canada’s economic action plan – kingston edition

This morning I went hiking with the two fierce creatures at Lemoine Point – a fantastic and little known hiking area just west of the airport – whilst motoring towards the point, I noticed in a few places signs proclaiming Canada’s Economic Action Plan.  Notably, along Bayridge south of Princess, along Front Road between KGH and the Prison, and lately at either end of the Green Monster.   Of course at road speed it was a little difficult to read what each project entailed, and so upon returning home I hit the interwebs for a quick investigation.

According to the Federal Government website there are a few items in town (zoom into Kingston to see) which have qualified for stimulus financing and thus presumably are being ‘fast tracked’ for completion.    Very little information is available on the City of Kingston website – except a couple of reports to council wherein mention of stimulus funding is made.   Specifically the minutes of  Meeting 18-2009 (15 Sept) notes that $60mil was requested from the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, whilst $21mil was granted for use on projects such as the John Counter Blvd expansion and others.   Which got me thinking:  assuming you agree that stimulus funds are indeed a necessary evil, which projects ’should’ be funded?  Are the projects which have been identified the best?

xposted at kingstonist

on third crossings and other mythical beasts

So – the other day I attended an information session about the Environmental Assessment to be conducted for the City of Kingston regarding spanning the ditch which separates eastern realms from the rest of KTown.   Truth be told, I was expecting perhaps a formal presentation with Q&A, however at this stage it turns out it was a little premature.  Of course that seems to the story of the oft sighted but rarely captured third crossing.

I am reliably informed by those who have lived in these parts that periodically over the last several years (decades?) various Lords Mayor and other worthies consider offering the denizens of Pittsburgh Township the opportunity to become fully realised citizens of the realm if only they would accept a bridge or some such crossing – or perhaps its the other way around, with the rebellious eastern citizenry clamouring to share with their western neighbours, the opportunity and delight of  having their shock absorbers destroyed amongst the potholes of Brock Street and the like.  Sadly, all of these previous efforts have come to naught; relegating the elusive beast to the realm of conjecture.   What seems to be lacking ( a singularly Kingstonian attribute it seems, regarding other ventures as well) is willpower.

XPosted at Kingstonist

if the kingston sheep dog trials met Samsung TV…

… you would get shepherding for the netgeneration.

 

pick up your trash kingston!

signs of spring

Last weekend, junior and family hiked around the barriefield rock garden, through the village, and down and around constantine arena.  Such a lovely spring (at the risk of triggering a late blizzard) day.  Unfortunately one of the of the lesser remarked aspects of the end of hibernation is the blight revealed as the snow recedes.  Amid the new buds forming and the slow transformation of browned grass to green, there before us lay the ubiquitous Tim Hortons cup.    

If only it were the cups of course – rather everywhere we looked in the course of our walk it became immediately apparent that a tremendous amount of trash is swirled and whirled and caught up in the brambles and branches during the winter months.    Among the other items I discovered were:  several plastic drink bottles, one large plastic coolant container, chocolate bar and snack wrappers, small blocks of Styrofoam, and so on.  I ended up filling only a small plastic bag – but could easily have filled several large garbage bags worth. 

Which leads me really to the point of this post: namely, when exactly did kingstonians abandon personal responsibility?   Do you really want kingston to look like this?  How hard is it to place your garbage into a garbage can – or better yet take it home with you?    Of course part of the answer to that question is - which garbage can?  I can’t think of even one public garbage can in the entire area of barriefield.   

Perhaps residents don\’t think it is their problem to deal with?  I note that we seem very happy to have various levels of government collect our trash and recyclables – mostly because participation in these efforts takes very little personal effort, as the collection of our disposables is conducted at arms length financed by taxes – requiring very little in the way of active personal committment.     Perhaps it is too much to ask people not to litter, especially when we have become accustomed to having ‘the government’ take care of it.   However, I would like to think Kingstonians care about their city and the image it projects to residents and visitors -  so I challenge you – clean up after yourselves! 

Get out of your cars, go for a walk and take a bag along with you – I guarantee you will find no shortage of garbage which needs cleaning…..

xposted at the kingstonist

around the world – part 33.1 (luggage lotto)

UPDATE:  I win the luggage lotto!   Turns out that mine were not some of the pieces pulled off – I do hope those whose luggage didn’t make it on our flight did not have to wait too long to receive theirs.

January 30 2009:

Anyone departing Kingston’s Norman Rogers Airport has played this game – will my luggage make it as far as Toronto (let alone the final destination).  The cause for this is a relatively recent decision by Air Canada to cease servicing Kingston with Air Canada Jazz DH1, and rather to sub-contract air service to Air Alliance which flies tiny and apparently anemic Beechcraft airplanes.  These aircraft are not only weight limited, but depending upon the number and type of passengers, the balance point of the aircraft can mitigate also against a full luggage load.

Today, some luggage was removed – I guess I won’t find out until I arrive in Germany if I was a luggage lottery winner.   More at Kingstonist.

the bane of my existence….

The LaSalle Causeway lift bridge

The other day whilst navigating the power outage induced traffic jam across the LaSalle causeway, I found myself noting the similarity between the lift bridge and another with which I am familiar, the ‘blue bridge’ in Victoria.  Once at home and with power restored, a little research revealed the following infobits:

Did you know that the LaSalle causeway lift bridge shares a common feature with San Fransisco’s Golden Gate bridge?   Both share the engineering abilities of Mr. Joseph Strauss who was not only the designer of our bridge, but was also the chief engineer of the Golden Gate and Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. 

cross posted at kingstonist

sound off….on roundabouts

In my introduction of a couple of days ago, I indicated that I was a fan of traffic circles. That was in fact a poor choice of words, as what I am really in favour of are yield at entry roundabouts vice traffic circles. What’s the difference I hear you exclaim, they all make me dizzy and probably they are unsafe and do they really work as advertised? If they are so good, why aren’t they in use in Kingston? Why did Kingston eliminate the traffic circle at Princes and Bath?

First lets address the differences, then dispel any fears you might have regarding their safety, and demonstrate some additional benefits. Finally I will propose one or two locations to try them out and challenge you to sound off – do you like them? Hate them? Why?.

cross posted at Kingstonist.

junior – a new kingstonista

junior caught on spy cam somewhere in Germany

A couple of weeks ago I got to thinking a bit about my adopted home town and it prompted me to post some thoughts here.   Very shortly thereafter by the magic of the intertubes I had received links in from local blogs the Kingstonist and K7 Waterfront thus generating far more traffic than I probably deserved.   Fast forward a week or so and after much money had changed hands Junior was very kindly invited to be a contributor to the Kingstonist. 

My personal philosophy as it pertains to living in Kingston is best summarised by “there must be a better way and it ought to include traffic circles roundabouts” [ed: junior is showing his age].  That generally puts me into the class of individuals who can in an instant tell you how city hall ought work but when pressed for details will turn quickly towards the bar looking for another pint.   I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing – the world needs its dreamers and of course there are also plenty of people in this world just itching to implement mad schemes – think of me as your Kingstonist dreaming schemer always on the lookout for beer….

Now, before anyone gets all excited and nominates me for a pulizter or similar literary recognition, please rest assured that not only am I a terrible writer, but also I must for the moment remain somewhat anonymous – nothing mysterious or clandestine – merely to ensure a separation of private and professional life.  However the curious amongst the readership might wish to know that friends of Junior will generally agree that he:

• enjoys a good beer or two whenever the opportunity presents;
• is the husband to a beautiful and incredibly patient wife;
• is the father of two fierce creatures;
• is a bit stupid for traffic circles;
• is fiscally conservative – otherwise known as cheap;
• is a resident homeowner in kingston for the past few years;
• likes nothing better than to (1) storm down an autobahn as fast as possible, and when autobahns are not handy to (2) devour books voraciously; and
• has been an unfaithful fan of the Montreal Canadiens since about the age of eight.

Thank you Mr Kirkpatrick and supporters of the Kingstonist – I will give it my level best to live up to the standard set already….

seven things kingston city council can do in 2009 (start by growing some n*ts and hold developers to a higher standard)

There are undoubtedly many more items which Kingstonians might wish their city council to devote attention to – however I have decided to highlight a few specific items all of which relate to the single most disappointing area of responsibility of this council and city hall- development.   Don’t get me wrong – I am in favour of development – just not in the way that is currently being mishandled.   [Full disclosure - I am not an urban planner, nor am I politically active at any level].

Clearly the current approach to development approach is failing kingstonians for a variety of reasons, not least of which is a council and city hall addicted to urban development methods which have clearly failed to deliver a livable city.  If council and city hall are at all serious about improving the city on behalf of its citizenry then it must focus first on making the city a livable space….

 (1) stop making boneheaded development decisions -

exhibit A: kings crossing or whatever it is – sounds a little grandiose for what will in effect be a collection of fairly unremarkable boxes placed around the edges of acres of parking lots.    A city council determined to develop retail on this site, but with even a dose of imagination might have at least researched some alternative suburban shopping experiences and held the developers feet to the fire –  see Zona Rosa;

exhibit B:  locating a seniors residence along one of the busiest corridors in greater Kingston, near one of the largest and busiest intersections has to rank as classic boneheaded move.   Does anyone think for a second that the residents of this complex will actually want to walk along Princess Street and across the Gardners Rd intersection?   Most likely they will end up using a Shuttle, adding more trips and pollution to our roads.   A little bit of imagination might have included reviewing the existing zoning regulations to allow housing to be built on what is now retail property and then give an incentive to the owners of Cataraqui Mall [or similar property] to develop housing, seniors oriented or otherwise.

exhibit C:  tim hortons across from Startek on hwy 15? what were you thinking?  how does approving this particular blight encourage a livable city?  BTW locating it next to an existing bicycle path doesn’t get you any ‘planning’ points.

five bouquets to kingston city council (2008)

Following yesterday’s post one might think I have only disparaging remarks for council, however on occasion the city does get it right.  The sharper eyed will notice that things the city gets right are largely events – development, not so much.  More on that tomorrow:

(1) Market Square* outdoor public skating rink:

This is probably one of the most inspired redevelopments of a public space that I can think of.  It has the right scale, it respects the visual history of the area and lastly but most importantly it actually draws people almost every day of the year.  I am not even a particularly good skater, and yet the mere existence of this rink has brought me out to skate more times than I would otherwise do;

Recommendation:  leave it as is – don’t try to get clever and jam more functions into the square – it works right now.

(2) Movies in the square;

If you are detecting a theme here – it is for the reasons listed above – the square is a particularly appealing public space.  The introduction of family friendly movies into the square during the summer period was an inspired move.  The only suggested improvement I could make would be to close off King between Market and Brock in order to reduce the traffic noise generated by the cobblestones.

local discoveries

I  discovered  The Kingstonist very recently.  I think they do a much better job of rounding up the new and notable around our town than I ever could – not to mention that covering Kingston really isn’t what I started this blog for.   Added to my sidebar and I will check back often. 

cheers, Junior

five brickbats to kingston city council (2008)

The Kingston City council deserves at least five brickbats for:

(1) their failure to create a welcoming entrance to Kingston. 

Does anyone think that driving down Division Street from the 401 to the hub represents a ‘gateway’ to Kingston to be proud of?   Between the 401 and CN track is about a kilometre of bland fast food and boring retail – from the CN tracks south to Railway Street, Division is a combination of abandoned buildings, a new police bunker, and drab houses – finally from Railway St to the Hub at Princess, the streetscape signals that Kingston is a poor, rundown city with little to offer.  Yet signs on the 401 direct potential tourists to use Division to access the downtown area.  I suggest that the initial impression left by the neglect of Division St is that the city doesn’t care much about its citizenry, nor tourists for that matter.  There has been absolutely no effort whatsoever to beautify Division street, to create a welcoming streetscape, rather it has all the look of an escape route;

Recommendation:  research and implement strategies for improving suburban streetscapes- while you’re at it, have a good look at how blah Gardners Road is…….

(2) throwing bags of money to finish the downtown arena which so far has turned in a third of the profit anticipated.  Does anyone think 2009 will be any better?