Municipal Politics

[TAS]

Thank god it isn't up to you

The possibilities would be would be endless with another 4 years of Sohi or think just how much we could achieve on cleanliness and crime with another career bureaucrat in Salvador...

If you're talking about cleanliness and crime, Salvador deserves credit for championing the issue of problem and derelict properties when she called for this (ultimately successful) pilot during her first year in office. Why nobody on council before her did this I don't know.

Edmonton projects 31 per cent drop in inner city structure fires thanks to problem properties pilot

A pilot program cracking down on so-called "problem properties" is resulting in fewer fires in Edmonton's inner city.

www.google.com

 

[David A]

The "change meter" for this current council is firmly stuck on zero.

For a group of politicians most seem fairly impervious to public feedback on many things. They generally seem to just do what their bosses (the administration) tell them, like good little employees.

I don't think that will help their chances in getting reelected and I don't see much vision here either. Its too bad I had hopes for some of them initially.

 

[TAS]

Nice to see Edmonton highlighted among these 25 cities such as Berlin, Copenhagen, Paris, Oslo, Stockholm, Montreal, Bogota for our growing urbanism - got to thank Janz and Salvador who helped shine a spotlight on Edmonton that hasn't happened before by bringing in various people to the city to report on it through social media.

https://x.com/pathsforppl/status/1737189923831361621?s=20

 

[Avenuer]

Thank god it isn't up to you

The possibilities would be would be endless with another 4 years of Sohi or think just how much we could achieve on cleanliness and crime with another career bureaucrat in Salvador...

This is her first term on Council and prior to that she ran her own advocacy firm/company in YEG Garden Suites - that isn't a career bureaucrat lol.

 

[CaptainBL]

This is her first term on Council and prior to that she ran her own advocacy firm/company in YEG Garden Suites - that isn't a career bureaucrat lol.

Correction, I was thinking of Stevenson who has had a long enough career as a city of Edmonton employee.

 

[Gronk!]

Correction, I was thinking of Stevenson who has had a long enough career as a city of Edmonton employee.

I can forgive you I guess!

I agree with you that Stephenson is adequate but not really worth re-electing.
Salvador's star is definitely on the rise.

 

[kcantor]

The "change meter" for this current council is firmly stuck on zero.

i'm less sure of that... there seems to be an awful lot of frustration with this council that's almost across the board regardless of individual political inclinations.

 

[David A]

I could be wrong, but I was wondering if it was referring to council's desire for change, rather than the voters.

 

[David A]

I can forgive you I guess!

I agree with you that Stephenson is adequate but not really worth re-electing.
Salvador's star is definitely on the rise.

It is not easy to beat an incumbent, but I hope a good candidate comes forward to challenge Stevenson. I have not been impressed by her at all.

She is a downtown councilor, but has been the weakest advocate for downtown of all the councilors for the area in decades, which is even worse because a strong advocate is desperately needed now.

I don't know who she thinks she represents and I'm not sure if she does either.

 

[occidentalcapital]

There are lots of tricky issues where political spectrum doesn't really align anymore - I suspect this is the reason for Stevenson's lack of certainty

For example: If you are "pro-downtown" you need to stop the encampments, but this is not progressive (in some sense).

Downtown really needs a big injection of corporate business, again this is not progressive (as some define the word).

Downtown needs cleaning, street level policing (again this is not 'progressive' (for some))

Being "pro-urban" (i.e. bike lanes, transit, streetscape improvements, road diets, ETC.) is progressive.

Difficult for some folks to reconcile that they might be on a different side of the political spectrum on certain issues. You are seeing the fracturing of the political spectrum in action. Stevenson seems lost likely because she doesn't know where to come down on these issues to best represent who she perceives as her supporters.

 

[SarcasticMarmot]

I can forgive you I guess!

I agree with you that Stephenson is adequate but not really worth re-electing.
Salvador's star is definitely on the rise.

I dunno about that. As a resident of her ward she has been completely invisible and does not respond to local concerns or follow up on requests for information. Maybe she is more present on the south side of the river but most of the folks I know who are engaged on the northside are very disappointed in Salvador. She still has time to change but I think she is vulnerable to a strong challenger, she barely won last time and that was with a ton of opponents splitting the vote.

 

[TAS]

I dunno about that. As a resident of her ward she has been completely invisible and does not respond to local concerns or follow up on requests for information. Maybe she is more present on the south side of the river but most of the folks I know who are engaged on the northside are very disappointed in Salvador. She still has time to change but I think she is vulnerable to a strong challenger, she barely won last time and that was with a ton of opponents splitting the vote.

"Completely invisible"??
I'm really surprised by that comment. Salvador hosts various community engagement events on both sides of the river - sometimes on each side of the river on the same day!

Curious @SarcasticMarmot what kind of local issues/concerns has she not responded to?

 

[TAS]

she barely won last time and that was with a ton of opponents splitting the vote.

As an unknown in the ward, going against NDP endorsed candidate Cori Longo and UCP endorsed Caroline Matthews *both candidates had signs that looked like their provincial parties, Salvador was able to establish herself as standout among a crowded field.
A 12% gap from second place candidate is not a "barely" victory.

 

[SarcasticMarmot]

"Completely invisible"??
I'm really surprised by that comment. Salvador hosts various community engagement events on both sides of the river - sometimes on each side of the river on the same day!

Curious @SarcasticMarmot what kind of local issues/concerns has she not responded to?

She may host her own things but they are not very clearly promoted and I've never seen her at a community event. The exact opposite of our MLA, Janis, who is everywhere. Even Caterina made the effort to come to community festivals, local school events, and other community gatherings. And her office often does not respond to emails, even to say they have acknowledged them.

The issues we've been trying to raise include: The systematic and illegal deforestation of Kinnaird (Rat) Creek Ravine by a small group of street involved folks, she has not responded to any of the multiple requests to come view the damage or even talk to the Friends of Kinnaird Ravine whom she promised to connect with during the campaign and then has ignored since.

The lack of any public transit access to the ACT Centre in Rundle Park. A City of Edmonton recreation facility that has ZERO public transit running to it so low income folks with Leisure Access Passes cannot use it.

Lastly, any sort of communication or planning around the demolition of the Coliseum. Yes, she got the motion passed to finally demolish the damn thing but she's been completely silent when it comes communicating with the community about it and advocating to speed up the plan so it stops being a vacant wasteland in the middle of our community

All 3 of these are distinctly CoE issues and can't be blamed on being out of jurisdiction.

Basically, she may be the darling of urbanists but her ground game is quite poor. I was overjoyed when Caterina was no longer our councillor but have been disappointed since.

 

[TAS]

She may host her own things but they are not very clearly promoted and I've never seen her at a community event. The exact opposite of our MLA, Janis, who is everywhere. Even Caterina made the effort to come to community festivals, local school events, and other community gatherings. And her office often does not respond to emails, even to say they have acknowledged them.

The issues we've been trying to raise include: The systematic and illegal deforestation of Kinnaird (Rat) Creek Ravine by a small group of street involved folks, she has not responded to any of the multiple requests to come view the damage or even talk to the Friends of Kinnaird Ravine whom she promised to connect with during the campaign and then has ignored since.

The lack of any public transit access to the ACT Centre in Rundle Park. A City of Edmonton recreation facility that has ZERO public transit running to it so low income folks with Leisure Access Passes cannot use it.

Lastly, any sort of communication or planning around the demolition of the Coliseum. Yes, she got the motion passed to finally demolish the damn thing but she's been completely silent when it comes communicating with the community about it and advocating to speed up the plan so it stops being a vacant wasteland in the middle of our community

All 3 of these are distinctly CoE issues and can't be blamed on being out of jurisdiction.

Basically, she may be the darling of urbanists but her ground game is quite poor. I was overjoyed when Caterina was no longer our councillor but have been disappointed since.

Her social media is full of community events, many with MLA Irwin. Here is update on Coliseum as well.