Fuzzy Boundaries

Peter. Excellent points. I like Royce for the reasons you state.

I would like to point out that many Toronto neighbourhoods are named after streets, for example
Agincourt; Morningside; Markland Wood; The Westway; Pape Village; East Danforth; Leslieville; Swansea; Kensington Market; Harbord Village; Queen Street West; Baby Point; Weston. These were all from a Toronto website.

Although I am not sure of their origin, I am doubtful that they named the area before the street was named. Ie. I lived in Roncesvalles long before it became Roncesvalles Village.

I personally think using a street name helps give people a sense of where it is without knowing exact boundaries and using a decently well known street in the neighbourhood makes sense to me.

GZ

I'm in agreement about street names -- I don't think using one is the best idea. And re Nook and Wedge, they are fun, but don't have a lasting quality about them. I don't like Railpath because we have one already, but Railtown might be okay.... Or Railside. Junction East I'm not at all a fan of; it would just muddy the waters more. Though I still have a soft spot for Junction Triangle. Nice to be getting the discussion back on track.

Irmina,

My proposal was just a feeler and by no means a perfect plan. And of course its a lot of work. My intent was to try and move the yardsticks and see if anybody else has any ideas about making this process better.

As somebody who ran a large community festival for 3 years I understand how tiring this stuff is and everybody is a critic, in this case I am the critic. So thank you and the FB folk for all the time you have invested.

1.What if you just extended the nomination a week so we can all send extra emails out to get as many names nominated and as many involved.

2.Announce the panel who will reduce the names to a workable 3 top names (they would exclude any name that there is legal issues with or is a joke name or is unworkable (like 78 letters long) based on their experience, and of course there would be locals on the panel too.

3. Then have a community vote, in order of preference, on those 3 names. The names use a weighted system and a winner is announced. This vote happens in March the same way the nominations are happening right now. You add in some help from the councilor to distribute and publicize the second vote and you ask for volunteers to "talk to their block" to get people out for the vote.

This is the simplest version I can think of where residents will actually pick the name.

In this simple version you have have improved the vote and possibly the numbers of voters without scrapping any of the work done to date.If FB could bend in this direction Naomi and I would be the first to commit to canvassing our block for a second vote and to sit on a volunteer committee to make sure that every block gets canvassed.

This suggestion might reduce the fuzzing.

I think the process sounds fair though might need some tweaking. The process Scott D suggested is a huge undertaking and seems like the wrong way to go. As a community we should save such energy for bigger things, like the diesel electric controversy.

I haven mentioned most of my concerns for about a year but nobody listened. I emailed FB members, I talked with them.

If people cant vote directly on the name of their community, then they have no say in the name of their community. There is no logical way around this point. You either appoint a name, or you vote for a name. I am not scared to let my community vote and I am scred to say lets take a break and improve this process. Its never the end of the world to make something more democratic.

My proposal is way different that the current "process". Mine is democratic.

I appreciate your honesty Warren and I know first hand you care about the community.

Irmina, No one is critizing your meetings or disagreeing with people getting together with one anothers, that's great. The idea was great until the end. My concern is about the process of renaming the community. I don't believe that a hand full of people should decide or speak for the whole community on naming of the community. The community belongs to the people(residents). This is not an election for a community group or a BIA or RA, this about naming a neighbourhood, all residents having should have a say and a voice to this. They alone should have the last say, whatever they decide, we must except that. This is the way it's done in a democratic society. We hear and see this style of voting process in corrupt country's, we are a little better then that. I have already sent my concerns to Adam's office, to put a stop to this smoke screen process.I am hoping Adam will do something, if not I will follow up with others in the City level. I am very disappointed that many of you don't see that the process is unfair and undemocratic and you don't represent my interest or my family.

Well said, Irmina. I was also really impressed with people's ideas and enthusiasm at the meeting, and how respectful people were of each other's opinions. I've spent a lot of time thinking about the name-choosing process, and I really do think it's a fair one. People vote, the list gets narrowed down to ten names that are voted for most often, and then it goes to the jury to sort through them and decide from among those names the community has put forward. The jury will of course take into consideration that one of the ten names has oodles more support than the others, if indeed that happens. But they will also be able to avoid the possibility of the process being spoiled by, for instance, someone voting a hundred times for the same name. Hopefully people won't do that, but there are always those who don't follow the guidelines set out -- so the jury is extremely useful in this way. I think it's also important to stress that the majority of jury members will be from the community -- only two from outside, and those two will have some expertise in ideas around neighbourhoods. Also crucial for people to understand is that no Fuzzy Boundaries members will sit on the jury. We meant what we said when we stated we wanted to inspire the community to find a name rather than find one for them.

JUST LOOK AROUND YOU HAVE THE PERFECT MOVIE SCENERY JUST OUTSIDE MY PLACE YOU CAN MAKE A WAR MOVIE CALL IT TOMATOES GONE WILD THEN WE HAVE THE THE PARK YOU CAN CALL THAT MOVIE [OH DAMN ANOTHER PILE OF DOG CRAP ] THEN WE HAVE THE SATURDAY NIGHT SHOW OF LEAVE IT TO BEAVER STARTING DAVE AND HIS BOYS LOL

The community news paper, NEIGHBOURS had an article which said "that the final name will be choosen by a panel of experts". As a resident of this community I find that concerning. If what the paper is saying to be true, this is a problem. The paper also wrote that the final decision is decided that way to avoid as Kevin said, names like"Pink Triangle" I personnally don't like the name, pink triangle. But we feel okay with it, if that is what the community choose and voted on, plus pink triangle is better then wedge.

Regardless what the name is, if that is what the majority of residents voted on, then that's the final decision, and we live with it.

This community knows first hand that sometimes politicians are elected, that we may or may not like, but are stuck with them. This is democracy. So the same should apply to this, the residents should choose the name, not a panel of experts, if the experts want to give their opinions, that's great. But at the end it's the residents of this community that decide. That is the only democratic way. Just like in any voting situation, the majority wins.

I seen the yellow signs around the neighbourhood, asking residents to vote and pick a name for their neighbourhood. We can't say one thing and then we turn around and do something eles. JF