Connectivity.
This message should reverberate through the minds of Surrey residents, especially following Mayor Watts’ State of the City address, her eighth in fact.
The much sought after transit line is encouraged for its ability to connect downtown Surrey to the three city centres in Newton, Guildford and Langley.
This upcoming weekend, the city will host its first community summit where residents are encouraged to voice any opinions, interests or ideas.
Then, during today’s address, the mayor presented another progressive idea: a virtual town hall called City Speaks. City Speaks will allow thousands of citizens to offer their opinion via, presumably, an online form or interface.
The idea itself isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, though the mayor called it the first initiative of its kind in Canada. For instance, Vancouver has held its own Twitter town hall meeting (the number of occasions is uncertain), whereby Mayor Robertson and councillors are made available to questions via twitter, for a limited space of time.
In truth, Vancouver’s idea likely cost a lot less than Surrey’s City Speaks, but the idea is positive. The more open spaces citizens have to voice their concerns, the better the democratic process of course.
Returning to the notion of connectivity, it’s definitely clear council is pushing towards a more unified city. Whether the city can see itself under a single Surrey umbrella will remain to be seen. At the moment it feels like six separate town centres that share utilities, but not concerns.
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