Next up, smart growth. To clarify, smart growth, as yours truly has written on four occasions over the past 10 months, has some very positive aspects. The problem is that the Ottawa summit last June was a touch arrogant, with some Yankee experts flying into Ottawa and dumping all over our city even though their only experience with it was an overhead view of the region one day before when landing and a cab ride to their downtown hotel. Their other issue that has not been addressed is individual taste. Or, I like having a 50x120-ft.
Smart growth is more than simple, compact and tidy urban planning concepts.
It is indeed a vision, but a vision must be translated into a plan, and then that plan must go through the vagaries of politics at the council table before it becomes reality. Which is why it's better to focus on a few achievable core objectives than offer up a complicated and confusing report with little resemblance to the real world. Still with planning, it was somewhat amusing to see a report to the transportation and transit committee was a bit myopic in its focus. This is a problem that the media and council have partly created with their obsession with the hi-tech sector. Tenth Line and Trim Rd.