Last night was a night of firsts.Most notably, it was my first community meet & greet, hosted by my neighbour Joan who was kind enough to invite myself and a group of women from the neighbourhood to her lovely home for coffee, conversation, and homemade cookies. Joan lives just a few blocks up the street from me, so I decided to walk.
Which lead to my very first campaign-related injury.
Yep, just a few doors from my house I hit a patch of ice and went down on my left knee. Hard. But I'm a trooper, so after taking a moment to regroup I set off down the street again, bruised but undaunted.
I think I'll be adding "mandatory sidewalk salting" to my platform.
Joan wanted to keep things casual, so she had asked folks to just turn up any time after 6:30. It gave me a chance to talk to people one on one as well as in a group, and gave everyone the opportunity to ask questions and discuss their concerns.
Those concerns ran the gamut from transit access to storm drain upgrades to off-leash dogs at the Fairgrounds. But one issue was at the top of everyone's list: the loss of businesses and services from our neighbourhood.
Happily, that's at the top of my list as well.
While discussing the causes and the possible solutions to this problem, I began talking about the Infill and Intensification Study that will soon be presented to Council. I've spent a fair bit of time talking about this plan, on my Sprawlville blog and to people in general. The plan outlined in the study is, in my opinion, an excellent one, and would address many of the problems that have stemmed from a decade of unbalanced and sprawling development that has left our downtown core - and our ward - isolated, stagnant, and rapidly hollowing out.
The trick will be to make sure it actually happens and doesn't wind up like so many other well-intentioned plans: just a list of friendly suggestions, roundly ignored because there are no mechanisms or incentives in place to make it a reality.
As luck would have it, I have a plan for that too. And the people I spoke to last night seemed to like what they heard.
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Jenn Callum Hey Jen, hope you're not too bruised! You are indeed a trooper.
Interesting about the fairgrounds and off-leash dogs. I'm there often for cadet drop offs and functions (my oldest daughter as you know is a Petty Officer in the Sea Cadet corps, whose building is located there) and there are always dogs having a blast running around in the relative safety of that space. However, they are usually controlled by extremely considerate people, and I have never had a real problem with anyone there. I'd sure hate to see that taken away from them.
Just my 2¢!
You have my support, as always!