Stupid idea from our city council

[chayton]

So I live in Edmonton where it gets really cold in the winter. Really cold. We have quite a few homeless people and not really enough shelters.

So city council (in their infinite wisdom) and the Edmonton Arts Council have come up with a brilliant idea - to spend $36,000 on a statue commemorating the 47 homeless people who died of exposure on our city streets.

Makes me proud.

EDIT: sarcasm is in bold.

 

[Pinababy69]

So I live in Edmonton where it gets really cold in the winter. Really cold. We have quite a few homeless people and not really enough shelters.

So city council (in their infinite wisdom) and the Edmonton Arts Council have come up with a brilliant idea - to spend $36,000 on a statue commemorating the 47 homeless people who died of exposure on our city streets.

Makes me proud.

EDIT: sarcasm is in bold.

Unreal Chayton. You know how many beds they could fund with 36K? Idiots.

Many years ago, when Mel Lastman was Mayor of our city...he and the City Council voted to have a huge piece of ROCK from Northern Ontario chipped out of the rockface and shipped/trucked all the way down to Toronto, and put on display in front of City Hall ie. somewhat like a sculpture. It was nothing but a piece of rock...not commissioned by an artist or anything like that. Just a huge rock.

Cost to the city and taxpayers.....a cool 2 million. Haven't been downtown in years, so can't even say if it's still there, but I'm guessing it is.

Did I mention that I think ALL politicians are idiots?

 

[chayton]

unbelievable...a $2 million dollar rock. I am TOTALLY in the wrong line of work.

 

[vinylweatherman]

unbelievable...a $2 million dollar rock. I am TOTALLY in the wrong line of work.

I have some surplus soil from my back garden. How about they pay me $2,000,000 to have it shipped over there, and dumped next to the rock

As for that statue, this is a problem caused by different departments working AGAINST each other to inflate their own egos, rather than all pulling together to solve the most important problems.

The best way to commemorate the 47 homeless people who died would be a SHELTER with 47 beds, so that 47 homeless people would NOT die THIS winter. The match of beds with deaths should be "arty" enough to impress the arts department, but will also solve an important problem.

The homeless could always use the statue as the main support for a large "tent" structure though, which might make them less uncomfortable this winter, and may even save lives.

I'll also bet there are more than 47 empty properties in the area, which could also be bought up & used to provide shelter.

Governments never seem very good at this, perhaps it would be better to hand the money to charities, and let the charities decide what are the best ways to spend a limited amount of money to best address the problems they are dealing with.

 

[chayton]

I hear you Vinyl...the city council is usually spending money on things that nobody wants and they're always gushing about, "oh but this will put us on the map."

Excuse me? I looked on a map and there was Edmonton. I circled it with red pen and sent it in so they could see. "Wow, lookee here! We're already ON the map - I guess we can quit throwing money down the toilet now."

Anyhow whatever...I really don't care much about the rest of their lamebrained ideas - it's just this statue thing that's bugging me. $36K would buy a lot of boots and coats and blankets and cans of soup. They're going to use money from the "Arts" budget so somehow that makes it ok. It's not like the money in the "Arts" budget comes from our taxes.

(again, sarcasm in bold)

 

[GrandMaster]

Unreal Chayton. You know how many beds they could fund with 36K? Idiots.

Many years ago, when Mel Lastman was Mayor of our city...he and the City Council voted to have a huge piece of ROCK from Northern Ontario chipped out of the rockface and shipped/trucked all the way down to Toronto, and put on display in front of City Hall ie. somewhat like a sculpture. It was nothing but a piece of rock...not commissioned by an artist or anything like that. Just a huge rock.

Cost to the city and taxpayers.....a cool 2 million. Haven't been downtown in years, so can't even say if it's still there, but I'm guessing it is.

Did I mention that I think ALL politicians are idiots?

Did the mayor own the quarry where the rock came from?

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cost even more.

 

[jod5413]

The USA certainly is not the only country with idiots trying to run the show. I have a theory, whenever someone runs for office (at any level) they have to take a test to get on the ballot.

A test, you say? Oh, that's a great idea, we will weed out the dummies.

Wrong. All the test is easy questions like, what's your name, where are you from, do you have financial backing out the A$$ to spend so we get our fair share in taxes??????

Gawd, what a world!!

 

[chayton]

Here's our $88 million art gallery.

 

[Pinababy69]

Here's our $88 million art gallery.

Very nice Chayton. Maybe they can throw some cots in a back room for the homeless when the temps hit 40 below (I'm pretty familiar with Edmonton, lol). Or better yet....maybe someone can come up with a "display" showcasing those less fortunate. You know...combine the arts with "real life"?

88 Million? Aye Carumba. I could feed and house a city of people with that kind of money.

 

[just play]

88 milllion for that!!!

Looks kinda small.

 

[vinylweatherman]

88 milllion for that!!!

Looks kinda small.

Looks kinda missing a bit of ROOF too (or is that a sky blue ceiling seen through that window on the left, upper floor (It DOES have a floor, doesn't it ).

If it's art they want, we have an artist here (won the Turner prize with a cow sawn in half and pickled in a glass case) who could probably create something with those 47 deceased homeless people that would certainly "put them on the map".

The UK government has now said that cutting child benefit for some families will save £1 Billion. Pity they are spending THIRTEEN Billion to stage the Olympic games. The problem though, is that it will NOT be based on household income, but whether ONE parent earns more than £44,000. Thus a family where one works, and one looks after the kids, and where they earn £45,000, will see the benefit stopped; but a family where BOTH work, leaving the kids with others, can earn up to TWICE that amount between them before seeing the benefit cut. This PUNISHES those who think the best person to bring up their children is themselves, but REWARDS those who have children, but don't want to change their career path to look after them. This ALSO ends up rewarding couples who split, whilst punishing those who stay together. These anomalies are down to the WAY this is implemented, rather than the PRINCIPLE, which was to target the benefit towards those on lower pay.

 

[chayton]

Very nice Chayton. Maybe they can throw some cots in a back room for the homeless when the temps hit 40 below (I'm pretty familiar with Edmonton, lol). Or better yet....maybe someone can come up with a "display" showcasing those less fortunate. You know...combine the arts with "real life"?

88 Million? Aye Carumba. I could feed and house a city of people with that kind of money.

88 milllion for that!!!

Looks kinda small.

I actually picked the nicest photo I could find of it - in some pictures it looks like a shoebox with some crumpled tin foil on it. Oh and FYI during the proposal for this building the estimated cost was quoted only $33 million, then after it was approved, the next year the cost went up to first $48 million and topped at $88 million. They probably could have gone higher but they had to cut out some of the proposed features to stay within the "new" budget. I repeat - I'm in the wrong line of work!!

Looks kinda missing a bit of ROOF too (or is that a sky blue ceiling seen through that window on the left, upper floor (It DOES have a floor, doesn't it ).

If it's art they want, we have an artist here (won the Turner prize with a cow sawn in half and pickled in a glass case) who could probably create something with those 47 deceased homeless people that would certainly "put them on the map".

The UK government has now said that cutting child benefit for some families will save £1 Billion. Pity they are spending THIRTEEN Billion to stage the Olympic games. The problem though, is that it will NOT be based on household income, but whether ONE parent earns more than £44,000. Thus a family where one works, and one looks after the kids, and where they earn £45,000, will see the benefit stopped; but a family where BOTH work, leaving the kids with others, can earn up to TWICE that amount between them before seeing the benefit cut. This PUNISHES those who think the best person to bring up their children is themselves, but REWARDS those who have children, but don't want to change their career path to look after them. This ALSO ends up rewarding couples who split, whilst punishing those who stay together. These anomalies are down to the WAY this is implemented, rather than the PRINCIPLE, which was to target the benefit towards those on lower pay.

Sorry Vinyl but your cutting child sentence and the cow sawn in half were too close together to me paying attention to anything else you said!

 

[Bencuri]

So I live in Edmonton where it gets really cold in the winter. Really cold. We have quite a few homeless people and not really enough shelters.

So city council (in their infinite wisdom) and the Edmonton Arts Council have come up with a brilliant idea - to spend $36,000 on a statue commemorating the 47 homeless people who died of exposure on our city streets.

Makes me proud.

EDIT: sarcasm is in bold.

Not sure if they are so stupid. In case the sulptor is their friend, they are not that stupid. Only vicious... Very likely this is a business to give a chance for the sulptor who is their friend. They got this money, and they spend it in a way so that it will lend in their pockets in a disguised way. Maybe some corruption is involved as well. This scheme is quite general.

 

[chayton]

Not sure if they are so stupid. In case the sulptor is their friend, they are not that stupid. Only vicious... Very likely this is a business to give a chance for the sulptor who is their friend. They got this money, and they spend it in a way so that it will lend in their pockets in a disguised way. Maybe some corruption is involved as well. This scheme is quite general.

Actually I had that kind of scenario in mind about the art gallery - estimated cost $33 million, it's approved and suddenly within a year it costs $88 million? "The cost of building materials went up..." Yeah as soon as the budget and the building was approved and certain people's family members just happen to run construction materials businesses. Someone - or a few someones - made out really well on that. I have no proof but it seems pretty fish-smelling to me.

Tomorrow we'll find out how other people in the city feel about these kind of things. We had our city elections today so our current crooks may be replaced tomorrow. With NEW crooks no doubt.

 

[jetset]

Unreal Chayton. You know how many beds they could fund with 36K? Idiots.

Many years ago, when Mel Lastman was Mayor of our city...he and the City Council voted to have a huge piece of ROCK from Northern Ontario chipped out of the rockface and shipped/trucked all the way down to Toronto, and put on display in front of City Hall ie. somewhat like a sculpture. It was nothing but a piece of rock...not commissioned by an artist or anything like that. Just a huge rock.

Cost to the city and taxpayers.....a cool 2 million. Haven't been downtown in years, so can't even say if it's still there, but I'm guessing it is.

Did I mention that I think ALL politicians are idiots?

Bloody politicians....the same everywhere ...always easy to spend other people's money on ridiculous initiatives!