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Winter Walking and Cycling
(05-08-2019, 08:47 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Staff’s report says that proactive enforcement “appears to have worked” due to reduced orders to clear sidewalks from previous years. What they do not note is that they changed their criteria for issuing those orders sometime during the 2018/19 winter season.
 
The implication in the report is that, though citizen complaints about sidewalks went up 79% from 2017/18 to 2018/19, those citizens were wrong, because staff didn’t issue orders to clear at the same rate in the past. Nevermind that this is because they changed their criteria for issuing those orders. Nevermind that people walking around obviously weren’t too happy about the sidewalks. The point is, the program worked because sidewalks were better-cleared, because staff said they were better cleared.

Time to storm...er..politely point this out in council. 

I have asked to speak with my city councillor, I want to know if this will show up at general council as well as committee....

The suggestion that proactive enforcement "worked" is utterly absurd.  The only metric is were sidewalks clear and passable during the winter and the ONLY answer is "not even a little bit".
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Maybe a case of person who managed a program is tasked with evaluating it?
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(05-08-2019, 08:52 AM)jamincan Wrote: Maybe a case of person who managed a program is tasked with evaluating it?

That's also a question worth answering.
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You can’t just change a pilot project halfway through and expect the conclusions to be valid. The changes weren’t even communicated, let alone consultations undertaken.

Where are the terms of reference for the pilot anyway?

I also don’t appreciate the fact that staff say public engagement results showed “a strong desire…for the City to undertake maintenance of sidewalks,” and then immediately note that their surveys are not a “statistically representative sample of the Community” and not bringing that strong desire up again.

I can’t argue that they are statistically valid, of course, but why did they do them if they were going to ignore the results? I wish they had told me that the results of those surveys would be hand-wavingly discounted, so that I could have avoided wasting my time doing them.
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(05-08-2019, 07:08 AM)danbrotherston Wrote:
(05-08-2019, 06:16 AM)Spokes Wrote: I hope they get it right this time around

I hope we can get a large crowd of relatively angry passionate people to force their hands.

Sadly I don't think that works most of the time
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I would say the more impactful action would be as many e-mails and calls to councillors from constituents they haven't heard from before. If you know someone who complained about not being able to get somewhere on foot this past winter, encourage that person to send an e-mail to his or her councillor asking why taxes are so high if the city can't even get its sidewalks cleared.

Enough of those types of e-mails might convince councillors to support the idea of the city maintaining its transportation infrastructure. The same faces in the crowd as every year, and the same voices on the phone, I agree probably won't.
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(05-09-2019, 06:43 AM)Spokes Wrote:
(05-08-2019, 07:08 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: I hope we can get a large crowd of relatively angry passionate people to force their hands.

Sadly I don't think that works most of the time

It absolutely does, for an issue with little contention, a single delegation will change councils decision against mountains of staff evidence...it took only one delegation from Toronto, complaining about parking, to turn council away from a bike lane which staff supported, AND the neighbourhood supported...how often does that happen.

For more contentious issues, many people coming out and speaking will also turn them, see the bridgeport trail crossing lights.


It absolutely does matter.  Writing and calling help too, but speaking matters as well.
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Is this going to full council? I assume so but, if not, is there a way to register as a delegation at the Infrastructure Committee? It seems like delegations are already set for the other agenda items.
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(05-09-2019, 09:34 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Is this going to full council? I assume so but, if not, is there a way to register as a delegation at the Infrastructure Committee? It seems like delegations are already set for the other agenda items.

I talked to my city councillor, (Debbie Chapman Ward 9), and she said that she believed it would go to full council, and that it could be delegated on at either council....she even said one could delegate at both, which I'm not 100% clear on if this is perhaps...frowned upon.

It is entirely possible to delegate at the committee meeting: https://www.kitchener.ca/en/city-service...ation.aspx
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What's Chapman's view on this issue?
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(05-09-2019, 10:22 AM)tomh009 Wrote: What's Chapman's view on this issue?

This is my interpretation after talking to her, while I try to be as unbiased as possible, it's still worth talking to her directly if you want it unfiltered.

She is overall, strongly in favour of clear sidewalks...she agrees uncleared sidewalks are a big issue.

She was unhappy that the pilot was cancelled and seems unimpressed with the staff's proposal as written today.

I think she would be willing to push more than the staff proposal, but I'm not sure she knows the best way to do that, and neither do I.

I'm in favour of a full rollout today, but I doubt people are supportive in that.  I also don't see a robust data gathering effort on how clear sidewalks actually are (besides spending a huge sum on a survey, which doesn't actually tell you if sidewalks are clear).
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Not to imply anything about Ms. Chapman's earnestness, but I think each and every councillor would at least say they are "strongly in favour of clear sidewalks." It's the opinions after the realization that clear sidewalks require resources that differ.
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(05-10-2019, 07:50 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Not to imply anything about Ms. Chapman's earnestness, but I think each and every councillor would at least say they are "strongly in favour of clear sidewalks." It's the opinions after the realization that clear sidewalks require resources that differ.

I definitely agree.  Even Ms. Galloway-Sealock claims she's in favour of clearer sidewalks...even as she fought achieving that tooth and nail.
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I may just be repeating some of what others said but a couple of my thoughts were:

There really seems to be a sense on this issue from council that there is some group (I assume they think it's Tri-TAG, but I don't know) that is skewing the results of the survey. This was mentioned when this went to council last year and it seems suggested in the staff report when it refers to the responses not being statistically representative. I find this extremely frustrating as it feels that my own thoughts and responses are being tossed away because they mirror an advocacy group (To be clear, this is not the fault of any of the advocacy groups, but rather council/staff's reaction to the responses).

If they proceed with a survey this year, I really hope it is done well. I worry that people who rarely walk/cycle will be surveyed and feel that sidewalk clearing is just fine. I know there was a #lovemyhood survey done a few years back that suggested that people who rarely cycled believed that our cycling infrastructure was good to excellent. Whereas folks who cycled often...had other thoughts. I worry the same could happen here.

I'd love to know how/when it's decided if this goes to full council. If it's only presented at committee (with a meeting in the middle of the day, making it challenging for many people to attend) that's unfortunate.

I'm going to do my best to attend Monday's committee meeting but will be late due to work. Anyone else attending? Speaking?
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(05-10-2019, 10:00 AM)dtkmelissa Wrote: I may just be repeating some of what others said but a couple of my thoughts were:

There really seems to be a sense on this issue from council that there is some group (I assume they think it's Tri-TAG, but I don't know) that is skewing the results of the survey. This was mentioned when this went to council last year and it seems suggested in the staff report when it refers to the responses not being statistically representative. I find this extremely frustrating as it feels that my own thoughts and responses are being tossed away because they mirror an advocacy group (To be clear, this is not the fault of any of the advocacy groups, but rather council/staff's reaction to the responses).

Yes, I, as someone who has no relationship with TriTAG beyond subscribing to a mailing list, was, frankly, offended by the dismissal of my many hours of time spent at council waiting to speak on this issue....shame on that councillor, who now denies saying that, despite being on video, READING a prepared response. It was no misstatement.

(05-10-2019, 10:00 AM)dtkmelissa Wrote: If they proceed with a survey this year, I really hope it is done well. I worry that people who rarely walk/cycle will be surveyed and feel that sidewalk clearing is just fine. I know there was a #lovemyhood survey done a few years back that suggested that people who rarely cycled believed that our cycling infrastructure was good to excellent. Whereas folks who cycled often...had other thoughts. I worry the same could happen here.

I'd love to know how/when it's decided if this goes to full council. If it's only presented at committee (with a meeting in the middle of the day, making it challenging for many people to attend) that's unfortunate.

I'm going to do my best to attend Monday's committee meeting but will be late due to work. Anyone else attending? Speaking?

I will be going to committee to speak on this issue, and I will try to be only moderately blunt and angry about it. I have spoken to councillors who say that it will go to full council but one suggested now was the best time...hope you can make it, but for those who cannot, still worth calling/emailing councillors.
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