FlareHeart

However a large percentage of our parking is never used and this the problem is exacerbated by mandatory parking minimums as the article points out.

I find “never” to be an exaggeration. The lots are used during the business hours of whatever business owns that lot. Does that mean there is a significant chunk of time where there is no one parked there? Sure, but it’s certainly not “never.” In Regina, I can’t think of a single parking lot I have ever seen that didn’t have at least SOMEONE parked there. Street parking is used quite frequently as well. Parking in the downtown core is a ridiculous race of “first come first served” because there literally isn’t enough parking downtown for all of the employees that work there.

Plus, with our system of free parking, those in our society who can’t afford cars/aren’t able to drive are subsidizing you and me when we drive places. The cost of parking is split amongst all customers (in the case of private parking) or residents (in the case of municipal lots), even those who take public transit, walk, or bike.

The downtown core of Regina (talked about in the article) is NOT free parking. At all. There is no free parking to be found in the downtown core at all (that isn’t like 3 spots reserved for particular business customers). Residential areas get basic street parking (not lots). There are very few “parking lots” in residential areas. The only free lots are outside major shopping centers that are outside the downtown core, and those often have spots reserved for customers of those shopping centers.

You probably buy $300 worth of groceries at a time because the store is inconvenient to get to (due to Euclidean Zoning and our general lack of density). I honestly do the same thing. However, when I lived in a denser city, I commuted by bike or bus and would grab groceries every day on my way home, and it added minimal time to my travel. I’m not arguing you should move or drastically change your life, but that the city should improve around you.

I buy $300 worth of groceries at a time because I work from home and any trips outside my house are specifically for errands, so groceries/errands become a dedicated trip because I don’t have an “on the way home from work” sort of schedule.

But yes, a big part of the issue is zoning. I live in a newer “high density” neighborhood. Large condo buildings, narrow streets, almost no on-street parking due to said narrow streets, I get one spot in my back alley for my small car (and I’m charged an extra $100 per month on my rent for it), and the grocery store is still a 30 minute walk/10 minute bike ride away. It could absolutely be made better with some better designed bus routes, better zoning designs, and some effort. Sadly most cities don’t seem interested in walkable cities or investing in public transit.

I would love to see more dedicated bike lanes (there are none in my neighborhood), short-haul bus routes specifically between the grocery stores and nearby residential areas to make hauling groceries home less of a chore, more sheltered bus stops to protect from both heat and cold, and less resistance to things like e-bikes and such that would make the trips less onerous. There’s still a big stigma in Regina regarding e-bikes and scooters for some reason despite their benefits.

Don’t forget Wind Chill. A -15C day in SK with a good wind is suddenly a -25C day.

You are failing to take into account wind chill. In SK, with our high winds, a -15C day can turn into a -25C day pretty easily. I am a big baby when it comes to the cold and I fully accept this. But when the wind chill puts things into “frost bite in 5 minutes” territory, I’m sorry, but I’m not riding my bike to the grocery store and risking frost bite on my fingers and nose. Nor do I want to stand at an outdoor bus stop waiting who knows how long for a bus. Now if zoning wasn’t so dumb and put my grocery store so far out of residential areas, it wouldn’t be so bad. But city planning is centered around having a car, sadly.

If you aren’t going to give us walkable cities or really efficient public transit, then we need cars and therefore need the parking. There is no way in this or any world that I am hauling $300 worth of groceries to a bus stop, just to sit there and wait half an hour (at -20C) for a dilapidated bus that may or may not even run on time and has the risk of someone stealing some of those overpriced groceries on the 30 minute ride it would take to get home.

I live in Saskatchewan and it will very frequently get to -30 or below. I cannot ride a bike in that safely without risk of frost bite, so cycling is out of the question (at least in the winter). I drive as small of a car as I could buy, but even small cars are dwindling now in favor of the giant SUV’s and pickup trucks that seem to think they own both the road and the parking lots. The public transit in my city is so inefficient that it would take me an hour worth of riding the bus, and a transfer, just to get downtown. I can drive that in 10 minutes. Getting to the other side of the city? 90 minutes to 2 hours and multiple transfers. Or 15 to 20 minutes by car.

Our public transit and walk-ability needs to be remedied long before you start building over parking lots. Businesses with no parking will suffer a lack of business if there is no parking and no change to the current systems.

This needed to be said a long time ago. People can’t seem to grasp that lower interest rates mean that average Joe qualifies for a bigger mortgage. Bigger mortgage qualifications = bigger housing prices since people can overbid, etc. driving up housing prices. Lower interest rates are the opposite of what we need!

The only people that are helped by lower interest rates are people that spent way more than they should have and are in debt up to their scalp. Those people need debt counseling/consolidation services to manage their debt individually. Don’t fuck up the rest of the housing market because you are in too much debt.

Of course they are. In this desolate wasteland called the prairies, finding any sort of mental health professionals is damn near impossible, much less properly structured support. Allowing this would just illustrate the failings of these provinces to properly fund and structure mental health supports.

Good luck making it through the prairies on passenger rail. Do we even have any stations left? I never see passenger trains. Only freight.

Is anyone surprised? No? Didn’t think so.

Saskatchewan does not have “off-peak” electricity pricing because Saskatchewan runs our power grid on old Coal plants. So not only does it get cold enough for heat pumps to not be sufficient here (even during the day sometimes), our electricity is not a green option either. Natural gas heating makes more sense here in Saskatchewan and it pains me to say that. Until such time as we get a green grid (get rid of the coal), natural gas heating is the best option for us.

Edit to add: I will gladly continue to pay the carbon tax because of 2 things: 1. I get more back on the rebate than I spend (my provincial premier is full of it) and 2. If some of that money from the tax goes to green initiatives, then I gladly support that.

Public Libraries are important. Period.

Every medication has side-effects. The idea is to assess whether the risk of side-effects outweighs the detriments of the disorder being treated.

Not all medications work for all patients and good clinicians will have their patients assessed regularly for effectiveness and change or remove medications as necessary.

I agree completely. There is no quick, easy, silver bullet for this.

But it is a bit of a problem if the lobbyists are actively positioning all of our politicians to keep things as they are.

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And still no word on any plans to ensure houses are bought by people who don’t already own a whole bunch of investment properties.

Until we address that issue, building more will continue to make the rich richer. But this is to be expected of the politicians whose lobbyists consist of real estate investors.

We need to prohibit the keeping of all cetaceans in general. Belugas, dolphins, orcas, etc.

By the time the “viable” option has a “track record” will be too late. We have to get off fossil fuels far sooner than that. But our Sask party government are the ones who aren’t interested in pushing the timeline.

Then why not phrase it more like “SaskPower is currently performing an assessment on the suitability of the SMR, and will know more by xxxx”?

Though if they say No, what are we going to do? Continue to use our aging coal and natural gas infrastructure until the world burns? Oh wait… we’re governed by the Sask party… That’s exactly what will happen.

Ottawa is prepared to send us the money now but SaskPower won’t even make a decision for 6 YEARS?! WTF SaskPower?! Why on Earth is it going to take you 6 years just to decide whether you want to or not? No wonder we can’t be bothered to agree to Net Zero if it takes you 6 years for a yes or no question.

Someone didn’t even read the intro to the article…

The problem is if it is too cold for too long, things break. When I’ve experienced long durations of extremely cold weather, things get bad.

Ice accumulates inside, vents freeze over, cars don’t start, etc. It’s not good.