Stagnant Statues

Back in December, I wrote about a statue project being proposed in Kitchener. Kitchener city council vetoed the plan on Monday night, after seeing the results of an online public opinion poll that ripped the project to shreds.

There are so many reasons cited for why people don't like the project, from the monetary cost to the dubious history of some of our former leaders and the location (both in the park and near The Luggage Project).

www.kitchener.ca

I was a not-so-quiet opponent of the project, both in regards to the subject matter and the placement.

Since Monday's vote, Kitchener has been lambasted by people saying the vote was shortsighted. Mayor Carl Zehr expressed his disappointment and the National Post covered the story a few times. I think Kitchener Council was right in voting no based on what the proposal was, and that the proposal itself was the problem.

As a citizen, when I heard of this project I heard, "This is what we want to give the city. This is exactly where it is going to go and this is what it will cost and all you have to do is say yes and allow us to go ahead." Herein lies the problem. Not once did we hear about other possible locations for the statue, we were given an ultimatum of sorts and it sat heavily in the pits of our stomachs.

Would public opinion have been different if the proposal had been to put the statues scattered throughout the park or throughout the city or in a different location, like McLennan Park or out at Woodside? I think so. While I'm still not crazy about the idea of Prime Minister statues for several reasons, I think my opinion would have been significantly altered had the proposal called for the statues to be placed throughout the park. The placement of this project is key and as a regular park goer, I didn't want to see that open space marred in any way.

We still may see statues in Waterloo Region, the organizers approached media today to say that several other locations are interested in the project although of course, none in Kitchener. I'm happy my council said no to statues as the proposal came forward but in the same respect, I wouldn't have been mad if they had wanted to continue to talk about the subject and discuss alternative locations.

Hey, if Waterloo wants to host those statues, all the power to them. I may even go visit them once. I just hope they make an informed choice on where and how to place them and don't eliminate a valuable open field space to do so.

Standing Still

A couple of well-meaning history buffs are attempting to bring a little {still} life into Kitchener's Victoria Park.... by erecting 22 bronze statues of former Prime Ministers surrounding Victoria Parks Commons (that giant open space near the clock tower).

The Statue Project

The Statue Project plans to raise $2 million towards the project and has asked the city to kick in $300,000 toward the statue bases and installation. They have also asked the city to provide charitable receipts for donors.

Kitchener City Council heard the pitch and has decided to move on with public consultation in the New Year. Local councillors raised some good points, wondering why a project like this should be based in Kitchener, rather than Ottawa. Our own capital city doesn't even have statues of every Prime Minister. While raising questions, Mayor Carl Zehr admonished councillors for making it difficult for the project to move forward, calling it a "gift" to the city.

While I rarely agree with Kitchener City Councillors, I was in complete shock when I heard voices of reason. Why would a project of this magnitude not be looking for federal funding? This is hardly the kind of project that should be solely funded at a local level. Why in Victoria Park? Why Prime Ministers?

THE SUBJECTS
James Howe wrote and suggested that the statues, instead of being placed around the only open space in Victoria Park, be placed at the rapid transit stations that will be part of the much argued about Ion system. I'd go a step farther and question the choice of Prime Ministers as statue subjects.

Do we really need more reminders of the privileged white men who are taxing us on a daily basis? Do the homeless that sleep in Victoria Park need reminders of the men who have continually cut services and funding, possibly contributing to the position they are currently in? Were our former Prime Ministers good people? Bribery, alcoholism, Hitler-admirers and the fathers of Residential Schools...  (*edit: read more about the good, the bad and the ugly of Canada's Prime Ministers over here at My Contention)

Does anyone care about our former Prime Ministers outside of history books? Do we need a reminder about how close Woodside was to closing only last year? If people are not visiting the former home of a former Prime Minister, one who graces our paper money no less, will they travel to visit Victoria Park because it has some statues? Councillor Frank Etherington thinks the project will bring tourism to the region. Likely?

Something I see from local residents is the suggestion of having statues (somewhere) yes, but not (solely) of Prime Ministers. Why not statues of prominent Canadians? Visitors to the KW area WILL make a special trip to Victoria Park (or elsewhere) if they could pose with a statue of William Shatner, Margaret Atwood, Chris Hadfield, Wayne Gretzky, Terry Fox or David Suzuki. Statues of GREAT Canadians. Statues of people we as Canadians care about. Kim Campbell may have been our first female Prime Minister but for a job she held for less than 6 months, is she deserving of being immortalized in bronze for a lifetime?

THE PLACEMENT
Victoria Park has one completely open space. It is used for soccer games and yoga classes, music festivals and extreme frisbee. It is a truly wonderous space and in my humble opinion, should not be messed with. What are the chance of these statues getting damaged during set up or tear down of park events. Will the placement of these statues change the way events need to be set up? Will it take more time? What are the chances that someone will get hurt in a soccer or frisbee game with these statues surrounding the playing field?

I wouldn't suggest statues in our park at all but, if that's the only place the statues could go, I'd suggest spreading the statues out throughout the park and turning the entire park into our own version of Canada's Walk of Fame.

THE MONEY
Mayor Zehr calls it a gift to the city. But there are some gifts we are not in a position to accept. If the gift is not cohesive with our local arts plan, if the gift will cost us money and if the residents don't want the gift, we cannot accept it.

Even IF, the Statue Project founders offered to fundraise ever last cent of the project and asked us for nothing, does that require the city to accept the gift? Absolutely not. Obviously a flat refusal is out of the question but I think we can dig deeper and try to collaborate on a spectacular project that will be a boon for our city. One that supports local artists, respects resident wishes and celebrates the diversity of our area.

THE CONCLUSION
Leave the politicians in Ottawa. 

If we're going to support any sort of statue project in Kitchener, make it one that celebrates people who are unique, innovative, enlightening and glorifying.... the kind of Canadians who make us proud.

Forget the Kids, Lego is for Grown-Ups

I like Lego. Like, a lot.

So when the Ignite Waterloo team decided to build a massive Lego trophy as a mascot of sorts for the event, I jumped all over the chance to be the builder.

And here it is:

Have Mercy. Isn't she wonderfully majestic? Yes, the trophy is a she, she told me so. It's an intimate relationship, the one between builder and buildee.

She is made of 1396 pieces of Lego, took 15 hours to build and 3 designs to get just right. In related news, Lego Digital Designer is a bitch to use and I'll probably never go that route again.

During the final build, and only about 6 hours before I was due to deliver it, I drop the prototype of the cup and had to redesign on the fly, while gluing. And that gorgeous butcher block she rests upon? $5.50 at a garage sale. Score!

Thanks for allowing me to become a part of Ignite history, Ignite Waterloo, this was fun!

An open letter to residents in Waterloo Region

Dear friends,

Tonight, Kitchener council sits and listens to carefully spun stories of economic development, boatloads of money, jobs, tourism and more from a proposed casino in our area.

Let's hope our councillors listen to their level headed constituents  before they start getting wowed by the dollar signs being flashed before their eyes.

How much will a casino benefit our community?

We hear promises of millions of dollars per year. Where do these dollars come from? Our own citizens, losing. When we ENCOURAGE our people to lose in order for our city to gain, we can be sure that the fabric of our community is broken.

Gamblers are disproportionately more from low to medium income demographics than high ones. By encouraging people to lose, we are encouraging some of our poorest citizens to bet their hopes and dreams for a big payday... one that will be gained only by the OLG.

In the last 10 years, our own economic development fund has put over $100 million into the revitalization of our downtown core. Independent and big businesses are making their home in our core, starting to flourish and bringing PEOPLE back onto those downtown streets.

Encouraging our own citizens to travel outside our core, to the outskirts of our city, to lose their money at a casino will be in complete disregard to the work put in to make our downtown a viable, vibrant, exciting place to be.

Shall we enter the realm of the social and moral implications?

Just a few weeks ago, 250 leaders of different faiths came together in Toronto to say no to a casino. When was the last time you saw that many leaders of that many faiths agree on something?

The reason? Many of the people who seek help for gambling addiction, from the addicts themselves to their family members, turn to clergy for counsel because by the time their lives have been ripped apart, they can no longer afford private counselling for the matter. These clergy men and women? They see the worst of the worst of these cases every single day.

Lastly, let's think about our brand.

We have Blackberry. We have Desire2Learn. We have Google, EA Games, Christie Digital, Toyota and OpenText. We are home to 2 renowned universities, a college, a distinguished concert hall, the Perimeter Institute and CIGI. We are host to festivals that people travel from across the globe to attend.

All in all, Waterloo Region is a pretty kickin' place to live, work and play. Our "small town" is known across the globe and we didn't need a casino to get us there. Is preying on the ignorance of some of our citizens for a few dollars worth the loss of dignity and branding of our great community?

Stand up, residents of Waterloo Region and join me in saying no to a casino. If nothing else can sway you, consider this: Rob Ford, the man who hates bikes, hates gays, reads while driving and doesn't know the difference between Winnipeg and Windsor thinks that having a casino is his town is the best thing since sliced bead. If we can't rally together to be the opposite of everything he is, we probably can't do anything at all.

Less Traditional Learning

I'm not going to weigh my views on the teacher's job action in my parts, it's been done to death by myself and thousands of others. What I do want to do is have a discussion about what you will be doing with your kids on this unexpected day off.

Will you be home with them? Sending them to a babysitter or day camp? Using retired grandparents for child care? Pooling with friends?

After some creative rescheduling of a job interview I had booked, I'll be home with my boys. But it won't be just a day off, watching movies or playing in the snow, we'll be having fun and learning in some less traditional ways:

Julia, aka @AskMamaMOE on Twitter, sent me some books this month after hearing how we lost all of our books after a pipe burst. Tomorrow we'll be working out of this great book to make some singing bottles and experiment with mirror images.

Thank you for the books Julia, we LOVE them!

After a morning of science play, we'll be heading downtown to go to THEMUSEUM. It's pretty much my favourite place in town and we spend a lot of time there. From learning how to control the flow of water to practising our architectural skills with giant blocks, it's always a learning adventure hidden beneath a fun exterior.

And lastly, we'll take ourselves to Kitchener City Hall for a little ice skating because whether it's something they teach in school or not, skating is most definitely something that every Canadian kid needs to learn!

Here's hoping your day is full of learning and as adventure-filled as ours!

There's Something In The Water

There must be something in the water in Kitchener.

We moved 3 weeks ago. I thought moving was supposed to be stressful and in some ways, it lived up to my expectations. Getting OUT of our old house was stressful. Moving into our new one? It's been the stuff dreams are made of.

Now, the new house has problems. As of this moment we have 3 entry doors and none of them will close properly and therefore, don't lock. We haven't been out of the house as a family in 3 weeks because someone needs to be at home with our stuff. We've had a clogged toilet, were without hot water for 3 days and are still battling the kitty litter that the last tenant (presumably) poured down the tub drain. The floors are so uneven that I've had to shim every single piece of furniture and every window has a problem, it either opens or closes, but it won't do both.

It's a house of horrors and I didn't even have to visit Niagara Falls.

Despite all this, I am calmer, more relaxed and more organized than I have been in my entire life. Case in point: There are 15 loaves of homemade bread cooling on my counter right now, there is a month's worth of school lunch snacks in the freezer and my blog is up-to-date. All our paperwork is filed, I've applied for college and have had time to volunteer 20+ hours each week.

BUT

While I'd like to think it's just me, becoming the person at home that I've always been at work, I know it's not true. And the reason I know this?

It's affecting my husband, too.

Yesterday, I asked him to pick me up bread flour. He came home with WHOLE WHEAT. Then he SWEPT THE FLOOR. He took the kids over to the neighbour's and LEFT ME ALONE with some FREE TIME and to top it all off... the scariest of them all... HE DID ALL OUR LAUNDRY. Not just his, mine, the kids, EVERYTHING! Granted, he shrunk 2 of my shirts but still... HE DID ALL OUR LAUNDRY.

So the move didn't just affect me. Therefore I blame the Kitchener water. No, actually I THANK the Kitchener water. I'm not sure what's in you, but I'm turning on the tap for more.

Drink up!