Peter Karwacki: So what happened and what needs to happen?

Tobi Nussbaum asked an impertinent question. He wondered why Transpo’s annual performance reports had ceased in 2014.

During the campaign affordable housing, programs for at-risk youth, preserving green space and improving transit service emerged as issues among voters. An increase in shooting incidents in the ward over the last few years also became an issue.

Nine councillors voted against Watson's report on committee nominations, including: Tobi Nussbaum.

Nussbaum was one of five councillors who voted against the so-called 900 Albert St. plan, the three-tower Ruddy development that Melnyk argues will undermine the marketability of housing in the Flats. In July, Nussbaum told councillors that towers of 65, 56 and 27 storeys on Albert near the Bayview LRT station did not meet the neighbourhood’s expectations.https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ncc-eyes-tobi-nussbaum-for-top-job-as-kristmanson-stumbles-to-finish-line

Traffic Calming

Measures that you will see around the ward include:

Flexible signs placed in the centre of roadways (to be removed in the fall)
Flexible posts installed along cycling lanes or at the edge of streets to narrow roadways (to be removed in the fall)
Paint markings painted on the road, such as school zone or speed warnings
Concrete planters placed at the edge of the roadway to narrow the street to tackle problem areas identified by residents via community associations, emails, phone calls, public engagement sessions and other initiatives such as ward walks. My team is keeping track of all the locations identified through these sources and we will use the measures at our disposal to address them over the coming months and years.

In addition to those short-term measures, Also permanent traffic calming measures built into streets, particularly when there are opportunities when roads are dug up for infrastructure renewal. Incorporating traffic calming measures into almost every road reconstruction project in Rideau-Rockcliffe, including bulb-outs on Crichton Street and Columbus Avenue, a traffic-calming design on River Lane, and in 2017, bulb-outs on Glynn and Lola

Heritage Buildings

Committee chairman Tobi Nussbaum characterizes the city’s approach to heritage as one of carrots and sticks.

Choosing to play a more robust enforcement role to protect heritage properties that haven’t been kept up is the stick. Providing greater incentives to owners of heritage properties to maintain and even improve them it is the carrot.

“If we’re going to get serious about the carrot side of the heritage equation, we need to find more financial mechanisms to incentivize people to do the right thing with heritage buildings,” he said.

But unlike Watson, Nussbaum said he’s not against exploring the option of expropriation to ensure certain high-profile properties don’t continue to be the blights they are when owners fail year after year after year to do the right thing.https://www.choocopo.ca/ottawa-votes-2018-does-heritage-matter-at-the-ballot-box/

Regarding the budget process

Coun. Tobi Nussbaum couldn’t convince the majority of council to change the budget process so that unfunded pressures identified by committees are brought to council for consideration. Nussbaum’s proposal also came with an idea to have staff suggest ways to find money for an unfunded initiative.

City manager Steve Kanellakos warned council that under Nussbaum’s proposal, staff would bring forward highly controversial service cuts as a way to fund budget pressures.

“I don’t know how that would be helpful because that would pit councillor against councillor and the priorities in your wards, let alone priorities citywide,” Kanellakos said.

Watson opposed Nussbaum’s motion.

Nussbaum’s motion failed with a 14-10 vote.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/today-was-like-christmas-day-for-city-hall-admin-wonks

https://mobile.twitter.com/tobi_nussbaum/status/862716582203719681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E862716582203719681&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnationalpost.com%2Fnews%2Fcanada%2Fanti-abortion-flag-raised-at-ottawa-city-hall-angering-councillors

Regarding waste disposalWard 13 Rideau-Rockcliffe Councillor Tobi Nussbaum told Ottawa Today with Mark Sutcliffe, there is no evidence to back up claims by some on city council who believe more residents will use their green bins if plastic bags are allowed.

"Many cities which have thought, 'Well, maybe there is an opportunity for increased [waste] diversion through allowing single-use bags,' have allowed compostable, biodegradable bags," he explained. "The City of Calgary is one of the biggest cities that has done that."

Nussbaum called the current adjustment to Ottawa's program, "short sighted."

https://www.ottawamatters.com/local-news/councillor-continues-argument-against-plastic-mayor-stands-his-ground-883151

Transit

Diane Deans and Tobi Nussbaum from
http://bbs.comefromchina.com/threads/1485276/

If Ottawa city council had an official opposition, this pair would be co-leaders.

Deans, a council veteran, and Nussbaum, a rookie, led the charge against Mayor Jim Watson’s 2016 budget, which failed to secure the unanimous vote that his five previous budgets did.

[IMG]

Mayor Jim Watson (L) discusses with Ward 13 Rideau-Rockcliffe Councillor Tobi Nussbaum during budget talks at Ottawa City Hall, December 9.

As chair of the community and protective services committee, Deans fought unsuccessfully to secure additional cash for struggling community agencies and questioned whether millions of dollars in proposed “efficiencies” — or cuts — could really be achieved without hurting front-line services. Nussbaum, meanwhile, was focused on freezing transit fares next year. His effort also failed to win enough support.

Earlier in the year, Nussbaum tried unsuccessfully to persuade Watson and the rest of council to ban corporate and union campaign donations. Deans, meanwhile, came up with a novel idea for revitalizing the Heatherington-Albion neighbourhood, only to see it scuppered at the last minute when council instead voted to spend the money on a study before choosing which neighbourhood to target for revitalization.

While the duo may not have racked up a lot of wins in 2015, their efforts to go against the grain could inspire other councillors to raise their voices or put forward ideas in 2016 that may not necessarily have the support of the mayor’s office. And should this year’s budget produce another multi-million dollar deficit or if transit ridership drops significantly because the price is simply too steep for some people, we won’t have these two blame.

TransitCity councillor Tobi Nussbaum said he advocated for a lower-income transit pass.

“In the spring, I thought that this was something that needed to be discussed in the context of the larger city budget,” Nussbaum said.

He said the goal was not to force other residents to pay to subsidize for a low-income transit pass. Instead, the city is allocating money from the budget towards the EquiPass.

“I did think it was right that within a $3 billion city budget that we could find the [money] necessary to finance a low-income transit pass,” he said. From the Charletan

Tobias "Tobi" Nussbaum[2] (born c. 1969)[3] is a Canadian diplomat and politician, best known as being the city councillor for Rideau-Rockcliffe Ward in Ottawa, Ontario from 2014 to 2019. He will become the Chief Executive Officer of the National Capital Commission on February 4, 2019.

Early life and education

Nussbaum earned an undergraduate degree at Queen’s University, and graduated with a LLB from the University of Victoria. He holds a master’s of public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.[4] Nussbaum has also studied at the University of Freiburg and Utrecht University. He speaks English, French and German.

He moved to Ottawa in 1996 to join the Canadian foreign service.

Career

Nussbaum spent more than a decade as a diplomat in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs International Trade and Development, including posting to the United Nations in New York City and the World Trade Organization in Geneva. He left DFATD in 2008 to become the director of operations for social development policy at the Privy Council Office. In 2012 he was appointed director general of strategic policy at the Canadian International Development Agency. In that position he was responsible for the agency's policy development and research work, economic analysis and international strategy, including policy engagement with multilateral organizations and other donors. He co-chaired the International Network on Conflict-Affected and Fragile States (INCAF) housed at the OECD. He co-founded and chaired the Beechwood Village Alliance, a coalition of residents from five neighbourhoods bordering Beechwood Avenue, and served as president and board member of the Lindenlea Community Association.

In 2014, Nussbaum took a leave of absence from the Foreign Service to run against Peter Clark, the incumbent councillor for Rideau-Rockcliffe Ward.[5] He won the race with over 50 per cent of the vote.[6][7]

In December 2014, Nussbaum was the only freshman councillor to be appointed as a committee chair by Mayor Jim Watson.[8]

References