{"id":21889,"date":"2018-10-12T14:30:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T18:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21889"},"modified":"2018-10-12T14:30:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T18:30:32","slug":"brocks-banter-identity-crisis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-identity-crisis-2\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Identity Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea of \u201cprecedent\u201d can be tricky.
\nOn the one hand, it provides a sturdy blueprint to lean back on when approaching an uncharted or unfamiliar situation. On the other hand, it can be a crutch for people who shy away from tackling issues in bold, new ways simply for the fact that that\u2019s just not how it has been done in the past.
\nIt never hurts to be a trailblazer. Well, it only hurts momentarily when you take that first step out of your comfort zone, but, more often than not, getting out of that rut yields results that are fresh, exciting, and potentially bear fruit for years to come.
\nClose to 15 years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a high-ish profile political event as an observer after the group in question took an unexpected drubbing at the ballot box.
\nThe purpose of the meeting was apparently to answer that age-old question, \u201cWhere did we go wrong?\u201d
\nIndeed, it was the question posed at the very start of the meeting and those in attendance, a crowd fairly evenly split along age lines, had no shortage of answers. Solutions, however, were met with resistance.
\nOne idea included reaching out to demographics that were, for some reason, seen as largely beyond the party\u2019s natural wheelhouse. Another suggested brainstorming some \u201coutside-the-box\u201d events and fundraisers to not only replenish their threadbare coffers but attract new supporters \u2013 and ultimately voters \u2013 who might have previously viewed the party as a stodgy relic whose Best Before date was sometime when Robert Stanfield was in the bloom of youth.
\nWithout fail, each and every one of these suggestions were tut-tutted by the majority of the crowd simply because it \u201cjust wasn\u2019t done.\u201d
\nOne woman even went so far as to say, \u201cI\u2019ve been involved in this for over 30 years, so I know what does and doesn\u2019t work.\u201d The irony of not knowing what did and didn\u2019t work got them into that mess in the first place was lost on her.
\nIt was a prime example of a community that was experiencing an identity crisis. It was an uncomfortable thing to observe, and I left the meeting with no further insight as to how they planned to pull themselves out of the doldrums. They eventually righted the ship \u2013 through some of the very suggestions shot down at that roundtable.
\nI feel that Aurora is, in some areas, experiencing something similar.
\nWe\u2019re in the height of election season, and once again some candidates \u2013 both new and seasoned \u2013 are trotting out the same chestnuts, including the well-worn: \u201cWe need to maintain Aurora\u2019s small-town feel.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s a nice sentiment, to be sure, but I don\u2019t think this sentiment necessarily reflects reality.
\nNo matter how you slice it, and regardless of whether you were pro or con at the time, the fact remains that thanks to rapid growth on the east side of Aurora, and infill developments taking place in the southern end of the municipality, Aurora is simply not a small town anymore.
\nMaintaining a \u201csmall town feel\u201d might be an ideal, but the fa\u00e7ade is getting harder and harder to maintain as time goes on.
\nSimilarly, Aurora\u2019s historic downtown core, a topic that has been a hallmark of each of the three municipal elections I have covered thus far, is once again a hot topic. Specifically, how can Aurora revitalize the area to be the \u201cmain street\u201d it once was.
\nGiven that this has been a hot topic for more than two decades, it might be safe to assume that no strides have been made. That is not the case, however, as the outgoing Council has made significant steps towards realizing revitalization, including the approval of new housing developments in the core, as well as spurring movement on Library Square which, in my view, is a key puzzle piece in solving the downtown conundrum.
\nBut, what I have not seen in this election campaign so far, is just what those individuals vying for your vote want the Main Street to be. A destination, sure, but a destination for what?
\nMayoral candidates last week were asked by the Aurora Chamber of Commerce whether they see the bustling Bayview Avenue corridor as Aurora\u2019s new Main Street. The answer across the board was an unequivocal no.
\n\u201cIt has a lot of commercial retail on it and I believe that all the zoning is complete,\u201d said John Abel. \u201cAs far as being the Main Street, my idea would be pedestrian walking, sort of what they have in Newmarket on their Main Street and what we\u2019re striving to have in our Yonge Street downtown core.\u201d
\nChris Ballard was clearer cut in his answer.
\n\u201cThere is only one Main Street in Aurora in my mind and that is the historic downtown core,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is our Main Street in the past and it should be our Main Street in the future. What we need to do, of course, is to stop talking about how we\u2019re going to revitalize the downtown core.\u201d
\nThe solution, he said, was \u201cvigorous\u201d implementation of the Promenade Plan.
\nGeoff Dawe also said he didn\u2019t see Bayview as a Main Street, but rather a busy commercial corridor to complement the historic main street.
\n\u201cWe have the big box approach on Bayview, the boutique store where people come destination shopping, a totally different look and feel,\u201d he said of Yonge. \u201cWe have the Library, the Cultural Centre, Town Park, and I think that is the area that we would have as our main downtown and we have been working very diligently to rebuild and revitalize that area.\u201d
\nTom Mrakas was of a similar view.
\n\u201cI think there is only one downtown, which is on our main street, along Yonge Street, and that is the area we need to revitalize and that we have been working towards revitalization,\u201d he said, noting the Library Square developments. \u201cIt is a good first step to where we are to achieve some goals of that revitalization that everyone has been talking about and I think that is how we\u2019re going to move forward and have that vibrant downtown.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s hard to argue the points of Mr. Dawe and Mr. Mrakas, but there is another missing piece of the puzzle. Revitalization is what everyone wants, and getting people into the core is a key component. Getting them to stay is another story.
\nA clear vision is needed for what Aurora wants its \u201cMain Street\u201d to be beyond bricks and mortar.
\nIt could be a culinary strip complete with bars, brew pubs, and establishments of more avant-garde fare that might feed off the Canadian Food & Wine Institute. Building on the successes of the nearby Aurora Public Library and Aurora Cultural Centre, it could be a hub for creativity with commercial art galleries, studios, bookshops, fashion (and there are a few already) and artisans like in Unionville.
\nThe possibilities are out there, and could, perhaps, be fostered by Council-driven incentives.
\nRevitalization is desperately needed, but it is time to put meat on those bones. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir The idea of \u201cprecedent\u201d can be tricky. On the one hand, it provides a sturdy blueprint to lean back on when approaching an uncharted or unfamiliar situation. On the other hand, it can be a crutch for people who shy away from tackling issues in bold, new ways simply for the fact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5H3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 05:03:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}