Today Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, in addressing the Edmonton Real Estate Forum, claimed that "astute [community leagues] recognize that they speak for the members of their leagues and not for the broader community."
Click "Play" below to hear the full 90 second quote. My comments follow.
Click "Play" below to hear the full 90 second quote. My comments follow.
Unfortunately I can't say I was surprised to hear this, but it's disappointing to see reinforced that your elected mayor is an authoritarian who doesn't care about what local communities think, and doesn't recognize one of their only avenues for redress of grievance through local political activism.
In this same speech, Mayor Iveson incorrectly claims that "these associations...were created for recreational purposes but take on political mandates around disruption and change in their community." He got this one completely backwards. Community leagues were created for the pursuit of political mandates, in response to a city council that was not listening to its constituent communities. Recreation resulted from the process, in much the same way that a Church organizes a potluck dinner or a baseball game.
I encourage our Mayor to read "Edmonton's Urban Villages - The Community League Movement." This book explains very clearly how "For 87 years, tens of thousands of volunteers from the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) have often acted as a counterweight to large private and institutional interests, shaping municipal development by providing a voice and a training ground for grassroots civic participation." It clearly explains that sports programs were left in our community leagues' wake. Not vice versa. Not at all.
The Edmonton Journal reviewed "Edmonton's Urban Villages" on July 23, 2005 and stated that "If you have ever worked a bingo for your community, cheered your kids on the soccer field or went to city council with your neighbours to fight a developer, you might want to take a look at this book....Kuban describes the growth of the movement, which was borrowed from the city club concept started in Rochester, N.Y., to provide a forum for citizens and be a watchdog over local issues...."
Very ironically, Mayor Iveson actually goes on to complement community leagues who sell out, complementing leagues who "have industry people...involved in them, and ...ask for things that are achievable." He goes on to express that "there is a new wave of people involved in community leagues who are excited to see their communities change, excited to see more different forms of housing that is affordable to their peers, and want to see that reinvestment." Ironically, these communities, from whom Edmonton's City Council is stealing park land to create affordable housing, are not receiving "reinvestment" of any kind. Council is pocketing the proceeds from the sale of their parks.
What bothers me most of all is that while our Mayor stands in front of Edmonton's development community and derides our community leagues as nothing more than special interest groups, City of Edmonton staff simultaneously rely almost exclusively on having sent copies of their latest development plans to the community leagues to justify having consulted the community when passing new zoning bylaws and approving new development permits!
This issue hit very close to home recently for the Larkspur Community League. At an April 10 public meeting in which the City of Edmonton intended to announce that the expropriation of Larkspur's community park land was a fait accompli and explain "how the decision was made" - i.e. to tell people that there is nothing they can do, the City of Edmonton came upon a community of angry residents saying quite correctly that they had not been properly consulted, to which the City of Edmonton promptly replied that the community league had been informed....and thus so had they.
WHICH ONE IS IT? Do community leagues both represent the citizens when the City wants to pretend that it engaged us, and yet simultaneously not represent the citizens when the leagues actually do get engaged?
What the hell has happened to us? Are we going to lay down and accept this crap from our civil servants? I for one am not. And if that means that I need to drum up MASSIVE membership in my community league to get our Council's attention, then perhaps it's time to start giving community league memberships away. I will not, while sitting as the custodian of my community's best interests, ever relinquish the responsibility to provide a forum for citizens and to be a watchdog over local issues. Not ever!
In this same speech, Mayor Iveson incorrectly claims that "these associations...were created for recreational purposes but take on political mandates around disruption and change in their community." He got this one completely backwards. Community leagues were created for the pursuit of political mandates, in response to a city council that was not listening to its constituent communities. Recreation resulted from the process, in much the same way that a Church organizes a potluck dinner or a baseball game.
I encourage our Mayor to read "Edmonton's Urban Villages - The Community League Movement." This book explains very clearly how "For 87 years, tens of thousands of volunteers from the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) have often acted as a counterweight to large private and institutional interests, shaping municipal development by providing a voice and a training ground for grassroots civic participation." It clearly explains that sports programs were left in our community leagues' wake. Not vice versa. Not at all.
The Edmonton Journal reviewed "Edmonton's Urban Villages" on July 23, 2005 and stated that "If you have ever worked a bingo for your community, cheered your kids on the soccer field or went to city council with your neighbours to fight a developer, you might want to take a look at this book....Kuban describes the growth of the movement, which was borrowed from the city club concept started in Rochester, N.Y., to provide a forum for citizens and be a watchdog over local issues...."
Very ironically, Mayor Iveson actually goes on to complement community leagues who sell out, complementing leagues who "have industry people...involved in them, and ...ask for things that are achievable." He goes on to express that "there is a new wave of people involved in community leagues who are excited to see their communities change, excited to see more different forms of housing that is affordable to their peers, and want to see that reinvestment." Ironically, these communities, from whom Edmonton's City Council is stealing park land to create affordable housing, are not receiving "reinvestment" of any kind. Council is pocketing the proceeds from the sale of their parks.
What bothers me most of all is that while our Mayor stands in front of Edmonton's development community and derides our community leagues as nothing more than special interest groups, City of Edmonton staff simultaneously rely almost exclusively on having sent copies of their latest development plans to the community leagues to justify having consulted the community when passing new zoning bylaws and approving new development permits!
This issue hit very close to home recently for the Larkspur Community League. At an April 10 public meeting in which the City of Edmonton intended to announce that the expropriation of Larkspur's community park land was a fait accompli and explain "how the decision was made" - i.e. to tell people that there is nothing they can do, the City of Edmonton came upon a community of angry residents saying quite correctly that they had not been properly consulted, to which the City of Edmonton promptly replied that the community league had been informed....and thus so had they.
WHICH ONE IS IT? Do community leagues both represent the citizens when the City wants to pretend that it engaged us, and yet simultaneously not represent the citizens when the leagues actually do get engaged?
What the hell has happened to us? Are we going to lay down and accept this crap from our civil servants? I for one am not. And if that means that I need to drum up MASSIVE membership in my community league to get our Council's attention, then perhaps it's time to start giving community league memberships away. I will not, while sitting as the custodian of my community's best interests, ever relinquish the responsibility to provide a forum for citizens and to be a watchdog over local issues. Not ever!
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| iveson_re_community_leagues.mp3 |