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Aurora Strategic Plan, Sustainable Communities, How? High Density Housing

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:52:59 +0000

Building sustainable community in the Town of Aurora, a community that promotes sustainable living by reducing use of Earth’s natural resources, is my next topic for the Aurora’s 2031 Strategic Plan.

We all know that the idea of sustainable community or living is not new. With all the buzz of climate change around the world (too hot or too cold), we know that change must take place as soon as right now. We all must act together, but remember the sustainable living starts at home and then spreads out.

The Ridgewood, Aurora

In 20 years I will be 60. My goal in 20 years is to go back to even more sustainable living, as far as back to my early childhood years where my sole means of commuting was walking. Walking to school, to store, to church or to a bus station as far as 3 km away from home. Even biking wasn’t an option – it was always the eldest child who was granted a bike, and it wasn’t me.

I read an article in the Auroran yesterday, Wells Street facade is utmost priority school owner says [The Auroran, Week of November 22, 2011, pg 1,8] about future of the Wells Street Public School.

Wells Street Public School, Aurora

The local newspaper reported: ‘Joanne Birch … form Wells Street Schoolhouse Lofts, told The Auroran that the new owners were attracted to the heritage building both for the beauty of the building itself and the opportunity to build in Aurora as a well known community. Aside from the building itself and the Town in which it stands, Ms. Birch said her company was also attracted by additional amenities including the proximity to Yonge Street shopping, GO Transit, and being so close to the idyllic Town Park.’

Good start. Good thinking. A first step to sustainable community living on the Wells Street. We need more builders or developers to think like that.

We have 20 years to build and we also have data from the past to work with. A perfect example is the closing of Foodland store on the St. Andrews plaza on October 29, 2011 and leaving local residents with no other grocery store close by, especially elderly that commute by public transportation.

Foodland, Now Closed, Aurora

If you note my first paragraph, I said sustainable community and not communities. Yes, I want to see in 2031 for the Aurora to be one sustainable community, an integration of sustainable sub-communities or a network of sub-communities. We need to all work together.

The best part comes is how do we achieve this. It will not happen overnight, so we must act now. Even with the Strategic Plan in the horizon, the change must start. We don’t want to start building the sustainable community in 2031, we want to be sustainable community then.

Hollandview Trail, Retirement Community, Aurora

What I have in mind is to introduce (for future developments) more of high-density housings and putting limit on the population growth to secure more green space. I am not asking for sky scrapers, but something that will reduce the residential footprint leaving us with more natural land around.

Some may argue that it may increase traffic on the roads, but not if residents get access to the basic amenities within a walking distance.

For example, a grocery store, a medical/dental office, a restaurant/food court, a bus station, more bike racks, access to walking /hiking /biking paths, all must be part of the residential development project. Stores can easily be build underground as they are above. The idea is not to attract visitors from outside especially those who drive. Residents must have an option to commute to work/school by bus, bike or even walk. Many of them may even work within their living community.

I know, I know – we already have few similar places in Aurora but they are just shops – how many times will I need a wedding gown compare to a bag of milk. Just once in a life time for the gown but – milk every week. You tell me what is more beneficial.

The Ridgewood, Aurora

The message is clear that we need rules, by-laws and plans implemented to build future Aurora sustainable community. It may not be possible with current developed Aurora, but there is still lot of potential land to be developed and I hate to see being carelessly filled.

A Sidewalk Will Be Installed In The Future, Safety Concern Almost Resolved

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:47:45 +0000

The results are in for the requested sidewalk I blogged about before in the following published posts: A Practical Mother’s Day Gift To Come, Hopefully and National Access Awareness Week In Aurora, A Sidewalk.

I expressed my concern to the Superstore in Aurora and to the Town of Aurora about the safety of the pedestrians who access the store property, mainly pedestrians such mothers with strollers.

For three years I walked from St. John’s Sideroad and Pinnacle Trail at least once or twice a week along with my son to the the Superstore and accessed the store from the North-West corner. To access the Superstore property I had to either push the stroller against oncoming traffic along the East side of Earl Stewart Drive, or push the stroller on the grass on the same side of the street. In both cases accessing and leaving the Superstore property was difficult and unsafe.

Last Friday I was able to photograph one more case to many others I have seen, a mother with double stroller leaving the Superstore property. In this example, she is actually using side of the road with cars driving beside her in the same direction to get to the lights.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

I was very pleased with the result, the time it took to resolve this matter and how it was handled by the Accessibility Advisor. The Town of Aurora Infrastructure and Environmental Services division has reviewed the concern and recommendations, and determined that a sidewalk can eventually be placed within the Town’s property line. At this point the Works Department is in charge.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

As more residents of Aurora are commuting by public transportation and walking, the safety and ease of pedestrian access to properties must be considered. My general recommendations to the Accessibility Advisory Committee in the letter were as follows to emphasize the importance accessing the property and not just the building itself:

1. Access to retail properties must be designed for pedestrians as well as drivers.
2. Pedestrian access must include people with physical challenges.
3. People with physical challenges must include parents with strollers.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

Unfortunately, the Superstore has a very poor accessibility all around. Both North-West and North-East side especially do not have properly constructed access. The ease and safety on the North-West side will be resolved by the town in the near future. The North-East side of the store already has sidewalk, so technically speaking it is safe. However, the ease to access the store property is not. This may not go well in the future residents on the other side of Bayview Avenue.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

It is sad to say that ‘the customer is always right‘ saying not always works. The customer is only right when there is monetary spending on the customer side, but when the vendor is paying to make the customer happy, often there is a communication break up.

To conclude let me share with you this story. I always wanted to share it, and this time fits perfectly in the whole accessibility scenario. Few years ago we had a family of skunks (three of them) on our backyard. The animal services told us that by law they cannot remove them. They recommended to make the access to the property difficult, and they will leave on their own. We did, and they left our property, probably to other property that had an easy access.

Something to think about. I guess.

National Access Awareness Week In Aurora, A Sidewalk Request

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 05:59:22 +0000

This is a follow up to my previous post A Practical Mother’s Day Gift To Come, Hopefully. Last week on Friday June 3rd I hand delivered my proposal letter to the Superstore located on the corner of St. John’s Sideroad and Bayview Avenue to add the sidewalk. As everyone knows the mail service is on some kind of dispute at this moment so I wasn’t going to let it sit in their storage.

That day I walked the same path. At the store I gave it to one of the ladies at the Customer Service desk. I addressed to the store manager. After all the receipts have the store manager’s name listed for concerns and issues. The accessibility to the property for the pedestrians is my concern. Its been a few days and I hope it was read by now. However, I will give couple of weeks as I am sure I am not the only issue on their list. I shall then follow up if I don’t hear anything in couple of weeks.

Secondly, as I already revealed it is the North-West corner of the Real Canadian Superstore that has a very poor and unsafe accessibility to the property for those who commute by foot, especially parents pushing children in strollers.

Intersection of Earl Stewart Drive and St. John's Sideroad, Aurora

I also took Barry’s recommendations to write to the Town of Aurora Accessibility Advisor to hopefully amend their guidelines. The following is a clip from my cover letter.

‘While I am awaiting their response, I would like to give you an opportunity to review my proposal to Superstore. I believe the Superstore example should justify my recommendation to amend your Accessibility Guidelines to include property access points in addition to building access points and all pedestrians with or without challenges. The three main points that I would like you to consider are:

1. Access to retail properties must be designed for pedestrians as well as drivers.

2. Pedestrian access must include people with physical challenges.

3. People with physical challenges must include parents with strollers.‘

As per Weekly Notice Board from The Banner Tuesday May 31, 2011, page 4, May 29 to June 4 was a National Access Awareness Week that read:

‘The Town of Aurora is proud to acknowledge May 29 to June 4 as National Access Awareness Week in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of equal access and full participation of persons with disabilities in our community.’

Perfect timing for the National Access Awareness Week. We are now ‘driving’ society. We use cars every where. Superstore is a perfect property with a driver access only. There are stairs on the East side of the building, but how good that entrance is for the parents with strollers.

Hopefully the Town’s Accessibility Advisor will take this matter seriously. The letter was deposited to the Large Item Deposit Box. However, I yet to find out that I should have deposited into the Treasury Deposit slot. Well there was a nice man on the parking lot probably someone who is working for the Town of Aurora and he said that he will inform Bill of my large item in the deposit box. It is are really good feeling to know that people care and help you out.

As I am always trying to include photo from the Town of Aurora in my posts. Here is a photo of the street where I am hoping for the sidewalk. Now if you look closely on the far back right side of the photo, behind the big tree with no leaves, you can see some green trees. Well all the trees at the South-East corner of St. John’s Sideroad and Bayview Avenue were cut down last week. I am very disappointed. This corner looked unrecognizable when we drove by, in fact I asked my husband, ‘Where are we?‘.

Darn I also missed the photo opportunity. I had it on my list, but someone was faster than me. Well, my source of the below photo, probably the only photo, is Google Maps, Street View – a very handy tool.

South-East corner of St. John's Sideroad and Bayview Avenue

A Practical Mother’s Day Gift To Come, Hopefully

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sun, 08 May 2011 04:34:12 +0000

Where I live everything necessary for me is in the walking distance, the McKenzie Marsh, the Arboretum and local supermarkets. We don’t have second car at this moment, so I often walk to the near by store to pick up few things. Last year I was pushing Matthew in the stroller, but this spring he is able to walk long distances, including the store. I am not really in favor to push the stroller or to pull the wagon, because once I get closer to the supermarket, the access is not very safe.

Definitely the whole parking lot layout and store location is geared toward drivers. I checked around the whole building, and all they have is stairs on the other side. Good for nothing, really.

Happy Mother's Day

I thought and thought about it – what can I do? I put down task for myself to write to the store manager to see if he or she can do something. Accessing store’s parking lot with the stroller is not safe. In order to access it, you have to go on the road and push the stroller against the traffic. There is an alternative to go all the way around the store, and then the parking lot and then stroll back through the parking lot – probably good additional 15-20 minutes of walk. No way, especially if I have to carry bag full of groceries, and three year old in the stroller.

Couple days ago, I was hanging out at the soccer field with my Matthew. I met up with lady with three children. A one year old in her arms, and two other children walking beside her, probably 3 and 5 year old. Inside the double stroller she had flowers. I asked her if she came from the Superstore. Yes she did. I asked her if she needed help with the stroller going up the hill. She refused and thank me for generosity.

Oh my, I had difficulty with one child and the stroller accessing the store, but three children and double stroller – I have no idea how she did it.

I got inspired. Next week I am going to invest some time and write proposal to the store. I got few ideas how it can be done. I find that the best way to make someone do something is not to complain, but give them a solution. So this is what I am going to do.

This is going to be my little project in honor of walking mother’s in Aurora. I will keep you updated of my progress and fill you in with details as I get going.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Next Time Around I Will Knock Your Blue Tooth Out

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:16:35 +0000

I am sometimes somewhere in Aurora. Sometimes funny, sometimes interesting situations happen to me. I thought it would be a fun to write about them. Read on, may be its you I was talking about.

Today I went to shop at the Foodland supermarket located at the St. Andrew’s plaza in Aurora on Orchard Heights Blvd. They had some good deals there, but mainly I needed green beans for the Easter Sunday. What is it with green beans anyway? This past week I visited three different places, and two things, the green beans were terrible; and the price – I don’t want to talk about. So no green beans for Easter – just broccoli and rapini. Finally I got to the milk area. While I reached for the milk and was ready to put a bag of milk into the cart, another lady was doing just the same. We were very close, almost touching shoulders.

‘Oh my God!‘ – she yelled.

‘What? What happened? Is there something with the milk? Broken bag – spilled milk? Where, are you wet? Oh no don’t tell me its bugs? Oh is there an animal crawling from the fridge behind the milk? What happened? Are you okay?‘ – I almost replied yelling, as I realized she wasn’t talking to me, it was her friend wrapped around her ear, the Bluetooth.

Well next time someone yells into my ear like that – I will yell back or knocked your blue tooth out.