Comment 120414

By Haveacow (registered) | Posted November 07, 2016 at 09:55:50

I had a surprisingly wonderful chat with two former Ottawa councilors, 1 suburban, 1 urban, this past weekend at a birthday party of one my daughter's school friends. What was interesting was that, when you talk with them as people, they were both equally funny, charming and a real pleasure to talk with, especially at a birthday party full of 9-10 year old girls. An experience that in itself I recommended you don't take on alone, nor is it recommended for the faint of heart.

The former urban councilor interestingly enough was not a big LRT fan and pretty much thought of it as a necessary evil here in Ottawa. The former suburban councilor lamented and admitted to me that, the rush back to the core of the city due gentrification and the changing tastes and needs of the Gen X and Millennial generations has meant many of the older inner suburbs of Ottawa and many other cities (his former constituency) were quickly degrading into the slums of the future. I said to him that, the inner suburbs of Ottawa were nor that bad and they will probably end up changing and or gentrifying at some future date. Just like every community, everything changes over time.

I mentioned the fight in Hamilton over LRT and urban/suburban-rural divide of their council. "It doesn't surprise me", said the former suburban councilor. He followed with, "these young guys see older downtown neighborhoods growing here and in many cities. Growing both with new residential and commercial development at a tremendous rate, yet still, very little activity occurs in their suburban wards. On top of that, the young well to do families aren't coming into these wards anymore, the areas are growing relatively poorer and older".

Both agreed that many of these firebrand suburban councilors that, frustrate the hell out of the urban folk are that way because they are running scared from reality. That under their watch, their wards are loosing influence, collapsing economically and far fewer young families with money want to move there to regrow the area. "Its not a legacy they want under their name! So they try to kill anything the downtown gets or wants unless they get it as well."

They both recommended to try and get the suburban councilors on side by pushing for the construction of the A Line LRT or further extensions of the B Line past Eastgate. If they, the suburban councilors go for it then everyone wins if they still don't want it, hey, you offered your groups help and support. Both of them also agreed that, once the first segment of LRT is up and running relatively well and trouble free, you will probably see a fundamental change in the attitude of many suburban Hamilton councilors around LRT and maybe even complete streets as well!

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