It was another long session at City Council yesterday. The most significant portion of the meeting had Council spend six hours on the 1st Avenue BRT item, with a full lineup of public speakers and presentations.
I spend the past few weeks researched the project and even created an A simulator like the VISSM application used by the City to examine how a center median versus a curbside solution worked out, as well as the 3 options provided. My position going in was that none of Administration’s three options were the right call, but trying to open the door on a curbside solution was highly unlikely.
The NSBA and DTN YXE worked together and and brought forward its own independant engineering opinion, which they paid for, recommending a hybrid of Options 1 and 3. I thought the proposal was quite interesting ad worthy of further dscussion. I was prepared to make a motion arising that we should exmine the hybred model but once Council voted to approve Option 1, the hybrid motion was off the table — you can’t debate an alternative to a decision that’s already been made. Councillors Ford, Jeffries, Davies and I voted against Option 1.
A second motion initially passed that the BRT Project be exempt from the public art policy. The public art policy is currently under review, but the BRT project already had a public art budget approved for $500K and some of us wanted to reconsider it. I seconded the motion because the public art policy is under review nd we should revisit this once that review is complete. The motion passed with Councillors MacDonald, Jeffries, Kelleher, Parker and the Mayor voting against the motion as they wanted to keep the public art budget for the BRT in place.
Later when we continued the council meeting in the evening after the public hearings, Councillor Timon felt he voted incorrectly as he misunderstood the motion and moved to reconsider his vote. The rules allow for this as long as it’s in the same meeting and the person who moves it must have voted on the winning side. Councillor MacDonald seconded the motion, and on the second vote the motion failed with Councillor Timon being the only changed vote, and so the BRT Public Art budget of $500K remains.
After that decision, we moved another motion that requires Adminstration to report on every art decision prior to it becoming part of the project, and it was unanimously approved.
An interesting point for me personally was made by Administration voicing a concern about the public art funding being removed as apparently public art can help reduce crime. As I quickly researched this during the meeting, I found the art is more along the lines of community based murals, not rocks. I’m unsure how public art at a bus stop can reduce crime in Ward 3, but if there is a way to do so I’ll be sure to advocate for it.