City Secret Revealed: Marion Bike Lanes Plan Will Steal 99 Parking Spots – TGCTS clip April 16/23
This week TGCTS exclusively reveals what the vaunted City of Winnipeg “public engagement” Open House in March hid from St. Boniface residents and merchants about area parking.
In Part 5 on the Moving on Marion plan — Marty Gold investigates a bottomless pit of inept and seemingly corrupted public consultation.
On the weekend we informed St. B area residents of our YouTube series. They reacted just like the businesses did: they don’t support bike lanes they never heard about and were never asked about. They spoke of the damaging ripple effects on their daily lives.
City Hall won’t listen- but we do.
Homeowners, tenants, and hard-working employees listened to Episode 18 last week and voiced their own suspicions of a shady consultation process. On the defensive, the former ward assistant to St. B councilor Matt Allard inadvertently gave away the game.
Ryan Palmquist – now a school trustee and no stranger to cashing taxpayer-funded cheques – mocked our fundraising pitch to listeners on Facebook, claiming this scandal is made up and implying we are conning the taxpayers and residents of St. Boniface. Mistake #1.
Palmquist denied there was a “silent backdoor agenda”, citing “4 public meetings, multiple mailouts, dozens of posters, social media…” He wouldn’t answer what Biz members were ever told about projected parking cuts.
Then Mistake #2: He revealed who blindsided the business stakeholders.
“It was literally the then (Biz) Executive Director who was one of the key champions of this vision and was involved every step of the way. I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
So, Marty asked the Norwood Grove Biz for board minutes verifying she told her employers the plan she ‘championed’ will chop NINETY-NINE parking spaces and if they supported it.
“Norwood Grove Biz is organizing an Open House with our members about the Moving on Marion to listen to their voices and what they have to say about this plan.”
Is it a scandal yet?
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Marty dives into the public policy issues. With his question about “Available Spaces” answered on Twitter by another Councilor, Marty does the math to prove the list given Janice Lukes- who took over as Public Works chair from Allard- concealed the real number by leaving out a street. Unbelievable.
What would the effect be of losing 100 spots- and loading zones- for bike lanes? A listener explains Osborne Village will soon find out- “red hot anger.” It’s the 2010 bike lane fake “public consultation” scam that a City audit slammed.
After Palmquist insisted the public was properly informed by the City, Marty checked his claim on the street north of Goulet that leads to the front door of the hospital.
Hear the reaction to our handouts from 22 voters on Dollard Blvd. It obliterates any City Hall BS that the bike lane process was fair, transparent or competent.
Residents echoed concerns for the future of the bank and other enterprises, and raised new concerns: busier streets & lanes, delayed ambulance response, impacts on the disabled and their own safety.
Marty reviews plans to steal over 30% of parking, cut a priority bus lane, and reduce reliable bus service instead of improving it. Why no Park n’ Ride lots for commuters?
“The Biz supports the plan” lie was used to quell dissent at the Open House where business owners weren’t invited and “before and after” parking numbers were hidden.
A redesigned 2-lane Marion and Goulet is an example of ‘Improper Planning’ where the bike lobby and anti-car radicals thrive as area stakeholders are shafted. Dollard Blvd. folks don’t have a residents group to be their voice, and their councilor Matt Allard ignores them.
The “professional consultants” left out hundreds of affected property owners and employers, seemingly including St. Boniface Hospital, and are laughing all the way to the bank. That’s a scandal.
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