As Canadian cities continue to grow, parking troubles will increase. Setting prices according to demand may be a sound technological solution.
Municipal Government
Winnipeg Bounces Back – Deja Vu from 2000: The return of the NHL boosts a city’s morale but challenges remain
Winnipeg, the grande dame of Canada’s West, is thriving despite a persistently negative and frequently uninformed profile in the national media.
Not on the Frontier…
We answer a critical letter in the National Post.
Bylaw Officers Making Noise about New Radar for Noisy Vehicles
Have you heard about the Noise Snare, a new traffic noise surveillance product?
If you haven’t, perhaps it is because a motorcycle was zooming past you with an engine roaring at such a high decibel level that you missed the news. In any case, City of Calgary bylaw officers have recently proposed implementing a new technology to regulate vehicle noise that exceeds a yet-to-be-determined new decibel maximum.
The Noise Snare technology was invented by Mark Nesdoly, an electrical engineer in Edmonton. In a Calgary Herald story Nesdoly explains the inspiration for the
device saying, “I still remember the day, laying down my daughter to go to sleep and [a motorcyclist] went roaring past -and her eyes just popped open.”
The City received 1,310 vehicle complaints last year. Among these vehicle complaints there are some noise complaints, but they also include many other issues such as oil leaking on the street.
The majority of noise complaints are not vehicle-related. According to the City of Calgary bylaw services, 2500 other (non-vehicle) noise complaints were received in 2010. The Noise Snare is an expensive device that would crack down on only a fraction of complaints.
Featured News
Raw-Milk Prohibition Reveals Policy Backwardness
Prohibitionists Dig In Heels for Supply Management, Ignore U.S. Success There is a legal way to consume raw milk in Canada: buy it in the United States and bring it home. Of the 13 states bordering Canada, 12 have legal raw milk. More than 40 have it legal in some...
The Pawlowski Decision
In the Alberta Health Services v. Artur Pawlowski and Dawid Pawlowski decision last September, a Court of Queen’s Bench justice found the two brothers in contempt of court. The Pawlowski brothers openly challenged health ordinances and court orders and did not deny...
Efficient Mosquitoes
Winnipeg is moving towards a single parking authority to eliminate overlaps and create efficiencies in parking management.
Capital Charge Magic Remedy for Winnipeg’s Downtown
Winnipeg can create strong incentives for its departments to use property assets better by requiring them to pay a capital charge on their market value.
Managed Competition – The Phoenix Experience
Under managed competition, a public agency competes with private sector firms to provide public agency functions and services. Managed competition attempts to create a “level playing field” between the public and private sectors to select the most cost effective method of delivering public services.
A Conversation with Ronald Jensen
Its primary element is competition, or managed competition, in which the city workforce competes with the private sector to deliver municipal services.
Winnipeg Quo Vadis (Where are you Going)?
The abandoned prairie farmhouse, the silent mill by the stream, the stone fence overgrown and hidden by forest are all popular poetic symbols for the decay in traditional rural values of hard work, family, and community.
Separation Key to Winnipeg Renewal
In Phoenix, civic politicians break the law if they interfere directly in the city’s administrative affairs.
Nostalgic Governments Face Cold Realities
Two years ago centre-left parties the world over were celebrating what looked like an electoral swing in their direction. Tony Blair’s convincing win in Britain in May 1997 was followed by Lionel Jospin’s in France, Gerhard Schroeder’s in Germany, the re-election of Jean Chretien in Canada, and a swing to the Democrats in the mid-term elections in the United States.
Low Expectations For Municipal Amalgamation In Ontario
When it comes to municipal restructuring, the Harris government has bought into the myth that having fewer and bigger municipalities is the answer. While this government deserves its share of the blame for jumping on the amalgamation bandwagon, the real advocates of having fewer and bigger municipalities are a group of civil servants in the Ontario public service.
Winnipeg can Learn from Phoenix
Phoenix spawned the competitive model, which Indianapolis adapted, the model that proces that competitive framework can liberate city workers from oppressive bureaucratic thinking and structures, enabling them to produce high-quality services at falling prices.