CHARLOTTETOWN - The Charlottetown Area Development Corporation is ready to reveal the Eastern Gateway Master Plan that will (we hope) transform the area at the foot of the Hillsborough Bridge, the Red Shores Raceway and the gateway to Charlottetown into a true representation of all that PEI's capital city has to offer. WHAT: Eastern Gateway Waterfront Presentation WHEN: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 WHERE: The Rodd Charlottetown Hotel (75 Kent Street) This is a great opportunity to participate in the landscape of our city. Photo by:  Stephen Desroches

CHARLOTTETOWN - When voters in Charlottetown head to the polls on November 1st they will be casting a vote for not just for a mayor and council to represent them, but will declare their preference for election reform through a plebiscite. While the plebiscite is non-binding, the newly elected council will use the results of this vote to determine if and how the current electoral process should change. Election reform offers little of the glitz and glamour of a heated political race.  In a race where incumbant candidates were asked by the City to not publicly declare their preference on this plebescite so as to not influence the voting public, the importance of this historic vote has been further devalued. Without candidates taking positions, and in spite of public information campaign, the plebescite issue has received little attention by most media organizations and even less among the voting populace. Consider the state of the electoral process in the provincial capital — the birthplace of Confederation. In 2006, incumbant councilors where challenged in 9 of the 10 wards. Jump forward 4 years, and only 7 of 10 wards have challengers this year, and only 1 of 10 wards has more than a single challenger to the incumbant. That means that roughly 30% of Charlottetown's residents will not have an opportunity to exercise their right to vote for council representation. That is a travesty and has only contributed to the disconnection of voters from the plebiscite process.

CHARLOTTETOWN - If political participation in Charlottetown, the capital of PEI, is any indicator of the malaise of the general population, then we are in significant trouble indeed. Charlottetown's 32,000 citizens are represented by ten councilors elected in a ward system and, while candidate nominations closed Oct 8th at 4PM, only 7 of the 10 wards have challengers to the incumbent. The tragedy is not only that the electoral process is being circumvented, or that without multiple candidates voter turnout for the electoral reform plebescite will be crippled, but that we are willingly surrendering our hard-earned right to participate in an election for our civic representatives. Some might suggest that politics is a thankless job, where the only feedback from the electorate is negative. Others decry the demands on both family and work as civil service often forces concessions on both fronts. Both arguements are likely right. Politics is a thankless job, one that few are willing to take on in an era that is still reeling from the hyperconsumption, hyperselfishness of the 80s and 90s. Aside from a few exceptions, most of the current councilors fit neatly into the 40+ demographic, have the backing of either influential family members, influential political party members, or both. It is those luxuries that soften the blow of family and work interruptions, while only the thick skin of experience or disconnection can mitigate the thanklessness. Though not all of the announced council candidates are commonly known, it is hard to believe that we have fostered an environment where we can expect anything other than more of the same for this year's choices.

CHARLOTTETOWN - I had a nasty case of déjà vu last week when the City of Charlottetown announced that another Big Box development was coming to town.  PlazaCorp is already responsible for 300,000 square feet of strip malls in Charlottetown, complete with their upfront parking lagoons, but this new development ratchets the insult and degradation of Charlottetown to a completely new level. The threatened site, which can be seen embedded in this Guardian article, sits just north of the Charlottetown Mall, south of the Arterial Road, west of University and east of Mount Edward Road.  A review of the map provided by the Guardian shows heavily sloped land and a watershed on this property which, from an environmental perspective, set off alarm bells in my head.  Currently being used as farmland, PlazaCorp is proposing turning a juxtaposed agrarian landscape into yet another cookie-cutter Big Box asphalt lagoon. Perhaps those alarm bells are why council has decided to refer the issue to public consultation, a process that is likely to divide the city into the "we want more shopping" and "local is better" camps so typical of this age of transformation.  Ironically, this battle is patterned after a debate that is still taking place in my hometown of Windsor, Ontario.  In spite of starting the discussion more than two years ago when Jenny Coco, fittingly a local paving company magnate, wanted to build a development next to federally protected prairies, the development on the border of Windsor and Lasalle has not broken ground.  Back then I was writing for a local blog and advocacy group, Scaledown.ca, where our thoughts, failures, and rants are still lurking online.  Even the Ontario Municipal Board, the final authority on all things development in Ontario, has pushed back on the CocoBox complex (as we so lovingly dubbed it) in recent weeks.

CHARLOTTETOWN - When the Charlottetown folks involved with SpacingAtlantic got together late last year, we decided to engage in some good old fashioned brain-storming to get the creative juices flowing.  What transpired was a wonderful, engaging session full of optimism and pride in the city most of us called home.  At the end of our two hour session, it was clear to many of us that if Charlottetown was going to change, a new climate of openness and transparency would have to emerge. There are two keys to an open and transparent democracy -- information and accountability.  One of the greatest criticisms of our democratically elected government is the premise that we can only hold them accountable once every four years.  The inability to sway the direction of political policy, without the benefit of money, either promised or proven, has disenfranchised the younger electorate.  Without accountability nobody can fail, but, more importantly, nobody can succeed.  Building accountability is essential, but letting governments hold themselves accountable is a recipe for disaster. In order to hold elected officials accountable, we have to know what they are doing, and whom they are doing it with.  If politics are conducted in the back rooms of historic restaurants, in hushed whispers, or in the case of PEI, in clandestine meetings in Victoria Park, the perception continues that politicians are above, or perhaps better positioned, below the law.  The problem extends beyond simple political negotiations or funding scandals.  The root of the issue is access to information, sans the redacted documents so common to the Access to Information Act.  Enter the open data movement. (Yes, I linked to Wikipedia --- get over it!)

CHARLOTTETOWN - After last week's radio interview on the local CBC morning radio show, the folks over at the Institute for Bioregional Studies dropped me a line to do what Spacing, in whatever flavour you take it, does best -- connect people together.  Nancy Willis and Phil Ferraro hold monthly discussions on pressing social issues in and around Charlottetown.  The meeting this month is scheduled for Tuesday, January 19th and will address the implications of the new business tax strategy, particularly those elements that encourage non-conforming ...

CHARLOTTETOWN - In November, the city of Charlottetown hosted a public meeting to review the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan with the hopes of garnering feedback on ideas relating to the fiscal, social, environmental and cultural fabric of our city.  Instead of feedback on the ICSP, Stantec and the city got an earful about the failure of the 'dot-mocracy' methodology, including at least one urban advocate walking out on the process.  The process was, from the outset, the subject of criticism for targeting a specific demographic, socially, fiscally ...

CHARLOTTETOWN - I've got trust issues.  Years of training and indoctrination, which were to have prepared me to be an active participant in my personal locomotion, have been shattered in recent months.  It wasn't intentional.  Far from it, in fact.  In spite of my sometimes rabble-rousing tendencies, I prefer a world with structure, a framework, some sort of shared agreement of civility.  In retrospect, and to quote Cool Hand Luke, "what we have here is failure to communicate." The mobility of society is based on a sacred oath that simply states that everyone will follow the same set of common rules at all times so, baring tragedy, we know what to expect when we interact with one another.  Whether as a pedestrian, a cyclist, a motorist, or some sort of Segway-powered anomaly, the rules are common and understood.  It is that oath that has been broken in my new provincial home.