By: Deborah

Deborah — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:49:39 +0000

No broken windows, no public urination on Albert Street in broad daylight when families are passing by and younger students walking by on their way to McGregor school, and no vandalism are admirable goals, but completely unattainable. The city cannot place a bylaw officer in every backyard in the neighbourhood to apprehend the people commiting these offences, nor on every sidewalk day and night. The same is true of policing. Why were residents confronted by people with guns? Why were people on Phillip St. robbed at knifepoint (two incidents?) How many break-ins were there on Lester this year? How was there a brawl of 35 people on a Sunday on Lester at 5:30 – in the morning – in the summer? Police and bylaw can’t be there when every crime is being committed. The city can hire more bylaw officers, but nobody can do anything about these things until after they have been committed, and then, there’s nobody around to have witnessed it to report it. Bylaw officers have to be called about infractions; nobody is left in here who calls. And we have learned through many years of discussions with the city that provincial laws override any hope of charging landlords for property stds. violations – they have to be warned first and given time to clean up the mess (whatever it may be) first. There is no incentive for landlords to look after their properties until someone reports them – so we get knee-high grass and piles of stinking rotting garbage full of skunks and other rodents. Those residents now calling for the city to rezone the neighbourhood are the very people who begged the city to preserve it in 2004. We lobbied and lobbied over the past 7 years to get the help needed to save this area, because we love it too. It is too late now. When seniors and young families are being vandalized in their own homes, someone has to recognize that Northdale is a failed model of urban planning and policy. And – when Mr. D’ailly keeps bringing up expropriation at every opportunity, one has to ask what is really going on in this neighbourhood. I’m glad that you and Ellen have entered the discussion. I’m concerned you have heard a very one-sided version of things. The accusation that this is a cash grab -heard frequently – is fascinating, because that is very much, to us, what expropriation sounds like. How does Ellen feel about having her house expropriated? Did Mr. D’ailly not mention his repeated threats of expropriation in your conversation? Welcome to Northdale – the unedited version.

Comments on: My Delegation to Waterloo City Council

By: Deborah