Guest Blogger - A View from the Crowd at T.O. 101

~ Guest Bloggers can submit posts to this site - the opinions of the authors  are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the postion of the City of Toronto, Civic Engagement Toronto or Toronto Civics 101. ~

The most important premier to happen in Toronto last week was also the least reported. Over a hundred Torontonians making up a representative sample of the city came together at City Hall for the first of six Toronto Civics 101 events. There may have only been one camera and the presence of only one celebrity (Mayor Miller), but no other event could claim to have as much future potential for the prosperity of Toronto.

Toronto Civics 101 is an important step in civic engagement and although it’s a new initiative, it felt like a throwback to an era before we would just crowdsource opinions online. For that reason, it felt extra special to be among the delegates for the rare opportunity to learn firsthand about our city and engage with strangers who we shared at least one commonality with: to make Toronto even better.

Many of those present seemed hungry for the opportunity to voice their opinions or ask questions on subjects that spanned a broad spectrum. It was valuable to consider aspects of the city operations that I take for granted or problems that individuals face which I may never have thought of. And although far from finding a solution, it was nevertheless exciting to talk to broad issues like how to end traffic! That said, the first focus of T.O. 101 is to inform on what Toronto is doing rather than what Toronto should do. While the later is inevitable, it can also be potentially ugly when discussion evolves to debate.

That’s not to say it shouldn’t happen, but that there is a time a place and I thought it would be a good idea to write some thoughts following each session as this is one of those good places. What surprised & interested you most about last Thursday?

I was initially surprised to see the extra- opinionated twitter generation entirely absent from T.O. 101. Sure, it makes sense that you could get all this information online and I had even wondered if I had made a mistake at one point. But, like most things, it comes down to quality over quantity. It’s simply more impactful and inspiring to hear about the city’s operations from the individuals who actually do it rather than a faceless webpage. Sure, it takes more time but if you don’t take time to do the things which are most important to you, then what was the point of having all that ‘time-saving’ technology in the first place.

I was most interested by the people that I had a chance to speak to and their diversity in relation to where they lived, where they were from and just generally who they were. This might not seem entirely profound but as Mayor Miller pointed out, the council chambers were far more representative of Toronto than they normally are – an appreciated dig at the still-too-homogenous make up of our elected representatives. Of course, there simply was not enough time to meet too many of you, so I eagerly look forward to next week’s event.

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Adil Dhalla (@TheNetTale) is the founder of creativitykilledtherecession.org and proud to be among the inaugural attendees of T.O. 101