This year’s winner of the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy was Wendy H. Wong’s book, We, The Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age. The Winner We, The Data is an eye-opening, gripping look at the ways in which humanity is being codified, monitored, and tracked at alarming speed and intensity — in largely unaccountable […]
Consider Maslow’s hierarchy in response to NIMBY development concerns
June 11, 2024 by · Leave a Comment
As part of the City of Victoria’s 10-Year Official Community Plan (OCP) Update, last Saturday, I attended an OCP engagement event at my local (James Bay Neighbourhood) community centre. Like many urban neighbourhoods, mine is diverse. There’s a range of people, places and opinions. A common divergence of opinion that comes up circles around the […]
Foster Civic Collaboration Through the Land-Use Development Approval Process
July 12, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
I recently volunteered to be a co-chair on my neighbourhood land-use committee, that facilitates dialogue between developers and the neighbourhood. In Victoria, most all neighbourhoods and/or communities have their own land-use committee; aka Community Association Land-Use Committee (CALUC). The land-use development approval process is a terrific avenue to involve citizens in a meaningful ways; i.e., […]
Immigrants and Police Are Building New Relationships Through Theatre in Victoria, BC
June 7, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
I participated in a cool event yesterday, “Exploring the Relationship between Police and Diverse Communities – A Theatre Project”. This was a collaborative effort involving Victoria Police Department, the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria and facilitated by Transformational Theatre practitioners, Lina de Guevara (Founder of Puente Theatre, and profiled on this blog in 2012) and Victor Porter, and […]
Urban Public Benches Help Build Community Connection
December 4, 2015 by · Leave a Comment
It was a grey, stormy afternoon, yesterday. I took a work break (from my home office) to walk through my adjacent neighbourhood, Oak Bay, to the ocean, 15 minutes away. All along the way are public benches. Many. I took photos of some of them; attached. Although few were in use today (seasonal issue, mostly), […]
