Slow week ahead

I'm out of town for the week, so no new content until next Monday... sorry! In the meantime:

About 40 protesters carrying signs that read "Save the Parkway" showed up Monday night at an open house at the Nepean Sportsplex about possible routes for Ottawa's proposed light rail network.

I wanted to attend this open house, but ran out of time. But wouldn't it be nice if residents could see past their own fears and imagine how great light rail along the parkway would be for the entire city? How about getting protesters together to demand light rail in their neighbourhood? Maybe run the track down the strip? Who's with me????

Friday Mocumentory

Waiting for the short bus

OC Transpo has released it's 2007 Annual Performance Report, with an interesting analysis of "on-time performance":

In 2007, service reliability was at 76%, a slight decrease from 77% in 2006. The proposed policy target is for OC Transpo bus trips to adhere to published schedules 90% of the time. The policy standard for on-time performance is not to run early and to be no more than five minutes late. On Transitway routes, the adherence to the time between buses (called headway) is of greater importance than the posted times. This measure is under investigation for measurement using our new GPS system. This measurement would be of significant value for the future.

24% actually seems a bit low for late buses, at least for the 69, which runs through Bells Corners. It is >5 minutes late about half the time in the morning, and about 3/4 of the time in the afternoon. It's even worse in the winter, when I would say it's more than 5 minutes late at least 100% of the time.

Which brings me to my cranky old man suggestion of the day: OC Transpo should have some sort of "guarantee" of performance. If your bus is more than 10 minutes late, you get a free ride. Right now it would be complicated to implement, as many commuters have already bought monthly passes. But with the new smart card system, it would be simple. If your bus is late, swipe the card, and a credit is added to your account for next month's pass purchase.

Got some spare reading time?

Why not pour a cup of coffee, kick up your feet, and check out these three links:

1. "66 Said Yes" - an insider's look at the In and Out Scandal. If you're like me, you know the outline, but not the details. Pages 10-12 are what you want, a nice, concise explanation of what the Conservatives did to break election financing rules.

2. "Listeriosis is the least of it" - by the Canadian Medical Association.

Last November the Canadian government instituted astrategic review of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency(CFIA). Among its outcomes was to transfer inspection duties for ready-to-eat meats from the government inspectors to the meat industry.

... Maple Leaf Foods, the company at whose plant the Listeria contamination originated, was an early adopter of the government’s new plan.

3. "The Nordic approach to financing the welfare state" - in (very) short: raise the GST, lower corporate taxes.

Another argument for bike lanes

This is just so sad:

An 18-year-old woman is in serious but stable condition in hospital after she was hit by a taxi while cycling in Ottawa's west end Wednesday morning.

The cyclist's head hit the windshield of the taxi and she was thrown about the length of a parking space before landing on the road near Robertson Road and Vanier Street in the Bells Corners neighbourhood at about 9:30 a.m., said an Ottawa paramedic service news release.

Vanier is the entrance to the trailer park. I don't understand how there's room for 5 lanes of traffic along the strip, but no room for bike lanes. The strip connects two important cycling corridors in the west end: to the west there's the trans-Canada trail and other NCC trails near Nortel. To the east there's the trail system starting at Shouldice Farms, leading down to Andrew Haydon Park, and ultimately connecting to downtown and points beyond. The strip is a bike-lane-free zone between them. How many cyclists have to bounce of windshields before we get better biking infrastructure in Bells Corners?

Stephen Harper: Not An Economist

This is an excellent article from the Citizen today. In a short interview with a very conservative economist, it clearly and succinctly explains why a carbon tax ("tax shift"), proposed by at least two non-Conservative parties in this election, is sound economics.

This is all orthodox economics, Mankiw insists -- a 2006 survey of American Economic Association members found two-thirds agreed that "the U.S. should increase energy taxes" -- and so the issue shouldn't be cast as left versus right.

And GST cuts, it turns out, is bad economics.

City to teen playwrights: no signs!

The problem is that the signs, which are about the size of a car licence plate, qualify as posters under the city's bylaw, said Linda Anderson, head of enforcement at the City of Ottawa's bylaw office. That means they must be made of paper and are only allowed up for a couple of weeks at most — not long enough for a three-year installation. City crews tear down posters across the city on the first and the 15th of each month.

Meanwhile, in Bells Corners, no sign of bylaw enforcement officers or "city crews" anywhere in sight.

Worst. PFO. Letter. EVER

I recently (on behalf of my wife) requested a book via the Ottawa Library online request service. Their response:

Title: The Divided Heart Format: Book The item that you suggested be purchased for the Ottawa Public Library will not be ordered, for one of the following reasons:

• It does not meet the Library's selection criteria - http://www.biblioottawalibrary.ca/explore/about/policies/selection_e.html
• It is by a very popular and best selling author, or is a top 40 compact disc, or a well reviewed DVD feature film - we will be buying these anyway and the order will be placed at a later date. Please check the database so you can place a hold.
• It is over two years old. (If a book, see if it is available from one of our Sm@rtLibrary partners.)
• It has not yet been published or released.
• The budget for the year has been spent.

The Library receives a large number of suggestions and can not always respond to requests for clarification of its decisions. Thank you for your interest in the Library's collection.

Translation: "Here's a semi-random list of reasons we can't get your book, but we can't tell you which one is the actual reason: 1) It's not a book. 2) It's too popular. 3) It's too old. 4) It's too new. 5) Oh yeah, we fogot, we're broke. Please don't contact us for further information. Toodles!" I particularly like the last reason. "We're broke." Maybe if you've spent the budget, you should stop soliciting ideas for new books until the next paycheque comes in. It will save us all some grief. Just an idea.

Children of the corn

My kids love corn, so much that I suspect I could feed them the stuff three meals a day, every day, all summer long. It's a good thing, then, that Bells Corners has the best corn stand in Ottawa. This is not an exaggeration. I've tried corn from the Carp Market, the Landsdown Market (two different vendors), from various roadside stands around North Gower and Manotick, and nothing comes close to the Abbey Hill Farm stuff from the stand at Moodie and Timm. The fantasticness of their corn cannot be overstated. View Larger Map Stopped in on Saturday for a dozen, and it's still good, even in mid-September! Plus they have mellons, apples, potatoes, tomatoes and zuchini for sale now. Not for long, though, they close shop at the first frost.

Attacking the attack ads

Despite having a wealth of material to work with, the Nepean-Carleton Libs have served up two poorly written, text-rich attemps on their web site: This one is every so slightly better, just because it focuses on a single Poilevre "moment" rather than try to tackle everything, but it still brings on a bit of a yawn: This one, which ran in the Nepean Weekender this weekend, is actually pretty good:

• it's brief
• features a large photo of Baird's annoying face
• it doesn't actually mention David Pratt's name (or even the Liberals), probably a good idea, all things considered!