[rake]

It's not rocket science - it's simply an appetite for spending and tax increases compared to the very real financial implications of our sprawling city. Even the basics are too expensive when the vast majority of your city area is a net financial drain, and compromises have to be made somewhere. There's a pretty simple reason Montreal and Toronto do this better than us - they have comparable levels of area/infrastructure to service with a much larger tax base.

Pulling a few municipally reported numbers: Edmonton's total road infrastructure is 57% costlier than Toronto's for a third of the population. Per capita road value is about $1800 for Toronto and over $8500 for Edmonton. The per capita value of all infrastructure is over 24% higher in Edmonton, and that's including $17 billion of transit value in Toronto (it would be 37% higher here if/when we have a proportionately scaled LRT network).

We aren't Toronto, and probably won't ever be - but you can't stretch our tax base over that much infrastructure and be surprised when things start getting expensive. This is a problem that's been building for generations and has grown enormously over the last few decades - we have a huge amount of 'free' infrastructure from the late '90's and early '00's sprawl that is about to start aging out. The financial pain is just beginning, and you can't just blame whatever Council happens to be sitting in the chair when things start to get bad.

Until we get serious about density, basic services/maintenance will continue to slide (or property taxes will skyrocket) to offset the real cost of operating a sprawling city like ours.

 

[TAS]

And sprawl is not going to be solved by Edmonton council alone I don't think. It's going to require provincial forethought and cooperation from surrounding bedroom communities that have even lower density populations and can offer single family homes for less. People can still drive in to Edmonton easily enough without any cost to them in terms of their city taxes and commute times are still reasonable for people. And so Edmonton sprawls to compete and round we go.

 

[thommyjo]

Mike nickel blocked me after he responded to a dm and I asked questions back hahahahaha. What a joke.

 

[IanO]

I enjoy my chats with Mike, but some of this is a bit much... but understandable given who he is hoping to get support from.

 

[Avenuer]

I enjoy my chats with Mike, but some of this is a bit much... but understandable given who he is hoping to get support from

Don't you mean, ALL of his 'campaigning' is a bit much?

 

[ChazYEG]

I enjoy my chats with Mike, but some of this is a bit much... but understandable given who he is hoping to get support from.

He might be a fun guy to chat with (unless you`re talking urban development... than it must be hell), but I want him as far away from the mayor's office as possible OOOOR..... I'd gladly ship him to be Calgary`s next mayor, if they want... I'll even drive him there myself, free of charge.

 

[CplKlinger]

He might be a fun guy to chat with (unless you`re talking urban development... than it must be hell), but I want him as far away from the mayor's office as possible OOOOR..... I'd gladly ship him to be Calgary`s next mayor, if they want... I'll even drive him there myself, free of charge.

Whoa whoa whoa, Calgary is actually turning the corner a bit right now. I mean, under Nenshi they even got bike lanes! Let's ship Nickel to Fort Mac haha, I think he'd fit right in.

 

[ChazYEG]

Whoa whoa whoa, Calgary is actually turning the corner a bit right now. I mean, under Nenshi they even got bike lanes! Let's ship Nickel to Fort Mac haha, I think he'd fit right in.

If we ship him to Calgary maybe we have a better chance to play catch-up with them, though! I bet he'd be perfect to put a drag on their growth

 

[TAS]

We need to play up our strengths more and leverage them.

 

[itom987]

"Let's build a city that works" I find it a little irritating when every politician say something like this, election after election. That statement is way too broad to be taken seriously.

Try again...

 

[TAS]

I was more focused on the plan to designate @yegdt as a technology and innovation test area.

 

[Guy 1]

Watson has some good platform ideas, but I'm always a little wary of someone who comes into council (mainly at the mayoral level) with no experience. Much more than at other levels of government, I think it's important for a leader to have experience before stepping into a mayoral role. The way Council operates is just so different than any other professional or political environment, and I think it's pretty tough to get stuff done without a thorough understanding of how the system works.

 

[TAS]

Fair point.

Nenshi in Calgary was elected to mayor without having been on council though and ended up serving three terms and did a pretty good job - especially during his first term in the role. He was widely praised for his leadership during the 2013 flood.

With that, Bill Smith was elected here without prior council experience. I don't think he faired as well as Nenshi.

 

[kcantor]

Fair point.

Nenshi in Calgary was elected to mayor without having been on council though and ended up serving three terms and did a pretty good job - especially during his first term in the role. He was widely praised for his leadership during the 2013 flood.

With that, Bill Smith was elected here without prior council experience. I don't think he faired as well as Nenshi.

nenshi wasn’t previously on council but he was a “policy wonk” (which is a compliment) and comes from an academic/policy background including harvard, a stint at mckinsey and his own firm as well as teaching at Mount Royal...

 

[TAS]

Nenshi was considering a run for alderman first before mayor, but given there wasn't an incumbent mayor running and that his biggest challenger was alderman Ric McIver (our current transportation minister) he opted for mayor despite little name recognition and political experience at 38 years old.
The Nenshi-McIver relationship has at times had the same ongoing 'tension' as Iveson-Nickel, as our mayor (then 28 years old) first defeated Nickel in 2007 when the two ran against each other for council (Nickel was the incumbent, too).
McIver tried for UCP leadership, but lost to Prentice in 2014. Nickel also tried for a UCP seat, but surprisingly didn't even win the nomination in his riding to run for that party in the last election. So now this longtime politician with lots of experience is running for mayor again - he lost his two previous bids for mayor in 1998 and 2001 - both against Bill Smith. Third time a charm? Or will this mark the end of his political career? Or maybe a crack as MP or school board trustee?