Kensington-Cedar Cottage CityPlan Committee
Meeting Notes
April 29, 1999, Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House
6- 9 p.m.
In Attendance: 23 people attended this meeting with 10 more in
the other room (see list at end)
Topic: Defining the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Community Visions Steering
Committee
1. Dinner began at 6:00 p.m. with an opening presentation by Paula
Carr, Director of Community Development with Collingwood Neighbourhood
House. Paula gave an overview on the history of community development
work associated with Collingwood Neighbourhood House. She provided background
on the development of the new Collingwood facility and talked about specific
projects in Renfrew/Collingwood. Paula presented the AFamilies of Schools@
project where community development work is focused on the school catchment
areas. She talked about the attempts to deal with transportation issues,
drug and alcohol issues and public art projects. She preferred to the
building of community strength-asset building as opposed to being issue
based.
For anyone interested in learning more about Collingwood Neighbourhood
House please call 435-0323.
2. At around 7:00 p.m. we lost some of the Community Visions participants
to another meeting in the next room. Approximately 10 Cedar Cottage residents
were meeting with Premier Glen Clark about the development of Broadway/Commercial
in light of the new SkyTrain line.
Our meeting continued with where participants talked about their expectations
for the evening. Here is what people said:
- Many people wanted to know, AWhat is the Vision?
- People wanted to know, What is our role in this? Are we the monitors
of the Visions? Are we the project managers? Do we provide dispute resolution
where residents could bring all their problems to the Steering Committee?
- Some people wanted to do some catching up with the Visioning Process?
- People wanted something positive - something which might spill over
to nearby neighborhoods.
- People liked to come together to talk about the community being a council.
- Many people wanted to get the ball rolling.
- Many wanted something to happen.
- People wanted to talk about a community developer.
- Someone wanted to talk about good development.
- Someone wanted to talk about traffic on Knight Street.
- Someone wanted to talk about arts and the environment-affordable arts
groups space.
- Someone wanted to talk about shopping areas.
- Someone wanted to talk about better designed house-keeping the gardens
around house-not cementing in yards.
- Some people wanted to ensure that the vision gets implemented.
- People liked the idea of creating an organization to speak for the community.
- People wanted a clarity of priorities.
- People wanted the empowerment of community.
- People wanted a move from theory to practice.
- People saw the need to have specific priorities involving the larger
community.
- People saw the need to have some successes.
3. After much input from participants, Susan Anderson, City Planner
with the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Community Visions Implementation provided
some background on what had been decided. Susan also presented information
on the process with the Dunbar Community Visions Implementation. She outlined
some of the challenges the Dunbar group was working with and some of the
outcomes of their decisions. The Dunbar group would like to get together
with the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Steering Committee at some time. Susan
presented the following information on Dunbar:
4. Dunbar Neighbourhood Council
Roles: Work in Progress
- to be the liaison between the Dunbar Community and the City, City Council,
and other agents of change.
- to pursue community involvement in local changes as set out in the Dunbar
Vision.
Websites:
www3.bc.sympatico.ca/sailed/dnc.html
www.talklist.com/forms/dunbar
5. Small group discussion: Three groups convened to discuss, What
should this council be and/or do?. The results are outlined in the following
group presentations:
I. Group One:
Role of Council
LIAISON
- collects ideas from community
- disseminate information to community
- set community priorities
- link with other communities
LEADERSHIP
- mobilize community involvement
- initiate action (be proactive)
NEEDS
- Mandate/Authority (Where does it come from?)
- Responsibilities-accountability
II. Group Two:
What is its role? What should the council do?
Advocates to effect and monitor change:
- taking wants from the community and getting it implemented
- monitoring the implementation of CityPlan (i.e. providing feedback to
the City)
This council should invite the public and representatives of other groups
to meetings periodically.
Need to hire staff, too much work for only volunteers.
III. Group Three:
Mission Statement
Yes!
Find an Issue
A small doable issue
A large issue with long term implications
RESULTS
The council needs to have an indication that the other organizations in
the community are picked And know each other and what they are doing.
Tie it to the Vision-A particular statement to be reflected.
6. There were some discussions and differences of opinions of
what to do next. It was decided that the council would be called the Steering
Committee and that this particular group would work with the information
from this meeting to determine the next steps.
7. Next meeting
The Steering Committee will be meeting on May 26, 1999 at Trout Lake
Community Centre at 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Members of the Steering Committee
include:
Grandview Community Centre Association: Gregg Brown
CECONA: Ken Baker
Glen Park Neighbours Greg Corrigan
Gray's Park Neighbours: Anne Roberts
Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House: Donna Chang
Cedar Cottage Community Policing Centre: Don Genoversa
Kensington Community Centre: Ben Xiao
Liaison Group: Kim Stansfield
Duane Campbell
Interested Residents: Stan Jang, Barb Wright
|
