Last week, a meeting was held at the St Paul's L'Amoreaux Centre to give Trustee Wong and Councillor Kelly feedback on whether or not the school building and surrounding green space should be sold or leased, and for what purpose. While there were not a lot in attendance, a spirited discussion was had on this issue that all of us are anxious about. Frustrations were expressed as people didn't feel as if the community was given a proper chance to be consulted, given that this meeting was occurring just one week before an important vote. Condo owners and building tenants spoke of additional frustration from not receiving the invitation flyers in their mailboxes like everyone else, and those who knew about it had to rely on word of mouth to get there.
A few highlights from the agenda ...
- There are two properties at stake: The building itself, and the large green space surrounding it (12.3 acre lot in total)
- This coming Wed, May 26, the trustees will decide to either put the property up for sale, or for lease. The room was strongly in favour of leasing the property and not selling it.
- The notion of a high rise development was flatly rejected. The room was strongly in favour of using the building to house needed community services
- Consensus was not reached on what to do with the large green space. Trustee Wong indicated that the TDSB would want to sell a portion of the land to raise money. City staff and Councillor Kelly stated any development would be low lying (1-4 stories high)
- Frustrations were expressed at the process with how the Toronto Lands Corp accepts offers. After the trustees vote, the Toronto Lands Corp will accept proposals for 90 days from a preferred list of institutions. What this means is that if the City (& the community) wants services in that space, the other school boards, post secondary institutions, and the Province must all first take a pass. For a detailed description of the process, please CLICK HERE
For all interested in the upcoming TDSB discussion on this and other issues - the next TDSB meeting is this Wed May 26 at 7pm, and you can watch it live right from your computer, by clicking: TDSB LIVE
Monday, 24 May 2010
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Jane's Walk in Dorset Park
The "Dorset Park Discovery Walk" was the theme of this past Saturday's Jane's walk.
Organized by the local Action for Neighbourhood Change(ANC)office, it was a lovely walk with family, residents and guests as we learned from newcomers, seniors, and the Dorset Park Youth Council about what day to day life in the community, the history of its development since the dairy farms of the 1940's, and some of the changes we'd like to make a reality sometime soon!
A few pics for the album ...
Organized by the local Action for Neighbourhood Change(ANC)office, it was a lovely walk with family, residents and guests as we learned from newcomers, seniors, and the Dorset Park Youth Council about what day to day life in the community, the history of its development since the dairy farms of the 1940's, and some of the changes we'd like to make a reality sometime soon!
A few pics for the album ...
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Better Ballots
The Better Ballots initiative for electoral reform wraps up tonight with its last of four town halls across Toronto. What’s great about this effort is that they are not pushing any one single idea, but are educating Torontonians on a range of practical (tested and working in other cities) ideas for how to improve civic engagement and voter turnout. And then it’s up to us to carry the conversation forward, get involved with the ideas that we think are best, and work our butts off to get one or two improvements passed and in place for 2014!
So here are the 14 Better Ballot ideas currently being discussed (click on the image to make it bigger). Some I’m quite familiar with, others not as much – but I’ve checked off where I currently stand beside each of the ideas being discussed. These are my Better Ballots ... what are yours?
-Bryan
For more information on the Better Ballots initiative, detailed descriptions of each idea, and next steps in this campaign for electoral reform, please visit www.betterballots.to
So here are the 14 Better Ballot ideas currently being discussed (click on the image to make it bigger). Some I’m quite familiar with, others not as much – but I’ve checked off where I currently stand beside each of the ideas being discussed. These are my Better Ballots ... what are yours?
-Bryan
For more information on the Better Ballots initiative, detailed descriptions of each idea, and next steps in this campaign for electoral reform, please visit www.betterballots.to
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
From town hall to town hall
I’ve been to two town halls in two days, and going to another tonight.
Comparing the Let’s Talk event with TTC riders & workers to The Scarborough Hospital town hall is an interesting study in process.
Sunday’s Let’s Talk event was big, had the resources to promote it well, and post town hall news coverage in all the major networks and papers was just about guaranteed. And the turnout was a couple hundred strong, although a solid half the room were journalists, bloggers, candidates or campaign staff of some kind. But while a lot of good issues were shared and covered, the theme that permeated the whole event was how much customer service is a system-wide issue and that a more meaningful exchange would have been possible had all levels of the TTC been represented on the panel. As an evaluator, my favourite recommendation was by a woman named Vanesse, who said that we should use this as a starting point and come together a year from now to monitor what (if any) improvements have been made. I’ll endorse that plan wholeheartedly, with the suggestion that we all spend some time nudging both the union and the management to share a stage and take our questions together.
Monday’s Scarborough Hospital event was of a different nature entirely. Minimal PR budget; no enraged residents driving the conversation; smaller audience; part of a more traditional strategic planning process. It’s the process that’s worthy of mention, in that this was clearly one step in a well thought out plan to engage a community around a goal. Indeed, no need is the suggestion of a follow up town hall required – they’re already planning one for next year after a series of additional engagement opportunities, accountabilities and benchmarks along the way. As a member of the public, I didn’t learn as much from the other side as I did at Let’s Talk, but connected with some committed people and left confident that this was part of a process where an actual change was going to be made and that a year from now it’ll look a lot different.
Now let’s see what Dave Meslin has in store for us tonight with Better Ballots ... I can’t wait!
-Bryan
Comparing the Let’s Talk event with TTC riders & workers to The Scarborough Hospital town hall is an interesting study in process.
Sunday’s Let’s Talk event was big, had the resources to promote it well, and post town hall news coverage in all the major networks and papers was just about guaranteed. And the turnout was a couple hundred strong, although a solid half the room were journalists, bloggers, candidates or campaign staff of some kind. But while a lot of good issues were shared and covered, the theme that permeated the whole event was how much customer service is a system-wide issue and that a more meaningful exchange would have been possible had all levels of the TTC been represented on the panel. As an evaluator, my favourite recommendation was by a woman named Vanesse, who said that we should use this as a starting point and come together a year from now to monitor what (if any) improvements have been made. I’ll endorse that plan wholeheartedly, with the suggestion that we all spend some time nudging both the union and the management to share a stage and take our questions together.
Monday’s Scarborough Hospital event was of a different nature entirely. Minimal PR budget; no enraged residents driving the conversation; smaller audience; part of a more traditional strategic planning process. It’s the process that’s worthy of mention, in that this was clearly one step in a well thought out plan to engage a community around a goal. Indeed, no need is the suggestion of a follow up town hall required – they’re already planning one for next year after a series of additional engagement opportunities, accountabilities and benchmarks along the way. As a member of the public, I didn’t learn as much from the other side as I did at Let’s Talk, but connected with some committed people and left confident that this was part of a process where an actual change was going to be made and that a year from now it’ll look a lot different.
Now let’s see what Dave Meslin has in store for us tonight with Better Ballots ... I can’t wait!
-Bryan
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