"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Sunday 24 February 2013

Change has A Ripple Effect

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Points of Debate":

Having listened to the Council ' discussion ' on Hunters' Glen, I think you may find some allies to at least reduce the grandiose spending. Bike lanes simply do not need to be on both sides of the road. Even in Europe, where bikes are king, there is a track on only one side, generally the most ' scenic '.
That lighting plan could be halved if it would reduce Mayor Dawe's angst. Although the upgrade is not essential, not even needed and was not even requested.
All projects that are needed in Aurora could move up a notch in time if this stupidity were curtailed. Councillor Gartner's & Councillor Buck's streets could be done sooner.


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Bike lanes that start  in the middle of nowhere and end nowhere and traverse a road that serves thirty homes  have no  rightful place. 

The  original  plan  to renew  existing  lighting  had a price tag of $33,000. The new one that sprang out of  hundreds of  thousands  over-budgeted for  road  re-construction, is more tha $300,000.

Until the  fight to move Glass Drive forward for the safety of 
students from two schools. I had never thought of querying the schedule  or design of road re-construction.

Until the re-construction of Spruce Steet that called for  the contractor to have an arborist on the job to protect the trees.and  there was none.

Until the Hunter's Glen dismally inaccurate estimates and budget 
miscalculations and insane proposal for a lighting design,  I never gave  much  attention to scheduling and costs of  roads projects.

I trusted 

It's a substantial  change that makes the part-time job of  a Councillor that much more demanding  than the days when .       

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Council should be really interesting this week. Take care.

P.S. I reviewed the tape from the last meeting. It looks a lot like the Mayor had dosed off and suddenly went to catch up with the conversation about Hunters' Glen.

Anonymous said...

A correction is needed on the bike lanes. In the large metropolitan areas, they are are both sides of the wide streets. In non-urban areas they are restricted to one side. Hunters' Glen would only require a single lane - if that.

Anonymous said...


For every overzealous, overpriced project supported by Council members, those who do so

should be penalized $500 to be placed into a contingency fund for some unknown far-off

contingency.

Anonymous said...

Maybe certain council members need a dose of Auroran reality. Today a graduate student who works on Saturdays told us that he had a JOB. We were delighted. But. He is going to be driving a school bus, 2 shifts a day for peanuts.