With the last Ontario election we are likely to see in the next four years, I've continued to think about how I want to use my volunteer time. I've settled on a project that combines some of what I like about politics with lots of what I like about my job: I want to encourage people to be better neighbours.
Guelph has a long history of contentious relationships in student neighbourhoods, which is not unusual for a University town. The administration and the city do important work on setting expectations, policing and responding to complaints, but I'm pretty sure that we should expect more leadership from the people actually living in the community. If students could put names and faces to the people living in the houses around them, they would be less likely to vandalize their yards or keep people up with noisy parties. If long time Guelph residents spent a little bit of time building relationships with students then perhaps we'd encourage more University Graduates to stay in the city and apply what they know to develop R&D, Green or 21st century jobs in places like the Hanlon Creek business park.
So, I'm going to be using my involvement/relationships with the Hanlon Creek Neighbourhood Group, the Green Party, the University and the City to see if there aren't some relationship building events we could run to start having students and permanent Guelph residents get to know each other. I think we should demand that our leaders work to create less of these stories:
http://www.guelphtribune.ca/opinion/more-needs-to-be-done/
http://www.guelphtribune.ca/opinion/make-u-of-g-students-pay-for-their-actions/
http://www.guelphtribune.ca/opinion/student-problems-in-downtown-too/
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/603545--university-of-guelph-suspends-men-s-rugby-team-for-two-games-over-off-field-conduct
And more of these:
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/604610--downtown-under-control-but-guelph-neighbourhoods-get-closer-look-in-effort-to-address-off-campus-headaches-attributed-to-university-students
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/600912--university-of-guelph-students-assist-goderich-residents-in-wake-of-summer-tornado
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