What needs to change about Stratford? CBC Ideas hosts conversation on what it means to be a city

CBC Ideas host Nahlah Ayed joined panelists Jay Pitter, an urban planner and author, Greg Lindsay, urbanist and futurist, and Robin Mazumder, an urban neuroscientist, on stage in the auditorium of Stratford City Hall on Nov. 28 to discuss the concept of the city.

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Someone living on the street once told Robin Mazumder, an urban neuroscientist who studies city design, “Sometimes I think this city is trying to kill me.”

On Nov. 28, in the heart of the City of Stratford, Mazumder painted a picture of what made that “visibly homeless” man say that to him. It was winter in this unnamed city. Ice and sleet were on the roads and the man was using a shopping cart as a walker, struggling to cross the street and the ruts made in the snow by heavy cars before the “orange hand of death” stopped blinking.

Riding his bike to work (and regretting it), Mazumder was in the same predicament as this man, stuck in the middle of the road with hazardous conditions all around them.

But, as Mazumder said, the pitfalls of poor city design go beyond just physical peril.

“From a neuroscientist perspective, if you really boil it down it's just about stress,” Mazumder said. “Stress is one of the main precipitators. Neuro inflammation is related to stress. … Look at sleep disruption, noise pollution, light pollution. … We all exist on a spectrum of sensitivity and there are different consequences. … So, how do we keep people safe?”

Mazumder joined CBC Ideas host Nahlah Ayed and fellow panellists Jay Pitter, an urban planner and author, and Greg Lindsay, urbanist and futurist, on stage in the auditorium of Stratford city hall to discuss the concept of the city: what works about them, what doesn’t and what needs to change about them.

The conversation veered from what the ancient city state of Venice got right to what modern “birds-eye-view” cities like Brasilia got wrong, and how cities closer to home such as Toronto or Waterloo or even Stratford are grappling with the issues of modern planning and what the concept of the city even means.

It also touched on the burden local governments face, from rising costs to global conflict coming to their doorsteps.

“Municipalities and cities are absolutely ill-equipped to address it,” Pitter said at one point in the conversation. “Cities are fundamentally sites of democracy, and so when global conflict comes to bear on municipalities, we should be gathering in coffee shops and parks and recreation centres to not take a side on an issue necessarily, but to build solidarity across differences – to have a conversation where people have the opportunity to learn and to ask questions. And fundamentally, we don't have that anymore, and I think that's a huge issue that cities are facing now.”

Though many issues were discussed, not many tangible solutions were presented – but that is not necessarily the crux for why the conversation happened.

The evening was hosted in partnership with the 2024 Stratford Provocation Ideas Festival (PIF), an annual festival organized by founder Mark Rosenfeld as a way to generate thoughtful ideas by having thoughtful conversations.

This year’s theme was City of Dreamers and started on Oct. 11 with the Neural Ballet Redux, a neo-classical ballet performance. The festival is running until Jan. 9, when Culinary Stratford, a culinary event, closes the festivities.

Through various events, this year explored the dreams and aspirations of those who lived and are living in the region as well as which dreams came true, which didn’t and why that is.

“I know we're going to come away from this discussion thinking more about the possibilities, some of the challenges, as well as the possibilities as Stratford, as well as all of our cities, move forward in looking at how they can develop for the future and meet the needs of everybody in that community,” Rosenfeld said after the conversation on cities that evening.

Mayor Martin Ritsma, who earlier that day attended Stratford city council’s first all-day budget meeting, was in attendance. He said what the panel discussed was thought-provoking – particularly on that day.

In that same building that day, numerous city departments presented their operational budgets and capital plans to Stratford city council, with most highlighting the strain being put on their already overworked staff and the resources needed to meet the needs of residents.

Whether Stratford needed redefinition, Ritsma said he was confident in the city as it stands to tackle the issues it and its residents face.

“We have to balance what we're going to do in the future with the needs of today, and then try to create the best city possible,” Ritsma said. “ … I do believe we have certainly the physical space to do it and I do believe we have a mentality in Stratford that's saying, ‘Yeah, we can be better.’ ”

The conversation with Mazumder, Pitter and Lindsay will be aired on CBC Ideas at a later date.