Quote:
Originally Posted by Waye Mason
Paranoid much? Administrative Order 1 of HRM requires the report's recommendation be put on the floor first for debate and the Mayor always calls on the area councillor to put the motion on the floor.
If you want to make sweeping statements you should maybe do some research first, unless the facts are getting in the way of your truthiness.
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I take no position on the procedural debate here.
And Waye, I've been a big fan of some of your important work at Council, including battling for more funding and investment downtown.
But you're wrong on these modest infill proposals. It's hypocritical to advocate greater urban density and then oppose a modest, low impact, proposal like this, which removes an ugly little building and provides more, nicer, housing for university members and anyone else.
Out of scale and out of character? This building will "change the neighbourhood" ? Give me a break.
The Councillor asking about the "brand new" 5 storey building RIGHT beside this one, completely undercuts your arguments. Your "historical" argument actually makes your position worse, because the history suggests that you had HIGHER buildings in there historically. That was the character of the neighbourhood historically, so you're defending a fiction. A concept of the neighbourhood that does not now, nor ever, existed.
The ONLY basis to oppose this proposal is the typically conservative mindset, where people oppose any kind of change, solely for fear of "different" people moving into the neighbourhood and thus to preserve property values for the wealthy.
You're on the wrong side of this, and I suspect you know it, as your arguments have been weak.
My worry, is when you take these hypocritical positions to keep a couple wealthy loudmouths in our district happy, you're undermining your credibility to advance the broader cause for urban density, which is a critical issue for the broader city. councillor Mosher called you out on this, and you had no answer.
You're defending the classic NIMBY position: I support urban density, but not in my backyard.