So I’m technically taking this week “off”. I’m presently a) still working on my manuscript and b) working on a bigger piece for a future edition that is taking a lot of time and energy. It’ll be worth it (I hope), but it has made it difficult for me to do my usual deep dives into current affairs.

That said, I didn’t want to leave all you lovely comrades hanging this week, so here’s a tiny little newsletter full of links I’ve been checking out and my commentary on them. Think of it as my “cool facts for cool people” section in one newsletter.

Cool facts for cool people: Extended Edition

City Food

An article from Fast Company caught my eye the other day. Yeah, I know that FastCo is a bit of a meme in design and internet culture circles (imagine if the worst hustle bro influencer you knew hired someone to write a blog for them), but this article was pretty interesting.

Entitled “5 reasons why cities should create an office of urban agriculture” the article (written in part by a director of Washington DC’s Office of Urban Agriculture), talks about how more than a dozen cities in the US have created urban agriculture offices that aim to promote healthy cities, urban development, provide educational opportunities, create more resilient cities, and promote overall sustainability initiatives.

Now, I know that things like this could easily be weaponized by business and economic development departments to be another shiny thing on their “Let’s Attract The Creative Class” brochures, but the idea could also be used to really change how we view urban spaces.

Imagine a Hamilton-based Director of Urban Agriculture. That person could work with council and staff to create front-yard garden policies, advance urban chickens, work with horticulture to ensure planters and medians are filled with local food and pollinator plants, liaise with urban farming groups already active in the city, work to support community farmer’s markets, and work hand-in-hand with the city’s new sustainability office.

An opportunity to discuss land use, food security, sustainability, and tasty local treats? Sign me up!

Blue Jeans and School Boards

The Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) is the public board for much of Eastern Ontario. Covering over 12,000 km2 the board is the fourth largest in area (slightly smaller than the country of Montenegro), though is somewhat “smaller” when compared to other public boards in the province; their 26,000 students and 107 schools means they have half the student population as the HWDSB and 18% of the schools as the Toronto District School Board.

They may not have the same numbers as more urban school boards, but they can field the controversy like the best of them.

Last month, Stormont and Glengarry trustee Curtis Jordan was banned from participating in meetings of any kind until next year by his colleagues. His crime? Wearing blue jeans at a meeting.

Apparently.

The UCDSB isn’t actually saying what Jordan did to warrant this ban. They’ve been pretty tight lipped about the whole thing, so we have to rely on Jordan’s own comments regarding his suspension.

Jordan was elected in 2022 as a pretty progressive trustee. He’s been vocal about his support for the ONDP and Olivia Chow, and has been a strong advocate for students with autism, as he has been open about his own neurodivergence. His monthly trustee updates include messages of support for Indigenous communities, trans students, and refugees.

His colleagues haven’t been impressed. Jordan cited his wearing jeans and failing to use proper parliamentary procedure as some of the reasons he’s been barred from participating in meetings.

The whole thing is super weird and made all that more weird by the hesitation on the part of the UCDSB to explain exactly why Jordan has been booted from meetings. School boards need to be transparent about their decision-making, just as every other level of government should. For the UCDSB to prevent a trustee from participating in meetings and not provide a public reason is an affront to democracy.

Jordan has said he’ll appeal the decision, so this is definitely a story to watch.

Spicy

Over on Garbage Day (for new readers, that’s my favourite online culture newsletter), there’s a great observation about the fun new thing reactionary conservatives are doing: ignoring how hot it is.

It would appear that right wing influencers (all the blue check people who are first in the replies on Twitter now) are just laughing off the fact that baseline temps in the US are hitting 35 degrees (without any humidex added).

Considering Hamilton’s been riding the high 20s (with humidity in the mid 30s) for the past few weeks and yet people like Ward councillor Esther Pauls (as noted in last week’s surprise newsletter) are questioning why we need any climate initiatives, none of this should surprise me.

The fact that it is this hot is not okay and you’re not more of a man for pretending not to sweat in 37 degree heat, pal.

Low traffic, high vote

This is a little update(ish) from one of my very first newsletters (and, honestly, one I’m pretty happy with) about the 15 Minute City conspiracy.

Part of the opposition to 15 Minute Cities was built on opposition to “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods” or “LTNs”. These LTNs generally restrict car movement in favour of pedestrians, cyclists, and anyone using active transportation. Many still provide for some car access, particularly for the elderly and disabled.

The new UK government has come out swinging against LTNs, despite them being championed by their former leader, Boris Johnson. The UK Tories tried to make LTNs a bit of a wedge issue during their recent municipal elections, opposing them in the name of the car driving public. But a new study shows that probably backfired on them. Turns out supporting or opposing LTNs didn’t impact one’s chances of re-election. Indeed, since the UK Conservative Party is in freefall, polling-wise, their opposition to LTNs was probably undercut somewhat by how generally unlikable they are.

Does that mean Canadian councillors campaigning on restricting traffic might not be punished at the ballot box? Hard to say. Ontario’s bizarre and antiquated obsession over non-partisanship means that it will be harder to punish an individual councillor for their party’s mistakes and more likely that councillor will be punished for their personal positions. But, still, while LTNs are popular in London, it is hard to say if they’ll be popular here. I, for one, am super willing to try it out, though!

Arrest everybody

I wasn’t paying very close attention to London, Ontario’s 2022 municipal election. I should have been, but I got busy. The forced switch back to first-past-the-post from their ranked ballot was terrible and it seems to have impacted their local politics in a pretty profound way.

London’s Ward 4, in the east/central part of town, was represented from 2014 to 2022 by Jesse Helmer, the partner of former Ontario Liberal leadership candidate Kate Graham. When Helmer announced his retirement, a number of candidates stepped up to replace him.

Unfortunately, the one who won was Susan Stevenson, a far-right supporter of the People’s Party whose candidacy was opposed by Helmer. Voter turnout was 21% (down about 2,000 votes from 2018) and Stevenson won with 28% in an election that, under a ranked ballot, would have most certainly seen support from the three progressive candidates who opposed her coalesce by the final count, denying her the seat. But Doug Ford thinks you’re too stupid for ranked ballots, so here we are.

Anyway, PPCers gonna PPC, I guess, because Stevenson found herself in hot water this week for suggesting we arrest anyone experiencing homelessness.

Stevenson tweeted an article written by American blogger (who is bafflingly considered “moderate” down there) that suggests arresting anyone who is homeless.

The article starts off okay, by saying we need to provide people housing. Cool. Good. Yes. But then it quickly goes off the rails by saying we also have to forcibly institutionalize anyone with mental illness and addictions and then force them to work. If they chose to deny this “charity” we’re providing, they’ll be arrested. Because nothing says “personal liberty” like denying people any choice in life because the mere sight of them inconveniences you.

Stevenson literally tweets the article with the exact quote: “London could be first 🥰”.

The blowback was intense, so Global spoke to Stevenson, who was baffled that people were mad, saying: “some people have chosen to jump on the arresting portion of it. No rational discussion about any other portion of the plan.”

Yes, let’s have a rational conversation about forcing people to find work and accept help that may harm them without providing any assistance that’s tailored to people or that acknowledges past trauma.

Now Stevenson’s out doing the press circuit, telling anyone who will listen that she was “just trying to start a conversation” and that people “aren’t being rational” when they get mad about this. Do they teach this stuff in PPC school? Okay, not school…its the PPC, so it would be more like a camp.

So, congrats, London. You’ve elected a far-right PPC supporter who suggested arresting people experiencing homelessness and added a little 🥰 for good measure and now she’s smirking like an 18 year old with a fedora in your poli sci tutorial who ends every inflammatory statement with “I’m just asking questions, you don’t have to get so hysterical,” while looking directly at the women in the class.

Waterloo, why you do?

Well I guess we’re talking about the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) again. I mentioned their trustee by-election process a few times, most recently on July 6 after they selected their new trustees.

Yesterday, Twitter user @justin_buhr posted an update about the involvement of anti-vaxx and increasingly anti-queer fringe group Waterloo Region for Medical Freedom in the WRDSB trustee selection process.

Seems like the group had a potluck and invited some sitting trustees to meet with them. Just when you think they’re on the right track, they go off and do something like this.

It is unclear which trustees met with the group, but “Sandra” in the group chat “loved hearing what the Trust ees had to day”. Importantly, Sandra the pro-speller (like I’m one to talk) noted that she does not have kids in the system but is becoming increasingly involved in school board politics. More and more fringe far-right figures are looking to school boards as a way to make some headway. Just one more exhausting thing with which we must contend.

Some old school Twitter beef

Ahh, the good old days of Twitter. When someone could log on, say something stupid, and piss everyone off for a day.

We got a little taste of those glory days this week when Eric Lombardi of “More Neighbours TO” - the weirdly market fetishistic “Yes In My BackYard” (YIMBY) group - slammed Olivia Chow for being the exact same as Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford: a member of a political dynasty.

While I get the…intent…I think that just spending like…30 more seconds thinking about it would have meant maybe not sending what is, in reality, a very dumb tweet. Because the two multimillionaire children of politicians might be slightly different than the immigrant who just so happened to marry a politician after she was already a politician herself. The responses are mildly interesting and the best probably came from Tom Parkin.

It would actually seem like Tom and Eric have a little Twitter feud going on, which, again, is great for helping us remember the glory days of the site, but now just feels sad. Every time I open Twitter, I have an urge to call animal control, because that bird is dead and I’m pretty sure its carrying something. But these two are acting like everything’s okay, which is honestly pretty sad.

Last thought: being anti-dynastic is okay, but being pro- co-ops, social housing, and any housing built outside the market would be cooler.

An update from Toronto

For someone who talks a lot about how much I hate Twitter these days, sure seems like I post a lot of screenshots of tweets…

That’s the Sewer Socialists for this week! See you all next week for another edition of…you know…all this stuff.

Byeee!