Efficiency

We often talk about efficiency of processes. Shaving a minute or a dollar here and there. As an engineer, I’m looking at the efficiency of structures. And our city is not an efficient structure. We’re spread across 316 square kilometres, with an urban core less than a quarter of that. The lack of density is weighing on city and household budgets. Our society is not efficient either. University graduates are working retail jobs. Newcomers driving taxis with business degrees. Our housing is not efficient. 40% of our real estate stock consists of single family homes, mostly with 3+ bedrooms, while the average household size is 2.1.

I will be working to measure these inefficiencies, bring them to light, and make decisions on council that will move us towards a more efficient city, and alleviate the pain coming from these inefficiencies.

I will not promise what council cannot deliver. I will read the budget, ask hard questions in public, and leave the city in better fiscal and civic shape than I found it. I am always open to new ideas and perspectives. And I’m not afraid to admit I was wrong and change my mind if evidence presented conflicts with my mental model.

Growth. Growth that works pays for itself. Denser housing on land the city already serves builds value without adding cost. Sprawl adds maintenance even the increased tax base cannot afford. When it comes to industry, we have the port, rail, and workforce to grow well. We have to find the right match. (Read more)

Data centre / Lorneville. Let’s get this out of the way. No to data centres. They consume enormous power, employ very few people for the footprint they take, and lock prime industrial land out of better uses for two or three decades. Saint John should pursue diversified, green, locally job-dense industry instead. (Read more)

Homelessness. Saint John’s By-Name List currently includes 437 people experiencing homelessness, 246 of them long-term, per HDC’s Coordinated Access System. The number has more than tripled since 2021. Housing First works when supportive housing integrates: spread out across the city. So people can live in real neighbourhoods, not in pockets of concentrated poverty. (Read more)

Housing. Most homes you can own are single-family. Most homes you can rent are owned by private landlords. The city needs more homes, more kinds of homes, and more ways to own and rent them, preferably through infill that enriches existing neighbourhoods. (Read more)

Food security and food access. New Brunswick grows ten times the potatoes and seafood we eat. We harvest about a quarter of Canada’s wild blueberries. We lead Atlantic Canada in maple syrup. Small local operations are still growing fruits, vegetables and raising animals. Yet we buy most of the produce in supermarkets. We should be connecting local producers with residential neighbourhoods. We had a great market once, let’s fill it with shoppers again! (Read more)

Transit and parking. A smaller transit network that works well is better than a bigger one that does not. Frequency on the backbone routes comes first, and FLEX has earned the right to expand. But we need to grow ridership. One way to do so is to stop subsidizing car usage, starting with introducing fair price for parking. (Read more)

Public safety and policing. The cheapest crime prevention is a city that is walkable, lively, and worth being in. Empty streets are not safe streets. Saint John spends $32M on police and another $780K a year on private security; that money could expand the Mobile Crisis Response Team, supportive housing, or community programming that actually moves the needle. (Read more)

Roads and infrastructure. The city maintains 1,160 lane-kilometres of road on a budget that funds a fraction of what is needed. The honest answer is not “spend more.” It is “do less, do well”: every lane-kilometre eliminated saves $12,000 a year in maintenance forever. (Read more)

City finances. A city has three kinds of debt: financial, infrastructure, and implied future service commitments. Every lane of new road is a forty-year promise to plow, repave, and eventually rebuild. We have to be mindful about new projects and permits. (Read more)

Property tax. The province sets the assessments. Council sets the service levels, and the tax rate is just the conclusion. We have to have honest conversations about what services we want and what they cost, not about a percentage. (Read more)

Bike lanes. I’ve commuted on bikes all my adult life. I could manage without bike lanes. But our children don’t, nor our parents and grandparents. They deserve a safe way to get around the city. We need a connected active transit network. Complemented by 30 km/h limits on neighbourhood streets, one-way conversions, cyclist aware parking, mixed use trails. (Read more)

Walkability and traffic calming. A pedestrian hit at 30 km/h has a 90% chance of surviving; at 50 km/h, survival becomes a lucky exception. An even bigger benefit of the lower speed: most accidents can be prevented. Thirty should be the default in residential neighbourhoods. Paris did it city-wide in 2021. It works. It is the cheapest change a city can make. (Read more)

Recreation. Community needs space. Free third places, open to all ages, are where strangers become neighbours. We need more of them, especially in the densest neighbourhoods where loneliness hits hardest. The cheapest fix is activating space the city already owns, in partnership with the non-profits already doing the work. (Read more)

Parks and green spaces. Public parkland provides more value as the city densifies. It’s the shared back yard of homes that don’t have one of their own. We have to hold on to parks, and make them accessible to the public, to unlock that value. (Read more)

Garbage and waste. Most of what cleanup volunteers haul out of ditches and parks is single-use packaging from a handful of food-service chains. The fix is a to make these establishments pick up the cheque. Introduce a fee on commercial operators, and use it to mitigate the problem. (Read more)

Snow management. Saint John gets over 300 cm of snow a year. The city’s plowing priority structure is right: arterials first, residential last. What falls off the list is what needs work: sidewalks past the priority network, bike lanes in winter, and the driveway windrow that hits seniors hardest. (Read more)

Speed bumps. Residents want cars to drive through their neighbourhoods quietly and safely. The city gives them speed bumps. Emergency response times get longer, cars get damaged, plowing is harder. We need better solutions. (Read more)

Council communication. Council works publicly, the city has communication channels to use to push and receive information. But there’s a disconnect between what’s put out, and what reaches residents. (Read more)

This is a working draft. Topics will get tightened as I hear more from voters in the next two weeks. If I am missing your issue, say so: balazs.lajtha@gmail.com.