That adage about the customer always being right is put on its head at Calgary City Hall. In that alternate universe, the customer — that being ratepayers — is usually assumed to be wrong.
As way of comparison: Imagine owning an auto dealership where your salespeople complain that customers abuse them and then leave in a fury, without spending a nickel.
Do you console them by closing the doors, promising not to reopen until those rude shoppers smarten up? Unlikely, I’d suggest. Instead, you’d ponder if it’s firing and hiring time before your business goes belly up.
Suffice to say that city hall bears no resemblance to any auto dealership.
You see, it’s our fault if we’re angry. We’d better calm down and do as we’re told or, to borrow that immortal line from Seinfeld, there’ll be no soup for us.
The latest example of this increasingly authoritarian attitude toward regular citizens by public servants comes amid a gathering storm over proposed changes to zoning regulations in Calgary.
This showdown looks a doozy to top all others. Yes, we rolled our eyes at that paper bag bylaw silliness, shook our heads on hearing the oil capital of Canada was suddenly declared a climate emergency city and gritted our teeth about the latest huge tax rate hike imposed by council. But those irritants pale compared to what relaxed zoning regulations could portend for Calgarians.
Previous rules about what can be built in the vacant lot next door are suddenly in doubt, jeopardizing the contract we naively thought was sacrosanct when first moving into our neighbourhood.
The city is now asking for our trust. But this mayor, council and civic administration have squandered so much goodwill in two and a half years that trust is in short supply.
Nevertheless, city hall might be tone deaf but it can still read the sign language emanating from an increasingly anxious and angry population. That’s why there’s a full-court press to reassure us this is all for our benefit, which includes mass mail-outs of civic puffery and staggered model site visits, prepping us before the public meeting on April 22.
Except these site visits didn’t get off to a good start. The first walking tour meant to explain this rezoning change was cancelled because city officials feared for their safety after hearing they’d be heckled. Apparently, racial diatribes were hurled, with some staff told to go back to their own country.
This isn’t nice. But, unlike our mythical auto dealership, these doors could indeed be closed permanently — meaning no walking tours — unless those angry customers settle down and behave.
The question unasked is why Calgary homeowners — not generally known as rude, aggressive or threatening individuals — are reacting so angrily.
It may be they understand where this threat to their way of life arises and that’s turning them into a formidable foe, one council should not treat with the offhand disregard it recently displayed by deep-sixing a proposed plebiscite on this issue.
Mind-boggling levels of immigration in the past 18 months allied to a decade of deliberate ultralow mortgage rates poured gasoline on home prices, eventually leading Ottawa to discover a housing crisis of its own making.
To bail itself out, the federal government offered lots of money — bribes might be a better word — to local governments if they’d relax zoning regulations and build multi-unit housing everywhere. Calgary City Hall salivates at getting its mitts on those millions.
So, our lives are being turned upside down because of the collective greed and short-sightedness of politicians and their various hangers-on.
And, if we complain, we risk being deemed racists and abusers: a passive-aggressive strategy that usually works. Except this time around it might not.
Chris Nelson is a regular columnist.
Nelson: Fury builds over city hall's rezoning plan
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28.03.2024
That adage about the customer always being right is put on its head at Calgary City Hall. In that alternate universe, the customer — that being ratepayers — is usually assumed to be wrong.
As way of comparison: Imagine owning an auto dealership where your salespeople complain that customers abuse them and then leave in a fury, without spending a nickel.
Do you console them by closing the doors, promising not to reopen until those rude shoppers smarten up? Unlikely, I’d suggest. Instead, you’d ponder if it’s firing and hiring time before your business goes belly up.
Suffice to say that city hall bears no resemblance to any auto dealership.
You see, it’s our fault if we’re angry. We’d better calm down and do as we’re told or, to borrow that immortal line from Seinfeld, there’ll be no soup for us.
The latest example of this increasingly authoritarian attitude toward regular citizens by public servants comes amid a gathering storm over proposed........
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