I have a petition to present to city council, though for now it only has one name on it. My petition is that council formally ask the residents of the Quarry apartments to please get a life.
Oh, and as an addendum, I'd like council to please protect the owners of the condominiums in Cronquist Industrial Park from whoever it is that wants to devalue properties in the entire district by eliminating transit service to their area.
Condo resale values are fragile enough in today's market. The neighbourhood – which is slated to become more and more residential in the next few years – cannot be viable without bus service.
People, you live in the very centre of Alberta's third-largest city. There is traffic, there city sounds, the wind brings in the dust that falls from the sky onto your sealed window frames.
Why on earth would any sane property owner want to dispose of bus service, and replace it with higher density auto traffic?
Saturday's Advocate reported a petition from Quarry residents complains about noise, dust, and the cost of running empty buses. Noise and dust you will always have with you; in fact, transit buses are a solution to traffic noise and dust as they only pass every half hour, not as a constant stream of cars and trucks.
The complaint about empty buses is a lot more empty than the buses themselves. The city reports about 30 riders a day board in the area, and that number will only increase as more people move in.
When Cronquist Park becomes more residential, it will become an ideal location for college students to rent apartments. It's an easy walk to the local theatre, and to downtown amenities (once council solves the sticky problem of pedestrian access over Taylor Drive). The nicest part of the city's bike/hike trails run through it, linking Cronquist via the pedestrian/cyclist route to more than two-thirds of the city in less than a 20-minute ride.
In short, Cronquist, and the regions to be developed immediately beside it, will be among the most desirable locations to live, within an 100 km radius. And some seriously selfish and misinformed people don't want transit there? Because of the dust? Cough, cough.
The 30 people a day (and soon to be more) using transit from the Cronquist bus stops, what do the petitioners suggest for them? If these riders are property owners, their taxes pay for city transit, and they are entitled to have it, regardless the objections of the sticks in the mud with their views overlooking the riverbank.
If those people are renters, and they decide to move, what does the lack of transit access do to the investments of the landlords, much less the equity of all other landowners in the city, whose property values are tied to location and access to city services?
If council agrees to this petty and mean-spirited petition, I personally will be glad there is an election year coming. We need a city council that governs for the entire city, including its future residents.
Please, city council, bury this request from the Quarry. That is my petition.
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