In the newspaper today there was a article on the new bride here it is:
A contrast in vision
Gerry Klein, The StarPhoenix
Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Thirty-five years ago, the newly elected mayor of Curitiba, in southern Brazil, was faced with a crisis.
The studies had been done, the experts consulted and the drawing completed, and he knew what had to be done. He also knew what the political ramifications would be if he acted on those reports, but Jaime Lerner had confidence in the experts. He wasn't only the city's new mayor, he was an architect and an urban planner and he believed in transforming the city into something special.
The plan he was considering called for the transformation of a half-dozen blocks in the city's downtown to be pedestrian friendly, where no cars were allowed. The businesspeople in that area were up in arms, threatening political retaliation if the mayor acted on the plans.
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Font: ****According to a story in Tuesday's New York Times, Lerner recalls asking his secretary of public works how much time it would take to complete the job.
"He said he needed four months," Lerner said. "I said, 'Forty eight hours.' He said, 'You're crazy.' I said, 'Yes, I'm crazy, but do it in 48 hours.' "
It actually took almost 72 hours, but over one weekend Curitiba took the first steps from being an unknown Third-World city to one that is renowned for its innovation and has a reputation as an economic powerhouse.
The transformation didn't come without controversy, however. A group composed mostly of businesspeople decided to protest the restriction to automobiles. They organized a drive-in, where they would ignore the rules and drive into the six-block pedestrian area and park in their former spots.
The city rounded up schoolchildren, provided them with donated newsprint and organized a paint-in counter-demonstration. The businesspeople knew they had been beat -- the kids proved the value of the area before they could invade it with their cars.
Not long after, those same businesspeople lobbied city hall to expand the pedestrian-friendly area (it is now more than twice its original size) and the paint-in has become an annual festival -- supported by the same businesspeople who now realize the financial value of providing that quality space.
Twenty years after Lerner's brave adventure, Saskatoon's council was told the city needed another bridge. It has been 15 years and rather than a bridge, all Saskatoon has to show for its numerous reports and debates is a price tag that has grown from a few tens of millions for the entire project to a likely cost of $300 million.
That's a high price to pay for sitting on the fence.
To be sure, the decision to go ahead would not have been an easy one. As soon as someone raised the idea of building a bridge, the naysayers began to pipe up. There are those who believe a north bridge is more valuable than a south -- this in spite of various traffic studies indicating otherwise. There are those who believed the course was wrong, the cost was too high and the support from other levels of government was too weak.
The bottom line was that doing nothing was always the most politically expedient path to take.
On Tuesday, councillors were presented with a report that set out in detail the cost of that political expediency. There will no doubt still be those opposed to going ahead with a $300-million mega project when it is clear neither the federal nor provincial governments are ready to do their share. And there will be some who still want the north route instead of the south, or who believe the current proposal can be scaled back to shave off a few bucks.
But this is a project that cannot be stalled anymore. During the past year, Saskatoon has gone through a nearly unprecedented growth streak and its already overstretched infrastructure is showing the strains.
The last time the city built a bridge, it cut what corners it could. A year after the Circle Drive Bridge opened in 1982, the city already realized it had to twin the roads leading up to it. Although it was expected to only handle some 40,000 cars a day before improvements were needed, Murray Totland, the head of the city's infrastructure services, predicts it is now handling some 70,000 while under construction to add an extra lane in each direction.
The temptation may be there for councillors to pare back on the south bridge proposal by delaying some of the connecting overpasses, or slimming down the bridge until it has to handle more traffic.
When it was thought the bridge could be in place by the middle of this decade, engineers predicted it would handle 27,000 vehicles a day almost from the day it opened. That pent-up demand is now at 40,000 vehicles and if the city and economy keep expanding the way they are, there is no saying how many cars will be crossing it by its expected opening in 2011.
There is also no telling what the cost will be of doing the extra work next decade. Three years ago, the city estimated the cost of five big-ticket projects -- including completing this portion of Circle Drive, expanding the police station, finishing the Mendel Art Gallery project, building a new downtown library and, the only project that saw the light of day, building an interchange at Circle and College drives -- would set taxpayers back $143 million.
That this one project is twice that amount is an indication of the cost of procrastination.
The city was warned it should borrow the money and consider partnerships with the private sector -- even consider a toll road -- if that's what it took to complete the work sooner rather than later. By not showing the leadership and courage of a Lerner and doing what had to be done, the strain on the taxpayers will be much heavier.
Let's hope the lesson has sunk in
also here is a plan
http://www.saskatoon.ca/org/municipal_engineering/river_crossings/Options_Nov24_2005.pdf
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CREDIT: David Hutton/The StarPhoenix
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