Politicians have a habit of getting into office and then forgetting that it is the voters who got them the job. A great example is going on right now in Edmonton. We have a wonderful city center airport about 5 minutes from downtown, and our mayor wants to close it and put up condos. Did I mention our mayor is a real estate developer? Our international airport is 45 minutes outside of the city, because another mayor's family owned the land.
We have already voted once to keep the airport open, and now the mayor is trying to get around that vote and just close it down without our having any say about it. One of the main things that concerns me is that our Stars Air Ambulance lands there, and they would not be able to anymore. That would mean 45 minute ambulance rides from the international airport, leaving only 15 minutes of the golden hour to save someone. The people in the University area already shutdown Stars from landing anywhere near the hospital, bunch of NIMBY's!
It also shows the lack of thinking about the future that seems to impact local politicians. Edmonton is going to keep growing, and as the north develops, we will need more flights into the city. No vision, "I know best" politicians cost us taxpayers more in the long run. We needed an overpass at 34th ave. for years, but no politician wanted to spend the money on their watch, it's now being built for millions more than it would have cost 10 years ago. No vision.
Thankfully, a group has been working to get enough signatures to force another plebiscite about the airport. This time the politicians better listen to us. They think nothing of spending our money on the Indy race, but they want to shut down a profitable airport. Typical.
2 comments:
In Oakville we are doing the opposite with the finite land undeveloped.
The developer and new homeowner is being asked to pay a larger portion of the future upgrade and maintenance of the infrastructure. (school, road, water main)
Somewhere in the ballpark of 10-30k I have read per unit
The Edmonton International lost a ton of business to Calgary because of the airport move from downtown to outside the city. Edm Int has come back to be a "hub" but I think that Edmonton still needs the downtown airport to facilitate Edmonton's overall air support.
Good luck on kicking the Mayor out of office and saving the Muni.
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