Comment 119045

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted June 03, 2016 at 13:35:26 in reply to Comment 119044

Thanks for the update.

I think that, given his reaction over the past few years to two-way conversions, the King St bus lane, Aberdeen street calming and his changed position on LRT it is clear that for some unknown reason Councillor Whitehead has become obsessed with initiatives in the lower city (particularly wards 1-3).

He spends an inordinate amount of time and energy fighting every single one of these initiatives, tiny or huge, cheap or expensive, even though they are strongly supported by the residents, councillors and and neighbourhood associations.

His positions are often internally inconsistent:

  • opposing the King St bus lane because it takes space from traffic and is bad for business, but apparently arguing for a b-line BRT in his Hamiltonian article which would be an even bigger permanent disruption to traffic (and would have buses every five minutes or so).

  • opposing street calming and limiting cut-through traffic in wards 1 and 2 but arguing that LRT would be bad because it would increase cut-through traffic in his Hamiltonian article.

  • explaining at Council in 2013 that Rapid Ready was clearly a plan and request for LRT and now arguing it wasn't.

  • complaining about staff winning a competitive process for bike lane funding on Bay street because they should be building more bike lanes in his ward, despite previously arguing that bike lanes should be removed on Stone Church because they impede traffic and parking.

I do find the amount of time and energy he spends fighting initiatives in other wards inexplicable. And this attitude is not reciprocated: when Whitehead pushed for a study of sidewalks on the mountain he had the full support of lower city councillors!

He doesn't find other councillors trying to micro-manage changes in his ward using equivalent arguments (it would make it harder to get to the airport, Limeridge Mall or Mohawk; Garth and West 5th belong to everyone, etc., we're tired of all the money being spent on the mountain on new facilities ...).

It is interesting that his energy fighting initiatives popular elsewhere does not seem to be matched by his energy pursuing initiatives in his own ward (except to the extent he claims that his residents top priority is stopping progress in the lower city).

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2016-06-03 13:37:09

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