Let me start today by affirming that I love where we live.  As home to our family for the past 10 years, Elora has so many things to appreciate.- our neighbours, the community, the many trails that surround us, the convenience of walking just about anywhere we might need, and, of course, the beauty that attracts not only us but so many, many toursists all year ’round.  It has been voted “Most Tripable Town”, has played host to countless movie productions, and boasts one of the fastest growing music festivals in Ontario.  We’re surrounded on all sides by vast stretches of farmland which yield fantastic crops that you can find at the local farmers market – a small but picturesque stretch of stalls that sets up weekly right beside the river, presenting the loveliest backdrops on a summer Saturday morning.  It really is a wonderful place to live and raise a family.  As you can likely decipher through my thinly veiled introduction, however, I wouldn’t be propping up this place with so many compliments if I wasn’t about to rant about the things that really grind my gears when it comes to the place I call home.

Now, today is Father’s Day, and I do not want to take away from the wonderful things that lay ahead, but as my kids are keeping these things a surprise for me, I’m not sure exactly yet what it is I’d be writing or sharing about.  With hope, I’ll be able to dive into those beautiful moments in an upcoming post, and so I’ll use today instead to recognize that, just as birthdays tend to do, with every passing Father’s Day I am showing more of my age and my curmudgeonly stripes are showing.  I’m finding it harder to keep up with trends, technology, fashion, dance moves and language – things that I’ve always been so naturally gifted at – and, as a father, watching my kids already surpass me on these topics, makes me, well, a bit of a grump.  So, if you read this through that lens and with that in mind, then a Father’s Day post ranting about things that get under my skin is really quite on point!

Disclaimer out of the way – yes, there are countless things I love about this town, but then there are the things that have me scratching my head, shaking my fist, or flexing my right to share my opinions through written word.  As someone who loves systems and processes, and strives is a world of logistics and puzzle solving, I look around this town and see endless ares of opportunity.  I can (and do) stroll downtown any day of the week and come across any number of annoyances with how things are designed or choices that were made in a locale where so many tourists flock to with eagerness and anticipation.  Why, for example, do our crosswalks require someone to push the crosswalk button in order for the the “walkie guy” to appear?  We have enough pedestrian traffic even without the tourists to make that a default setting.  I see so many people, time and time again, stand there, waiting through multiple green lights because they didn’t push the button.  And why didn’t they push the button?  Because the people who designed it put it on the wrong side of the post, where it can’t seen by the people trying to cross the road.

Why do we work on expanding the sidewalk to accommodate tourist traffic, only to fill the space with sporadically placed garden boxes, sandwich board signs, and benches?  The main artery of our pedestrian corridor is basically a single-file pathway, usually jammed up with people and their dogs standing still with their hands behind their back as they gaze into various shop windows.

Why did we block off parking spots in order to create a makeshift patio on the weekends?  In a town already struggling to find places for its very own residents to park, how does it make sense to reduce the availability even more during the busiest times of the week?

On the note of parking – I think it’s awesome that we finally have some type of solution for tourists to take advantage of, in that there is now a free shuttle service from the casino to downtown.  A great idea but, save from a slightly obscured temporary sign on your way into town, how do people know about it?  The article(s) about it in the local paper are ok, I suppose…the articles in the local paper advertising to tourists that there is now a parking solution for them.  sigh.

And don’t get me started on taxes, which based on a notice I just received in the mail is really how I got into this rant if I’m being honest.  A notice advising that our taxes have increased 60% due to a re-evaluation of the budget.  60%, which I can only hope is a typo on someones part, is to cover what exactly?  100,000 more Christmas lights downtown that stay on 7-months of the year?  Will they install even more potholes in front of my house?  Take away more parking?  I’m all for supporting and contributing the community as a paying resident, but I’ve yet to see an increase in services that support me, as a resident, that would warrant such a steep increase.

Why did McDonalds put up their digital display/advertisement sign behind a tree…where you can’t see it?

Why did they put a new pedestrian crosswalk on the wrong side of the bridge,  blocking the flow of traffic to an intersection when it could have been avoided?

Why did they install a new swing set at the park, with the swings only inches off the ground?

Why would they spend so much on a single stall, self-clean bathroom that is out of service more often than it is open?

And don’t get me started on the logistics at the tubing rental or line ups at one particular ice cream shop…

Why? Why? Why?

There are good ideas at the core of so many initiatives that we embark upon around here but the execution is, well, lacking.  People sign off on these things, and perhaps there are reasons I’ll never become privy to, but since I’m clearly paying 60% more than I was yesterday for some of these decisions, I feel I’ve earned the right to question them.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system,  it’s a beautiful day out there, and I’m told there are adventures awaiting.   Enjoy your day, Dads; may you find parking wherever you go, cross every road safely, and enjoy an ice cream or two.  Cheers.