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.

Nope. I haven't 'forgotten' about town halls. Not at all.

Here's something I just published over at My Stoney Creek: 

Most of the action at Teresa & Co's site has to do with the 'Perspectives Virtual Panel: The Best Place to Raise a Child' article. 

Well, the fallout. 

Actually, it has to do with the non-responses from councillors. 

Um... As a matter of fact, it has to do with engagement...although not just the absence of the stuff on the parts of 13 of 16 Council members, but also how people are seeing the need for residents to press their representatives at 71 Main Street West more. 

Hmm...

So pertinent, I had to publish it here, too.

Yes, it's an American article talking about American society and American politics. But despite all this, there's a lot of great stuff in there. 

'Democracy Is for Amateurs: 

Why We Need More Citizen Citizens'

Here are some highlights:

-When self-government is dominated by professionals representing various interests, a vicious cycle of citizen detachment ensues. Regular people come to treat civic problems as something outside themselves, something done to them, rather than something they have a hand in making and could have a hand in unmaking. They anticipate that engagement is futile, and their prediction fulfills itself.

-So how do we replace this vicious cycle with a virtuous one? What does it take to revive a spirit of citizenship as something undertaken by amateurs and volunteers with a stake in their own lives? There are four forces to activate, and they cut across the usual left-right lines.

1. First, we have to develop our "citizen muscle."
2. Second, we need to radically refocus on the local.
3. Third, think in terms of challenges rather than orders.
4. Fourth, create platforms where citizen citizens can actively serve.

I especially liked the Eric Liu-penned article's conclusion:

Recently I came upon a billboard by a congested highway. "You're not stuck in traffic," it said. "You are traffic." We aren't stuck in sclerotic government and extractive politics. We are these things. Our actions and omissions contribute to the conditions we decry. Or, to put it in positive terms: if we make the little shifts in mindset and habit to reclaim civic life, they will compound into contagion. We are the renewal of self-government we yearn for. That may sound like Obama '08 -- but it's also Reagan '80.

Citizenship, in the end, is too important to be left to professionals. It's time for us all to be trustees, of our libraries and every other part of public life. It's time to democratize democracy again.

(Oh, and don't forget to read the Comments section.) 

M Adrian Brassington

P.S. Thanks go out to Michael Borrelli for bringing the article to my attention. 

Meanwhile, in the strictly-electronic realm...

The online-only op-ed can be found here...

...but because I'm concerned it's going to get lost in the shuffle:

Why Ward Boundary Reform Is So Important. (And it's not for the reason you might think)

The idea of sorting out the disparities in Hamilton wards' populations has taken off. We have a petition being circulated. We have a Facebook group, 'Hamiltonians for Ward Boundary Reform'. We have Letters to The Editor being published in The Spec, Bill Kelly has featured Christopher Cutler from the aforementioned Facebook page on his show, and Raise the Hammer has begun its discussion. 

It's all quite heartening. 

Not so much because of the prospect of correcting some glaring 'Relative Population Parity' inequities, though these really need to be dealt with. But more because of the opportunity it affords the community to roll up its sleeves, get involved and help define this city according to its own vision.

Because this issue is about us. 

For a change, there's no outside developer involved. There's no institution exerting pressure. There's no possibility of 'in camera-esque' backroom negotiations unfolding, and unlike say, with Area Rating and its public consultation, there isn't anything that Council can point to as being so critical as to have to shoo us out of the room so that the 'adults' can make a decision due to there being potentially dire consequences attached to it. I know, because I've been having correspondences with communities across Ontario who have gone through this process. 

No, this issue...is ours. 

Some may make the case that we're hardly in the middle of a fractious term at Council, that there have been no destiny-altering votes that have taken place because of imbalances in our ward representation, so it's hardly a desperate situation requiring attention. And they'd be right. So I don't think the reason ward boundary reform is so important is to prevent power struggles. Or even so much to right the representational wrong, though to me, it's indisputable that we have one.

I believe that it's important –I'm heartened– because over the next six-or-so months we could see genuine dialogue in Hamilton. 

Authentic discourse. 

Certified debate. 

We can safely, without fear of there being too much at stake to risk getting it wrong (as with the Pan Am Games stadium site-selection, or the West Harbour/Barton-Tiffany/Setting Sail situation) set the agenda, explore what it means to invest in an element of our city's makeup, actually participate to whatever extent that we have the initiative and motivation and energies to do so. For once, we don't find ourselves in a dramatic scenario, in a precarious position of someone else's making, one where we risk 'snatching defeat from the jaws of victory'. Because though there may be time-constraints and procedural requirements attached to the process, what unfolds here is almost entirely up to us. We, the people.

For some time now, I've been harping on about increased resident engagement. And people have generally responded with a weary nihilism, that things are just too set in stone for the kind of change I'm championing to happen, that it's almost impossible to effect, that the longstanding roles played aren't easily re-written. I've had it suggested to me that the HWDSB headquarters project has been the best possible proof of this. 

Maybe so. But that just makes me look at ward boundary reform with even more optimism. If for no other reason than it's such a rich opportunity to galvanize residents, to gather together and discuss something fundamental about our city, and actually impact things for a change. It's a chance to get experience at 'marshalling the troops', at gaining a better understanding of how the game must be played on our part in order for us to be viable players at the table. 

To me, no matter what tangible result we get out of the endeavour to re-draw boundaries, no matter how much more equitable our wards end up being, the potential growth in our confidence, in how we see ourselves within our own local governance may just be the most valuable possible outcome. 

M Adrian Brassington

A Call For Collaborators

Town Halls Hamilton is looking for some collaborators for an event in the not-too-distant-future: 

'Ward Boundaries: 

From There...to Here'

A presentation. 

A discussion. 

A seminar, an open-mic night...a chance to take a step back and look at ward boundaries from an historical perspective. 

A perspective-enlarger so that we can understand more thoroughly how we got to where we are, and how we might best move forward. 

It could also be an opportunity to discuss what ward-identity means in the 21st century, how much its relevance has changed, and how much value we should be placing on it, versus being a 'Hamiltonian'. 

The brunt of the collaboration would be research, tracking down documents and turning them into visual presentations, but promotion and production of the event would also be a part of the mix. 

So if this appeals, and you'd like to help produce the event, drop me a line at townhallshamilton@gmail.com

N.B. This is not part of the 'official process' that would be instituted by a successful result of the just-initiated petition campaign ('Hamiltonians for Ward Boundary Reform' on Facebook). This is an independent endeavour that quite frankly, would be proof-positive for the Province and the OMB that we're serious about making ward boundary re-drawing happen; more voices, more interest, more momentum.

M Adrian Brassington

With apologies for the graphical non-abilities...

Earlier I posted an editorial over at My Stoney Creek about changing our governance paradigm where it concerns feedback to councillors. The above is a visual representation I felt was worth posting here.

If it had only been possible...

I'd fully intended to have followed up on last November's inaugural town hall by now. Unfortunately, Life conspired to make that a challenge beyond my abilities...or resources. 

However, here's a list of topics/concerns/issues that absatively, posolutely would have been great themes for town halls over the first three months of this year:

-Hamilton-Wentworth District Board of Education relocation/Current building demolition

-Radial-separation bylaw

-Hamilton area school closings

-Garbage collection ferquency

-Peggygate 2

-AEGD

-Downtown supermarket/grocery store initiative

-Accountability and transparency issues

-Re-drawing ward boundaries

-Term-limits

-The role of neighbhourhood associations in redesigning Hamilton

-Talking about Ward 3