Letters: Cal writes 'em, the Spec gets 'em and they print 'em

Cal DiFalco is a resident in the Fruitland Rd. area concerned about increased truck traffic.  His area wants change because the truck traffic is bordering close to INSANE.  And with nothing being said and no assurances having been made whatsoever he has become rather unhappy with the councilors in and around his ward.

He writes:

Change is required at the polls if we are to stay true to what has become a hollow aspiration of being the best place to raise a child.

And he does have a point.  Increasingly, our city is becoming more of a place to live as opposed to a place to work.  The people who live and work in the city are the lucky ones.  But there is something that's been really concerning me lately with all this talk about routing trucks...

There has been a glaring lack of consultation with stakeholders with regards to routing trucks.  We can see that when there's a huge disconnect between city officials and the chamber of commerce.  Daniel Rodrigues brought it out in the open in his post on Raise the Hammer: 

Staff wanted to know why the industry didn't attend the Public Information Centres (PICs). We asked, "Why didn't PW staff walk across the hall to Economic Development and ask for the list of carriers and manufacturers, and call them for their input?"
Not to sound like a 'tail-wagging-the-dog' scenario, but the PICs are 'public information centres', and we are speaking about roughly 30 companies who carry the majority of truck use on our streets. Surely a collaborated effort would be warranted.

Public information centres in theory are great, but they are generally done at night, outside business hours.  At the same time, how do we know when there is a call for public input.  The city doesn't really say much to the Chamber of Commerce and so we hear nothing of it, until the announcements are made and we are busy wondering what the hell happened.

Does anybody at the city want to explain this disconnect?