(02-19-2019, 11:32 PM)the_councillor Wrote: Speaking specifically to whether we could fund it? Yes, Kitchener is in great shape financially, we could conceivably afford to pay for this service, but here's the rub. At $4 million in one time costs and an additional ~$3.5 million in annual operating costs, it would be ALL we could afford to do over the next many years. There are a few issues with this:
- I remain convinced this service in other cities is not good. I follow it very closely and have pictures sent often (daily recently) from other cities like London. It's a LOT of money for mediocre value.
- The environmental harm, CO2 from sidewalk plows + about 70 more dump trucks of salt into the earth each year... on the heels of our council committing to environmental targets no less.
- Residents have been clear in every statistically-significant survey we've put out-- the vast majority want us to try to maintain services and hold taxes to inflation. I know many here may not care... but the point is there are limits to tax increases. Especially with regressive property-taxation like ours. Remember, an ultra-wealthy Google-couple pulling in $300K in salary pays the same tax on their $400k condo as a widower on a $30k pension in the modest $400K home she raised her family in. We need to consider these people too.
- As mentioned above, we could probably perform this service (though as poorly as others) and keep taxes near inflation... but what we need to realize is one of two things will happen; either taxes will rise well above inflation (highly unlikely) or other progressive things will begin to get (perhaps quietly) cut, or scaled back. What things? Well I know this council intends to spend a lot more on slowing traffic down, cycling infrastructure is a big ticket item (many signed pledges for), affordable housing, and I personally want to better leverage technology and our narrowband streetlight network for smart-city initiatives.
This is what we must balance. I get people here don't have to acknowledge this reality, but I do, and it is the reality. Even if other cities cleared snow well, I'd still struggle losing other progressive items like those mentioned above due to the huge cost... but when they can't... when I hear people with disabilities can't traverse sidewalks in places like Ottawa and London a week after a snowfall... I think maybe we at least try to go after the 10-15% that don't clear their walk first. And despite popular belief, we haven't tried before, or put ANY new dollars towards enforcement in my 8 years on council. That is, until this year, and bylaw has just begun trying to change behaviours.
I do agree that if the city did the work, that work would not be up to everyones standards. Even now, I noticed that some city of Kitchener parks that are situated adjacent to sidewalks have sidewalks that are either ice-covered (freeze thaw runoff) and/or corners that are not passable (as of today), due to plow operators discarding snow in those sections. I think this is where, though, we get upset about hearing what by-law is doing - we need to manage, at the very least, city responsible sidewalks and pay those parks workers (CUPE 68) their band 5 salary (about $27.96 top rate - or less if they're temps at $22.57) to clear sidewalks rather than by-law officers that make $10 more an hour (band 7 at $38.25 - based off of CUPE 791) and end up using poor judgement when deciding to who to warn or ticket - and most likely the fault of the information that the city is giving them for that poor judgement.
As for CO2 harm - I don't buy that. Of course, if this is our biggest concern, you can get battery powered devices. That said, what the plows add to the CO2, at maybe 150 plows (including sidewalk plows) vs the close to 200,000 vehicles registered to Kitchener residences already, would be insignificant. We can't take those vehicles off of the roads, and even if we did, at 0.075% of the total vehicles, as Yoda would say; "A difference it would not make." I get that staff and council want to take the lead in CO2 reduction for example, but at the moment, we live in a cold-winter city, a sprawling city with a horrible road layout and horrible transit, it'll be a long, long time before we see meaningful changes in the way we operate as a group. Likely not in mine or your time.
It's true about the property tax impact with those living in condo's versus those in a home, especially a senior in a single family home. There are ways around this already when a senior files their tax return. This could be altered further. At the same time, that Google couple living in a condo, along with the 200 other households in that condo, are paying for services that doesn't come close to what they're paying. If, for example, we say that this will cost $25/year for a $400k home - condo owners would pay $5,000 collectively for a service they'll never get. As for the senior -- most likely they're paying for someone to come out to do the work, at $20-$50 a pop, even if it's just the sidewalk, if they can't do it themselves at this moment.
Sadly, we're in Ontario. Snow, ice-storms, freeze thaw cycles, are the nature of our beast. We can't safely eliminate salt or CO2, not can we always have clear sidewalks everywhere so that everyone can move freely 100% of the time. We can go after the worse offenders, but other offenders that try to keep things good (including the city) will never achieve 100% success simply due to our weather.
Well, there is one ways to have 100% success, but the costs would be astronomical. Heated sidewalks would solve the issue.
As for me, I live in a part of the city with no sidewalk (for some odd reason). Only cement is from the bus stop that was removed when the LRT was approved. I only say this because personally, I have zero to gain if the city actually did start clearing sidewalks -- I only receive the bill, not the service. No different when I lived in a condo-townhome, we paid for private snow clearing (on the road) and garbage collection, and also paid for those services with our property taxes. It is, what it is.