Often people say to me “What do you do every day?”…..”How often do you have to go downtown?”….”What are your hours like?”
Well I thought I’d show people what one of my day’s looks like when I don’t have to go downtown…..
My day usually starts with flipping through the pages of the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail newspapers while I eat breakfast.
I have all the technology to read them on line, but the traditionalist still like the feel of newsprint in the mornings!
The interesting thing I do find being a nighthawk is often flipping through social media the night before I often find myself reading the hard copy the next morning less and less. I know I’m not alone just by this reference to what is happening to other publications like the National Post
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/postmedias-problems-piling-up-with-print-revenue-declining/article34569674/
After helping get our kids out the door and off to school I settle in to my day. Today I started off with Scarborough Community Council. Surprisingly we some of our colleagues in other parts of the City would consider a fairly light agenda, with no deputations on any of the items listed. We were actually done by mid-Morning
Here is the agenda: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/decisionBodyProfile.do?function=doPrepare&meetingId=11912#Meeting-2017.SC21
Surprisingly it came with none of the long fence exemption debates….or tree cutting ones we have almost become famous for!
The joys of finishing Community Council allows one to move on to other activities. This mainly involves catching up on phone calls and paperwork. The main stay of a City Councillors days when not in meetings! (The reading is often for agendas of committees I am on….so it can be a bit circular!)
I did manage to pitch in at home at make dinner!!! #GoldStar
For the evening I had three different meetings lined up. The first one was at my favourite community hub The East Scarborough Storefront. (Twitter handle: @TheStorefrontKGO). The first one was very pleasant.
I got to have some fun painting a wooden honey bee to be used as part of an outdoor mural to promote pollinator bees and all they do as part of the food chain. This is a project by Tower Renewal (Twitter handle: @TOTower_Renewal) This is a City of Toronto program mandated to improve Toronto’s high-rise apartment buildings.
Next…Back to the Scarborough Town Centre for a meeting being hosted by myself and the City of Toronto Culture staff to discuss arts programming in what is currently known as “Building 191” on the grounds of the Guild Park & Gardens. 
Lots of community and staff engagement on this one! It is going to show some amazing results when it is all done! Four women who were present are descendants of the original owners of the Guild Inn, Rosa and Spencer Clark!!
My final meeting of the evening was with the Coronation and West Hill Community Association. They represent a larger part of the middle of my Ward, and also a portion of the neighbouring Ward, Ward 44, which is represented by Councillor Ron Moeser.
A number of issues were covered off, many of them dealing with transportation. There was a discussion around the ballooning budget for the Line 2 subway extension from Kennedy to the Scarborough Town Centre. Other than the increasing cost, many are worried what projects will be canceled as the City finds scarce dollars to finance its portion of the project. There was also a lot of discussion about Metrolinx work on the Lakeshore East Line and what it will mean to commuter times. The last topic cover car usage in the community including cars which are short-cutting through neighbourhoods north and south of Kingston Road.
I am seeing more and more in community meetings in Scarborough, the main topic of conversation first and foremost is about transportation. People are very worried how we are going to pay for public transit, how our roads are going to be maintained, and getting from point A to point B.
Meetings done! I ended my day as it began….looking at the news. My usual tool is Twitter and an app on my tablet called “Flipboard” which allows you to format your own reading library which is a great way to get a broad perspective on what’s going on!
My day in a nutshell! Good Night Toronto!