Kim Zippel the Intelligent Choice for Otonabee

Whatever the outcome of the Oct. 27 election, 2014 will be remembered as a great leap forward for the progressive movement in Peterborough, with a wide selection of strong candidates in every race putting forth good ideas, as documented on this blog over the past weeks. It’s also been notable for the popularity of female candidates, with Maryam Monsef leading the way. Monsef has emerged as the clear alternative to business-as-usual in Peterborough, with the backing of much of Peterborough’s professional community.

Regardless of her gender, Kim Zippel is the intelligent choice for Otonabee Ward, the only ward with two female candidates for council. Is it possible that Otonabee voters could send both Zippel and Lesley Parnell to City Hall, and Dan McWilliams back to the trucking biz?

The South End of Peterborough has a distinct character and is in some ways a world unto itself. With the Memorial Center, Kenner, Holy Cross, Fleming, Harper Park, and the city’s primary industrial and commercial areas, Otonabee Ward is largely self-sufficient. The south-central residential area has been noted for its high degree of community continuity across generations.

The ward, which roughly comprises everything southwest of General Electric, Lansdowne and the Otonabee River, was represented for a long period by homegrown citizens Glenn Padgett and Jeff Leal on city council. Leal, a Kenner graduate, has gone on to represent Peterborough at Queen’s Park. The two incumbent councillors, Dan McWilliams and Lesley Parnell, who were both first elected in 2010, owe much of their success to having been long-term residents with family ties in the south end.

Parnell, a graduate of Kenner and Fleming, was elected with nearly 3000 votes despite limited business or professional experience. McWilliams, owner of McWilliams Moving and Storage, a high-profile South End business, was elected with just over 2500 votes. Gary Baldwin (now running in Ashburnham) finished well back with 1700.

Their only serious challenger this time is Zippel, also a long-time resident of the ward. Stephen Morgan’s campaign is strictly amateur, and Camille Parent withdrew his candidacy after the deadline for getting his name off the ballot.

McWilliams reinforced the public impression that he’d been recruited for council by Daryl Bennett when he waited until Bennett registered in the mayoral race before announcing his own bid for re-election, and when he said in his Cogeco clip that “people” came to him asking him to run. His campaign received contributions from some of the same businesses that supported Bennett, including Saverio Montemarano of Melody Homes.

Throughout his first term, it seemed that city council was just one more board of directors for McWilliams to sit on. He supported the Parkway, the Jackson Park bridge, the Lily Lake subdivision, and anything else the mayor wanted him to. McWilliams provoked sharp rebuttals a few months ago when he argued that the Peterborough library didn’t deserve to be renovated because libraries are “dinosaurs” that we don’t need any more. He also made the news when he got busted for over-fishing. Maybe if he’d been to the library, he’d have been able to understand the fishing rules.

In his Cogeco clip and his website McWilliams tries to paint himself green, but his stilted, clumsy script-reading suggests he’s dropping a few progressive-sounding terms he doesn't entirely comprehend in hopes of minimizing the defection of supporters. His simplistic website provides no specifics on any city council actions in the past term, yet his slogan is “Making a Difference.” A difference in what? McWilliams’s campaign suggests that everything is just fantastic in Peterborough.

Parnell comes across more as a rookie just excited to be there than a wise managerial presence for a quarter-billion-dollar budget. She repeatedly tells us how much she “loves” representing Otonabee at council. Other than having lived in the ward since the age of two, Parnell’s primary selling point is that she’s a “very, very positive person.” Her slogan is “Positive for Peterborough.” Everything’s just as hunky dory for Parnell as it is for McWilliams. She provides a list of all the committees she’s served on, but nothing about what they did, and nothing of substance on any issue. Parnell tried to sit on the fence regarding the Parkway and the bridge.

Enter Kim Zippel, whose campaign seeks to tap into citizen discontent around the unresponsive and uncritical council of which McWilliams and Parnell have been part. Zippel has oriented her campaign around “you” (us) rather than on herself with the slogan “Respecting Your Opinion.” The series of modest and practical points she makes in her Cogeco speech suggest that Zippel already has a better understanding of the issues facing Peterborough and Otonabee Ward than the incumbents she’s up against.

A retired nuclear operator at Darlington now pursuing a B.Sc in Environmental Science at Trent, Zippel has a history with local activism and has lobbied for the preservation of Harper Park from careless development. She’s also a Rotarian and a member of the Field Naturalists. Zippel’s website calls for a more holistic vision of Otonabee Ward at city hall. She wants a more attractive “gateway” to Peterborough along the Parkway off the 115, integrated cycling paths, community gardens, and more arts and culture in the south end. She also wants a proper management plan for Harper Park.

Like the thoughtful candidates in Ashburnham and Town Ward, Zippel has realized that spending millions on the Parkway is going to do nothing for Otonabee tax-payers but divert dollars away from their own local projects. Her website suggests that she would find more economical and sustainable alternatives to the Parkway boondoggle.

We’ve lagged behind other Ontario municipalities in terms of female political  representation on council. But this year the lone female incumbent Parnell is joined by Zippel, Monsef, Jocasta Boone, and Diane Therien as credible candidates.

For the first time, female voters have a realistic opportunity to change the makeup of council by supporting female candidates whose maturity of outlook and energy levels in general surpass those of their male rivals.

Can we improve on our standard 10-1 male-to-female ratio?

Ashburnham: Practical Progressive Ideas from Fraser and Teleki

Ashburnham Ward may be one of the best-kept secrets in southern Ontario. Where else can you live in a self-contained small town with abundant recreational opportunities that's only a fifteen minute walk across the river to a city with all its amenities - at a price affordable for young families?

The older, central area of East City has become home to many young parents in recent years as retirees sell  their quirky properties. The continuous parkland along the Rotary Trail is attraction enough, not to mention two public elementary schools and a revitalized commercial strip along Hunter Street anchored by the newly-relocated Peterborough Examiner and the Ashburnham Ale House - all within walking distance.

Candidates Paul Teleki and Donald Fraser are part of this demographic. They're both progressive thinkers and self-employed entrepreneurs who've created niches for themselves while focusing on community-building. Both have well-developed platforms that lay out practical ideas for a sustainable Peterborough with strong focus on Ashburnham itself.

Ashburnham is rich with parkland and is the city's most bike-able ward. Lying along the Otonabee means the ward is relatively flat, except as it slopes up to the canal, which contains suburban sprawl to the east. The Rotary Trail, an accessible non-motorized highway great for both recreation and transportation all the way from Trent University to Little Lake, has set the tone for the ward. Surveys conducted by Teleki, discussed on his website, show that "complete streets" providing safety and convenience for pedestrians and cyclists are important to residents.

What about the rest of the ward? The area north of Parkhill is dominated by retirement condominiums until it opens onto the newly-sprawling, car-dependent Frances Stewart neighborhood east of Armour Road. But it's south of Lansdowne that's the focus of new growth in the ward, with the proposed Coldsprings subdivision south of the 115 bypass set to take advantage of the easy access to the highway and industrial employment areas.

Incumbent councillors Len Vass and Keith Riel stand good chances of being re-elected. But Fraser, Teleki and Gary Baldwin are a formidable set of challengers. Riel replaced Patti Peeters on council in 2010, picking up about 2100 votes, while Vass was re-elected to his third term with almost 2700. Teleki, only 30 years old at the time, finished third in the race with almost 1800 votes.

Riel's been against the Parkway throughout, arguing that Ashburnham will be shortchanged by the $100 million plan, which will suck tax dollars away from other projects and provide a road that few Ashburnham residents will have cause to use. Riel, a former labour leader, hasn't made smart growth a campaign focus, but his dollars-and-sense perspective on the Parkway is a valid one. Riel is also one of the few councillors to admit that his responsibilities are almost equivalent to a full-time job, as per this Examiner article. Councillors get paid about $27,000 a year. Riel figures he made about $12 an hour last year. If we want a more responsive, better-prepared council, shouldn't we stop asking them to work for minimum wage?

Vass, who lives in Keene, is a small business owner who ran unsuccessfully for mayor twice before getting elected as councillor. Vass is known for chairing the committee that moved Peterborough public transit from a 30 to a 40 minute cycle. That was a realistic move, and has reduced frustration at late buses. But who can keep track of a 40 minute cycle? Ridership has stagnated as Peterborough's bus system remains old-fashioned in its approach, and continues to be used mainly by those who have no other choice to get around. Teleki and Fraser have called for a much-needed rethink of the whole service.

Vass supports the Parkway, and reportedly waffled on the Jackson Park bridge until finally voting with Bennett to back it. When Vass announced at the December public meetings on the Parkway that he wasn't going to run again in 2014, people cheered. This summer he changed his mind and registered immediately after Bennett in late August. Vass still doesn't have a website. It's hard to think of any reason why this non-resident flip-flopper deserves yet another term.

Gary Baldwin, a long-time resident of the south-east part of the ward, ran in Otonabee Ward in 2010, finishing third with 1700 votes. Baldwin's a retired principal with the Kawartha Pine Ridge school board who accepted no corporate contributions to his 2010 campaign. His website doesn't mention a thing about smart growth, but it's clear from his resume that Baldwin's a sports and recreation enthusiast who values physical exercise. He's been keeping track of his footsteps for the campaign, which he's called "Stepping Forward for Ashburnham" - more than 250,000 so far. Does he support the Parkway? Smart growth? It's hard to tell. Baldwin's website and his Cogeco clip emphasize listening, compromise, and responsible management. Like Vass, Baldwin remains vague on specific issues.

Thankfully, Fraser and Teleki are anything but vague.

Fraser's website is chock full of good ideas on specific projects. Fraser calls for attracting "innovative businesses" to Peterborough, a "complete streets approach to improving transportation," and ward-based neighbourhood associations. He wants to improve communication with citizens by having staff reports published at least one week before council meetings, and having councilors declare their "major supporters" before making relevant decisions. Fraser distinguishes himself from other progressive candidates with his emphasis on local food. He's been writing about food issues for years, and has strategies in mind for strengthening our local food network.

He's like to see further development of Hunter Street East as an arm of the downtown core. Fraser says he's against the Parkway, but didn't want to make that a principal campaign issue - a sensible approach, since the Parkway is largely irrelevant to Ashburnham residents. Instead he's focusing on redesigning specific intersections such as Parkhill and Armour, and revamping our outdated bus service. It's evident that Fraser's work with Peterborough Green-Up has given him plenty of insight into practical ways to improve our quality of life.

Teleki, who runs a research and planning business, has been doing plenty of canvassing too, often with his infant son strapped to his chest. The Examiner's photo of Teleki at the door with baby-in-Snugli heads online stories several times, including articles on surveys and the casino, which he calls a "desperate solution." Teleki's platform is much like Fraser's, emphasizing specific areas where practical improvements can be made and focusing on innovative approaches to our local economy.

Teleki, like Riel, feels that the Parkway will only drain away funds that should be spent on upgrading Ashburnham's own roads, or spent on other kinds of innovation. "Imagine what we could do with 1% (roughly $780,000) of what would be spent in roadways and support innovation in our community," he writes. Instead of investing in such outdated mega-projects, Teleki looks to the future with solar-powered street lights, a bridge to the Zoo, traffic circles, a green-waste program, and geothermal heating and cooling. Teleki completed a Master's thesis on "rethinking accountability" in Canadian government with an emphasis on ethical responsibility.

Ashburnham residents should be pleased to have both Fraser and Teleki as progressive alternatives to the stagnant business-as-usual approach of the incumbent council.

Monaghan, Part Two: Jocasta Boone Leads the Way to Smart Growth

Drew Monkman's brilliant piece for the Examiner this week helps us envision Peterborough in 2035 as a healthy, compact city whose residents wisely took the path to sustainability before it was too late. The city he imagines is more densely populated, with condominium development replacing the low-density sprawl of the late 20th century. Jackson Park remains intact, a natural oasis in a still-warming, stormy world.

The local headquarters for suburban sprawl and car-dependent thinking is Monaghan Ward. Seventeen-year incumbent Henry Clarke is likely to be re-elected, but comments on his website about maintaining a balance between fresh perspectives and experience suggest he's feeling pressure from the younger challengers.

Principal among these is Jocasta Boone, the 38-year old private consultant who recently chaired Fashion Week in Peterborough. Boone knows how to present herself professionally, evident in her Cogeco video statement, and has gained support among other women professionals in the ward - and among forward-thinkers able to imagine a sustainable Peterborough like the one Monkman portrays.

Boone's website offers a policy statement focusing on smart growth. She notes that the province's Places to Grow Act calls for significant intensification in Peterborough, which means more mixed-use redevelopment of existing built-up areas, and less "greenfield" developments like Lily Lake and Parkhill West. She notes that the Loggerhead Marsh area near Parkhill and Brealey need protecting, even according to the city's own existing documents - but City Hall appears to be asleep at the switch. Boone pledges to "hold our city accountable to its own guidelines and recommendations, to stand up for smart growth that is in alignment with the Province’s vision and to ensure we listen to the concerns and input of our citizens." Who can argue with that?

The only questionable statement on Boone's website is the claim that opens the smart growth policy discussion: "Peterborough is experiencing rapid growth." She's not the only one who keeps parroting this myth - residents and other candidates do it too, even the progressive thinkers. The plain fact is that Queen's Park's plan to include Peterborough as a satellite of the Golden Horseshoe targeted-growth area hasn't borne out. Peterborough's population growth remains well below the Ontario average, and there are no signs that this will be changing soon. The reason is obvious - Peterborough has the tightest job market in southern Ontario. Our young people keep leaving at the same rate that we import new residents.

What's the answer? Boone suggests taking advantage of the vibrant arts scene in the city, aiming to capitalize on this to capture a segment of the emerging creative economy. Toronto's already been exporting creative types to Hamilton in the flight from high rents - why not find ways to get businesses relying on creative design to set up shop in Peterborough?
 

Judging by lawn signs, Boone's primary competitor appears to be Don Vassiliadis, best-known as owner of the Shish Kabob Hut. Vassiliadis wins the Cotton Candy Prize for Most Vague Campaign. His website says absolutely nothing about any issue, a stance he has maintained throughout his campaign, and reiterates in his brief, awkward Cogeco clip. Vassiliadis spends far more time listing the community organizations he’s been involved with in the past than he does addressing anything of substance for the future. He has no apparent position on the Parkway extension, the Jackson Park bridge, or sustainability in general. He seems blissfully unaware that we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, a looming six-figure police budget deficit, and an economy that’s only expanding because we’re letting developers sell Monaghan Ward wetlands to retirees from the GTA, further pushing up our median age, which is already in the top-five in Canada. “Decisions will have to be made to move the city forward,” Vassiliadis assures us. Thanks for the insight, Don.

Jeff Westlake’s Cogeco speech suggests he’s been taking lessons from his former boss, Dean Del Mastro, whom he avoids mentioning by name. Westlake was Del Mastro’s campaign manager during the 2011 election and worked in his constituency office for years. Westlake trots out the usual Conservative party clichés about lower taxes and guns - implying that electing him to council would magically change Queen’s Park’s regulations on municipal taxes and the police department’s strategies for minimizing violent crime. Westlake’s foggy thinking is best demonstrated by his comments on the Parkway. He clings to the naive belief that building more roads with more stoplights to serve more car-dependent subdivisions would lead to less traffic. But the real comedy comes when Westlake moves from pushing the money-losing Parkway extension to “respecting our tax dollars” in mere seconds. “Any city service or facility that loses money should be corrected immediately” says Westlake at the 1:25 mark of his Cogeco clip. Any city service – except the Parkway.
 

Finally, there's David Edgerton - as always. Edgerton, a financial consultant, has run for council in every election since 1985. He was elected once, back in 1989, then failed to get re-elected. He spent no money on his 2010 campaign, perhaps figuring he had no chance to top Doris or Clarke. What financial consultant worth his salt would recommend investing in a lost cause? He’s only slightly higher profile this time out – still no website. Edgerton echoes Westlake’s double-think on his Cogeco video when he backs the Parkway in the same breath as holding the line on taxes because of our high seniors population. What’s frightening about Edgerton’s spiel is that he’s already worried about running out of land to put residential subdivisions on. Hasn’t anyone told him that we’ve already approved enough old-fashioned sprawl to last the next thirty years at our current growth rate?

The countdown to Election Day is on. Which path will we take?

Monaghan, Part One: Henry Clarke - Friend or Foe of Sustainability?

Jack Doris and Henry Clarke have represented Monaghan Ward on city council for as long as most of us can remember. Doris sat on council for an astonishing forty years. He was mayor back in the early 90s. Doris finally decided to retire this year, leaving a spot open. Jocasta Boone, Don Vassiliadis, Jeff Westlake and David Edgerton are the candidates to join Clarke at the table. We’ll look at their campaigns in the next post. But first, let’s examine Clarke, the incumbent who seems a sure bet for re-election, and think about Monaghan Ward, already home to the worst excesses of suburban sprawl in Peterborough.

Monaghan Ward is Peterborough’s largest ward by population, with about 18,000 people living west of Monaghan Road and north of Clonsilla/Lansdowne. The center of the ward is the hospital, and it’s ringed by unremitting suburban residential areas, with little in the way of commerce or industry. The Kawartha Heights neighbourhood is a textbook example of car-dependent planning. So are the ward’s two biggest schools, James Strath and Crestwood, both of which lie on the west side of Brealey Road – just outside the city’s boundary – forcing almost everyone who works or studies there to drive or bus. 

Aside from the hospital, the ward’s most valuable and noteworthy feature is Jackson Park – not just the area around the pond, but the whole forested ravine, creek, and marsh, all the way out to Brealey. 

You’d think that it would be time to diversify the ward. But what’s in store? More single-family houses -- by the thousands. 

The areas immediately south and north of the park are under immediate development pressure. A car-dependent subdivision known as Jackson Meadows “conservation community” is being built on Parkhill by Parkview Homes, run by local developers Paul Dietrich and Steve McLaren.   

Dietrich and McLaren were among the largest funders of the 2010 campaign, coughing up nearly $7000 between them. They each made the maximum $750 contribution to the campaigns of Bob Hall, Andrew Beamer, Dean Pappas and Dan McWilliams, and Dietrich threw another $750 to Len Vass. Their Parkview Homes website is clearly using Jackson Park as the main selling point of these west-end retreats – even as they encroach on the watershed and put more cars on the road. 

Across the road is the last agricultural land in the city, slated to be turned into a massive subdivision by Melody Homes, the same York Region millionaires who are looking to build the even-bigger Lily Lake subdivision on the north side of the creek. The Melody Homes problem has been discussed in several previous posts. 

The Lily Lake subdivision is especially egregious – it contradicts current planning principles and was rushed through days before the new provincial guidelines by city councillors, many of whose 2010 campaigns received funding from the owners of Melody Homes. This unjustified north-end sprawl got through a council that included Henry Clarke. It's currently being appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board, even while being used by pro-Parkway councillors as an excuse to chew up Jackson Park for a $40 million bridge.

After 17 years, it's evident that Clarke sets the standard for other councillors. Over 4000 Monaghan Ward residents voted for Clarke in 2010, far and away the highest vote total on council, yet he spent only $2000 on his campaign, less than any other elected councillor, and accepted no corporate contributions. The 62-year-old executive with Quaker has plenty of experience with managing big operations, negotiating agreements, and communicating effectively. 

His website lays out all the issues clearly and in-depth, together with his positions on them. In his Cogeco video speech, Clarke emphasizes his policy on returning messages: “Everyone gets a response.”  He’s helped to organize Earth Day cleanups, establish Homegrown Homes to serve lower-income families, and develop our Urban Forestry policy. He admits that we have an employment problem, and wants to make deals to develop new industrial areas just outside city limits, but with services provided by the city. He voted against the Jackson Park bridge. 

Meadow pathway from Medical Drive to bridge site

On the other hand, Clarke has flip-flopped on the Parkway extension itself. Back at the turn of the century, Clarke stated that the Parkway trail should be made into a linear park. He and Doris were against the bridge from the start – but then they approved the outrageously expensive Medical Drive, which was envisioned as the approach to the bridge. What were they thinking?

Now Clarke defends building the southern portion of the extension connecting Clonsilla to Medical Drive, even though it will pave over some of the only greenspace left in Monaghan Ward that isn’t lawn or golf course. Worse, he defends the Parkway extension through Northcrest on dubious grounds. “The north end of the city cannot be laid out for schools, shops, parks, and homes without knowing where the streets are to run,” writes Clarke. 

Come again? Has Clarke not noticed that all the schools and significant commercial areas that are going to be built in Northcrest already have been? And that he himself helped council approve all the new subdivisions that will fit? 

About the Lily Lake planning fiasco, Clarke is silent. He approved this massive new subdivision north of Jackson Park. Yet on his FAQ page, Clarke claims he’s reading books titled Walkable City and Suburban Nation, and he cites “reducing dependence on the automobile” as part of his vision for the city. 

Trees to be demolished for the Jackson Park bridge

Really? So why did Clarke support the two biggest blows to sustainability in Peterborough  – the Parkway and the Lily Lake development – just this past year? 

The Social Planning Council all-candidates meeting goes down at the Evinrude Center this Thursday, Oct. 16, from 6:30 to 8:30. 

Clarke should be there. Will anybody ask him to explain why he talks sustainability but votes for sprawl?

Northcrest, Part Two: Templeman Calls for Real Community Center

If paving over one-third of Northcrest’s greenspace and turning its only remaining natural area into yet another roadway weren’t enough damage to the ward, city staff wants to replace the aging Northcrest arena, the ward’s only public indoor recreational facility, with a new twin-pad at Sir Sandford Fleming at the city’s far southwestern corner.

How did City Hall stray so far from the path? Instead of looking for creative ways to maximize the existing arena property, or targeting land acquisition at a new spot central for Northcrest residents, staff went fishing for private land-holders to make them a sales pitch for a new hockey arena anywhere around the city.

The resulting report set off an imaginary shopping spree among councillors dreaming of a massive new OHL hockey arena complex to be used as a tourist attraction. What happened to the idea of using public tax dollars to actually serve the public who pay them? Apparently, building more seats for spectators at a location Northcresters will have to drive their cars across the city to get to counts as “recreational opportunity” in the minds of some city councillors.

Bill Templeman is the leading Northcrest candidate for anyone who’s looking for a voice of reason without any big-money strings attached. Having been a teacher, social worker, writer, and management & leadership consultant over his long career, Templeman has a wider range of experience than the other candidates – evident in his common-sense approach to the issues.

Templeman made the news last week with his call for a full-service recreation center in Northcrest that is also a community center, with facilities of various kinds for the whole family, not just hockey players.

Public meetings held last year by the consultants who prepared the new arena report showed that this is exactly what residents want, yet City Hall completely ignored this aspect of the study. Templeman voiced this need at the final meeting of the outgoing city council last Monday, then again at the Sports and Rec all-candidates meeting on Wednesday,  and on a video on his website, as reported by the Examiner. 

Site of a new stacked double-rink?

“First thing in my vision is to do something for Northcrest,” Templeman told those in attendance at the Evinrude Center – one of three arenas already in the south-central part of town. City staff claim that the existing Northcrest Arena property is too small for a double-rink plus parking – but what about stacking the rinks? Underground parking? Building something on the oversized, unused lawn at Sunset and Chemong? Making a deal to redevelop the crumbling southern end of the Brookdale Plaza?

Templeman also calls for an outdoor artificial rink for pleasure skating. Toronto has 50 of these in convenient neighbourhood locations, and their communities love them.

Building the Parkway extension through Northcrest is a waste of public money, Templeman argues. The money we’d pay to replace the recreational trail with a roadway could be used to build a new community rec center.

He calls for selective road-widening, building a Western Bypass along Country Rd. 19 and Lily Lake over to Brealey, and implementing a computerized traffic control system – technology now affordable for small cities – as effective, realistic and economical ways to improve traffic flow.

Templeman’s pithy observation that “Peterborough’s leading export will continue to be well-educated young people who must move away to launch their careers” if we continue equating economic development with building tracts of houses for retirees from Toronto rings all too true. His blog posts indicate a focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, and culture industries as keys to changing this pattern. He calls for working with Trent’s Environmental Studies and the Ministry of Natural Resources to make Peterborough “a hub for green technology and green services.”

Stephen Wright declared his candidacy late in the game, and hasn’t been a strong visible presence on the campaign trail yet. A former lobbyist for a taxpayers group that he himself founded, his number one focus has been lower taxes. However, his website shows that smart growth ideas have even become attractive to the tax-cutting crew. Wright is against the Parkway and the bridge, observing that “Jackson Park is the envy of cities that made the mistakes of the past” and acknowledging that “there are newer, wiser solutions to traffic congestion” than the Parkway extension.

Unsurprisingly, Wright also calls for a property-tax freeze. Realistic? His website implies that he’ll lobby Queens Park to take back responsibilities previously downloaded on cities. Has he forgotten that Ontario has a $10 billion deficit?

 

As reported by the Examiner, Wright agrees that new recreational facilities are necessary, but thinks the private sector should build them. Here Wright sounds like Rob Ford on subways. There already are plenty of private gyms in Peterborough, and Northcresters could make use of Trent University’s athletic center – if they want to cough up hundreds of dollars for a membership. Isn’t the point of public recreational facilities that they’re available to everyone, not just the rich?

Northcrest candidates meet tomorrow night, Wednesday Oct. 8, at the Leta Brownscombe Co-op, as reported in the previous post. Come with your tough questions ready!

Northcrest, Part One: Beamer, Haacke, and the Forces of Sprawl

Northcrest candidates plan to gather at the Leta Brownscombe Co-op this coming Wednesday, Oct. 8. from 6:30 to 8:30. The Co-op is at 243 Milroy, behind Portage Place. The Examiner reports that the lone incumbent Andrew Beamer won’t be there, but at least three other candidates will be: Bill Templeman, Dave Haacke and Stephen Wright. Kathryn Eyre, a teacher at James Strath, is a question mark. She seems to have done very little campaigning, and news reports this week regarding legal charges suggest that personal issues may be the reason.

Northcrest (Ward 5) is a key battleground in the push for a sustainable city. The Parkway is part and parcel of the suburban sprawl problem, directly tied to plans to permit still more car-dependent subdivisions at the city’s northern limits around Towerhill, Cumberland and Carnegie. Residents in existing car-dependent Northcrest neighborhoods built in the past 50 years have woken up to the limitations of such planning, and many don’t want any more of it.

There’s no sense of a community hub in Northcrest, and little commerce beyond the tawdry strip of corporate chain stores that line Chemong. Along with the Zoo, Northcrest’s plentiful schools and Trent University are its saving graces. But none of these is run by City Hall.

The Parkway Trail which runs alongside the area’s rising northwest slope constitutes one-third of the ward’s greenspace, and its only natural area. But why does the entry gate at Fairbairn and Highland have a picture of a Model-T car on it? The image captures the old-fashioned thinking that led council to approve a four-lane road through the natural corridor all the way up to Cumberland in the far northeast, skirting backyards and schoolyards all the way.

Long-time councillor Bob Hall decided this summer to seek the next federal Liberal nomination, opening up a spot on council that Templeman and Haacke appear to be the leading candidates to fill. Much of Hall’s $14,000 2010 campaign budget was funded by developers eager to have their subdivision plans approved. Among these were Mason Homes, the Concord-based company behind the Parklands subdivision off Chemong north of Milroy, backing on to R.F. Downey public school.

But those who love having private real estate interests active at City Hall need not fret. Real estate agent Dave Haacke, who has run unsuccessfully for council several times, is back on the campaign trail again. Selling properties for new development is how Haacke makes his money. He works with DNS Realty and is the listing agent for many properties in Northcrest and around the city, including a $3 million development property on Langton between Adam Scott Secondary and Water Street.  He’s also listing commercial investment properties at the top of Chemong, while his DNS colleague David Smith is listing 24 acres ready for subdivision on Towerhill towards Fairbairn for $2.9 million.

Drive up Lily Lake Road and you’ll see some gorgeous fall colours – and a string of Haacke and Beamer signs. What are they doing out there in Monaghan Ward territory? 

Haacke appears to be both listing agent and owner of 694 Lily Lake, a 47 acre farm and residence on the north side of the road, technically in Selwyn Township. The ad trumpets its “million dollar views”. The southward view, however, will be nothing but more houses and a construction zone if the Lily Lake subdivisions go ahead as planned – the property is right across the road. Asking price is $600,000 plus. Will the new owner be hoping to get permission from Selwyn to turn it into a subdivision too, after Melody Homes breaks ground on the south side of the road? 

How often would Haacke have to declare pecuniary interest and sit out of council decisions on zoning and development, given the vast acreage whose development-related sales he would stand to make money on?

Beamer’s signs run along a large estate just west of Haacke’s property at 634 Lily Lake. At the April meeting at which the Lily Lake development plan was rushed through by city council in spite of citizen opposition, Beamer declared “pecuniary interest” in the matter because, according to council minutes, his family owns property in the area. This would seem to be the place he’s talking about. 

But Beamer didn’t have to declare pecuniary interest when he supported the Parkway extension instead of the alternative Western Bypass along Lily Lake, which would take new north end traffic right past this property around the city, as opposed to the Parkway’s route through it.

Encouraged by a strong showing in the 2006 election, Beamer went hard at it in 2010, spending over $9000 and finishing first with 3200 votes, well ahead of Hall and Haacke. He’s currently a sales rep for Nestle, a multinational conglomerate whose questionable business practices are the subject of a new film. Before that, he made money selling fossil fuel as owner of the PetroCanada at Monaghan and Lansdowne. He poured $4400 of that money into his 2010 campaign, and picked up further funding from Melody Homes principal Saverio Montemarano’s Liberty Greens, and from local developer Paul Dietrich. 

Kelly Del Mastro kicked into the 2010 campaigns of both Beamer and Haacke. The Del Mastro name made the news this week again as Dean’s cousin has now been charged with illegal campaign funding practices by Elections Canada. That didn’t stop our MP from acting as a mouthpiece for pro-Parkway forces, trying to sell an impossible vision of a stoplight-free road as a solution to a non-existent public safety issue in a Cogeco interview, bizarrely comparing the Parkway to the 417 highway through Ottawa.   

Recruiting Del Mastro smacks of desperation. Beamer voted for both the Parkway and the Jackson Park bridge. Yet neither Beamer nor Haacke come clean on their websites about their pro-Parkway stances, instead using euphemisms. Haacke calls for “proper north end arterial roads to connect with Chemong Road” while Beamer wants “more transportation choices.” Do they sense that public sentiment is against the Parkway? America’s leading climate change activist Bill McKibben called Canada a “rogue nation” last week, and this week the World Wildlife Federation reported that earth’s animal population has dropped by 50% while the human population has doubled over just a few decades. Could it be that the painful reality of thoughtless growth is finally piercing the public mind?

Thankfully, there are alternatives to Beamer and Haacke – namely, Templeman and Wright. The next post will look at those two candidates, and Northcrest’s other major issue – recreational opportunities – or the lack of them, if City Hall has its way.