We came, we didn’t see, but we did enjoy some nice chili.
The J Man and I took a little drive Monday up to Columbus, the Hamlet That Doesn’t Take Crap From Anyone, for the 4th Annual Family Day/ Chili Night, in the hopes of seeing John Sewell, the former Mayor of Toronto.
We hung around for 45 minutes for Mayor Blue Jeans, who made a name for himself during his mayoralty days (1978-80) by riding his bike to City Hall each day and has been championing environmental issues and the fight against urban sprawl ever since. Sewell was late (he did eventually show up) but the drive wasn’t a total loss, not with three kinds of chili, two kinds of soup, jumbo hot dogs (Jake’s choice) and assorted other goodies on display.
Both of us were full when we left, but I wasn’t satisfied. I was intrigued as to why Sewell would make the trip to Columbus, located within shouting distance (if the acoustics are right) of Durham College and UOIT and Oshawa’s increasingly urbanized northern suburbs, but definitely – to borrow a phrase from Jann Arden – in the middle of nowhere.
At least to a downtownie like Sewell.
The answer is urban sprawl, and the hamlet’s desire for it to stay the hell away from Columbus.
Columbus has been in the news since 2009 when the resident-based Columbus Community Coalition announced it wanted to separate from Oshawa and join up with neighbouring Whitby (you don’t know what you’re saying!), citing irreconcilable differences. In short, it felt it was being ignored.
That petition went nowhere, but with Highway 407 coming and threatening to literally split the community in two, the coalition found a new enemy. Since then they have successfully lobbied the provincial government (with plenty of help) to continue the highway’s next development phase beyond their community – it was going to stop at Simcoe Street, which would have resulted in traffic chaos – and are now fighting Durham Region at the Ontario Municipal Board over Durham’s desire to include Columbus in Oshawa’s ‘urban’ boundary.
Ergo, John Sewell’s appearance.
The OMB approved a number of expansions to Durham’s urban boundaries last year – including the massive Seaton development in north Pickering – but allowed six expansions to remain under appeal, including the amendment that concerns Columbus. That appeal will be heard today.
Thanks to the magic of YouTube I was able to hear Sewell’s address to the Columbus chili fans, and the author of The Shape of the Suburbs: Understanding Toronto's Sprawl (2009) told the crowd to keep up the fight against urban sprawl.
“Unfortunately, in our culture this is the way we build cities ... and it’s really hard to fight this kind of development. But we have to fight. We have no choice,” he said. “You can win this – you must win this court challenge. It’s the right thing to do.”
The J Man wasn’t able to hear Sewell’s speech, but he did get his political fix in the chili/jumbo hot dog line when he ran into Oshawa Mayor John Henry. “You’re missing a ‘D’,” he told the slightly confused Henry. “My last name is Hendry and you’re missing a ‘D.’”
Henry, to his credit, was amused and thought Jake’s joke was a gas. But that could have been the chili.
No comments:
Post a Comment