bike lanes

Wednesday September 17, 2014

Wednesday September 17, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 17, 2014

There’s a pothole in Hamilton’s roads budget

The city has run out of money to repair local roads.

Friday, August 15, 2014The annual capital roads budget for Hamilton is close to $70 million, but most of that cash is used to fix highways, arterial roads, bus routes and bridges.

The city relied for several years on $25 million left over from a provincial grant to deal with neighbourhood streets — but that money has been used up.

That means local roads will not be rebuilt unless they’re dug up for sewer work or already identified on a four-year-old council priority list, said engineering director Gary Moore.

Residents in Wards 1 through 8 can also lobby councillors to use area rating cash. Each of those wards has a $1.6-million annual budget, but fewer than a dozen repaving projects have used that discretionary money so far.

Moore said relying on “ad hoc, unplanned” spending for residential streets won’t work.

“We will have (local) roads go down to gravel before we get to them unless we come up with a predictable funding source,” he said after a public works meeting Monday.

He told worried councillors at the meeting there is still a budget for minor repairs like filling potholes, and “emergency failures” like sinkholes are immediately fixed — but that money is pulled out of other planned projects.

“So we have no local roads program budgeted, no maintenance program, and you’re telling me we jut sit here and let them deteriorate?” asked Councillor Scott Duvall.

Public works head Gerry Davis said ideally, the city should spend an extra $90 million a year to properly maintain all roads and bridges. He also noted council has repeatedly asked staff for near-zero budget increases in an effort to keep taxes low.

“I could move money around, but that means the main roads will suffer, and that is a concern for liability,” he said. “We know what we have to do, we just can’t do it.”

Moore told councillors he will come back with options to create a sustainable tax-supported pot of cash for local streets in time for the 2015 budget debate. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

LETTER to the EDITOR

Well done, Graeme MacKay. Hamilton now has beautiful bike lanes but no money to repair our dangerous and deplorable roads for our licensed vehicles to travel on.

Big question? What are city employees doing if there is no money to fix anything? It appears that everyone is getting well paid to work but cannot do the work because of lack of funds. If there is no money to do the work, what are the employees doing? Apparently 80 per cent of the budget is going to salaries. How does a city operate on 20 per cent funding?

Yes, we have a big problem and why are councillors spending money on things like statues and LRT issues when the city is plain broke and mismanaged? I guess the next step is filing for bankruptcy protection. It now appears to be the biggest game in town.

When is a sink hole not a sink hole? When it hasn’t sunk in yet. A big election is coming up and I sincerely hope we have the biggest turnout ever as all the good things happening in Hamilton can fall through if you cannot get to them because of burst water mains and roads with sinkholes.

Joan Campbell, Hamilton

 

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Thursday, December 5, 2013Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, December 5, 2013

Not too late for city to learn from its planning mistakes

For SaleHamilton has made “classic mistakes” it has to reverse if it wants to be a great city, Toronto’s chief planner told a large crowd Tuesday night.

Sprawl, streets built for cars, “an inconceivable amount” of torn down heritage stock are some of the “hard truths” for Hamilton laid out by Jennifer Keesmaat.

“You’ve made the classic mistakes. You are a product of your time. I call them classic mistakes because other cities made them, too. But you’ve paid dearly for them.”

She said Hamilton has built a downtown that is a “great place to drive through but not a great place to be.”

Keesmaat, who took Toronto’s top planning post 14 months ago, said there are no great cities in the world that are easy to drive through.

Streets have to accommodate all modes of transportation, neighbourhoods have to bring all uses together and cities have to find ways to drive density to its core, she said.

Keesmaat is a Hamilton native and shared her memories of growing up on the west Mountain, taking the HSR and hefting her bike up the escarpment steps.

Keesmaat was speaking at the first Ambitious City event, hosted by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.

Keanin Loomis, chamber CEO, says it’s time Hamilton reclaim the Ambitious City title, a moniker slapped on the city in derision by a Toronto newspaper in 1847.

Robert Smiley, The Spectator’s first editor, urged the city to proudly adopt the title.

“It’s time to take back the name and own it again,” Loomis told a large crowd in the LIUNA Station ballroom.

“Ambition is returning to the city.”

Keesmaat says Hamilton has a “great opportunity” to fix past mistakes with bike lanes, rapid transit, wider sidewalks, green spaces, adding density and including a wide variety of people in envisioning the city’s future.

She said urban experts have long been fascinated with Hamilton because it has all the ingredients for success in its downtown but hasn’t achieved expected growth.

Development incentives, two-street conversions and a growing arts scene are all pluses but haven’t achieved the animation of a great downtown because sprawl is still happening, she said.

“You can’t pull uses outward and still build activity downtown,” she said.
“It’s not about what is happening downtown but what is happening at the edges.” (Source: The Hamilton Spectator)

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Friday, October 25, 2013

Friday, October 25, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, October 25, 2013

No bus-only tickets issued, says red-faced McHattie

For SaleHamilton police did not ticket anyone in the city’s new bus-only lane, a red-faced councillor now says.

Ward 1 Councillor Brian McHattie announced at Wednesday’s council meeting that police had incorrectly ticketed 20 to 25 drivers that day, as the new transit-only lane launched on King Street. He says he got his information from an anonymous call he didn’t confirm before making a public statement.

It turns out police handed out 26 educational pamphlets to drivers using the bus-only lane — but not a single ticket or demerit point.

“It seems someone tried to lead us astray,” said the recently announced mayoral candidate, who admitted jumping the gun by publicly announcing the allegations as fact.

“I guess I was thinking you want to get on top of an issue like this, if it’s true,” said McHattie, who noted anxiety has been high among some councillors and commuters over the bus-only lane experiment.
“But in this case I moved too fast.”

McHattie said police Chief Glenn De Caire called him Thursday morning after investigating the allegations. While six tickets were issued on King, none was related to the bus-only lane.

“I’ve apologized to the chief,” he said. “This has kept him jumping.”

McHattie said an anonymous person left a message with his office staff alleging he had received a $200-plus ticket and two demerit points. The message also alleged between 20 and 25 people received the tickets.

McHattie said Wednesday night his staff had checked with police over the figure. On Thursday morning, he clarified his staff had not received confirmation from police. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)