Tonight I spent an hour at Ward 4 Councillor Sam Merulla's community meeting at Pat Quinn Arena. The room was packed; I'd guess there were about twenty-five people, not including a trio of City Hall staff (Landscape Architect Cynthia Graham was especially effective during her Cown Point East Neighbourhood Plan presentation. Well done, Ms Graham!) and three (?) law enforcement officers of various genres, as well as at least a couple of other people there to provide input and information.
A 'community meeting' isn't a 'town hall', but then as the title of this post insists, they're not supposed to be. The structure of tonight's get-together was an item-by-item presentation with questions allowed at appropriate times. (The itinerary can be found here.)
It was nicely choreographed by Councillor Merulla, allowing for just enough discussion, moving things along when it was clear there was a likelihood that things might get mired, suggesting how an issue might be expedited, providing appropriate context and perspective...
As I said, I was only able to stay for an hour, but my reaction was simple: it was heartening to see democracy in action, to see involvement and participation by the residents, to have people in the same room talking things through. (Well, for the most part 'talking things through'...)
Hats off to Councillor Merulla for this effective community meeting. Here's to hoping he'll consider working with us in the new year.
Merulla is an unbelievable representative and I'm proud to call him my councilor!
ReplyDeleteSarah