The Whig-Standard’s Elliot Ferguson profiles candidates for city council and mayor in the 2018 municipal election, Monday, Oct. 22.

Lakeside District

Wayne Hill

Keeping Lakeside District on city council’s radar can be the city councillor’s biggest challenge, candidate Wayne Hill said.

“I think a lot of it is about staying in sight of city council, like a lot of leafy suburbs, and 70 per cent of the people in Kingston live in some kind of a suburb,” Hill, a retired high school principal, said.

“There’s a lot of mega projects that the city has undertaken, a lot of great work that they have done, but I think that there is a feeling out there that maybe they are forgetting about maintaining the suburbs, the infrastructure and support for those areas, especially as they start to age.”

With the exception of a few years in the mid-1980s when he moved to Alberta for work, Hill has lived on the same street in Lakeside since he was 15.

When he first moved there, the neighbourhood was a new development. Today, the area’s roads and sidewalks are in need of repair, and residents are telling Hill they are concerned about property tax rates, he said.

Hill said he expects housing issues to be at the top of the city council’s agenda in the next few years, and he said he supports downtown intensification as a way to provide more housing in a desirable area.

“I don’t think that there is any doubt that the big issue is going to be the intensification of the downtown,” he said. “We have to have people downtown.

“I think that we can do it in a way that still maintains the historical charm of the city. If you look at Boston or Montreal, there is a combination in those cities of old architecture and new.”

Apart from keeping the downtown vibrant, adding housing supply to the city will be critical for avoiding an even greater crisis, he said.

“We have to build units to provide housing for people,” he said. “We want everyone in the city to have a place to live. That is fundamental. I lived in Fort McMurray at a time when people were living in tents in the city parks. It can become a real disaster if it is not looked after, so we want to make sure we tend to that.”

Ashley Johnson

If anything, candidate Ashley Johnson has a knack for symbolism.

As one of six candidates for Lakeside District, Johnson’s campaign plan has been influenced by the move to environmental sustainability and the elimination of single-use plastics.

But instead of jumping on the trend of forgoing campaign signs altogether, Johnson opted instead to use campaign signs designed so that, once the vote is over, they will be repurposed as a sandbag.

“At some point, after the election is over, the bags will be donated to an organization and used for flood prevention,” he said.

In a district that has experienced a series of floods in recent years, flood control solutions would be a welcome addition.

“For me, I can talk all I want. I can knock on doors and talk to people, but until I do something, nobody is going to know who I am,” he said. “If I don’t win the election, I’ll have some sort of lasting impression.”

Making an impression in the lead-up to the election day is important in a crowded field of candidates without an incumbent.

Johnson has worked most of his life in the not-for-profit sector and currently works as an employment consultant.

“One of the things I am really big on is making sure people’s voices are heard, when they are applying for jobs or when they are looking to find better education. I will help them do that,” he explained.

Advocating for people is something he said will translate well to the role of city councillor.

“I’ve been sitting on committees for 10 years, I’ve been a chair a few of them. One of the things I have focused on is that I like to help people work together, figuring out communications strategies and methods so people are working together and not working against each another,” said Johnson, who said his research for his campaign included watching a year’s worth of city council meetings on the city’s website.

“Sometime what I see on council is that there is a lot of working against each another. I think I can bring is a mediating voice to those conversations.”

Jordan Morelli

Redevelopment of properties in Reddendale and its impact on the neighbourhood is a key issue framing Lakeside District candidate Jordan Morelli’s campaign.

Residents of the Reddendale have complained about a development that has seen a number of older homes knocked down and replaced with larger residences. Or the older houses have been demolished, the lots severed, and more than one house built in their place.

Earlier this year, city council approved a $100,000 study of housing trends in the neighbourhood.

The intensification has strained municipal services, such as water and sewer, and altered storm water drainage, many residents have said. And the candidates running for the council seat are hearing about it.

“There’s been a lot of infill projects happening there, and in a way that has made existing water management issues much worse than they already are, so people are pretty upset by that,” Morelli said. “If you already have a home that is already prone to flooding and somebody builds something that makes your flooding problems even worse, well, that’s just not right.”

Morelli was quick to add that he is not against development in Reddendale or elsewhere in the city. On the contrary, he said, the 0.7 per cent rental vacancy rate in Kingston – the lowest in Ontario – is reason enough to spur the building of more housing, as long as attention is paid to other factors.

“I’m not against development at all. We need development,” Morelli said. “We also have to recognize that when development happens, those things are around for 100 years. If you look at some of the buildings that are up on Princess Street, in the midtown area, the Williamsville area, they are just ugly. They have been allowed to have almost no setbacks. They are right up against the sidewalk.”

Away from the shore, Morelli said residents are concerned about traffic safety.

Morelli said the volume and speed of traffic on residential streets in the Henderson area needs to be addressed by the “three Es” – engineering modifications to the roadways to reduce speed, driver education, and police enforcement, including the potential use of photo radar and red light cameras.

Chris Morris

Chris Morris entered the municipal election race after the first three people to file as candidates in Lakeside District were people who didn’t live in the area.

“I’ve lived in Lakeside for 10 years and I really love the area, and I thought we better have somebody on council who lives here, and I thought, ‘It might as well be me,’” he said. “My biggest thing is I’m not running on an agenda of big projects that I’m trying to get built. I’m really running because I want to represent Lakeside.”

Morris said the campaign is being defined by “the usual stuff” – road maintenance, traffic and taxes.

In the Reddendale neighbourhood, Morris said issues with development and water need to be addressed.

“There aren’t enough controls over drainage. Reddendale has bad drainage on a good day, so all of this new development is causing more of this sort of problem,” he said. “I think we really need to look at how trees are removed from properties, how drainage is handled and make sure it is controlled to keep the character of Reddendale. It’s a pretty unique area.”

Across the city, housing is an issue, he added.

“I think we really are at a critical point,” he said, adding that more housing is needed at all socioeconomic levels but the need for more affordable housing is most acute. “The vacancy rate is just not sustainable, and the waiting list on affordable housing is also not sustainable.”

Morris said the ongoing airport expansion needs to be kept on time and on budget and, once complete, should be used to attract a second airline to the city to provide some competition for customers.

David McKenna

David McKenna declined to be interviewed by the Whig-Standard.

Ed Smith

Ed Smith withdrew from the campaign.