My great grandparents were born in Bihar, India. Another great man (likely around the same time) was born there by the name of Eric Arthur Blair. You likely know him by George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm and 1984.

I just read an essay written by him 64 years ago. Here’s an excerpt that I just had to share:

INDIFFERENCE TO REALITY. All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage–torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians–which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side.

Full text is here: http://www.george-orwell.org/Notes_on_Nationalism/0.html. It’s definitely worth reading.

For various reasons, details of which are not critical at this point, Halton is studying how to increase the population density in the region (in existing urban areas).

I’ve seen regions handle it really well and really poorly (and everything in between). For instance, Redmond severely restricts building heights (to 3 floors), and I hope Milton adopts a similar restriction. Bellevue has an amazingly well planned downtown core (not completely implemented yet). The residential areas are very walk-able, walking distance from movie theatres, restaurants, shopping, hotels etc. etc. etc. Not only that, but you get breathtaking views of the Cascades mountain ranges, as well as those of Seattle across Lake Washington. One place I don’t like is Mississauga. Specifically, I don’t like how Mississauga sometime gets tall residential buildings in the middle of otherwise low-density population areas.

Here is what I would like Milton to do :-

1. Restrict building heights outside of really high density areas (more on that later). I hate seeing stuff like this (notice some random buildings in otherwise low-density areas) :-

To my eyes they just look ugly. They are an eye sore. How can the town do it better? I offer you two places I liked like crazy :-

Medina: Every building there was exact same height (more or less) and sat at a same distance from the street. In fact, the frontage of each building was more or less same too :-

Notice how the ground level has a consistent design? Higher up each building had its own character. But due to the bottom floor design, you get something like this :-

These buildings all had stores at the ground floor, which gives walk-able shopping. Consistent layout gives a very aesthetically pleasing look. The pattern does break when it’s necessary to unblock views :-

The other place where I really enjoyed the layout was Munich, Germany. They also had walk-able streets with shopping at the ground floor :-

Notice they dont have gaps between buildings like in Medina, but buildings still have consistent heights.

If Milton does go with higher density areas, then this is what I’d like to see condos / apartments look like. I do not like single tall buildings that do not flow well with the area. Milton has an opportunity here to really define the character of its high density areas.

Milton Council approved new ward boundaries for the 2010 election to reflect the growth the town experience. Under the new boundaries, my home will fall under ‘Ward 8′, one with no representation under the current Council. Although people can run in any ward (meaning existing councillors can choose to run in Ward 8 even though they don’t live here), I hope new faces will show up. Nothing against current councillors (who overall have done a fair job), but many of them have been around for decades. It will be nice to see some new blood :-).

More details are right here: http://www.milton.ca/townhall/projects/wardreview/wardreview.htm