{"id":7359,"date":"2014-07-09T23:09:50","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T03:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7359"},"modified":"2014-07-17T01:05:15","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T05:05:15","slug":"inside-aurora-kickstarting-discussion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-kickstarting-discussion\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Kickstarting Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that the provincial election is over, everyone\u2019s attention in Town is now focused directly on the upcoming municipal election.
\nIt\u2019s all people are talking about.
\nRight?
\nAnyone?
\nHello?
\nOkay, so there\u2019s a lot of apathy out there, which is the problem we now face.
\nThere are important decisions to be made over the next few years, so it\u2019s vital that people be actively engaged in the election.
\nBut no one\u2019s really interested.
\nThere are a few reasons for this. After the provincial campaign, folks are kind of electioned out. As for the eventual municipal candidates, many have suggested a similar lack of enthusiasm by not yet throwing their hats in the ring, despite having had a number of months to decide.
\nAlso, it\u2019s summer, and everyone\u2019s trying to enjoy the nice weather while they can.
\nBut one of the big reasons for the general municipal election apathy is the less than inspiring issues, such as:<\/p>\n

Councillors getting along and working together… we hear that every four years.
\nReducing taxes … everyone knows they can only go up.
\nAdopting a ward system … but only if 25% more people vote than ever before, and most vote in favour, and a bunch of other required things that will never happen.
\nReducing the number of councillors\u2026. again, not gonna happen.<\/p>\n

No, if people are going to get up from their comfy summer hammocks and pay attention, the municipal election needs to be kick-started with a big issue to get people talking. Something local. Something new.<\/p>\n

Here are a few ideas.<\/p>\n

The Chamber of Commerce needs a new venue for the Home Show, and Town properties are going unused, so how about converting Petch House into a Convention Centre? Despite all the money that\u2019s gone into it, it\u2019s still completely unusable without yet another cash infusion, so why not go all out?
\nWe all love the mural at Yonge and Wellington, but the Canadian achievements theme has been up for a long time. Maybe it\u2019s time for a refresh. So what will it be; a salute to the coaches and volunteers that work with the Town\u2019s kids, famous moments in Council history, or something else? Let the discussions begin.
\nWe\u2019ve been told that $15 billion in provincial funding is coming to the GTA for transit, so how about some of it being directed to Aurora? A subway under Wellington would fit the bill. It would get the Region off the hook for addressing the traffic chaos at Yonge, and while they\u2019re at it, they could put in a few much-needed trail connections under Wellington.
\nI don\u2019t know the figures, but I expect more than half of all the yard waste residents put out every two weeks consists of weeds. Perhaps it\u2019s time to finally just give up and embrace the enemy, by designating Aurora as the \u201cDandelion Capital of Canada\u201d.
\nDespite initial discussions, the Fab Lab idea has not gotten any traction, so how about a push to get it going and at the same time revitalize the downtown core by building the world\u2019s largest particle accelerator under Library Square? While they\u2019re digging, maybe they could throw in a few extra underground parking spots, too.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying these ideas are necessarily our first priorities, financially viable, or even realistically achievable, but at least it would spark some interesting debates.
\nAnd once people are engaged, maybe a sidebar discussion could begin on something we do need to talk about in Aurora, like planning or infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Feel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com
\n<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston Now that the provincial election is over, everyone\u2019s attention in Town is now focused directly on the upcoming municipal election. It\u2019s all people are talking about. Right? Anyone? Hello? Okay, so there\u2019s a lot of apathy out there, which is the problem we now face. There are important decisions to be made […]<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1UH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 11:56:50","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\/7359","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=7359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}