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.

CHARLOTTETOWN - When Kevin Costner wandered into his corn field and encountered the baseball legends of past generations, he was given this simple reassurance -- "If you build it, they will come."  While Costner, playing farmer Ray Kinsella in The Field of Dreams, was trying to not sound too crazy when pitching the idea of a baseball field where his corn once stood, the idea of a Farmer's Market, once the playground of the granola munchers and Mennonites, has gone mainstream with attendees, not the purveyors, going crazy.

CHARLOTTETOWN - When the federal government introduced the Intergrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP) as a requirement to access the Gas Tax Fund (GTF) it jump-started the planning departments of countless cities across Canada to examine their long-term development plans.  Of course, the ICSP process is not meant to be an economic stimulus package, but a comprehensive framework outlining the social, economic, environmental and cultural sustainability of the community.  This planning process is intended to give citizen and government stakeholders a common vision for the future, a veritable litmus test ...

Since most Islanders couldn't make the official Spacing Atlantic launch party last week, we've decided to get together on our own for a little meet, greet and nefarious plotting.  So, if you happen to be a PEI-based writer, photographer, artist, or you simply want to have a say in the urban policies of Charlottetown and other PEI communities, come on down to the Eco-PEI offices (also the Sierra Club of Canada offices) and join in the discussion. Who: Writers, photographers, artists and the simply curious What: Spacing Atlantic Charlottetown Meet-up When: Wednesday, November ...