Daryl Kabatoff <doukhoborarchivescanada@gmail.com>: Apr 06 08:41AM -0700
If I Were Mayor of Saskatoon - Parts One and Two - By Dar Kabatoff April 5 2020 9:28 pm 35,421 words "The very concept of a nation founded by European settlers is offensive to me. Old stock White Canadians are an unpleasant relic, and quite frankly, replaceable. And we will replace them." –Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Aviation, Boating, TIG Welding Banking, Wealth Management Diamonds, Gold and Money Female Fashion Trends Largest Building in Saskatchewan British, German and Russian History High School Students, Hockey Players Gun Laws, Native Governance Restaurants and Fine Dining Appeasement and Being Nice Monarchy, Caliphate or Republic Blinkin' Lights Religion and Humor If I were mayor of the City of Saskatoon I'd end of the money grab of the 30 km/hour school zones. The schools should post reduced speeds but with illuminated, blinkin' and more frequent signage. There should be no fine print on traffic speed signs, it is unreasonable for drivers to slow down to read fine print on street signs, then check the date and time of day to see if the information conveyed applies to them. There should be no reduced speeds in school zones when the students are inside the schools, so at the start of classes the speeds on the illuminated and blinkin' signs should return to 50 km/hour and cease blinkin'. The speed should only be reduced to 30 km/hour for 30 minutes before the start of classes, during the lunch hour, and for 30 minutes at the end of the school day. An end to reduced speed limits near high schools, for the high school students should have learned how to cross streets before graduating from grade 8. High school students who impede traffic by recklessly crossing streets should face fines to help pay for the cost of the new brightly blinkin' 30 km/hour primary school zone signs (and to reduce home and business taxes). Instead of 30 km/hour zones for the high schools, give the high school students crosswalks where they may push a button and get traffic to either slow down or stop. People like blinkin' lights, give the high school students a few blinkin' lights that are activated by pushing a blinkin' button. Reimburse the money of the ticketed drivers who were fined for exceeding the poorly marked 30 km/hour school zone limits. Drivers who were ticketed in these zones for speeds up to and including 55 km/hour should have their fines cancelled and money returned. This reimbursement should be funded by ticketing drivers who are in violation of traffic laws. Enforcing the fines for unattached trailers left on streets will go a long way in raising money to reimburse the drivers who were ticketed in the school-zone money grabs. The poorly made and poorly placed signage has resulted in not just traffic fines, but in increased insurance rates, together these increased costs resulted in the loss of mobility to some citizens - City Council should work to refund all these losses incurred by their negligence. Increase the number of speed limit signs. Some 60 km/hour zones are so poorly posted that drivers have not seen the existing one or two signs and instead travel at slower or faster speeds. Signs indicating speed limits should be posted regularly along streets and freeways, on every second or third light pole or power pole. Several of the 50 km/hour zones can be increased to 60 km/hour, and several 60 km/hour zones should be increased to 70 or 80 km/hour. There is a small 90 km/hour section on Circle Drive that should be reduced to 70 or 80 km/hour. Improved traffic flow by increasing speeds on Chief Mistawasis Bridge and on the roadways leading to and from this bridge. Improved traffic flow by connecting Clancy drive to 18th Street, passing beneath Circle Drive as this will alleviate the congestion on 22nd Street and Circle Drive. Improved traffic flow by widening sections of Circle Drive so that merging onto this freeway will become far less dangerous. Taylor Street should be moving four lanes of traffic at a consistent 50 km/hour, if a high school insists upon lower speeds during school hours, then get your blinkin' signs and your blinkin' lights to communicate the lower speeds in a clear and in an unambiguous manner. Put some study into alleviating congestion on Circle Drive between Avenue C and Millar Avenue. An overpass at Highway 12 and Marquis Drive is required but should be delayed due to mismanagement of city finances, and when it does finally get built it should have enough clearance to allow farmers to transport their grain bins. Improved traffic flow by re-routing the Yellowhead Highway to either one or two miles west of Dalmeny Road, and connecting to the existing Gordie Howe Bridge via a new road located between Cedar Villa Estates and the CN rail yard. This would be hundreds of millions of dollars cheaper than building a proposed bypass on the far east side of the city; furthermore having traffic totally bypassing the city will negatively affect local businesses and result in an additional hundreds of millions of dollars of lost revenue. If the provincial and federal governments desire to fund a bypass, then utilize Grasswoods Road and a new Grasswoods Bridge and have CPR locate their new bridge there as well. It would be in error to get Saskatoonians to pay for a traffic bypass for it would negatively impact businesses for decades to come, as was done in Regina. Improve the traffic flow on Idylwyld Drive by widening the street to 6 or 8 lanes. With a few underpasses, Idywyld Drive could be moving traffic at 90 km/hour. Provide the buildings lining the street with a European style similar to, matching or blending into the style of the Bessborough Hotel or the old Eaton's building on 3rd Avenue South. Beautifying the city will improve the lives of the merchants, the residents and the visitors. We should study the issue of similarly improving 20th Street West. Reduced property taxes via the enforcement of existing traffic laws. Ticket drivers who hang any obstacles to vision, such as dream catchers, on their rear-view mirrors. Ticket the drivers who debadge their vehicles and obscure their license plates. Ticket the drivers who tint their front windows. Ticket drivers who fail to come to a complete stop at red lights and stop signs. Ticket the owners of the unattached trailers left on the streets. Removal of red-light cameras, it is a cash grab that largely benefits those who own the cameras. End to dedicated bike lanes, instead seek to improve road surfaces where bicycles are numerous. Most bicyclists in Saskatoon don't want bicycles and bike lanes, they instead want automobiles and their own houses. The city should work to remove lead from pipes and also bury power lines to ensure the city doesn't suffer power outages during ice storms. An end to water fluoridation, the substance is toxic. Also a ban on toxic sales receipts, the chemicals cause mental and reproductive disorders, and cancers. The toxic sales receipts are a far greater problem than single use plastics, we should focus on the issue of the toxic sales receipts and eliminating that threat before even addressing the issue of plastics. The Federal government refuses to act to ban the toxic receipts, the provincial governments do not appear to be concerned, and so the responsibility to protect Saskatoon citizens falls upon the shoulders of the civic government. Allow people to continue to poison their children and themselves with toothpastes and deodorants, people should be free to choose. Removal of the blue recycling bins… people may still recycle their tin cans, plastics and papers by dropping off their scrap metals, plastics and paper at designated locations. Garbage pick-up should be conducted in alleys should the neighborhoods have back alleys. Individual homeowners will pay less for garbage pick-up each week if they don't set their numbered bins out each week. The city should assist some people to obtain rotating composters so we all may take advantage of the leaves and grass clippings and improve the soil throughout the city. We should be planting apple trees. Any future arena and velodrome should be located near the downtown core, in the central industrial area (the city yard site) near the existing sports and recreational facility of Harry Bailey Pool. I support the building of a single velodrome before the building of a second arena, and am unwilling to spend taxpayer's money for either venue. Trains should not be transporting dangerous goods through the center of the city. The city yard site should be used for future world-class arenas, swimming pools, gymnasiums, a velodrome and a stadium. Either remove the tracks to provide more room for the sports facilities or repurpose the tracks to transport people to and from these sports venues to distant parking lots, indeed, the train tracks are the foundation for a light rail transit system stretching from Clavet to Parkridge. We should not be spending many hundreds of millions of dollars for a dangerous goods traffic bypass without first eliminating the transport by trains of dangerous goods through the center of the city. Canadian Pacific Railways should be required to post a $3 billion performance bond to cover future damages should they continue to transport dangerous goods through the center of the city. CPR needs to begin building a train bridge to cross the river elsewhere, now. Canadian National Railway also transports dangerous goods through the city, they too should be required to post a $3 billion performance bond. Neither the federal nor provincial governments are helping to identify nor eliminate excessively radioactive foods and radioactive goods being brought into the city, the city should make some effort to purchase detectors and scan a sample of the goods being offered for sale. No matter of the degree of nuclear fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi or other nuclear disasters, no effort is made by any Canadian government officials to warn parents to provide Potassium iodide to their children. Likely the greatest radioactive fallout occurs when it rains or snows, an attempt should be made to discover what is falling out of the sky and then warn residents when appropriate. Saskatoon should have a by-law allowing people to "get" the non-native English House Sparrows, magpies, crows and pigeons, squirrels (they all destroy songbirds), the roaming cats and dogs, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, foxes and wild boar, we do not require nuisance nor rabid animals roaming our city. As mayor of the city of Saskatoon, I'd have the kids taught how to safely bag and dispose of the dead animal, and I'd try to get council support to open a pet cemetery where the crows, magpies and such can be laid to peaceful rest. Two or three years ago the media warned of rabies in the countryside near Saskatoon. The rule should be that homeowners and renters may discharge air-rifles in their backyards under conditions: 1) Do not fire into the air and allow the pellet to leave your back yard 2) Do not be observed by others or make yourself a visible nuisance, do your target shooting indoors and only shoot outdoors when targeting pests 3) Keep it quiet, if you can be heard, then you are bothering your neighbors and you will be in violation of point one 4) Don't be going and hitting each other with your pellet guns. People should consider getting themselves .22 caliber or perhaps .25 caliber air rifles and help us rid the land of the English House Sparrows and work together in order to repel other animal predators from our backyards. With the Chinese Flu confining people to their homes, we can expect an influx of larger predatory animals, such as wild boar and wolves. Consider warning your children that the animals prefer to attack people who don't stand so tall. As a child I attended annual turkey shoots at First Avenue and Twenty-Second Street in downtown Saskatoon where the Hilton Hotel now stands, we should bring back shooting ranges to downtown Saskatoon, especially for the kids. When I was a kid we had multitudes of different butterflies and dragon flies in our back yards. Toads lived in our back yards. This was all back in the day when people were not scared. Where the Confederation Mall now stands and surrounding low area, and what is Fairhaven now was Tiger Salamander land. It wasn't difficult to find salamander roaming the edge of the city… the city built on these low lands and now face frequent flooding. If I were Mayor of Saskatoon I'd have a zero cost campaign encouraging people to use fewer pesticides, it would just be a little sentence or two on the bills mailed out. Land south of 19th Street West between Avenues B and C and the freeway, and also land south of 20th Street between Avenue A and First Avenue should be utilized for city residents to develop metal working skills and build small projects, with the immediate goal of becoming skilled enough with TIG welding and aluminum fabrication so that they may build their own small aluminum landing craft, small speed boat or paddle-wheeler. This is land closest to the poorest of the poor, the site is ideal for giving hope to people that have given up hope, and has river access for launching their finished boats. The higher quality TIG welders that have pulse capability smoke less than most every other welding technology, these welders, grinders, and other equipment that produces smoke, should all be used in conjunction with smoke extractors as the smoke generated from grinders is as harmful as the smoke generated from the welders. These pulse TIG welders utilize very small amounts of power when used to weld thinner materials, lowering the overall costs of the program and lowering the cost to the participants as they learn how to use the equipment. Those who participate should be provided with secure lockers so they may store their own personal welding supplies and small projects, such as their own tungsten anodes, filler wire, cutting and grinding wheels, masks, gloves and other welding supplies. As devices used for sharpening tungsten anodes are easily contaminated, they should obtain their own anode sharpening devices. The tungsten anodes are held by TIG torches that can be contaminated and broken, people should purchase a TIG torch that feels comfortable and fits their hands and needs. As breathing masks get coated with germs and become moldy, participants should obtain and care for their own should they have desire for one, and they should consider building themselves powered air respirators, perhaps by using the parts from a battery powered drill. Participants should pay daily for the electricity and argon gas they consume, and of course will be required to pay for any metal they require for their chosen projects. After the students demonstrate proficiency with AC pulse TIG aluminum welding (by completing small projects such as a fuel tank for their car, truck, bicycle or motorcycle, landing craft or plane), then they would be eligible for a secure space were they may over time assemble their own small aluminum boat or plane. There should be no woodworking, gluing nor painting conducted in the facility as efforts must be made to maintain air quality and reduce explosion hazards. There should be no MIG or other welders in the facility in order to force the students to become proficient with the TIG welders. After the participant demonstrates his or her ability to TIG weld, they will set their sights to manufacturing components for their boat or airplane or for their trailer. The aviation department should have priority over and total oversight of the boat building department and should assume responsibility to maintain security of all people's projects, and not allow unauthorized access as that would jeopardize |