Here's my two cents (and I'll try to keep my comments brief for a change): if you want to effect change, you need to go beyond posting comments to a forum. You need to form real relationships in an actual organization of people who meet in person and hash out strategies to make their case in the community, the local media, city staff, and politicians.
As an example of what I mean, I humbly offer Hamilton Light Rail. When we formed a year ago, LRT was off the radar. We started holding monthly planning meetings open to anyone, and put together a strategy of reaching out to community groups, business associations, city staff, councillors, etc. to make our case for light rail.
In combination with a few dedicated people inside government (including the Mayor), we managed to convince public works staff to start a feasibility study. By the time they released their initial report in April, the media had noticed and were starting to cover it.
We organized a public presentation and panel discussion for May 1 with a spokesperson from HLR, a public works manager and a planner from Waterloo Region. To our delight and amazement, it was attended by over 120 people.
Since then we've kept at it with monthly meetings, more community outreach, op-eds, letters, media interviews, reporting, and so on. We're probably going to organize another public presentation some time in the near future as the Metrolinx budget shapes up.
Anyway, the internet is a good way to make contacts and share information, but if you want to change things you need to organize.
Last edited by ryan_mcgreal; Oct 22, 2008 at 2:09 PM.
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