Guest Blogger - James CoulterI went to lunch last week with a city employee.
My intention was to get some input/advice for the downtown charrette. I ended up, well, a little disappointed.
The conversation around the charrette was productive. My city friend helped me establish a framework for a questionnaire and really helped me nail down why I want to organize this event. I want to demonstrate to our elected officials that the people of this city really care about downtown and that they want to be involved in the planning process.
How did I end up disappointed? Well, once we got through the first part of our conversation I started to ask about certain areas of the city and why they ended up the way they have. Specifically, I wanted to know about the East Riverside Planning Area. I live in the East end, and my running routes sometimes take me through this sloppy, wasteland of chipboard and vinyl, crapola houses.
I said to my friend, “I remember seeing the plans of survey for this area back when it was first being developed. I remember thinking that this was such a great opportunity for the city to develop a new town centre. Something like a modern Olde Riverside or Walkerville. You know, a main street with shops and offices and apartments with nice residential streets intersecting.”
He said, “That was the plan. It was drawn up like that - really nice.”
“Well”, I asked, “What happened?” The answer was ridiculous, but it said so much. It seemed the developers came back and said that they couldn’t sell the kind of housing that the plan called for. The market wanted the suburban home, the kind with the big garage and a house behind it. So the plan was amended and the rest is history. Our city is in trouble because our officials amend the official plans to accommodate developers, contractors, and high-school buddies, whatever. The city’s official plan is full of progressive language talking about mixed-use development, walkable communities and alternative transportation. Yet the building department allows continual expansion of big box developments and more and wider roads and housing, miles from any amenities.
I guess it was naïve on my part to imagine that city government is any different from higher levels of government where special interests and lobbyists “grease the wheels”, but really. Our elected officials live in our neighbourhoods. They drive the same roads as us and worry about the values of their properties and business interests - just like us. So how can they make decisions that do nothing to improve the quality of life for their constituents, their neighbours? City politicians are closest to the electorate, why should a developer or an out-of-town land owner’s interests be more important than ours?
Politicking to save a part-time job and some kind of quasi-celebrity status, it’s nauseating.
James Coulter is an Engineering Technologist with the School of Building, Design and Construction Technology at St. Clair College. His opinions are plentiful and may not reflect those of his employer or the teaching faculty at the college.
