CORY'S RANT Calgary’s entire transit system a drug and violence laden dystopian nightmare.
Episode Stats
Words per minute
213.23346
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1
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Summary
Calgary's transit system is devolved into a drug and violence-laden dystopian nightmare, and something has to be done about it. As the addiction epidemic continues to grow across North America, every city is grappling with these issues. I can t find one, though, with the dubious honour of actually having closed down their train stations to the public rather than deal with the issue as Calgary did.
Transcript
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Calgary's entire transit system is devolved into a drug and violence-laden dystopian nightmare.
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As the addiction epidemic continues to grow across North America, every city is grappling with these issues.
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I can't find one, though, with the dubious honor of actually having closed down their train stations to the public
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rather than deal with the issue as Calgary did.
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A picture was shared with me yesterday by a commuter as he passed by the Chinook LRT station in Calgary.
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One was in the midst of counting money from a drug exchange.
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Another was preparing to consume his newly purchased drugs.
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And another was, well, I would say hopefully simply unconscious.
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Overdoses have become a daily occurrence at those stations.
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I was assured by the commuter that this scene was common and it's often actually worse there.
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I drive by LRT stations regularly and see the people laid out, along with the ambulances and fire trucks,
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constantly there, and parked as the overdoses happen and they're called in.
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I used to take the train to our downtown office from the Westbrook station in Calgary.
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And syringes and aggressive addicts just became too much for me.
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And I accepted paying to park downtown rather than immerse myself daily in a rolling drug consumption center
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Ridership on Calgary transits, it's 64% of what it was a couple of years ago.
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So anybody who can avoid riding those trains right now does.
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Not everybody has a choice to simply jump in a car like I did, however.
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Many commuters have no other way to get around rather than use city transit,
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and they have to endure fearful rides every day just to get to work and back.
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Multiple random assaults have been happening on train platforms and in transit facilities.
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You know, to one legacy media outlet, to their credit,
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a CBC reporter went out and took a ride on Calgary's LRT just a couple of weeks ago.
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She witnessed three overdoses and numerous aggressive actions.
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Reporting on that, by the way, and that was just on one trip.
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Reporting on it, many on social media, of course, got on her case and accused her of shaming addicts.
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Look, we can't let addicts continue to take over the transit system
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for a city of over a million people for fear of shaming them.
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We can be compassionate while putting our foot down.
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It doesn't mean we don't care if we take an initiative to remove addicts
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It just means that we're accepting that that's not where they belong.
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The bigger issue of how to deal with addicts once they're removed from transit will remain.
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We can't refuse, though, to take action on one issue
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in hopes of avoiding to have to deal with the other issue.
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Calgary's downtown has nearly a third of its office buildings remaining vacant.
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Bike lanes have taken out almost all the street parking,
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If the city really wants people to come downtown, they need to take transit.
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And it has to be safe, and it's nowhere close to that right now.
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The downtown itself, actually, is loaded with addicts, feces, and discarded syringes as well.
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But I just want to mostly stick to the transit issue for today.
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The first full Calgary stampede in years is approaching,
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and Calgary's hospitality sector is desperate to see an influx of tourists.
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How many people, though, are going to make it their last visit to Calgary
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after riding on the city's horrific transit system
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Would you really want to take your kids out into that?
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Mayor Gondek and many of her city council counterparts
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are trying to bring in an insane $87 billion climate change plan.
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is to have over 60% of Calgarians using transit to get around.
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Well, I can tell you right now that sure as hell isn't going to happen
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no matter how much they try to punish automobile owners.
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They're just going to continue to drive more people out of the city altogether.
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The mayor and the council want to pretend that transit is fine.
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Maybe if they can be convinced that dealing with a problem
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will help with their fictional climate emergency,
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I mean, Calgary is in a state of emergency right now.
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I bet if they took their elitist asses out for a day