My name...

I watch a lot of TV, I am a mother who has 2 beautiful daughters who are my main concern daily and because of such I understand a great deal of caring about their safety.

Everyday I hear about how unsafe the Internet is, how everyone can be found and how dangerous this world is we live in. I try and keep my personal matters (address, locations, pictures and personal information) from making it to my blogs and try and not post images of my family on any free sites that aren't protected so that people other than my friend and family can see.

But how does one do this while running for a political seat? How do I keep myself anonymous while I am trying to get my name out there, it almost is redundant!!!

How do I do this, how do I get this childhood dream that never let up, to plough ahead and get a political seat I feel very strongly about while no longer being the no named girl next door? I believe I battled with this demon in high school, I fought the shyness, the ambiguity, the non-existence that I had as a child. I made sure you knew who I was, you knew I was coming and well you never forgot I was there.

But I am no longer that teenager walking through the hall of her high school of 2 thousand kids, I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a cousin. I don't want to bring anyone else into this fold of me running for politics, I don't want to endanger or make anyone uncomfortable.

Thankfully my husband is very excited and supportive about my decision, my daughter's don't solely have my name and my family small enough to bare with me. Sometimes too small and easily found... but I put my name out there. I do it, because it has to be done... I am nervous and well learning to thicken my skin in the process. I have had to introduce myself at meetings, I am letting them know I am coming... so I guess city of Toronto, I am Angie Tingas, and I am running for city council for Ward 30!

Harmonizing not so harmonious!

Today I sat in a very intricate meeting, but excitingly different meeting with different people from the ward with varying opinions. I was attending the Harmonized Zoning By-law meeting... long winded title with really a lot of political talk.

 

My issues with this plan and the zoners who are coming together with this plan is the control of personal property space. They will be able to decide how much of your front yard is use for certain items and how much of the back. Terms being tossed around such as hard soil and soft soil on your property... you will be limited to how much patio stone to parking pad, sheds and so on you will be adding to your outdoor space. These wording decisions will continue with what you will have to what you might plan on adding. I am not against the the idea of getting more green spaces on properties and creating a guideline to which to follow, I do have an issue with the wording of seperating the front yard from the backyard.

 

The uniqueness and the characteristic of your home especially your exterior which is something that is your first selling feature and the curb appeal of your  home is something I think that should be left to the owner under supervision. Never will a parking pad be offered to any home in my ward in the front of the house, you couldn`t attain the size of minimal parking spot while the back of your home could be green as possible.

 

Commercial property takes a big blow, perse... under this new by-law any new buildings but on any larger Avenues you would have to build a 3 storey property either for simply commercial usage or combination commercial/residential space. And all new properties will have to be built around 3 ft. from the sidewalk/city line.

 

While this by-law is mostly grossly important to those in the construction/building industries, these by-laws are important for current home owners who might want to change and update their home. Differences being peaks of houses will no longer vary, your neighbour and you both can`t surpass a 10.5 m height.

Zoning by-laws take a severe stab at the big box stores, under no circumstance will there be any zones to permit such a store in the greater Toronto, or amalgamated Toronto. Not sure how I feel about this... I can see the positive and the negatives to this complaint.

Some more interesting bits that I learned are such....

• There will be no business or schools that are allowed to be used in residential homes
•  There will be no permitted Drive-thru in the city of Toronto.
• Limiting your house to a certain width so if you wanted more square footage you could only go up
• 50% soft soil restrictions on all forms of yards
• No more basement sloping driveway with garage.
• Place of worships and schools could not open up in commercial zones and take up commercial property.

My only concern about all the changes that are being offered is that if you wanted to open a school or place of worship... if you wanted to expand your home or build a one story home becuase you couldn`t walk up stairs, you would have to pay to have a designated area rezoned for your needs. Meaning specific case to case basis would perhaps have to pay for the city to simply rezone the property.

Please feel free to take a look at various different opinions out there, please share your opinions with me... this is your city and these are laws that affect those who buy, own and renovate city residents and commercial properties... I am interested in how this might affect some of you.

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EyeWeekly`s point of view
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Being Independent!

I had discussed on many occasions with friends of mine about finally going into city council and in all our conversation being affiliated to a party was never something that was talked about.

After researching fellow city councilor members that sit in city council currently I was shocked and appalled by the numbers of councilors that are backed or affiliated to a political party. In my opinion a good 90% are so.

After a ton of thought and a fact that while my views can sometimes be labeled, I cannot be! I live in the most party affiliated ward in Toronto. You read correctly, my ward is a political platform... a stepping stone to a political career where the majority of city councilors use it to make gains on their personal careers.

Because of such my ward falls in the fold... I believe the many councilors who have graced us, one being the in/famous Jack Layton who went on to run for the NDP party federally, and is now the leader of that party. I don't have any political opinion at this point, but I think city councilors should breath and sleep care about their neighbourhood, should be more concerned about the people who live in their neighbourhood. They just be independent of political party agenda and should be fighting the council for things that affect the ward not the party that pays for their running purposes.

This is my stance on Independence... this is my reason for staying that way in this political running campaign I am about to put myself through. I am independent of thought, my actions are independent... every vote and decision I plan to make as your newly voted city councilor member will be in the best interest of a neighbourhood I am ridiculously proud to call my own. I know nothing more and truly don't have interest in doing so, I am proud of my ward 30 and proud to be running independently in the upcoming city election. Hope you'll join my independent movement and change the game of the political parties who just see our ward as a stepping stone and not a community with needs and great people.

Join the movement... I am always looking for volunteers in the community or anyone with any political running information. Please feel free to email me. Thank you!