Just your friendly, neighborhood, geek who loves to crochet.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • The study you linked proves that there is significant wage inequality. The very first chart demonstrates that even though productivity has increased, wages have not kept up. This is exactly my point. I’m not sure if you were intending to agree with me, but your link is just further proof that wages are definitely not where they should be.

    “Why should I work so hard for wages that don’t compensate me for said work?” Said every underpaid worker ever.

    My place of employment has been cutting headcount for years and just expecting the existing employees to do the same, and more, work for no increase in pay. And they wonder why productivity suffers?! I am still only one person. I cannot possibly perform as well as 3 people. Maybe if you’d stop cutting headcount and focus on getting things done, we’d actually be productive.





  • I live in an apartment where the only natural gas items are my furnace and hot water heater. But even if I wanted to convert (which I can’t since I rent), it wouldn’t make one lick of difference because I live in Saskatchewan where our power grid is still 80% fossil fuel powered. So using electricity is no “greener” than using the natural gas myself. Plus using natural gas is far far cheaper than electricity (even with the price on carbon for doing so).

    This issue is a lot more complex than just “more houses that are all electric with no natural gas” when you take into consideration the power grids they are attached to.


  • However a large percentage of our parking is never used and this the problem is exacerbated by mandatory parking minimums as the article points out.

    I find “never” to be an exaggeration. The lots are used during the business hours of whatever business owns that lot. Does that mean there is a significant chunk of time where there is no one parked there? Sure, but it’s certainly not “never.” In Regina, I can’t think of a single parking lot I have ever seen that didn’t have at least SOMEONE parked there. Street parking is used quite frequently as well. Parking in the downtown core is a ridiculous race of “first come first served” because there literally isn’t enough parking downtown for all of the employees that work there.

    Plus, with our system of free parking, those in our society who can’t afford cars/aren’t able to drive are subsidizing you and me when we drive places. The cost of parking is split amongst all customers (in the case of private parking) or residents (in the case of municipal lots), even those who take public transit, walk, or bike.

    The downtown core of Regina (talked about in the article) is NOT free parking. At all. There is no free parking to be found in the downtown core at all (that isn’t like 3 spots reserved for particular business customers). Residential areas get basic street parking (not lots). There are very few “parking lots” in residential areas. The only free lots are outside major shopping centers that are outside the downtown core, and those often have spots reserved for customers of those shopping centers.

    You probably buy $300 worth of groceries at a time because the store is inconvenient to get to (due to Euclidean Zoning and our general lack of density). I honestly do the same thing. However, when I lived in a denser city, I commuted by bike or bus and would grab groceries every day on my way home, and it added minimal time to my travel. I’m not arguing you should move or drastically change your life, but that the city should improve around you.

    I buy $300 worth of groceries at a time because I work from home and any trips outside my house are specifically for errands, so groceries/errands become a dedicated trip because I don’t have an “on the way home from work” sort of schedule.

    But yes, a big part of the issue is zoning. I live in a newer “high density” neighborhood. Large condo buildings, narrow streets, almost no on-street parking due to said narrow streets, I get one spot in my back alley for my small car (and I’m charged an extra $100 per month on my rent for it), and the grocery store is still a 30 minute walk/10 minute bike ride away. It could absolutely be made better with some better designed bus routes, better zoning designs, and some effort. Sadly most cities don’t seem interested in walkable cities or investing in public transit.

    I would love to see more dedicated bike lanes (there are none in my neighborhood), short-haul bus routes specifically between the grocery stores and nearby residential areas to make hauling groceries home less of a chore, more sheltered bus stops to protect from both heat and cold, and less resistance to things like e-bikes and such that would make the trips less onerous. There’s still a big stigma in Regina regarding e-bikes and scooters for some reason despite their benefits.



  • You are failing to take into account wind chill. In SK, with our high winds, a -15C day can turn into a -25C day pretty easily. I am a big baby when it comes to the cold and I fully accept this. But when the wind chill puts things into “frost bite in 5 minutes” territory, I’m sorry, but I’m not riding my bike to the grocery store and risking frost bite on my fingers and nose. Nor do I want to stand at an outdoor bus stop waiting who knows how long for a bus. Now if zoning wasn’t so dumb and put my grocery store so far out of residential areas, it wouldn’t be so bad. But city planning is centered around having a car, sadly.