Comments on: Capital Ward opens up

By: Erigami Scholey-Fuller

Erigami Scholey-Fuller — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 14:36:43 +0000

Blaming other councilors for their supposed intransigence is akin to Larry O’Brien’s I-didn’t-make-0%-because-councilors-didn’t-let-me speeches.

Doucet may have a vision, but he hasn’t been able to convince other councilors to sign onto it. Unless he can do that, it doesn’t matter how good his ideas are.

By: brian tansey

brian tansey — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:59:13 +0000

I too think that david would make an excellent Councillor…. but, the main reason that Doucet has “…not been able to build consensus with most of his Council colleagues…” is that he is the only one with an integrated vision; none of the others even Diane Holmes or Alex Cullen, seem to have spelled out over the years what they stand for. In addition to that problem the City itself has structural difficulties that encourages most Councillors ( but the most brave) to deal almost exclusively with issues in their own Ward, and NOT be looking out for the long term common good ie. of the whole City. So besides the Mike Harris ‘forced amalgamation’ and all the problems that has lead to … how else do we explain the urban sprawl ‘policies’ and car / road asphalt centric practices of a City that is undermined by its geographical vastness whilst having the lowest density of the top 23 Cities in Canada ? When most Councillors represent car centric communities , and the City’s lack of density makes large scale public transit projects essentially unaffordable, it’s not surprising that car centric policies and practices will follow.

And Iin the context of the above remarks about Doucet’s claiming credit for the work of community associations…I know first hand that that is not true; as one example I was member of the C.A. when it was Doucet who got the ball rolling for Old Ottawa South’s rebuild / redesign of our Community Centre by a brilliant tactic , which was; since they wont put us on the priority list for capital projects, let’s embarass the City into giving us the money for it, by raising money ourselves…. thru lobster suppers and a hundred other small scale events. It worked; and he does serve a lot of the credit.

By: Markus Buchart

Markus Buchart — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:10:22 +0000

David Chernushenko would make a fine city councillor. He is an impressive fellow. Good luck to him.

Markus Buchart
Winnipeg, Manitoba

By: gawp

gawp — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:53:26 +0000

I agreed with most of Doucent’s ideas but he is ineffective at implementing them. He (and other opponents) were spectacularly outmaneuvered in the Landsdowne Park fiasco, allowing the shopping and football crew to set the terms of reference and frame the debate. They lost from the start and then were unable to negotiate for anything useful for the communities. Protests are great but they should be accompanied with some degree of bureaucratic competence and foresignt.

I too worry that he’ll split the anyone but O’Brien vote and it’s entirely in keeping with his well meaning but bumbling track record.