Comment 71254

By Borrelli (registered) | Posted November 14, 2011 at 09:38:56

Yikes! I'm only seeing this a few days post-event, but as someone involved in putting it together, I have to say I'm not nearly as downbeat. Actually, I was pretty pleased with how things went.

Were there lessons to be learned? Absolutely, and I was sort of figuring that was 1/2 the point of this experiment: to test out a method of low-resource organizing and then work out the kinks. I had a 30min conversation with a lovely woman that started as a complaint about the lack of paid parking, but that morphed into a chat in which this woman, usually frustrated by the city's efforts at engagement, was complimenting Jason Farr's willingness to sit in front of a group of citizens and listen.

I think a decent method of rotating through questions was emerging near the end, and though some stricter rules or time-limits might help (sorry, a "two-part question" is still TWO questions :P), I think the Town Hall covered a remarkable number of topics in only 2 hours.

People were engaged, and they came back for more even when given a prime opportunity to escape at the intermission. And bonus: No pitchforks were brandished, and no torches were lit.

Though Adrian will have done this in person, thanks again to the Neighbourhood Associations, Stephanie Seagram, and Councilor Farr for their participation.

And from "behind the scenes", I would like to publicly thank volunteers Amy, Alessandra & Heather, who helped greet attendees, and the BNA, Homegrown Hamilton, and the Freeway Cafe for graciously providing food and drinks (as well as Mike from City Hall who saved my butt with pitchers of water).

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