AGM 2010 Addendum - President's Report

Hillhurst-Sunnyside – Transitioning From A Good to Great Community

The last year was a very challenging year at the HSCA. We were without an executive director for almost half a year. The new executive director, James Michi, is very personable and professional. The Board is looking forward to seeing James grow into this position.

Pressures on our community are mounting. With a combination of gentrification and densification, our community is changing. Many new people now live in our community. New bonds are being formed, but what and who our community is and will become, is not yet clear.

What is clear is that people are feeling frustrated and powerless. From this it has became apparent in 2010 and beyond, that the HSCA needs to better work with the City and our City Councillor to create a more meaningful and transparent process to ensure that our community has input and influence in decisions that affect our community.

I was fortunate to grow up in a SE suburb in Calgary. The street that I grew up on and where my parents still live is the definition of community spirit. For the last 31 years they have had an all day and all night annual block party in the spring and also have a street pancake breakfast during Stampede. These events were the highlights of my childhood. Neighbours were like family. While growing up I assumed every street was like this.

Despite a great childhood, I chose to live in the inner city. Diversity, liveliness, and a decreased reliance on the automobile is something that is difficult to find in the suburbs. Hopefully we can build on current community celebrations and create new ones that reflect who we are and why we live here. This is the fun part.

Celebrations and meeting your neighbours is one thing. Creating a community in charge of its own destiny is quite another. To create this we need the participation of everyone in the community. Critics need to come out of their armchairs. Citizens need to come out of their cubby holes and create the community we want to live in. We need to go from saying what we don’t want, to saying what we do want. Strong and vibrant communities are created with hard work. We will often disagree along the way. The path will not be easy or smooth, but it will be rewarding.

We need to harness people’s skills and energy to think of and implement solutions to the many pressing issues in our community. Volunteers en masse need to rise up to the many challenges in our community. Write about these challenges in the Voice newsletter, talk about them with your neighbours, meet with residents over them in the community centre, and help implement solutions to them.

Community just doesn’t happen. It only happens with all of you. Hopefully with you, 2010 will be the year Hillhurst-Sunnyside transitions from a good to great community.

David Wilson
Acting President HSCA