Category / Uncategorised
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Geotrail: Promoting Active Transportation Off-Road
There are a whole myriad of online and mobile tools that curate experiences for people in the urban environment. Whether it’s restaurants or a walking tour, there are endless recommendations available on how to spend your time in cities. But what about the natural environment? Specifically, how can online tools help promote active transportation off-road.…
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Women and the City
The following remarks were presented as part of panel discussion at the Women and the City event hosted by the Useful Knowledge Society at the AGH Annex, in Hamilton on June 6th 2017. Good evening, thank you to the Useful Knowledge Society for inviting me to participate on this panel. As mentioned, I’m a Principal…
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Adaptive Reuse for Community Benefit
Ontario’s mid-sized cities are changing. Population growth, urban renewal, new transit systems, and growing economies are bringing newfound energy to cities across the province. One challenge for these cities is to find ways to reuse and reinvent spaces that may no longer serve the purpose for which they were intended originally. To better understand how…
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More than Money: Revisiting the New Deal for Cities
Almost 15 years ago, former Finance Minister Paul Martin addressed the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Hamilton, Canada and proclaimed the need for a “New Deal for Cities” where better federal-municipal relationships would forge a stronger urban Canada. Jack Layton, then president of the FCM, looked on enthusiastically, as he had pushed for…
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How PB Analytics Helps Build Neighbourhood Engagement
Since 2012, residents of Ward 1 in Hamilton, Canada have worked together to determine how approximately $7.5 million (CAD) would be spent on local infrastructure projects. The ward’s participatory budgeting (PB) process, “forWard one,” has grown in popularity year after year. In its first year (2012), just over 400 residents participated. The 2016 process recorded…
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Federal Brownfield Funding Could Kickstart Redevelopment of Former Stelco Land
With the federal budget approaching, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has released its 2017 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB). Among its many thoughtful and sustainable recommendations is a much needed investment that is very relevant to my hometown of Hamilton. Civicplan Principal Paul Shaker contributes to the AFB section on Infrastructure and Cities, which…
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Engaging communities with participatory planning
It was 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning in late June. Kids and parents trickled into the playground. There was a buzz outside Dr. Edgar Davey Elementary School in central Hamilton, Ontario. School was almost done and the excitement was palpable. The end of another school year wasn’t the only event happening that day. The…
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To the Little Things
A snowman is just a snowman. Or is it? We passed this snowman over the weekend, happily standing on the median of a busy intersection. We don’t know who built it, but we do know it made us smile. Winter is a good time to stop and appreciate the little things that build a community.…
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Leveraging civic assets as economic development and renewal infrastructure
Some of the Civicplan team had the recent opportunity to visit beautiful downtown Cambridge, Ontario. The revitalization along the banks of the Grand River was impressive with many historic buildings being brought back to life including the home of the University of Waterloo Architecture School. The economic spin-off from the university campus is very evident…
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Capturing and measuring local character can help with future planning.
When you think about shopping local, you often think about different districts in your city. In Hamilton, Canada, locals think of places such as Concession Street, Locke Street or Downtown Dundas. Each of these distinct areas has a different character that influences how people describe them. Usually, it’s the mix of local businesses that help…
