Green S.M.A.R.R.T_e's

Activist blog for all citizens who desire Sustainable Modern Accessible Road & Rapid Transit planning for Edmonton's LRT corridors..... (with a touch of whimsey ;-)

[smarrte-edmonton-blog]

City Council isn't listening...

The Cultural heritage and input of our Chinese community is not being taken into consideration.

102 A Avenue is a better choice for Chinatown & for downtown as a whole.

The Members of SMARRT_E think that the urban planning cabal is forcing through bad decisions that will ultimately take away from our downtown's energy & vitality.

Here is an article outlining their valid concerns form the Boyle McCauley News:

"MAY 21 - CHINATOWN LRT PROTEST RALLY -  SUPPORT OUR NEIGHBOURS!

"LRT GOOD -  LOCATION WRONG" will be the message on the banners at this protest rally organised by the Chinatown community to protest the 102 Avenue LRT route and tunnel entrance.

The rally will be on May 21, 2011 at 2 pm. at the Chinese Elders Mansion (9540 102 Ave). Please come, and join the Chinatown, Boyle Street and Riverdale LRT Working Group in support for our Chinese community neighbours.

Background on the issue:

On May 25 the City Transportation Dept. will present its Downtown LRT Connector Plan for approval by the Transportation and Public Works Committee of City Council. Unfortunately, NO community consultation was done east of 99 street to discuss the route, with the result that it is unsuitable and disruptive to the communities through which it is proposed to run.

This Plan would run a downtown LRT corridor east -west  along 102 Ave. Harbin Road from  99 to  95 streets, resulting in:

* removal of the Chinatown Gate which was a joint project with Edmonton's twin city, Harbin

* the entire portion of Harbin Road between 96th and 95th streets  (by the Chinese Elder's Mansion) would be  dominated by a block-long LRT tunnel portal trench

* compromise access to the Chinese elders' community in the buildings on the north side of 102 avenue (station will be in front of Chinese Freemasons' Elders' Lodge, portal in front of Chinese Elders' Mansions and Chinese Multicultural Association)

* to build the portal, all cultural centres on the south side of 102 Avenue, properties that currently accommodate important Chinese community and family institutions -- Chow Association, Lee's Community Association, Kaiping Association, Toi Shan Society and other seniors' societies, a Chinese-Canadian Heritage Museum, etc. (as well as United Grocers' warehouse, which may actually be an historic building, though now in poor repair) would be expropriated and torn down. Some of these buildings were designed to harmonise with the historic neighbourhood, with Chinese cultural architectural elements, some of which were imported from China. They are vitally important to the community's activities and health.

* Harbin Road, site of parades and festivals, would be blocked from this kind of public use

* as a result, the Harbin Road community would be destroyed.

Boyle Street Community League opposes this route because:

* all the reasons above are also our reasons. It is not right to destroy an active nexus of Boyle Street community

* the route does not serve the entire Boyle Street community well

* NO community consultation was done east of 99 street to discuss the route

* an alternative route on 102a avenue would serve the Quarters and Boyle Renaissance better while leaving Harbin Road undisturbed and ensuring the safety of the seniors and other vulnerable pedestrian populations on 102 ave.

Riverdale opposes this route because:

* the tunnel may threaten the safety of residences on Cameron Avenue during construction and operation of the SE LRT

* the tunnel and bridge have a large impact on the river valley

* NO community consultation was done with Riverdale to discuss the route

* An alternative route would mean the tunnel would be deeper and the portal nearer the river, thus ensuring the safety of Cameron Avenue structures and minimising river valley impact."

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People Love their Cars

Remember the 1992 Cameron Crowe movie "Singles" about a group of Seattle generation X'er's ??

This is a clip from the movie where the main character explains his passion for mass transit and the benefits for the city of Seattle. He calls his idea "SUPERTRAIN".

Strangely enough this short clip & the movie review below that examines this scene summarizes Edmonton's evolving relation to the LRT......

Read on!......

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In the 1992 movie Singles, Steve (played by Campbell Scott) has a grand vision of a "Supertrain" for Seattle — it will cut down on traffic and be good for the environment:

“You give the people coffee and great music, they will park and ride!"

"He explains the idea to his friend, who nods in approval, who then hesitantly replies;

"But I love my car."

Steve eventually gets a meeting with the mayor, where he explains the great benefits of the "Supertrain". The mayor is silent for a moment, then says, "Great I love it and will risk not being re-elected to support it!

"People love their cars".....Steve's proposal goes nowhere unfortunately and he is professionally crushed....

Why? PEOPLE LOVE THEIR CARS.

Our country is made of people that love to drive, that love to take vacations, that love oil and its by-products. It may not feel great to see our president constantly make oil companies' lives easier, but we can't get too worked up because we've all got a little guilt in the matter.

We don't want to take the "Supertrain"... We love our cars. We'll dabble in hybrids, maybe. But we want freedom to hit the open road whenever the mood strikes us.

I'm as guilty as anyone, although I pat myself on the back a little because I work out of my house and have no commute. Nevertheless, at the height of gas prices, my family took a Labor Day drive to Chicago, 300 miles both ways. I'm sure the Exxon Mobil chairman would be happy to hear it.

This post isn't to scold anyone else on their use of oil; I haven't dedicated my life to only riding bikes and heating my home with thousands of gerbils running really fast on those little wheels.

It's just a reminder that we can vilify oil company execs all we want, but we're the ones that make their lives easier by doing nothing to curb our oil-dependent lifestyles. And while lip service is paid to "reducing our dependence on foreign oil," the truth is we only want new technologies that will make our cars run on cow shit or some other easily-renewable source instead of making any changes that would help fix the problem.

-Written by "ProgressiveDepot" for BC BlogCritics Culture Section

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MONORAIL!!

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson..."Dooooh!"

Is this how those of us who live and work in West Edmonton will feel when we start to face major arterial traffic congestion running north & south when the poorly laid out west LRT corridor construction and route is built?

If you remember this classic episode wherein Homer's home town of Springfield gets ...um.... well lobbied snookered into putting their money into a MONORAIL that turns out to be a boondogle.

Marge, ever the voice of reason says in the song:

"The main streets are still cracked & broken!"

Bart replies:

"Sorry Mom, the mob has spoken!"

It's a catchy tune that is actually quite a fun critique of Edmonton's LRT plans for the west corridor of Stony Plain Road and 156 Street....

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Have you had a good belly laugh lately?

3 Billion doesn't go as far as it used to......

Well here is a very sweet little city of Edmonton video meant to promote their 30 year transportation plan called "The Way We Move" on YouTube and the city's own main transportation page that at first blush seems almost like a SNL parody in it's complete inaneness...

It follows an attractive young lady/future mom in her twenties thinking out-loud about what kind of Edmonton she wants to live in - in the future. So far so good right? But wait, this is where it gets interesting to the point of being completely laughable.

She waxes poetic about walking, biking and living in a geo-thermally heated building and sharing her vehicle with family & friends and only using it to go to the mountains...!

REALLY? I mean come on. Do the producers of this little vignette remember our winter in 2010 - 2011 and how cold and how much snow we received in Edmonton?

I realize that planning is meant to look out far into the future but this video isn't a serious attempt to envision peoples real lives. I half expected an animated pink "My-Little-Pony" to appear and for the young lady to ride off avoiding traffic on horseback with lollipops falling out of her pockets and rainbows lighting up the sky...

Then the video switches to LEGO. I am not kidding. Apparently as a PR move, our city engineers built a LRT Exhibit/Village for the public to envision how it will work....

OK, REALLY? Don't get me wrong: I LOVE LEGO and understand how in every man there is a little boy trapped inside that could play LEGO forever & I wish I worked in an work environment where management encouraged  this kind of lateral thinking and LEGO model-making on the job (kudos to you Tyler Golly - Senior Engineer)....

However is this really the best our city can do in terms of making their case for LRT expansion and their plan to puts private passenger vehicles as the third priority behind cargo and mass transit??!!

Where is the video that talks about the fact that for the foreseeable future 80%+ of Edmontonians will be driving cars especially in the winter?! If the majority of people are caught in traffic gridlock due to LRT corridors then what?

I am all for idealism and having a vision in urban planning, but in internet vernacular I believe this video (not the LEGO exhibit itself) would be referred to as:  epicfail

Here is the transcript:

"In my future Edmonton, I walk my kids to school and then I bike to work or if it is cold outside the LRT is great! I take it to go shopping and to the theatre too! 

The environment is very important to me, the condo I purchase will be in a geo-thermally heated building....."

.....Excuse me while I get my Imperial Star Destroyer and Death Star Lego sets ready to do battle with the Edmonton Lego land......

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The Emperor has No Clothes

“Thank you for your interest….”

The email below from the City of Edmonton was received today (May 16th 2012) by SMARRT_e.

It is “THE USUAL”….which is of course unacceptable to all the business owners, commuters, taxpayers & drivers who are pro-LRT but against the current corridor plan of Stony Plain Road & 156 Street.

(The senders name has been omitted to preserve their privacy)

You will note that the concerns raised about the T.O.D’s (Transportation Oriented Developments) as to their viability & as the cities “linchpin” criteria for running the west "LRT - Tram" down Stony Plain road are not countered AT ALL…

I think it is fair to say that our city has no response to this point & with a smile we can say that it isn't the Emperor but rather our city administration that has no clothes in this instance…

Maybe the city would be so good as to provide the ridership estimates of a fully completed west LRT-Tram line as currently conceived?

What are the projections for how many people will take it in it’s 1st & 5th years of operation?

More importantly what is the best case scenario for the percentage of LRT rider-ship to city population? Simpler yet, what is the anticipated  ratio of LRT commuters to vehicle commuters in the west end?

Even if the city were to achieve the worthwhile and unlikely goal of 15%, where does that leave us  west end vehicle commuters? Why are we inverting traffic flow in this manner?

For an Expo we didn't get or for an grand downtown arena it seems we cannot afford?

We await their reply….

Dear SMARRT_e: “Thank you for your interest in the SE to West LRT project, and for participating in our Community Conversation at Annunciation School on April 26. I have read the SMARRTe Coalition Statement of Principles you provided me on April 26, and have also visited the group’s Tumblr page at http://smarrte-edmonton.tumblr.com/. Below, I have addressed your key issues and answered the questions you posed.  While the City recognizes that not all trips can be made by transit, provision of LRT is a priority set out in the City of Edmonton’s Transportation Master Plan, The Way We Move.

Two of the goals include ensuring transit sustainability and increasing transit ridership, as well as improving travel options to reduce barriers between different modes of transportation. A shift from personal vehicle travel to transit has been seen in recent history on the South LRT extension, affirming this direction. The corridor selection and route selection processes are based on Council-approved evaluation criteria, which I have attached here to clarify the purpose and goals of an LRT system such as the SE to West. You expressed concern regarding involvement of Community Leagues in the consultation process. I am happy to report that we have been liaising with Community Leagues that are affected by the alignment since the corridor selection process, and will continue to do so. We include Community Leagues among our key stakeholders, and also engage with their members through an inclusive consultation process open to all Edmontonians. If the Community League you are affiliated with ever wishes to gather further information on the SE to West LRT project, please do not hesitate to contact me. While you are correct in stating that no funding for Detailed Design or Construction has been secured, we have been directed by Council to complete the Preliminary Design phase by the end of 2013. This timeline informs our two-year consultation process and timelines. The design and ultimately the construction of the SE to W LRT will affect Edmontonians who live or do business in the established communities along the route. The City is committed to involving stakeholders, and all interested members of the public, in the Preliminary Design Phase of the SE to West LRT project. The purpose of the Public Involvement Process for this stage of the project is to present opportunities for all interested parties to be involved in key elements of the Preliminary Design process where they can affect the decisions to be made. This does not include debating or changing the Council-approved route or stop/station locations, decisions which were consulted on extensively throughout the Corridor Selection and Concept Planning stages from 2009-2011. I have attached the Public Involvement Plan highlights for your reference. It provides information about which decisions can be influenced by the public at this stage in the project. The City of Edmonton appreciates your dedication to advocacy and your commitment to being involved in decisions that will affect you and your community. We will be back in West Edmonton in November 2012 to share design concepts for stops/station areas and to gather feedback on aesthetics and integration. Regards,

Public Involvement Advisor, SE to W LRT  Transportation Services, City of Edmonton"

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Here is a great article from the west Edmonton web site West Edmonton Local Councillor Linda Sloan indicates she is fully behind the current plan.....

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WHO THE HECK IS S.M.A.R.R.T_e?

S.M.A.R.R.T_e members are a diverse & silent majority making ends meet, taking the kids to soccer, hockey, piano & dance classes and we are so very busy with our day-to-day lives. We count on the hard work of our city administration and the leadership of our Mayor & Councillors.

While we might on a rare occasion refer to ourselves as "smarty-pants" or even "smart-Alec's" (in jest) we are really just moms & dads, students & teachers, union members, artists & entrepreneurs, professionals, renters, and homeowners that are the lifeblood of Edmonton's west end. Above all we are taxpayers who love our city, are excited about its future and are the ones who will be paying for this city’s blossoming infrastructure.

We view the reduction of our carbon footprint as a city as a worthy goal and agree that it should indeed help shape public transportation policy. We further agree that the proposed low floor LRT trolleys are an excellent choice and appreciate the many innovative ideas coming from our city planning department.

However we also recognize the fact that we live in the most northerly city in North America. Edmonton’s latitude falls in the same range as that of Siberia and when winters like that of 2010 – 2011 occur it is a fact of life that private passenger vehicles will continue to be one of our primary modes of transport.

We feel that City council has made a lot of great changes to the city in the last 6 years however we think that there was an error made in the case of the West Edmonton LRT expansion corridors decision and it isn't too late to amend it!

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"LET THEM EAT (LRT) CAKE!"

Many citizens of Edmonton are very concerned with the LRT plans for west Edmonton. Our city administration says the process is already decided and yet there are no firm cost estimates for the project and no federal, provincial or municipal money allocated for West Edm LRT expansion as of April 2012...

As taxpayers & voters we reject council's decision on the route of this line west and intend to amend it and keep pressing until we are successful or council revisits the west corridor. We, the voters and the taxpayers are the ultimate decision makers & will make common cause with Edmontonians from all areas of the city.

We are very concerned with the potential for the tripling of traffic along 142 Street and on the already very busy 149th Street which feeds south & southeast bound traffic into Whitemud Drive. These effects will be even more pronounced with the effective closing of Stony Plain Road. Also of concern is potential for serious gridlock on 156 Street/Meadowlark Road/159th street artery that provides access both on & off Whitemud Drive going east & west. The current plan will only allow 42 blocks of single road lanes running north & south for vehicles.

We view the use of Stony Plain Road as an important corridor to the west end of Edmonton and these changes to it will produce a choke point that will create vast lines of idling vehicles and congestion for a majority of commuters.

We agree that this city administration & council are transforming Edmonton, but we respectfully disagree about how that transformation is being executed in terms of the routes of the west Edmonton LRT route corridors....

(Click on the photo for one of the best bakery's in the west end...)

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Open. Decisive. Fair.... We are counting on it Mr Mayor. :)

(Please click on the photo to read the Mayor's thoughtful comments about what the LRT  could mean and about how it could positively transform our fair city).

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A parking lot in Glenora? Impossible you say?

There is no proposal for such a change in Glenora nor is there any anticipated however a proposal along these lines (for a temporary 8 year parking lot) is under city review for the Century Park condominium development located on the South LRT line at 23rd Avenue & 111th Street. While the Glenora Skyline "Luxury" condominium project located at 142 Street & Stony Plain Road & Century Park have many similarities they are each distinct visions for modern urban living and are of different scales.

The key to understanding these two developments is realizing that Edmonton is HOT for:

"T.O.D.'s": Transportation Oriented Development's.

As Edmonton seems to have awakened from a 20 year planning slumber a bit like Rip Van Winkle we have seen an exponential growth in multi-family property development & the required municipal planning activity.

While there was some movement in this direction in the 1990's under the leadership of Mayor Bill Smith with the downtown tax reduction initiated to spur housing development in Railtown & downtown Edmonton, the vast majority of new proposals especially have come forward during Mayor Stephen Mandel's two terms commencing in 2004.

To be clear, "T.O.D’s" do make a heck of a lot of sense & our city administration is really looking to the future by encouraging a lot more people to live & work in our city’s core near LRT as this will help make a more vibrant city of arts, commerce & culture.

But how many do we really need?

Has the city gone a bit hog-wild on these high rise approvals?

We at SMARRT_e would suggest that the answer is YES as the city has given the green light to over 46 new high rise towers. A good portion of these are intended to be T.O.D.’s and of which less than 1/2 a dozen are actually under construction. (http://www.emporis.com/city/edmonton-canada)

By approving so many new high density projects it is our opinion that the city is effectively "goosing supply" (at least from a regulatory point of view) and demand hasn’t caught up.

This has resulted in the situation that the Century Park development is in; seriously redesigning & reinventing their project as a rental community blended with the existing condominium project.

Now mixed use is actually a desired goal in effective urban planning & Procura Property Management of Edmonton & Calgary seems like a good steward & appears to be making the best choices it can. Century Park 2.0 is a fair response to the change in the economic climate since the inception of the project. Given the location of this project as a pathfinder for others, Procura should be given every consideration and it's likely more balanced urban village of condominium and attractive rental buildings will emerge.

Our concern at SMARRT_e is that our city may be harming the commercial viability of these projects from a planning point of view & inadvertently undermining them by making it harder for these T.O.D’s to reach critical mass.

As for the Glenora Skyline condominium project, it is a visually impressive & unique project that will likely proceed on it's own merits with or without an LRT station on it's south doorstep and it is doubtful that the existing revenue producing buildings would be torn down to make way for a parking lot. Any change to the zoning would need to go to the city to be approved and would require public input making such a change of this nature unlikely.

Because of the ramp up in approval process on the city's part over the last 8 years there is an abundance in terms of the supply of future high density developments. SMARRT_e  members have to wonder what percentage of these will be actually be built if commercial credit is difficult to obtain and pre-sales are slow.

We also wonder how many  of those already approved will proceed without major changes in their actual execution & design.

If you also factor into this equation the development of the City Centre airport lands, the University of Alberta Farm lands, the huge boost in density for the east downtown "The Quarters" Area Structure plan also..... then it becomes alarmingly clear that the vision of our planners  will not come to fruition for a long time. This may be especially true as it relates to the likelihood of T.O.D.'s  being built near Stony Plain road.

This means underlining rational for placing the west Edmonton LRT corridor partially on Stony Plain road is essentially flawed and unrealistic.

Or as my Uncle Chester used to say:  "It's Poppycock..."

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Prime examples of Transportation Oriented Developments.

Century Park might be described as the "Big Brother" to Glenora Skyline due to it's larger scale. Given this fact and that that the highly respected developer ProCura Property Management is evolving it's development vision to build "luxury" rental units (but sadly no more pond), we think it is reasonable to ask what implications does this new reality has for the Skyline luxury condominium project?

NEW PLANS FOR CENTURY PARK THROW OUT VANCOUVER LOOK:

http://www2.canada.com/story.html?id=6504052

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Does it ever seem to you like the city administration is telling you that the West Edm LRT expansion is "For your own guud" ...a bit like the warden in Paul Newman's Academy Award nominated performance of the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke:

'What we have here is  -  failure to Communicate....."

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Century Park parking lot with LRT station in the background.

CLICK PHOTO TO VIEW THE APRIL 26, 2012 EDMONTON JOURNAL ARTICLE:

"Residents of stalled Urban Village balk at parking lot plan"

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Looks like your site is off to a great start!

Thanks!! Appreciate your support. Keep watch for the date of our SMARRT_e founding meeting. Maybe you can come out?! 

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Here is our proposed Green SMARRT_e Logo. It emphasizes that we are concerned with the environment, that we like the LRT and that we are a friendly positive group focused on planning LRT corridors to complement & coexist with our large arterial roads to create a win-win situation for all Edmonton commuters.

What do you think? Does the Green SMARRT_e smiley face send the right message?

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"Grab your coat and get your hat, leave your worry on the doorstep just direct your feet to the Sunny Side of the (163rd) street!"

On this beautiful & snowy 27th Day of April I thought it would be fun to play this classic song by Gogi Grant. We believe that somewhere other than 156th will be the sunny side of the street..... :)

SMARRT_E members attended the City transportation meeting last night at Annunciation School & distributed our statement of principles and were met with a fantastic response from many of our fellow citizens. We are on track to add 10 more members to our coalition. Keep watching this blog for more input & postings from SMARRT_E members.....

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"Let's do the TimeWarp again".... Here is Councillor Don Iveson in 2009 thoughtfully reviewing the options for the west expansion of the LRT. Please note the yellow line showing a LRT line running west on 107 Avenue and then South along 156th Street until it hits 87 Ave. It also shows in Red the path of the current plan for implementation on Stony Plain Road (the option council selected).

Please click on this link to read Don's view at that time....