After touring New York City, Katz was interested in the creation and implementation of Crimestat, an interactive system to provide up-to-date information to help protect citizens. Katz supported a graffiti control bylaw to stop the sale and possession of spray paint to minors. Katz supported a Winnipeg auto theft suppression strategy as a way to crack down on auto theft. Transportation Construction of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor started in summer 2009. A transit strike was averted in 2008. Katz has said that Winnipeg should take full advantage of being the mid-continent trade corridor. Criticism Katz was the subject of criticism after a P3 deal was tabled and provisionally accepted a 30-year deal with Veolia to manage Winnipeg's waste water. After referring to Winnipeg's five female Olympic medal winners as "beautiful females" whose close-up presence made him "feel like Hugh Hefner", Katz was criticized by a women's studies professor at the University of Manitoba. Reaction from the citizens of Winnipeg was mixed. Katz is the target of humour in a song by The Consumer Goods. Their song "And the Final Words are Yours, Sam Katz" was entered in medium rotation at a number of local radio stations and offers Katz ironic sympathy for the difficulties of running "a city, a business and a baseball team", the use of Malathion for mosquito fogging, and a military training exercise (Operation Charging Bison). Katz also came under fire from the city's French-speaking population after removing a bilingual requirement from the criteria for awarding a restaurant license on the Esplanade Riel bridge and backing away from earlier promises to help fund a French-language theatre. Six days before the Winnipeg City Council voted on the city's operating budget, Katz revised it. This drew criticism from councillor Jenny Gerbasi and the Manitoba director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Adrienne Batra. Riverside Park Management Riverside Park Management is a nonprofit organization founded by Katz in 1997 to create a leasehold stake in the proposed CanWest Park stadium that eventually housed his Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball team. Katz continued his involvement after being elected mayor and when a property tax controversy arose was accused of conflict of interest as he was both Mayor of Winnipeg and president of Riverside Park from August 2005 to April 2008, while the two sides were engaged in a financial dispute. Fire hall construction controversy A 2013 city-commissioned report on the construction of new