Was he being ironic?
“For too long, our city has built out its suburbs, with new housing developments and commercial-retail properties, then later struggled with the impacts this growth has on our transportation infrastructure,” said Winnipeg mayor for the past four years, Sam Katz.
posted by The Rise and Sprawl at
8:45 PM
6 Comments:
Sorry, I passed out from lack of oxygen due to laughing too hard at the idea of these words coming out of the mouth of the man who practically single-handedly killed a rapid transit plan only to put the same plan back on the agenda five years later at twice the cost.
What rapid transit plan are you speaking of? Ohhhh, I get it. You mean the bus route, located 800 feet east of Pembina, across the rail yards.
It's positively Orwellian how the phrase "rapid transit" has been redefined in the city of Winnipeg to be synonymous with "bus route." It's like calling a Volkswagen Golf a "Porsche."
ACTUAL Winnipeg rapid transit plans available here:
http://uwto.org/documents/transit_1959normanwilson.html
http://uwto.org/documents/transit_1968wats.html
http://www.truwinnipeg.org/wilsons-maps-of-the-winnipeg-subway/
On TV this Thursday evening:
www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/livingcity
Be there, or be square...
Spenny
Great it's real! If those words really passed that man's lips then I am definitely living in the "Twilight Zone"! Great! Just e'ffn great! What's next?? Is he soon going to say that "For too long, our city has focused on the biz community to the exclusion of others ... only to then struggle with the social consequences."?
"Ironic"? Hmmm? No, I think he was actually being "willfully facile".
"Ironic"! How 'bout "I conned it"?
If BRT is the plan then scrap the whole rapid transit idea for now. The money would be better spent by increasing service frequencies on the heavily utilized routes (or portions of them) in the more densely populated areas of the city, converting some routes to electric trolleybus operation and building one Park to Park streetcar line, (essentially replacing Route 18) linking Kildonan Park to Assiniboine Park with most trips short-turning at either Cambridge St. or Kenaston Blvd., and serving the North End, Downtown, Osborne Village and Corydon Ave. As far as rapid transit is concerned all studies show that in the long term rail based systems are the wiser economic investment and that they encourage substantial private sector development. One must simply look to how much development has occurred near the SkyTrain stations in Vancouver. Winnipeggers, for certain, will not trade their cars in for a bus simply because it runs on a dedicated roadway. A bus is a bus is a bus. Because of the climate here, an underground subway is the most logical, though not necessarily the Wilson Plan as it is not nearly extensive enough, for example it does not serve the U of M.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home