Comments on: Fagstein’s 2009 suggestions http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/ Can you think of a better name? Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:19:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Fagstein » Live Toronto fire info on Twitter http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-58516 Fagstein » Live Toronto fire info on Twitter Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:09:43 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-58516 [...] my suggestions for 2009 in Hour, I included a request for emergency services and public transit to have live information online, [...] [...] my suggestions for 2009 in Hour, I included a request for emergency services and public transit to have live information online, [...]

]]> By: Neath http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56966 Neath Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:27:02 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56966 I'm with Kate! It's astonishing how productive thousands of people in the city would become if they only had free rent! Instead all that talent is wasted working boring jobs that have zero cultural value in order to raise rent money. It s an evil catch 22 if there ever was one. "Subsidized" housing is one of the most poorly conceived and applied concepts in cities. The money is there, as it actually is for many things, but the hogs at the trough won't let anyone else in. I'm with Kate! It's astonishing how productive
thousands of people in the city would become if they only had free rent! Instead all that talent is wasted working boring jobs that have zero cultural value in order to raise rent money. It s an evil catch 22 if there ever was one.
"Subsidized" housing is one of the most poorly conceived and applied concepts in cities. The money is there, as it actually is for many things, but the hogs at the trough won't let anyone else in.

]]> By: Jean Naimard http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56711 Jean Naimard Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:20:29 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56711 Anonymous: that $140 you plunked-down for a fine would have paid for a nice cross-slice shredder. Good luck for the garbage detective to find out your address. Now this is **THE** reason to get a shredder!!! Bonus: get extra protection for identity thieves. Marc: The Métro is far too expensive to be extended to those low-density areas. In fact, outside of the downtown core, the Métro is quite useless and the job would have been done much better by rebuilding the old streetcar lines. Kate: Free appartment, yes, but only if you give me your souls. Anonymous: that $140 you plunked-down for a fine would have paid for a nice cross-slice shredder. Good luck for the garbage detective to find out your address. Now this is **THE** reason to get a shredder!!! Bonus: get extra protection for identity thieves.

Marc: The Métro is far too expensive to be extended to those low-density areas. In fact, outside of the downtown core, the Métro is quite useless and the job would have been done much better by rebuilding the old streetcar lines.

Kate: Free appartment, yes, but only if you give me your souls.

]]> By: DAVE ID http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56687 DAVE ID Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:26:11 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56687 Free apartments, food and drink for bloggers, considering how much we enrich the urban scene. I'm down with that :) Free apartments, food and drink for bloggers, considering how much we enrich the urban scene.

I'm down with that :)

]]> By: Kate M. http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56637 Kate M. Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:48:29 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56637 - City should stop talking about composting and just do it. - I don't know how, but more transparency. It's appalling that a major chunk of the city's wealth like the SHDM could be transferred to private control on the sly. - I want to see churches repurposed for something worthwhile. Maybe not in 2009, but soon. - Every time a major new building's put up downtown we get more blocks lost to large segments of blank wall. Let's have a zoning law against that. Now. - Free apartments, food and drink for bloggers, considering how much we enrich the urban scene. - City should stop talking about composting and just do it.
- I don't know how, but more transparency. It's appalling that a major chunk of the city's wealth like the SHDM could be transferred to private control on the sly.
- I want to see churches repurposed for something worthwhile. Maybe not in 2009, but soon.
- Every time a major new building's put up downtown we get more blocks lost to large segments of blank wall. Let's have a zoning law against that. Now.
- Free apartments, food and drink for bloggers, considering how much we enrich the urban scene.

]]> By: Marc http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56634 Marc Mon, 29 Dec 2008 04:10:17 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56634 For transit: - Extend the blue line to Anjou - Extend the green line to the airport - Extend the yellow line through the south shore - Extend the western leg of the orange line through northern St. Laurent Think of how many diesel-spewing buses they could scrap. You could run smaller community circulator buses around the new stations. And these could be electric. Much better than King Tremblay's stupid tramway plan or Labonté's insane idea of another Expo. Contributing to financing this would be bridge tolls and a cut of the city's over-over-over bloated bureaucracy. For transit:

- Extend the blue line to Anjou
- Extend the green line to the airport
- Extend the yellow line through the south shore
- Extend the western leg of the orange line through northern St. Laurent

Think of how many diesel-spewing buses they could scrap. You could run smaller community circulator buses around the new stations. And these could be electric. Much better than King Tremblay's stupid tramway plan or Labonté's insane idea of another Expo. Contributing to financing this would be bridge tolls and a cut of the city's over-over-over bloated bureaucracy.

]]> By: Anonymous http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56627 Anonymous Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:41:31 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56627 Mine are mostly transit related... This city needs Wi-fi in the metro! Also, the STM should either extend the hours on its complaints line, or install a $10 answering machine so we can bitch even if it's after 4:30pm. Seriously - do they think problems only happen during business hours? It would be nice if they streamlined the STM Info-Line phone menu so we can get the info more quickly. The ability to get the next bus time via SMS would be great! A payment option in-between the nearly $70 monthly pass and packs of 6, to provide a better value for those who don't take the metro every day or have less predictable schedules. For city stuff, I have one request: make the trash collection timing less stringent so people can put it out the night before (no can do in Outremont, apparently). And if, by chance, someone puts their trash out at the wrong time, how bout starting with a warning before slapping a $140 on them? (got burned by that one this year...and no, not a typo: $140!) I also wish Tremblay wasn't such a friggin' cronyist, but thought I'd keep my 2009 wishes within the realm of feasibility... ;-) Mine are mostly transit related...
This city needs Wi-fi in the metro!
Also, the STM should either extend the hours on its complaints line, or install a $10 answering machine so we can bitch even if it's after 4:30pm. Seriously - do they think problems only happen during business hours?
It would be nice if they streamlined the STM Info-Line phone menu so we can get the info more quickly.
The ability to get the next bus time via SMS would be great!
A payment option in-between the nearly $70 monthly pass and packs of 6, to provide a better value for those who don't take the metro every day or have less predictable schedules.

For city stuff, I have one request: make the trash collection timing less stringent so people can put it out the night before (no can do in Outremont, apparently). And if, by chance, someone puts their trash out at the wrong time, how bout starting with a warning before slapping a $140 on them? (got burned by that one this year...and no, not a typo: $140!)

I also wish Tremblay wasn't such a friggin' cronyist, but thought I'd keep my 2009 wishes within the realm of feasibility... ;-)

]]> By: DAVE ID http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56601 DAVE ID Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:36:54 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56601 But how can Montrealers validate their existence if they are bitching about the poor snow removal? TPTB in MTL need to: * OUTDO Quebec city and make a multi-billiion dollar project to remodel the infrastructure, this city is held together with duct-tape. * Have a better police presence that actually acts on the whole Protect and Serve model instead of the Quota model or the beat the poor model. * Reshuffle the unions and blue-collars. Because seriously when you run your budget out for trash collection it's not just because of gas prices. * This is vague but transform MTL in a city we can be greatly proud of. Old Quebec is extremely clean and maintained and having traveled a lot in historical cities in the US, they know the value of these sites, historical value and also it's tourist value. KACHING. Time to cleanup. * And I maintain that we should put toll bridges all around the island or some other way to have the 450 give back for their abuse of our resources. But how can Montrealers validate their existence if they are bitching about the poor snow removal?

TPTB in MTL need to:

* OUTDO Quebec city and make a multi-billiion dollar project to remodel the infrastructure, this city is held together with duct-tape.
* Have a better police presence that actually acts on the whole Protect and Serve model instead of the Quota model or the beat the poor model.
* Reshuffle the unions and blue-collars. Because seriously when you run your budget out for trash collection it's not just because of gas prices.
* This is vague but transform MTL in a city we can be greatly proud of. Old Quebec is extremely clean and maintained and having traveled a lot in historical cities in the US, they know the value of these sites, historical value and also it's tourist value. KACHING. Time to cleanup.
* And I maintain that we should put toll bridges all around the island or some other way to have the 450 give back for their abuse of our resources.

]]> By: Jean Naimard http://blog.fagstein.com/2008/12/27/hour-2009-suggestions/comment-page-1/#comment-56584 Jean Naimard Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:21:18 +0000 http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=3491#comment-56584 Kick Tremblay out and let in someone (hint – hint) who really will put public transit on the forefront (but that doesn’t mean putting up 30392 streetcar lines!). Oh, and invent some contraption that could allow the little (snow-clearing) tanks* to break the ice on sidewalks. * When I was a kid, they used to look like tanks, so I still call them “tanks”. Kick Tremblay out and let in someone (hint – hint) who really will put public transit on the forefront (but that doesn’t mean putting up 30392 streetcar lines!).

Oh, and invent some contraption that could allow the little (snow-clearing) tanks* to break the ice on sidewalks.

* When I was a kid, they used to look like tanks, so I still call them “tanks”.

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