Celebrating and watching the Kingston Ontario waterfront

The 2012 PRIORITY MATRIX - Q2 update is presented to Council at the July 17, 2012 meeting.

Before reading further, please see my comments on the 2012 Priority Matrix as presented to Council in February 2012.

Disregard that the table on Page 3 of the latest report is festooned with glaring naming and tallying errors.

As in the February report, there's nothing waterfront-related in Exhibit A - 49 (actually 52) initiatives due for completion by 2012 year end.

Exhibit B - 27 (actually 67) initiatives due for completion by year end (sic) contains the same two waterfront items as in February, no progress to report. These are:

• Item #1 labeled "Study: Lakefront/waterfront plan" and has STILL has no due date or shows any comments.
• Item #38 labeled "Visioning for Douglas R. Fluhrer Park" and has a compeletion date of Q1 2014 which is a ridiculously long timeline. You can tell there is no will to do this.

Question: how does the 2012 priority matrix Exhibit B, mislabeled and mistallied as it is, grow from 42-items in February to 67-items in July?

Answer: because nobody at City Hall has any balls, and because nobody really vets this shit.

Exhibit C - 33 (actually 77) initiatives due for completion in 2013 and 2014 contains the same singular waterfront item, Lake Ontario Park. This projet is minimally about its waterfront, addressing there some grievous deferred maintenance more than anything truly new or better since 1950.

So there you have it. An out-of-control priority matrix that, on balance, has fuck-all for waterfront.

REMEMBER LAST YEAR?

That was then.

The latest LAKE ONTARIO WATER LEVEL FORECAST now predicts relatively low water throughout the summer.

Which is to say, at least a foot lower than last summer through the end of July.

Overall the bad news persists: the big lakes upstream — Lakes Huron and Superior — are still far below long-term averages.

KINGSTON'S 2012 MAJOR REGATTA PICTURE is much heavier this year than last.

One World Championship and four North American Championships are booked.

This summer's premier event, the Shark Worlds, is hosted by KYC at the end of August.

Our last Worlds' was the Byte CII Worlds in 2009. So it's been awhile

CORK still lists the Byte CII World Championships in June but that regatta won't happen.

More details in our list of major regattas in Kingston.

ALSO AT COUNCIL this week: $60,000 for the Kingston Inner Harbour Sediment Remediation Initiative.

The 2012 PRIORITY MATRIX is presented to Council on Tuesday's (February 21, 2012) meeting.

The matrix is presented in a new format this year, segmented in three exhibits. It's too bad the exhibits aren't properly labeled.

Exhibit A lists 49-items due for completion in 2012. We find nothing related to waterfront in Exhibit A. There's also nothing related to bike trails or parks unless by "park" you mean parking.

So don't hold your breath to see waterfront accessibility improvement this summer.

Exhibit B lists 42 initiatives for completion between 2012-2014. Those of waterfront interest:

• Item #1 is labeled "Study: Lakefront/waterfront plan" and has no due date or shows no comments.
• Item #38 is labeled "Visioning for Douglas R. Fluhrer Park" and has a compeletion date of Q1 2014 which is a ridiculously long timeline. You can tell there is no will to do this.

Exhibit C lists 33 all initiatives from the Corporate Work Plan in Kingston's Strategic Plan that are due for completion in 2013 and 2014. Just one item has a waterfront component:

• Item 14 is "Upgrade and complete construction of the Lake Ontario Park rejuvenation plan" and it's listed as Q4 2013.

That's it. Three items out of 124, and two of those are studies with either no due date or a ridiculously long horizon.

This is all very disheartening, of course. Kingston's relationship with waterfront continues to suck.

More importantly: Why aren't stages of the Great Cataraqui River Trail Project not listed as priorities by 2014?

SURPRISE! You would think that a winter with negligible snow accumulation would have negative impacts for Lake Ontario Water Levels come springtime.

The latest LAKE ONTARIO WATER LEVEL FORECAST predicts higher than normal water levels into the summer.

This makes little sense because the big lakes upstream are still well below long-term averages.

A LASALLE CAUSEWAY Lift Bridge Marine Traffic Survey is underway at http://www.lasallebridge.ca.

The purpose of the survey is to help us to better understand the use and economic value of the lift bridge.

Take a moment to fill-this-out if this matters to you.

INTERESTING AGENDA ITEM for the November 1st Council meeting.

City staff is recommending the addition of Pay and Display parking on the west side of Emily Street. This is a prime parking area for Kingston General Hospital patients and visitors. The additional parking spaces will also accommodate waterfront park users, particularly windsurfers at Richardson Beach.

This is great because recent renovations to the Richardson Beach area eliminated some parking, and the west side of Emily street has been a no-parking zone for many years. It looks like this is about to change.

THE OCTOBER 11th Environment, Infrastructure & Transportation Policies Committee Meeting has the proposed Multi-Purpose Trail on the West Side of the Greater Cataraqui River on its agenda.

More on the Great Cataraqui River Trail.

KINGSTON ROWERS Rob Gibson and Will Crothers won a bronze medal in the Men's Eight finals at the world championships in Bled, Slovenia.

In the process, the team also qualified for the 2012 London Olympics by placing in their semi-final heat.

Here's Mike Koreen's Whig Standard story about it.

WHAT GOES UP, it is said, must come down.

The latest LAKE ONTARIO WATER LEVEL FORECAST shows the extent to which Lake Ontrio levels have dropped since late spring.

Right now we are about the long term average.

As for the big lakes upstream, they are still well below long-term averages, but higher than predited earlier this year.

THE LINK to the Bypass Log For The City of Kingston.

It's improved; you can page back in history.

THE CITY has posted its July 2011 City Priority Matrix.

Here's K7's summary of waterfront-related priorities found in the document.

Of the 86 items in the matrix, only seven concern waterfront.

Just three of those would improve access and two of those are actually being implemented: Lake Ontario Park and Richardson Beach. The third item, the proposed Cataraqui River Trail Project, is citizen-led and still a long way off.

Nothing has changed since the April 2011 Priority matrix except the Richardson Bath House and landscaping work is complete.

Very disappointing overall.

THE JULY EDITION of the Thousand Islands Life e-zine is now online with a couple of interesting local stories.

POKER RUNS AMERICA final 2011 schedule is more modest than the one published last January.

Back then there were six poker runs scheduled in the immediate region or closeby.

Evidently the events in Valleyfield, Gananoque, and Muskoka have been scrubbed.

The 1000 Islands Poker Run (labeled "THE BIGGEST, MEANEST and BADDEST") stinks-up Kingston Harbour August 5-7, which is one day longer than originally advertised.

A SECOND FERRY for Wolfe Island? The Ontario Ministry of Transportation thinks so.

"A WONDERFUL SHOWPIECE ON THE CITY'S WATERFRONT!" are words historically uttered by Kingstonians with absolutely no clue.

LINK to the Whig article about a recent Provincial grant to MetalCraft Marine.

GOOD VIDEO of Hub Steenbakkers of Collins Bay Marina explaining to CKWS-TV all about wisely using new-style inflatable life jackets.

This was part of a recent event to educate the public about boating and life jacket safety.

EPIC.

HUB AND MICHELLE STEENBAKKERS at Collins Bay Marina have won the Natural Marine National Environment Award