Category Archives: Druh Farrell

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

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.

“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.

A glimmer of common sense in City Hall.

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Just about every glimmer of common sense that we have seen in City Hall has come from Ald. Ric McIver so it is not that surprising that he is the lone voice speaking out against Druh Farrell’s idiotic notion of closing a major roadway in order to expand walking/biking space in an area that already has multiple walking/biking paths in place.

 McIver is pulling no punches and calling this initiative what it is; madness! 

  As predicted, fellow fool on council Brian Pincott has jumped in to support Druh on this tax-funded foray into lunacy. Pincott is the Alderman who proposed the inane notion that called for the city to spend $250,000 per year to retain an official city poet. Supporting idiotic waste of taxdollars is well within Pincott’s realm.

 From radio call-in shows, to commentary in the news to comments online, Calgarians are nearly universally condemning this crazy idea.

 Undaunted by the views of the people who pay her salary, Druh Farrell carries on. This issue has been an excellent display of the respect that Druh Farrell holds for the views of her constituents. She has none. Druh has even proposed that we move on and close downtown streets into Chinatown in the future as well. Wouldn’t the closure of Center street do wonders for traffic in addition to Memorial? Dull Druh has pointed out that traffic can take 16th avenue if they want to avoid the inevitable snarls that will occur on Memorial when we close it for non-existent pedestrian traffic.

 WHAT??? Has Druh ever ventured the 16 blocks North to 16th avenue? That disaster of a roadway has been nearly impassible on weekends since the 1970s.

 Is Druh Farrell truly this bereft of common sense? Are there perhaps a few marbles rattling around loose in her cranium? If that is not the case, we can only assume that Druh’s goal is to end all vehicular traffic in the city. There are all sorts of lunatic environmentalists with similar notions. Most of them have no power to act upon their notions thankfully. Farrell has managed to bypass all public opinion and get this venture in the works.

 Never since the late Darwin Award winner Tooker Gomberg proposed flooding the city streets of Edmonton in winter so that people can skate to work has such idiocy been seen in a city council.

skate

 There have been rumours that Ric McIver is considering a mayoral run. Lets hope that it is true and lets hope that he wins.

 We clearly need to replace twits such as Farrell and Pincott as well and I hope that happens. Having McIver in the mayors chair would do wonders for city hall.

Druh Farrell’s latest idiotic notion is backfiring.

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 Considering the generally sleepy nature of Calgary’s electorate when it comes to the near endless stream of stupid and expensive ideas coming from city council, the response we are seeing to Druh Farrell’s notion to close a portion of a major artery for traffic is a virtual groundswell of opposition. Farrell has hit such a new height in stupidity that even the left-leaning crowd are scratching their collective heads over this one.

 Druh did the usual political work of finding some figures to applaud this initiative. The executive director of the Kensington Business Revitalization Zone thinks this is a good idea. The head of the Sunnyside community association has endorsed Druh’s foolish plan as well. What people need to keep in mind is that both of those individuals are compelled to keep their noses buried deep within the recesses of the collective butts of city council in order to get funding for local projects. Should they be critical of crazy Druh’s ideas, they can kiss applications for new public swimming pools or sidewalk resurfacing goodbye.

 What we are seeing now is the response from the real community. Instead of speaking to some “revitalization” person, the Herald actually spoke to some businesspeople in the area in question. The people in this area who actually have to eke out a living are condemning this idiocy. These people have that quality that seems to be totally absent in city hall; common sense. Local businesses have no idea how snarling local traffic will help them in what are already hard times. They realize that all Druh’s initiative will accomplish will be to keep people away from that district in droves in order to avoid the traffic.

 As for the head of the community association, I shudder to think of the questions that will be asked when it is discovered that the already congested residential parking is completely jammed with cars? There is little to no parking down there already. Assuming that some individuals come down there to walk on hot pavement on a summer weekend, they will indeed need somewhere to put their vehicles. How will the residents of Sunnyside like it when they find frustrated drivers speeding down their residential streets in hopes of avoiding the traffic jam on Memorial?

 Druh has pointed out that there will be some entertainment to draw visitors to the area. Translation: Buskers.

busk

 Now, how many people are going to cross the city and fight for parking in order to watch an unemployed bongo-player who does not have an anti-capitalism protest to attend?

 The few hairy legged sandal wearing types who may actually go out of their way to watch this fine artistic display are not exactly what we call a high-spending demographic. Unless a person is running a discount organic granola stand, their business will not exactly see a spike.

 On both the CBC site that I linked to in my prior posting and the Herald site in the current posting, there is a comment section. This is the most telling aspect of how truly obtuse this idea is. These are everyday news readers speaking their minds. On the CBC, they are mostly left leaning. The condemnation of Druh’s stupidity is nearly universal.

 It is unlikely that this clear lack of public support will have any impact on Druh’s plans to make us all a little more cosmopolitan. City hall is notorious for ignoring the wishes of those unwashed constituents. Part of that is our own fault. We barely get above 20% turnout in municipal electios. Should we really be surprised that we have found ourselves with a collection of idiots in city hall?

 In the next election it is up to us. Get out the vote and vote out the fools.