Raise the Hammer

So now it should be obvious to everyone that we have no commitment on any sort of timeline to even get an answer on any sort of timeline to get an answer on LRT from the province.

Meanwhile, this city is a living joke of total planning fail, and we're about to host the entire western hemisphere. For the last couple years we've been looking to Toronto and Queens Park to bail us out. LRT did essentially what the games did - made it so easy we had no choice but to get our shit together and get on board. When it comes to our own initiatives however, we'll just piss away every opportunity that comes along.

Now we don't have a choice anymore. We can't count on LRT so let's make a plan for the next 4 years that will accommodate LRT but make an improvement regardless.

• Restore two way operation on Main and King streets.
• Expand the current B-line into a proper full time service.
• Dedicate one lane on Main and one lane on King to all HSR buses
• Street parking on King throughout downtown
• Widen sidewalks on Main
• Bicycle lanes for all current 5-lane sections, between parking and the sidewalk. Bikes share the bus lane through narrower sections.

We won't put a full bidirectional ROW on King (and compromise on street parking / sidewalk width) until there's rail to justify it. Forget BRT, it's called a bus lane and any respectable city has them. This is just paint, we can change it later.

That should take care of our main transportation routes. On the building front, enact a functional sign bylaw, phase in a retroactive enforcement of the heritage facade bylaw, then hire a crew to remove the various foreign materials covering the entire facades of downtown buildings. Also offer loans and incentives to building owners for facade restorations.

Hopefully looming deadline of the 2015 Pan Am Games will give us the kick in the ass we so obviously need to get any of this done.

Comment edited by jonathan dalton on 2010-03-26 12:12:05