QUOTE (bizaro86 @ Oct 21 2010, 08:20 AM) I like him, voted for him, and convinced others to vote for him. Something about how he had actual ideas for the city, as opposed to just warmed over platitudes.
As to his effect on real estate, his platform supported secondary suites in any owner occupied single family home, which doesn`t allow investors to legalize suites, which is a disadvangtage for those in that market. His focus on transit development (SE LRT, etc) should provide opportunities to profit from transportation changes, as neighbourhoods and streets get re-rated, so we`ll have to pay attention to opportunities there if it gets funded. His intention to make new developments carry the cost of their infrastructure would potentially drive up the cost of new housing stock on the fringe, which would reduce supply and increase the value of existing real estate proportionally. Hopefully his willingness to take on sacred cows (police budget) and actually make change (audit process) will outweigh his plans for increased spending on infrastructure and arts, so we don`t have tax increases higher than would otherwise be the case.
Ultimately, what he is able to get done will depend on the other 14 members of Council, as he only gets one vote. This will be an interesting 3 years for Calgary municipal politics to be sure.
What do others think?
Michael
I voted for Nenshi as well. The points you list above are all valid in my eyes. The big concern is if he can pull this off. Naheed Nenshi has a lot on his plate and will have to deal with old stale, and often unreliable alderman like Druh Farrell and an entrenched bureacracy as well as a bunch of hostile developers that will fight for their `subsididies`. Yes four old alderman are gone, but 10 under whose watch a measly $700 million was missed are still in place.
Another issue I am concerned about is the background of the aldermaniac crowd. Most have only high school and worked as small entrepreneurs. Now there is nothing evil about this and many are smart people to begin with. But it is a fact that they miss the appropriate training to run a 100,000 plus ward and make decisions for a million plus population. Where are there administrative skills, their urban planning education, their economic education, there supervisory experience to overlook an organization counting thousands of employees and multi-billion dollar annual budgets? In a world where a 7-eleven manager is required to have as a minimum a management certificate and preferably a MBA one wonders why our politicians get away with such low qualifications.