SAPLING FOREST VIEW ROAD MURAL

July 13th BYO(Chair) Engagement Report 

Word Art created using conversation summary

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Markland neighbours discuss their “Wild Ideas” for the community.

Overview - - - - X On July 13th, 30 neighbours and 5 children spent one hour together at the Intersection of Forestview and Sapling to talk about our road mural project. Many of those neighbours came after hearing about the project while we were soliciting signatures, others heard from a flyer that was dropped at houses in the vicinity of the mural site, yet others informed from the Markland Wood Homeowners Association newsletter. An attempt was made to cast the net as wide possible to get a diversity of opinions from all around the neighbourhood and beyond. Our primary goals for the evening were to building a shared vision for community values, understand what of those values should be

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reflected in the mural design and harness the momentum of the meeting to spur future initiatives like this one. Additional Notes: 3-4 community members popped in for a few minutes while walking by because our event occurred outside and in public view. When we started the meeting four people expressed concern that there was no space in the agenda to decide whether pursuing the road mural was a good idea. This is an important point as the petition only asked the 47 households on Sapling, Forest View, and Shadetree for support. Another attendee came up with the idea to do a hands-up vote on whether people felt it was good idea. Through the informal vote we found more than 80% of attendees raised their hands to indicate their support for the project. We then moved forward with the agenda unchanged.

Pascal, our artist, is a happy camper at the “Draw your own Mural” station.

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Methodology - - - - X We had 4 stations for attendees to share feedback. At each of these stations participants were asked to contribute through discussion and by adding comments via sticky note to a flipchart.

The stations are as follows:

● What makes Here? ● Themes and Motifs ● Draw your Own Mural ● Wild Ideas for your

Neighbourhood Through this report we have distilled the summary of these conversations to extract a clear narrative. Full summary of the conversation are available upon request. In the Appendix of this report you will find pictures of the flipchart paper and notes summarizing their contents. In the following four sections we will identify and explore lessons we took away from the discussion.

Tamara recaps what she heard at her station.

What Makes Here - - - - X This is a community where people feel comfortable and safe. They can see themselves raising kids and growing old together. This community is a supportive and kind community. The discussion focused heavily not on what the neighbourhood is, but on the kinds of people who live and connect here. The waves of generations and the interplay between the very young and elderly was seen as a very important differentiator. It was mentioned that this community is one that is kid-friendly with low traffic streets, many schools and many children

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living within close proximity. Residents felt their community was friendly and stable with good neighbours which leads to many staying for long periods of time to develop deep roots in the community. Residents consider the neighbourhood as bike-friendly and spoke about the area disparagingly as a car-friendly community, as well. This car-friendliness as a disadvantage was not a conclusion of all attendees but was a point of discussion.

Themes & Motifs - - - - X Neighbours who came were very interested in the design. Two themes that were stressed were a link to the history of the neighbourhood. Whether it was newer history of the Mill and Silverthorn Farm to the old history of the Mississaugas of the New Credit. Etobicoke in fact is an anglicized version of a Mississauga of the New Credit word that translates to “place where the alders grow”.

There were some differing opinions on what colours would be best, some believed monochromatic or pastel colours would be good. Other considered colors with “life.” When participants were shown the Regal Heights Springmount mural they could envision how the vibrant colours would look. At that point many opted for “colours with life” or said in other terms, a vibrant colour palette with complimentary colours.

Other design-related suggestions included shapes. They wanted a design that incorporated symmetry and had a serpentine design that incorporated organic curvy shapes. A few members felt like a geometric pattern could be inserted into something that was curvy to get the crisp effect of clean lines.

While participants were excited to see something that incorporated trees and plant life into the mural, they rejected the idea of

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including the animal life of the neighbourhood like squirrels and racoons.

One idea was to have the mural simply be the Markland Wood “Circle of Friends” logo. This is not possible for two reasons. Firstly, the logo is protected under copyright that wouldn’t permit re-use in the form of a mural. Secondly, the City has strict guidelines banning words and logos from all murals designs as part of the pilot.

Wild Ideas for your Community - - - - X The ideas from the “Wild Ideas For Your Neighbourhood” station can be categorized as “social” or “play”. Many of the big ideas were creative and wonderful, but bringing people and kids together was a central theme of many of the ideas. Doing things as a neighbourhood like having street parties, potlucks, community coffee dates, community BBQs, a neighbourhood car wash event, picnics and a garden competition were all proposed.

“ We just attended an interesting, uplifting event last night for the Sapling

Forest View Road Mural project. We met many of our neighbours and had a chance for the first time to get to know them better.

-Anne Andriash & Jim Voege

”

Play as a central theme was strongly supported. With many low traffic streets in Markland Wood a big asset is the ability to play almost

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anywhere. Neighbours mentioned road hockey, water fights, capture the flag, scavenger hunts, bike rides as activities that community could do together. A very specific idea was to install distance markers installed on the proximate St. Clements School track. This would allow for runners, rollerbladers and cyclists to time themselves doing sprints. It was pitched as a project the community could easily build together to add more utility to a nearby valuable asset, the St. Clements Schoolyard.

Draw Your Own Mural

- - - - X While it is hard to accurately describe what was drawn in words, a summary of the ideas follows. Every Post-It® note drawing included elements of nature, whether a flower or very frequently a tree. Most designs were circular in nature with elements inside the circles. The designs submitted attempt to capture the feel of the neighbourhood and what people appreciate

about it which was brought up numerous times as trees and community. Another element that had some popularity was an element of orienteering. Instead of painting the design in the direction of the street, the mural could instead face north. This would act as a directional cue to and observer, but also reference the element of play that comes with exploration.

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Marklanders share their ideas

Special Thanks - - - - X Special thanks to Haley Anderson, Adrienne Boyd, and Tamara Tukhareli for volunteering to facilitate our conversation. They were all fantastic. Thanks to Councillor Holyday who has given his conditional support for the project but unfortunately couldn’t be there due to a previous engagement. The Markland Wood Homeowners Association for helping us get the word out, thank you. Again to all the neighbours who gave us an hour of their evening we truly appreciate your contribution. It will help set the direction on our project and a blueprint for the desired design for the mural.