Bell: Calgary crime and grime in our faces and we get more city hall baloney
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When will Calgary city hall wake the hell up? Only the votes of Calgarians will pierce through their privileged cocoon.
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Dan McLean is a Calgary city councillor known for pitching puzzlers to the city hall establishment — a group of handsomely-paid seat warmers who often appear either clueless or look like they just don't give a damn.
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McLean kicks off the Tuesday city council meeting asking a city bigshot about what's up with all this crime and social disorder where even Calgary city hall's propaganda machine can't make us believe the city is on its way to Disneyland.
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'It was a long-winded answer and I can't even tell you what it was about.'
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Well, what was it all about? Talking points patting the heads of Calgarians. Now, now.
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When people are 'unwell' that can 'increase people's sense of discomfort,' says the bigshot, taking a page out of the latest hug-a-thug pop psychology book.
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But people are feeling better.
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Yep, that's Calgary city hall. Dismissing the verdict of the court of public opinion. The worst it's ever been.
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You can't really blame McLean.
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McLean's truck was one of several vehicles stomped on by some jerk in East Village. The episode even made it on Instagram.
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During Stampede, someone tried to steal his truck.
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Ah, the East Village.
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Back in the day, it was called urban blight when you could see streetwalkers in the same part of town as a legendary gym, a well-known fish market, the firefighters union office, the Golden Age Club offering up music and bingo, the old-school King Eddy missed by many and the St. Louis.
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Now there are new shiny apartment blocks and lovely shops mixed in with a three-ring circus of crime and grime and daily disorder too numerous to count, with the Calgary Drop-In Centre providing its own sad and often dangerous spectacle.
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McLean knows the area. It's right out back from city hall.
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'I've seen people die. They pulled the bodies away,' says McLean.
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