Funky Talk at Molo's 01Aug09

Thanks to Trevor Greenway of the LowDown for showing up and facilitating a great discussion about Future Funk in Wakefield.

Participants included Nancy Greenwood, Rhonda Ward, Andrew Salkeld, Andrew McKay, Phil Cohen and Peter Gillies.

We started with a review of the process to date - back to the first PPU in 1999 thru the community Vitality Index of 2006 to the current PPU which was intended to be the work of some external consultants who dropped the ball into the hands of the Municipalité and the volunteer Advisory Committee.

There was much discussion about whose voices should be heard - probably residents and business owners first followed by those among us who live in the area and the rest well ... get in line. Tourism is probably inevitable - how can we minimize its footprint and make it as compatible with the diverse local resident interests. Even without the tourist impact there is a strong incentive to manage village traffic - two complement key approaches are imaginative corridors such as the board walk and traffic restrictions which could even see shuttles into the core.

There is a backdrop of unresolved and or pending development issues on the perimeter that need further research - including the controversial use of Morrison Quarry and the impact on Wakefield of the Phase Two (Three?) Autoroute Cinq extension to McLaren road and beyond.

We need a better picture of what life is like here - we could use a more in-depth knowledge base of both our residents and our visitors.

We could benefit from stepping way back and focusing more on the vision. What does Wakefield want to be? Including what sort of economy do we want to have? A better understanding of those big picture concepts could helpfully inform the technical recommendations that abound in the current PPU.