Does anyone else feel like time is speeding up? Maybe it’s Elon controlling my brain but it’s been quite a week again and I remember when the days seemed longer. Welcome to another step towards the heat death of the mysterious universe we call London, Ontario, where June finally said yes to Johnny1, and we’ll meet again, don’t know where don’t know when.
The idea is to equip all of you - our community’s leaders - with the information I believe you need as engaged citizens. That’s the journalism: information curation; local, trustworthy, authentic, and always led by the public interest.
It’s long - skim it
There is no expectation that you should read everything. Instead, please enjoy a briefing that may or may not be relevant and lets you dip in, as much as you feel the need2. In doing this, we become better, together, because education is everything3.
First, that massive Full Council meeting
You know this one. Head to my post from Wednesday for your guide to:
Approval of Ridout Street’s 30-storey tower;
Taking a new look at parking standards - driveways could get wider;
Councillor cleared by Integrity Commissioner;
Paying an outstanding cleanup bill in OEV;
And at least eight other things, no kidding folks, oh meh goad.
The Lightning Round
GET STRUCK4! Here are some stories that caught my eye this week.
School bus crashes. Hey, ever feel tempted to overtake the school bus? Please don’t. How can there be 23 incidents in southwestern Ontario? These buses are not hard to spot.
Also in road safety issues, there was this double-fatal. Grim stuff. My heart goes out to their loved ones.
Our old pal Daryl Newcombe has this exclusive about drug-dealing and similar issues at a local housing co-op.
Are you following the woes of East Lions Community Centre? What went wrong here?
In education, changes to OSAP will cost students more in the long run. Here’s some local reaction. It’s a particularly bad time to be poor.
Housing sales are down 19%.
It’s always a thrill to see a new ep of Steve Cordes’ video blog, and here’s one close to my heart: mission, vision, values. You can find a note about my own values at the very end of this post.
We still have no clarity on what those people were doing near Western University. Latest on the explosives investigation is here.
And Kendra Seguin at CBC did a good job with this story about London being a city of music and having a “music hub”. We’ll look forward to more on this from the City.
Buy local
Local sports by local folks: Gameday London.
Local business roundup from a local business: London Inc.
Follow Cedric Richards for tales from our neighbourhoods.
And Larry Cornies does an audio blog that’s like the best of 20th-century radio came back, just for us.
Just a single ping
This is how you gain attention at our councillors’ offices at City Hall. Somehow, I only did it once. If nobody else had been there, I might never have stopped5.
But wait - there’s even more
Usually at this point I’d sign off with a pithy remark but wait - what is that? Why, it’s next week’s committee papers dropping early enough for several councillors to work with the media on stories this week. Funny how that goes.
So we have:
Rats in the streets now
Councillor Hadleigh McAlister is cleaning up London’s rat problem6, though at least one local person says the City caused the problem by moving to biweekly garbage collection7. This one’s dramatic! Prepare for gross stuff.
CTV London: “They’re chewing through walls!” (That’s the actual headline.)
CBC London: Rat sightings on Hamilton Road. I love Neo Tokyo. Great store.
Affordable housing
So far it’s just this LFP report ahead of the Planning and Environment Committee next week. That’s about an apartment complex on Hyde Park Road.
The same agenda shows a number of other housing stories, including the latest on the Unity Project’s plans for a new facility, changes in various spots to allow higher-density housing, and, somewhat surprisingly, a new approach to floodplain zoning. That’s item 3:10 - the 10th of 10 public participation meetings on the agenda - and I can’t wait to learn how water is flowing differently these days8.
Free drugs kits from agencies
And the motherlode: Councillor Susan Stevenson has another divisive proposal that’s causing consternation around town. If you want a seat in the gallery at the Community and Protective Services Committee meeting on Monday, you should arrive early. I hear folks have Opinions.
Coverage so far:
That’ll keep running for a while. This one’s got a lot of clicks in it.
Also, Matt Brown’s podcast has two voices from the front lines of homelessness services. Look out to a follow-up to this episode, dropping soon, in which he and I discuss Councillor Stevenson’s proposal.
I see Councillors Sam Trosow and David Ferreira already have a letter on the CAPs agenda calling for cooler heads. They write: “We are urging Council to strip politics, political rhetoric and ideological debates from this deliberation.”
Coming up this weekend
I only managed two posts this week and I have another half-written. It’s not me, it’s flu. Look out for a weekend BONUS POST focusing on all the people who made submissions to Full Council this week. Democracy in action… kind of.
And finally - what’s next for me and this
I’m delighted to share that my evolution into an entrepreneur continues. I’ve enjoyed productive meetings, including a useful conversation about creating a legal entity that will allow more and different reporting, and will involve more people.
Soon I will ask all of you to help. I’m looking at several revenue streams, including (very cheap) paid subscriptions. You can expect to receive a sincere appeal to support public interest journalism in our community. That’ll be important storytelling that’s accessible, accurate, and based right here in London, providing Londoners with meaningful, paid work as they help to meet our community’s needs.
Sounds exciting, right9? For now, please continue sharing these posts and spreading the word. That’s huge: we’re now up to 160 people through organic growth, with serious plans to scale up soon.
This is for all of us. Thanks for supporting it. Yes, I do indeed believe I am insane.
- Mike
P.S. This is my values statement
Principles
Truth is paramount. We tell the truth and base our work on the principles of veritas, fair comment and public interest reporting.
We make a clear distinction between fact and opinion wherever we can, framing all content appropriately.
We are independent of government, political parties and big business. We will present all matters thoughtfully and, where possible, objectively. And, we reject Nazis and all toxic discourse.
We are active participants in our community and will seek to promote it with positivity.
We follow the science and we listen to experts.
We support fact-based journalism and prioritize cooperation over competition with our peers. Public interest wins every time.
Education is vital. We encourage informed awareness of public interest issues.
We recognize a duty to preserve our work, archiving it well.
We are open to feedback and we make our own decisions as independent journalists.
This kind of thing gets better with feedback. Send me a note anytime you guys. I’m easy to find.
Per my late grandmother, and I’ll never forget.
I’ll stop saying it when they give me back my basketball games.
I was chatting with Councillor Jerry Pribil. Why did nobody tell me he used to play for Celtic? I’m a wee bit starstruck. He knew the legendary Jimmy Johnstone! Look at this skill.
Other councillors chose parking, transit, public order and other issues as potential flyer fodder in an election year. Councillor McAlister has chosen rats. Okay then.
Here’s my piece comparing municipal garbage services across the province. London doesn’t come out of it well.
argh
A great vehicle for local insights into local news, which London decidedly needs more of. And I am fairly confident is something a certain segment of folks out here might just pay for. Keep it going, Mike!