Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The imperial mayoralty of Leonard Krog

My email sent to Mayor Leonard Krog,
cc'd to Nanaimo City Councillors on March 18.
Fair play and due process

Mayor Krog,
I’m concerned that at the recent public hearing to decide on the rezoning application for the Long Lake Nursery site, you crossed a line. I have an unease about it and here’s why:
It has been widely reported that you spoke after all Councillors had expressed support for or denial of the rezoning; that five Councillors had expressed opposition to the rezoning; that in your remarks you expressed intent to change minds. That’s the line crossed.
You have the right to a vote, the right to contribute persuasively to the discussion hoping to influence the outcome. Importantly you also have unique responsibilities as Mayor. Appealing for Councillors to change their mind, after they had expressed their positions, is an abuse of your role as Mayor. The Mayor is not the party whip. An expression of the will of Council was on the table, fair play to offer an influential counter argument and hope your point of view prevails. Fair play to exercise your vote in favour of the rezoning. But in making the appeal you did harm.
Consider the consequences in reputations damaged (any Councillor swayed by your oratory would risk, undeservedly no doubt, being seen as indecisive); to Council’s collaborative team-building culture; to the public trust that our affairs are being decided in a 100% fair and open environment, free of manipulation.
And consider too the opportunity lost to exercise the important leadership role of the municipal Mayor; to make it clear that whatever the outcome of the vote, although you remain in favour of the rezoning, you would be 100% supportive of the will of Council.
In public perception now there’s the risk that this rezoning and subsequent commercial construction on the property will be known not as the will of Council but as the will of the Mayor.

Frank Murphy

Monday, March 11, 2019

Jane's Walk is coming to 234 cities May 4-5! Get involved in your city by leading your
own walk - here's how!

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

I've been reading Nicholas Pescod's front page story “Council sends dealership to public hearing” from the Feb 28 Nanaimo New Bulletin. I can’t find the url thru the Bulletin website so can’t share. I have a number of problems with the issue and equally the process.
My main concern is I don’t know why Council have found this so difficult and complex. Allowing this so much oxygen right now seems to indicate poor judgement. This is a rezoning application for a use not currently allowed, a car lot on the Long Lake Nursery site. Staff are opposed.
The agenda for the Feb 25 Council meeting here: https://pub-nanaimo.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ashx?DocumentId=22224. Staff Report starts on page 216.
Background : Staff requested in September that the Mayor McKay Council deny the application. They did not and directed Staff to proceed with the process which Staff have now done and remain opposed.

Seems pretty straightforward. It would take an application that contributed so much to the greater public good that overruling staff and the OCP here would be the right thing to do. Some Councillors apparently see in this proposal such a contribution.
If an economic argument was to have merit, I suggest it would not be in an already over-built sector, automobile sales. That said, this sector has played an important role n the local economy. We’ve become a regional source for buying and servicing new and used cars. But is this the vision for our future seen by our 2019 Council? We can only hope not.
I’ve gotta think Mayor Krog wants this quote back. "Living here long as I have, that would probably be one of the last places I would want to occupy a for-rental accommodation or residential accommodation...” @domabassi @NanaimoNewsNOW https://nanaimonewsnow.com/article/609653/car-dealership-proposal-moves-public-hearing-despite-serious-concerns-over-location
In tone it’s close to Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson's recent wacky comments about renters. But seriously, neither the length of time the Mayor has lived in Nanaimo or his personal choices of housing options are relevant in the discussion at hand.
While I’m having at the Mayor a little… The proponent’s presentation, by Mark Holland, its lecturing tone, and the hall packed with “supporters” amounted to a kind of old school macho bullying. Disrespectful to both staff and Council. Holland's comment that staff’s position was "unattractive” should have been ruled by Mayor Krog as out of order.

Staff presentation and delegations: video starts at 1:00:46 https://pub-nanaimo.escribemeetings.com/Players/ISIStandAlonePlayer.aspx?ClientId=nanaimo&FileName=Main%20Council%20Encoder_Regular%20Council%20Meeting_2019-02-25-09-58.mp4

 End of the day this is another slab commercial construction surrounded by asphalt on the highway. Time for Council to set Nanaimo on a new direction. That’s what we elected them to do. Change is always hard, it takes courage. Deny the application.


Thursday, February 28, 2019

Sunday, February 17, 2019

“In my experience, city-making choices are as easy as we make them.” @BrentToderian


“In my experience, city-making choices are as easy as we make them, ” former City of Vancouver Chief Planner Brent Toderian.
So the question arises, Nanaimo. Are we making city-making choices easy? Are bold decisive actions being undertaken?
Consider : We begin to express to visitor and citizen alike what we value — regardless of what dozens of policy documents try to tell us — on our most visible street, our point of entry and introduction, our front street : Front Street. The street that more than any other belongs to all us.
Policy documents say we value the rights of the most vulnerable users of city streets : the pedestrian, the disabled, the young, the old, the bike rider, the transit user. We all know from daily experience that the reality on our streets puts the lie to these policy documents.
Front Street is a wide waterfront arterial, high-speed and very dangerous to the most vulnerable street users. It’s also an effective barrier between our much loved and utilized waterfront and our downtown.
These arterial speedways, especially on waterfronts, have been removed across North America by cities with a genuine commitment to becoming 21st Century cities. This needs urgent attention now, Nanaimo, not put in a 5 year plan 5 years from now. Now.
“We city planners are taught to be patient, to be long term thinkers. But many of our critical challenges require strategic impatience… Cities doing remarkable, unexpected things aren't those with easy conditions. Those don't exist. It's those who've traded excuse for action,” Brent Toderian.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

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