The One Where The Urban Policy Class Ends
I have mixed emotions writing this final blog post. It feels like the first of many endings coming up in the near future as I finish this program and move onto the next step.
I have a few takeaways from this course. Firstly that it became clear to me, after meeting dozens of alumni, that urban policy is a place for passionate people. There was a seemingly endless and vast array of portfolios that were discussed that crossed intergovernmental lines and were debated and analyzed with a great deal of animation and a strong desire by all to cause impactful change.
Urban policy, in my short time engaging in it, has allowed me to learn more about things which I care, the type of stuff where my intense interest is not always so readily understood by my friends. The highlights of my term were talking on the phone with Mitch about noise bylaws and environmental regulations and watching city council debate these issues in such a fiery way. I love to complain, if you asked me about it I’d explain to you that in a twisted way it’s part of my culture, and somehow I feel like I’ve found my people in urban policy. The folks that care about noise bylaws, neighbourhood associations, and all the other topics from niche to broad, those are the real ones!
Furthermore, in keeping with my previous statements, I have come to learn that urban policy has room for everyone. Whether your preference is to work in a different order of government (other than obviously municipal government) or in a private capacity, or on social issues or finances, there is space for you in the field. As we heard time and time again, all policy is urban policy and after everything I have learned during these six weeks, it couldn’t be more true.
I can’t say I know how to define a city still, or if I could definitively tell you where the boundaries of the Toronto region are, but I’m at peace knowing how hard people are working on every single thing to keep these areas functional and accessible for people living in the area.
If you’d asked me before this course started if I was interested in working in an urban policy capacity, or for that matter if you’d asked me if I knew what urban policy even was, I would have said no to both questions. Or I would have tried to answer and knowing what I now know, I would not have even grasped the half of it. But those answers have changed; urban policy is exciting, it’s everywhere, and I’m sad to end this course but look forward to continuing to engage with urban policy in everyday life and eventually in my career.
