Quote:
Originally Posted by Drofmab
I keep saying it, Regina is a medium sized city that continues to govern as if it's a small city/big town. Guess what, Councillors? You'll be able to count on one hand the number of decisions that you make that don't ruffle a single feather - governing by consensus is a recipe for mediocrity. Be ready to course-correct, if you've made a mistake... but don't take a few voices whining to mean that you're off-course.
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I don't like that Regina is viewed as being behind the times. HOWEVER, this gives us a huge advantage that I keep telling councillors and admin to take advantage of:
All we have to do is look at what other similar sized, successful cities have done, and do what they do! We don't have to waste money and time on studies, we don't need to waste time and money on debate. We can jump straight into execution and just follow the successful strategies and models other cities have already had success with. IE: recycling. IE; ride sharing. IE; infill development. IE; homelessness. IE; transportation. IE; streetscaping. IE; pick just about any municipal service.
Instead, we spent a pile of money on a Downtown plan that has been shelved. We spent money on an OCP that is already being ignored. The Transit plan was completed 3 years ago and has been sitting on a shelf in draft, and now that the fonts have been changed, it might finally get approved. We have targets for % of infill development, but no action plan, and instead they have approved many more millions of green field development in the last 12 months making these targets next to impossible to achieve. Now they are doing another study on infill development, so that they can create yet another plan with no teeth, no action, and no results. They teased the public with the RRI development; in 2016 multiple city officials publicly stated the walking bridge would be built spring of 2017, and now all we have are some conceptual drawings with no plan, no action, no budget.
I attended the international downtown conference last fall, and it was jaw dropping how back asswards Regina is. A lot of the panel discussion from other cities was about programs like infill development being SO successful that there is now backlash, and how to deal with that. Some panelists were even mocking the massive success of local business/culture/cuisine/streetscaping in their cities as now being passe and old hat. I was absolutely shocked, because we are just now trying to start creating these things here in Regina, albeit with little to no support from City Admin.
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