearing lanes.

- An overpass at the John Laurie and Shaganappi intersection.

So, that's 700 bucks from me.

Your turn! Dream! Spend your money on stuff you want!

The issue I see is people who freeload by not putting up the money while actually wanting (and using) the resulting projects.

That said:

-all night BRT*

-any sort of plan/bylaw/etc which would effectively remove all of the gaps between stores on 17th ave SW and 9th ave SW.


I realize those aren't capital projects, but both of those would improve my enjoyment of the city.


* each of the BRT lines, once an hour after midnight. As well if cheaper, then stop the LRT at midnight and have a shuttle run the LRT routes once and hour after midnight as well.

I guess when I'm doing economic evaluations I seem to notice that some of the most capital efficient projects are at a small scale. Recompletions are vastly more efficient than say drilling a new well.

I would like to see some more dollars and resources devoted towards community initiatives and giving City of Calgary employees the freedom to get involved. Things like reconfiguring parking in Bridgeland took petitions on behalf of the owner of Main Dish and going on local radio stations.

It's finding and allowing these small scale opportunities to happen that make better usage of Calgary's already existing infrastructure that I think makes Calgary a livable city.

Here's a list of stuff I'll pay for that (probably) nobody else would:
-A rabbit sanctuary downtown or something. Maybe in the Devonian Gardens.
-An arcade. Bring back the Eau Claire. No it's not taxes, but I'd still pay.
-Some sort of BRT night service.
-A big ol' convention center.

There's probably some other junk too.

$100 per project, I could fund that out of my lunch money.

Make it $500 so only the big shots Bigtime, Wooster, Bokimon and Radley could fund it out their lunch money. :cheers:

At $500 per pop, I would fund the following projects,
- Bowfort Rd and Hwy 1 interchange.
- Nosehill Dr and Stoney interchange.
- Bow Trail and Sarcee Trail interchange.
- Resurect the idea of connecting Sarcee Trail South and Shaganapi Tr N.
- NW Recreation Centre.

SE LRT
NC LRT
McKnight/12th/19th/Barlow interchanges
8th Ave Subway
Crowchild interchanges between Bow Trail and 24th Ave
52nd St BRT
National Music Centre
Epcor Centre Expansion
New Ped bridge over Deerfoot around McKnight + Pathway along McKnight.
Widespread Cycle infrastructure.

19 street & 16 avenue ne interchange

pedestrian/bike bridge spanning the bow just above harvie passage, where the train bridge is.

some sort of 24 hour public transit. frequency of every hour would be fine.

bicycle path signage. the city seems to be pushing expansion of the system, which is fine, but they need to continue to enhance what we already have and signage is my biggest pet peeve when traveling across the city.

In order of priority:
1) SE LRT
2) Downtown LRT tunnel
3) Redesign Crowchild between 24th NW and 17th SW, including realignment of connectors at Memorial, 11th and 12th to decrease the overall road footprint
4) Redesign Deerfoot between Glenmore and Dougasdale to eliminate bottlenecks
5) Rebuild McKnight between John Laurie and 19th

I wouldn't spend a penny on:
1) New convention centre - the tradeshow business is in secular decline and a new facility would basically be corporate welfare for the hospitality sector
2) New football stadium - at best the number of days this facility would be used per year could be counted on your fingers
3) New hockey rink - let the millionaire owners and players pay for it
4) LRT tunnel under Centre Street N - no amount of density upzoning could even come close to paying for the astronomical cost
5) SW Ring Road that involves more than $500M to acquire Tsuu T'ina land

Who do I make the cheque out to? :tup:

What's all this then? I just finished lunch and was wiping my mouth with a handful of $100 bills. :D

Interesting question, here's where I'd give some money:

-SELRT
-NCLRT
-Separated bike infrastructure on our roads

Who needs lunch money when you can try and raid Paul Hughes community gardens on Barclay Mall. I kid!
http://www.downtowncalgary.com/about...ty-garden.html

This list sounds about right

That along with my personal tram from my house to every resort in the Rockies.

:haha: at least something is going on on Barclay Mall, such an underutilized but potentially cool street.

Cool thread.

I would put $100 towards...

1) A new modern cutting edge Convention Centre.

2) A SE LRT line

3) An underground LRT line/stop to the airport. Funded in part with a surcharge "Airport" ticket purchase required.

4) Getting the land the ring road needs to have to get finished and having that road done.

5) Upgrading the bikepath system to be lit and at the same level of awesomeness as the current redeveloped areas.

6) Adding 100 meters of height to the Calgary Tower so it actually stands out and has a view over the tops of all the other buildings.

7) North LRT line, probably going along the west side of Deerfoot Trail.

8) I would put $500 towards building a downtown tunnel for the CPR and the subsequent redevelopment of the downtown core that allows the removal of the underpasses, the creation of at grade N/S running roads, and the building of large buildings that span the entire block from 9th to 10th ave.

9) Dependent on item #8 I would put an extra $200 in to make a multiple block "central park" type of area on the land opened up by removing the CPR, between 5th and 8th street, MEC would have to move. This would include a small pond, grass areas, nice landscaping, ect...

So that is me in for $1400

Of course it is mostly fantasy. Points 1-4 and 7 are actually pretty important though.

It would be cool to put 'Noma' style solar charged lights along the more rustic portions of the bike path

I'm still not convinced about the LRT to the airport.. it would be sweet, just seems like the cost would far outweigh the benefit when we already have 3 buses going there.

I personally would not attempt to take the bus to the Airport with a piece of luggage. Too much of a PITA. I would definately take the LRT though.

For people who have to make day trips to Edmonton or the like it would be hugely useful to have a LRT connection to the airport so that they can jump onto the train downtown and go striaght to the airport. Most of those people wont take a bus though and if they don't have the LRT then it is going to be a cab they take.

It's actually a piece of cake, there are luggage racks right at the front of the bus.

http://www.busdrawings.com/Transit/a...t8180racks.jpg
http://www.busdrawings.com/Transit/a...8180/index.htm

1) Complete, connected bicycle infrastructure
2) New downtown stadium
3) Public realm improvements of 17th Avenue east of 4th street to stampede, and 1 and 8 St SW from 17th Ave to Bow river - this will connect the amenities of the core together in a walkable environment.

- Downtown subway.
- Some sort of rail, preferably (mostly) subway, from Chinook Station to MRU to Westbrook Station, north across the river to Foothills Medical Centre, terminating at the U of C. We're going to need hubs in the LRT system outside of downtown sooner or later and my gut feeling is this route (connecting south, west and NW LRT lines + finally connecting MRU to the LRT network) would make the most sense.
- Maglev train to Edmonton. Not strictly 'local', but I'd contribute to the local station if that counts.
- A new football (/soccer/lacrosse/etc?) stadium, as long as it stays under control of the City. If the Flames, under the auspices of the Stampeders, want to build a new one, fine: if I want to contribute to that I'll buy tickets to games.
- Crowchild Trail redesign from 24th Ave NW to 17th Ave SW.

I'd also pay the City $100 to scrap the current taxi regime entirely, although I doubt that's the sort of thing you were looking for. It's not a "capital project" but I think it would do so much good that it would be worth $100.


EDIT: Oh hey, looks like other people think an LRT line, mostly underground, from Chinook to MRU to Westbrook is a good idea too! http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=197813