Local government (Councils, municipalities etc) often have to undertake public consultation on proposed plans and developments. But the people who participate in these consultation exercises are unlikely to be representative of the general population. Why? Survivorship bias.

Who told who so?

The Summer of Infrastructure continues in Ward 9. Happy to see these new sidewalks along Baseline. If I get my way, here will be A LOT more pedestrian traffic on Baseline over the next generation, as we look to create more density and #BRT along this important corridor.

🗣 Speak out against LRT cuts!! Sign up to delegate at the Aug. 29th LRT Sub-Committee meeting and help us pack the room with folks who support improving our public transit system instead of continuously making it worse! See below for more info ⤵️

Tired of hearing excuses like these from Mark Sutcliffe? Register for our public delegation training session on Aug 20th with Free Transit Ottawa and Ottawa Transit Riders: horizonottawa.ca/20240820_budge…

You might want to avoid Mark Sutcliffe's website. Why isn't the Mayor of Ottawa using City of Ottawa's website for collecting email addresses from constituents? Using HTTPS to secure connections is Internet 101. #Ottawa

Gn

👊💜

We're done waiting — for OC Transpo, City Hall, or anyone else to fix public transit. That's up to all of us, the people who use transit every day, the ones who know what makes it work. Let's share our transit experiences, identify problems, and organize for solutions. Together!

Ottawa's 2025 budget approach basically guarantees transit cuts. Ottawa current budget presentation seems to have been designed specifically to minimize tax raises and maximize cuts to transit. open.substack.com/pub/improvingo…

The City of Ottawa projects a $3.8-billion infrastructure maintenance deficit over the next decade. ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/b… Property taxes need to increase by at least 5% each year to cover that shortfall. Anything below 5% will necessitate higher tax increases in the future.

For years, Ottawa raised its snow-clearing budget according to the general increase in taxes, usually arbitrarily low. At the same time, the city saw hundreds of new lane kilometers added, not factored in to the budget increase. That meant gradually diminishing service.

“Last Resort” by Papa Roach as featured in American Sad Season 14, Episode 20 (2019)

Great idea, Riley Brockington! It's funny how Mark Sutcliffe campaigned on ending the urban/non-urban divide at council and being a uniting force. Unfortunately, its been the same story as when Jim Watson was mayor...

someone edited the city council wikipedia page

I’ll be on 580 CFRA tomorrow morning at 8:30 with Maria McRae talking LeBreton Flats, transit, and the kind of city we aspire to be. Tune in for more details!

This week a few Ottawa City Councillors voted against raising property taxes further, saying that renters are hurt by property tax increases. 🧵Debunking the myth that property taxes hurt renters, using my own apartment as an example

There simply isn't enough revenue from property taxes to maintain all of Ottawa's roads. In 2017 council acknowledged this and voted to prioritize Arterial and Collector roads over Local roads. 🧵 This is one of those "priority" Arterial Roads:

The estimated replacement cost of Ottawa’s road network was: In 2012, $11.08-billion In 2017, $12.61-billion In 2022, $16.02-billion Costs are growing exponentially, we're not repairing our roads, yet we keep building more! The existing average age of City roads is 35 years.