Turgid Prose in Miniscule Print

As The Lord is My Witness, I have tried.

I have plowed through twenty-five pages. There are a hundred .

I took a speed reading course once. One starts by reading the index of Chapter Headings

Then the pictures are scrutinized.

The first sentence of a paragraph tells everything in it. Anything written after supports the first statement.

Then you train your eyes to lift an entire line off the page as opposed to reading from left to right

Some people taking the course, discover they've been doing that for years without realizing it

Success is measured by speed of reading and comprehension retained.

It spoils reading for pleasure. It's handy for documents. Even handier for discerning meaningless verbiage.

The first page of the draft of The Aurora Promenade Concept Plan is revealing. There's a Steering Committee. The Mayor is the Chair.

Chair of the Economic Development Advisory Committee is there. He is not elected.

A member of a defunct committee is there . He's not elected .There are others. None of them elected.

Half a dozen staff members are listed .

After squinting at the pictures, trying to recognize locations, then trying harder with a magnifying glass, I discover I'm looking at pictures of other places, like Quebec City.

Reading the brief history of the town's built places, I find a reference to the Aurora War Memorial and Peace Park.

Now that makes me angry.

The Aurora Cenotaph is our town's finest structure. As beautiful to day as the day it was completed. As it should be. Considering what it stands for.

Who in blazes is it, thinks they have authority to change the name?

It is not a memorial to war.

What fathead thinks there should be a memorial to war?

It is not a Peace Park.

How meaningless is that? When remains of young men barely out of boyhood are regularly being brought home to their families in caskets.

It is the Remembrance of Aurora, King and Whitchurch men, who did not return from two world wars.

Who have no resting place here, where they came from.

No place for a mother to visit on birthdays, to tidy up and lay fresh flowers .

The Aurora Cenotaph was carefully planned and designed with three communities involved. It was built in a space , surrounded by fields, with the torch held high to constantly remind of what had been lost and how.

Cenotaph means " a tomb or monument placed in honor of a person or group whose remains are elsewhere". The name was carefully and appropriately chosen.

A tree was planted for every man who died. As trees have died, they have been lovingly replaced.

The Aurora Cenotaph is not open for change or up for grabs.

The vision of Aurora Promenade Draft Concept Plan, steered by the Mayor and various unelected friends is seriously and offensively skewed.

Repetition abounds in the text of the document. Even pictures are repeated.

The first paragraph in the last Chapter entitled Implementation has this to say;

"This document outlines both broad approaches and specific methods to implement the goals of the Downtown Secondary Plan and The Aurora Promenade Urban Design Strategy. While far-reaching change is not likely to occur overnight, it is anticipated that demand for downtown development will continue to grow as public investments are made in the area."

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Think about that for a minute. Dwell upon the numbers of proposals for development on blighted sites in the downtown area and contemplate their fate at the hands of Mormac.

Two sites in the hollow are vacant and in the flood plain. .They have been idle and overgrown for forty years.They are in private hands. Development is unlikely.

We have a reserve fund of money taken from downtown property owners in lieu of parking.

Why has it not been used for the purpose ?

Eleven million dollars in a cash- in- lieu of parks fund and growing, while we passively wait to make public investment in improving amenities and complacently predict broad changes are not likely to happen overnight.

Broad changes didn't happen because we spent four years talking claptrap and pursuing witch hunts into the witching hours, week after week, month after month until four years have gone by with nothing of substance accomplished .

We paid $140,000 to lawyers to silence criticism. And didn't.

Outstanding decisions needed to be made. And weren't.

While money was available, to take whatever action was required.The Mayor pranced about presenting awards, posing for pictures and crowing about awards won, when nobody else was in the competition.

Pshaw!!!! !

I can't read any more of that garbage. It insults my intelligence.