"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

Friday 22 February 2013

Jehosophat and Geat Balls OF Fire

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Am I Qualified to Judge.":

It's like providing additional lighting to an area that has indicated no desire for it based on traffic of an occasional deer or three and the possibility of cyclists using the bicycle lanes being installed in an area that has indicated no desire for them. Aurora wants to be Big Time without showing any reason for spending the money.
The Mayor's comment was that not going with the expensive new lighting plan would be showing a dual standard of service. We residents moved here for just that reason. Lots of space and mostly maintained by the people who live here.


***********

On Tuesday the Mayor flew into a temper tantrum at a query of Councillor Gaertner  and echoed by myself.

A recommendation was received to increase the price of a  design contract by $15,000; from $51,740, $66,735. 

The increase was for an  improved lighting design. 

Councillor  Gaertner's question was ; "Is that  Urban Standard ?"

The answer was "Yes'

My follow-up  was "Why? That's not an urban neighborhood."

The Mayor, in outrage, instantly accused us both of suggesting the people in that neighbourhood are "not as good" as people in urban neighbourhoods and don't deserve to  have  improved standards of lighting.

Hunter's Glen is not an urban neighbourhood. o more than seventy -five lots were  created in the development. . Lots sizes  range  from two and a quarter  to four acres
  
That is not an urban neighbourhood. 

In my home subdivision, we  had seven hundred and fifty lots. One hundred times as many. 

That's an urban neighbourhood.  

Yesterday I went down and counted the lots  on the stretch of road
to be re-constructed. I counted driveways, then realised some of them were circular so I had counted  twice. Fox point is a bulb in the south side that allows three lots  to access the road.

The highest number I saw on Hunter's Glen was twenty- eight. It means not more than thirty-one homes. 

The new budget for construction of  urban lighting  for thirty homes is $289,000 . Consultants design fees are $66,735.

Add the two figures together and cost  of   road lighting for approximately thirty homes is $355,735.00

The  total project  is estimated at $2 million dollars.

Both shoulders of the road are to be paved for bicycle paths. They will  go from Yonge Street, where there are no paths, and end  at Steeplechase Drive, where there are no paths. 

There are thirty homes on that stretch of road.  

The report is signed jointly by the Director of Environment and Infrastructure, absent  on three weeks vacation,  and  the Chief Administrative Officer. 

Neither of whom live within the Municipality.

And defended in a rage by the Mayor of the Municipality.

The Report will come before Council on Tuesday  for approval. Councillor Gallo had questions in  committee  and professed himself satisfied with the answer received. 

Councillor Pirri offered the information  about  lots of wild life in the area; improved lighting would give drivers a better opportunity to see  animals on  the road, he said. 

When Hunter's Glen was developed as little disturbance  as possible was  made to  land contours.
  
Lots were created  by  how a level site for a house could be obtained without disturbing the land.

The original road ran north of Bloomingtion and curved around out on to  Bayview. No-one other than a resident, or having  business with a resident, has a need to be there. 

It is an exclusive neighbourhood. 

It is a nature preserve to every kind of  native wildlife.  Some houses  are second and third homes for the owners.

The wooded areas, slopes and inclines and a  completely  natural area surrounded  and protected by homes makes the neighbourhood  truly unique.

A hidden treasure.

A Wonderland. 

So well hidden apparently and so little understood,  it  is not even familiar to those  who should certainly know better.        
       

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes Councillor Pirri gets the wrong end of the stick. He should come into the Elder-developed property and/or phone and just ask us how many deer we have hit in the past few decades. Skunks, coons, and rabbit, sure. But then they get hit on streets in Old Aurora all year round, don't they?

Anonymous said...


What do the residents of the Hunter's Glen area think about this?

If I lived in that lovely, private enclave I would not want to be an "Urban Standard." I would want to retain my status as "Estate Residential."

Possibly the mayor should join Clr. Ballard running around Machell Park with his head tucked underneath his arm.

The Director of Environment and Infrastructure and the CAO should stop signing stupid reports and, rather, demonstrate that they have the capability to sift the mouse shit from the wheat before they even consider an idea for a report.

If they don't, they should be replaced.

Anonymous said...

"In my home subdivision, we had seven hundred and fifty lots. One hundred times as many.

That's an urban neighbourhood."

Actually, Regency Acres is a suburban neighbourhood.

Anonymous said...

If you make those streets lovely, wide, and brightly lit, they will be just perfect for drag-racing goof-balls from the entire region. No one from any of the houses would take much notice if the races were spaced to avoid a pattern. Just saying, is all.

Anonymous said...

This is a no-brainer. Compare the traffic flow- from the police dept.-for that road with the flow on ,say, Murray or Kennedy Street W.- and then decide if it is urban. When Mayor Dawe said people 'looked ' at the plan & did not complain, why would they? It was his party.

Anonymous said...

Canada Politics
Andy Radia
" Duffy says he'll pay back housing allowance"

Anonymous said...


Check Toronto Star where Ford seeks costs re: conflict of interest.

Anonymous said...

4:12 PM
It was the university-educated, qualified staffer who was bandying the divisive terminology of urban/ non urban.