Nanaimo's civic elections will be held this Saturday, November 19th. If you have spent more than ten minutes commenting on (or complaining about) how this city is run in the past few years, then you certainly have ten minutes to be proactive and cast your ballot. Find out about the candidates here.
Practically the only hot button issue in this election is the low barrier housing project. Social media has facilitated the transformation of this heated conversation into a real-time 24/7 debate-apollooza. Both opponents and proponents have Facebook pages devoted to raising awareness about the issue. I think it's fabulous that technology has made it trivial for citizens, especially young adults, to engage in civic politics.
As we speculate the impacts of supportive housing will have on our community, it is natural to consider other communities which have undergone similar processes, and to assess the benefits and costs. This is called research. We then assess what we think that situation would look like here. No matter how similar another community's project is to our own, the conditions will never be identical. It is important to understand the similarities and the differences between their system and ours so that we can be aware of the level of confidence we have in our assessment.
We ask, "What happened? How are the conditions similar? How are they different? What can we learn?"
Horror stories that are kinda-sorta loosely related to Low Barrier Housing in Nanaimo suggest the worst that could happen. Accounts of similar housing projects in similar communities with similar demand and similar challenges suggest what is likely to happen.
If you are interested in learning about the issue, check out this brochure from the city. To join the conversation, head over to The Green Light Project on Facebook (in favour of the supportive housing project) or the Concerned Citizens of Nanaimo (opposed to the project.) Be aware that anyone is free to post on these pages, so not all information may be correct.
I have a great deal of respect for those who are engaging in local politics, regardless of their stance on this issue. Hats off to you! And remember to vote on Saturday!
Have you ever noticed that those who are in support of a controversial civic proposal always have a positive, uplifting name, while those opposed to the same proposal often identify them selves as "Concerned Citizens"? I've seen many iterations of this in the past, particularly around homelessness and low-income services. In my (limited) experience, the "concerned citizens" are generally less well-informed and united by fear of change.
ReplyDelete