Lang-Dion has responded, please see below.
So, this post is inspired, by a perhaps seemingly innocuous tweet from a Raylene Lang-Dion, a candidate for councillor of my local ward, Alta Vista in Ottawa:
As someone who lives very close to Kilborn, and regularly commutes on the 48, which goes along Kilborn, I had been following the repaving work being done this summer. It's a fairly quiet, residential street largely with single family homes along it. It has been designed a "bike route" for years, which in Ottawa means that they've added green signs indicating that. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the city had apparently decided to (shockingly) add bike lanes to this "bike route." The lines hadn't been painted in the image above, but signage had begun to go up. And on-street parking had, apparently, been removed.
I should add that there is a North-South bike path that goes up to Smyth Road, which is where The Ottawa Hospital's General Campus is located. The path is the thin green line on the Google Maps image below:
Please also note the community centre (Brian Kilrea Arena) and schools. There's actually a third school at Arch and Canterbury. So, it seemed to me, that these new Kilborn bike lanes would be a nice link to the north-south path, the schools in the east, and Bank Street/Rideau River on the western end. It's not a perfectly smooth ride the whole way (which is typical for Ottawa cycling), but a vast improvement.
So, I was mystified by Lang-Dion's tweet, and responded:
She never responded. So, I figured I would tweet at the other municipal candidates with Twitter listed on their campaign websites (apologies to Clinton Cowan and Mike McHarg):
To his immense credit, John Redins responded quickly via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/john4AltaVista/status/1031257279742586881
I later pressed him a bit about the Kilborn bike lane specifically, and he admitted he didn't know enough to comment on that one in particular, which is FINE. I don't expect candidates to know everything about the ward especially early in the campaign.
Kevin Kit responded by DM, asking me to email him to explain what I meant. He then replied via email that:
"I actually met with a number of residents at grasshopper hill park earlier this week where we discussed this and a number of other issues.
I was wondering if you’d like to meet in person to discuss or chat over the phone about this? I find it more personal than email."
I have replied that I thought that it was a relatively simple issue, but have offered to call him. This blog will be updated if/when I get a response.
Cloutier and Lang-Dion have not responded.
I might have let it end there, but then I came across a very interesting candidate survey from Ecology Ottawa, which Cloutier has not responded to: https://ecologyottawa.ca/2018/06/25/simplified-survey-answers/#Ward18
The first and third questions in orange seem to address this issue directly, so let's look at those responses in detail for Kit and Lang-Dion https://ecologyottawa.ca/2018/08/16/municipal-election-2018-candidates-complete-responses/#Ward18:
Kit:
"...improving connectivity and prioritizing pedestrian, cycling and public transit infrastructure is something that is very important to me."
"I believe that successful cities are those that have neighborhoods where residents are able to walk and bike easily to local parks, transit stations and to access shopping."
Lang-Dion:
"As councillor I will champion safe cycling and pedestrian routes..."
"pedestrian and cycling needs are an integral and foundational part of those projects. In Alta Vista Ward, a lot of basic infrastructure is either missing or is incomplete, such as sidewalks that end unexpectedly or cycling lanes that are unconnected to a coherent and/or existing network."
As mentioned above, Cloutier declined to answer the survey at all.
I'm always hesitant to call people out on Twitter, but Cloutier, Kit, and Lang-Dion all use Twitter as a campaign tool. Is it too much to ask that if you put Twitter on your campaign website that you respond via that medium?
I'm not trying to be too personal here. I am sure these are all hard-working people, doing their best. Municipal politics is a hard slog. I get that. But if it's just a one way stream, don't ask people to use your hashtag, or conduct a poll, or publicly thank your supporters, but respond to your critics in private. If you want engagement on Twitter, then engage!
And can I please get a straight answer on the Kilborn bike lanes?!
2018-08-24: Update! This morning Lang-Dion responded via Twitter. Here is the exchange so far:
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