Wednesday, July 26, 2006

No surprises

Living in a central neighborhood of Winnipeg, I have no use for the evening news. (My own theory is that together, the mainstream media make up a typical suburban family: The angry grandpa (CJOB); the "well isn't that neat" grandma (CKY); the "keep my taxes low" dad (Global); the paranoid (soccer) mom (Free Press); the annoying, overidealistic daughter (CBC); and, finally, the bratty son (Sun) obsessed with boobies and things that go vroom-vroom.) And so it isn't too often that I find myself tuning in at six o' clock. But tonight I did, to Global news, and in two back-to-back segments, Gord LeClerc told me a couple of things already known to anyone who has payed attention:
1) The Province and the City can't afford to build two interchanges where the extended Kenaston will meet Bison Drive. Instead, traffic lights will control an at-grade intersection. But even with this, the cost of the Kenaston project will be $38M; of which the City willpay $17M. A dozen or so rich developers are thrilled.
2) The planned Federal and Provincial contribution to Glen Murray's planned transit improvements (aka: BRT) on the University route did infact vanish, and will not be redirected to community centres, as Katz said they would in Autumn 2004. Turns out, the City only has an extra $10M (not the tri-level $43M) to spend on community centres. Of course, this only goes so far in an ever-thinning city, and (so far) four community centres are being closed, and two will amalgamate with others "nearby".

$17M (ironically what the City's contribution to phase one of the BRT plan would have been) for extending Kenaston into the south-western corner of the city. $10M for giving kids--who may not have the luxury of cottages and maternal chauffers--something to do besides stealing cars and use drugs. Like the smell of an overflowing dumpster on a hot summer's day, the old lies of a few greedy men are becoming more and more obvious and sinister.

4 Comments:

Blogger Nick Weigeldt said...

Will things get worse before they get better for this city?

11:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seesm all the poor, unemployed and dumb people are coming to this city because they can not afford to live everywhere else. They all end up living in the inner city making matters even worse, gettos.

12:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Get your facts straight. Gord Leclerc is not with Global - he's with CTV. Not that this matters in the grand scheme of things, but it bugs me when people get facts wrong

2:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Further to getting the facts straight, your statement about the fed/prov money vanishing is just plain wrong. The entire $43 million (and then some) is being spent on community centres, pools, skateboard parks, spray pads and an indoor soccer complex.

Maybe you should try watching the news a bit more often, apparently you could use the informing.

5:38 PM  

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