The City of Pickering is becoming a more exciting and dynamic city in which to live each year that I live here. There are tons of events, activities and things to do, all around the city. There are festivities and celebrations, parades and festivals many celebrated at the central park of Pickering, The Esplanade. What a wonderful City and still not too big with just 100K residents….but it’s growing.
This EDITORIAL sounds like it is complimentary…but in reality, it is a lament. Walking Fermo a few weeks back, a local resident engaged me in conversation. “Santa Claus parade? Pickering is having one? I didn’t know about that.”
This is my continual gripe. The City of Pickering is not doing enough to get the word out about all the great stuff that is happening here, about all the information that would benefit its residents.
Internet, social media be damned
Forget about the Internet and social media. Likely fewer than 10% of residents access the Internet. So the City’s web page, as comprehensive as it may be, may be a waste of effort.
Metroland
The Metroland newspaper is defunct. That doesn’t mean the vehicle is to be trashed. The City should consider redirecting its in excess of $100K toward a community gazette distributed city-wide as done in bygone eras. Keep it small, keep it current and keep it worthwhile…distribute it widely, maybe not door to door, but mosque to church, library to neighbourhood association. Make it easily available. Sell advertising, sell space…but make it a local vehicle of information.
K.I.S.S.
It is incredible how often we have urged the City to simplify what it publishes. the latest example, the City has an incredibly comprehensive “COMMUNITY SAFETY AND WELL BEING” plan which it promotes publicly. Huge, covering everything and looking at the future….great stuff including explanations, descriptions, statistics, and graphics. But the compilers never heard of keeping things simple. Few residents are going to spend the time needed to read through such a huge biblically-proportioned document. Simpliify folks, simplify.
City Website
Someone’s listening at last…we have pleaded and begged for the City to simplify and make its website easier to use and navigate. They listened. The site is much better. It is easier to use, easier to navigate, and easier to find information. They even include phone numbers to assist people. Marvellous…but how many residents eschew the use of the computer? Another resident we spoke with about Internet use, said, “No thanks. I prefer talking with live people. “You can lead the horse to water….but….”
Committee, committee, committee
The City seems to have innumerable committees working on everything under the sun. Is there one for Engaging the Community, and getting the word out? This is a huge task needing many hands but how many hands has the City engaged? Could one more committee, one made to explore and discuss what can be done to communicate with the residents and spread the word, be that difficult to create to find ways to improve communication with the City residents? Admittedly, a majority of the residents are passive in their interaction with the City…but should that be the acceptable? Should it be the normt? Get the word out and perhaps when the “horse tastes the water, it will drink more of it?”
Mayor, Mayor, Mayor
The Mayor has a lot on his plate but delegation may get more things done. Perhaps delegating Councillor responsibilities in specific designated areas may be fruitful, giving them greater functionality and allowing them bigger roles in municipal endeavours might to better and more productive ways to engage municipal residents.
Think this is all an exaggeration?
The Pickering Community Safety and Well-Being Plan Draft is a horrendous document to read, convoluted, overly detailed, and filled with tedious and minute detail. The short of it is the City presents a detailed and unnecessarily convoluted draft that no one will read. When we tried summarizing and making the document more succinct, it was so time-consuming that the effort was terminated after about 30% of the document was summarized. They don’t pay me for this and the City has not even donated a dime to all the work done on this website.
However, should you wish to examine and compare the two documents, the City’s original unedited version vs my incomplete but summarized first 10-15 pages, examine the two documents listed below:
CITY’s ORGINAL vs EDITED by SZP
The City of Pickering may be a great place to live but are we getting the biggest bang for our buck, engaging the greatest number of people we can, really doing as much as we can to keep us at the stellar level to which we are rising? We ask you!
