In today's Mercury, Scott Tracey reports on Guelph's city council deciding to change course on their approach to the "rental housing challenge." The article describes how we are going from a by-law that wasn't working, restricting the number of lodging houses and accessory apartments (places where students usually live in high numbers) and moving towards a system where these types of residences will be licensed.
I'm not convinced that either of these approaches deal with the issues in our neighbourhoods. We have the opportunity, as a community, to help a generation learn how to be good neighbours, good community members and engaged adults. I would love to hear about how individual councilors are working towards fostering relationships between students and permanent residents, perhaps even creating a culture where students want to stay in Guelph post-graduation and create jobs/industries that will last through the 21st century.
Assuming that Mr. Tracey's article accurately reflects the meeting that occured, it is unfortunate that councillors (particularly in Ward 5 and 6) aren't talking about the actions they are taking with their friends, neighbourhood groups and constituents to pro-actively frame "rental housing challenges" as an opportunity to make Guelph a better place to live. Continuing to focus on how we can better regulate our landlords and police our student community members does not seem like a sustainable, long-term solution.
No comments:
Post a Comment