[GREN-Exec] LRT - Important Next Steps?

[Gregory C. Michalenko]

Dear GRENling Execs:

First off, I don't seem to be getting much of these conversations until they have been running for several exchanges.  Or was this one just between Kevin and Susan and forwarded to the rest later?  On a couple of occasions I think I was left out completely and only learned of a conversation later.  Maybe there is something jinxed in the email process.

I have just come across a depressing social psychology research paper "Education, politics and opinions about climate change - evidence for interaction effects."  Two surveys were done, one in New Hampshire and the other in Michigan.  In both respondents were asked to identify themselves on a scale stretching from "strong democrat" to "strong republican", provide their level of education, and then state how well they thought they understood the issue of climate warming, and finally "Do you think that global warming will pose a serious threat to you or your way of life in your lifetime, or not."  The results were a big surprise.  Of those  democrats who felt they were well-informed of the issue, 64% answered "yes" to that last question, while only 14% of republicans who felt they were well informed answered yes.

Their conclusions:  "Ideological predispositions can affect how people process information.  The Internet and cable television news make it easier for us not only to process information selectively ourselves, but to selectively acquire information that has been processed already, when we only tune in to ideologically compatible Web sites, cable new shows and so forth.  The bias or selectivity of our sources can be higher than the newspapers, magazines or broadcast news that formerly supplied most current-events information.  Narrowcast media, including many Web sites devoted to discrediting climate-change concerns, provide ideal conduits for channeling politically inspired but scientific sounding arguments to an audience predisposed to retain and repeat them.  The power to repeat favored arguments has been vastly expanded as well, through forwarding emails or posting links and content online, in a process that can become "viral" as it motivates new readers to do the same.  The pace of normal scientific communication is glacial by comparison."

How much of this phenomenon are we facing with the transit debate?  I suspect quite a lot and it's further complicated by there being so many choices and the way municipal politics seems increasingly to be dominated by viewing expenditures as expenses and not as long-term investments that will eventually pay off handsomely.

When I went to a City of Waterloo public session about the City's strategic plan some of the conversation at my table turned to the transit proposal.  I found it interesting that the participants from the suburbs, who came across as reasonable people, who shared pretty well the same values as inner-city environmentally concerned Greg, expressed an overriding concern about "But what's in the LRT proposal for me/us?"  I'm afraid we're pretty stuck in thinking small - about our family, our budget, our immediate neighbourhood and the short term --  and not about the KWC of even 20 years from now, the welfare of the cities as a whole, the institutions we will need.  In other words, about the Common Good and our collective welfare.

I think we should concentrate on the council, both in approaching individual councillors, and going as delegates to the meeting.  Kevin, who is the "etc" in your list above?  Is Jeff Cosello going?

I know I said at a GREN meeting that I wasn't sure myself what the best option was.  This was because I hadn't had the chance to find the information I needed to come to a decision.  I've been trying to be as conscientious as possible to locate the most objective and accurate information about environmental issues in the last year or so, whether it is green belts, fluoridation, GM, or the LRT.  I had to be away when Cosello spoke to GREN, but Susan B made the point of circulating C's slides and I thought "finally I've got what I need to make up my mind."  Let's persuade Cosello to be a delegate at the April Council meeting. And send at least one GREN delegate as well.

- Greg
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From: executive-bounces at gren.ca [executive-bounces at gren.ca] on behalf of Kevin Thomason [kevinthomason at mac.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 8:27 PM
To: GREN Executive
Subject: [GREN-Exec] LRT - Important Next Steps?

Hi folks,

I have found myself in a couple of meetings so far this week with the Barnraiser's and Sustainable Waterloo where the issue of ensure the LRT succeeds has arisen.

Currently both these groups are very concerned about the situation and I would agree.  There are still such mixed messages out there about the LRT.  Thankfully, most people who have taken the time to learn about the issue are in support of the LRT but unfortunately the vast majority of the population has not attended the open houses or researched the transit options to any degree and are hung up solely on costs taken often out of context.

On April 20th Regional Council will be narrowing things down to just one of the alternatives which will then be opened to further dialog until a final decision in June.  It would seem to me that we can't be distracted by the June date because the decision just three weeks from now is going to be the most important one.

I'm still not sure of the best approach - whether we need to try to educate and influence 548,000 people or just 15 Regional Councillors.  Really it seems to boil down to just a few Councillors that no one is sure about - Brenda Halloran, Todd Cowan, etc.

I am wondering if GREN should be updating our LRT support letter and ensuring that it is circulated to the Councillors and the media.  I think that the more the public is seen to be supporting the LRT the easier it will be to sway these fence-sitting politicians.

I know that this can even be a touchy topic within GREN as there are a variety of opinions but face it - at this point an Aerobus or redesigned LRT on a different route is not going to happen.  We have 11 options to choose from of which the most likely is looking like the do nothing and live with sprawl, gridlock and a failed Regional Official Plan, perhaps one of 10 different LRT options if we are lucky, or a BRT region-wide if Doug Craig gets his way.

I fear if we don't have strong support for the LRT now there will be nothing happen for at least a generation.  Other levels of government have made it clear that their money is off the table soon and other cities such as Hamilton are already clamouring for it.  As Susan has pointed out the cost differential between the top-of-the-line plan and doing nothing is only about the cost of half of a tank of gas per year!

Please let me know any thoughts on updating and circulating our GREN transit support letter or any other ideas as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Kevin.


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