2022 Municipal Election

[StEC]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

I think you guys are in the wrong thread

This is supposed to be the angry political one

Okay that made me laugh hard!

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

The Ottawa CMA didn't pass the Hamilton CMA for population until 1982 or so.. so yea, old Hamilton is much denser than old Ottawa, particularly since it was a larger metro even during the 1960's / 1970's apartment boom.

Calgary looks dense with all it's highrises, but they are mostly office buildings. The daytime population downtown is clearly a lot larger than Hamilton, but the residential population is almost non-existent north of the rail corridor.

I lived in Calgary for 5 years so I'll chime in:
North of the rail corridor (Downtown Commercial core, East Village, Eau Claire, Chinatown, Downtown West End) is roughly 20,000 residents.

South of the rail corridor Beltline (Ward 11 + Ward 8 sections): ~25,000
Total greater "Downtown" population: ~45,000
source: 2019 Calgary civic census

Look closely at the skyline and you'll notice a lot more high rise residential than one initially realizes. There's 43 Million square feet of office space Downtown, and another 6.2 Million square feet in the Beltline for almost 50 Million total square feet, ~16 Million square feet of which (14M Downtown, 2M Beltline) is currently vacant!

source: CBRE Downtown office figures Q3-2022
CBRE Suburban office figures Q3-2022

I searched for downtown Calgary and came up with this recent proposal

Massive downtown Calgary development proposed along Stephen Avenue
By Adam MacVicar Global News
Posted May 10, 2022 9:32 pm

The development will include three towers on top of a multi-storey podium: a 24-storey office tower, a 54-storey rental tower and a 66-storey condo tower, which would be the largest skyscraper in western Canada.

This is the same company that built Saskatoon's River Landing project.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8823491/m...tephen-avenue/

Here's the diagram page for Calgary sorted by u/c and completed by most recent projects (a crazy amount of high rise residential built recently and to come online in the next few years)
https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=98911887

What is Hamilton's current downtown population?

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by matt602

Overally really happy with the results tonight, so many incumbents have been tossed out. Probably the freshest, youngest council this city has seen in decades and its about time.

It definitely seems like exciting times for Hamilton

[TheHonestMaple]

Strong start to the new city council, already accusing the press of racism. Going to be an interesting four years to say the least.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Strong start to the new city council, already accusing the press of racism. Going to be an interesting four years to say the least.

Hamilton politics are ALWAYS interesting, at least if one lives here. It's the unknowns that are of current interest... i.e., we KNEW what Terry Whitehead would do, and how some of the "suburban" councillors would behave, but now it's a wait and see

[TheHonestMaple]

Interesting night last night at City Hall.... Already seeing the progressive alliance breakdown, with Kroetsch not making any friends. M. WIlson coming out with a statement condemning the protest at City Hall, while Kroetsch was actively participating in it. Going to be a wild few years with this council haha

[Corktowner]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Interesting night last night at City Hall.... Already seeing the progressive alliance breakdown, with Kroetsch not making any friends. M. WIlson coming out with a statement condemning the protest at City Hall, while Kroetsch was actively participating in it. Going to be a wild few years with this council haha

The craziest part of it all is that the protest was being led by Kroetsch’s bestie, Sabreina Dahab, who is an elected official herself!

[TheHonestMaple]

Originally Posted by Corktowner

The craziest part of it all is that the protest was being led by Kroetsch’s bestie, Sabreina Dahab, who is an elected official herself!

Yep, makes you wonder if Kroetsch knew about it in advanced and was part of the planning, i'm sure he did. Which puts him in quite an awkward position, and honestly isn't very becoming of a city councilor.

I also found it super interesting that Nann was getting heckled by the protestors too. Kroetsch isn't going to have many allies at Council or City Hall pretty soon.

[PaperSun]

It's only been a few months and Kroetsch has already been a disaster, although he's managed to fool a few of his twitter fans.

[TheRitsman]

I'm incredibly pleased with Cllr. Kroetsch so far. He has been significantly more active with the community, communicated much more, and his staff has been incredibly responsive so far. I'm also happy that he is doing exactly what he ran on in his platform.

[Corktowner]

I was pleased with Kroetsch up until yesterday. Now I have more misgivings but I’m still willing to give him a chance. Dahab, however, is a ridiculous person—a middle-class grad student LARPing as some kind of outlaw revolutionary while showing no interest in the mundane issues that actually matter to most parents and teachers. I hope her political career is brief.

[StEC]

As a ward 2 resident who voted for Cameron I'm very pleased with his work so far. Stellar community engagement something we never got with Farr and his candidness with the on goings of city hall and the budget numbers keeping us all informed on stuff that was usually hidden from the public (unless you went digging through all the red tape) is a breath of fresh air.

[TheHonestMaple]

I do appreciate his transparency, I think he's been doing a great job with that.

He does need to tone down the activism stuff though. He's a councillor now, he represents all residents in the ward. He can't be going out to protests against the provincial government, threatening the provincial government. And just today calling another councilor a racist. It's poor behaviour and the residents deserve better.

Today's Incident: Councillor Jackson referred to his constituents today as 'everyday taxpayers'. It was a benign comment that had no negative connotation whatsoever. Councillor Kroetsch then somehow made a connection between 'everyday taxpayers' and 'old stock Canadians', implying that Councillor Jackson is a racist. Kroetsch was then asked to retract his remarks, refused and was subsequently ejected from the council chambers for unparliamentary language. Brad Clark also commented that Kroetsch language was disparaging and unacceptable in the council chamber. Kroetsch finds racism (or colonialsm whatever that means) in everything, it's getting old.

Despite me voting against him at the election, I actually had some high hopes for him. I thought he might have a good shot of at least making some positive change on the development and LRT front. However, after just a few short months he's making plenty of enemies at city hall. He's going to have a very hard time advancing his progressive agenda over the next few years, as I'm sure these early incidents are just the beginning. You can definitely tell that he's beginning to annoy his colleagues.

[atnor]

Kroetsch will never miss the opportunity to soapbox.

Kroestsch is an example of what people mean when they say certain members of the left are professional victims. No reasonable person would infer that Jackson’s comments are akin to discriminatory remarks. Then again, me saying “reasonable person” may drum up a lot of angst with a particular member of this forum.

[TheHonestMaple]

Agreed. His twitter rants are quite hilarious. Doesn't get his way in council and goes on a twitter tantrum telling us all how virtuous he is.

His recent rant was particularly annoying. Going on about how council needs to listen to "community", but at the same time ignoring constituents who are emailing him asking him to do something about cleaning up the needles and human feces in parks.

He needs to quit the virtue signaling and woke activism and focus on fixing our roads, parks and crime issues.

[Innsertnamehere]

https://x.com/Ward2Hamilton/status/1...705369629?s=20



This is a good example I think of why I think Cameron is a net improvement over his predecessor - he sometimes oversteps on issues but as a whole is likely going to be good for the City as a councilor.. Hamilton has huge issues with maintenance of the public realm which I honestly think is a big reason it has such a "rough" reputation visually.. It's not just the cracked asphalt, it's the day to day maintenance of public streets as well. The city is way behind other municipalities on litter collection, weed control, etc. One of the best examples is the maintenence of the downtown rail underpasses - which is hilariously poor. Good to see that changing, especially since so many visitors experience it as a result of the proximity to the GO Station.

[matt602]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

This is a good example I think of why I think Cameron is a net improvement over his predecessor - he sometimes oversteps on issues but as a whole is likely going to be good for the City as a councilor.. Hamilton has huge issues with maintenance of the public realm which I honestly think is a big reason it has such a "rough" reputation visually.. It's not just the cracked asphalt, it's the day to day maintenance of public streets as well. The city is way behind other municipalities on litter collection, weed control, etc. One of the best examples is the maintenence of the downtown rail underpasses - which is hilariously poor. Good to see that changing, especially since so many visitors experience it as a result of the proximity to the GO Station.

Totally agree. He's made a lot of missteps in his time as councilor and I haven't agreed with everything he has done or said but Farr was just a joke of a politician by comparison. Also agree that this is much needed, the TH&B underpasses are digusting. Its really embarassing how passengers leaving and entering the GO station at James and John have to walk under that pigeon shit infested, dark mess.

[StEC]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

https://x.com/Ward2Hamilton/status/1...705369629?s=20



This is a good example I think of why I think Cameron is a net improvement over his predecessor - he sometimes oversteps on issues but as a whole is likely going to be good for the City as a councilor.. Hamilton has huge issues with maintenance of the public realm which I honestly think is a big reason it has such a "rough" reputation visually.. It's not just the cracked asphalt, it's the day to day maintenance of public streets as well. The city is way behind other municipalities on litter collection, weed control, etc. One of the best examples is the maintenence of the downtown rail underpasses - which is hilariously poor. Good to see that changing, especially since so many visitors experience it as a result of the proximity to the GO Station.

ABOUT DAMN TIME!!! I have emailed him twice complaining about this very issue and ranted to him on Instagram. I never got a personal reply but this is exactly what I wanted to see!

[TheHonestMaple]

Reading Cameron's tweet, it sounds more like he asked CN to pay for the clean up and they told him to get bent lol. I personally am glad to see this finally happening, but months is unnacepatable. There is zero reason why current staff can't go down there one afternoon and clean them all. Also, a fresh coat of black paint on the steel parts of the bridge would do wonders making it look nicer.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Reading Cameron's tweet, it sounds more like he asked CN to pay for the clean up and they told him to get bent lol. I personally am glad to see this finally happening, but months is unnacepatable. There is zero reason why current staff can't go down there one afternoon and clean them all. Also, a fresh coat of black paint on the steel parts of the bridge would do wonders making it look nicer.

Anytime the city wants to touch something over or under a train line, or provincial road the city must consult with the rail owner or highway owner. In this case CN who are known to be difficult. My understanding is they had to ask if they can do anything or if it is the responsibility of CN. CN has essentially said they will not be doing work on the bridges, but the city has been given permission to fix them.

Having spoken to Cameron personally about this when we were out knocking on doors, I don't think he thought CN would pay for anything.

They have projects being worked on. Staff do not enjoy being directed by council members to drop their current work and do something else. There is planning that is involved in large organizations like this. I'm actually surprised they're doing it so quickly. Usually politicians wouldn't tell you about this until March when it's going to get fixed next week to make it look like they do stuff really fast, but that's not the reality of how these things work unfortunately.