I went to the Yes In Winnipeg (
www.yesinwpg.com) monthly meeting last night. This is an interesting group in town who's focused on making a difference in how the city is planned, to allow more infill and make developments more walkable/bike-able/transit serviceable/accessible.
Unlike some interest groups I've popped my head into, these guys seem pretty focused on actually trying to achieve their ends rather than gathering to belly ache together.
The specific areas they think they can make a difference in are:
* form a coalition of general YIMBY-minded folks who can be notified whenever there are projects that can be supported but which are facing NIMBY backlash (so, going to attend hearings or whatever the city calls them, expressing support for the project to councillors, etc)
* make it easier for developers and individuals to develop higher density infill projects. One of the ideas floated was to upgrade large portions of the city from zone "R1" to zone "R2".
* make it easier to build "second suites" in existing lots (this is where you construct a second structure in your lot, or build on to an existing structure, to create a second home which you can rent out or put your grandmother up in, etc)
The short term priority for the group at this point is to expand its size in terms of membership/attendance/mailing list, and to get some small amount of cash for online advertising. There's also some workshops in early stages of planning which walk the public through how to go about making such "second suite" units, and will be paid admission (that money goes to advertising). The thinking is that such workshops will expand the public awareness and increase membership. Some members of the org are also from development industry, very frustrated by NIMBY's, which would very much like to see this org get off the ground, so things like company sponsorships are likely to be part of the funding strategy. Other, free, public information sessions are also in the early stages of planning, for the same purpose of expanding the base.
The thinking is that once the size of the organization is large enough then they can go to city councillors with a lot more weight and actually stand a chance to affect change. The goal for the initial growth phase of the org, before attempting to influence policy, is to have at least 25 people consistently showing up at monthly meetings. Last night 9 showed up, but they've had as many as 20 before. By the way, the org is ~1 year old.
So if you're interested in these things, and you probably are if you're on this forum, then you might want to consider signing for the mailing list and showing your face at a couple of the meetings.