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Miscellaneous

IanO said:
I may be jumping the gun here, but it's sure looking VE'd (Value Engineered) to me....
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I think you jumped the gun. This project has a lot of steel and is pretty substantial looking - at least to me. I don't think pics do it justice.

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Reference ID:Job No 473654795-002
Description:To operate a Private Education Service and to construct interior alterations
Location:10107 - JASPER AVENUE NW
Plan NB Blk 1 Lots 81-83
Applicant:HDEK INTERIOR DESIGN INC.
Status:Intake Review
Create Date:2023-05-30T06:31:53Z
Neighbourhood:DOWNTOWN
 
MCXavierL said:
Realizing your history with the gongshow in Holyrood, discouraging activism and encouraging apathy is unhelpful, especially when there are younger citizens looking to become involved.
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Not discouraging activism or apathy at all. I continually encourage people to get involved in their local community leagues, especially those who want to get into volunteering but aren't sure where to start.

What I'm responding to is this specifically:
thommyjo said:
A lot of community leagues are still organizing against district planning and density.
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This is vague and there may be some nuance that hasn't been communicated, but I've personally heard first-hand in Zoom meetings league presidents and civics directors saying that the city should only allow infill in Blatchford and nowhere else, with no exceptions. I imagine these are some of the same leagues @thommyjo is referring to.

That is not how you do civic activism, that is not how you do engagement, that is not citybuilding.

Yes, Holyrood Gardens was a gongshow, but we were still hugely successful with the approach we took to make it better; that is, our committee were not at all against height and density, but we worked to find the best ways to apply height and density (within the many surprising constraints of the site) that would minimize impacts to surrounding properties and ensure that the site plan could integrate with the neighbourhood and the LRT stop as best as possible.

We educated ourselves (or brought in experts where we could) in many areas of architecture and design, city bylaws, policies and plans, utilities servicing, traffic engineering, emergency services requirements, etc. - and made our best effort to work closely and collaboratively with all stakeholders. Those efforts were noticed and praised by Council on more than one occasion, and no doubt helped ensure our voices, our requests, and our concerns were taken seriously. We also built up a positive rapport and some serious goodwill with most of those parties, which helped us immensely in later projects and Council hearings.

(Fun fact: the ORIGINAL-original Holyrood Gardens site plan, which I was privvy to but was asked not to share publicly, was vastly worse than the first Option A/Option B presented to the public - picture the entire site covered with tightly-packed 16-storey L-shaped commie blocks effectively walling off the neighbourhood. Compared to the currently approved DC2, I think we came out very far ahead indeed.)

An oppositional, combative, adversarial, us-vs-them, or NIMBY/BANANA approach is much less likely to be taken seriously, especially when Council and Administration have already put in over 90% of the work to build and refine these new bylaws and plans, including incorporating over half-a-decade-worth of active public consultation and engagement including directly with leagues and the EFCL.

I've put this invitation out there before, but I'll repeat it again: If anyone ever wants to sit down with me over a coffee or beer sometime to chat about the work I and the Holyrood Development Committee have done, feel free to reach out and DM me. I'm always happy to talk your ears off about our experiences, our successes, and our learnings with this and other projects and offer advice and suggestions to anyone looking to be more actively civically engaged.
 
Daveography said:
I've put this invitation out there before, but I'll repeat it again: If anyone ever wants to sit down with me over a coffee or beer sometime to chat about the work I and the Holyrood Development Committee have done, feel free to reach out and DM me. I'm always happy to talk your ears off about our experiences, our successes, and our learnings with this and other projects and offer advice and suggestions to anyone looking to be more actively civically engaged.
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Will you accept packrafting chat requests on Whitemud Creek or the NSR? It's that time of the year almost!
 
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