Jeff Bateman
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It takes a community ... 

11/11/2014

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Over at my campaign Facebook page, Sooke voter Christina Moog asked me (and likely other candidates too): What does "community" mean to you? What is the role of local government as it pertains to "community"? 

Here's my answer ... 

"Hi Christina, local government delivers essential services that make any functional hometown tick ... land-use planning and regulation, roads, police and fire protection, recreation and culture, water treatment and supply, waste collection, and civic services (business licences, signs, animal control). That's job one as defined by the Local Government Act.

Yet in my opinion, staff and council also must go beyond these basics to nurture, encourage, promote and support community projects and initiatives. District staff and elected reps can help facilitate connections, create partnerships, share expertise, and work in tandem with our community organizations. It shouldn't just be a matter of cutting cheques for those who request funding. Sidewalks and roads matter big-time, of course, yet a community is more than the sum of its parts and I think City Hall should be a significant part of our town's "heart and soul" (as the Sooke Voice News quoted me as saying at the first all-candidates meeting). Thanks for the question." 

I then followed up with another post featuring a more personal answer ... 

"One more time: What does community mean to me? Family, friends and the circles of people I spend time with locally and elsewhere. The extended family I hang out with at the Stick and Ahimsa Yoga. All those familiar if nameless faces we all encounter at every turn in this small, friendly town (which is such a delight for me compared with the anonymity of living in large urban centres). As the EMCS Society's Anne Bell has said at board meetings when we discuss school initiatives like the "Munch Card" (which provides lunch vouchers to needy kids) and the Play and Learn Summer Camp (for slow learners): It takes a village, and no one should be left behind. That's the measure of community for me." 

I'll also take this opportunity to add a wise note from an overseas friend who sent me a real, actual, honest-to-god handwritten letter that arrived via the post some months ago:  "If I had the magic powers I so richly deserve, I would probably change only two things and they would be the human burdens of loneliness and isolation." 

Community is what brings us out of our caves and gives us what we need: connection, conversation, an opportunity to see and be seen, hear and be heard, and to give and receive the rich, full, sometimes challenging, always rewarding and enlivening benefits of each other's company. Let's have more of it!


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Looking Glass: Sooke News Mirror Q&A

11/6/2014

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Cheers to the Sooke News Mirror for its election coverage, and I invite you to check out the answers to these three questions (maximum 75 words) from all the candidates online at the Mirror's website. I posted my answers to the Sooke Voice News questions earlier on this blog. Here's the link to the full selection of SVN replies from the candidates. 


1. What is your vision for Sooke? 

Short-term: Focus on essential needs such as sidewalks, streetlights, parking, road development, business initiatives, and health and emergency services. District campaign to woo targeted builders, businesses and residents.

Mid-term: Steady enactment of fiscally sound aspects of existing community plans, especially those focused on the town centre and community resilience/sustainability.    

Long-term: A harbour-facing village known for its postcard beauty, affordability, family appeal, alt.energy initiatives, cultural life, productive farmbelt, home-based businesses, tourism, and diverse hills/harbour recreation. 

 2. What would you do differently than the last council? 

Ensure better communications mechanisms linking council to the community at large and vice versa. Councillors must provide detailed reports on liaison responsibilities and their activities at municipal conventions. Empower and respect professional staff by heeding staff reports more fully. Fewer motions on the fly, hence less need to rescind decisions. Respect the OCP more fully and not mess with Town Centre zoning. Encourage a warmer environment in council chambers.

3. What is the biggest issue facing residents of Sooke? How would you deal with this? 

Traffic functionality and pedestrian safety top the list, as per Mayor Milne’s Corporate Strategic Plan priorities. These needs are the starting point for a Smart Growth/Built Green town centre as we reorient towards the harbour. District plans point the way forward. Three-hour parking limits in the core, a solution to the boat/trailer mess, and a contiguous, smooth sidewalk network is essential.  


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Cycling Forward

11/3/2014

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Interesting to revisit this 2010 report on cycling in Sooke written by a visiting blogger named Average Joe Cyclist. His conclusion after an eventful ride through town: "Sooke seems to be unaware of the existence of cycling tourists. After our near-death experiences, I think perhaps it’s a good thing that Sooke is not actively encouraging cycling tourists – after all, cyclists’ lives are in danger from the moment they come near Sooke."

Has much changed? Well, it's still daunting out there for cyclists on the fast track, but yes, as a matter of fact, it has and there's better reason nowadays to imagine a bright future for cyclists here in Motor City.  True, the Galloping Goose connector trail and bridge has lost traction as the first of the Parks & Trail Masterplan's Class A priorities (championed back then by Mayor Evans and the District's Laura Byrne, who had the good grace to respond to Average Joe's points). Yet on other fronts, initiatives have been taken, more are coming and the seeds of a bike culture locally are sprouting fast. 

Safe cycling and pedestrian lanes along the highway from Sooke River Road as far as Whiffen Spit Rd. need to be a priority. We need to solidify the informal network of off-road trails west of Otter Point Road and link them to the excellent trail system on the town's eastside. And Harbourview shapes up as a prime south Island mecca for mountain biking. As T'Sou-ke Nation chief Gordon Planes said at the BC Mountain Bike Tourism Symposium held here last year, "I can see these youth on bicycles. The five to 15 year olds. In 10 years we will see a huge shift. We are going to leave something for our children not born yet. They will be riding bikes because we left something for them.”

A few reasons to be cheerful about cycling in Sooke: 

* A decent and growing selection of bike racks can now be found around town thanks to business initiatives, Maywell Wickheim's handiwork and donations from the Sooke Slow Food Cycle. 

* As per the directions of Sooke's remarkably bike-friendly Transportation Master Plan, multi-use trails now line Church and Wadams Way and they'll keep appearing as the District expands its connector road network. 

* Commuter bike storage lockers are at the park-and-rides near EMCS courtesy Stephen Hindrichs and the Juan De Fuca Cycling Coalition (which has now merged with Transition Town Sooke
). 

* Cycling's huge tourism upside was showcased at last year's MBT Symposium at the Prestige Hotel - an event the town hosted thanks to the groundwork of Steve Grundy (a keen biker, chair of the Mayor's Advisory Panel on Economic Development and a VP at Royal Roads University) along with Councillor Maja Tait and Sooke Mountain Cycle's Lorien Arnold.


* The Sooke Slow Food Cycle, which I helped organize in 2011 and 2012 along with Lee and Stephen Hindrichs, Erik Bjornsen, Sinclair Philip, Bev England, Samm Port and a team of other volunteers, was a community building and tourism event initiated by Transition Sooke. It also had the founding-partner support of Sooke Food CHI, the JDF Cycling Coalition, the T'Sou-ke Nation, the Sooke Region Tourism Association and the District of Sooke. The turnout was modest both years, however we did generate significant media exposure for Sooke, promoted existing off-road routes, had a blast with liked-minded cyclists, and sent surplus cash to fund blueprints for the bike skills park along with other worthy initiatives: the 
EMCS Slow Food Garden, Sooke Food CHI, the Sooke Garden Club (to help fund a garden at the Sooke Hospice), and the Sooke Longboat Society. 

* While council rescinded its original approval of a bike skills park in John Phillips Memorial Park (though a lengthy public process that I wrote about for Transition Sooke), phase one of an upgraded facility at SEAPARC  is now complete next to the ball diamond. All credit to the rec centre's Steve Knoke and the steering committee for getting it done with a plan for phase two work next spring. Local home-schooled kids also pitched in with energy and funding as well.  (For the record, Candidate Jeff believes the original approval of the JPMP skills park was definitive cart-before-horse thinking; the District needs to invite all potential user groups eager for a piece of our town's central green space to convene in a facilitated public process, revisit the 2006 master plan, and only then strategically develop the park as a whole ... not piecemeal as has been the case with the bike skills, horseshoe club and off-leash dog proposals.)

* The District is now seeking matching funds of up to $360k from the BC government to create new cycling lanes around town - either in the town centre or perhaps along Sooke River Rd. to Meota Dr. as link to the Galloping Goose. Projects have to be completed within a year of application, so council opted not to pursue a larger grant that might have funded the aforementioned cycling/pedestrian bridge linking the Goose to the town's east-end trail network. Sooke's contribution will come from our share of the federal government's Gas Tax (ironically but happily enough). 

Final message to Average Joe: We're not such a cycling backwater after all. Please come back someday and try us again. :-) 




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