Last night at Artcite another well attended event put on by both Artcite and Scaledown.ca as part of the “check out this sprawl” exhibit.
The panel was moderated by scaledown.ca master Chris Holt (r), and the rest of the panel was (from right to left): Larry Silani, Director of Planning, Town of LaSalle
Joe Rauti, President, Greater Windsor Home Builders Association.
Shannon Porcellini, Trustee, Windsor Essex County District School Board
Veronika Mogyrody, Professor, University of Windsor
Mark Boscariol, scaledown.ca
and not visible at the end Adam Glover, Artist.
scaledown writer James Coulter asks a question about development fees to Joe Rauti.
Behind James, you can see a decent turn out.
This was another good turnout, and lots of information was absorbed. The next step is now for the host to compile some of the information gathered, and to put something to paper.
It is good to see the respect the blogging community in Windsor is starting to gather. In the audience were members of the Windsor & Tecumseh Planning Departments. Hopefully the desire for something different is being heard by those who have the power to make changes. The status quo isn’t cutting it anymore.
Kudos to Artcite and scaledown for keeping the discussion alive.
Glad there was a good turnout. Can’t wait to read some of the discussion information.
Last night’s discussion went very well. Lots of opinions were expressed. At some points it seemed like it began to get into the “finger pointing” realm, but that can be expected when people from different professional backgrounds get together. The discussion was helpful. HOWEVER, I do agree with Prof. Mogyrody that our next step is to set up another one of these disussion nights and invite (or drag!) local and county councillors to it and sit down and come up with an agenda on how to achieve the changes that we all discussed. Or, identify 1 area of the city and come up with a game plan to revitalize that area and then move on to bigger and loftier goals. Baby steps…baby steps…
Or else, as many said last night, all we are going to do is just meet again in a few months and complain about what is wrong, and then leave the discussion without any framework on how to change things.
Our city council was intentionally left off the invitation list for last nights forum. A personal choice of mine based on the fact that when politicians are in the room, very little tends to be accomplished. The goals of the panelists/participants/planners of the event need to be citizen-led and citizen-organized, for politicians in this city rarely lead – they simply follow the votes.
I agree with everyone’s sentiment that the time for action is upon us. We really need to organize and unify our forces to enact real change in this city. We dearly need to notch a big WIN in our column and I feel that with the people getting involved we will be able to do just that.
If you are interested in getting involved, whatever the capacity, simply send an email to info@scaledown.ca so we can add your name and contact info to our growing list of supporters. Keep your eyes and ears opened here at International Metropolis and at scaledown.ca for news as well. The afterglow discussion at Milk was focused on increasing our effectiveness and organizing. There’s talk of some significant change – so stay tuned!
The first step in any intervention or the diagnosing of a problem is to identify it, this Scaledown has done twice and I agree with EDS above that it is time to start presenting speicific focused actions, rather than trying to be all things to people or areas. What Scaledown can evolve to be is a local resource for this area citizens and city/town. It was a good time and a good discussion. It is time to change the conversation into action but via the citizens for the citizens and not some yet another grand plan that only gathers dust on library shelves and the city’s website.
Hey Andrew,
Thanks for shooting me from my best side 🙂
I say focus on the core first. Without a downtown a city’s heart stops beating. If you don’t believe me check out any city with a dire downtown and I will show yo a city that is hurting economically, socially and community wise.
A historic building like the old Bank of Montreal at the corner of Ottawa and Walker can’t be saved from demolition because nobody bothered to have it designated as a heritage building but the old Seagrave building one block away, which was designated a heritage building, gets demolished because our city won’t enforce its’ own laws. What’s wrong with this picture?