Lauren McCrawley: Penetration

May 2, 2022

In the decade since the formation of the Hamilton Federation of Neighbourhood Associations in 2012, how things happen in the city has changed so much that were it possible to venture back in time and present to that year's Council the implications of organizing, energizing and empowering Hamilton residents by way of NAs...chances are that 'gobsmacked' would have been the consensus reaction. 

Here's yet another excerpt from the interview with Federation Chair Ms McCrawley featured on 'This is Our Hamilton'. 

TIOH: What did you, or anyone associated with the HFNA, see as the best possible outcome at the neighbourhood level, involvement-wise?

McCrawley: I'm assuming you're not talking about the establishment of NAs, that you're talking about the penetration of 'participation'.

TIOH: Yes.

There's nothing quite like cogency...

Out of The Mouths of Wabs

The serious look on her face tells me to pay attention as she sits down opposite me. "What's up?" I ask. 

"Just thinkin' about a few things about this whole 'ward boundary review' whatchumacallit."

"Oh...? Such as?"

She thinks for a moment, clears her throat, then launches. "I get why people started that facebook page. And why they did the petition. But I don't get why Council is reacting the way it is."

"How so?"

Lauren McCrawley, Chair of the Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations

TIOH: As a Federation, you have a very broad-based approach to NA activities. 

McCrawley: We do. NAs are about community life, and Life is broad-based. 

TIOH: We're going to list some of them here; maybe you could comment on those you've found the most beneficial, and those that have been the most challenging. 

Skill swaps

Babysitting clinics

Micro loans

Senior Watch

Grocery-run pooling

Volunteer banks

Flower parades

Regular NA meetings

Street fairs

Tool co-ops

Street makeover blitzes

Bike repair/salvage clinics

Toy appeals

Community gardens

Town halls

Film nights

Seed swaps

Holiday celebrations

Road-marking vigilanteism

McCrawley: Because of the kerfuffle the 'illegal' activity has caused, I shouldn't comment on the last one, but I will. (laughing) Certain members of certain neighbourhoods took to doing what our Roads and Maintenance Department either wouldn't or couldn't: they freshened up the road markings. 

TIOH: Tell us about the impact. 

McCrawley: Well, no different than when one homeowner begins to take better care of their property: there's a ripple-effect. The stopwalks are re-painted, the dotted lines are re-painted...and one thing leads to another...and before you know it, you've got a street that's so much easier to be proud of. 

TIOH: What about a 'flower parade'?

McCrawley: We get a sponsor to help out with the supplies, and we go down a street with a van, ring a bell along the way and make a spring celebration of planting in residents' gardens. Pretty simple. 

TIOH: Reminiscent of the Good Humour truck. 

McCrawley: Exactly. 

TIOH: There's a common theme in the list of sharing. Sharing time, sharing skills, sharing tools.

McCrawley: Absolutely. We're great believers in 'collaborative consumption'. 

TIOH: Again, it seems to be about community. 

More with Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations' Lauren McCrawley

TIOH: Talk a little about how important you feel 'framing' is when it comes to NAs. 

McCrawley: I always go back to the story about 'The Honeymooners' Jackie Gleason. When he was a touring comic, he'd have a nap in the afternoon. And he tell his body it was time to have a snooze by changing into pyjamas. 

TIOH: He 'framed' his nap. 

McCrawley: Yes. And how we frame our NAs matters just as much. It's about acknowledging, it's about recognizing...it's about celebrating. 

For starters, we believe in NA signs on the street. We believe it's paramount to have NA signs showing where the neighbourhood is. What it consists of. 

TIOH: I love them. They're all different!

McCrawley: Exactly! They're all declarations of pride, like flags. It's where that all-important feeling of belonging starts. 

TIOH: Whose idea was it to partner-up with Neighbourhood Watch for the NA signs?

McCrawley: A volunteer at one of our Ward 9 NAs. 

TIOH: And each NA has a presence on public garbage cans. Litter bins. 

McCrawley: Yes. Consistent branding. Also paramount. 

TIOH: And there seem to be so many more bins in neighbourhoods now. It's got to be more convenient not to litter with them being so convenient. 

McCrawley: (smiling)

TIOH: OK, so let's shift to the electronic world for a moment. 

McCrawley: Sure. Each NA has a site. This is the Internet equivalent of a 'public square'. And attached to the site is a blog. And message boards. Additionally, we recommend a Facebook page. And links to a BIA if that exists, as well as a gamut of community elements. 

The next layer is a Ward site. Linking all the NAs. This is the ward's 'public square'. With all of the above elements. 

Finally, there's the Federation site. Which acts as a portal, featuring links to the NA and Ward levels. 

TIOH: That's a lot of interconnectivity. 

McCrawley: It's a lot of what they refer to as 'network weaving'. 

A further excerpt from the Lauren McCrawley interview

March 5, 2022

Some more material from 'This is Our Hamilton's interview with Lauren McCrawley,  Chair of the Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations.

TIOH: Describe what kind of impact having over a hundred NAs speaking with one voice has on local governance. 

McCrawley: Where do I start?!? Well, I guess it would help to look at 'before'. Going back to pre-2012. While there were things like 'Community Councils' in several wards, and a pretty-entrenched group of NAs in Ward 2, the truth is that councillors were voted into office, people got in touch when there was a problem, something they wanted addressed, various councillors held 'community' meetings periodically. And of course, issues cropped up where, because people weren't really on top of them, because people weren't a part of the ongoing process of governance, there was barely lip-service consultation before final situations played-out. 

TIOH: And now?

McCrawley: All councillors work in concert with their ward's NAs. (Pauses) All...councillors...work in concert...with their ward's NAs. The previous default, pre-social media, was people who had concerns or complaints either phoning or writing their councillor. Then, with the Internet, there were emails, there was Facebook, there was Twitter, blogs, message boards, Comments sections on mainstream media news articles. But even with all that, no unified voice. Yes, twenty emails from constituents had a certain amount of clout. But when you get a phone call from an NA president and they let you know that there have been four hundred votes cast on the NA website and that seventy-five comments have been posted... Which do you think has the greater power to influence?

Here's the thing: there's a mindset...gradually fading, but it's still there...that councillors should be left alone to do their jobs. That they're the ones who are best qualified to make decisions. 

TIOH: And you don't agree?

McCrawley: No...and yes. Councillors are chosen to best address the needs of the welfare of their constituents. Some bring incredible talents to the job involving visionary thinking, creativity, innovation. Some bring abilities at marshalling other elements. Every member of Council consults with City Staff. But that's only one part of the formula regarding input. The other part is consulting with the very people who put them in their Council chair, their 'clients' for good governance service, and their employers. 

TIOH: The residents. 

McCrawley: Yes, the residents. 

TIOH: But you've admitted that residents by-and-large aren't 'experts'. So how do you reconcile this with them being so integral a part of their own governance?

The rest of the interview can be found at www.thisisourhamilton.ca

Another excerpt from the Lauren McCrawley interview

March 3, 2022


Due to the response we received after posting a bit of the interview with Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations Chair Ms McCrawley as featured on 'This is Our Hamilton', we're providing another piece. 

TIOH: Talk a little bit about 'before'. Before the Federation became what it is today. 

McCrawley: Pretty simple: roughly 40% of eligible voters cast their ballots in municipal elections, almost two-thirds of these doing so by 'name recognition'. Their councillors were voted in, governance was executed, some issues came to the fore, were championed by a very, very small number of residents... Mostly, we saw a hands-off relationship on the parts of Hamiltonians concerning City Hall and everything that goes on there.

TIOH: But we did have neighbourhood associations. NAs.

McCrawley: Of course! And some had longstanding histories and were cohesive units advocating for their communities. But we hadn't attained a mindset-shift to 'the commons' at that point. Each NA fought its own battles, sometimes with, sometimes against its own councillor, they were, for the most part, either unable or unwilling to network with other NAs... And more than this, it was a fight to keep an NA going. 

TIOH: Even in the well-established communities. 

McCrawley: Yes. Life is hard. Getting people to make time, to offer up their energies...

TIOH: But at some point, this changed.

McCrawley: Yes. Call it 'critical mass'. Call it 'the tipping point'. But things changed. 

TIOH: Now, as I understand it, this actually came pretty early on. 

McCrawley: It did! In the summer of 2012. When efforts behind fighting AEGD rose to the surface. That interlude galvanized people, and inspired the creation of nine NAs that autumn. A year later, another 13 had been founded. 

TIOH: Why? 

McCrawley: I'm not a social scientist. So-

TIOH: But you are a community organizer. You were on the ground, you helped set up one of those NAs. 

McCrawley: I did, and I am. So from my vantage point, I'd say that people- Look, there's a maxim that therapists use that's particularly apropos, especially in conjunction with the notion that people love to be led, that they love to be engaged in the betterment of their community: 'People remain where they are until they're uncomfortable enough to move.'

TIOH: So the Federation took on life when there was sufficient discomfort in Hamilton. 

McCrawley: (smiling) 

The rest of the interview can be found at www.thisisourhamilton.ca

Excerpt from Lauren McCrawley interview

March 2, 2022

In the decade since the formation of the Hamilton Federation of Neighbourhood Associations in 2012, how things happen in the city has changed so much that were it possible to venture back in time and present to that year's Council the implications of organizing, energizing and empowering Hamilton residents by way of NAs...chances are 'gobsmacked' would have attained quorum. 

Here's an excerpt from the interview with Federation Chair Ms McCrawley featured on 'This is Our Hamilton'. 

TIOH: So, 'night and day'? Does that describe the difference between now, and pre-formation of your federation?

McCrawley: (laughing) Absolutely! Think of the situations in the previous years that had driven so many Hamiltonians to distraction: West Harbour, including Setting Sail, the CN Ontario Municipal Board hearings. The Pan Am Games Stadium site-selection process. IWS2. Our dance with illegal dumping and garbage collection. The questionable destruction of the Lyric/Century Theatre. The Connaught's prolonged, languishing state. The HWDSB headquarters situation involving the Joe Singer building, the Board's relocation to Crestwood, Mac's entrenchment at 100 Main West. And the biggest battle of all, 'Aerotropolis'. Voices were being raised, but despite the din, it was too online-focused, too fractious...and we were always too late.

TIOH: Consistently behind the 8-ball, always behind the wave.

McCrawley: Exactly!

TIOH: And now? Now that you've got 119 neighbourhood associations in place in the sixteen wards?

McCrawley: (laughing) Night and day.

TIOH: Why?

McCrawley: Because we changed the landscape of our local governance. Because we now have activated residents in most neighbourhoods. We have cohesion, we have synergy, we have power. We work with our councillors and our mayor, we're part of the process now, whereas before, some of us voted every four years and then went about our business...and a small number of us were vocal when our frustration level was high enough.

TIOH: But there are still contentious issues, situations where the consensus on the street doesn't get delivered by the City or by developers.

McCrawley: You're right. But nothing that comes close to how badly the process was being executed 'back then'. And I need to point out that it's only because of the initiatives from the Federation that Hamilton was able to forge its own unique way forward regarding LRT when provincial funding vanished. That happened as a direct result of our 'Congress at Copps' in 2015. 

The rest of the interview can be found at www.thisisourhamilton.ca