A nice piece by Dan Lett.
Salesman Katz fails to deliver the goods
Where's the man who built city's 'field of dreams'?
Sat Feb 9 2008 | Winnipeg Free Press
IT is well known that Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz is a master salesman and Friday at his annual state of the city address, he was selling his accomplishments like a spokesman flogging laundry detergent.
According to the mayor, red tape at city hall has been treated and eliminated like a bad case of dandruff. Property taxes have been tamed like an antacid settles an upset tummy. Increased funding for the police service has produced "clear and deliverable results," not unlike what we would expect from a teeth-whitening solution.
In many ways, this is not unlike what Premier Gary Doer does at his annual state of the province address; these speeches are designed for politicians to deliver a "greatest hits" package, not major policy announcements. But where Doer is a man given to talking about big issues, Katz has a way of reducing a big problem to a small budgetary line item.
This is a particularly troubling tendency when it comes to the mayor's favorite subject -- fighting crime.
Well over half of the mayor's speech dealt with crime-fighting and prevention efforts. As he went over initiatives to track crimes of all kinds electronically and reclaim crime-ridden neighbourhoods, you could see Katz was clearly still trying to sell himself as the new sheriff who rode into town several years ago.
But given the lukewarm response at yesterday's speech, many of those in attendance were less than impressed, perhaps because they know these are not measures that fundamentally reduce crime. These are measures that move crime from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, or cover it up, or delay it until such time as the spotlight is shining on another area of the city.
Katz said a municipal-provincial program to eradicate crack addicts and pushers in Point Douglas had, in the opinion of residents, made the afflicted neighbourhood "crack free." It is unclear how a concerted neighbourhood effort to harass junkies and their suppliers has eliminated this scourge. More likely, a crack-free Point Douglas means a crack infestation in Daniel McIntyre.
Katz celebrated the fact the city had demolished more than 500 abandoned and derelict homes, but didn't once talk about what he was doing to fill in those empty lots. And he at one point talked about how new Winnipeg Police Chief Keith McCaskill had "the most important job in the city". Coming from the mayor, that was a disturbing admission.
As Katz himself acknowledged, this was his fourth state of the city address, an event organized and well-executed each year by the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. And after yesterday's address, we can conclude with surety that we have seen just about everything Katz has to offer.
Reporters were promised significant environmental policy in this year's speech. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a pledge to unleash Coun. Jenny Gerbasi on the city to "consult" residents on ways to reduce greenhouse gases. Given that Katz disassembled the grand plans of his predecessor, Glen Murray, to invest heavily in public transit, Katz's promise to "consult" on ways to control greenhouse gases is a pretty cruel joke.
As he was when he took power four years ago, Katz remains primarily concerned about infrastructure and crime. Conspicuous by their absence in yesterday's speech were discussions about urban planning and sprawl, the financing of major public amenities (can anyone say football stadium?) and public transit.
Katz has addressed both infrastructure and crime, while cutting business taxes and continuing to freeze property taxes. These are not negligible accomplishments, but they do not on their own constitute a vision for the city.
Much has been made of the mayor's business successes, but it's hard to see how he could have had any success running his businesses the way he's running the city.
Katz is, after all, the man who won the hearts of municipal voters with his single-minded determination to build what we know now as Canwest Global Park, a "field of dreams" for his beloved Winnipeg Goldeyes.
What if Katz had approached that challenge the way he's approaching the city's work?
Instead of announcing plans for his dreamy downtown stadium, we would have been summoned to a "major announcement" by Katz revealing he had purchased a new second-base bag or procured a new supply of chalk to mark the foul lines.
The fact is, Katz showed this city he could think big when he took on naysaying politicians and skeptical bureaucrats and got the ballpark built.
We are all left to wonder now where that man has gone.
dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
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