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Municipal Politics

northlands said:
First targets should be the folks with the anti-lag/backfire mods done to their cars. I can deal with other noise, it's doesn’t bug me all that much but the sound of gun shots is just so cringe.
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100%, those and also the super loud motorbikes that peope just LOVE to rip down Whyte Ave, but also in the river valley during many an evening.
 
Very interesting and candid comments from Coun Tim Cartmell on some "dysfunction" of this new council that he says is micromanaging city administration instead of governing.


urbanaffairs.ca

“It’s Bad Governance” | Urban Affairs

Councillor Tim Cartmell says Edmonton City Council needs to stop second-guessing its staff, and stop talking so much
urbanaffairs.ca urbanaffairs.ca

“This council spends far more time talking than reading reports,” he says.

“What a way to run a rodeo. And we’ll never get it all done, because, if 13 people are going to make every single management decision in a $3-billion corporation, what do you need the 13,000 staff for? It’s crazy.”
 
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^

"Cartmell says Council is even going so far as to delay and overturn decisions made by previous city governments..."

and isn't that a slippery slope?

this isn't to say that all council decisions are infallible and none of them should ever be reconsidered.

it is, however, meant to say that council should simply give the same respect to previous council decisions that they would hope to receive in the future regarding their decisions today. without that respect and commitment, no matter how much time is devoted to making them council decisions will effectively become meaningless regardless of their good intentions.

when any decision can be readily reversed with little thought to the consequences and implementations, in effect no decisions are being made and the city's ship becomes rudderless.
 
Is this where Edmonton is headed?

This is an interesting new documentary about the state of Vancouver, and how their police members feel helpless in tackling crime there. (I'm wondering if this film was funded in part by police, ha). It's currently a poor relationship between their city council/mayor and their police force (sound familiar?). The city had also removed some funding from police after 2020 and it was actually their NDP provincial government that forced the city to put that money back. For the first time ever, their police force is officially endorsing candidates in their current municipal election.

The documentary also talks about how crime/disorder has really spread well beyond East Hastings to other districts including as far away as Kitsilano and Point Grey.
Police there said 6,200 acts of crime were committed by 40 people, but they keep getting re-released. It has a definite point of view - that harm reduction is not the way to go.

 
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TAS said:
Is this where Edmonton is headed?

This is an interesting new documentary about the state of Vancouver, and how their police members feel helpless in tackling crime there. (I'm wondering if this film was funded in part by police, ha). It's currently a poor relationship between their city council/mayor and their police force (sound familiar?). The city had also removed some funding from police after 2020 and it was actually their NDP provincial government that forced the city to put that money back. For the first time ever, their police force is officially endorsing candidates in their current municipal election.

The documentary also talks about how crime/disorder has really spread well beyond East Hastings to other districts including as far away as Kitsilano and Point Grey.
Police there said 6,200 acts of crime were committed by 40 people, but they keep getting re-released. It has a definite point of view - that harm reduction is not the way to go.

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Sounds like a problem with the justice system more than a municipal or policing problem.
 
westcoastjos said:
Sounds like a problem with the justice system more than a municipal or policing problem.
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The documentary goes into a lot more than that. One segment that's at least 5 minutes long talks about the deteriorating relationship between police and politicians and how they are having difficulty recruiting - always under scrutiny from government and then on the other end, the people and situations, and violence, they deal with on a regular basis.

But then it is fair of Janz to point out that EPS is the highest funded police unit per capita and "This is on top of two armoured vehicles, two helicopters, a $4.3 million plane that will be arriving in the fall, and a drone fleet."
 
TAS said:
The documentary goes into a lot more than that. One segment that's at least 5 minutes long talks about the deteriorating relationship between police and politicians and how they are having difficulty recruiting - always under scrutiny from government and then on the other end, the people and situations, and violence, they deal with on a regular basis.

But then it is fair of Janz to point out that EPS is the highest funded police unit per capita and "This is on top of two armoured vehicles, two helicopters, a $4.3 million plane that will be arriving in the fall, and a drone fleet."
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Someone has to hold them accountable - the police should probably figure out how to be more open. Janz also points out that EPS doesn't even have dash cams, let alone body cams.
 
Some politicians want to find solutions, but Janz seems content to just make problems.

Bigger picture, about 3 years ago there was a big anti police movement, but now that's shifted. A lot of petty crime, smash and dash, etc. in the US has led to a push to enhance funding to police. On balance, that seems to be what's happening now but we seem to have a few places where things haven't yet shifted. I don't think Vancouver is Edmonton's future. The pendulum is already swinging hard the other way due to major public backlash to street violence, petty crime, open drug use, aggressive behavior. Pushing that old lady hospital worker on to the LRT tracks was so despicable and I think it reinforced the need to have a base level of order in the streets for the majority of Edmontonians.
 
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