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?

Well at least I know someone's reading...

The only serious challenging mayoral hopeful, Mahesh Butani, made sure this afternoon that I knew that he posted a comment on my post regarding Fred Eisenberger's quest for re-election.  I actually read it yesterday while looking over my recent posts.

I was informed of a few events, including one in which a couple of bloggers were asked to remove some entries which contained some incendiary content.  Not wanting to get in trouble with the parties concerned they acquiesced.  End of story.  It's too bad, but it is understandable.

So I have to ask, who's reading this anyway?  Put in a comment below...

Let's Welcome our Next Contestants!

The mayoral race has just got a little more crowded with the entry of Glenn Hamilton into the fold.  Now there's good reason to be concerned.  As the house gets a little more crowded in the race, nobody has really stood out.  We know that there are so far only two serious candidates, namely Fred Eisenberger and Mahesh Butani.  While I know that nobody plays to lose, it's time for the mayoral candidates to make their views known before the kids get out of school, because come the summer, nobody's going to pay attention.

In my 10 tough questions with Cal DiFalco, I pointed out a candidate that is running a good campaign so far.  I am seeing that Pablo Bustamante began his campaign for ward 10 with a good splash and now he has a good reason to keep the momentum going. 

Bernard Josipovic has now entered the race there and unfortunately that's all we know.  No other information has been provided at the city website, which make me wonder.  Is the guy serious about running?  While other candidates have opened lines of communication, this one gave none. 

I will have to start laying out rules on how to be successful in a campaign, and here's one:  If you want to run for public office, you have to make yourself accessible to the public in some way.  If you are not going to make yourself available to discuss your platform with the media, what makes you think you're going to win? 

I hope that Bernard will make himself available in some way, otherwise he should just quit now and spare us the trouble.  He needs to take this seriously.

10 Tough Questions: Mission Accomplished!

Interesting questions provided by Cal DiFalco, all answered!

Enjoy!

Kollek bows out

Dundas city council candidate, Julia Kollek has withdrawn her candidacy.  That puts Russ Powers in the driver's seat for acclamation.

As stated on her Facebook wall: 

As you may have heard, I’ve decided to withdraw my candidacy for the Dundas seat on City Council at this time. This wasn’t an easy decision – and I thought long and hard over this. 

A big thank you to all of you here, my campaign team, family, friends and supporters who have been fantastic in their encouragement – and I look forward to continuing to serve the community.

I for one was disappointed to have heard this.  Dundas desperately needs a new candidate who can give Russ Powers a run for his money.  

My best wishes go to Julia Kollek in her future endeavours and I hope she will run again. 

Your money, their re-election...

As reported by CATCH and comments solicited by Cal DiFalco and The Hamiltonian, I would like to give you my thoughts on the social assistance rebate from the province to the city and how its intent has been made.

Spending-wise, it's badly misplaced, but at the same time, if there are projects in certain areas that need to be done, this is the time to do it.  But giving politicians the choice on where to spend it in their wards is even worse.  Where the money should be spent should actually be left to the city management, who have a better idea of the city's priorities so it should really be left up to them on where to allocate it.

Timing-wise, it stinks.  In an election year, it gives the incumbent another unfair advantage over the newcomers who probably have far more to offer.  It's enough that in certain areas there's too many candidates, which already gives the incumbent an advantage.  What more do they need to help their chances to get elected?

It doesn't look good for anyone who uses this money.  Woe betide the councilor who succumbs to this temptation!

They get letters!

Karen Felice of Stoney Creek writes to the Spec:
"I have met mayoral candidate Mahesh Butani and know him to be a man of integrity with a deep love of this city. Not only that but he backs up his talk with action, as seen in the downtown core buildings he has redeveloped. He also lives in the core. Do the other candidates? Instead of looking for ways to discourage competition and being dismissive of people a columnist thinks nothing of, maybe the columnist should be non-partisan and let voters make up their own minds based on fact."

Mahesh needs more of these.  Outside of the blogosphere, he's been quiet.  Too quiet for my liking.

Now let me channel my inner-Don Cherry (without the bare knuckle BS):

Look kids, if ya wanna to run fer mayor, ya gotta have a plan.  Before ya submit yer candidacy ta city hall, ya gotta plan out yer platform and how you'll run this campaign.  Facebook and blogging'll only carry ya so far.  Ya gotta plan yer fliers and ya gotta be prepared to talk about what you wanna do.   Ya gotta be ready ta go!

Mahesh has a lot of work to do and he'd better get to it if he wants to win this.