ward3brighton.ca

Last spring I quietly followed the steps to have Charlottetown listed on FixMyStreet.ca, a service maintained by Visible Government which is “a Canadian non-profit that promotes online tools for government transparency.” All that was required was an ESRI shapefile defining the geographic borders of each city ward (helpfully provided by a friend with friends at Elections PEI) and the names and email addresses of each councillor. I’d actually forgotten all about it until someone tweeted about a similar service and I responded. There have since been three reports logged in as many days (and I’ve since noticed the shapefile contains an older version of ward boundaries so we’re trying to get the new ones Fixed).

There’s nothing magic about the service. You could pick up the phone or sit at your keyboard and convey the complaint to your councillor or city staff in private. But reports that are logged on FixMyStreet.ca are publicly visible and other people can subscribe to reports of problems they would like to see fixed. Reports with many subscribers appear to be pushed above the fold into the Top Problems category, presumably to provide extra incentive for officials and staff to act. It’s simple, but provides a level of transparency and accountability that people appreciate.

Since being elected to council I’ve noticed a distinct lack of any complaint tracking system, paper, electronic or otherwise. Complaints and requests and questions arrive in various formats — email, phone, letters — and are routed to someone thought to be in a position to deal with it. But I often get complaints of buck passing, unhelpfulness, lack of follow up, issues falling through the cracks, etc. A city our size, providing the number of services that it does, needs a proper way to log, delegate and track issues that have been raised. I’ve had discussions with staff about implementing a proper CRM (Citizen Request Management) system and arranged for a demonstration of one product last year. There appears to be interest in pursuing the idea, at least among senior staff, and I hope to convince my fellow councillors of the same.

FYI to councillors and staff in Cornwall, Stratford and Summerside; the shapefiles I provided also contained the data for your municipalities so the FixMyStreet.ca people took the liberty of setting you up too.

UPDATE: Josh Biggley wrote a nice piece at Spacing Atlantic yesterday about government transparency and accountability. FixMyStreet.ca is mentioned. Josh reported a pothole on Beach Grove Rd. using FixMyStreet and I just noticed this on Twitter:

We have a problem with crosstown traffic in Charlottetown, particularly in the busy commercial north end of the city. If I’m traveling out North River Road, once I pass Belvedere Avenue my eastbound options are limited. Since you can’t access the bypass from Lower Malpeque, it is a full 3.5 km from Belevedere to the next east-west corridor (Sherwood Rd.) that will take you all the way to Mt. Edward Rd. The only other option is to crawl through the parking lots of Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire on Buchanan Drive, through the Charlottetown Mall, and out the private road on the east side of the mall.  The owners of this private road  actually exert their rights to the property by closing the road one day a year to ensure it does not get taken into the public domain. Public access to this road could disappear at any time and then where would we be?

The City spent a considerable amount of money upgrading the Peter Pan intersection a few years ago but it is still essentially a 3-way intersection, with Spencer Drive being under-used, mainly as a secondary entrance to to the mall or the Superstore. And again, you still need to weave your way through the busy mall/cinema parking lot to get to Mt. Edward from Spencer.

With the anticipation of development on the adjacent land north of Spencer  Drive, I believe it is time for the City to start making plans to extend this road to the east, directly out to Mt. Edward Rd. It would vastly improve the flow of crosstown traffic, service future development, and improve the safety in the parking lots that are currently misused as a means of getting from one side of town to the other. I think it’s good long term infrastructure planning and also solves a number of immediate issues.

I’ve discussed this with residents from every corner of the city, with several other councillors, and city planning staff. I was surprised by the level of agreement on the issue.  A number of people have also written letters to the editor recently about this issue. See here, here, and here (there was another by Bruce Garrity, but I can’t seem to find it).

Personally, I think Sunday shopping should be allowed year-round. I had never read the Province’s Sunday shopping legislation and I was curious, hypothetically speaking, if the City might be able to enact its own bylaw should Council ever want to do that. But, as I discovered, the Act specifically says that it supersedes any municipal bylaws.  I found section 4 (Exercise of conscience or religion) interesting because it appears to allow any business to open on Sunday as long as they close one other day of the week. Depending on the business you’re in, it might make sense to close on, say, Monday instead of Sunday. I wonder if anyone takes advantage of that?

This “conscience or religion” exception means what we really have is not a ban on Sunday shopping, but a legislated six-day retail business week for five months of the year; thou shalt not sell things seven days per week (except those of you covered by section 3). I have some sympathy for all the arguments for the Sunday ban, but the world has moved on. In an increasingly pluralistic society, Sunday has different significance to different people, and none at all to some. And conscience in this context is just another word for choice since, if it’s not for religious reasons, there’s really no justification to feel differently about Sunday than any other day of the week. So it seems sort of arbitrary to limit the business week to six days. Why not five?

This is very much outside the realm of my responsibilities as a councillor, but reading the Act for the first time was a bit of a revelation. In my opinion we’ve reached the day and age where, for better or worse, it should be a retailer’s choice if they want to operate seven days per week.

I took this panoramic photo using the Pano app on my iPhone after our monthly public meeting of council, December 14th, 2009. It is stitched together from four separate photographs.

In the doorway on the left is reporter Steve MacDougall interviewing Councillor Mitch Tweel (unseen). Mayor Clifford Lee is the blurry man-on-the-move in the center. To the right of the Mayor is CBC reporter Brendan Elliot, and at the back is Beth Johnston, Communications Officer for the city. Click the photo for a larger view.

Josh Biggley, writing at the excellent new Spacing Atlantic blog, makes the case for another farmer’s market in Charlottetown. The market on Belvedere Avenue is, by some measures, a victim of its own considerable success. Josh believes the market will support another market and invites readers to post their suggestions on a collaborative Google Map. Read his article and if you agree, weigh in with your suggestion on the map.

There have been two serious vehicle-student collisions at the intersection of Queen St. and Pond St. in the three years I’ve been on council; one in early 2007, and one last week involving two boys. Early in my term I worked with the principal of Queen Charlotte Intermediate School to make improvements to the crosswalk in front of the school on North River Road. That crosswalk, unlike some others, has a crossing guard during the lunch hour to ensure safety of students crossing to the west side of North River (students going home for lunch). I believe it’s only fair that the large number of students going east for lunch, either at home or at one of the restaurants on University Ave., should be given the same safety consideration when crossing Queen Street. So, I will be seeking the agreement of the police committee at our next meeting to post a crossing guard during the school lunch hour at the Queen and Pond intersection. This has the support of principals and Home & School Associations of schools in the area, and they are committed to directing students to cross Queen St. only at the guarded intersection.

Some have suggested this intersection should be signalized or turned into a four-way stop. Public Works and the police have analyzed the traffic volumes at this intersection more than once and have determined that it does not meet the requirements under the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada. There may be problems with sight lines due to a house on one corner, but that is an issue that should be dealt with separately to any consideration of traffic control measures. In fact, I often hear from people that want us to remove stop signs in locations where they are felt to be unnecessary. And have to agree — we do seem to have quite a lot of them.

Tim Banks says he has been “looking at some hotel concepts in the US and Canada for the Charlottetown marketplace” and he has “lined up some investors”. The reaction I get when I mention this to people today seems to range from disbelief that our market can support another hotel, to suggestions that Tim is dreaming and will never go through with it. I suspect if you told Tim it’s never going to happen, it will only make it more likely to happen. That just seems to be the way he rolls.
It’s encouraging that successful companies like APM and Homburg have the confidence in our city and tourism market to continue making large investments that appear, at least to the Average Joe, risky at best. I look forward to hearing more about Tim’s hotel plan when it arrives at City Hall but I don’t think, as apparently he is hoping, a roundabout driveway design will get him any special consideration.

My response to today’s lead editorial in the Guardian, submitted as a letter to the editor:

A recent Guardian editorial (Community policing equals safer cities, August 12, 2009) discussed the elimination by the Charlottetown Police Services (CPS) of its Community Policing Officer position. As noted, this move was a recommendation in the Organizational Review & Evaluation of the CPS released earlier this year; however, this should not be understood as a retreat from community policing principles. Rather, the CPS is in the midst of reorganizing and developing a strategic plan that will put the task of community policing at the core of the CPS Mission: “As guardians of the Birthplace of Canada, the Charlottetown Police Services, working with the community, will provide high quality police services and maintain a safe and peaceful environment for residents and visitors.”

Responsibility for spearheading this mission will now reside with our newly appointed Deputy Chief, who has been tasked with oversight of Operations and Community Policing. This provides the advantage of having a senior ranking officer undertaking a larger leadership role, and helps to underscore our objective to have all members playing a role in community initiatives.

The strategic plan also defines our Vision, or why we are here: “To work in partnership with the community to enhance the quality of life through Crime Prevention, Enforcement and Education.” In addition, four of the eight CPS Core Values specifically address the community, and in the near future the mayor will be appointing members of a new Community Consultative Group that will help guide and validate the priorities of the CPS.

All of our considerable efforts over the past five months have been focused on aligning CPS operations with national policing trends and implementing a truly comprehensive philosophy of community policing, as articulated by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police this week in Charlottetown. The job of connecting with the community will not belong to any singular officer, but to the whole of the CPS.

We are on the right track. Council has committed to ensuring we have the best policing service in the country. We are renewing the CPS in ways that are already improving public confidence, and will pay dividends for the whole community well into the future. The commitment to the shared values of the CPS and the community at large is best exemplified by our new slogan: “Our City. Our Community. Our Responsibility.”

Councillor Rob Lantz
Chair, Police & Bylaw Enforcement Committee

Earlier this week a group of business operators pleaded with City Council to reconsider our decision to build a roundabout at the intersection of Allen Street and Mt. Edward Road. Notable for their absence was D.P. Murphy Inc, who have had their share of traffic problems at this intersection. I’ll take their absence as approval or at least acceptance.

Those present gave a list of concerns ranging from a perceived negative impact on their business (e.g. if drivers do not stop at a light, they will not notice the surrounding businesses), to pedestrian and vehicle safety, congestion, stacking, cost, and a simple lack of confidence that Islander drivers will ever figure out how to navigate a roundabout. Some who had sold small strips of land to the City to enable upgrades to the intersection felt misled because they understood the only option under consideration was a lighted intersection. As the Mayor stated very sincerely on the radio this morning there was certainly no intention to mislead. As this Guardian story from January makes clear (Charlottetown investigates roundabout for Mount Edward-Allen Street facelift), the roundabout option has been under consideration for many months.

Traffic engineers hired by the City gave what I felt were very convincing responses to most of the concerns. They have done their homework with regard to the roundabout option, including research, computer simulations, and careful design. We are taking their advice on this one. Do I worry that it will not work out as well as expected? Yes. Do I think this is the ideal intersection to build our first roundabout? Possibly it isn’t. But if it works well here, which I’m increasingly confident it will, it will bode well for converting some of our other lighted intersections to roundabouts in the future.

Modern roundabouts offer many benefits to lighted intersections (traffic flow, environmental, and yes… safety) and conversion to roundabouts is a growing trend in North America. I came across this article today called The rise of the modern roundabout.

Some notable quotes I felt were relevant to our local discussion:

“When construction started, there was quite an outpouring of concern,”

“It was something new, and people were nervous. But as they’ve gotten used to the roundabouts, they’ve realized the benefits. The traffic moves quicker and flows pretty freely; very rarely is there any type of stacking or backup.”

“The result was less congestion and fewer accidents, especially when compared with traffic signals, where drivers often accelerated to race through and avoid red lights.”

Another good article here: Roundabouts: reducing traffic frustration

Former Councillor and Chair of the Police & Bylaw Enforcement Committee, Bruce Garrity, sent me a copy of a letter he submitted to the Guardian in which he offers praise for the recent focus on traffic enforcement, but also some criticism on other matters. He asked me to reply to his comments on the police, but since he has already taken to the public forum, I thought it was appropriate (and fair) to respond publicly rather than by email.

Here is Mr. Garrity’s submission to the Guardian, printed in today’s edition.

I’ll respond to what he has deemed “Not Well Done” by me and the police.

1. In a recent interview I was asked about the cost of the Charlottetown Police Service’s new Downtown Depot and I “would not or could not” answer a question about the cost of this initiative. The reason is nobody knows the full cost yet, but as anyone can see in the City budget (section 8, page 2 of 2), we set aside $20,000 for the downtown office. I do know that we will pay approximately $4000 to lease the office space. The landlord, Dyne Holdings, very graciously paid for much of the fit-up costs on the office space, so it is unlikely we will spend the full amount we budgeted. I disagree with Mr. Garrity’s opinion that the Downtown Depot is “smoke and mirrors”. It was a recommendation (4d) in the Organizational Review of the CPS, and the official opening was well attended by both residents and business owners who are very grateful to have this new police presence in the downtown.
2. Mr. Garrity asks about photo radar. The City officially requested the enabling legislation to use photo radar approximately one year ago. The provincial government is actively working with their lawyers to draw up the legislation, and rewrite existing legislation that will be affected. To judge the police “not well done” on this issue is unfair. We cannot legally use photo radar at this time.
3. In Mr. Garrity’s opinion the Police Chief should be the spokesperson for the Charlottetown Police Service. While the Chief certainly needs to be a prominent and well recognized leader, the Organizational Review of the CPS recommended (4f) the following to help connect with the community:
   “…assign responsibility for media relations to the platoon sergeants, with the Chief and Deputy being available for major events or serious crimes.”

   “Mandate the duty patrol sergeant as the working level point of contact for media relations. Mandate the Inspector, Community Policing [i.e., the new Deputy Chief] as the focal point for all media and community relations.”

4. On the bicycle helmet issue, I will only say that the new awareness and enforcement initiative is a positive example of a collaborative effort between the police and community groups; in this case, the Atlantic Network for Injury Prevention and the Brain Injury Coalition of PEI. Mr. Garrity wants to “punish” the police for their omissions of the past. I prefer to look ahead and I congratulate the police for this new initiative.

All in all, things are looking good at the Charlottetown Police Service. The shortcomings identified in the Organizational Review are being addressed. We have acted on most of the recommendations in the report and we continue to move forward. I have been approached a number of times by City residents who have recognized the renewed efforts of the CPS. Have you taken notice of their improved presence? I have. I sense the public’s confidence in the CPS is improving, and I believe morale among the police themselves is improving. It’s all a result of the actions we’ve taken over the last number of months and the commitment and dedication of our police officers.

I say, well done!

This is a reminder that despite my post from eleven months ago (Get Out Your Picnic Blankets) Canada Day is NOT coming back to Victoria Park this year. Instead, Tourism Charlottetown and its Canada Day corporate sponsors are refocusing on fun, family-friendly activities from June 27th to July 1st. The City and Tourism Charlottetown agreed to this arrangement after a solid commitment from Lee Gauthier to get back to the festival’s roots of celebrating our country.

The Festival of Lights concert series does not begin until July 3rd. This means the concert stage and all the peripherals that go with it will not be erected until after Canada day. Should make for lots of room for everyone and an unimpeded view of the fireworks. [UPDATE July 1st - Contrary to what I was told months ago, the FoL main stage and fencing are already setup. I thought these were to be erected tomorrow.]

See you there!

From the Festival of Lights website:

June 27-July 1: Family Fun Days
Historic Charlottetown Waterfront will be transformed into fun for the whole family with all the Festival favourites returning: Atlantic Superstore Petting Zoo, Peakes Quay Strongman Competition, Children’s Village presented by Northumberland Ferries, buskers and a 10 hour FREE Concert for Canada presented by Century 21 Colonial Realty on July 1st. The Canada Day finale will be the largest musical fireworks extravaganza in Atlantic Canada, proudly sponsored by WestJet. NEW activities on the waterfront for the Atlantic Superstore Festival of Lights are: Rick Hansen Wheels In Motion, SportyKids Fitness, activities with the 2009 Canada Games Host Society, a Confederation Centre of the Arts Young Company performance, and Always on Stage live music entertainment, and more. All these activities are FREE for families to enjoy.

I submitted the following comment on Tim Banks’ blog. The comment is still awaiting moderation so I thought I better post it here also, for the record:

Tim… thanks for the kind words. There’s just one thing I’d like to clarify. When I ran for council I made a firm commitment to my employer that company time is company time. I wouldn’t want my boss to think I’m taking liberties, or my colleagues to get the impression I’m treated any differently. I am generally regarded as the councillor who is most difficult to schedule for meetings because I need to live up to that commitment I made. I can count on one hand the numbers of times that I’ve attended to city duties outside of my lunch hour, or before 4:30 [update: okay, maybe I'd need two hands]. I’ve occasionally used vacation time where necessary to avoid mixing company time with city time.
No comment on the rest of your post!
Thanks again,
Rob