Grey County Update: Strong Mayors & Neighbourhoods
Through you honourable Warden Matrosovs,
Councillor Nielson and Councillor Farmer had some great questions about Strong Mayors during recent Special Meeting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3RisWlSPy0) and the implications regarding potential future mayors as well as why would people want to be councillors in such a system. These are some ideas worth exploring as well as potential solutions to them, such as subsidiarity neighbourhoods, villages, and blocks.
A hypothetical "Strong Mayor" would have to basically be someone with a strong Housing related mandate from the people, as it aligns with the province's objectives. For example getting rid of barriers such as forsaking the requirement to be connected to municipal services, which greatly hinders development, and could be argued to be inhumane deprivation of homesteading. As well as allowing people to build their own homes, and while building inspectors can't be changed, they can be in a policy framework that at least simple tents, yurts and indigenous style shelters can be constructed and used for residency without a permit. The main thing is keeping density low enough to be sustainable which will necessity inter-municipal co-operation on the county level.
A big part of reconciliation with the indigenous is allowing indigenous lifestyles, as we were reminded of by Federal Candidate Natasha Akiwenzie during the Keady debate last night.
I am joyful how kind all the candidates were to each other this time around, much more pleasant than the recent provincial debates.
Anyhow as for City Councillors, they have the opportunity to themselves be heads of a Neighbourhood Council, composed of 10 villages, where each village is made of 300-400 people which is either a rural block averaging 6 lots, or around 6 urban blocks. Most rural blocks in Grey County can support about 300-400 people comfortably and sustainably (at 1.2 hectares per person).
Though the current population density in rural areas is much lower than it could be. For example see this common graphic below where the same building lot that is used for one farm house, can be used to make a cozy lot hamlet of 15 houses, so each family/house can have an area of the farm to work on, with a central village infrastructure to reduce duplication of buildings and maximize economies of scale.
As Neighbourhood Leaders you would find out what your village leaders believe are the top issues people of their sub-segment of the municipality need to thrive, and help them achieve it, bringing the best ideas before City Council.
The village leaders could consult with the lot/block leaders correspondingly.
Such involvement can help also increase the number of people that vote, and feel involved in the civic process. Which is why I'm working on Local Help System Owen Sound to set that up, and would recommend the same for all municipalities, especially since we are in Plateau Years, so great time to setup greater community cohesion, also something brought up by the indigenous federal candidate.
As the Confederation of Planets has said:
2006/04/16: "those indigenous tribes and natives in various parts of your globe—are fully aware of the situation and have not been distracted from direct and intuitive communication with all of the densities, both inner and outer, by the distractions of civilization. It is actually the civilized nations, so-called, that are the furthest from a direct apprehension of the situation as it exists at this time."
2006/11/12: "The fourth density is being born normally and in a healthy way. The efforts of many groups, including this one through whom we speak this day, have spoken of light and love and the word has been passed, more than perhaps you might realize, at the grass-roots level, at the level of indigenous peoples; and at the level in civilized worlds of the first fumblings and reachings for something that has substance."
May you be blessed,
Miigwech
