Last night’s council meeting was a marathon session that went past 11pm.  Bernadette Mason did an excellent presentation on traffic calming devices that I‘ve been talking about for years. You can see it here.

I actually wanted to talk about something else. 

I attend every Council, Planning Committee and Community Services Committee meeting, provided that I am not traveling.  For half of the meetings this year, I actually had to get baby sitters so I could attend.

In addition, I sit in the Transit Advisory Committee and Halton’s Inter-Municipal Committee on Sustainability. I attend both those meetings as well.  In addition, I’ve attended most public input sessions. 

Candidates should attend for following reasons:
1 – To learn. You don’t want to be a rookie councillor with no idea on how to handle the job
2 – To demonstrate that you care – If you cannot even bother to attend meetings when you are trying to impress voters, what expectations can they have from you when you are already elected?
3 – If you win, you’ll vote on issues that are discussed. If you haven’t been attending these meetings and did not participate in the debate, how will you vote?

A number of candidates have attended 0 meetings, 0 public info sessions and 0 open houses. I know my opponent hasn’t been to any meeting. I am not mentioning it as a ‘negative campaign’, I am saying it because I live in Ward 8 and would like to be represented by someone who actually cares about the community (even if it’s not me).  Someone who lives nowhere near ward 8 and is completely uninvolved isn’t the right choice.

Next four years are tricky for both Milton and ward 8.  The issue of education village will come up, construction in and around ward 8, further Tremaine expansion, Milton Heights neighbourhood that potentially has an impact on ward 8, hospital funding and expansion, library issue and so on. 

Vote, and vote carefully. 

This really belongs in Why My Hair Dont Grow No More.  Want to see why kids alone aren’t responsible for my hair loss? Well, read on.  Some days Murphy strikes hard and everything that can go wrong, goes wrong (and then some). 

I am about to leave for the Transit Open House today when I notice that my mother-in-law has parked her car behind mine, blocking my car in the garage.  I try to call my wife but she doesn’t answer.  Sadly, there’s no all-day transit on Scott Blvd so for a few minutes I think I can’t go. 

“No wait”, I tell myself, “I can walk to the hospital and take route-2”.  The hospital is 1.4kms from my house, not the end of the world. 

So I run to the basement and accidentally pick up the new map, one effective September 7th. I noticed that the bus was due soon, so I run to the hospital quickly.  Fortunately, I get there just as the bus pulls in and I catch the bus.  This is where the drama starts.

The bus goes somewhere else, not where I expected (of course, I looked in the new map).  So now I am stuck in the bus, $3 short (I did not have exact change), going further away from where I needed to be.  Well, the bus goes all around (old route is horrible) and takes me to the GO station.  I ask the driver and he tells me to take route-2 going the other way.

Foolish me, I expected route-2 to go west on Main, which would take me to my destination.   Oh no, that would be too easy. The bus starts to go back towards the hospital using same route it took to get to the GO station.  I patiently waited for 10 minutes and finally at Laurier and Ontario, I panic and get off.  The bus had retraced it steps and logic dictated that it would continue to do so, ending up at the hospital.

Logic would be wrong. 

Oh what do I see when I get off?  Instead of continuing on, the bus turns north on Ontario towards the Main St.  “Argh”, I go to pull my hair and realized I had already lost it. 

Now I am 40 minutes late, $3 short and steps away from where I got on the bus.  I hopelessly see the bus racing towards my destination as I contemplate what else could go wrong.

So I start another 1.5 km walk and finally arrive an hour late.  Did I mention I couldn’t run because I did not want to sweat?   I had to walk fast enough to get there quickly but not so fast that I would sweat. 

So there. My story of how I walked to the Senior Centre from home and still spent 30 minutes in the bus, getting a tour of Milton I really did not have time for. 

At least I made it to the open house in time to be yelled out (not literally) by four very nice ladies in their 80s about how the town doesn’t listen to them and doesn’t give them a proper transit system. 

Milton Transit will host four (yes, 4) Public Information Sessions to announce new transit routes and other changes:

Wednesday, August 18
• 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Milton Seniors’ Activity Centre
• 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Milton Sports Centre

Thursday, August 19
• 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Milton Public Library (Beaty Branch)
• 7:00 – 9:00 pm, Town Hall

I will be there for three of those sessions (fourth one conflicts with the Wind Turbine Public Open House). You can see new transit routes in the community map (warning: large file).  Hope to see you there.

I was shocked to hear that some people didn’t know about the street festival.  What?  Rock climbing, over 40 artists, pro wrestling, pirate ship … you mustn’t miss it! 

Oh and buses are free, so leave your car at home. Buses leave every 30 minutes.  More info: http://www.milton.ca/commserv/streetfestival/index.php.

Jennifer Smith, ward 2 candidate, just did a great post on her blog on Milton’s missing Traffic Calming policy.  She compared it to Caledon that has a written traffic calming manual (what a concept).  Her post is here, check it out.

Milton is launching the ‘Move More, Milton’ program tomorrow (June 1st) with a “Take it to the Trails” promotion.  You may find more details on http://www.movemoremilton.ca.  You may also want to print out the June activities calendar for a schedule of activities for the entire month. 

Unfortunately there’s no trail walks in Harrison or Scott neighbourhoods, so I will join people at one of the other Hawthorne village neighbourhoods. 

One of the items in tomorrow’s Committee of Adjustment meeting is an application from Derry Scott development (northwest plaza) to:

• Put 14 fewer parking spots than required
• Reduce the rear yard setback by 50% (building will be closer to homes)
• Bring parking area closer to buildings
• Put loading bay door facing the street without having to screen it (right now loading docks are not allowed to face the street, unless they are screened)
• No designated loading area for one of the buildings
• Increase allowed square footage

Basically they want to have more square footage with reduced parking and fewer urban design requirements.  Where do people park if there are not enough parking spaces?  Do people want to see loading bay doors from the street?  What about the minimum setback? 

We should be raising minimum requirements from commercial developers, not reducing them. 

(Shameless plug: this is why it is so important to have councillors from your own areas, precisely why Milton divided itself into different ‘wards’.  That way councillors have a vested interest in working for their own neighbourhoods.  I really do work for all of us, even though I am not in the Council yet).

All municipalities in Ontario must go through an Official Plan Review once every 5 years.  Milton is going through its review right now.  There is a public open house on April 28th and a special council public meeting on May 10th. 

You can find the official plan here.  If you have any comments then please bring them up. You can send them to me and I will present them on the 10th. You can also send written comments prior to May 14th directly to Angela Janzen, the senior planner at the Planning & Development Department.

I will create a summary of the official plan as well. If you would like me to send it to you then please e-mail me your contact information.  I would rather not post it here publically because even a summary of a 400+ pages document will be fairly large.  A little over 200 people regularly read this blog and I doubt they are all interested in reading the summary. 

Official Plans have a huge impact in shaping towns and cities. That in turn will have an impact on your property values. So there, you actually have a financial incentive :).

Back in the 17th century the French economy was at the brick of bankruptcy.  Instead of following convention, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the French minister of finance, came up with the idea of focusing on ultra-luxury goods to balance the trade.  That is the reason why so many ultra-luxury products are from France.

The lesson is that he came up with a unique solution to a problem most economies have gone through.  In the process, he gave his economy a unique character, distinct from all other economies around his. 

Milton today faces its own challenges of extreme growth and a quickly eroding identity.  Do we need our own Colbert to help Milton maintain and further enhance its unique identity even as it turns into a midsize city of 200,000+ people? 

As I knock on doors I have been pleasantly surprised by how many looks of recognition and words of support I get.  Someone actually thanked me for fixing an issue I did not fix.  “It wasn’t me”, I clarified.  “Oh”, he added, “they just came and fixed it so I thought you had something to do with it”. 

I am grateful for your support and am honoured to be a part of this community.  It’s more tight-knit than people realize.  I’ll take a break from meeting people and will hang out at different village squares with my kids.  If you see me then come say hi. 

[Aside: someone asked about my opponent. His name is Jeff Belo and he lives close to Thompson.  He doesn’t have a website as far as I can tell].

I was at the Town Hall for a meeting when I noticed a board for Parks Public Info session.  Design concepts will be there for these parks:

• Coates Neighbourhood Park South
• Harrison Neighbourhood Park
• Scott Neighbourhood Parks (both of them)
• Community Park
• Jaycee Trail (by Mill Pond)
• Brian Best Park

For those who don’t know, Harrison Neighbourhood Park and one of the Scott Neighbourhood Parks will include nice splash pads. They are loads of fun.  Oh and my kids enjoy them too.

Please visit this link for more information.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/785470–town-hall-revamp-reinvents-past-for-milton-s-future

He ends by saying (emphasis mine): “The town hall is an important reminder that the future of Ontario’s small towns does not require the destruction of the past. Indeed, history gives so many of these communities their appeal as well as their identity. When everything looks and feels the same, it makes no difference where you are. But as Milton reminds us, not all towns are born equal. And not all die equal”.

And that is the reason why I’ve been a broken record on the need of have stricter urban design requirements and site controls. 

Imagine if Apple just let smart and capable developers write different parts of iPhone independently. It’d have a horrible collection of well designed software applications.  iPhone is popular because it’s good. It’s good because Apple controlled the experience (and still does). 

Old Quebec is one of my favourite places to visit in Canada.  It’s nearly perfect.  It was also no fluke. At the end of the 19th century people wanted to demolish the fortifications.  Governor Dufferin, showing foresight, successfully managed to preserve the character of the walled city.  He actually went further and made sure that expansions enhanced Quebec City’s charm.  I’ve written about it before. 

Leavenworth, Washington nearly died out until the 1960s when they decided to convert themselves into a (mock) Bavarian village.  I’ve visited it a number of times and you really do feel like you’ve entered a historic Bavarian village even though buildings merely have facades on them.  Solvang, California turned itself into a traditional Danish town and Winthrop, Washington (impressed with Leavenworth) adopted the American Old West theme. 

18th century development in Europe was specifically designed to appear attractive with aesthetics in mind. Just look at Beth, England.

Each of these stories has a theme.  In each case it was planners who started with a vision of what they wanted to see in their product or town. I’ve given my uncensored random thoughts on Milton’s urban planning.

What’s Milton’s vision? Where is Milton headed?  What would you like to see Milton transform into?  Milton only has two options: accept that its residents will enjoy a lower property value than people in Mississauga and Oakville; or give itself a unique character. 

Should Milton leave it to chance? 

I am afraid Milton is slowly turning into a carbon copy of the sprawl to our East.  Is that what we want?

In order for Milton to be unique, we really need to come up with a vision and then implement it. Councillor Mowbray keeps bringing it up, calling it “urban design regulations”. 

Call it what you like, but a collection of perfectly laid out subdivisions can still turn into an ugly sprawl.  I would like to see Milton turn itself into a sought-after community people pay a premium to move to.  That requires planning.