Debunking NIMBYism

Not In My Back Yard - NIMBY.  No doubt there are people who fit this category by why, oh why, do the press and politicians haul out this overworked moniker whenever any one questions a project.

Take for example the Kettle Island Bridge planned for eastern Ottawa.  There are people concerned about the effects of traffic, especially trucks, on the local environment.  After all not only is there a large municipal population within earshot but the approach to the bridge goes right past a major hospital.  Can people not raise these serious consequences of the decision to built a major truck route in the area?  That is not to say that the project should be canceled or relocated (although I am sure that the spineless city council will do just that), it just means that the city engineering folks need to mitigate these issues in their planning.

Take the plan to twin Prince of Wales Rd from Woodroffe to Fisher.  Although they have been informed of the consequences of this plan on local residents and schoolkids, and that the resultant improvements in traffic flow expected by planners will be totally negated by the bottle neck formed at Hunt Club Road; what does the city do?  They ignore the issues and accuse the author of a report on it as suffering NIMBYism.  I know the author and the issue is not in his/her back yard, it is across a park from his front yard.  Regardless of the domiciled location of the author, why are his/her concerns not being given any attention?

The last example of unfair accusation of NIMBYism is in the community of North Gower where a company wants to build 10 windmills, each being 130 meters high.  Local residents want answers to their concerns over noise and environmental effects on their community.  They are not against the project - they have concerns.  Rather than berating the residents, why not just listen to them and address their concerns?  To dismiss them as just NIMBY-ites is no solution at all.

Damn, I missed a meeting with Maria McRea

Ward 16 Councillor McRea held a town hall meeting this week to discuss the widening of Prince of Wales Avenue from Woodroffe to Fisher. I wanted to go but got held up at work. Was I working late, you might ask? No, Councillor McRea meeting to get citizen's input was at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Good timing if you want to hear from the mases. Even better timing if you don't!

I wanted to bring to Maria's attention the fact that, if you twin Prince of Wales up to Fisher Ave, you do not clear up traffic problems... you just move them around. Also, if you drive the Prince of Wales traffic on to Fisher Avenue, the increased traffic passes by, or close to, four... count them... four schools, including three junior schools. This is a tragedy waiting to happen.

The problem with the whole mess is that it is a half-assed planning job. You twin Prince of Wales to Fisher but not the rest of the way to Baseline Road. As a result, you will move the traffic onto Fisher, which is a four lane road, but when they get to Dynes Road they get funnelled back into two lanes until they hit Baseline. Then they go back to two lanes through the Experimental Farm all the way to Carling Ave.

Sorry I did not make the meeting, Maria. Maybe next time you can make it at 10:30 when I take my coffee break.

I hope that you take note of my concern.