Disqus - Latest Comments for VincentClement

Re: To Bypass or Not to Bypass

Vincent Clement — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 09:24:37 -0000

I don't think Starke took the right lesson from the by-pass because Google Street View shows E Madison Street being widened into a stroad - demolished a bunch of buildings to widen it. Sigh.

Re: Will Edmonton Be the First Major Canadian City to Eliminate Parking Minimums?

Vincent Clement — Fri, 15 May 2020 13:43:55 -0000

Eliminating parking minimums, not eliminating parking. It's possible that eliminating parking minimums will increase parking revenue for the City, especially if they introduce dynamic pricing. There is a surplus of parking spaces, so eliminating parking minimums would not necessarily translate into fewer cars on the road.

Re: Windsor Craft Beer Festival Announces First Batch of Breweries for 2019

Vincent Clement — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 15:26:12 -0000

Please make more non-alcoholic beverages available this year.

Re: The Most Important Planning Concept You’ve Never Heard Of

Vincent Clement — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 16:32:40 -0000

If something is subject to regulations, even if they are "basic", then it isn't as-of-right. But if I can show my slaughterhouse will fufil your basic regulations, then it wouldn't prevent it, would it?

Re: The Most Important Planning Concept You’ve Never Heard Of

Vincent Clement — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 16:28:17 -0000

"Keesmaat has been an advocate for urbanism in Toronto". Corrected it for you. Powerful? Hardly.

The so-called yellow areas in Toronto have been losing population because intensification is a no-go in the land of detached houses. Instead you get spikey tall development along major corridors where there are substantial issues with infrastructure such as transit and schools. Imagine looking down at a school from your apartment but you can't go to it because it is over-capacity. Wonderful planning.

She chose to use her limited capital on fighting the Mayor of the Gardiner Expressway replacement. It was her Planning Department that fudged ridership numbers to support the Scarborough Subway Extension. The data for the Scarborough LRT showed that ridership could barely justify the LRT, but now all off a sudden there were enough riders for a subway extension to a suburban location?

I don't necessarily blame her. When it comes to urban planning and transit planning, Toronto City Council has to be one of the most ineffective bodies in the world. But to call her powerful, well, that is just plain wrong.

Re: Activists Fight to Keep Windsor's New Hospital in the Heart of the City

Vincent Clement — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 13:39:29 -0000

The whole process is flawed. This was billed as a 'new regional health care system' but oddly excludes a hospital in Leamington Ontario (southeast of Windsor). Originally, the process began as a way to consolidate and REDUCE the number of facilities from three to less than three and to provide a cheaper alternative to proposed $1.3 billion expansions at the existing two hospital sites (there was a fear that the province wouldn't approve both expansions due to the cost).

The process ended with the announcement of four sites being developed or redeveloped at a cost of $2 billion plus. Four is not less than 3 and $2 billion is not less than $1.3 billion. But shiny new hospital on the fringe of the city. Yeah.

Re: Activists Fight to Keep Windsor's New Hospital in the Heart of the City

Vincent Clement — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 13:34:03 -0000

The one hospital - Ouellette Campus - referred to as being downtown, isn't really downtown. It's just outside what one would call a downtown. The core area is a better description. It's located on the main north-south street that goes downtown and divides Windsor into east and west halves.

Besides excellent transit, cycling, pedestrian and automobile access, there is plenty of parking around that hospital. You can park all day for $3 - there is even some free on-street parking. There is housing to the west and east.

The consolidation of the hospitals only happened when Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) and Hotel-Dieu Grace (HDGH) swapped hospitals. At one time, both WRH and HDGH had one acute care hospital. Just before this new hospital process began, WRH and HDGH swapped facilities. WRH became the acute care provider and HDGH became the non-acute care provider. It was clear what was going on. With both acute care facilities under one organization, "one shiny new acute care hospital is more efficient" became a guiding principle.

Re: Detroit’s Belle Isle Park Is About to Become a Racetrack Again

Vincent Clement — Tue, 28 May 2019 15:00:39 -0000

Plenty of airports shut down for all sorts of events. Wouldn't the spectators stay at the same hotels the stay for the race at Belle Isle?

Re: Province’s Housing Supply Action Plan Shakes Up Planning Act

Vincent Clement — Fri, 03 May 2019 08:39:17 -0000

The Planning Act already requires that a municipality must have policies and regulations that permit second units, so I'm not sure exactly what Ford is proposing. The only thing that comes to mind is explicitly stating that second units are permitted as of right, subject to any local regulations, in the Planning Act.

It was my understanding that Municipal Affairs was already working on changes to development charges for second units under the Liberal government, so this is just a continuation of something that was already in the pipeline.

Re: The Best Antivirus for 2013

Vincent Clement — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 12:07:49 -0000

You need to list both the introductory/first year price and the renewal price. McAfee is only 19.99 the first year. It's $59.99 beyond that. That's quite the difference.

Re: SOLVED: Windows 10 Won’t Install or Download Updates

Vincent Clement — Sun, 01 Apr 2018 16:47:12 -0000

I'm finding that Windows 10 will report it checked for an update and that everything is up to date. Just today, Update Status reports as "Your device is up to date. Last checked: Today 4:05 pm".

So I clicked on "Check for updates" and it reports that there is an update (apparently released on March 22) and proceeds to download and install it. I've noticed this behaviour several times over the past 3 or 4 months - does not find anything automatically, but manually check and an update is available. Very strange.

Using Windows Update Troubleshooter usually finds something and corrects it. Something in the last major Win10 update broke Windows Update.

Re: Parking Minimums Must Die

Vincent Clement — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 19:10:51 -0000

I partly blame the transportation planners. In my own municipality, a transportation planner was upset when I switched from rounding up to rounding down required parking, because apparently not requiring one additional parking space was going to create chaos or something bad. No, seriously. I said chill, it's one parking space. It's going to have no impact. I did round up accessible and bike parking. They were quiet on that.

In my city there is only one business that uses most if not all of its parking: Costco. Despite the full parking lot, Costco removed about 50 parking spaces to put in a gas bar. I guess the profit margin was greater for the gas bar than from the shoppers they may have lost. The only other commercial operation that I can think that has full parking lots on a regular basis is IKEA. That's it.

Re: [Leafs Links] Eric Macramalla: “I believe that the NHL is justified in opening up an investigation against the Leafs and Lamoriello”

Vincent Clement — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 14:55:18 -0000

And a long history of the NHLPA or the NHL doing nothing in response. People may whisper about allegations, but until someone from the NHLPA or an owner speaks out, any call for an investigation is moot.

Re: MDOT to put downtown stretch of Grand River on 'road diet' | Crain's Detroit Business

Vincent Clement — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 08:43:20 -0000

Half the year? At worst, winter weather occurs over 4 months. At best, this region gets a three or four snowfalls. It's rained in January before. Those bike lanes seem to work well in northern European cities.

Re: TSA considers forcing airline passengers to remove books from carry-ons

Vincent Clement — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 18:28:47 -0000

It's so easy that it hardly happens. Laptops were banned from being carried into the passenger compartment. You could still bring them in your checked luggage, but there is a good chance they'll go 'missing'.

Re: TSA considers forcing airline passengers to remove books from carry-ons

Vincent Clement — Sun, 25 Jun 2017 18:23:59 -0000

So you are saying that the Israeli system of security can't scale up to the US?

Re: Some 20-MPH Streets Are Safer Than Others

Vincent Clement — Sun, 28 May 2017 12:09:06 -0000

We have traffic engineers questioning why the Planning Department is proposing to exempt certain uses in Business Improvement Areas from providing parking spaces. They seemed to be worried about traffic flow or people using on-street parking.

Re: Nine Common Road Myths Busted

Vincent Clement — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 07:24:13 -0000

Merging earlier just moves the merge point farther away from the physical merge point. Under heavier traffic conditions, you effectively reduce the capacity of the highway if you merge early.

Re: Nine Common Road Myths Busted

Vincent Clement — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 07:19:48 -0000

I don't recall the centre lane being called the "thru traffic" lane or seeing it "marked as such".

Re: Bernier calls for a freeze on equalization payments

Vincent Clement — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 23:54:00 -0000

The Federal government shouldn't be funding health care. It's a Provincial responsibility. Unemployment is not a social program as it is funded by employers and employees. Workers compensation, welfare and public schools are Provincial responsibilities, so I'm not sure how Mr. Bernier could eliminate them.

Re: The TTC Is Cutting Printed Schedules to Save 0.02 Per Cent on Their Budget

Vincent Clement — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 07:45:56 -0000

From the Toronto Star article:

"Printed schedules will remain at terminus points like subway stations and streetcar loops, according to Green, and at key intersections where several routes intersect."

Re: Rex Murphy Doesn’t Understand Transit Planning, or Economics, or Why We All Must Die One Day

Vincent Clement — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 07:36:00 -0000

The only thing the Harrisites downloaded was that portion of the QEW between the 427 and the Humber River. The DVP and the remainder of the Gardiner have always been the responsibility of Toronto.

Re: I’m a Scarborough Resident and I Don’t Want a Subway

Vincent Clement — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 07:16:05 -0000

The Province isn't the lead on this particular transit file. All the Province has said is that there is a fixed amount of dollars from the Scarborough LRT that can be used for whatever Toronto finally decides on in Scarborough.

If the Province was the lead, the Scarborough LRT would be under construction.

Re: NHL mum on outcome of executive committee meeting

Vincent Clement — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 18:07:34 -0000

If they award a team to Quebec, then one of the Eastern Conference teams will have to move to the Western Conference and that will cause problems. The way the league is currently setup, Quebec is more likely to get a relocated franchise (say a certain Florida team) and either Seattle or Portland gets the final Western Conference spot.

Re: How Much Money U.S. Transit Systems Lose Per Trip, in 1 Chart

Vincent Clement — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:52:55 -0000

"Most jurisdictions" means not all which means not everyone. You are contradicting your own position.

I work in the Planning Department for a mid-sized Canadian City and I can categorically state that we do not require "every business and every residents to provide parking". Almost all commercial uses in the Downtown and Business Improvement Areas are exempt from providing parking. This is common in many jurisdictions.