Rant I live in a bankrupt city...

[SilentKnight]

No, it's not Detroit.

But it's close.

Our city is on the brink of bankruptcy.

All our major manufacturing jobs have evaporated years ago - primarily due to union greed (depending on who you ask). A large majority of residents are forced to commute to other cities for employment (many deal with a 3-hour round trip to Toronto each day).

And yet - despite our impending insolvency - our city just spent several million dollars repainting a 100-yr-old steel lift bridge over an unused recreational canal (the third Welland canal) - that no longer has to lift since no boats go through the waterway. Long past its prime - the bridge is an antiquated eyesore that instead should've been torn down and replaced with a modern structure long ago.

But the paint job was just the start. Now the city has approved $635,000 to light up this non-functioning bridge with computerized LED/digital lighting that can change funky colors (think 70s disco era). The original estimate for the lights less than a year ago was only $300k...less than half.

City council justifies the outrageous expenditure by calling the bridge "an iconic symbol of the city's history of shipping". They've spent millions painting an obsolete turd.

Next month we have municipal elections - mayor, city/regional councillors. Once again idiot voters will turn out to cast votes based on name recognition...as opposed to political track record. The cycle of retardation will continue.


/endcatharticrant

[Sly]

Have you been to any of the City Council meetings? Would be interesting to see see them getting torn to shreds.

My dad is on his counties zoning committee. He said everything is just like you would imagine. The members are only on the committees because nobody else ran. They help out their friends and screw over anyone else. They have zero intention on improving the area, only themselves.

Finding people that want the job though, not easy. Then finding a decent person, even more difficult.

[RandyRandy]

The US is fucked - on a crash course to financial unsustainability. Too many people "getting theirs" and slowly, but surely, corporations and citizens saying - no more - we're through paying more than our share. It just doesn't add up. I don't know what will trigger the downfall - defaulting on Chinese bonds, a freeze on social security payouts - but something's gotta give. The system is broken. USA - it was nice knowing ya!

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by Sly

Have you been to any of the City Council meetings? Would be interesting to see see them getting torn to shreds.

No, but I watch them each week on local cable chan (and also follow them on the twitter feed).

The irony is - I work at City Hall and know many of the municipal/regional councillors. I talk to the mayor a few times each week.

Originally Posted by Sly

My dad is on his counties zoning committee. He said everything is just like you would imagine. The members are only on the committees because nobody else ran. They help out their friends and screw over anyone else. They have zero intention on improving the area, only themselves.

Finding people that want the job though, not easy. Then finding a decent person, even more difficult.

Exactly. Those who would do a good job - don't want the job. They're too smart to get involved.

Ideally, we need someone who is stupid enough to take on the job...yet intelligent enough to do a good job.

[dyna mo]

Originally Posted by RandyRandy

The US is fucked - on a crash course to financial unsustainability. Too many people "getting theirs" and slowly, but surely, corporations and citizens saying - no more - we're through paying more than our share. It just doesn't add up. I don't know what will trigger the downfall - defaulting on Chinese bonds, a freeze on social security payouts - but something's gotta give. The system is broken. USA - it was nice knowing ya!

OP is talking about a Canadian city.

[Marcus Aurelius]

what % of your city population consist of non-white people?

[VikingMan]

it is all by design.......just join the herd, eat fast food, watch sports and movies, every once in a while fart a political comment out of your mouth, and enjoy whatever time we have left

[mineistaken]

What is the city (since you gave enough clues to easily identify it, for Canadian, anyway)?
And those unions never learn - they have examples of jobs being exported due to their greedy tactics yet they continue to push their ways... How dumb are they?

[mineistaken]

Originally Posted by Marcus Aurelius

what % of your city population consist of non-white people?

Would be great question for US city, in Canada there should not be any cities too dark like that.

[seeandsee]

It's problem in every fucking corner of world, taking tax money out of pocket in their dirty pockets, destroying everything

[Rochard]

Before you go ranting on about the money your city spent, where did the money come from to paint the bridge and then light it up? My point is sometimes money for our cities comes from federal grants or is otherwise generated by local or state laws and must be used for a specific purpose. In this case I would guess the money is federal money and the city only gets the money if they use it to "maintain, repair, or improve" bridges. (Didn't Obama sign something like that - the Federal bridge repair act or some such nonsense?) Your city might not have money to fix the potholes on the road leading to the bridge, but the money came from the federal government and must be used for that bridge.

My little town too has been having problems. We were the fastest growing city in the United States due to a boom in construction in the town - we turned a small sleepy town of 10k into a huge town of 80k in five years. Housing values soared and the county was building new schools to handle the growth, while the city was getting extra taxes from the increased local tax base and perks from builders (Build 1k of houses and you have to build us a new fire station). Now that the boom we have discovered we have over built - and we can no long afford to keep all of these fire stations open. We have also cut our police department in half too.

However, our city government has been pretty good. We have a local forum on FB where we can ask questions about our city government and get a response from the city council quickly and without all of the double speak. This is where I learned that some money is legally set aside for a specific purpose.

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Before you go ranting on about the money your city spent, where did the money come from to paint the bridge and then light it up?

Regional and municipal taxes & revenue. No federal grants involved.

Municipal, regional, provincial or federal - it's still OUR money being thrown away. In this particular case, it's local money.

[ErectMedia]

I think your describing quite a few cities these days. I predict in 5 years big sausage pizza will be replaced with happy meal whores, just stick your cock in a happy meal box, times are tough.

[MiamiBoyz]

Well, when you consider that the whole god damn country is in so much debt that it can not possibly ever be paid back you don't have to feel so bad about your city.

The whole wasteland of a country is broke and nothing gonna fix it folks...welcome to the new 3rd world - AMERICA

[Mutt]

I grew up in his little city - it was once in the top 5 average income cities in all of Canada, there were 25 to 30 factories there at one time, a good job for anybody that wanted one. Like most Rust Belt cities much of its decline came with the death of the North American steel industry. The city got its name from the Welland Canal, one of the world's most famous canals, the canal joins Lake Ontario to Lake Erie - the canal ran right through the heart of the city, the downtown, it was the city's indentity. When I was little the world passed through the city, freight ships from across the ocean passed by under the lift bridge. Bad decision after bad decision - first they decided that it would be better if the canal completely bypassed the city, rendering the canal and the bridges useless. Kinda like deciding the Eiffel Tower would be better out on the outskirts of Paris. Then the city decided to locate its first and only indoor shopping mall out near the highway leading out of town - turning the once bustling Main Street into a fucking deserted eyesore. Every building on Main Street should have been bought up and turned into something useful and nice - what's there now is depressing as hell. It needs beautification/gentrification badly, the bridges are historic and should be painted and lit.

The city has things going for it, the canal is now a world class recreational water sports venue. It's very close to Buffalo New York which is on the rebound, Niagara Falls, and the beaches of Lake Erie. If they prettied up the town they could make it a nice commuter/retirement city.

My dad loved that city, regretted leaving it. He was the best trial attorney ever in that neck of the woods.

[Mutt]

There was another webmaster, a big TGP guy no longer in the industry, who lived there too at one time. And Shap from Twisty's, his wife too.

Small world.

[onwebcam]

My city just spent $40 million on a practice rink for the hockey team. They already had one that was perfectly fine. If that much for a practice facility isn't bad enough it's attached to a mall that's just like every other mall in America. A ghost town. Someone had the bright idea that if they put this $40 million dollar skating rink there businesses might move into the mall. There's so few actual business owners interested one of the old department stores is now one of those diploma mill colleges. I give them 5 years tops and they will be bulldozing the mall just like many others across the country and the city will have pissed away boatloads of taxpayer money. And to top it all off the reason they closed the mall to begin with is because they pretty much banned teens from hanging out there so they had nothing left. Now they hope they will return to ice skate.. lol

[lezinterracial]

Originally Posted by Mutt

It's very close to Buffalo New York which is on the rebound, Niagara Falls, and the beaches of Lake Erie.

Do you know how the Casinos are near Niagra Falls? I hear Atlantic City Casinos are having a rough time.

Every city is salivating watching Denver.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by lezinterracial

Do you know how the Casinos are near Niagra Falls? I hear Atlantic City Casinos are having a rough time.

Every city is salivating watching Denver.

There's a casino on both the Canadian and American side of Niagara Falls, I think the Canadian one has been a success but don't live there so not sure if the American one which is newer hurt their business.

What's going on in Denver?

[lezinterracial]

Originally Posted by Mutt

There's a casino on both the Canadian and American side of Niagara Falls, I think the Canadian one has been a success but don't live there so not sure if the American one which is newer hurt their business.

What's going on in Denver?

Recreational use of marijuana is legal. They are making money.

[Sabby]

I think you can snap up realestate properties cheap in the U.S.. Whether or not you can ever flip it again is another thing.

[Harmon]

[mineistaken]

Originally Posted by lezinterracial

Recreational use of marijuana is legal. They are making money.

I thought it was in whole Colorado and whole Washington, not just Denver.

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

Regional and municipal taxes & revenue. No federal grants involved.

Municipal, regional, provincial or federal - it's still OUR money being thrown away. In this particular case, it's local money.

But is that money because of some tax law they passed six years ago where the money raised from a certain tax MUST be used for a specific purpose?

If not, you need to have your current city government removed.

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by MiamiBoyz

Well, when you consider that the whole god damn country is in so much debt that it can not possibly ever be paid back you don't have to feel so bad about your city.

The whole wasteland of a country is broke and nothing gonna fix it folks...welcome to the new 3rd world - AMERICA

Sure, because... You know.... That hasn't been the rally cry for the past thirty years.

This morning I noticed there was protests for global warming across the world. Well, fuck all, isn't this the same exact shit we protested decades ago when I was back in high school? Didn't any of the people who protested thirty years ago get a decent job in the government where they would be in a position to get something done? Seems not.

And every time we have a new president we are told they are going to take away our firearms.

After thirty years of hearing about the same problems you sort of just don't care any more. The debt goes up every year no matter what, doesn't matter if it's a Republican / Democratic White House and or Congress. It's just business as usual.

[pornguy]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Before you go ranting on about the money your city spent, where did the money come from to paint the bridge and then light it up? My point is sometimes money for our cities comes from federal grants or is otherwise generated by local or state laws and must be used for a specific purpose. In this case I would guess the money is federal money and the city only gets the money if they use it to "maintain, repair, or improve" bridges. (Didn't Obama sign something like that - the Federal bridge repair act or some such nonsense?) Your city might not have money to fix the potholes on the road leading to the bridge, but the money came from the federal government and must be used for that bridge.

My little town too has been having problems. We were the fastest growing city in the United States due to a boom in construction in the town - we turned a small sleepy town of 10k into a huge town of 80k in five years. Housing values soared and the county was building new schools to handle the growth, while the city was getting extra taxes from the increased local tax base and perks from builders (Build 1k of houses and you have to build us a new fire station). Now that the boom we have discovered we have over built - and we can no long afford to keep all of these fire stations open. We have also cut our police department in half too.

However, our city government has been pretty good. We have a local forum on FB where we can ask questions about our city government and get a response from the city council quickly and without all of the double speak. This is where I learned that some money is legally set aside for a specific purpose.

Also if it is grant money one of the issues is that if you dont use it, not only do you have to pay that back but you wont get it as easy on the next go around regardless what its for.

So if they dont use the bridge money, they wont get lets say Child welfare assistance next time as easy.

City governments tend to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks when it comes to grants. The grants while wholy stupid do keep people working for a little longer. Apply for a grant get it and not use it and you wont get the next one you apply for as easy.

Sad really and would be interesting to see where that money came from.

[BlackCrayon]

Originally Posted by Marcus Aurelius

what % of your city population consist of non-white people?

that doesn't apply here. the main problem is these areas were all manufacturing for generations. now thats all done overseas there are simply no jobs (other than working at tim hortons or mcdonalds). these communities think its a great boon when a temp call center moves in and offers 11 bucks an hour. i've seen it in my hometown area (chathamn-kent area). they do nothing to try and bring in new employers though even if they did, the people have no specialized skills.

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by VikingMan

it is all by design.......just join the herd, eat fast food, watch sports and movies, every once in a while fart a political comment out of your mouth, and enjoy whatever time we have left

Jerking off in the dark to pink floyd in your basement and eating granola doesn't exactly separate you from the masses...

[VikingMan]

Originally Posted by PR_Glen

Jerking off in the dark to pink floyd in your basement and eating granola doesn't exactly separate you from the masses...

hmm okay not sure what that means and not a fan of either of those things. Have a nice day

[L-Pink]

Originally Posted by Mutt

What's going on in Denver?

Peyton Manning: Legal Pot Has Been Awesome For My Pizza Business:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...usaolp00000592


.

[Tom_PM]

Originally Posted by mineistaken

Would be great question for US city, in Canada there should not be any cities too dark like that.

[PR_Glen]

Originally Posted by mineistaken

Would be great question for US city, in Canada there should not be any cities too dark like that.

oh i get it, because there are too many people complaining about racism on this board when it wasn't warranted lately this some how gives you a green light to make racist comments like this?

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by Mutt

There's a casino on both the Canadian and American side of Niagara Falls, I think the Canadian one has been a success but don't live there so not sure if the American one which is newer hurt their business.

Niagara Falls has two casinos - Fallsview Casino (the newer one), and the original casino at the old Maple Leaf Village. Both have been hurt by the smoking ban - and have lost a fair amount of business to the Seneca Casino on the American side (still allows smoking).

The original Casino Niagara added a big waterpark awhile back - which helped draw more people in...but they still talk about possibly closing it down at some point. It was only designed as a temporary casino until Fallsview was built.

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by Mutt

I grew up in his little city - it was once in the top 5 average income cities in all of Canada, there were 25 to 30 factories there at one time, a good job for anybody that wanted one. Like most Rust Belt cities much of its decline came with the death of the North American steel industry. The city got its name from the Welland Canal, one of the world's most famous canals, the canal joins Lake Ontario to Lake Erie - the canal ran right through the heart of the city, the downtown, it was the city's indentity. When I was little the world passed through the city, freight ships from across the ocean passed by under the lift bridge. Bad decision after bad decision - first they decided that it would be better if the canal completely bypassed the city, rendering the canal and the bridges useless. Kinda like deciding the Eiffel Tower would be better out on the outskirts of Paris. Then the city decided to locate its first and only indoor shopping mall out near the highway leading out of town - turning the once bustling Main Street into a fucking deserted eyesore. Every building on Main Street should have been bought up and turned into something useful and nice - what's there now is depressing as hell. It needs beautification/gentrification badly, the bridges are historic and should be painted and lit.

The city has things going for it, the canal is now a world class recreational water sports venue. It's very close to Buffalo New York which is on the rebound, Niagara Falls, and the beaches of Lake Erie. If they prettied up the town they could make it a nice commuter/retirement city.

My dad loved that city, regretted leaving it. He was the best trial attorney ever in that neck of the woods.

You pretty much nailed it, although I obviously disagree about the painting/lighting the old lift bridge. City council tried to justify it by saying it'll be a tourist attraction - but I say who the hell's gonna drive here (at night) to see an old, non-functioning bridge just because it has pretty lights. They did a great job lighting the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, but the cost was shared by both sides and it still gets non-stop traffic and generates toll revenues.

As for our "world class flatwater facility" - true, they did a nice job with it. But it doesn't get used much...and the jury's still out whether it generates any significant revenue to the local economy. 90% of the time it sits unused.

You mentioned about Main St. It's actually making a bit of a rebound lately. Having the bridge closed almost the entire summer definitely had an impact on surrounding small businesses (a few were forced to close) - but you can definitely see a bit of improvement and investment happening despite it all. They built a new City Hall across from the old court house...which helped trigger somewhat of a slow revitalization.

But a LOT of people are up-in-arms over the bridge paint/lighting. Everyone's talking about it...mostly angry over the money being pissed away at a time when the rest of the infrastructure (roads, sewers, watermains) are falling apart. Much of the city's watermains and sewers are over 70-80 years old and the city loses up to 35-40% of their water through leakage...driving up our water bills.

Anyways...

[mineistaken]

Originally Posted by PR_Glen

oh i get it, because there are too many people complaining about racism on this board when it wasn't warranted lately this some how gives you a green light to make racist comments like this?

Marcus implied that it may be dark city, I replied that there are no such cities in Canada.
Oversensitive much?

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by Marcus Aurelius

what % of your city population consist of non-white people?

Originally Posted by mineistaken

Would be great question for US city, in Canada there should not be any cities too dark like that.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

You pretty much nailed it, although I obviously disagree about the painting/lighting the old lift bridge. City council tried to justify it by saying it'll be a tourist attraction - but I say who the hell's gonna drive here (at night) to see an old, non-functioning bridge just because it has pretty lights. They did a great job lighting the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, but the cost was shared by both sides and it still gets non-stop traffic and generates toll revenues.

As for our "world class flatwater facility" - true, they did a nice job with it. But it doesn't get used much...and the jury's still out whether it generates any significant revenue to the local economy. 90% of the time it sits unused.

You mentioned about Main St. It's actually making a bit of a rebound lately. Having the bridge closed almost the entire summer definitely had an impact on surrounding small businesses (a few were forced to close) - but you can definitely see a bit of improvement and investment happening despite it all. They built a new City Hall across from the old court house...which helped trigger somewhat of a slow revitalization.

But a LOT of people are up-in-arms over the bridge paint/lighting. Everyone's talking about it...mostly angry over the money being pissed away at a time when the rest of the infrastructure (roads, sewers, watermains) are falling apart. Much of the city's watermains and sewers are over 70-80 years old and the city loses up to 35-40% of their water through leakage...driving up our water bills.

Anyways...

There's still 50,000 people living there which is surprising considering how many major employers closed up shop over the past 30 years, probably a lot of old timers.

There were some amazing pizza places in that town, thanks to a very large Italian community that came right off the boat to work at Plymouth Cordage. The Rex Hotel was our family's favorite, didn't look like much but it was so good.