A Kindred Cause

Meanwhile, over at My Stoney Creek...

For some months now, I've been publishing extracts of an interview with the head of the Hamilton Federation of Neighbourhood Assiociations, Lauren McCrawley...in 2022. 

The earlier ones can be found via this post...

...and today's can be found here.

Concerning NAs and the such...

Check out this article, the result of a chat with the newpaper's Publisher, John Best.

(Yes, there are some inconsistencies and inaccuracies in some of the numbers. From now on, I'm going in with tattoos.)

Regarding a 'Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations'...

Today's 'Opinion' section in The Spec has an essay by yours-truly focusing on the concept of entrenched neighbourhood associations across the city and how they could make tremendous change possible. 

I wrote it partially because of a previous essay by Graham Crawford focusing on the need for an external 'hero', but mostly because over at My Stoney Creek, I've been engaging in some quality 'What if?' time.

'What if we had a massive penetration of NAs in wards?' 

'What if we saw a paradigm shift in how people tended to see their place in local governance?'

'What if communities were far more involved in not only the decision-making process, but in re-imagining their city?'

And so I went into the future. To 2022. When an entity known as the 'Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations' exists, as chaired by Ms Lauren McCrawley.

Concerning engagement through Neighbourhood Associations...

Over at My Stoney Creek, I've been playing around with maps.

Maps of proposed changes to ward boundaries.

But more seriously, maps of Lower City ward neighbourhoods.

Take a look here.

Wow. Part Two

Some of the links from my friend's email are –to me, anyway– just...inspirational. Take a look:

Creative Urban Project

City Builder Camp Communities

I especially loved this paragraph:

In December, we met with the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association, which is facing many development pressures. They told us that their main take-away from City Builder Camp was the focus on “how to get from NIMBY to YIMBY” and that this has affected their approach since September. They also deeply appreciated the opportunity to have such a positive and productive conversation with architects, planners, and developers as they shared their insights with CWNA at City Builder Camp. Thank you to our panel members for making this possible!


And this video about the St. James Town community. 


uFORchange


Five Good Ideas
Including this event.

So; can you imagine this degree of engagement in Hamilton? I'm not asking this question out of naïveté, or dismissing what's in place right now. I am aware of many of the efforts underway, the various associations and umbrella organizations. But it sure seems to be that there's a more advanced form of 'proaction' extant with our neighbours around the lake, as opposed to the opinion proffered by someone in Hamilton recently that "The problem as I see is people here have gotten into a mode where they would much rather complain than do something about things that bother them..."

Surely we're better than that. 

And we are, as the above commenter continues with an actual suggestion:

"It would be good to skip (this entire crowd) –way too much negative energy there– and approach the neighbourhood organizations and community groups directly to jump start a real solutions driven community engagement, which does not have any political axe to grind, and does not start or end with a premise of teaching politicians/staff a lesson for supposed lapses on their parts."

Can you imagine...?

M Adrian Brassington

Wow. Part One

I tend to share a fair amount of 'stuff' with family and friends. No, not cute kitten photos or videos of dogs talking. Rather, stuff that I think the person might appreciate, continuations of conversations I've had with them, or articles that I feel might help illuminate something for them. 

Yeah. Illumination. 

That has enormous value in my life. Moments when things are illuminated. This makes sense; I began this Town Halls Hamilton effort to increase engagement, and illumination is certainly part-and-parcel of that process. 

Late last night/early this morning, a dear friend sent me an email. And I'm still going through its links, appreciating the illumination it contains. 

Universal Truths About the Citizen's Role in Great Governance: The Importance of Reason

I didn't go into reading this book expecting to get out of it what I did. And there's more to it than just valuable stuff about civic engagement. (For the record, it's a badly-edited effort lacking in focus...and too often an unseemly and overwrought polemic against President George W. Bush.)

But as I was reading it, I came across some powerful bits, and I want to share them with you, because what Town Halls Hamilton is all about is very much what this stuff is all about. 


So herein are some choice excerpts...with some comments from me, as suitable.

(Fair warning: In most instances, I've paraphrased Mr. Gore's words. As little as possible, retaining the intent and the flavour of the material, but mostly excising American references. The propositions' value certainly take up a space well above and beyond the borders of the US, so I've taken the liberty to revise as necessary.)

Followup to Councillor Farr's Evening, Part One

In ancipation of the answers forthcoming from Ward 2 Councillor Jason Farr, here is the list of questions compiled from the six neighbourhood associations. 

Meanwhile, over at the F.U.N...

Earlier this autumn, I made contact with one of the most extraordinary people I've had the pleasure of meeting since taking this 'town halls' notion out of my head and pushing it out into the real world. 

Her name is Janice Brown, and she looks after Communications at the Federation of Urban Neighbourhoods. But she's also on the Durand Neighbourhood Association's Board of Directors. 

From the start of our correspondence, through our coffee face-to-face, the lead-up to our inaugural town hall and post-event, Janice was helpful and encouraging. I'm so glad synchronicity was at play throughout. And I'm glad there are Janice Browns out there helping to steward the needs of our community and neighbourhood associations. 

Here's a guest article I contributed to their newsletter.  (A special shout-out to my brother, who gave some editorial input when I was faffing about.)

Regarding Neighbourhood Associations...

As I'd had an unusual number of conversations of late about NAs, specifically asking the question 'How are they recognized by the City?', while I was at City Hall this morning, getting things prepped for the event on Thursday night, I asked some questions.

Basically, it's up to the ward Councillor to vet the group. Once that's been done, once it's clear to their satisfaction that the group represents the people in the area, which might include a petition, or a meeting, then the recommendation is passed-on to the Planning Department. Then it gets added to the afore-linked 'Neighbourhood Association Directory'.

Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.