Bronson Avenue Open House audio and transcript

Last Thursday was the City's public open house for the reconstruction of Bronson Avenue. Well over 100 people attended, but information is wanting for people who couldn't attend. The project website is supposed to have information up today (Edit Tuesday: RescueBronson.ca has posted the English slides), but even so, they say they want comments in by Thursday, so that they can issue an RFP in three weeks, and begin construction as early as February 2012. Clearly, there are little or no plans to change the scope of the project based on the "consultation".

So Rescue Bronson—again—is picking up the slack. We've published a collection of links to coverage of the Bronson open house, which includes some information on the project plans itself. Eric Darwin features in much of it, and his dedication is much appreciated.

I also recorded the entire staff presentation and Q&A session of the open house, and you can download the mp3 here (99 MB) (Edit: sorry, the upload wasn't working. It's an hour and 48 minutes long, and a very large file; hopefully someone can find a way to embed or stream it so you don't have to wait to download the whole thing.

I've also typed up a transcript that you can access as a Google Doc, or view it below. It isn't verbatim, and there is some interpretation, but gives a good idea of most of the discussion. There are timestamps so you can skip to the part of the mp3 that you want to hear.

The first person to speak in the Q&A session asked people to raise their hands if they've ever been hit or nearly hit on Bronson Avenue. I took a picture (there were more standing out of view of the camera):

I should note as a disclaimer that I work in Councillor Diane Holmes' office, and I am a board member of the CCCA and DCA, which with the CCOC are the four partners in Rescue Bronson Avenue. All are opposed to the widening of Bronson Avenue and have been fighting hard to get some improvements for the community as part of this reconstruction project.

If you haven't yet done so, please sign the Rescue Bronson Avenue online petition.