Lets get Druh Farrell out! Oct 2010

[frizzlefry]

Not my ward but I wish I could vote her out. That memorial drive BS passed because it’s in her ward but affects much of the population, most of which are not in her ward so they can't express their displeasure by voting her out.

[frinkprof]

Originally posted by frizzlefry
Not my ward but I wish I could vote her out. That memorial drive BS passed because it’s in her ward but affects much of the population, most of which are not in her ward so they can't express their displeasure by voting her out.

Presuming you are speaking of road closures associated with Bow River Flow, this is incorrect.

Road closures are decided by the roads department based on set-out criteria that all applications must pass before they are granted. Council does not decide road closures, and thus council made no decision to close Memorial Drive.

If you are speaking of the Landscape of Memory Memorial Drive improvement project, disregard the above.

[Maxt]

Lets not pretend she wasn't the prime mover behind the bow river flow silliness with application technicalities.. Without her it would have probably been a no go, and there were motions put before council to stop it, which she and her other block of liberal cohorts banded together to vote to protect it at every turn.. Bottome line is there is no need to close a road for her ideological driven lunacy..
Everything she got her two cents in on was a waste of cash, she thought the peace bridge was "fantastic", the 16 ave project was an over budget disaster, decorating memorial was not needed, have fun with snow clearing there now, the list goes on and on...
I have no idea of how someone so bereft of common sense or connection to the reality of the common person ever got put into office in the first place.

[frinkprof]

Originally posted by Maxt
Lets not pretend she wasn't the prime mover behind the bow river flow silliness with application technicalities.. Without her it would have probably been a no go,

Were you privy to the meetings and planning done by the event organizers?

These things don't just go from one person having a thought and then the next morning it's a full-blown, planned, scheduled, etc. event. I highly doubt it would have mattered who was alderman of ward 7 at the time, and furthermore, I doubt it was her idea. Aldermen make lots of appearances and "champion" all sorts of events in their wards. A lot are rinky-dinky sorts of affairs that I'd imagine they'd probably rather not attend if they weren't in a public office, and some are bigger of course. So far as I understand, it was a group of people from Hillhurst-Sunnyside that organized it.

Originally posted by Maxt
and there were motions put before council to stop it, which she and her other block of liberal cohorts banded together to vote to protect it at every turn..

There were two (attempted) motions to council that sorta-kinda danced around it. One was in June (I believe? Close enough) of 2009 where Ald. Stevenson motioned that there be no road closures allowed on Memorial Drive in the month of August, 2009. It was voted upon and defeated. At the time, there had been no formal application to close the road yet, it had just been publicly discussed by the organizing group. Of course, if the motion had carried, I'd imagine the organizing group may have simply planned their event for early September. Other repercussions discussed below.

The other attempted motion to council was made by Ald. Connelly in June of this year. He attempted to move that the application for the closure be rejected (what he thought would be preemptively). The motion was not voted upon because it was out of order. The application had apparently already been received and approved by the roads department.

Originally posted by Maxt
Bottome line is there is no need to close a road for her ideological driven lunacy..

While you're most certainly entitled to your opinion, the fact is that road closures are not a political decision made by elected officials, and for good reason. There are hundreds of road closure applications a year, including several for the same stretch of road in question. The parameters for each one must meet the same standards or be rejected. Each one going to a council vote (which would be the precedent set by the reverse of what council decided on Ald. Stevenson's motion and the sentiments leading to it) would be insanity.

As it was, the motions to council mentioned above were both made at a time when nearly 100% of the City's contracts, numbering in the hundreds, were over budget. Also, Connelly's attempted motion was on the same agenda at the same time several aldermen wanted to pre-approve a several-hundred-million-dollar police budget without opening it up for debate or having information presented to them. Now that's off on a bit of a tangent from this thread, but hopefully the point about priorities wasn't missed.

[Maxt]

Politics of stupidity aside, again, lets not pretend she isn't the driving force, we all know the whole premise of the event and its underlying tree hugging granola BS is her typical M.O of doing things not necessary to the city function, but flowery things that make her feel good.
Sure it takes more than one person, but don't ignore the voting block in council, and the political back scratching that goes on either.. Pretending voting in council is pure democracy and free of partisan or favour influence is pretty naive.. Also seeing how many lefty air headed initiatives are advertised by the various city departments on a regular basis, anything with a green tinge pretty much would get a free pass through any channel no matter how ludicrous it is.
A lot of how that all happened and how it was challenged, show the shortcomings of how both city departments and council operate, no matter how its painted..Not taking major roadway closures to council is also insanity when its a major roadway.. Sure we don't need a lane closure of 39 st sw going to council, but memorial flow does affect more than ward 7, as Urqhart and Stevenson both noted, and Stevenson motioned. I have lived through enough city snafus and projects to know you could get a lane closure for a grasshopper parade past the inept city Roads department.

[mr2mike]

Ok back to the main question... I have my mail in ballot, who is most likely to garner more votes than Druh Farrell?

[ExtraSlow]

Does anyone take polls for aldermen?

[speedog]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Does anyone take polls for aldermen?

Make one, ExtraSlow.

[ExtraSlow]

Nah, I'm not talking about a poll on beyond, I really would love to see a public opinion poll. I'd vote for whoever is second behind Druh.

[downbytheriver]

While I certainly wouldn't defend every decision Druh Farrell has made (and seriously, do we really need the childish name calling??) I would argue that a voice such as hers was much needed in the past 10 years.

She came to council in 2001 when absolutely no one was talking about smart growth, the quality of design of our city including architecture and urban design and she championed these causes. She got members of council to actually care about how we designed communities, how well new buildings were designed and how they integrated into our communities. For instance she spearheaded the formation of the Urban Design Review Panel - while that may seem insignificant to you, it has had a HUGE impact on ensuring that new buildings perform much better than the souless, cold, pedestrian-unfriendly boxes that characterized our downtown in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Maybe, she's overstayed her welcome on council being there for 9 years, but to dismiss her completely and call her derogitory names is not very useful.

[Spoons]

Originally posted by downbytheriver
The quality of design of our city including architecture and urban design

I'm so glad we solved that one with a 25 million dollar bridge.

[autosm]

^ for that reason alone she has to go.

[freshprince1]

Originally posted by frinkprof
jibbity jabber

Well hello........Druh. Welcome to beyond, I'm sure EK will be around soon to introduce himself.

[spikerS]

Anyone down in ward 7 want to sublet a room to me for a few weeks? I would love to vote against Druh.

And the comment about her parents mis-spelling "duh" was priceless and fitting!

[frinkprof]

Originally posted by freshprince1



Well hello........Druh. Welcome to beyond, I'm sure EK will be around soon to introduce himself.

Who? I've been on beyond since early '09. I'm not Druh Farrell or any other alderman. I do not work for the city or any alderman.

[mr2mike]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Nah, I'm not talking about a poll on beyond, I really would love to see a public opinion poll. I'd vote for whoever is second behind Druh.

Not sure who is second behind her. I think that Kevin Taylor might be. I see he's got more signs and media coverage than say, Jim Pilling. Other people seem to be quite silent.

[rx7_turbo2]

Originally posted by downbytheriver
While I certainly wouldn't defend every decision Druh Farrell has made (and seriously, do we really need the childish name calling??) I would argue that a voice such as hers was much needed in the past 10 years.

She came to council in 2001 when absolutely no one was talking about smart growth, the quality of design of our city including architecture and urban design and she championed these causes. She got members of council to actually care about how we designed communities, how well new buildings were designed and how they integrated into our communities. For instance she spearheaded the formation of the Urban Design Review Panel - while that may seem insignificant to you, it has had a HUGE impact on ensuring that new buildings perform much better than the souless, cold, pedestrian-unfriendly boxes that characterized our downtown in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Maybe, she's overstayed her welcome on council being there for 9 years, but to dismiss her completely and call her derogitory names is not very useful.

Somehow I'm not shocked you drive a Volvo! It's funny all the achievements you list, I see as reasons to gas the cunt! Hows that for childish name calling?

Down With Druh!!!!!!

[heavyD]

I think she's a cancer in silly hall & while everyone in the city outside her ward wants her out if you reside in her ward it would be a tough call as she's been behind tonnes of money dumped into the designer bridge and the Memorial Drive spruce up. People are selfish so if you live in Sunnyside and know the money is being wasted but may aid in making your property value rise why would you vote for someone sensible?

[downbytheriver]

Originally posted by heavyD
I think she's a cancer in silly hall & while everyone in the city outside her ward wants her out if you reside in her ward it would be a tough call as she's been behind tonnes of money dumped into the designer bridge and the Memorial Drive spruce up. People are selfish so if you live in Sunnyside and know the money is being wasted but may aid in making your property value rise why would you vote for someone sensible?

It's a common misconception that Druh Farrell was "behind" the Peace Bridge coming forward. Yes, she did vote in favour of it along with 6 other Alderman and the mayor, but it was not her idea, nor her initiative in any way. It was 100% Director of Transportation John Hubbell. In fact, some believe Hubbell actually signed the contract with Calatrava BEFORE council even had a chance to vote on it.

As for Memorial Drive. I think this is a worthy initiative. Memorial Drive, which is supposed to honour war veterans was in really horrible shape. It was overdue for a sprucing up. The quality of places in our city is important.

[heavyD]

Originally posted by downbytheriver


It's a common misconception that Druh Farrell was "behind" the Peace Bridge coming forward. Yes, she did vote in favour of it along with 6 other Alderman and the mayor, but it was not her idea, nor her initiative in any way. It was 100% Director of Transportation John Hubbell. In fact, some believe Hubbell actually signed the contract with Calatrava BEFORE council even had a chance to vote on it.

As for Memorial Drive. I think this is a worthy initiative. Memorial Drive, which is supposed to honour war veterans was in really horrible shape. It was overdue for a sprucing up. The quality of places in our city is important.

It's never 100% anyone as they were all involved in pushing this through and if Druh was actually oblivious to Hubbell forcing through of a bridge in her own ward then she clearly wasn't doing her job. She knew what was going on, backed it, and was likely an accomplice of Hubbell. She's a cancer in city hall and needs to go for the betterment of this city.