Grow our own trees in our parks and with Londoners.
Trees grow on trees, so rather than spending money on young trees lets grow them ourselves and plant them around london.
Major Park Improvements
Increase canopy coverage in the parks.
Create additional activities at the park including community gardens, tree nurseries, fitness equipment, games, or anything else that you can possibly imagine.
Plant fruit trees and bushes
Increase snow plowing in residential streets of Ward 2
I myself have taken a ward 2 corner and slid due to the plows not being consistent on the side streets.
I would also like to see London take over snow plowing responsibilities rather than relying on contractors. By relying on contractors the city pushes the responsibility to another when it is the city’s job to ensure our roads are safe and plowed.
A community approach to dealing with trash
Increased bylaw enforcement
More trash / recycling cans
More organized community clean ups
Create a culture of community cleaning by promoting and rewarding the londoners who join in!
Revitalize The Thames River!
The Thames River flows 273km from the Town of Tavistock through the cities of Woodstock, London and Chatham to Lake St. Clair. We are soo blessed to have such a beautiful river running through our city and Londoners should be able to enjoy swimming safely and all the other benefits that come with a clean river.
This is of course a long term project but it is necessary to begin even if it cannot be completed in a single term.
Reforest The Forest City
Fight against Farhi and the rampant commercial vacancy!
London does not have the power to put a vacancy tax on commercial properties but that should not be an excuse to not fight these vacant properties that steal from the potential of London.
These landlords hold a lot of power due to the inaction of previous councils but that is no excuse not to fight them and demand that they either fill these vacant properties or sell them to someone who will.
London has made many developers very rich and in this time of crisis they need to join in the effort of ending these crisis and bringing prosperity back to London.
Fight to end London’s Homeless Crises
Increase funding for Supportive housing.
Increase funding for public housing.
Demand more affordable units from developers.
Work with London tenants to lower overall rent prices (more on that below).
In 2022 one in four Canadians are unable to cover an unexpected expense of $500. Over one in 10 Canadians have experienced some form of homelessness in their lifetime. Homelessness is not a personal issue but a policy issue.
The longer this issue is ignored by Canada’s government the more costly it will be to solve for future generations and it will cause countless more uneccesary deaths.
Organize London Tenant’s and Workers to lower rent and increase pay
People in power are not doing anything out of the kindness of their heart. They are doing what is cost effective and what is best for their bottom line. When you & I have a demand, no matter how reasonable it comes with a cost. By organizing together neighbours and coworkers can create a crisis which is more costly than their demands, making their demands the cost effective choice.
The city of London cannot lower your rent prices or increase your wages but you as Londoners can! I will launch a city wide initiative to organize Londoners to improve their living conditions.
Public Landlord Licencing database
Landlord licensing that includes a public database of each landlord and all of the properties. This is very important for tenants looking to organize to create an accurate power analysis so they can win their demands systematically and methodically.
Public London Lobbying Registry
Londoners deserve to know who is lobbying our local government. It is in the best interest of large corporations to spend a portion of their profits to buy political power so that they can get favourable treatment to make more profits later.
Lower city council pay to be matched with London’s median income
City council voted to raise their pay from roughly $67,000 to roughly $94,000. The deputy mayor will take home just over $101,000, which is up from $75,000.
I will fight for a ballot initiative to lower city council pay to match London’s median income of $71,000.
If city council’s pay is set to match Londoner’s income they will have incentive to bring more high paying jobs to the city and fight for Londoners to be better paid.
I do not believe city council should be able to vote to improve their wages rather it should be something put onto the ballot for Londoners to decide if they have earned that raise.
Reevaluate zoning policies to help build more housing units and promote growth.
Promote increased density. London is constantly growing and it will never stop growing. London is also surrounded by some of the most sought after farm land in the world.
With these 2 things being known we must expand upwards and downwards rather out outwards! Increased density also helps increase the efficiency of a neighbourhood making it much easier for each individual to access everything they need closer rather than having to travel across the city.
Lower the London police budget to afford these initiatives without increasing property taxes.
Even the romans understood that poverty is the father of crime. Instead of spending money to deal with the crime caused by the poverty in the city let us tackle the root cause of crime to prevent the crime from happening in the first place.
The city cannot make decisions about how this money is spent by the police however the London police have an amazing COAST team which with only 4 teams of 2 people (1 officer and 1 crises nurse) already respond to 25% of 911 calls. If this program is expanded it will make sure that officers are free to respond just as fast if not faster to crimes going on throughout London even at a reduced budget. I also commend the auxilary officer program which allows Londoners to volunteer to help fill roles that normally would require paid officers.
Treat Crises Like Crises
Build Resielient Community
Keep Londoners informed and connected through Community Associations
I’ve always said London is a “grapevine city” where if you’re not on that specific grapevine you would never know things are happening.
I plan to organize community associations across the ward so that information flows more effectively between council and Londoners and between folks in the community.
I plan to build community information boards for each community association where you and your neighbours can keep up with what’s going on in the city and for londoners to post about events/news.
Expand mutual aid throughout London
Mutual aid is the sharing of excess resources and knowledge. In this time of crisis it is difficult to do everything alone and with mutual aid we don’t have to go alone.
This will include expanding and building new Food Banks, Tool Libraries, Free stores, skill shares, public workshops, etc.
Have consistent FREE community events (including in the winter)
There is very little to do in London for free. You can go to the library or park but there is little to do in these spaces. Youth without anything to do often find trouble and adults without anything to do often become isolated and disconnected from their community.
Create places where Londoners can keep up moral, meet others, and build relationships with the amazing people in their community.
Make community center spaces free to use for community events.
Get everyone involved in the community from a young age
Getting involved in the community at a young age makes a lifelong impact. Feeling part of something bigger than yourself and being able to make a difference is so important in young people’s lives. There are lots of ways that our youth can improve this city that I can’t even begin to imagine but here are 2 examples I’ve spoken about with the folks in Ward 2:
Making benches in our side streets so that elderly/disabled/tired folks can comfortably go for longer outings.
Building/maintaining a trash can so that there is less trash on the ground.
Infrastructure
Greater Construction due diligence
Construction is extremely important to improve our city. Sometimes this work is time sensitive as it relies on funds from the upper level of government but this should not mean the lives of Londoners are put into disarray. Adding time to people’s commute takes time away from things that they truly value like spending time with their kids, passions, or being involved in their community and so on.
I will invest more time into creating efficient detours with traffic control measures so that the impact is minimized as much as possible. This can include more time planning detours, better communication of work and detours to Londoners, and utilizing more traffic controls like temporary lights.
As a construction worker, I understand the importance of visiting the construction sites before work starts to see for myself the likely things that can go wrong before they go wrong.
Increased savings for infrastructure projects
There are many infrastructure projects that have been delayed for years due to lack of funding. these improvements will benefit the lives on Londoners and everyone who come through our city.
Infrastructure improvements will help bring jobs to london and it will help London’s efficiency, bringing new businesses.
Something I learned while doorknocking is how many areas of ward 2 get flooded consistently creating dangerous living conditions for the folks who live there. I will fight to add the necessary infrastructure funding to fix these issues so Londoners are not left to fend for themselves.
There are also countless streets and sidewalks I’ve seen in the ward that are in need of true repair rather than another coat of orange spray paint.
Rework Wavell Street bike lane
I bike myself and I am a fan of good biking infrastructure, however the wavell street bike lane doesn’t seem to work for anyone in it’s current form. Bikers do not feel adequately safe enough to let their children use the lane. Drivers experience long back ups when emergency vehicles or delivery vehicles are forced to stop half in the road. Home owners/renters experience difficulty getting out of their driveways and now have their driveways blocked twice by snowplows rather than once.
I appreciate the city’s effort in trying however it has been proven to be inadequate. I will work with biking advocates and people living in the area to rework the Wavell Street bike lane so that it better serves everyone.