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Resident of my ward called to inquire about the fine and impound fees paid to retrieve her stray, unlicensed dog from the Humane Society.

More than a year ago I wrote about the public backlash over City plans to install a roundabout at Mt. Edward Rd and Allen St. I expressed some concerns, but was generally confident all would work out well in the end. Public angst is common in other jurisdictions where roundabouts are a new concept but generally they are well accepted, even loved, once they are installed. That seems to be the experience here too. Now that we’ve got two roundabouts officially open — and soon two more — I’ve heard nothing but good things from residents about the roundabouts; about their ease of use, traffic flow, and their aesthetic beauty. I’ve even heard through the grapevine that those business owners who were so vehemently opposed in the beginning have become the roundabouts’ biggest fans.

Since the Charlottetown Police Services website launched earlier this year many people have had their eyes opened. The Police Reports — a small selection of incidents from the patrol shifts — have proved extremely popular and have given people a glimpse they did not previously have into the busy daily affairs of a Charlottetown police officer (you can even follow on Twitter). The frequent reports of break and enters and thefts appears to have given some the impression of a problem escalating out of control.

Let me be clear: it is a problem. I’ve been a victim myself and the sense of violation can be worse than the material loss. But Charlottetown still ranks well below the national average for these types of property crimes and the numbers in Charlottetown have remained relatively flat over recent years. We are currently experiencing a slight spike so a press release was issued earlier today to shed some light on the situation.

There is usually a spike in these types of property crimes as the weather improves each summer. In fact, the police prepare for this uptick, and they can often predict the severity based on known offenders and which ones are, or are not, currently in jail (in the words of a Deputy Chief, “some of these guys are a one-man crime wave”). And they did anticipate this summer’s slight increase over last year.

Accordingly, the CPS  has concentrated their efforts recently on dealing with this problem. The Street Crime / Major Crime unit is also now equipped with new tools to gather, analyze, and act on intelligence. The unit is also staffed with experienced, competent officers and their work is paying off.

They do know that a small number of individuals are responsible for a disproportionate number of the incidents. When these people are caught — 26* total in the past eight weeks, some of them highly active perps — it makes a big difference. At that point, it’s up to the justice system to hold them to account.

Part of the problem, I’m told, is that many are released prior to trial with no conditions whatsoever and they sometimes continue their vocation, even step it up a notch, if they feel they’re going to jail anyway. Simple measures like curfews might help but this is a matter outside the control of police.

I’m very pleased with the popularity of the CPS website, but I think it may have created a false sense of a new epidemic, when in fact it’s probably more a case of perception based on the police being more transparent and open with this information. The important thing to know, which I’ve seen and heard with my own eyes and ears, is that the CPS is working hard 24/7 to identify and catch these people, with good results to show for their tenacity.

The one thing police want to reinforce is the importance of locking your doors; car doors and house doors. They’ve watched as thieves prowl and pull on door handles until one opens. As much as we would like to pride ourselves on unlocked doors, you don’t want to make it easy for the thieves if they happen to come around.

Would love to hear thoughts on this issue. Leave comments below (or click the Comments link above).

*Press release says 24. Two individuals were apprehended after the press release was written.

This has been discussed for a long time. The idea seemed to gain momentum again after a conversation I had over a beer at Baba’s Lounge with the manager of the Charlottetown Farmers Market, and a subsequent meeting I arranged with the mayor. Thanks to Jason Lee and DCI for all their hard work pulling this together. I hope it’s successful. See you there!

[Click for printable 11 x 17  version]

At the June public meeting of council I went on at length — a bit of an incoherent rant really — about Victoria Park. It is a subject that I regret not having pursued more agressively throughout my term, so when Parks & Rec announced yet another large amount of money to be spent on upgrades to the park I had to say something. I was very pleased to receive the support of the mayor, and then again to see the supportive editorial in the Guardian.

Victoria Park is a huge asset to our city, but it has a lot of unrealized potential. Great city’s have great parks and I can easily imagine Victoria Park in the same league as some of the more famous municipal parks. It’s just not quite there yet.

The park is almost 40 acres, but we all know there is a lot of pressure on the park with more and more amenities being added over the decades, one at a time, without much regard for the overall concept. The city wouldn’t approve a subdivision of that size without a detailed plan to guide the use of the land.

What’s needed is a vision; a comprehensive master plan developed with public consultation, to guide the long-term development and management of the park. The plan should include recommendations for phased, short-term design changes that will help accommodate all the diverse — and sometimes incompatible — uses of the park to ultimately make it more enjoyable for everyone.

I’ve watched over the years as other municipalities have undergone similar exercises for their greenspace and parks. I often use the Point Pleasant Park Comprehensive Plan as an example, but there are many others, several in the Atlantic region alone.

The Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island hired a consultant, o2 Design + Planning, to create a vision for the Experimental Farm. The plan was design-oriented and really quite impressive. The City would certainly need to consult professional landscape architects too,  but public consultation is paramount. I have many ideas myself. I would ask some of the following:

1. Is it really necessary to allow cars to drive into the center of the park? I say no. The old driveway, which extends from the cannons to the tennis courts should be narrowed and reserved for pedestrian and cyclists only. A small stretch of the driveway was converted to a nice pathway, but users are forced into traffic at one end, and a parking lot at the other. Parking for the tennis courts could be accommodated near the dairy bar. The parking off Brighton Road should also be moved. Separate cars and people.
2. Do we need to close a lane of the park roadway for cyclists? It’s wonderful, but there is room for a dedicated year-round bike lane. My detailed plan upon request.
3. Must there be a half kilometer of chain link fence along the west perimeter of the park? I say no. Gary Schneider’s excellent forest management plan (which is being ably implemented in many ways) suggested a hedge instead, if a barrier is necessary at all.
4. Was the restoration of Fort Edward Battery a good thing? I think not. The old battery design — run down as it had become — was one of the most popular destinations in the park; a vantage point where you could stroll atop the berm and enjoy the incredible view. Now it is fenced off, unwelcoming, and simply obstructs the view. Make this a focal point again.

I could go on… and on. But finally, I will just say this; I think the park deserves a significant monument to the park’s namesake, Queen Victoria, such as a statue with surrounding public space.  In 2014 we’ll be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference in the Birthplace of Confederation so, notwithstanding all the attention the Founding Fathers will get, it would be a perfect opportunity to honour the Queen who is known as the Mother of Confederation.

We had a special Planning Board meeting this evening to consider proposed amendments and additions to the Zoning & Development Bylaw. The changes we discussed include the following:

1. Amendments to the process of issuing demolition permits;
2. new sustainable green development standards;
3. new section on ground source heat exchange systems (geothermal heating/cooling);
4. new section dealing with development in areas threatened by sea level rise;
5. new section regulating the operation of  Adult Care Homes;
6. new section for Urban Forest Retention and Replacement Strategy;
7. new section for Public Participation Strategy for Major Development Projects.

Planning staff did a great job researching these items. There was some interesting discussion, debate and suggestions from resident members of planning board. As I said, these are proposed changes. They will still need to be approved by council. Get in touch, or leave a comment, if you’d like to discuss.

Received a phone call yesterday from someone wishing not to be identified who witnessed a police cruiser “callously” speed through a puddle, thereby splashing an elderly woman on the sidewalk.

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.

Have heard from at least two residents recently who are concerned and intimidated by alleged drug dealing and  associated disturbing incidents occurring in their neighbourhood.