Blue Christmas
I am writing this letter in the hope of reaching out to the person who (stole) my $200 from a bank machine in Walmart on Sept. 27. As a disabled single mom, this act alone has taken my wish to make a decent Christmas for my family unobtainable. As this had happened in Walmart, I do know it is not their fault, they had told me they would investigate and go through the footage and follow through, I have yet to hear from them. So if by any chance this letter reaches out to the person who did this, I do hope you at least feel some remorse for this heartless act.
Sharon Smith, Red Deer
MP spending
Pot calling the kettle black. I recently read a report by Canadian Press that a Red Deer Member of Parliament, Blaine Calkins, took the Liberals to task over the cost of feeding government ministers staff and reporters while on airplanes. And I am really grateful to Mr. Calkins for paying attention. No one wants to see our tax dollars misspent or wasted.
I have been following the misspending of the public purse on partisan advertising since 2008. In the 2014/2015 Parliament, Mr. Calkins spent $14,092.44 of our money on 10 percenters which are the partisan, one page black and white fliers that filled your mailboxes last year.
While this amount is considerably less than the $37,317.50 spent by Conservative MP Lisa Raitt that year, it is still more than the CPC average of $10,110.11. And it was more than twice the NDP average of $6,837.04 and a great deal more than the Liberal average of $1,288.33.
Citizens of Red Deer can easily check the expenditures of Members of Parliament by going to http://www.parl.gc.ca/about/house/boie/boie-expenditures-e.html.
Linda Leon, Whitehorse, Yukon
Safety strategy
Re. John Johnston’s recent letter (“Confusing intersection laws,” Sept. 15), bicyclists should especially avoid riding across the crosswalks of the two-lane exits of the 30 Avenue/67 Street roundabout. When a vehicle stops in the outside lane to allow a pedestrian, cyclist, whatever, to cross from right to left, the driver of an approaching vehicle in the curved inside (left) lane may not be able to see the crosswalk occupant in time to avoid a collision. Vice versa for the alternate.
One crosswalk strategy to avoid being hit is to pause in front of the stopped vehicle and ensure that the next lane is safe to cross before proceeding. A better strategy is to avoid the roundabout crosswalks is by using the crosswalks at upstream or downstream signalized intersections.
Hopefully, parents, school officials and Safety City personnel will share this advice with youngsters, instructing them to walk across the crosswalk and installing flags on their bicycles to increase visibility to drivers in elevated cabs.
However people choose to cross crosswalks, they should be careful to proceed at close to walking speed. If a vehicle is about to cross a crosswalk and a bicyclist, skateboarder, roller-blader, etc., comes flying into and across the same crosswalk, the driver may not see the person in time to stop safely. When it is impractical for the driver to yield the right of way to the crosswalk user due to the sudden appearance and high speed of the crosswalk user, I would not expect the driver to be found at fault.
The roundabout has several other unnecessarily hazardous features that will unduly occupy drivers’ attention, making it less likely for vulnerable road users to be seen in time to stay safe.
Doug Taylor, Red Deer
Where’s the ROI?
When it comes to the downtown area, what is the return on our investment?
Whether it be capital, operations or subsidies, are we getting are monies worth?
Capital expenses are enormous. Spending millions on Riverlands, to relocate the civic yards, re-align roads, upgrade services, demolish buildings to give us a 23-acre starting point.
I am not totally against having a nice downtown, but like most people I do not spend much time downtown. Making the downtown such a high priority at the expense of other sections of Red Deer, does disturb me.
If we were to look at Edgar Industrial Park, my sense is that the return on investment is high, that the tax revenue far exceeds the expense to the city. That same sense tells me for downtown the expense to the city far exceeds the revenue.
High return for their investment north of 11a and a negative return on their investment downtown for many years to come. Like
Edgar Industrial Park, North of 11A will subsidize the downtown. I guess we should be happy with that, but I am not. Are you?
It is nice to have a downtown, would it not be nicer to build facilities in areas, where they are needed but cannot be built because the city over extended itself downtown? I wonder who else may feel this way.
Garfield Marks, Red Deer