At last Tuesday's meeting during the discussion on the north-east , one -of-a-kind traffic calming plan, the Mayor decided to participate in the debate.
I had responded to a comment by Councillor Abel about the problem of speeding traffic.
I said the solution was not to build blockades, barriers or barricades to undermine the purpose of the road system. The solution was to call the police to enforce the speed limit.
The Mayor responded by informing Council, there are twenty-two traffic hotspots in the Region. He implied calling the police was not the solution.
The statement literally took my breath away. Not that I believed it. But that the Mayor, ourregional representative offered it.
York Region Police would be the last to suggest no service is available to Aurora because of being too busy elsewhere,
Enforcing speed limits is what they do.
The process is simple. A car is sent to the problem location.
A number of high-priced tickets are issued. Probem soved for a while.
When it starts again, the police are notified again and back they come to repeat the process.
Invariably,the police report the tickets are issued to residents of the neighbourhood.
Readers are worrying about the next election already and regretting their choice in the last.
It will come down to, as it always does, to choice.
The choice in the next election is not known at this time.
Choice in the Mayoralty in the last election was a foregone conclusion. Four years of calamitous errors in judgement by the former Council propelled it in that direction.
Unfortunately, the worst impact of the previous decisions have not been reversed and there is nothing to indicate time will improve the situation.
We are busily creating a facade to cover what lies within.
To-night we have an agenda of 450 pages. We have not completed an agenda since February.
No meetings were scheduled in the first half of March.
There are 31 items of business ,including two agreements, one of 75 pages a second of 65 pages on to-night's agenda.
We could approve the lot in an hour if we simply rubber-stamp staff recommendations.
I do not have that level of confidence.
With this amount of work on an agenda, I do not expect the town's business to receive
the level of scrutiny it deserves in a single sitting.
With councillor Gallo in the Chair, you could be in for a long bumpy ride. Do you 'do' afternoon naps on occasion?
ReplyDeleteKing City had a great speed trap just outside town. Everyone knew about it being right across from the school. For years, traffic slowed to a crawl with drivers alerting each other. I doubt if they even had to plant an empty cruiser there very often.
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ReplyDeleteAs a general observation Mayor Dawe seems to appear uncomfortable in his position. He sometimes appears stiff and to say the wrong thing perhaps meaning something else. He seems overly defensive at times.
He has been unable and most likely unwilling to adopt a value for dollar approach. Instead, he seems happy to put another consultant on the roster hoping that problem or issue will go away. (eg. another consultants study of the downtown core)
Like some of the other writers, I am becoming increasingly skeptical of his ability.
Evelyn, I see you've got the hang of paragraphing on an ipad, Congrats. I was not the one complaining about it before. I know Blogger.com's blogs can be a pain sometimes especially in paragraph spacing. So a big congrats on sorting that out.
ReplyDeleteResidents do not have to ask for the Mayor's opinion before getting a speed trap. If you have a real problem & get a few neighbours together to state your case, the police will add you to their list. It can be a long wait but it will get done. They park in my driveway about every 4-5 years & it's like shooting fish in a barrel for the lad in the cruiser. Being that fast proves the problem & increases police revenue. They could get pissed off if there were no culprits.
ReplyDelete4:13.. Do they ask you permission to sit in your driveway? If they do and you say yes you are a fool.
ReplyDeleteSpeed traps like photo radar are just taxation.
9:07 AM
ReplyDeleteYes, they asked as the neighbourhood had asked for their help. And got it. It was not photo-radar but an old fashioned speed gun held by the guy's cold paw. If you were fool enough to get caught, that's utterly cool with me. We have 3 schools nearby and a couple of mini-parks. Kids, bikes, blades, nannies, dogs, school buses, trucks, mom's walking kids, a line of cars going west to east or east to west etc etc.
They rolled the speeders up using several ticket books. Can use my driveway whenever their budget needs a boost & they aren't involved in heavy-duty stuff.
I am certainly not the fool. Grow up and take some responsibility for your life