Councillors agreed to turn over emergency powers

The good news is that Peterborough and area went two weeks without a new COVID-19 infection as of this past weekend, there are no known active cases and transition to Phase 3 of reopening could be just weeks away.

The less good news is that City of Peterborough emergency measures to overhaul transit routes and reconfigure downtown traffic flow, parking and sidewalk layout have upset quite a few people.

In the big picture, that’s a win. And as has been the case since this pandemic began in earnest four months ago, the big picture is most important.

Dr. Rosana Salvaterra, the local medical officer of health, has said Peterborough was fortunate that the rate of control of the virus here matched up quite nicely with timing of the province’s decision to roll out Phase 2 relaxation.

While that’s true, good fortune has a lot to do with health officials managing response wisely and testing broadly. And with people responsibly following what can be restrictive, sometimes annoying protocols.

The less good side — beyond any personal sacrifices those protocols require — has been some of the immediate effects of and response to the two main emergency decisions of the City of Peterborough.

Those would be the bus route remake and downtown street changes.

As we discussed in this space before, moving from a radial or hub route system to a grid that means not every passenger has to go downtown to get from Point A to Point B has been years in the making.

Two weeks ago city council voted to give a committee of city hall staff, along with the mayor, authority to make emergency response decisions unilaterally. One result was a nearly overnight decision to implement the new bus system.

There are grievances with some of the routing, which would be true no matter how the changes were managed. Some issues will be ironed out, some will stay in place and riders will have to get used to them.

The downtown street, parking and sidewalk changes are trickier in that they don’t seem to be working. The idea was that with reduced space for cars and parking and more for people and social distancing, customers would feel more comfortable and start to return.

That hasn’t happened, according to a number of merchants. Fewer parking spaces are keeping people away.

Some rethinking is in order, but the basic premise is sound and has worked in other cities. Perhaps people just need more time to feel safe in group settings. Hanging in with some form of the changes until Phase 3 arrives is a sound plan.

To get there it is important to keep reinforcing the very real positive aspects of recovery. That means city councillors should stop complaining that they are being blamed for problems with emergency measures that they didn’t have any say in developing.

In fact, they did have a say. Councillors considered the necessity of freeing up the decision-making process to allow for emergency responses and voted to go ahead. They willingly transferred their oversight power to Mayor Diane Therrien, who is part of the emergency decision-making team.

Councillors can and should make constructive suggestions about tweaking the emergency measures to improve them.

The don’t-blame-me narrative some councillors have adopted falls short of that standard.