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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

9 comments

  1. It’s a pity that the salt debate never survives the spring thaw. One would think with 6-7 months of the spring and summer to plan for next year’s snow removal we could investigate new options that would allow us to rid ourselves of toxic rock salt. Unfortunately, once patio season hits we’ve all got “better” things to do than discuss de-icing technology. The result is an absence of pressure on the city to change it’s salty ways.

    Why not use sand on sidewalks and side streets? It works in Montreal and has several distinct advantages, not the least of which is that it doesn’t promote melt which in turn reduces the amount of ice on the sidewalks caused by refreezing.

    Salting is one of those issues for which we’ll be hanging our heads in 10 years. How many times does this have to happen, where we let working man bureaucrats manage our way into a disaster because their only prerogative is to keep operating costs low.

  3. london, ontario has been experimenting with beet juice for the last year or two.

  4. It was easy to discuss when others were in power, Gord Perks used to attack the use of salt on the roadways.Then it was an environmental catastophy,but now with a so called eco friendly mayor in power we can forgive and forget any consideration that this mayor has not even planned through a budget to bring in an alternative.How many years will it take, and what kind of destruction of our local ecosystem will be acceptable?

    The budget is balanced was the great announcement,yet there is no money for eco friendly snow melting agents.Its a hypocrisy,do people think that eco friendly is cheaper?Well the mayor has convinced people that they must pay more,well then spend it on what you promised.Or did the mayor forget the green pledge that he and I signed in council chambers?I wont forget, maybe the citizens should remind him.

  6. How silly, or frustrating, or disappointing, or cheap, or typical.

    As is becoming the custom, our Mayor, who maintains communities need activities, goes the other way, again. And, our dear Head of Parks and Wreck also does the typical, blames someone else and the cost.

    Excuses like ‘you can’t call at the last minute’ do NOT cut it in this day. Especially when the mentors at the great Hall demand more and more of its customers, excuse me… constituents to ‘perform in very strict timelines under the threat of fines’.

    Have these players never heard of planning? Have they never checked a calendar to coordinate events? Guess not.

    Against a back drop of a greater surplus than expected, I believe the city’s inhabitants expect better, like some skating.

    And if this was a real error on everyone’s part, then admit it, solve it and pay for it from your bonus which is now proven to be undeserved.

    A suggestion: Dear folks at city hall, please stop planning based on your contract and your bonus only. Try focussing on delivering real services in a timely and meaningful way to your customers.

    hf
    jf

  7. Salt has several issues, all of which have been touched on, but not in detail. Salt is toxic to fresh water plants and animals, that includes us, our water comes from Lake Ontario, if the salt can not be removed from water flowing into the lake, it probably can’t be removed when we draw that water for drinking either.

    Salt is also not effective below -5C, with night time temperatures below -5C, the salt water freezes, leaving us with ice, that is worse then the snow that we started with.

    In many places sand is used instead, because sand does not lose it’s effectiveness with colder temperatures. Sand is not toxic, and easy to clean up in the spring with sweepers. Of course the contents of the sweeper can be filtered and washed, then the sand stock piled for re-use the next year. Sure it means we don’t have snow free streets all winter, but drivers just need to be more careful. In fact this might be a good thing, in that drivers wouldn’t forget how to drive on snow between storms.

    The 20th century will be long remembered as the century we tried to destroy the planet, the 21st century will long be remembered as the century we started to fix it.

  8. Jeff: they did plan. I don’t know why you think they didn’t. Past records show that snow doesn’t last into March. The last 10 or 15 years show that. Planning for the greatest snowfall the city has ever seen between Jan 30 and now is not something you plan for.

  9. Thanks Matthew: As humorous as your comment is it only enables the folks at the big hall to continue. Perhaps the planning you feel they did might include tapping into one of the many reserves for funding, but that would mean making a decision and solving a problem, no spin included.

    have fun
    jeff