{"id":27371,"date":"2021-09-29T15:39:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T19:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=27371"},"modified":"2021-09-29T15:39:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T19:39:52","slug":"can-collingwood-pass-the-strong-towns-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/can-collingwood-pass-the-strong-towns-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Collingwood Pass the Strong Towns’ Test?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Ontatio?
Ontatio? Really? Who can’t spell our province’s name? And the link leads to a malware site!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in 2014, the USA-based Strong Towns group<\/a> posted a test to “measure a successful Strong Town.” The ten questions or conditions posed include:<\/p>\n

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  1. Take a photo of your main street at midday. Does the picture show more people than cars?<\/li>\n
  2. If there were a revolution in your town, would people instinctively know where to gather to participate?<\/li>\n
  3. Imagine your favorite street in town didn\u2019t exist. Could it be built today if the construction had to follow your local rules?<\/li>\n
  4. Is an owner of a single family home able to get permission to add a small rental unit onto their property without any real hassle?<\/li>\n
  5. If your largest employer left town, are you confident the city would survive?<\/li>\n
  6. Is it safe for children to walk or bike to school and many of their other activities without adult supervision?<\/li>\n
  7. Are there neighborhoods where three generations of a family could reasonably find a place to live, all within walking distance of each other?<\/li>\n
  8. If you wanted to eat only locally-produced food for a month, could you?<\/li>\n
  9. Before building or accepting new infrastructure, does the local government clearly identify how future generations will afford to maintain it?<\/li>\n
  10. Does the city government spend no more than 10% of its locally-generated revenue on debt service?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"Collingwood<\/a>
    Downtown Collingwood: more cars than people (source: CollingwoodToday).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In 2017, another post on the site noted<\/a>, “A Strong Town should be able to answer \u201cyes\u201d to each of these 10 questions.”<\/p>\n

    Could Collingwood pass this test? I’m not optimistic, even if I’m not entirely sure how all of the questions relate to a “strong” town. The group behind the site has a financial focus that, while important, isn’t the only thing that makes a town liveable. In fact, too much obsession over money can lead to overlooking other quality-of-life factors. It’s not (or shouldn’t be) always about the money. Sometimes things \u2014 like corporate culture, shared resources, and strategic partnerships \u2014 are more valuable than mere cash (as they were in the decision to partner our electricity utility with Powerstream, back in 2012).<\/p>\n

    The group’s website<\/a> says:<\/p>\n

    We believe that in order to have a lasting impact on our culture, we must educate, excite, and inspire citizens of all backgrounds to get involved in the conversation about how we build our world, and advocate for a Strong Towns approach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Well, our town would fail miserably at that. This council does NOT engage its citizens in any relevant decision-making (look at how they closed Maple Street without bothering to even inform the residents who live there; or how they privatized our public utility to a for-profit company without any public consultation, or when they hired the mayor’s former employers without bothering to follow legal, proper, tendering processes…). Educate and excite? By this secretive and deceptive council? Risible to even think it. Spend our money on the mayor’s personal agenda and give themselves raises every year is more like it.<\/p>\n

    I am sure that if someone told council about Cicero’s motto, “Salus populi suprema lex esto<\/em>” (Let the good of the people be the supreme law: De legibus 3.8), they’d laugh themselves all the way to their next self-imposed pay hike (while asking “Who is this Cicero guy?”).<\/p>\n

    The website piece concludes with this lengthy list:<\/p>\n

    We believe that in order to truly thrive, our cities and towns must:<\/p>\n