HPVOoO Santa Claus Parade pix

You may wonder what a grouch like myself would be doing celebrating at the Help Santa Toy Parade. Isn't a parade a celebration? Is it appropriate for a grouch to celebrate anything?

Well, as much as I don't like Christmas, I found a great justification to celebrate the Santa Claus parade this year, as I told a few of the folks at the start of the parade: The better a job we do at promoting Santa Claus, the more elaborate the ruse is, and the bigger the fall will be when kids find out it's all a lie! Mwa ha ha!

Okay, so really it's because parades are a lot of fun.

And the Human Powered Vehicle Operators of Ottawa like doing parades. Richard usually gets his greenspeed tandem trike and 4x8' trailer out--which was extended longer for this float--and lots of others usually come out on their own machines.

Blackburn Pete had to cancel right before leaving his house on account of becoming a grandpa.

Anyway, Richard's server isn't working so he can't upload his photos, particularly the traditional end-of-parade group shot (and my camera battery was dead by the end so I didn't get a group shot). He didn't take too many photos, either, so I guess I'm the one who'll be taking photos.

Enjoy!

- RG>

A little bit of too much hope

Local transit and US politics take you for a ride.

I didn't realize it until the results were in, but I had a lot of emotional investment in the US presidential election. In 2004, I had assumed that George W. Bush couldn't possibly be re-elected, but the US electorate proved that, yes, they could be hoodwinked by deceptive campaigns and electoral tricks. My heart sunk below my feet after that election.

And despite repeatedly telling myself that I wasn't going to care who won the election in 2008, my spirits were greatly lifted when Barack Obama was elected and the eight-year curse was over. Despite the hackneyed slogan, it really was a sign of hope; that my jaded view of the world is a stereotype that doesn't necessarily reflect reality. The warm, sunny day following the election helped too!


This same hope had a resurgence at the local level when Ottawa Councillors Christine Leadman and Clive Doucet held a press conference called Light Rail Now to present their alternative to the City's monolithic and immovable plan. Here, the hope was that City Council might actually make a Transit decision that comes from their own ranks.

Two days later, that hope died. A joint meeting of Transportation and Transit Committees voted to not even consider the Leadman-Doucet proposal. To me, it was Bush '04 all over again, and I've been depressed since.

The Committees' recommendation isn't final until approved by Council, so there is still a chance. Finally, this morning, I managed to find a way of expressing my concerns, and fired off this letter to Council:

Dear Mayor and Councillors,

I was disheartened to learn that Transportation and Transit Committee would not even consider the Carling LRT corridor. The Parkway corridor has many problems which the Carling LRT corridor address (see http://www.transitottawa.ca/2008/09/light-rail-on-parkway-issues.html - note: not affiliated to me).

While on the surface Carling is not perfect, neither is the Parkway. This is why both need to be thoroughly considered and compared as potential rapid transit corridors.

Mayor O'Brien and Transit Committee Chair Alex Cullen have said on numerous occasions that it is important that Council appear unified behind a plan in order to get funding from upper levels of government. A plan is solid when it has withstood all criticism and serious consideration of the alternatives. If Council follows the Committee's recommendation, you will be dismissing criticism, not withstanding it. This is the blind faith that killed NS-LRT in 2006.

At Committee, Councillor Cullen said many times that the Staff plan has undergone vigorous consultation. However, all four options presented earlier this year included the Parkway corridor, all four options included $1.5B in bus investments, and no option considered rail to the East, West, and Southwest suburbs. It is misleading to the public and to our Federal and Provincial partners to claim that the public "chose" these. When consulted, the public loudly opposed the Parkway corridor, yet they are not being heard.

Please, Councillors, I urge you to give the Carling option fair consideration. If the parkway corridor is proven to be truly better, Council and the City will be able to stand unified behind it.

- RG>