I often hear from people that they feel like they’re out of the loop with what’s being presented at council, or where our councillors stand on policies and current events. In an age of social media, I think councillors have an easier time than ever conveying to the general public what’s going on and what we should be considering. As someone who is proficient in social media, my goal if elected is to make sure that I am regularly updating my social media to reflect what is being discussed in council, upcoming events to support the community, and address concerns as I can.
While many issues need to be presented before council, I think making sure the public is aware of what is happening and that their voices are being heard is an appropriate step.
If you’ve ever been trying to drive around the downtown core, or even enter into Bradford during evening rush hour, then you already know that we have a bit of a traffic problem. Realistically, a lot of our traffic comes from people passing through Bradford to get from the 400 to the 404 (and vice versa), and I have the strong hope that we’ll see a large decrease in traffic once that is built and active.
In the meantime, I’d love to see a time study done on the lights at Holland & Barrie / Simcoe, and Holland / Bridge St & Marshview / Dissette to see if changing the timing might make for more efficient traffic. I’d also love to see a traffic-impact study done to determine if installing lights on Bridge Street at Canal Road would help ease some of the difficulty of customers trying to enter / exit plazas and businesses located between Dissette and Canal on Bridge St. I believe that addressing the traffic problems on this strip of Bridge St. may help those businesses thrive.
In the past few years the town has made purchase of a few buildings that have sat empty, unused, and, in some cases, derelict. I think the town needs to put a hold on purchasing any new properties until the current ones are sorted out. Some of the more notable town-owned buildings include the Bradford & District Memorial Community Centre at 125 Simcoe Road, which has been in discussions for repurposing for about as long as I’ve lived in Bradford. A final decision should be made on this, either selling the land to someone who will develop it, or working towards making this a community recreation and greenspace for local residents to enjoy. Bradford currently holds many community events there, so repurposing / redeveloping it for the town makes the most sense to me.
The town also recently purchased the former Bradford Public School located at 177 Church Street. My fear is that this property will be subject to another years-long debate, despite the overwhelming number of possibilities for it once brought back up to code. I know one of the options on the table was to transform the school into a new centralized hub for the food bank and the clothing room (as well as other community support services), and I think this is a fantastic idea. By combining these services there will hopefully be an increase in their capacity to serve our town, as well as cutting costs for these charitable organizations. It means that the properties they currently operate out of can be sold or repurposed for community use, making these buildings less of an eye-sore and giving our town more options for community spaces, such as a continuing local market, arts space, and more.
Lastly, I think a decision needs to be made about the property currently located at 108 Moore St. It’s sad to me that a building that was designated as having significant historical value in our community was left to sit exposed to the elements until the point that it is now in a state of disrepair. Blame has been placed on the property owner (who also tried to fight the heritage designation in the first place), but the town should have stepped in sooner. What is the point of a heritage designation if nothing is done to protect the property? At this point it has become a thorn in the side of residents who live around it, who have watched it sit and waste away for more than two years. Something should be done about this property, in a well thought-out but timely manner.
Related to traffic as a whole, I’d love to see our council work in conjunction with the South Simcoe Police Service for better monitoring of Bridge & Holland Streets. Speeding from Canal to Marshview / Dissette is another contributing factor to the difficulty for customers to get in and out of those plazas. We need to send a message that when the sign says the speed limit is 50, then that is the actual speed limit.
Speeding, as a whole, is a growing issue and concern in our town, especially in residential neighbourhoods and school zones. I believe these areas should be monitored on a more regular basis - but I think a large part of this also comes down to live reporting. If we’re getting a lot of reports from the same street area, then we know this is going to be a good place to monitor. With so many streets in Bradford, they cannot all be monitored, but by setting up zones based on reporting we can hopefully help reduce this growing problem. I also support the use of radar speed signs equipped with cameras to catch offenders when police cannot be present.
I’m privileged enough to live within walking distance of our historic downtown, and I would love to see a return to foot-traffic in this area. I appreciate our CIP Grant program for the upkeep and updating of buildings in the downtown core, but I think it’s also very important that we are careful of what we’re approving the money for. I also think the quality and care of our downtown sidewalks should be of utmost importance, for if the sidewalks are falling apart, troublesome to navigate, or are causing accessibility issues, they are deterring people from visiting the core. Regular examination of these sidewalks is a key component.
I also approve of the town’s sidewalk cafe approach during the Covid-19 crisis. I think by offering sidewalk cafes in nicer weather, we are also encouraging people to come into the core not just for their meals, but hopefully to explore and discover as well. Keeping this sidewalk project in future years would be ideal, but first we need to work on traffic diversion from this area.
Last, but not least, I think what would also be a big help to drawing more people back into our downtown core is for the town to encourage potential new businesses to open in the core. When I first moved here, there was a bank downtown; now there is not. The lack of many amenities that people use regularly prevents people who live downtown from shopping and spending more time in this area - while also creating more traffic as now everyone needs to travel to the west end of Bradford for their needs.
Bradford is a growing town, and this is not something that is stopping any time soon. We are one of the fastest growing communities in Ontario, of which population projections suggest will exceed 50,000 people by 2030. With this comes the demand for more housing.
Before any more housing developments are approved in town, I think we need to look at not just what is being put where, but how it impacts that community, accessibility to amenities, and impact on traffic. For instance, I would never approve of erecting an apartment building in the middle of a well-established area in town that is mostly 1 and 2 story dwellings, because of the impact on privacy for those who already live there. I also believe as we build new residential developments we need to factor in their proximity to the nearest frequented amenities (grocery stores, gas stations, schools, etc) and ensure that land is being put aside to encourage commercial development in those areas so the entire town is not having to always travel to the same areas for their retail needs.
And with the approval of residential developments we need to take into consideration the value of those properties that are being built. While land value may be out of our control, making sure that housing in a variety of different price ranges (and appropriate to the areas in which they’re being built) is something we can control. A town does its citizens an injustice if new generations are being forced to leave because there’s nowhere for them to live.