Category Archives: City Hall

Get flowing for your cheap beans!!

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 Ahh yes, the details of the great Bow River Flow event have finally been released. All this waiting and buildup for the grand event announcement is over. There had to be at least a dozen interested onlookers at the press kickoff.

 If one is bored enough to have a look at the saccharine-sweet website full of pot induced cliches and excuses for this non-event that will back traffic up for miles, a person would almost get the impression that this event was planned at last minute. That would be because it was.

 City hall has been getting rather skilled at retroactively re-branding their idiotic projects as the sleepy public is finally waking up to the gong-show this group of clowns has created with our tax-dollars. The ugly and expensive hamster tube bridge that was jammed down the public’s throat is now the “peace bridge” paying homage to our veterans. Strangely we never heard mention that this bridge was to be such a monument when the notion was tabled. Let’s be clear, being in opposition to this red and white atrocity that will visually pollute our river is not being in opposition to veterans. Another columnist threw out such names as possibly the “puppy dog bridge”. That way anybody being opposed to this vile waste of scarce tax dollars could be labelled as being anti-puppy.

 Now, back to Druh Farrell’s vapid closure of one of the busiest streets in Calgary. You see, when this anti-car idea was first conceived, Druh wanted utterly no public input and quietly tried to slip this closure through the back door. Druh’s original plan was to close Memorial Drive on every Sunday in August not just the one now. Druh had no plans for a festival of any sort or any other kind of event. Farrell simply wanted to bung up city traffic as cars are indeed the root of all evil.

 With massive public disgust becoming apparent with Druh’s little anti-travel venture, she was forced to back down and reduce this traffic-atery closure to a single day. People still recoiled at the pointlessness of this venture considering that there are two perfectly good bike paths right next to the road Druh is closing. Now with brilliant hindsight Druh and a handful of other tie-dye wearing throwbacks have scrambled and tried to make an event out of this pointless road closure.

 Lets have a look at what Calgarians have in store during this fine event.

“free coffee if you bring your Go Cup to Gratitude Cafe”

Wow, I can get a free cup of organic coffee. Oh it doesn’t stop there.

“the special price of $10 for their delicious vegan brunch.”

disasterandtreats001

 

 Yummy. Organic, free range beans or whatever and for only $10. How Calgarian.

 We are not done there though. After having gained a calorie or two with your overpriced (and likely overcooked) beans, you can work it off doing Yoga. Yes, there is a Yoga workshop of course.

gp_asana_yoga_mudrasana_jpg

 Oh boy these folks know how to have fun. You know with all those beans and all that stretching, I do hope that people keep in mind that there are no public washrooms in the area at all.

 Oh and what would a street event be without buskers? Considering that city hall has all but killed downtown with parking fees and ugly “art” there is no longer a good venue for our musical beggars. Well, the under-talented and unemployed may bring their bongos and beat them for pennies to their heart’s content on Druh’s special day on Memorial.

busk

 The website also says there will be street hockey. They are begging for teams to register however. The event organizers can’t play as they are too weak from their meatless diet. It remains to be seen how many will rush out for that game.

 Nausea makes me weak at times. That is what I experience when I read their website. Where do they get this stuff??

“Imagine a great flowing commonsthrough the heart of our city – an event that is inclusive of and accessible to all Calgarians “

 I am imagining it Druh. It is already there on those two bike paths next to the road you are closing.

 The site is loaded with comparisons with other cities of course. The people are bound and determined to make Calgary into something that isn’t, well, uh…. Calgary. New York and even a Columbian city are brought up as cities to be compared to. Why yes, I want to be part of a city controlled by drug lords (pick either). That certainly is something to aspire to.

While these clowns try to justify the unjustifiable, they trot out cities that do road closures for such events all over the world. What our wannabe hippies are trying to make Calgarians forget is that the aforementioned cities close back streets. Only Calgary has a council so stupid as to close one of only a few main east/west roads.

It will be a sad spectacle as we see traffic backed up for miles in the summer heat belching exhaust fumes upon 12 vegans squatting on the hot pavement doing yoga with offbeat bongos playing in the background.

Farrell makes over 6 figures of our tax-dollars for such brilliance.

There is much more background on this issue here. Just click on the Druh Farrell category on the right side of the page. Yes, our flower-child alderman has earned her very own category.

Sounds pretty stupid. City council should love it.

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 Ahh yes, the latest initiative from some bored gang of kooks is to lobby Calgary’s city council to allow people to raise chickens within the city.Wisely this gang of wannabe chicken farmers has used the key terms that doubtless will make the granola gang (Pincott, Farrell for example) salivate; “Vancouver does it, New York does it blah blah blah”. In the name of making Calgary more “cosmopolitan” I can see Druh and her gang of dolts rushing out there to approve people raising these little feces machines within the city.

chicken20

 I am pretty libertarian leaning. I am not a purist though and I do understand why we need certain restrictions within urban areas. Zoning and limitations of property use are essential when so many people live in proximity. Calgary (among most of the cities on the planet) realized that raising livestock is best left in the abundant rural land around the province.

 Chickens are loud, smell terrible and can transmit disease no matter how carefully they are raised. For those stuck on the free-range thing, we have organic produce available at countless outlets throughout the city. While free-range eggs are more expensive than normally produced ones, they still are infinitely cheaper to purchase than it would be to raise them in your backyard. Feed, cleaning, building and heating a chicken facility will make the economic case made for urban chickens completely unrealistic.

 Because this idea is so profoundly stupid and because so few people actually want this, I am pretty confident that city council will dedicate time to this and very likely will approve it. This council that wants to ban fire-pits that are utilized by tens of thousands, this council that wants to ban pesticides used by hundreds of thousands will scramble to approve the right for people to raise chickens within the city because a couple dozen people may want to do so.

 While the usual fruitcakes like to trot out how “cosmopolitan” such initiatives will make us, they seem to neglect all those other great cities that allow such things. Mogadishu Somalia does not restrict henhouses. San Salvadore, Lima, and Shanghai do not restrict such things. Yes, emulating the undeveloped world makes us “cosmopolitan”.

 Well, should I be one of the unfortunate souls who has an urban chicken farmer next door, you can rest assured that I will be opening my very own weasel farm in my yard. I will make sure these are free-range weasels who will roam somewhat unrestricted. Hey, it’s only the humane way right? Should these weasels inadvertently cross the fence and harvest the odd chicken, I am sure my neighboring organic kook will understand that it is simply nature.

weasels_victim

As much as they can get away with.

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 Well, this is what an ingrained sense of entitlement gets us. Calgary’s city council is expensing every little thing that they may get away with. These Aldermen make almost $100,000 per year yet they still feel compelled to try to stick as many expenses as possible on the backs of the taxpayers no matter how petty. Keep in mind that these Aldermen are already provided with $145,385 annually to cover travel, business expenses and assistants.

 Here are some of the petty expenses and the sad excuses the aldermen made for them.

Ald. Andre Chabot expensed $79 for a golf lesson. He said:

“It’s not something I expect to do on a regular basis, but I’m not a golfer, right? When I do get a chance to go out and golf with folks, I don’t want to look too foolish”

 Trust me Chabot, you are looking extremely foolish. Who in their right mind would consider golf lessons to be legitimate expenses to ding taxpayers with?

$4,014 was billed to the taxpayers by aldermen for drycleaning. Excuses below:

Alderman Gord Lowe who billed $655 for drycleaning: “In my perspective, it’s allowed because we do have a public appearance, a public presence, and we have to maintain it.”

 Sorry Lowe, laundry is an expense that everybody has public presence or not.

 Alderman Ric McIver who billed $450 for drycleaning: “In a city of a million people, I’m not sure people want their representatives looking shabby”

 Oh BS Ric. In a 7-11 of perhaps a 12 people they do not want their representatives looking shabby, thus they assure that their employees wash their clothing. I really expected better from you.

 Downtown Calgary has thousands and thousands of employees who are expected to be well dressed for their jobs and that requires drycleaning at times. The employees pay that expense themselves and understood that when taking on the employment.

 Extreme leftist Alderman Brian Pincott jumps into the mix of course. He got more creative in his personal expensing to the taxpayers than the others. Pincott expensed $87 to get a passport for example.

 Pincott sniveled: “I have, on a point of principle, not travelled to the United States and I never before had a passport in my life. If it weren’t for this job, I would never travel to the United States.”

 Kiss my ass Pincott. I don’t care about your weird socialist points of principle. People pay for their own damned passports. It does speak volumes about your ideology however in that you hold the American people in such contempt yet have never even been there. That is right up with religious leaders condemning movies that they have not watched.

Pincott spent $76.19 on One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, a popular local theatre production. I am afraid that I don’t even have any sad excuse to quote out of Pincott on this one. Pincott feels that the taxpayer should pay to keep him entertained. Repugnant.

Pincott is not alone however. Linda-Fox-Mellway expensed $347.62 so her kids could go see Metallica. Fox-Mellway did repay that one. She claims that it was a mistaken credit card. I claim that she likely simply had it disallowed. It really is not that difficult to tell one credit card from another. Fox-Mellway also expensed $207 to have a shirt alteration done. She has since vowed to pay that back. Funny how their tune changes when they are caught.

 Joe Ceci expensed $156.03 to go to Theater Calgary which he paid back after his fingers were spotted in the taxpayer cookie-jar.

 Golf tournaments are a large part of the expenses of council apparently. Stevenson, Jones, Joe Connelly, Chabot and McIver all hit the taxpayer to attend tournaments. These Aldermen are not attending these tournaments in order to promote the city, they are attending in order to promote themselves. One would expect that these guys would know the difference.

Joe Connelly’s statement on billing tournaments to taxpayers: “It’s an allowable expense and I don’t feel like I have to defend it”

 Ahh that brings back memories of  Dingwall saying he was entitled to his entitlements. Yes you do have to defend it you dolt!!! It is not your money to spend! Just because it is allowable does not mean that it is right.

Connelly spent $383.25 for tickets to see Jordan’s Queen Noor, who spoke in April 2008 about global issues and the conflicts between East and West. Well, yeah I can see how many issues from Jordan can be used to learn from and better our city.

 Finally my favorite Druh Farrell had to jump into the mix of course. One of her gems was  billing taxpayers $89.39 for five copies of “Fluoride Deception”, a conspiracy theory book that apparently is better when one gets multiple copies. Druh in her typical arrogance did not even try to defend her using taxpayer money to fund her reading budget.

 Alderman Ray Jones is in charge of determining what can be expensed and what can’t be. He would not specify, but he has declined many expenses. I can’t imagine how stupid these ones must have been.

 Yes, these are not huge dollar numbers. The principle is critical however. These people are tasked with managing a city of over a million people and billions of dollars. The regard that our aldermen show for our money is reflected in what they expense to us and sadly and predictably they hold us and our funds in low regard.

 These little expenses are only what we can see. Much spending is hidden and mired in the caverns of city hall. The need for a municipal auditor general is more acute than ever and I hope Stelmach gets around to doing that soon. A private members Bill went before our legislature last winter calling for such an auditor. The bill has now been referred to a standing committee.  

 Calgary desperately needs an independent audit before the next municipal election.

Druh gets “F”ed twice in one week.

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 Yes, another report card has been released on our city council and yet again Alderman Druh Farrell has been given yet another well earned F for her pathetic performance in city hall. The first report card was based on the views of over 5000 Calgarians and this new one is based on local business.

 The report card details and methodology can be found here. 

 Points should be given to dull Druh for consistency as well as performance. Druh can always be relied upon for unrestrained spending on pet projects and completely disregarding the will of the electorate at every opportunity. Druh will always support giving herself a raise and will always vigorously oppose any notion of common sense or realistic planning. Yup, Druh Farrell is the real thing. A true and unapologetic tax-and-spend person who gets belligerent whenever overtaxed voters dare question her vision for the city.

 Never have I seen such discontent with city council in Calgary. The crazed spending and the almost obscene spending has finally gotten under the skin of Calgarians. Completely oblivious to the faltering economy our council has spent other people’s money in a way that would make drunken sailors blush. Council has crossed the line.

 Despite our dismal electoral turnouts, it looks like the voting public will be ready to do some housecleaning in the municipal elections a little more than a year for now. Yes Druh, please keep dismissing the concerns of taxpayers. It will make the next election all the more sweet when you get thrown from your cushy seat and get a job as a store clerk in a crystal healing shop where you belong.

Druh Farrell

Druh gets a big fat F.

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 Well with years of hard effort Druh Farrell has gotten her just rewards. Sadly despite making such strides towards an utter failing grade, Druh does have to share bottom spot with the lacklustre Joe Ceci.

 5000 people responded to the Calgary Sun poll on our city council. While few got top marks, only Druh and Joe hit bottom and got outright failing grades.  

  The arrogance, indifference to Calgarians and outright incompetance have caught up with Druh as the underwhelming outcome in the poll shows. All that is required now is for a reasonable candidate to contest Druh in the municipal election next year. I look forward to seeing Druh taking her well deserved spot in the unemployment line.

 Keep up the good work Druh.

Idiocy wins.

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 Well, Druh Farrell was quite petulant and perturbed about having her senseless plan to close a portion of Memorial Drive for pedestrian use brought up for discussion in city hall. How dare the electorate question the notions of Druh?? How dare people want discourse on issues that we pay for???

 Well, despite five aldermen showing common sense and opposing what has to be one of the silliest notions ever to come from city hall, the motion to end this lunacy failed.

 The discussion in city hall was nauseating on this one. NDP Bob Hawkesworth actually wrote a sad little poem showing the offense he has taken with democratic exercise. Gord Lowe went even farther and chided the entire room. There seems to be nothing that these overpaid stooges get more worked up about than open discussion of policies. How dare the public try to express their views??

One columnist at the Sun wrote a poem in response:

Dave Breakenridge

We bring you editorial verse,

Because Ald. Hawkesworth

wrote one that was worse,

about an asinine lark

to make a roadway a park,

that’s sure to make all drivers curse.

There once was a council in tatters,

that gave in to ridiculous chatter

to shut down a road,

common sense was KO’ed

by people who think only they matter.

Brought forward by a member named Druh,

who with her presumptuous crew,

shot down all good reason and made driving treason,

no matter how angry we grew.

Then the jester stepped up from his chair

and proceeded to bellow hot air.

He poked fun at the press

and made discourse a mess

But his limerick was too much to bear.

Opposition was soundly defeated

Ridicule with which they were greeted,

called them all petty,

with the brains of a yeti,

while the victors look simply conceited.

Calgarians do like to party.

When it comes to the outdoors,

we’re hearty.

But this plan seems absurd,

the worst many have heard.

Why not move it and compromise partly?

So we’re left with a council divided,

just because a few members decided

that what all of us need

is for them to take the lead,

but it’s they who deserve to be chided.

Please bring back municipal sense

and do away with ideas so dense

And while we’re at it,

the sniping

and political griping

that comes at great civic expense.  

 

  Despite nearly universal opposition to this lunacy shown by Calgarians, city council has marched on and forced this idiotic road closure down our throats.

 Thankfully, while Druh initially wanted to make these closures a regular thing, it has been pared down to a one day test run.

 In August we will see one of two outcomes. The weather will be poor and we will see traffic backed up for miles while belching exhaust due to the road closure or the weather will be sweltering and we will see traffic backed up for miles while belching exhaust due to the road closure.

 In both of the above scenarios, we can rest assured that the closed lanes of Memorial Drive will be empty. Nobody will be out in the pouring rain nor will people choose blistering pavement over a river path right next to them.

 Aldermanic clown Brian Pincott will now no doubt feel inspired to push further with his notion of spending $250,000 in taxes per year in order to hire an official city poet.

 We have little more than a year left to endure this crop of idiots in city hall. They very well may do some terrible damage in that time, but there is hope. Think of how much better this city will be when the self-entitled parasites Druh Farrell, Bob Hawkesworth, Brian Pincott, and Gord Lowe are gone. Losing the organ grinder Bronco would be nice too.

A fundraising idea for the city of Calgary.

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 Well, our Aldermen are bound and determined to spend like mad and are scrambling to keep up through tax increases and user fee increases. Parking is getting exceedingly expensive everywhere and we are getting nickled and dimed to death on home service charges.

 While the city is more than happy to have cash-cow style speed-on-green cameras installed all over the city, one area of law enforcement and money generation has been ignored by city hall.

CRACK DOWN ON JAYWALKERS!

 Anybody who has had the misfortune of driving downtown on weekdays knows exactly what I am ranting about. Massive congestion is caused as a flood of lenming-like pedestrians floods through a crosswalk and never stops until the light has completely changed. Instead of having a 1/2 dozen or more vehicles turn as the traffic light system is designed to allow, we see that perhaps one or two vehicles manage to make the turn at all per light.

 Our council is always claiming to be “green”. Well, how much extra-idling of vehicles is being caused by jaywalkers? If everybody obeyed the signals, we would see a great reduction of the time required for a vehicle to get through downtown. That means less emissions does it not?

 Instead of unenforcable anti-idling bylaws or notions of banning drivethroughs, why won’t city council work a little using laws that are already on the books?

 Jaywalking is illegal and we already have bylaw officers who can write tickets for it. All that needs to be done is to have these officers stand on streetcorners and begin writing. Rest assured, tickets will be issued as fast as they can be written. How long would it take before we see a reduction in jaywalkers? Not too terribly long I say. Nobody likes paying fines. The city does the occasional one or two day crackdown on jaywalking but those initiatives are rare and advertised. We need enforcement on this at all times. Emissions would be reduced, road-rage would be reduced and more money would flow into the city’s coffers. It is win win win.

 To add to that, it would be nice to see some enforcement in areas around high schools as well. While school zones are in place around elementary and junior high schools, I see the most irresponsible pedestrian behaviour being carried out by high school students. When the buzzer goes off, the streets are flooded with oblivious kids wearing their ipods or simply arrogantly blocking cars for kicks.

 While the risk to their personal health does not seem to disuade high school kids from walking in the middle of streets, perhaps giving the little darlings some tickets for jaywalking to take home may motivate them to abide by the basic rules of traffic safety.

 Perhaps enforcing current laws is just too simple for a city council that is too focused on overpriced bridges and closing major streets.

Calgary city council gerrymandering.

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I guess with our current crop of incompetents in city hall, this assault on basic democracy is not surprising at all.

 For those not familiar with the term gerrymandering, you can be forgiven. The word is really not that much in use anymore as most developed democracies have gone out of their way to end that odious practice. The definition is below:

 

ger·ry·man·der

tr.v. ger·ry·man·dered, ger·ry·man·der·ing, ger·ry·man·ders

To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections.
n.

 It appears to be a trend for elected officials to ignore or fire electoral officers in Alberta.  While Ed Stelmach, fires them for doing their jobs, Calgary city hall simply ignores them.
 It is not enough for Aldermen to vote themselves large wage increases with no accountability, I see that they now want to meddle with the ward boundaries in order to assure themselves wins when we do indeed have a chance to hold them accountable in elections.
 
 This practice is nothing less than disgusting. As I said, any real democracy will try and keep the determinations of electoral boundaries as impartial and arms-length as possible in order to avoid perceptions of impropriety. In their profound arrogance however, our Aldermen have not only ignored the recommendations of the electoral officer, they have boldly decided to take their deliberations into private discussion!!
 This is pathetic and offensive. If you guys are going to be impartial, why would you fear having the public in on your deliberations? We do indeed employ you do we not?
 The corruption in Calgary’s city hall has hit a new heights.

“I’m not ready to turn this city over to the cynics,” Druh Farrell

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 Well it is getting near a couple of weeks of editorials, letters to the editor callers on radio and television reporters asking people on the street all speaking about Druh Farrell’s bizarre plan to close parts of one of Calgary’s busiest streets for pedestrians this summer. The voices have been almost universal in condemnation of this exercise in tax-funded idiocy.

 Druh has now dismissed all concerned residents as myopic cynics. Clearly those knuckle-dragging Calgarians do not know what is good for them. Druh has taken it upon herself to drag us kicking and screaming into a new green and cosmopolitan city whether we like it or not.

 Well Druh, there are other terms besides “cynics” for these people. How about voters? Perhaps taxpayers? Why not citizens? Perhaps “the people paying Druh Farrell’s bloated salary”?

 Druh, if you truly want to subject the city to something this profoundly stupid, why not hold your horses for a little over a year and campaign based on this? Why don’t you go door to door for a month and explain to people why you want to congest traffic at great expense for a pedestrian route that nobody wants or needs? Oh yeah, it is much for the same reason that our city council makes sure to give themselves a large raise as a first order of business after an election rather than before one. Were folks like Druh Farrell to campaign and advertise their real motives they would never get elected.

 While the news media and other folks on city council can’t seem to find these mysterious supporters of the inane Memorial Drive closure plan, Druh claims to be finding all sorts of supporters.

“I’ve been getting really positive responses, with people saying it’s a sweet little event with virtually no downside,” said Farrell.

 Virtually no downside??? Do you even watch the news Druh? Do you read the paper? Have you actually spoken to some people on the streets? The downsides of your addled plan have been laid out at length in every form of media for weeks now.

 Perhaps you find yourself to be above those cro-magnon media outlets. You can sense the chi of the electorate and smell support for this plan.

 Well let me help you out Druh, click on this sentence and you will be able to find a plethora of downsides to your venture into tax-funded insanity.

 Try and find all those supporters there Druh.

 Another Herald editorialist has weighed in today as well.

 Council has been bypassed with this plan. While Druh seems to feel some sort of overwhelming support for her idea, she feared to vett it with the scrutiny of public discussion by our elected officials. Instead Druh sought and received backdoor approval.

 It is looking likely that this loopy venture will be happening no matter how many Calgarians express their lack of support for it. Stewie and I will be popping down there with the good old video camera to document what will surely be a traffic disaster with nary a pedestrian in sight. Really, who the hell is going to walk on blistering pavement in August when two treed pathways along a river are right next to them?

 I know you wont campaign on your actions in the next election Druh, but rest assured others will. I look forward to distributing the video of the outcome of your idiotic plan as far and wide as possible in your ward.

The Daily Druh.

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 Yes, another posting on Druh Farrell’s crazy plan to close lanes on a major city artery to service a need that apparently nobody has.

 The blowback from this initiative of idiocy continues and another fine editorial has popped up today.

Druh’s main-artery clogging brain cramp

By MARTIN HUDSON 

You gotta give it to Ald. Druh Farrell. 

And not in a good way.

Calgary’s theatre of the absurd has a zany new farce on its hands courtesy of one of its main players.

In case you missed it, and it’s hard to believe this nugget of nonsense would slip by on a relatively slow news week, Farrell is asking the city to shut down two lanes of Memorial Dr. between 10 St. and 3 St. N.W., on Sundays in August.

Not for more road improvements, mind you.

Nope, we’ve got enough detours and lane closures because of construction already.

Ah, but there are other ways to make you go crazy.

This time it’s so Calgarians can mingle and frolic on a main east-west route through the city.

 

 The article continues here.

 Druh is still bravely marching forward in the face of overwhelming public opposition to this nonsensical notion. Druh says that residents want this (despite residents saying otherwise). Druh says traffic is light on Memorial Drive and on 16th avenue where traffic will be forced to reroute.

 It being a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided to pick up the video camera and head to the area in question. Perhaps there was hidden mass parking that I never knew of. Maybe I would find some hidden beauty in the asphalt that would draw people from the river path and onto the street. It is possible that my memory of Memorial Drive being a rather busy street was mistaken.

Below is what I found:

 Come on Druh, wake up and smell the patchouli. Swallow the rest of your granola and a little of your pride. Back off and try to find the remnants of your sanity for the rest of your term as Alderman.