Bell: Gondek still in the ditch with Calgarians, spinning her wheels

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Two months ago. An ugly number-crunch on Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

Two months later. Monday. Another ugly number-crunch on Gondek.

Ugly is a four letter word, especially when you sit down for the latest math class on the mayor.

The level of disapproval, disdain and, in some cases, disgust is just not going away.

Gondek is in deep-doo and shows no signs of getting out of it, at least not yet.

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In early April, your scribbler wrote about how the mayor had to wake up. She was in hot water with Calgarians.

A nose count by the well-respected Leger polling firm told the story.

You could do a paint by numbers with those stats two months ago and come out with one nasty picture.

Leger rolls out the latest picture now. Nasty again.

Gondek is stuck worse than a car with bald summer tires on a snow-clogged road in a blizzard of a prairie winter.

And Gondek does not appear worried. She has not taken any action to turn things around.

She obviously thinks she can reverse her political fortunes by sticking to her script. The election is more than a year away. Calgarians might not show at the polls in the fall of next year.

There are folks who forget easily. Too easily.

So let’s get to what the Leger poll says.

Question. If there was an election would you vote for Gondek or someone else.

Gondek. 12 per cent. Someone else. 56 per cent. The rest aren’t voting, don’t know, won’t say.

Interesting, more men would vote for Gondek than women.

How satisfied are Calgarians with the quality of work done by Gondek on their most important issue?

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Scale of zero to 10.  Zero is zero satisfied and 10 is very satisfied.

Well, 22 per cent are at zero satisfied and two per cent are very satisfied.

Read that number again and wince if you’re one of the last remaining Team Gondek loyalists in the bunker.

Her overall score is 3.9 out of 10, the same as in April. The dial has not moved. Her report card stinks.

Let’s look at how people feel about the direction of Calgary, the city Gondek leads.

The city is going strongly in the right direction. Two per cent.

Two per cent. Pitiful.

Going somewhat in the right direction. 22 per cent.

Strongly or somewhat on the wrong track. 67 per cent.

This is from a city that’s shown a remarkably high pain threshold for enduring stupid politicians.

However, on top issues, it’s bread and butter, baby.

Affordability, the economy and property taxes.

Property taxes? We’re always told at city hall only a few cranks even given a hoot about property taxes.

We’re told most Calgarians don’t even call them taxes, they call them investments.

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As this page always mentions, bike lanes are most important to one per cent of the people but they are a powerful one per cent at city hall.

If city hall cared as much about your issues as they do about bike lanes Gondek might be cruising to a second term in office.

But she doesn’t and her think-alike city council majority don’t, so here we are in the ditch.

On property taxes, Gondek’s approval is about where she was in the last poll. Nowhere. Fewer than one in five Calgarians think she is doing a good job with taxes.

Gondek doesn’t catch a break on law and order, coming late to that file and, let’s just say, not being on the Christmas card list of many front-line police officers.

Ditto housing, even though this is Gondek’s big file with her passionate drive to build more high-end rowhouses and townhomes in the city.

Just so you know, most agree with deep-sixing the bag bylaw and three in 10 agree the citywide rezoning plan will benefit CaIgarians.

In a statement to Postmedia, Gondek talked about the cost of living and how there was a lot of anger and frustration out there.

TRANSLATION: I know you’re unhappy but it’s not my fault.

Gondek says she “shares those feelings” of anger and frustration and is committed to listening and doing the right thing.

But the mayor doesn’t seem to understand what it is.

In the court of public opinion, the jury wants to see actual evidence from Gondek of some kind of attitude adjustment and they are not seeing it.

rbell@postmedia.com

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