The one councillor who was very much in play (the tie breaker if you will) moved for a deferral and in doing so said if the deferral did not pass he was prepared to vote tonight/this morning but gave a veiled threat that people may not get what they wanted/expected.

I suspect the deferral passed so strongly because neither of the two sides with 5 votes had any idea which way he would vote if forced to vote tonight.
 
drum118 said:
There is only 1 true route and that is what being proposed. Others are off the wall or wasting a lot of people time trying to use transit, as well hitting the pocket book hard in the coming years.
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Based on the fact that most other City or Metrolinx projects I have looked at have chosen the wrong options, it seems reasonable to question this route as well. However, in this case, Drum seems correct - there is no alternate route that seems to work.
 
This sure sounds like political brinksmanship to me. You discover that you will cast the deciding vote - what do you do? You make noises that you are indifferent, and then you buy time to see who will dangle what in front of your nose to get you to 'yes'.

Pave a few roads? New playground equipment in your Ward? A government grant, or three, for your Ward?

Except that your fellow Councillors will figure out the game, and want their share... a vote is a vote. Here comes another round of wrangling, none of it having anything to do with transit.

I have a lot more respect for the ten Councillors who turned up ready to take a position, be it yea or nay, than for the one games player. Pan Am hasn't even opened yet, but here we are.

- Paul
 
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crs1026 said:
This sure sounds like political brinksmanship to me. You discover that you will cast the deciding vote - what do you do? You make noises that you are indifferent, and then you buy time to see who will dangle what in front of your nose to get you to 'yes'.

Pave a few roads? New playground equipment in your Ward? A government grant, or three, for your Ward?
Click to expand...
In the land of politics, there are further games afoot as well. No one wants a council that is divided 6-5 on a major issue.
This buys time to soften the stance of some of the votes, and give them a chance to "get some concessions" or add "made in Brampton" changes that do not materially change the Main St routing, but allow them to change their vote and declare a small victory nonetheless.
 
I wonder if a motion to study extending the LRT further north along Main/Hurontario past the GO station would increase the support for the project? Based on many of the comments online (news articles, Twitter, etc), a good chunk of the opposition seems to be that it doesn't go far enough into Brampton to be useful for most Bramptonians, and that it's primarily a Mississauga project that just happens to extend into Brampton.

If some Councillors are prepared to spend more on alternative alignments, perhaps they'd also be willing to spend more on a longer line?
 
One thing I kept hearing was that it would be great to have the line extend to Mayfield. I doubt that would please the NIMBY's though. A few of the speakers made a great point, that people need to stop thinking of this line as the only transit improvement that Brampton will ever see. Its not the first and last transit project, yet many are treating it like it is.

HMLRT sets the base for much more than the HMLRT, including the eventual extension of the HMLRT. If all Brampton wants is a stub of a line that simply ends downtown, then the other options are perfect. If you want this line to be a true regional line, that can benefit all of Brampton, then the Main Street alignment is the best option. It is by far the best route to set the line up for further expansion, and more efficient travel in and around Brampton.

I found it funny that the owner of the camera shop on Queen near City Hall was complaining that construction was hurting her business. Sorry lady, but the days of camera shops are numbered. You won't last another 10 years, with or without HMLRT.
 
Don't worry, when construction starts the opponents will be sure to blame everything on the LRT, just like what happened on St. Clair.

For example, on St. Clair the SOS group blamed the streetcar construction for a Coffee Time closing, not mentioning the new Tim Hortons which opened up five doors down.
 
Tuscani01 said:
I found it funny that the owner of the camera shop on Queen near City Hall was complaining that construction was hurting her business. Sorry lady, but the days of camera shops are numbered. You won't last another 10 years, with or without HMLRT.
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I'm surprised she survived Henry's opening up at Vodden and Main (just outside the downtown area).
 
Maybe they should blame the closing up of all the Black's Photography stores on the St. Clair right-of-way, the Hurontario LRT, the Eglinton LRT, and just about any transit project across Canada, as well.
 
Is this what you LRT people want downtown Brampton to become? A ghost town full of sex shops? This is what happens to streets with camera stores close down!

84606944.jpg

http://www.timetobreak.com/1037011/...who-do-not-understand-the-rules-of-parking/3/
 
Tuscani01 said:
I found it funny that the owner of the camera shop on Queen near City Hall was complaining that construction was hurting her business. Sorry lady, but the days of camera shops are numbered. You won't last another 10 years, with or without HMLRT.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Apart from LRT, and/or being replaced by iPhones, businesses will be affected by changes in property values as Brampton's downtown intensifies. Some of those businesses may own their buildings. If so, the development value of the property, and the tax assessment, will eventually outpace what the business can earn. Others are renting, and rents will rise as landlords take their cut. On-street parking won't bring in enough customers to change this. Brampton's downtown is likely near a tipping point regardless of LRT.

- Paul
 
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/07/09/brampton-mayor-accused-of-playing-politics-on-lrt.html


Brampton mayor accused of playing politics on LRT


Mayor Linda Jeffrey, a former Liberal cabinet minister at Queen’s Park, supports the province’s proposed LRT route.


Following a decision by Brampton council to defer a vote on where a provincially funded LRT should go, residents and councillors are raising concerns about the politics being played while the city grows even more divided on the biggest transit decision in its history.

EDIT: No need to post the whole article online
 
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Why is running a tunnel the last 1.2km such a non-starter? It seems like a reasonable solution to keeping a direct route, protecting the character of the street, and speedy transit in an area that due to road width and intersections could experience congestion. I realize that it would be more money but at the same time the Weston grade separation was done for a much higher cost and for less benefit.
 
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