Quote:
Originally Posted by Authentic_City
Which is why the status quo is always the bad option. If Bowman would just be 'business-as-usual' at City Hall, then it's time to look elsewhere for our next mayor. So far, that person hasn't put his/her name forward.
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I can assure you the better option is not somebody who thinks that following in the path of Nenshi and jacking up property taxes across the board is a good idea.
I know we're going to hear that we need that sort of fresh thinking and foresight and everything else because everybody will want to ignore that this is Winnipeg and that is Calgary. This city needs a mayor who is content to balance the books, keep the unions at bay (which keeps service costs in line), and who doesn't set some sort of ridiculous expectation of future development that only ensures it never happens. We're are definitively on the way down. If somebody starts increasing taxation and trying to 'better' development, we're going to be in for a world of hurt.
Just for comparison, the City of Winnipeg's operating budget last year was $921.6MM. Calgary's was $3B! And it isn't directly tied to population, either. Winnipeg's population represents about 61% of Calgary's and yet only brings in about 31% of its tax revenue, which means that Calgary is also far better at creating wealth and consequently, taxation. And why does this matter? Well, I remember seeing how excited everybody was about their bike lanes last week and how Winnipeg is just such a laggard when it comes to this stuff. I also saw all kinds of self-congratulatory hilarity associated with hicks and rednecks and how they aren't supposed to ride bikes. In any case, it costs more to build a road here than it does in Calgary because of labour rates. The actual commodities could be held about equal. But you can fairly easily see why Calgary can throw this sort of bone to its constituents and why Winnipeg has to think twice. Winnipeg also isn't running any sort of surplus, so this is money that has to come from somewhere else.
And, please. Please, whatever you do, please do not tell me that investing in bike lanes by taking money from the existing infrastructure budget will mitigate the problem because of fewer axles on the road over the long term. This is wishful thinking at best.
And while I'm sure everybody would like to think Rapid Transit is the solution in the long run (not that that article this morning helped that case), but this is still a bi-modal model of rapid transit at best because you can't contract an already heavily sprawling city.
Hopefully the new mayor can reign in some of this new precinct development - though the market is likely to take care of that before any politician will - but it's going to have to be slow and steady.
Like I said. It's going to be a tough road to hoe for the next mayor...