HAS THE PLANNING DEPT CONFUSED IT’S MISSION?

HAS THE PLANNING DEPT CONFUSED IT’S MISSION? B.A. Psychology Editor/Publisher Central Newspapers ACCOMPLISHED WRITER/AUTHOR OF OVER 800,000 Published Columns in Canada and The United States In a time when everything and anything seems to be acceptable. It appears that the City of Oshawa Planning Department has had it’s mission compromised. It appears they are more bent over planting trees and putting up parks at taxpayers expense then properly planning the future for Oshawa. Then again they are just doing their job. If we voted in a disfunctional council. Staff will not go out of their way to all of a sudden become the sacrificial lamb for council. If we learned anything from 1945 Germany is that just doing your job excuse does not cut it. They say we must learn from our mistakes. I guess we are just evolving into a species of mentally challenged populi....Or we are just plain stupid. Not to long ago... as a matter of fact just before the last municipal election millions of dollars were used in the so called ‘ED BROADBENT’ park. A park next to another park. Primarily ‘Lakeview Park’. Did the people need another park next to an existing park? Could that money not gone to help local downtown businesses that are closing faster then ever? Where is the leadership? Where is the Mayor and council? Playing important as they open a park for their political gain. Now, don’t get me wrong. The park is nothing but an open field. This is Canada. Who is going to go in the middle of winter? Who is going to go in the middle of the ‘HOT CANADIAN’ summers. In my opinion that park is a total waste of tax payers dollars. Not to long ago they announced the ‘rotary pool’ fiasco. Wake up planning department... An outdoor pool in Canada!!! Really. Why not have a retractable roof so it may be used all year around. POOR PLANING. Just a few weeks back. The City decided to give away 70 million to the local hockey team. 70 million in building upgrades. A building that has yet to make a penny for taxpayers. A building that to my understanding is costing taxpayers almost half a million to maintain. Then why the money give away. Is the Mayor a moron. Are city council members on the take? What other explanation could there be? Not to ad insult to injury... but now the same planning department and city council is sinking more millions in an ‘URBAN PARK’. An urban park in a downtown that looks like downtown Baghdad after a bombing raid. More wasted millions... Downtown business need a parking garage... Not a park for the local homeless to invade. Or is it that in the spirit of population growth. Memorial park has over flowed with the homeless and more bushes and trees to urinate on and defecate are required. We have a chamber of commerce that has no teeth...unless you belong to the brown nose club of municipal wanna be’s. We have no support for downtown businesses. The quality of life is beyond despicable. The only businesses left are old grandfathered stores... lot of pot shops. A few restaurants... The main problem is ‘NO PARKING’. Then the huge number of homeless, drug addicts, drug trade, prostitution. Workers fear coming to work. Yes, let’s keep building parks...that is going to solve the problem. Urban park, the homeless home away from Memorial park... Their new summer home... wow.