Some people have misinterpreted my posts suggesting improvements as a proof that I don’t like this Town.  Quite the contrary actually.  As I have said before: “Basically I could have lived anywhere since I knew I was going to work from home. Following the highschool dream, I did not even consider another city and bought a house in Milton when I was still in Washington, DC.”

Here are just few of many things that sets Milton apart in a very positive way :-

• Social Life:
  Milton has a lot of festivals and events.  From Farmer’s Market to the Street Festival to Steam Era to the Demolition Derby, there is something for everyone to do. 
• Character:
  Ever noticed how street lights in residential neighbourhood is different from what GTA cities East of Milton have?  Sure, street lights on commuter roads could be unique too, but overall Milton still feels different. Many parts of Milton still have a small-town feel to them.  When I talk about coming up with an urban plan that maintains and enhances this ‘small town’ feeling, I am implicitly acknowledging that this charm exists today.
• Approachable Politicians:
  Not all cities have councillors that are as approachable as Milton’s.  Milton Canadian Champion reported in 2006 that Mayor Krantz and Councillor Jan Mowbray did not miss a single meeting. Not one.  Okay so there are town councillors who seem out of it, but other councillors make up for that.
• Staff:
  I’ve never dealt with staff in other Canadian cities, but the ones in Milton are nothing but helpful. 
• Parks:
  Notice how new subdivisions are littered with ‘village squares’?  I can walk to three (yes, three) village squares with my 2-year old (probably more if I walk with my older kids).  On top of that there will be a neighbourhood park right behind my house.  This abundance of parks goes a long way in enhancing the quality of life for us Miltonians.  Other places save cost and effort and fewer and larger parks that require driving to them. 
• Forward-looking Staff / Council:
  Okay, so for all the criticism given to the Council, lets give them some credit too.  Milton Education Village is a great idea.  The Research Park there to attract high-tech Research & Development companies is a great idea.  Milton cannot help the fact that it was a tiny town of 30,000 people just 8 years ago.  But it is doing many things to attract high-quality employers as it turns into a mid-size city.  It can do more, a lot more, but still. 
• Proximity to 401 and other GTA cities:
  Well, this isn’t something Milton worked to achieve but it does help make Milton a liveable town. 
• Nature:
  Escarpment!  We are right next to it.  The “socially liberal” in me would like to see the entire town of Milton look and feel like an ‘Escarpment Community’, and would like to see the cost of annual pass (great deal by the way) reduced for low-income residents so they could enjoy it too. 
• Farms:
  No matter where you are in Milton, you are likely only a 5-minute drive away from farmland.  It gives Milton this nice (and fresh) country feeling. 
• People:
  There’s something about this place. May be it’s the fact that the town attracts younger and highly educated people, may be it’s the festivals and other social gatherings the Town helps organize, may be it’s an abundance of small parks where parents bond as their children play, may be it’s just the air … but people are friendlier here.  Sure, there are bad drivers and odd rude people around, but overall neighbourhoods feel like neighbourhoods.

So there.  This isn’t a comprehensive list. Rather, this is just a small set of many reasons that make Milton a great town to live in.  Sure it is going through growth pains, but it still aint bad.  I tell everyone I know to move here.  Heck I’ve been trying to convince my parents to sell their house in Mississauga and move to Milton instead (but they don’t want to give up their large driveway).  

My letter published on Aug 28th, 2009 on the Milton Canadian Champion:

DEAR EDITOR:

On August 13 our children came down with a really high fever.

It was already late, so we took them to Milton District Hospital. We ended up taking two cars so one parent could come back with a child if the other took longer to get discharged.

It was my first trip to the Milton hospital. Imagine my shock when after many hours of waiting we were handed a $28 bill for parking.

This was in the middle of the night when the entire parking lot was empty. Talk about shamelessly adding insult to injury.

Charging people for parking for emergency treatment makes no sense. First, if it is an emergency then patients do not have an option to forego treatment. There should not be a fee in place that discourages people from getting proper medical care that they require.

Secondly, in an emergency people do not have an option to take a bus or ride a bike to the hospital. They almost always have to drive in a town like Milton.

Thirdly, thanks to the pathetic nature of our wait times, patients cannot control how long they spend at the hospital. My wife was ready to leave with the kids many hours before we were actually discharged.

It’s also highly unfair for poorer patients who now have to deal with the stress of their parking charges going up as they wait to see a doctor.

Finally, I thought medical treatment was supposed to be free in Canada. It may make sense to charge for parking for non-emergency treatments to encourage alternate means of transportation, including carpooling.

But charging for parking for emergency trips is actually charging to be seen by the doctor, since at that point the patient likely has no other choice.

In my opinion this is nothing more than penalizing people for requiring emergency care. How does charging this much money in such a small town in the middle of the night for a medical emergency make sense? I can park in downtown Toronto during rush hour for less money.

I know that Ontario’s Ministry of Health does not provide funding for hospital parking lots, leaving it up to the hospital or local community.

However, as a community have we really decided that it is compassionate or fair to charge people rushing to the hospital for emergency care?

I wonder if this type of charge will encourage poorer patients to forego emergency visits altogether, resulting in their conditions getting worse. That may require an ambulance trip which actually costs many times more.

I can’t think of a single good reason for charging emergency room patients for parking.

ZEESHAN HAMID, MILTON

I got a few comments on this.  One was about being grateful that I was able to get quality care for my children (no comment on that. I have sent my complaint to the hospital on the poor care we received).  Second was about money raised from the parking charge going to a good cause.

Neither of these make good arguments (consult my posts on logic and arguments :)). The rebuttal is that the parking charge is for parking, not receiving care.  So that point is moot.  Besides, parking charge does not go into the operational cost of the hospital, which is paid by OHIP anyway.  About the second point, with that argument I should be able to charge people for entering 401 to raise money for a homeless shelter.  Afterall, who would disagree with a homeless shelter?

Here is the scenario: some of our roads are wide (some have 4-6 lanes … like Steeles, Derry, Thompson etc) while others are just wide (like Scott Blvd, even though South of Derry it is not a through street and ends pretty soon). I personally would like to see a median down the middle with trees.

I worked in Washington, DC for two years and they (and MD touching it) does that where almost every road has a median with multiple rows of trees (in Gaithersburg, MD near my friend’s house they have three rows of trees in the middle median!) I blogged about it here: http://www.zhamid.ca/opinion/update-from-dc-holy-trees/.

The advantages are greater than just fresh air and a more pleasing look or higher property values that result from a nicer area. Trees in wider roads also create a perception of narrowness without actually creating narrow roads. This has been known to cut down on speeding.

I spoke with a few town councillors and staff and they told me that the town does not want to increase its standards because it is worried about the operating cost (understandable, although I would say Milton should look like an Escarpment Community that it is).

Here is a solution: let businesses or residents sponsor trees that are above and beyond the town standard.

So lets say the town puts up a median on Scott Blvd and Mattamy sponsors 10 trees on it. It gets to put a sign saying "sponsored by Mattamy" or something like that. Residents in areas may be able to do the same. I can totally see local churches or non-profits sponsoring chunk of trees, at least around their neighbourhoods.

This cannot happen unless the town provides a mean to enable this. The town will have to designate areas where extra trees can go. Places where it’s “nice to have trees but Town Standard does not require one”.

Would you support this?

Update I learned that Oakville has a similar program for flower beds and stuff: http://www.oakville.ca/oakvilleblooms.htm. Can Milton not do something similar for trees? From Oakville Bloom site:

Oakville Blooms – Median and Boulevard Sponsorship Program

The Oakville Blooms Median and Boulevard Sponsorship program offers civic minded businesses, groups, individuals and organizations an opportunity to help Oakville attain its vision of becoming the most livable town in Canada. The program transforms medians and boulevards into vibrant and impressive floral displays.
From May to September each year, medians and boulevards throughout Oakville are planted with annual flowers grown in the Oakville Greenhouse. Plant materials are selected for their brilliant colours and variety in texture, and their tolerance to adverse roadway conditions. All of the boulevards are designed, planted and maintained by Town horticulture specialists.

To offset the costs of planting and maintaining these floral displays, Oakville is launching this innovative program whereby private citizens, businesses and organizations can contribute funds by sponsoring specific locations throughout the Town.

For more information:
Please see the links in the table below or call 905-845-6601, ext. 3610 for details about sponsor benefits, how the program works, rates and locations.

Sponsorship applications:
Applications are now being accepted at the Recreation and Culture Department at Town Hall, 1225 Trafalgar Road. Every effort will be made to accommodate sponsor’s first choice in floral display location, however, selection is on a first come, first served basis. Date and time of receipt of payment will determine queue order for sponsorship applications. In-person applications will take priority over electronic

It seems like they identified different medians, they maintain them and publish rates for sponsoring these medians. Interested businesses just pay money and magic happens. Seems like a wonderful approach.

With the CN Rail petition thing I started thinking, Milton seems really under-represented in the Halton Council. 

Milton’s population growth between 1996 and 2001:

  
Source: http://www.halton.ca/PPW/Roads/PDFs/MasterPlan_FinalReport.pdf

With this chart Milton’s share of Regional Councillors make sense.  But it’s not 2001, it’s 2009.  Lets see a forward looking estimate:

Population growth estimate until 2021:

  
Source: http://www.halton.ca/PPW/Roads/PDFs/MasterPlan_FinalReport.pdf

Explosive growth means Milton has far more infrastructure needs than rest of Halton does.  The most recent census (as of mid-summer 2008) puts Milton’s population at 72,500. 

Take a look at the growth forecast until 2021:

This table estimates that Milton will hit 82,700 by 2011.  Considering Milton had 72,500 people a year ago, I am willing to bet that Milton will have 80,000 people before 2009 is over.  Heck at this rate Milton may have closer to 100,000 people by 2011, instead of the original just over 80,000 forecast.  So if anything then population growth forecast underestimated Milton’s growth.  However, for the purpose of this post we will stick with forecasted numbers.

This table shows that in 2021 Milton will have a much larger proportion of Halton’s population, twice as many people as Halton Hills and not too far below Burlington.  Right now the Halton Regional Council has 20 people (not including the chair), only 3 of them from Milton.  If we are to hold Burlington at 7 councillors and Halton Hills at 3 (to maintain their current levels), then the Halton Council will need to re-adjust its size to 25. It will need to change Oakville’s seats to 9 (giving it two extra) and Milton’s to 6 (giving it three extra). 

Hey what do you know, that will give Milton a chance to think about full-time councillors too (something I argued against doing until Milton has more representation in the Regional Council).  Essentially Milton may be able to work with 5 full-time Councillors + a Mayor instead of 10 part-time Councillors + a Mayor. 

It’s too late to do this for the next 2010 election, but 2014 will be here before we know it.  This is something Milton should really push hard for.  Considering Oakville gets extra seats too, this should be doable. 

That is the only way to get a fair deal from the Halton Region.

I caved in to the popular demand and published the names of people who sign the petition (now it’s like every other petition.  It still allows one to send e-mail).  I had to strip out about 10 names since those people did not provide their street names (or just made up street names).  If you sign the petition then please provide a real street name (no need for a number, I strip them out automatically anyway).

[Update: someone just told me that there is still a name on the list where the street says “old milton”.  I will remove that name from the list as well].

I am watching out for your privacy.  The form automatically strips out all personal information, including the street number (which you don’t have to provide in the first place.  Just the street name is sufficient).  I also double-check the result a few times a day to make sure no personal information slips through. 

Also, Milton Canadian Champion covered the petition in their article.  You can read that here:

Resident starts petition to speed up underpass
Fears trains will impede ambulances from responding to now highly-populated area
By Tim Foran, Canadian Champion Staff
Aug 19, 2009

A noted Milton blogger and resident of the Hawthorne Village Escarpment subdivision in west Milton has started an on-line petition asking regional council to speed up the timing of construction of an underpass along Derry Road at the CN railway tracks.

“I didn’t just start it (the petition) because it (the train) is annoying, which it is,” said Zeeshan Hamid. “This area is cut off.”

Currently, traffic backs up along Derry when a freight train is passing on the CN Halton line, which sees close to 20 trains a day running between Burlington and Vaughan, according to CN.

The Region’s current capital budget forecast doesn’t envision building the $17 million underpass at that location until 2016-17, though that timing will be reviewed within the next year, according to Regional staff.

Hamid said he’s concerned about trains blocking ambulances from accessing the thousands of homes that are filling up the new neighbourhoods west of the railway tracks.

Cars heading west on Derry that see a train passing by are also now speeding north up Scott Boulevard to get to Main Street, where there already exists a two-lane underpass, said Hamid.

“I don’t know if Scott was set up for that, especially with a new school opening up (on Scott).”

… [You can read the rest of the article directly on the Milton Canadian Champion website]

Have you signed it yet? 

This is a follow-up to the Social Networking and Milton post. I should clarify some differences between the old way of doing things and the new way of doing things.

Back in the day (1990s) companies (and municipalities) set up websites to broadcast information to their customers (and residents).  Essentially people got same information they would have gotten in pre-web days, except now the information was online instead of in print.  It worked, but there were issues with it.  Mostly, it worked for the generation that was used to getting information via advertisement on TV, radio and print.  The system broke when a more online-savvy population came of age.  And then came Web 2.0 and social networking. 

Most municipalities still have old-school websites.  They maintain monologues instead of encouraging dialogues.  The new web is about sharing information instead of presenting information. It is about being vibrant, agile and user-driven, rather than being organized and presenter driven. 

Milton today has more Gen Y-ers than baby boomers, and its average age continues to go down fast as more and more young families move into the town.  These people spend > 16 hours / week online with 96% of them active on at least one social networking site.  Clearly public input sessions on a Monday night at 7:30pm sharp at a physical location is not the ideal forum to attract these residents.  Heck many of these residents are not even used to live broadcast TV.  These Tivo and DVR users are used to getting information  according to their own schedule.  Expecting them to change their behaviour is futile. 

Milton needs to get pro-active about figuring out how to engage its residents in problem-solving.  It can start small and go from there.  It can start with a simple thing like an official town blog where Council members and the Mayor take turns blogging, with a comment section where residents can respond and have a public conversation with each other. 

Seriously, when the staff recommends 9% tax increase, would it not be nice to know what different Councillors are thinking and doing about it?  Not just rhetoric, but actual detailed thoughts and deep conversations online?  Would it not be nice to go to the blog during elections and see what Councillors said throughout the year (not just during the election time)? 

Lets give credit where its due: Milton.ca website is not half bad.  It actually makes it fairly easy to find information. However, it only works for people who seek information.  Same goes for giving input. If I am the type of person who would physically show up at the Town Hall and leave a written feedback in a public input session, then milton.ca makes my life easier by allowing me to view documents online instead.  But if attendance at public sessions is any indication, clearly people like me are in extreme minority.

Information published on the website flows in one direction.  It’s a “pull” mechanism.  If I need info, I can “pull” it down from the website.  But how does Milton “push” information down to me, so I always stay updated?   The answer: social networking.

Think about it, why can the Town of Milton not have a twitter account where it publishes tweets with announcements?  Why can it not be on facebook?  These tools can be used to connect to Miltonians who do not have the time or energy to physically show up at public input sessions?  Why are almost all Milton blogs published by residents like myself?  Could the ‘Council’ have a blog where the Mayor and different Councillors take turns writing a weekly post?  I set up such a blog for my organisation in my ‘younger’ days.  I don’t see why same will not work for the Council as well.  Heck if they are interested they can just ping me and I will set one up for them). 

When Halton did its Places To Grow public input sessions, I was expecting a lot more people to show up. Then I started thinking, how many people knew about it?  Probably only people who were interested enough to constantly check if such sessions were held.  Would it not be better if everyone who goes online (and had registered for an update) got a tweet or a facebook status update about the input session with all documents online?  People could see the presentation at their leisure and give feedback either privately (via e-mail) or publically where others could comment on it.  Sort of a public brain-storming session! 

There is still value in good old fashion public meetings where some people present information to the larger public. However, the value is not nearly enough. Times have changed.  People are much busier and have much more demand on their times.  A stronger online presence will complement these meetings well. This is especially true in a dynamic and diverse town like Milton.  I share my street with software developers, engineers, cops, teachers, preachers, home-makers, designers and so on.  Honestly, the town is missing out by not doing everything it can to engage such a diverse crowd in planning. 

I am traveling this week and have been working insane hours (9am to midnight).  For that reason I haven’t been able to take pictures yet.  I do want to write about an area that I am very passionate about: TREES!

I am in a very urban area.  However, it’s bombarded with trees.  I came to a friend’s house for dinner at Gaithersburg, MD (and right after dinner we both grabbed our laptops and started working).  His neighbourhood street is very much like Savoline Blvd in HVE.  However, it does have a median down the middle and – wait for it – with at least two rows of trees (in some places the middle median has three rows of trees).  On one side of the Savoline-lookalike-street they have one row of trees and on the other side they have two rows, on either side of the sidewalk. 

I was discussing this with him when we were driving and we noticed something else: 1) they put plazas further back from connector roads (like Derry Road), creating a very open feel and 2) even plaza parking lots have trees.  I remembered I was at the Canadian Tire in Milton last weekend and the entire parking lot was just a concrete park.  I wonder if the town should have required x number of trees for every acre of concrete parking lot.  The cost to the builder would be negligible but benefits in terms of beautification and clean air would be great. 

I e-mailed town staff about trees on HVE last week and they told me that the builder met the standard set out by the town.  Well, the standard is very adequate then. 

From my work in Washington, DC I see two rows of trees on either side (with sidewalk between them) and rows of trees in the middle of the road.  The area is old and so trees have gotten a chance to grow really tall.  As a result, I hardly see any roof or road.  Only tree-tops. If you walk off to one end you enter residential areas where the road has green roof (from tall trees to both sides) on top of them. 

That’s what we need in the Escarpment Community we call Milton. When I see the town from high altitude I only want to see tree tops (30 years from now).  Milton should officially adopt a slogan: “Milton, the Escarpment Community”.  I think that will encourage us to adopt a plan that makes it look like an escarpment community. 

Here in Gaithersburg the whole area (and we drove around looking at the area) is full of townhomes.  Some of them are close to a million dollars while others ‘only’ (for this area) cost $300K.  Most detached homes are older. However, what’s common is that despite a very high population density there is not a single building that I could see away from the freeway.  We went to get chicken wings fairly far and I did not pass a single building.  I spent the entire drive in awe of how many trees they planted here.  In fact, I could not find a single place where I could point at and say “they missed this spot”.  THAT is what we need in Milton. 

Thirty years from now if someone hikes up on one of our several parks at the Escarpment and looks down at Milton, they should not see roofs and parking lots and roads, they should see tree tops.  We need to do whatever it takes to do that.  With the type of population density the Town is aiming for in new development, that should be fairly easy to do.

Think about Scott Blvd and Savoline.  Just South of Derry Mattamy alone would have build close to 3,000 homes by the time they are done next year.  That doesn’t include development North of Derry and what other builders will do south of Mattamy’s HVE.  Think about it.  I am asking for perhaps only 100 extra trees on Scott Blvd and Savoline (if that).  These trees do not need much care beyond the initial few seasons.  I do not think the operating cost for these can possibly be so high to be even noticeable since it will be shared by thousands of homes.

Trees do not just provide us with a natural beauty to look at, they also provide fresh air (as we squeeze in more and more people in small areas, cleaner air is more and more needed).  They are known to de-stress people.  But more practically, trees create an illusion of narrower roads and have been known to cut down on speeding.  People who live close to Savoline or Scott routinely witness speeding cars. I believe a raised median with trees on these roads will create an illusion of narrower roads, which will cut down on speeding (regardless of the speed limit, people travel at speeds they feel most comfortable driving at.  Narrower roads make them drive slower.  Illusion of narrower road achieves the same affect without the actual risk narrower roads bring).

So who is with me on getting the town to raise its standards? 

Back in May the Town of Collingwood decided to continue the at-large system where councillors run in the entire town, instead of just their wards.  In addition, they also decided to demolish historic wards. 

Let me first explain what a ward is. A ward system divides a municipality into sections (called wards, obviously).  Councillors are elected by residents in their wards.  The at-large system sees councillors elected by all voters.  At-large systems are an exception for councillors.  For Collingwood residents it means that each resident will vote for 7 Councillors, 1 Mayor and 1 Deputee Mayor.  That’s an awful lot of votes to cast in a single election :). 

This got me thinking … what makes a ward system better than an at-large system.  Here are my thoughts :

• Every area of the town / region deserves representation.  Without wards a single segment of town population, a special interest group or a densely populated part of town may be able to elect all councillors, leaving others with no representation.  In case of Milton it means that all candidates could just appeal to residents of Hawthorne Village and nearby (new) communities, and completely ignore older parts of town
• Running in a ward makes councillors more accountable to neighbourhood voters.  Imagine if all Councillors came from the same part of town
• That leads to this point: the ward system prevents (or at least greatly minimizes) the undesirable possibility of having all councillors come from the same area of town
• Wards can represent the diversity of the town (old Milton vs. rural Milton vs. new Milton.  Farmers vs. commutors), allowing each ward to elect its own representative.  Without it a homogenous group of councillors can be elected to represent an otherwise heterogeneous town
• Wards make it much simpler to judge candidates.  Imagine having to select 7 councillors out of 20 candidates, instead of 1 out of 3. 
• Election debates are unworkable in an at-large system
• Citizens who need help know exactly who to contact and can hold them directly accountable at election time.  This is one reason why I did not even like how Milton picked two Councillors from each ward.  I like one ‘butt-in-line’
• Printing election materials and lawn signs for the entire town is cost prohibitive, not to mention highly confusing (imagine if you had to cast 11 votes)
• Your councillor likely lives, drives, walks, and shops in your neighborhood. This gives councillors a better understanding of neighbourhood issues and allows them to be proactive in dealing with neighbourhood problems
• Wards allow new blood to enter the race.  Incumbents often have a lot of advantage, having gotten a lot of name recognition during their tenure.  At-large system penalizes new-comers who often do not have the resources to market themselves town-wide