Oct. 07, 2009 - Issue #729: The Secretaries
News Roundup
Live and let live; Hasta la victoria
Live and Let Live
Edmontonians have one last chance to have their say about what kind of city
we'll have moving forward, as the city's people services master plan,
entitled The Way We Live, is now entering its public consultation
phase.
The plan is the fourth in a series of strategic plans commissioned by the
city to make tangible the vision that was outlined in last year's The Way
Forward, a 40-year plan for shaping Edmonton's future. The other plans to
this point have focused on urban development (The Way We Grow), environmental
sustainability (The Way We Green) and transportation (The Way We Move).
The Way We Live will focus on livability issues, mainly as pertaining to the
services the city offers, both directly and indirectly through things like
partnerships with non-profit groups and the like. As Paul Loosley, director
of policy and research for the community services department, explained, it's
a broad area that affects everything from Edmonton's recreation opportunities
to protecting our most vulnerable citizens.
"This really provides direction for people services," Loosley said. "What is
the long-term objective for our recreational facilities? What's the impact on
improving livability in Edmonton for arts and culture? What's the direction
we need to take our police service in? What can we do to create more
affordable housing? Those are the sorts of questions we're looking to
answer."
To that end, the community services department will be holding public
consultations throughout October and November, with an eye towards writing up
the first draft of the plan by March of next year. The public consultations
will take the form of everything from community meetings like the one that
took place at Grant MacEwan last Saturday, which featured more than 500
stakeholders and citizens voicing their opinions, to living room chat
sessions that individuals can host, the first 400 of which will receive pizza
and pop courtesy the city. The department also has the benefit of culling
suggestions from both the major strategic plans and individual service master
plans that have been published over the course of the last year.
"The challenge is, especially when it comes to people services is that
there's literally thousands of examples of people services across the city,"
said Loosley. "We have input from the other strategic plans ... and there's
also been a lot of policy work in the line departments. But this is a real
chance for Edmontonians to tell us what they want from their city moving
forward."
David Berry / david@vueweekly.com
Hasta la victoria
He may have been killed in Bolivia 42 years ago this week, but the legacy and
influence of Argentinian-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara lives on in
both social movements and popular culture. To celebrate the man and his
accomplishments, local hip-hop trio the People's Poets is hosting the Ernesto
Che Guevara 2009 festival from October 8 – 10. Events include "A
Celebration of Resistance" hip hop show at the ARTery on Fri, Oct 9 (9 pm)
and a back-to-back screening of both parts of Steven Soderbergh's CHE at the
Stanley A. Milner Library Theatre on Sat, Oct 10 starting at noon. Visit
peoplespoets.ca for full details.
Read Vue Weekly's review of the films here
Scott Harris / scott@vueweekly.com
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