This is a simple image generator to help Londoners share their Vision for London, Ontario.
Features
- suggested vision statements as reported from council meeting
- custom vision statements
- various preset images of London
- use your own image
- publicly accessible url for vision statements using preset images
- ability to customize header and footer
About The Project
I was following Megan Stacey’s Twitter coverage for the London Free Press. The next day, I started working on this new plugin. It was this invitation from our mayor that was the deciding factor.
Says it’s important to get thoughts from #LdnOnt citizens before the “heavy lifting” begins to define this council’s vision, mission and values.
— Megan Stacey (@MeganatLFPress) January 14, 2019
Holder asks staff: “Is it too much, too many (ideas)?”
Our Mayor, Hon. Ed Holder, seems to be daring Londoners to respond. Unwilling to pare down even council’s ideas, he hungrily demands more ideas from the public.
Is it too much, too many ideas?
Ed Holder, mayor of London, Ontario
Council decided it was not. They also decided that they want our feedback. After writing your councilor, why not turn this ridiculous situation into an hilarious one.
About The Images
Creating a new Vision Statement is pretty easy. You can use the images supplied or use your own. Find an image that means London to you.
Most of the images were obtained from public domain. Some I took myself. The last three are from news publications The London Free Press, CBC London and the Toronto Star.
If you use your own image, you will not be able to use the publicly accessible share link. However, you can right-click on the image and share it using social media or other services
Examples
Here are a few examples.
The Council Meeting
Recently, the newly elected councilors and mayor took part in an exercise developing a Vision Statement for the City of London. The councilors spent the evening working in groups on a vision statement. Each group had their own style and approach.
The councilors were not in agreement with how to proceed after the exercise. The mayor and most councilors wanted to publish the results and gather feedback from the public. Some councilors believed that the results weren’t ready to ask for public opinion. Our mayor Ed Holder was confident that they were suitable for feedback.
London Free Press reporter Megan Stacey was live-tweeting the meeting.
Holder says he doesn’t see an issue.
— Megan Stacey (@MeganatLFPress) January 14, 2019
Argues it would be good for #LdnOnt residents to see the early thoughts.
“They’re really well thought out, and well considered.”
Finally, a dose of common sense:
— Megan Stacey (@MeganatLFPress) January 14, 2019
Coun Morgan: “I would hope we could set some general direction.”
Residents shouldn’t be asked to pick through these vague ideas. They should be asked to share where they want #LdnOnt council to go over the next 4 years, he says.
Apparently, the debate took a strange turn. Debating about debating. About debating. Turtles all the way down.
This is interesting. Politicians are debating whether they should debate the ideas that were put…up for debate.
— Megan Stacey (@MeganatLFPress) January 14, 2019
(OR should those ideas go straight to the public for debate on this debate?)
Absolutely brutal.
Tell me, #LdnOnt, would you be able to comment on these statements?
Oh boy #LdnOnt, I’m not even sure what to tell ya. In my most professional language, I can only describe this as a whole bunch of gobbledy gook.
— Megan Stacey (@MeganatLFPress) January 14, 2019
Let’s hope we get some clarity today.
If you’re just catching up, politicians are starting the process of defining council’s vision.
Megan Stacey followed up with this short article in the Freeps.
And last night’s SPPC report, including early stage “visioning” (politicians sat down to generate ideas for city hall vision, mission and values), passes easily. Council votes 11-4 to proceed with getting public feedback on vision ideas. More info: https://t.co/pXeqBrKKYO #LdnOnt
— Megan Stacey (@MeganatLFPress) January 15, 2019
The City of London quickly followed up with pushing their questionnaire on their official website. I looked at it briefly and they did appear to keep the vision statements in their raw format. I have to commend them for doing this quickly but I honestly think there are far more important issues that our council could be addressing.
Thankfully, some councilors disagree with the mayor and majority. Disagreement is an important part of democracy, and in this case, I agree with their disagreement. My favourite form of disagreement is through humour, and my favourite tool to solve any problem is software. So, I built this image generator. I took extra time to make it as customizable as possible. I hope you have fun using it.
Create Vision Statement