Winnipeg Municipal Election 2014

[Riverman]

This guy?

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...ce=d-top-story

[Portmanteau]

Originally Posted by Riverman

This guy?

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...ce=d-top-story

"This guy"... sounds VERY interesting. Being newly interested in politics, I'd love to hear more about his history with Winnipeg. Anyone have contributions?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...race-1.2729906

[Cyro]

Drunk or high? Steeves wants you out of downtown

If you are drunk or high, mayoral candidate Gord Steeves says if he is elected mayor you will not be welcome in the downtown.

The former city councillor announced a tough love stance on cleaning up Winnipeg's downtown on Friday. Pledging to hire more cops to patrol the streets to increase safety and remove intoxicated people from the city's core.

"We are going to crowd our downtown with a legal presence and we will hold that presence until people feel safe," he said. "No person who is drunk or high will be allowed to linger downtown."

Steeves has pledged to hire 20 new cadets, specifically mandated to patrol the downtown for $600,000, along with purchasing two new vans to move intoxicated people out of the downtown and into shelters or hospitals.

Specifically, Steeves wants to target repeat offenders and problems areas; tracking the people, establishments and areas that constantly require police response.

Reports show police once picked up the same drunk individual 186 times in a single year in the downtown and the individual was continually returned to the street by the province, Steeves said.

Source

Is he dreaming or can this actually be accomplished, of course moving the problem else where.
I'm undecided as of yet on any candidate, but how do you deal with the current problems that exist?

[vid]

You deal with the individual who gets arrested every second day for public drunkenness by putting him into a detox facility. Thunder Bay has one based on the Philadelphia model, it rewards them with small portions of alcoholic beverages when they accomplish tasks like bathing, successfully preparing food, or learning various other daily activities. It worked very well at first, but the homeless population has spiked as regional communities send their alcoholics to the city. We need a larger facility and the province refuses to fund it. (The facility was a joint project by the city and a the local Rotarians.)

The homeless people who can't get into the programme live on the streets, many in a camp near Walmart and 6 of them are currently awaiting trial for murder (in which they beat someone to death and then burned the body, starting a brush fire). The city is going to clearcut the area to "deal with the problem". Police, fire, and ambulance get called to the site several times a week and the police and EMS actually can't afford to deal with our homeless problem anymore; salaries have spiked because police here cannot leave people unattended at the hospital, and long wait times can take up an officer's entire shift, while more than half of the times an ambulance is dispatched in our city, it's to deal with a drunk person who has collapsed, fainted, or is near death due to a substance they've consumed.

Just two ways of looking at the issue, is all.~

[Danny D Oh]

Move them to shelters and hospitals? Is the province building a bunch of shelters or a new hospital in Winnipeg?

Good luck with that one, Gord.

A solution that's too simple for a very complex problem, which could be Steeves' campaign slogan.

As far as I know, cadets don't have the legal authority to detain anybody, they are essentially security guards employed by the WPS who have been taught to direct traffic.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

As far as I know, cadets don't have the legal authority to detain anybody, they are essentially security guards employed by the WPS who have been taught to direct traffic.

Just a slight clarification on a Cadets powers, hence Steeve's reasoning for employing them for this type of scenario:

Yes, they have been empowered to enforce 16 sections of the Highway Traffic act and 1 of the Off Road Vehicles act..won't go into that here.

But thier usefulness in this situation comes from the powers they have to enforce the Liquor Control Act:

3. Sec.113(B) - Possessing non-potable intoxicants as beverage
113(C) - Drinking non-potable intoxicants
120(1) - Consuming liquor in a public place
121(5) - Consuming liquor under 18


4. (b) taking an intoxicated person into custody,
delivering that person to a detoxication centre
and releasing that person from custody under
section 2 and subsection 3(1) of The Intoxicated
Persons Detention Act;

They have been trained to detain and arrest as well as carry prohibited weapons by the WPS among other training they will need to become Police Officers in the future.

[Cyro]

Bowman vows to reopen Portage & Main
By: Kevin Rollason

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...270753871.html

Get it Done Bowman..If elected I should say.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by Cyro

Just a slight clarification on a Cadets powers, hence Steeve's reasoning for employing them for this type of scenario:

Yes, they have been empowered to enforce 16 sections of the Highway Traffic act and 1 of the Off Road Vehicles act..won't go into that here.

But thier usefulness in this situation comes from the powers they have to enforce the Liquor Control Act:

3. Sec.113(B) - Possessing non-potable intoxicants as beverage
113(C) - Drinking non-potable intoxicants
120(1) - Consuming liquor in a public place
121(5) - Consuming liquor under 18


4. (b) taking an intoxicated person into custody,
delivering that person to a detoxication centre
and releasing that person from custody under
section 2 and subsection 3(1) of The Intoxicated
Persons Detention Act;

They have been trained to detain and arrest as well as carry prohibited weapons by the WPS among other training they will need to become Police Officers in the future.

Fair enough. Still don't know where they'd warehouse all the intoxicated individuals. The City and Province aren't on the best terms currently when it comes to the interaction between city services and the provincially run facilities around hospitals. Hospitals can't be the answer, and rounding people up isn't really a solution.

[cllew]

don't the people that get picked up get taken to the Main Street project to have a paramedic evaluate them, and then if they don't need medical treatment they get a bed in the project or down the street at the Salvation Army?

I sort of thought that Gord Steeves was talking in his plan about enlarging both facilitates with provincial help.

[rrskylar]

Bowman wants P&M opened to pedestrian traffic and makes a statement on a soapbox on that vary corner, I too thought that was the most pressing concern for most Winnipeger's or the 8 people who would choose to cross above ground on a daily basis.

Bowman just lost my vote!

PS When is a serious mayoralty candidate going to enter the race or are we just left with a choice of these assorted clowns and nutbars?

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Fair enough. Still don't know where they'd warehouse all the intoxicated individuals. The City and Province aren't on the best terms currently when it comes to the interaction between city services and the provincially run facilities around hospitals. Hospitals can't be the answer, and rounding people up isn't really a solution.

It's a start.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Bowman wants P&M opened to pedestrian traffic and makes a statement on a soapbox on that vary corner, I too thought that was the most pressing concern for most Winnipeger's or the 8 people who would choose to cross above ground on a daily basis.

Bowman just lost my vote!

PS When is a serious mayoralty candidate going to enter the race or are we just left with a choice of these assorted clowns and nutbars?

Who's friggin left?

[Danny D Oh]

Have there been any substantive policy announcements yet? Outside of Steeves guiding philosophy of selling every city asset to make one-time infrastructure improvements and not raise taxes?

Most of this stuff is fluff with a strong likelihood to die on the floor of council, like Portage and Main, which the city has no control over anyways. Can't do anything unless the 4 corner owners agree.

Bowman should ask Steeves' wife how to deal with the beggars who set up at Portage and Main with it open to pedestrians.

[vid]

Thunder Bay isn't much better. The incumbent's campaign is based on "working together", while the frontrunning challenger has a campaign about "co-operation". Of the other two, one wants to legalize pot so that we become a tourist mecca (because that's how that works) and the other wants to eliminate taxes.

Municipal politics is just fucked up no matter where you are.

[steveosnyder]

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Have there been any substantive policy announcements yet? Outside of Steeves guiding philosophy of selling every city asset to make one-time infrastructure improvements and not raise taxes?

Most of this stuff is fluff with a strong likelihood to die on the floor of council, like Portage and Main, which the city has no control over anyways. Can't do anything unless the 4 corner owners agree.

Bowman should ask Steeves' wife how to deal with the beggars who set up at Portage and Main with it open to pedestrians.

Originally Posted by vid

Thunder Bay isn't much better. The incumbent's campaign is based on "working together", while the frontrunning challenger has a campaign about "co-operation". Of the other two, one wants to legalize pot so that we become a tourist mecca (because that's how that works) and the other wants to eliminate taxes.

Municipal politics is just fucked up no matter where you are.

Just a question... What would the people here think is a good policy announcement? What do you want the government to say?

I haven't really ever taken a policital class in school, so I really don't know much about what should and shouldn't be included in a policy announcement.

Another Steve-O rant... I hate that councillors get their parking paid for when they go to meetings/city hall but councillors who take the bus don't get their transit pass paid for. I would change the policy to give councillors a "travel allowance" instead of paying for parking and they can use that allowance on any sort of transportation they want (bus, parking, mileage, cab, whatever). Other things would be to ensure that showers are available to all office workers to encourace biking.

Some other things I would try to change -- food security. I would (attempt) to implement green roofs on buildings owned by the City. Especially on things like arenas and pools, but I don't know much about the equipment that are on them, so it may not be feasable.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by vid

Thunder Bay isn't much better. The incumbent's campaign is based on "working together", while the frontrunning challenger has a campaign about "co-operation". Of the other two, one wants to legalize pot so that we become a tourist mecca (because that's how that works) and the other wants to eliminate taxes.

Municipal politics is just fucked up no matter where you are.

This is the most popular platform politicians use. It's something most people would like to here however realistic or not it may be to implement in any particular community.

It is complicated and frustrating at times, couldn't disagree with your to the point assessment. Who you voted for and the platforms you heard promised is in many cases not what you were expecting or finally receive.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by steveosnyder

Just a question... What would the people here think is a good policy announcement? What do you want the government to say?

I haven't really ever taken a policital class in school, so I really don't know much about what should and shouldn't be included in a policy announcement.

Seems that to this point the big issues are infrastructure and accountability/oversight at City Hall, and they have been addressed to a minor degree by every candidate but Steeves who actually offered something of a platform in selling off city assets.

What would I like to see? Identify the problem(s) (which isn't that hard to do from outside City Hall in this campaign) and tell me what you as mayor would do substantively to move the city in the direction of fixing that problem.

To steal a sports analogy, these guys/gals are applying to be the head coach of our team. When I ask them about their tactics, I don't want them to say "I believe in scoring goals, we're going to put the puck in the net." I want to know how they are going to coach and guide their team to get the puck into the net, in a detailed and specific fashion.

We all believe in accountability at City Hall, how is it going to actually happen and look? We all know that our infrastructure is not good enough, how are we going to improve it and keep up our infrastructure over time?

[vid]

This will be off topic but might provide some ideas:

I'd like to see politicians dedicate more time and effort to infrastructure investment and grassroots engagement. A lot of the most positive things happening in our cities are being led by grassroots organizations which don't often get much attention or funding from the city, but they have a big impact on everything from crime rates and quality of life to property values and employment levels. I can't speak for Winnipeg, but I know of several grassroots organizations that have gotten to a point where they've maxed out their abilities and need more support, mainly because they're so successful at what they're doing that they're expanding at a nearly unmanageable pace. I don't want to see the city run things, but there should be someone in civic government that is full-time assisting these organizations to access city services and funding sources necessary to continue growing and following through on their missions.

And of course infrastructure is a big one, but it needs to include some sort of standard. Simply rebuilding a street to be more pedestrian friendly two years ago has almost transformed that area from a car dominated wasteland to a pedestrian paradise the city hasn't seen for decades. It was a water and sewer upgrade job that had to be done and they simply built a nicer street on top. Thunder Bay has recently taken a quantity over quality approach to road construction, with few exceptions like the one I mentioned. As a result, some road construction projects are seeing critical failures before they even open. I've mentioned many times the road that slid down the hill (the top layer of asphalt didn't adhere to the lower one and the entire 'sheet' of asphalt slid several inches downhill, leaving large gaps at the top and around manholes and buckling near the bottom of the hill), recently we had a major road reconstruction with a recreation trail beside it. The contractor didn't put a base under the recreation trail and large chunks of it got washed away in a rain storm that wasn't even particularly severe for the region.

I don't know about Winnipeg, but Thunder Bay has a very progressive land use and streetscaping plan now, but we don't follow it. I'm going to support anyone who will actually enforce the standards we've set for ourselves. A city that settles for less will become less of a city.

[Riverman]

Gord Steeves website is now live.

http://gordsteeves.ca/

[drew]

^ it's great his website works - now that he is all but guaranteed not to win...

Not that he stood much of a chance anyway.