So the most fun at last nights council meeting centred around the coming (maybe??) Referendum on the 10th Avenue *road* crossing and that all led into the debate on bike paths and a walkable City. So the council seems to be wrestling with the fact that we will only be having a non-binding referendum on the road bridge (which will cost $160 per year for 25 years and $14.6 Million total) because a binding referendum would mean the City would have to actually do the work necessary to prepare a real geotechnical report to actually build and borrow the money for a bridge if the binding referendum passed! So are we even going to have *any* referendum? I dont know anymore. Do You really want to spend that much money on a bridge? Which brings us to bikes... after the referendum question was tabled (by Councillor Chopra, effectively shutting down comments that were going to be made by Councillor (Acting Mayor) Solda) Councillor McLeman brought made a motion to instead create a plan to build a pedestrian and bike bridge that would connect 10th Avenue to the Tebo area. Obviously this would cost a lot less and would bring huge benefits to our City for people and especially students going to and from ADSS, Echo, North Island College, etc. by bike or foot. That motion was defeated... at least for now. So we seem to be in the midst of a rather interesting, and in my opinion very healthy debate. Do we continue building more road infrastructure at great cost to the taxpayer, or do we spend a little less and build out our walking and biking infrastructure? Heres a question: How many separated bike lines could be created and improvements to our walking trails be done for $14.6 Million. I bet there are a whole lot more grants available for that kind of work too!
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 17:49:21 +0000
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