Saskatoon Bike Lanes – A few notes
May 3rd
The Prairie winter has had a harsh effect on our small number of “bike lanes” through the downtown core this year. As of the day of this post most of the bike sharrows painted and celebrated last year have faded substantially, with some completely gone. Additionally, several of the lanes marked for shared bike/car usage are in rough shape, with potholes, cracks, and failing patch jobs making cycling around an even more dangerous job for two-wheeled minded residents.
To be fair, the winter is harsh on all road paint – as many of our yellow and white lines throughout the city have suffered a similar fate. The city began re-painted these road lines 2-3 weeks ago. However, bike sharrows have yet to receive the same treatment.
I sent an inquiry to the appropriate City Administration department last week and received a prompt reply assuring that the sharrows would be re-painted shortly. Additionally, they confirmed that during the re-painting some of the sharrows would be re-positioned based on feedback received over the past year (In particular, the sharrows on 24th St between Idylwyld and 1st Ave are positioned in the parking lane).
I’ll post some pictures here within the next day once I get More >
Councillor Wyant Seeking Provincial Nomination in Saskatoon-Northwest
Apr 27th
This was a bit of a surprise (from the Star Phoenix this afternoon):
A familiar name in Saskatoon city politics is throwing his hat in the ring to replace embattled Saskatoon Northwest MLA Serge LeClerc. Ward 5 city councillor Gordon Wyant announced Tuesday he would seek the Saskatchewan Party nomination in that seat.
“This province has a tremendous future and I believe that future has been provided for us in great measure by the government. The Saskatchewan Party has a great future in this province under the leadership of the premier and this is a tremendous time to lend my talents, whatever talents I have, to move the province forward,” he said in an interview.
[...]
It will be interesting to see what kind of fire he brings to the table during the nomination fight and potentially (I would suspect others will be interested in a seat the Sask Party took with 50% plus in 2007) the 2011 election. For the record, that makes it two councillors recently elected who are seeking nomination/election in a higher level of government. Last week Councillor Darren Hill was nominated as the federal Liberal Party candidate in Saskatoon-Humboldt.
City Council, Recycling Consultation, and Reactions
Apr 27th
I tuned in a bit late to Council last night (via TV, no time to go in person) to catch the mid-way point of Council’s comments regarding the planned consultation regarding recycling. Council was discussing the City Admin’s planned community consultation process that is slated to begin in mid to late May, which will culminate with a final decision on a new recycling program in early November.
Here are a few highlights of the various councillors statements I was able to catch (I’m paraphrasing):
Darren Hill – Noted he had campaigned on this very issue in 2006 and how “naive” it was of him to expect that it would have been settled by this point. He was glad to finally see the process going ahead and indicated that he constantly receives correspondences in favour of a better recycling system.
Charlie Clark – He noted that, similar to Councillor Hill, that he responds to a steady tide of residents contacting him about an improved recycling system and is glad that their is finally a plan in place to make a decision.
Tiffany Paulsen – Indicated that she is glad to see the process finally here and that she won’t stand in it’s way; however, she is concerned with More >
Saskatoon Residents to see 3.86% Property Tax Increase
Apr 27th
Last night City Council approved the 2010 Operating Budget, with the end result being a 3.86% hike in the municipal portion of resident’s property tax bills. This despite campaign promises by six sitting councillors not to increase taxes above the rate of inflation (which depending on several factors is between 1 and 2%).
Additionally, Council approved the “one-time” transfer of $2.5 million dollars from the Revenue Stabilization Fund (i.e. Rainy Day Fund) to offset what would have been an even higher municipal property tax increase. However, that rainy day fund was empty last fall before Council made two moves to top it up.
In August 2009, City Administration reported a projected year-end deficit. At that time City Council transferred $3 million from the Neighbourhood Land Development Fund (NLDF) to cover the projected deficit at year-end. The NLDF consists of revenue generated from land sales (mainly Willowgrove and Hampton Village in 2009), which are re-invested back into the development of new neighbourhoods. There were two glaring reasons why this move was unsustainable and a really bad example of how to manage the cities finances; 1) it uses one-time revenues to cover operating costs that are incurred year-over-year, and 2) it depletes the NLDF More >
Saskatoon, robberies, knives, and the hard statistics
Apr 28th
Posted by Sean Shaw in Commentary
1 comment
A brief news blurb from NewsTalk650 regarding a recently released report on robberies in Canada sparked my interest this morning. Specifically, the news blurb suggests that robberies involving knives are on the rise in Saskatchewan (see bolded text, my emphasis):
Knife Violence In Saskatchewan More and more robberies committed with bladed weapons
Reported By Sheri Ebert Posted April 28, 2010 – 7:06am
A new study shows Canada’s highest rates of robbery and crimes involving knives in 2008 were in the western provinces. Statistics Canada says the highest robbery rate was in Manitoba, followed by Saskatchewan, and bladed-weapons were involved in many of those cases. But it’s no surprise to Saskatoon’s Chief of Police. “In Saskatoon last year, we had over 300 incidents of either machetes, swords or knives being used. I classify them as street weapons. Regina’s the same, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, we’re all seeing an increase in people using knives.” Clive Weighill is asking the province to tighten weapon laws so cops can seize any knives they come across- with probable cause. It can’t come too soon in his city. There has been a rash of about forty armed-muggings in one portion of the city’s east side. The teenaged robbers use machetes and large knives to More >