David

David

47p

94 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

7 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - Weekly Poll: Electoral... · 0 replies · +1 points

Which just goes to show that what Canada really needs is the process by which New Zealand changed its system (from FPTP to MMP, as it happens) - this involved several stages, with extensive public education adn discussion followed by a vote at each stage. It now has a system which is acknowledged as the most representative in the world, and also includes reserved seats for indigenous people, something Canada could, in addition, learn from.

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - What if Kingston... · 0 replies · +1 points

Indeed, and those kinds of questions would be answered through some kind of public participatory planning process, which would bring people together to work out all the different interests and priorities, and create a way forward. These kinds of processes have been carried out in many places in the world, yet Kingston (as usual) is some way behind the times on this. Instead we just have to listen to interest groups and money talking as if that was democracy in action.

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - What if Kingston... · 0 replies · +2 points

Yes, I was. The problem with automatically 'pro-business' responses like mr rectifier's is that they seem to assume that any development is as good as another if 'business' wants them. But that's simply not the case. Aesthetics matter - otherwise people would not bother paying architects to design interesting buildings or redesigning areas. There is plenty of research in the urban planning and regional studies literature that demonstrates the value of distinctive, well-planned, participatory and well-designed development. But what we have here is, as you say, simply homogenous and homogenizing lazy architecture that is straight out of Sim-City.

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - What if Kingston... · 1 reply · +2 points

Kingston is not going to stop being a small town. It's just not appropriate to compare an entire urban region of 2 million+ people (Montreal) with a relatively isolated regional town, whose entire regional population doesn't amount to more than 150,000. Kingston has to be rather more intelligent and selective about what kinds of businesses it thinks it can 1. create (let's not forget that a really sustainable economy depends not on the desparate search for external investment but has to build a strong indigenous base); and 2. attract. Now what would attract people to Kingston? Certainly not undermining the few assets it already has (historic character and waterfront) - Kingston already made enough mistakes with the waterfront, and now seems intent on repeating them. The thing is that Kingston has no real economic or spatial strategy. Kedco is a disaster, the local government is unimaginative and in the pockets of speculative developers, and the university it only semi-engaged.

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - What if Kingston... · 2 replies · +2 points

Just to point out that densification / smart growth etc. is not the same as high rise. Developer-led high-rise is largely about rent-seeking behaviour, that is trying to make as much money out of a small ground area as possible. It's not about intelligent, participatory planning and community-centred policies to bring people back into the downtown and encourage walkable neighbourhoods etc. This project is massively out of scale, and it's also a lazy and poorly thought-out piece of architecture. It also seems to be another indication that Kingston's urban planning polcies (even you can even say that Kingston has such things in any meaningful way) are dominated by the interests of developers and are not in any way strategic or well-thought-out. We actually need some planning for a sustainable, liveable city, not just ad-hoc responses to individual proposals from developers. In other words, the city needs to work with people to set an agenda to which developers respond, not the other way around.

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - Weekly Poll: 2015 Fede... · 0 replies · +4 points

Let's face it, Gerretsen is a man of limited talents: a pretty ineffectual mayor, whose only major assets were his name and his membership of the Liberal Party. And that appears to have been enough for most if my fellow Kingstonians and Islanders. It wasn't even a competition. We weren't exactly blessed with a fine or diverse selection of five only moderately interesting white male candidates. Somehow ironically reflecting Mulcair's adoption of Tory rules on the deficit, NDP hopeful, Beals, had a moustache to match Conservative candidate, Brooke, who spent most of his time saying how much he wasn't like Harper. The most decent candidate was the Greens' Townend, but you don't win anything for being decent (or for being Green) with the First Past The Post electoral system. There was also apparently a Libertarian. Luckily for the country, Trudeau has easily enough very talented people that he won't need to scrape the barrel for Ministers, so Gerretsen can concentrate on communicating our feelings to Ottawa and being, hopefully, developing into a solid constituency MP. That's the most I can honestly hope for from him. In conclusion, I think all of us would have Ted Hsu back in a heartbeat, whatever our specific disagreements might have been. So, just as soon as your family's grown-up, Ted, no rush...

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - The State of… Lower ... · 0 replies · +2 points

Thanks for this useful summary, Harvey. Just on Verde / P'lovers - I believe that the name change was the result of the managers / franchisees buying out the owners. I am totally with you on Stone City Ales... ;)

As ever, the elephant in the room is the dominance of downtown Kingston by three intransigent and selfish landowners, and a local government that appears unwilling or unable to challenge this situation...

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - #ygkChallenge: Check o... · 0 replies · +1 points

We (King's Don Taiko Japanese drumming group) played on the 'multicultural' stage of Homegrown on Saturday and we had a reasonably-sized and appreciative audience - thank-you to everyone who came and who was involved!.

However, I was amazed how few people in the area seemed to know about the event. There seemed to have been a lot of effort that had gone into the programming and not enough into the publicity. The few posters were not eye-catching and it was almost impossible to find programs in town in the week before the event.

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - Weekly Poll: Most Anti... · 0 replies · +2 points

It's pretty depressing when the choice of what to be excited about even includes Don Cherry's Sport Bar and another LCBO...

8 years ago @ Kingstonist.com - Six Questions for Ston... · 0 replies · +2 points

So good to see Stone City Ales getting some love. It's the best thing to happen to Kingston for a long time, and I spend way too much time there... ;)