I love public meetings…

Even when I am not the person running them. 

I love the fact that people are passionate about things, take their time and come to represent their own ideas about how cities should be shaped.  Even when I think they’re wrong, I’m glad that they care.

I worked at my current post at the Brampton Downtown Development Corporation, where I am working at facilitating the BDDC and their evolving role with the City.  This project has a huge amount of potential to shape downtown Brampton.  This week was the Annual General Meeting and there was an election of a director that was contentious.  I participated at registering voters, and I can attest to the passion. 

Today, I went to the LRT meeting for the Hurontario Metrolinx project.  Again, people were passionate.  Hopefully after the meeting, people went away with a new realization that light rail could be hugely beneficial to their everyday experience of the city.  And I got to geek out a little…. 

Now that the AGM is done, I get to go back to what I really enjoy doing….  Policy review!  Governance!

Hopefully, people will be able to work together to take advantage of the huge potential to create something really interesting and unique in the GTA.  A small-scale, intimate downtown core in the middle of the 8th largest city in Canada.

Happy New Year!

I don’t usually pay much attention to horoscopes.  Or auras, or other things that are supposed to direct our lives in the cosmos.  But my horoscope (from the Globe and Mail) for the ‘year’ is kind of freaky.

VIRGO: Aug. 24 – Sept. 23

With this year’s major cosmic activity highlighting the career angle of your chart, changes to your working life are all but inevitable. Your need to be on the winning side can at times act as a red herring and it is important that your goals are based on more than an urge to score points. Besides, with unpredictable Uranus heavily influencing your horoscope in June and September, you may find yourself heading in a different direction, unless your goals are clearly defined. In the words of George Burns, “It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.”

Weird.  I love planning.

I moved to the Prairies for the Skiing.

So, what do I do with my time when I am not engaging in urban planning? Granted, I make planning jokes (sometimes, dirty ones – you can get a lot of mileage out of part lot control), and I go to lectures, and I read academic planning texts in my spare time, and I talk about planning and cities all the time, but really, what else do I do?

Well, other than baking my own bread, I joined the Ski Patrol.

Please laugh, it is funny, and really very time-consuming. Two nights a week for the entire fall to cover the first aid materials. And then there are the days on hill too!

But I like skiing, and hopefully it will make the winter pass quickly.

Fall in Saskatchewan

Despite the sudden cold snap in August, September was lovely. Dry and warm. Regina was finally the semi-arid place everyone had promised. Of course, it meant that I found out that I’m allergic to grain dust! Who knew that urban planning would be such an exciting career choice? Places to go, people to meet…
With the first hard frosts under our belts, it seems likely that this weekend will be a good one to pull out the winter gear as my portfolio moves into high gear!

It is a “GO!”

Finally! Purchasing has approved my Terms of Reference for a Comprehensive Housing Strategy! I am very excited about the potential of this project. I’m a little concerned that the timelines are very tight.

But at least we have much of the background work already done for the demographics and some of the land use parts. On to engagement! Research! Policy formulation! Huzzah!

Dog Days of Summer

Sirius is high in the sky at night and it is the “dog days” of summer.

As I had sort of expected there was some organizational shuffling with staff.  I now am in the “Office of the Director”.  I have my projects, which I find interesting and I now have new project approval.  So it seems possible that I will see out the end of my contract.  It was a bit dodgy there for a bit. Especially with the rain.

I never thought that I would quit over the weather, but it was close.

It rains a lot.  Hard.  Often.

Good thing I like thunderstorms!

“atmosphere” in Winnipeg

I know, Winnipeg.  In February.  There is so much cliche that is possible in that that we can’t possibly go there.

blue and red

dance party in a box

So instead I will tell the audience about the awesome time I had!  My manager and I went to the Atmosphere Conference hosted by the Faculty of Film and the Faculty of Architecture at University of Manitoba.  I was going to go because I was going to meet up with Doug Young and my friend Sarah.  Things did not go exactly as planned, so instead of staying with friends, I stayed in a hotel.  An awesome hotel that is attached to the most un-awesome piece of po-mo hideousness I have seen in a long time.  I think of it as a horror of proportions and rocco style in 2 parts.  It is attached to the lovely Fort Garry Hotel.  Google it. Hideous.

po-mo horror

whoa.

However, the conference was awesome.  It wasn’t expensive, I got to geek out and listen to great lectures on topics I have only cursory knowledge of and I got to think about planning and architecture in new ways.

For example, as a planner, I think about buildings from the outside.  I consider the impact of the building, visually and physically on the surrounding spaces.  I think about the use of that building as it contributes to the urban fabric.  Generally, I don’t think about what is inside.

Architects DO.  A lot.  Because the inside of the building and what the function of the building is influences what the outside form will be.  The inside defines the outside.  So they think about it from the other direction.

good stairwell

Interior shots

The other thing that was said, often, was that “architects are designing human spaces”.

And planners aren’t.  We design interactive spaces.  Places where people, social interactions, natural interactions and economic interactions take place.

Is it useful to think about these things?  Yes.  Was some of the stuff really on the edge of …  applicability?  Yes.  I don’t foresee a “community dance project” to illustrate the implementation of a housing plan any time soon….  but I won’t say it can’t happen.

It did illustrate to me what I miss about Toronto though.  I miss that kind of deep conversation about my field and related ones, the conversations with experts and academics that make me think about this stuff and question what I do methodologically, ethically, and in real practice of every day life.