It would appear from today's article in the SP (Mar 10/11) that the public opinion elicited at meeting on the "fix" for the intersection at Attridge and Central is extremely varied. The comment that caught my attention was "They're putting 40 to 50,000 people over in the Northeast and they're acting like they're not trying to move a small city through that intersection every day."
The rapid growth in the northeast end of the city over the last 10 to 15 years has put stress of the rest of the city. I recall the demand of these residents for several new schools even through the division truly did not need more space. They would not have their kids transported to existing facilities outside of their neighbourhood. There was demand for recreation facilities, services, branch libraries, roadways, parks, shopping malls, etc. Everything every other neighbourhood wanted but couldn't get. I recall attending meetings were the attitude was "too bad for them" - us first - we pay more taxes. The difference between the upscale neighbourhoods in the northeast vis-a-vis some of the inner city or westend neighbourhoods, was their ability to effectively lobby the elected officials of the day. Although I may not agree with these residents, I do stand in awe of their tenacity and ability to achieve their goals.
However, it left me feeling that this area of the city viewed itself as a "bedroom community" of Saskatoon rather than a part of the whole, so the comment on a "small city" hit home with me. Perhaps that what it is and should be.
Not surprisingly, Councillor Dubois initiated the salvo that the city would need to leverage funds from the provincial and/or federal governments in order fix the problem.
Generally speaking, the cities are responsible for roadways within their limits. The higher level of governments provide some infrastructure funding to municipalites, but leave it to the civic governments to determine how to spend it. If a city elects to spend its dollars on swimming pools, over-priced art galleries and football fields, then they should not be looking to put the problem of fixing poor roadway engineering at the feet of other governments.
We know there is to be a provincial election this year. There is a good likelihood of a federal election this year. This area is very effective at political lobbying. I'm betting that the city will get additional monies for this fix from one or both senior levels of government.
The rest of the city can "eat cake."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
This is precisely why the spending of Council has been so reckless. They spend every single cent on luxury items, then when something comes up (increased snow removal, water main problems, roadway issues) that is unexpected they all of a sudden tell us they need to raise taxes in order to account for it. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteThis is at least some foresight into what to expect when our city and light services are going to require upgrade and they jack the bill up on us again explaining that it is for capital expenditures. We've paid for these expenditures already, only to see them drained to fund other projects.
Atch is running this city into the ground to satisfy his never ending ego.
What is appalling is the total lack of good reporting on this subject we continually hear the number of 350 accidents over a 6 year period or an average of 58/yr approx. one a week. But no evidence of comparison to the amount of traffic that flows thru that intersection on a per day basis. If 100,000 cars pass that intersection every day that places the accident rate at 1 in every 700,000 vehicles seems low to me. I have a business on eighth street and see just as many accident every year you don't see the city making changes on eighth?? So I was glad to see some residence indicated there are bigger problems in this city and that intersection and a modest re-work would serve the entire city better than the proposed one. As to Council I agree they are spending us into debt but if I can trust Atch to get us that "don't pay til you die" feature on my property I will surely look forward to the day when I can offload my taxes tot he next person.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe Atch is going to leverage the lack of access in and out of the North-East (and it is not just Attridge) and the Ne's ability to organize and rally, to get a North Bridge.
ReplyDeleteOh then again neither he or the councillor are that smart.
Yes...Anon 6:29...and you are that smart. Run for council in 2012.
ReplyDelete