The latest post on Cobourg News has produced the most fiery posts from all of the commenters yet in the history of the blog. Boy are these people angry, sitting behind keyboards just pounding away with red hot fingers steam coming from all their body cavities. Well that sentence may be a little inflammatory but...
Community Grants are anachronisms, designed to make the Citizens think that Council is supporting them. However there are downsides, especially in Cobourg. Firstly the ‘Tax-fighters’ hate them because they despise giving free money away to the detriment of their taxes. Secondly because of the tax-fighter’s influence the amount available for disbursement is paltry, in the...
Repetition and Predictability – repetition of the topics addressed and predictability in the reactions to the topics John Draper, who owns and writes the Cobourg News does a magnificent job but really only preaches to the choir. The Choir being a noisy section of the Literati of Cobourg. Literati in the sense that they...
Some people (members of the Cobourg Taxpayers Assn. amongst others) think that transit is a sinkhole that obviously costs too much and should be abandoned. Others think that it is an essential service and should be kept. But one thing they agree on is that the design needs to be improved and the whole system...
The local MPP, (I love photo-ops), David Piccini, came to Town on Friday and did the usual Doug Ford thing – he dropped some money on a problem – Homelessness; that’s good. The Warden of the County gushed, blushed and said “Thank you.” But now the question has to be answered, where is the money...
Ah, the Tannery lands and its Master Plan have emerged from the bowels of the bureaucracy to be finally placed on the shelf in a couple of weeks. Years ago the Town, trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, commissioned a Master Plan to transform an old contaminated industrial site into an...
Letter from a Downtown Business re Safety Concerns: A real community debate has emerged from this latest post on CobourgNews. The 94 comments, (as at 0945hrs 20th March) reveal a few common threads. The prevailing opinion by looking at the ‘thumbs’ up or down, is that the hardline taxfighters (clean ’em up people) on the...
A long Debate on Balder CIP: A Community Improvement Plan or CIP is a tool that allows a municipality to direct funds and implement policy initiatives toward a specifically defined project area. Section 28 of the Planning Act gives municipalities that have enabling policies in their official plans, the ability to prepare Community Improvement Plans. Cobourg over...
“Affordable Housing” is an exercise in irony (Irony , feigned ignorance), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected). The reason we say this is because when most people hear the term ‘affordable housing’ they think of ‘rent...
A look at the Budget The Municipal Budget sets the tone and direction for the Town. Completed each year this is probably the only time most of the Town pays attention to Council. 2023 will go down as the year of the “big tax hike”. As pointed out here the advertised tax increase is not...