BEAUTY IS PROGRESS

SPRAWL IS NOT PROGRESS - it is out of date and detrimental to quality of life. Let's truly protect what we have in Stratford - charm and a special urban environment.

JANE'S WALK

Jane Jacobs was an urban visionary. She was the author of 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities'. Jane's Walk began in 2007 to celebrate Jane Jacobs and her work. Hundreds of cities in Canada and around the world now conduct Jane's Walks to promote livable cities and neighborhoods - mainly on May 1st and 2nd to coincide with her birthdate. Perhaps in the future Stratford will join this growing list of communities involved with 'Jane's Walk'. Stratford has been able to hold on to many of the characteristics of an intact healthy urban environment but is in danger of increasing sprawl. Here is the link to the Jane's Walk website: http://janeswalk.net

Legendary urban thinker, writer and activist Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building. She had no formal training as a planner, and yet her 1961 treatise, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail that now seem like common sense to generations of architects, planners, politicians and activists.
A firm believer in the importance of local residents having input on how their neighbourhoods develop, Jacobs encouraged people to familiarize themselves with the places where they live, work and play with words like these:
“No one can find what will work for our cities by looking at … suburban garden cities, manipulating scale models, or inventing dream cities. You’ve got to get out and walk.” _-Downtown is for People, 1957.
Jacobs’ wrote incisively and beautifully on the importance of dense and vibrant city-scapes, famously uncovering the ‘sidewalk ballet’, that intricate dance between neighbours and passers-by that make a street enjoyable and friendly.

Yes to Petition - Store of the Community Ideas

Avonwood developers claim that Walmart hopes to create a Store of the Community and that in doing so, a building would be designed to reflect customers, neighbours and the community on the whole. If this were the case, what should this "Store of the Commu: It will be a small store (small by WalMart standards). Parking will be behind it, so that what adjoins the street is a friendly, human-size building, not a few acres of asphalt and cars. But it would be good to have a strip of open space and greenery between the building and the street. Even if the store is on the outskirts of town, town may in due course reach it and then a pedestrian-friendly place will be an asset. Moreover, a store like that would set a pattern for subsequent development to follow. (We\'re dreaming, right? In any case, if the townspeople have some say in how development takes place, this can be part of what we demand.)

If the store could be nearer to the centre of town than has been discussed, that would -- if it were the kind of place I an visualizing -- be a benefit and would avoid sprawl.

The store will sell a fair amount of Canadian-made merchandise, not only things made in China and such places, and it will showcase this Canadian merchandise.

Its manager will have Stratford\'s interests at heart at least as much as those of the corporation\'s head office.

But I still oppose the prospect of having a foreign-owned store, with its proceeds going across the border, becoming such a big player in a community which has comparatively few big retail and hotel chains doing business in it. Nothing that I can realistically visualize would be an asset to our community as it now is and as we hope to see it become.

submitted by M.B.

Yes to Petition - Wal-mart is NOT cheaper

'I am a Stratford citizen who feels that WalMart is nothing but a bully and the money they spend extending action after action until those who do not want them in their community have run out of money, is but a drop in the bucket to them.
There are WalMart stores within a half-hour drive and I know, from human nature, that once they get a foothold in Stratford, people will still want to have a trip out of town just to see what else there is to see but, in the meantime, Stratford's stores will have been decimated. Why can't people see that WalMart is NOT any cheaper for food, etc. as I'm told by my son , who lives in London, that groceries are more expensive when he shops there.'
I wish more people would speak up. What is that quotation, "The only way for evil to prevail is for good men/women do nothing"
submitted by Shirley Davis

SHINING A LIGHT ON PERTH ARTS CONNECT

Perth Arts Connect is a not-for-profit, member-driven organization whose mission is to encourage, promote and support arts, culture and heritage, to enrich and enliven Perth County communities and to ensure that creativity and imagination remain a vital part of our social and economic life.
Are you interested in the arts, culture and heritage of Perth County? perthartsconnect.ca

PERTH COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Front page article by Brian Shypula in The Beacon Herald on Friday, April 16th titled "Agri-food, small business lead potential growth sectors". This article shines a light on the importance of controlling big sprawl for our future economic health - and creating a local healthy economy.
"Value-added agriculture and agri-food and small business hold the most potential for local economic development." according to Peter Blais of Miller Dickinson Blais from the recent economic report for Perth County. He also stated; " Perth County has tremendous opportunities for economic growth, they have a diversified economy and one of the things we emphasize is to carry on with that diversity."
A healthy local economy does not mean huge sprawl with chain stores that suck the money out of our county and send it straight to head offices often not even in Canada.
'Strong downtown vital to community' continues the article on page three and concludes with this crucial statement: "Protecting small town atmosphere against big-box mentalities, maintaining and encouraging diversity of business and culture, attracting young families, protecting agriculture, cutting red tape in municipal approval processes, environmental awareness and downtown revitalizationn were key points."
The Avonwood development, if it were allowed in the already sprawl heavy east of Stratford, would weaken our local economy.

Yes to Petition - Questioning the Role of the OMB

As a citizen and city councillor, I think the leverage and power given an unelected adjudicator to negate a planning decision made by a duly elected municipal council is an affront to the democratic process.It begs the question, \\\"why have an elected municipal body\\\", when provincial appointees with no connection to the municipality make the final decision. It is a sham to pretend that the debate, discussion and thought that goes into wise municipal planning by elected councillors is a mandated and collective process when it can be overuled by one appointed official.
submitted by Paul F. Nickel