Municipal Politics

[Pimpmasterdac]

Strongly disagree with 2nd place finishers getting appointed to council as an acceptable practice for late term resignations. JFM & Bloxam have run for council several times and lost since voters didn't want them in. Very backdoor way of giving losers a seat at the table they didn't earn. If council sees to appoint individuals, they should get people who are not going to run again and be an interm councillor. Otherwise have a byelection and let the people decide!

[Djeffery]

There is no mechanism to prevent someone from running even if they say they won't. They can easily turn around 8 months from now and say "I've come to realize that I enjoy this job very much, it fulfils my longtime desire to serve and I have been approached by countless residents, as well as some members of council, to say that I should re-consider my earlier commitment to be an interim councillor, and seek the position in the next election. And today I announce my candidacy". Simple. And people will either vote for them or not, but most won't care that they said a year earlier that they wouldn't run.

[jammer139]

LFP article on the impact of under staffing of City Hall planning dept. It's not just staffing that is the issue. They need to streamline their processes and use new technologies to increase productivity too. Time to look at other jurisdictions and learn from best practices and technologies that increase productivity in processing all the back and forth paperwork.



https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...all-developers

[jammer139]

So Ed Holder announced he will not be running for mayor again. This will likely pull the stopper on candidates jumping into the municipal races this Fall.


LFP article - https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...ek-re-election

[jammer139]

Bill 13 Supporting People and Businesses Act, 2021 will allow council to delegate minor variances to city officials rather then full council which is intended to speed up development times. The report linked below has an interesting table showing the past number of minor changes which could have bypassed council. Not needing to wait on full council for minor variances is a good thing going forward.



https://london.ca/sites/default/file...n%20Report.pdf

[jammer139]

LFP article on city construction projects late and over budget..


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...ction-projects

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by jammer139

LFP article on city construction projects late and over budget..


https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...ction-projects

I'll forgive the city on this one. I'm sure nearly all other cities are running into the same issues we're facing like supply issues, lack of workers, etc.

It sucks for everyone but I don't think it's through much fault of their own.

[jammer139]

LFP article on the pressure to approve new housing. The reality is all the surrounding towns have various sub divisions being built now with large detached single family homes. These bedroom communities surrounding London will continue to grow irregardless of what London City council does.



https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/...tcome-activist

[Pimpmasterdac]

At this point having a regional government that incorporates the bedroom communities of Middlesex is the only way of have a coherent planning policy (as well as transportation). Otherwise developers are going to leapfrog out of London, pit them against each other as many of there areas will rubber stamp their developments.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by Pimpmasterdac

At this point haveing a regional government that incorporates the bedroom communities of Middlesex is the only way of have a coherent planning policy (as well as transportation). Otherwise developers are going to leapfrog out of London, pit them against each other as many of there areas that will rubber stamp their developments.

I still think any talk of a regional municipality will be very unpopular among Londoners. Also only Douggie can do it, and since London went all NDP I doubt he wants to do anything 'good' for us. If he can somehow spin things to make him look good however... perhaps.

[Djeffery]

Former two-time Ward 5 candidate Randy Warden pleads guilty in attack website case against Maureen Cassidy in the 2018 election campaign. Funny situation though. Warden's crime was basically not having his name on the signs that were put up. But the message wasn't exactly false, she did have an extra-marital affair with the mayor, and he gets charged and fined.

Paul Vanmeerbergen uses the same slimeball company to make attack sites and signs against Virginia Ridley, with basically bogus accusations, wins election and likely will win again, and doesn't face any punishment. And the greaseball who orchestrated these things, Amir Farahi, skates on all of it (legally anyway, who knows what McDonalds he is working in now).

[jammer139]

New council gets sworn in tonite in special Council meeting at RBC place. First major order of business for this council is the new budget in the coming weeks.

[MolsonExport]

I expect nothing less than the status quo from this council. More stroads and big box barf.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Former two-time Ward 5 candidate Randy Warden pleads guilty in attack website case against Maureen Cassidy in the 2018 election campaign. Funny situation though. Warden's crime was basically not having his name on the signs that were put up. But the message wasn't exactly false, she did have an extra-marital affair with the mayor, and he gets charged and fined.

Paul Vanmeerbergen uses the same slimeball company to make attack sites and signs against Virginia Ridley, with basically bogus accusations, wins election and likely will win again, and doesn't face any punishment. And the greaseball who orchestrated these things, Amir Farahi, skates on all of it (legally anyway, who knows what McDonalds he is working in now).

What an awful smear campaign. How could anyone with a conscious vote for Van Meerkatbergen after that? Amoral Asshole.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by haljackey

I still think any talk of a regional municipality will be very unpopular among Londoners. Also only Douggie can do it, and since London went all NDP I doubt he wants to do anything 'good' for us. If he can somehow spin things to make him look good however... perhaps.

It's definitely a foreign concept to Londoners. Anytime there's been any discussion of any regional co-operation, it always gets shot down. A recent example was talk of having a public transit route that linked to the future Amazon warehouse in Talbotville, and people were up in arms at the very thought of London Transit having a route that crossed out of city limits. And yet it is completely normal for public transit routes to cross municipal boundaries in most other places. This kind of rhetoric also has come up when there's any discussion of providing municipal services to Arva.

Regional cooperation with services like this is how things are done everywhere else, and where regional municipalities exist it's just second nature - nobody cares if a Kitchener sewer is used by Waterloo or Cambridge. Why it is such an exotic concept in London makes no sense to me.

[Djeffery]

I don't know that there were many people "up in arms" at the idea of London Transit operating to Amazon. More like why Amazon when there are so many other underserved locations within the populated portion of the city. Also, while Amazon is basically across the road from the city limits, it's really far from the actual city. It isn't like a TTC bus running a couple blocks past the city limit into Mississauga. Not to mention, LTC isn't exactly floating in capacity to add to that. You would tie up a bus and driver for a few hours a day to run a couple round trips from Talbotville to Westmount or White Oaks transit terminals when you can better serve underserved regions of London, such as Wilton Grove Rd which has a lot more potential passengers than Amazon provides.

As for services for Arva, I think it's just a matter of the proper cost sharing that the city wants, since they don't collect taxes from the development that those services provide. They city is already bitching about sewer capacity in certain areas of London now (think of the apartment that was turned down across from Fanshawe College), let alone having neighbouring municipalities adding on to it. London might as well move the city limit north a mile and benefit from the taxes then.

Also, what good does a regional government do in our area? Waterloo Region is made up a relative equals. In London, it's London and what would essentially be subdivisions. Just look at the recent election in our immediate eastern neighbour, Thames Centre, where it was Thorndale vs Dorchester and Thorndale lost. I can't imagine how happy those people would be becoming a "partner" in a regional government with London.

[Blitz]

London Transit could at least set up a route to St. Thomas. Even Transit Windsor has a route to Leamington and Essex County does not have regional government.

[jammer139]

The other issue regarding extending LTC service to Amazon is simply why should London taxpayers be subsidizing one of the largest corporations on the planet. Amazon can afford to operate a private shuttle bus service at less cost then even paying the LTC to operate a service.

[ssiguy]

Originally Posted by Blitz

London Transit could at least set up a route to St. Thomas. Even Transit Windsor has a route to Leamington and Essex County does not have regional government.

While I strongly agree that there should be a regular all-day transit service between St.Thomas and London, the analogy of Windsor/Leamington is not a fair one. Windsor/Leamington are both part of Essex county so there is some shared tax base there as opposed to St.Thomas which is in a different county. More apt comparisons would be KW & Stratford or Hamilton & Brantford.

Also, the LT cannot just set up service in a different county because they feel like it but rather have to get the authorization from the participating jurisdiction and they may be hard as St.Thomas may see this as a bleeding of riders from their own transit agency. Added to this, as noted above by Jammer139, the taxpayers of London will not be pleased, and rightfully so, with their taxes being spent to provide a service free of charge to another city while their citizens are desperate for more transit for which they are paying.

The ideal situation, which I think London would go for, is St.Thomas/Elgin provide the subsidy needed to run the service. It should be a service from downtown to downtown {or at least White Oaks} that is run exclusively by London Transit. This is a large operation running 24/7 and requires a transit agency with the operational capacity and fleet that can meet that demand. That is something small St.Thomas transit simply cannot provide with it's small fleet and much smaller hours of operation.

[Blitz]

I know they're different counties but it's still doable...it just takes political will. If it's either London or St. Thomas or both who pay for it, then fine. Transit Windsor runs a line to Detroit and that's in a different country for God's sake. It can work.