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.

[Click for printable 11 x 17  version]

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.

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.

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:

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).

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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!