I’ve always had some pretty big hopes and dreams about Corner Brook, thoughts about traffic patterns, green spaces, affordable housing and more. I’ve often thought about how cool it would be to get together with people from across the city and talk about issues like these, pull together some suggestions and have those suggestions shape a city plan.
This is why I was intrigued to see the City of St. John’s do exactly that last week.
On February 25 the City of St. John’s hosted it’s Mayor’s Symposium as a kick-off for their municipal plan review. The symposium allowed more than 100 people to pre-register to share their ideas of the direction the city would take over the next ten years.
Of course, they didn’t just let everyone shout their opinion. They used “clicker” technology to allow participants to instantly share their opinions on a particular topic (as in “Do you strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree with this?”), allowing the group to get instant feedback on their discussions.
Throughout the day, seven broad discussion questions were presented. The participants were divided up into tables of 8 people, and each table had a facilitator and a recorder. The recorder would track discussion around each question, which would the instantly be compiled into a larger database of all the participants. Then a team would sift through the conversations and present back to the larger group some of the best or most frequently made points.
The questions asked were (via @TheScopeNL):
- How can the quality of life in the
@CityofStJohns be improved? - When you think about where you live, what types of land use would you like to see in your neighbourhood?
- How can we encourage more “affordable” housing be built in SJ?
- What should the City consider when planning for an aging population?
- How should the city ensure the integrity of our Heritage Areas while encouraging new development?
- How would you balance development with environmental sustainability?
- What additional topics should the
@CityofStJohns consider for inclusion in the municipal plan?
By using the quick-feedback methods, it allowed the larger group to guide the discussion how they wanted to and feel like what they were saying in their smaller groups was making a difference to the larger conversation.
So what am I getting at here? Sure, maybe none of this data will be used in the actual municipal planning process and maybe it was just a morning long PR stunt for the city, but it allowed more than 100 people to get together and share their ideas and vision about the city they love. It allowed them to be a part of the municipal planning process and I think that’s a very cool initiative.
City of Corner Brook, I’m looking at you now. You have citizens who want to engage with you about their city. There are resources in the province (like the Rural Secretariat) who could help with an event like this. Let’s start talking.
Would you go to an event like this in Corner Brook? What sorts of questions do you think should be asked?
