tetsul posted:

I'm sure people were lined up waiting for the polls to open so they could vote out Harper and get their precious long form census back.

OSI bean dip posted:

The average Canadian is too inconvenienced to spend 5-20 minutes every five years to tell the government anonymously about themselves.

CBC, May 03 posted:

Statistics Canada confirmed Tuesday morning that the website was down for 45 minutes because of Canadians' "enthusiasm" for the census.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/census-2016-nerds-1.3563808

CBC, Jun 24 posted:

Statistics Canada's online system crashed the first day it began to collect census data from Canadians last month because of design flaws, not because too many people were using it simultaneously as the agency initially suggested.

Internal documents also indicate the system was broken for about three hours on May 2, longer than the 45 minutes the agency initially claimed, and affected "millions" of Canadians trying to file.

Statistics Canada claimed in a tweet that evening that because of the "high numbers" of Canadians filing their census information, the website was "overwhelmed by the enthusiasm."

In fact, traffic on the website was only at about 50 per cent of expected capacity, according to documents obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/census-statistics-canada-computers-online-webpage-1.3649989

PT6A posted:

Even $50/month is pretty cheap. Residents-only parking spots usually go for around $150/month in downtown Calgary, and unrestricted indoor parking in city parkades can cost more than $600/month (and until recently, there was a waiting list for monthly spaces at that rate).

St. Dogbert posted:

Between that, gas prices, and the other drivers, my decision not to drive looks better all the time.

PT6A posted:

Even $50/month is pretty cheap. Residents-only parking spots usually go for around $150/month in downtown Calgary, and unrestricted indoor parking in city parkades can cost more than $600/month (and until recently, there was a waiting list for monthly spaces at that rate).

Guy DeBorgore posted:

OTOH Edmonton has public ashtrays at regular intervals downtown which is amazing, I wish Toronto would do the same thing.

Guy DeBorgore posted:

OTOH Edmonton has public ashtrays at regular intervals downtown which is amazing, I wish Toronto would do the same thing.

OSI bean dip posted:

Edmonton is so classy with its ashtrays everywhere. Can we get places to put our needles while we're at it? Whyte Ave would appreciate it.

cowofwar posted:

The sharps bins are for diabetics, not junkies.

St. Dogbert posted:

Between that, gas prices, and the other drivers, my decision not to drive looks better all the time.

St. Dogbert posted:

Between that, gas prices, and the other drivers, my decision not to drive looks better all the time.

Cerepol posted:

http://www.lfpress.com/2016/07/18/downtown-bar-patrons-could-listen-to-amplified-music-and-dance-on-patios-if-council-approves-pilot-project

drat kids these days.

Wanting loud music in the downtown!

CLAM DOWN posted:

Driving in Vancouver rush hour is loving awful and I wish I had a choice for commuting to work. It'll be the reason I quit eventually.

quote:

VANCOUVER — A war is being waged in Vancouver’s streets. Led by green-by-all-means mayor Gregor Robertson, City Hall has identified and vilified its enemy, the car. The private automobile.

The mayor doesn’t own one. He prefers his bicycle. Since taking office eight years ago, Robertson and his slate of left-leaning councillors have introduced myriad bicycle lanes into the city’s downtown core and other neighbourhoods, to the frustration of motorists, taxi drivers, shop owners, pedestrians and others. (And to the delight of residents of one publicly maintained street, which, thanks to its dedicated bike lane, is now a semi-private, local vehicles and bikes only driveway, off limits to the taxpaying hoi polloi.)

Some of the city’s new traffic-clogging, business-blocking lanes are seldom used, but that’s of little concern to two-wheeler preachers and sanctimonious scolders who aren’t dependent on cars for their livelihoods. More dedicated bike lanes are on the way.

Planning a move to Vancouver’s West End, a densely populated, mostly working-class neighbourhood wedged between the downtown core and beloved Stanley Park? Better think twice about bringing a car. City Hall would much prefer you leave the thing behind. You’re better to sell it. Sell it now.

A staff report delivered to city council this month recommends that any newcomer seeking a city parking permit in the West End be slapped with a 700 per cent fee increase. Current permit fees for existing residents are far too low, at $80 a year, explain city planners. Better to charge incoming residents at a “market rate,” which the city has determined to be $50 a month, or a punishing $600 a year.

The proposed permit fee increase would not apply to other neighbourhoods.

According to Vancouver transportation director Lon LaClaire, there are 16,000 registered vehicles in the West End, about one for every three residents, and more than enough parking spaces to accommodate them all: 22,000 off-street (mostly underground) private parking spaces and 2,700 on-street permit spaces.

A 700 per cent fee increase for a city street parking permit would force car owners to consider either giving up their vehicles, or renting an unused private space from, say, a neighbouring building. LaClaire says there are thousands of empty parking spaces sitting underground.

Would the owners of those private parking spaces be persuaded to rent out their spaces to strangers? Who knows.

What is certain, says LaClaire, is that the proposed fee increase would discourage locals from parking their vehicles on the street. It would be a costly inconvenience for them, but a possible boon for West End visitors, who typically spend about 10 minutes circling the block, looking for a place to park.

There are 500 time-limited, no-fee parking spaces on West End streets, hardly enough to satisfy demand. Rather than create more, city planners have recommended that all free parking zones be eliminated, replaced with money-sucking parking meters.

Fewer and astronomically more expensive parking spots: The city can spin that as a public benefit, but it really represents a potential cash grab, to “be used to help pay for amenities in the West End,” according to the official plan. Which amenities? The city doesn’t say.

But Vancouver has no choice, says LaClaire. Projected population growth means more density is coming, and “you can’t accommodate those (people) in cars. It just doesn’t work.”

There’s some truth to that, for sure. But the city won’t tell the whole truth, which is that it has an agenda: to pester and drive out people who use cars. The latest parking fee finagle represents another city-led assault on the automobile.

Meanwhile, popping up across the city, including the West End, are large, metal bicycle racks, some plunked down on streets, blocking more lanes, preventing people from directly accessing their homes and stores.

The bike racks are permanent new pieces of city infrastructure, parts of a subsidized bike share scheme cooked up by planners and a private, Florida-based enterprise, and endorsed by Mayor Robertson and his loyalists on council.

PT6A posted:

I wonder what it's like to be a joyless sack of poo poo who hates fun and wants everyone to be miserable. There sure seem to be a lot of them, and they all seem to have quite a lot of time to call bylaw enforcement and go to city hall and such.

Furnaceface posted:

OSI bean dip posted:

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/two-wheeler-preachers-and-sanctimonious-scolders-vancouver-has-declared-war-on-the-car

PT6A posted:

Say what?

Furnaceface posted:

Just kind of amusing seeing that coming from someone that appears to be so angry all the time and has no problems telling others how to live their lives (or more frequently take their own lives).

quote:

Coun. Paul Hubert supported the test, saying it would be chance to test the idea downtown before London hosts Country Music Week from Sept. 8 to 11.

Ikantski posted:

Fuckin right country music rules and I definitely support mandatory exposure for downtown city peckerheads.

PT6A posted:

I can get angry at people and their stupidity without thinking I have the legal right to bend them to my will.

Also, partying and drinking and listening to music is awesome so it should be permitted. Letting your child die of a curable disease because you're a stubborn and ignorant moron, just as an example, is not good, so it should be harshly punished.

Helsing posted:

Nobody except you see a meaningful distinction between wanting pointless bylaws to be enforced vs. thinking somebody who makes a minor mistake deserves to die or be maimed. You're displaying the same kind of thought process, just filtered through libertarian sociopathy rather than liberal paternalism.

PT6A posted:

If a pedestrian jaywalks and gets hit as a result, who cares why the pedestrian did so? It's their own drat fault.

Helsing posted:

OSI bean dip posted:

Vancouver’s West End, a densely populated, mostly working-class neighbourhood...

Ikantski posted:

Fuckin right country music rules and I definitely support mandatory exposure for downtown city peckerheads.

infernal machines posted:

Country or Nu-Country?

This important.

Also this is London, they're a city like a drainage ditch is a lake.

infernal machines posted:

Country or Nu-Country?

Ikantski posted:

100% bro country.

Cerepol posted:

Hey man London is somewhat livable. Rent is cheap!

Ikantski posted:

100% bro country.