Spending more money won’t solve the problems in our city
By Lethbridge Herald on February 24, 2023.
Editor:
Re: “Optimism and ideas needed to move our city forward” Lethbridge Herald, Feb 18/23.
This editorial really has me confused.
On one hand it states “we can’t let negativity shackle us” and “there’s issues to be addressed” “for the safety, of residents, workers, and downtown shoppers…..” “downtown has huge issues to be addressed for crime, drug use, and homelessness.”
The takeaway is that some/much negativity will go away if only we “let optimism guide us rather than pessimism.”
A generous pour of more public money into LPS “to increase its manpower” along with more for Fire and EMS, so together with LPS they can “better serve the community” seems part of the solution.
So money once again money fixes everything. I doubt it – hasn’t to date.
In actuality what has happened is Lethbridge has sunk further into the abyss of social degradation despite massive money playing up expensive solutions. Not much to be optimistic about there!
Whoever wrote the editorial seems to suggest readers dispense with negativity – bring on the sunshine and positive pops out. Easy for those with their hands in the cookie jar, or who haven’t been victimized yet. But not so much I suspect for hundreds of law-abiding folks among us who’ve had their lives turned upside down by crime and tyranny.
This may include those who’ve had their car busted up for the change in the console – later their insurance skyockets as a result (no statistics follow those life-changing events – bet on it) or who’ve experienced the horror of mopping up urine and defecation in a doorway, graffiti from a building side etc.
Solution – hire more taxpayer dependents to “watch” crimes and those cleaning up endless messes!!
The kumbaya of positivity is a tough one to imagine possible or offset by simply giving thanks for the good things we have (and as noted there are many), while ignoring negatives.
Taxpayers, suffering through this understand that throwing endless rivers of money at negativity will not magically change negatives to positives. Leadership may help change negatives to positives – but we’re still waiting for the saviour.
I remain of the belief that a modern society thrives with rules solidly in place which protect from harm – fostering clean, honest, sober productivity.
I submit the editorial would have been better directed at those hired to carry out the duties of maintaining a civilized society, with an expectation they do just that.
This has not happened. All we’re seeing is money thrown around like it grows on trees.
Positive will not find a home here or anywhere else no matter how many millions are thrown at experimentation. If such feelings come across as negative, so be it. Quote: “trying to be optimistic and positive isn’t easy.” I agree!
Alvin W. Shier
Lethbridge
20-19
I agree it isn’t easy to be optimistic and unfortunately the only way we are going to see change is by being agressive and in their face constantly demanding change.
Here is a how bad it is in just two of my experiences:
In October I had a meeting with the Mayor regarding the homeless/encampment issues and reguested the costs just to the local municipal taxpayer. I waited until December and then contacted him to see how it was coming along . . . I was told to call 311.
I did and contacted the person who is in charge at that time. In January I was called after a few attempts to find out what was going on and was told it would be $25 and if the processing costs are more than $150 I would be paying. I paid the $25 and was assured that the detailed requests would all fall under the same request.
In February I received a call from the new person working on it advising me I would have to file separate requests to different government levels. I informed her that all the requests are for Lethbridge departments not AB gov or federal.
To date I have nothing! What this tells me is Council passes all this resolutions for millions of dollars but has no idea how much has been spent! Spending without any fiscal responsibility. They should know how much these issues have cost the Lethbridge taxpayer prior to authorizing more be paid out!!
My estimates that the homeless/encampments issues are costing us over $14 million a year. That is local tax dollars, not provincial or federal. The federal and provincial dollars are in the tens of millions.
I also went to the LPS to get my police information check done, which is needed to renew security licenses. I paid my money, providing the necessary documents at the first of January and yesterday received a letter that I needed to come in to be finger printed to prove my identity, for an additional cost of $40 from the original $65 I paid.
7 weeks after I put in the time sensitive application I get a letter that more information is needed. This is not my first search, which has to be done every 2 years. The delay will mean I have to pay an addictional $100 to go through government registry office to expedite the license.
The city has sunk into the abyss! No one wants to do their jobs anymore! I say this after seeing Lethbridge fire units outside of the Lethbridge Herald last night, after already complaining to the Mayor about fires in their doorway and fecal matter.
I guess when people die from these fires we may see action!
I am very disappointed with the leadership of this city and it is why the protests planned this spring will be directed at city leadership and change since this Council and new police Chief has lost our confidence.
Change will come . . . but once again the citizens of this city have to rise up and make it!
After my original comment and I saw the old Lethbridge Hotel burning . . . I mentioned after the Bow On Tong it would probably be next.
Is the leadership in this city going to allow these criminals to burn down the whole downtown . . . as earlier mentioned there was a fire in front of the Herald last night!
Looking forward to hearing more about your spring plans ,Ewing.
Briefly . . . it will be peaceful, law abiding, no trucks, no convoys, no F- signs. It will involve expressing concerns in Council meetings/committee meetings, We will not tolerate anti-social events that we witnessed at the border and in Ottawa . . . I cannot stress that this enough!
We were able to close the SCS and stop the LOPS tent using legal means that didn’t damage property or attack/insult/initimidate private citizens. We want our city back and a legal, but loud and clear message must be made to leadership and we will want change in some leadership, but legal changes, not by insurrection. Some leadership have failed us and failed our city.
Our city has met the ‘reasonble man’ legal clause in providing shelter for the addicted/homeless in its efforts, so charter issues should not be preventing enforcement of loitering/vagrancy/illegal encampment laws.
Governments in North America, several US states, major cities in Canada have/are making the decisions to enforce those laws.
Taxpayers are paying the price for these bad decisions and people are losing their lives.
I think the “homeless” have devised a plan to burn downtown Lethbridge to the ground so as to allow for housing for the “hard to serve”. Got to love those euphemisms…they hide some much ugly truth and let the social justice warriors feel so much better about themselves as they contemplate how to suck more taxpayer grant money from the City and Province.
Wonder if the cause of the fire at the Bow or the Leth Hotel will ever be disclosd or if it is too “inconvenient” a truth.
We will never hear the official answers or of charges because they don’t want it hurt the Reconciliation efforts and since the Blackfoot Confederacy now seems to be the puppet master of the city leadership, you may as well let the whole downtown burn! Scorched earth policy!
I applaud the firefighters who have had to face frigid temperatures and freezing lines/equipment.
I wonder if they will blame Streets Alive for this? They had nothing to do with all the issues, it was the punks that room the streets all night committing crimes with impunity!!
I guess we need to find a police force for our city!
If someone was paid to do it-if, well they didn’t do it well enough to save anyone much for demolish ion costs. Again if that was the idea.
As someone who had their garage broken into a year ago I can vouch for how the LPS deals with crime. A call hours later and a drive down my back alley is all the crime solving that occurred. I was told to report it to my insurance company which I had no intention of doing as I don’t need higher rates. Then the next morning I went for a walk down my back alley only to find 3/4 of my property sitting beside a neighbours garage. The police officer told me when I reported the found property that they usually do that to pick up the next day. Good thing I took it into my own hands. It was similiar to an incident years ago when my vehicle was broken into and my stereo and tools were stolen. I called the pawn shops the next morning and got a call a couple hours later saying someone was in the store trying to sell my stuff. Called the police and headed down to the pawn shop but the perpetrator got spooked and left before I got there leaving his drivers license. The police arrived 45 minutes later only to say they weren’t doing anything as there wasn’t enough evidence leaving me with a broken window and a broken dash. I have little faith in our law enforcement which is a shame. Maybe they’re keeping the criminal element from running the town or maybe not, I don’t know because the Chiefs main message last year was not to have nice stuff. Maybe they should publicize their daily activities like they used to. LPS has an image problem due to their activities the last couple years and at least in my mind they haven’t done much to counter it.
When one of their families are directly impacted we may see action!
So who do we get then to serve and protect our community? Bikers? Police don’t want to do the job!
Much money can be saved by axing numerous high paid, redundant jobs in City Hall.
Costs us taxpayers a fortune in buyouts because the wages are soo high.
Short term pain for long term gain…..
Totally agree Alvin!
When residents realize that the society they built and recognized as being the fabric of Lethbridge is gone, the glue that makes us Lethbridge will be gone. We will become polarized satellites as West Side is pitted against South Side, North Side etc.
Disclaimer- The term “they, them, those ” that follows could be any “they them those” not a specific “they them those” or a “they,them those” that could be considered a malicious attack on “they or them or those”!
“Those that chose without reservation to install the Care Center in the downtown will long be remembered for their paid charitable offerings to Addicts, who destroyed our society, and how misplaced and conflicted their thought process was!”
Silence will no longer be kept! I do not know how many times when talking with a business owner that at the end of the conversation I was told it was off the record because they did not want to get in trouble with the city and be hounded by city staff.
So before our society is gone as we know it, we can see the original contributors, those that will be affected the most, contributed to there own demise.
However, that is “not” how they will remember it. As in other places around the world, as their downtown got overrun the first call was indignation! Business owners who said, and did nothing, to stop the process, suddenly attempted to shame shoppers into shopping at their stores. Shop local was the beckon cry!
Then if anyone got mugged, robbed, beaten, knifed, etc it was an “anomaly” and not a true representation of the downtown. Politicians would have photo ops eating at a local restaurant doing the “see its safe” thing. Meanwhile behind the scenes, Police Forces were doubling, walking patrols were going nuts, and money was flowing everywhere to keep the downtown from collapsing. Meanwhile, big box stores, and malls who were contemplating on building in the city then contributed to the polarization! In our case it will be West Side Wooing against the South Side Wooing and in amongst that NorthSide doing the same.
Every time something is built West, South side and North will feel slighted and Downtown? Well they will be forgotten with the exception of an occasional walking street upgrade which will be placation only. Downtown will become 10am to 5pm only!
Third Bridge? I will not get into whether we need one or not, but a 3rd bridge will allow the West Siders to completely Bypass the Downtown. If that is its purpose, then it will be a success. Some may insist this is progress, that may be true but its also a city contributing to its own societies death.
Once the 3rd bridge is built if it is, then West Siders Immediately have access to South Side Box stores, South Siders have access to West Side, its Nirvana….except for North-siders and the Downtown.
“If Crime happens downtown, and you aren’t there to see it, did it happen?”
Crime in the downtown, will be relegated to page 3 of the local paper and the New shiny buildings and bustling suburbs become the news. It takes no time at all for Police to rush to the assistance of the shiny new suburbs because it becomes the face of Lethbridge.
“Decentralization is used to create the kumbaya of being positive and optimistic!”
So as we spend all the money gained by taxes, to push more and more into West and South, the North and Downtown will become just another low rental area for small businesses that barely scratch out a living. As the downtown erodes, that will be used to justify no longer spending money on it, and much like other towns/cities who vacated their downtowns because they allowed 2 groups to win, it will dissolve into a place not to go at night and vacate at 5pm to the burbs!
The more its vacated the more Spearman’s stated Southern Alberta Rehab Facility becomes viable and we will be heralded as a Caring Lethbridge for our amazing gift to those that need help. This will give further license to Surrounding Cities and others to ship their addicts to our downtown.
-So we have business owners afraid to speak up.
-There is no business group who speaks for Lethbridge Downtown to defend it.
-We are contemplating plans to bypass it.
-We have a province that is taking advantage of our collective weakness and is more than willing to trash the downtown to achieve its goals.
-We have no one that is objecting to any of this, other than a few no names on the interweb (me included).
So we will lose the downtown that is now a “given”. If you have not figured that out yet, then you are likely a business owner in the Downtown.
During this process do you think the true impact of “Reconciliation Lethbridge” will be seen as nothing but an orchestrated takeover and destruction of our Downtown Lethbridge Society, by a conflicted group? This is why “Reconciliation Lethbridge” should have never hooked their wagon to the planners of destruction. Why? The planners won’t be blamed, the Indigenous will be (this is not intentional, it will be the result)! If any Indigenous are reading this perhaps you will now understand how you have been “had”, because, in my opinion, you have been, you just don’t know it yet!
Hence the reason I personally tried to stop it! However, my time is slowly coming to an end, fortunately. Recent events and planned events have made my thought process redundant. Which some thought was the case from the start, anyway!
The next 4 years will be the worst because it will truly bring out the Racists in this city and Downtown will be the battleground! If you believe otherwise then you are probably one of the people planning the Destruction. The Indigenous will feel unjustly attacked and Lethbridge’s Society as we know it will feel unjustly attacked! That Ladies and Gentleman will lead to higher levels of conflict.
Not a word will be spoken from the “University of higher thought” and they will be shocked, I say SHOCKED at what happens! Sayings like “whouda thunkin coulda sheen dis comin”… answer, basically anyone with grade 2 and any life skills, that’s who!
Now, Lethbridge, how long do you think it will take to spill out of the downtown to “wider regions of Lethbridge”?
Be positive, optimistic and happy and ignore what is going on around you otherwise you will ulcerate !
Love how you often mention the “University of higher thought”! They don’t want to point out how clueless they are, perhaps? All they know is throw more money at it. From their castles in the sky of acreages,ranches and exclusive areas they are happy to support dumping it by the stafford drive bridge- it is not anywhere near where they will ever live. Same with too many of our community planners, Opportunity Lethbridge board members and councilors. Ever wonder who appoints the Opportunity Lethbridge board members and special committee members? It’s not city council. City councilors are basically told which committees they will be on. Some councilors may have be fooled into thinking they had a significant say,but it’s not true.
been fooled.