Archive for January, 2010

Snow Policy Must Change

Jan
28
2010

We – Edmonton City Council – need to change the city’s Winter Road Maintenance Policy.

City staff are for the most part achieving the 48 hour response target on main roads and bus routes, and they are doing exactly what they are supposed to do under the policy for residential side streets, which is to maintain a snow pack at 10 cm or less by ‘blading’ or smoothing with the sanding truck-plows.

I am receiving mixed feedback as to whether this is working for citizens, but what is clear is that there are many residential streets where the blading practice is not working. This is a pdf of a brief circulated to members of council from City staff indicating that they intend to change their practice to blade more frequently and more preemptively.

I’m not convinced that this is enough.

Precisely because there are too many variables (weight of the truck, skill of the operator, micro-climates in different parts of the city, traffic volumes, width of the street, presence of driveways) I do not think the 10 cm snow pack standard will suffice on a city-wide basis. I believe the many citizens who’ve contacted me are correct that blading when this 10 cm pack is loose is not an effective use of public dollars.

Winnipeg has been frequently cited this week as an example of a city where snow is handled well on side streets. We learned at the Transportation Committee presentation on Tuesday that their policy is also to maintain a snow pack, but their threshold is 5 cm which can’t break up as easily.

They do not remove snow from side streets, they generally pile it to one side of the street and ban parking there. They clear driveways if the windrows are higher that 8”. A handy FAQ on Winnipeg’s practices can be found here and their overall policy is here.

I think we should look seriously at lowering the snow pack from the current 10 cm to 5 cm if nothing else.

This approach has some advantages compared to going to bare pavement (which can then require more sanding if the pavement begins to ice up). When this pack does breaks up in warmer spells or in the spring the accumulations are insufficient to cause that ‘oatmeal’ effect which is so confounding to motorists and pedestrians.

I think plowing to bare pavement and removal of the windrows from all streets should be a last resort, and I’m not sure it would be a prudent use of public dollars outside of an extreme snowfall.

The city is doing a survey in February of citizens’ experiences and expectations, which will likely confirm what Councillors are hearing from citizens and reading in the papers.

I think Council needs to have the policy debate first, being mindful of the costs, and then talk about how we might pay for it. A tax increase should be the last resort, and I agree that threatening the public with that is not helping. I haven’t been doing that.

As chair of the Transportation and Public Works committee I will be personally following up on this in April when a report comes to us outlining alternatives to the current policy.

In the mean time I am applying pressure to city administration to consider a proper grader pass in the areas where the oatmeal is worst.

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term | 13 Comments »

Open Data is Go

Jan
14
2010

A quick follow up to a previous post about my Open Data inquiry. The inquiry response report came to Executive Committee yesterday and was well received by the mayor and other councillors who attended. In essence, the report says the City is working hard on opening up as much data as it can in keeping with the Open Data/Open Government trends that are taking hold.

Matthew Dance, a Grad Student in Geography at the University of Alberta spoke eloquently to the possibilities, academic and otherwise, that having more civic information readily available could lead to, especially using locational information. Blogger extraordinaire Mack Male was there too, blogging and live-tweeting away.

In my mind, Open Data fulfills some of what I called yesterday ‘our noblest democratic instincts’.

First, open Data is all about transparency; not simply putting information out, but making it truly accessible and barrier free. To this end, the City took the opportunity to launch its open data catalogue yesterday, which will grow as more data sets are adapted. What’s different about this data is that it’s in generic formats: think of the difference between a Word document (for which you would need Word) and a plain old text file that can be opened on any computer.

The other inspiring democratic opportunity is for collaboration. This kind of information can be used by industries like utility companies and developers, by groups who advocate to the city such as the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues or the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. I mean collaboration with the city, and among users of data, all of which is quite empowering for the public.

Good facts are still the bedrock of good debate, and the more information that the public has, the better debate will be. Many people who have expressed frustration with government to me have felt in some way disempowered by a lack of information or barriers to information. I think only good can come from making government data as transparent as possible.

I want to acknowledge the leadership of Chris Moore, the City’s Chief Information Officer, who really gets it and is driving this initiative hard within the City, as well as his staff who’ve been instrumental. I should also thank David Edey, the General Manager of Corporate Services and Mr. Moore’s boss, for seeing the democratic potential in all this as well.

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term | No Comments »

10 in 2010

Jan
12
2010

The Journal’s City Hall newshound Gordon Kent broke the story in today’s paper about some councillors’ decision of where to run on the new 12 ward electoral map (which will be effective as of the October 2010 election).

It’s official: I plan to run in Ward 10 (‘barring death or dismemberment’ as Cllr. Anderson put it to me yesterday).

Cllr. Anderson and I came to a working understanding late last year that we would not run against each other, desiring instead that the bulk of our current Ward 5 constituents should have an experienced representative on their ballot. That way we might both continue to offer responsive services and knowledgeable representation. Should we each be fourtunate enough to receive another term we plan to continue to work together as we have on common issues and opportunities in the Southwest.

Neighbourhoods from today’s Ward 5 found their way into three of the new smaller wards. [Here's a map of the current 6 wards.]

The bulk of the current Ward 5 is to be divided along the Whitemud ravine, and then the Blackmud ravine south of 23rd Avenue. The eastern area where I will run (Southgate and Century Park area) will be Ward 10, the western area where Cllr. Anderson plans to run (Riverbend, Terwillegar, Windermere, Heritage Valley and Twin Brooks) will be Ward 9.

The three northernmost neighbourhoods in current Ward 5 (Belgravia, McKernan and Queen Alexandra) are in the new Ward 8, along with the campus area, Strathcona, Bonnie Doon and Capilano. My family bought a house in Belgravia last year to be closer to the new LRT, which means we do live just inside the new Ward 8.

I expect that I am not the only incumbent who will seek re-election in an area he or she represents now but doesn’t reside in because of the boundary changes. Nonetheless, I grew up in Ward 10 and my roots remain as deep as my commitment. I am excited to continue work on the challenges and opportunities that come with the LRT extension to Century Park, and other issues affecting older neighbourhoods in our city, such as fixing sidewalks, side streets and alleys and making new development as positive as possible when it occurs in established areas.

It remains an honour to represent all parts of Ward 5 until election day, though it is difficult in a way to think of ‘losing’ those parts of it that will be in the new Wards 8 and 9. I still strongly support the move to the smaller wards, though, and think this will be positive for reasons previously recorded here.

I’m looking forward to knocking on doors in the spring. Knowing that I have half as many doorsteps to reach means I have twice the opportunity to connect with the people I would like to continue to represent.

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Posted in Campaign 2010 | 11 Comments »

Good News: City Saves Money on Stuff!

Jan
08
2010

What follows is my January contribution to the Edmonton Examiner’s gracious ‘Councillor Connection‘ column space which rotates among us.

Since the Examiner is split run (there are, I believe, seven different versions, each localized to different parts of the city) people outside the South West would not see this. But I thought it might be of interest to readers of this blog, who seem to come from across the city.

This is my version; I haven’t compared it to what was published in the paper:

The news stories about the city with the greatest reverberation tend, unsurprisingly, to be about when things are going poorly. Sometimes this means citizens don’t hear about some of the successes we can all be proud of, though this newspaper is an excellent source of just that kind of news.

I wanted to share one such ‘good news’ story that I knew nothing about until this past year: the city’s Aggregate Recycling program. This is different from our very successful road sand recycling program, which has received a lot of good coverage and for which the city has been recognized with several awards.

The Aggregate Recycling program started with the city’s own supply of broken concrete and stripped asphalt more than thirty years ago. The thinking was that this waste material, rather then being landfilled as was the prevailing practice, could be crushed and sorted like gravel for use in city projects.

Our transportation department has tested the large aggregate in use and found the rough edges hold up better as a road bed then smoother river rock gravel of the sort normally used, meaning roads can last longer.

The City now processes more than 200,000 tonnes of concrete, soil cement, asphalt, gravel, bricks, paving stones and coarse sand annually. The city also accepts this material from citizens.

Of course it’s good to recycle, but the business case for this activity is very strong. In 2008 73,586 tonnes of waste were diverted from the landfill, saving $6.3 million in disposal costs; 187,449 tonnes of large aggregate was used in city construction projects, saving $3.8 million; 4,270 tonnes of smaller aggregate was used by roadway maintenance saving $320,000.

The total savings to the city were more than $10 million in 2008, and this value continues to grow.

Using recycled material also reduces the need to disturb land for quarrying in our region, which has a value too, though harder to quantify.

So next time you’re driving down a stretch of new or rebuilt road, remember it’s actually paved in part with good intentions – the kind that save public money and reduce our environmental impacts.

If you would like more information on public drop-off sites you can go to: tinyurl.com/aggregaterecycling

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term | 4 Comments »