The all-candidates meeting on heritage issues was the front page story in today's Champion, with a decent quote from my presentation:
The candidates were all asked: What do you see as the value of preservation of heritage properties? What’s the single most important action the Town could take to encourage heritage preservation. And, if elected, what incentive programs would you support for residents who seek to conserve and restore heritage properties?
“The most important thing the Town could do to promote heritage is change their attitude about heritage,” said Jennifer Smith, who’s currently vying to represent Ward 2, which is where several of the town’s historic churches and building are located.
“Currently the town seems to regard heritage concerns as an annoyance at best and at worst a drain on resources.”
All of the six Ward 2 candidates were in attendance and all agreed on the value that historic buildings add to the downtown.
Smith said the buildings are an important economic factor to increasing the property value in the downtown area and as a tourism draw.
There is also a long article about the bike lane discussion at Monday's Community Services Committee meeting.
Within two years, the Town plans to install around 10 bike lanes between Steeles Avenue East and Louis St. Laurent Avenue, east of Thompson Road. Four additional bike lanes west of Thompson are planned for two to five years from now.
Missing from the original staff report was plans to develop bike lanes through Milton’s downtown.
“In light of a vision of interconnectedness, the proposed (program) falls far short,” said Ward 2 candidate Jennifer Smith during the meeting. “Without a single north-south or east-west bike lane route through the centre of town, and with every proposed bike lane coming to an abrupt halt at the edge of central Milton, this network can hardly be called a network.”
Smith said the dead end trails would further isolate the east, west and central areas of Milton from one another.
She urged council to consider adding Commercial Street, west Laurier and Heslop Road to the plan, which was approved by the committee.
During her presentation, Smith said the on-street bike lanes act as a traffic calming measure, “by visually narrowing the road, causing drivers to naturally slow down.”
This is what it looks like when you have a representative who listens to you, works for you, speaks up for you, and who puts Ward 2 first.
This is only the beginning.
905-299-5551
jsmithward2@gmail.com
Lynne Thank you Jen, we need more bikes and pedestrians.
Well, forget the malls and big box store locales, Milton is a suburb, period, and everyone is in a car. And the neon letter admobiles everywhere is such an eyesore. We need a sign bylaw.
I know whenever I talk to anyone in Milton downtown about bicycles and walking, they have about zero interest in bike lanes or bike metal hoops to lock them to. Which surprises me.
I'm confused about where in downtown Milton there is room for bike lanes, with Main St. as narrow as in 1900, and the streets just N and S residential only.
I make constant remarks about Toronto's small communities, full of pedestrians, cafes, funky shops and bikes everywhere. Milton is way more of a suburb than Toronto, so the long time residents here should stop feeling annoyed about our amazing capital city, and start looking to it as a model.