One of the most interesting developments of this mayoral election campaign didn’t happen during a debate, or on the campaign trail at all. It happened at a city council meeting earlier this month.
There, Coun. Lily Cheng of Willowdale put forward a series of motions regarding a modular supportive housing project in her ward that was approved two years ago but has been delayed by community complaints. Cheng’s motions, justified she said by “a serious lapse in the democratic process,” might have delayed the project further, or derailed it. We’ve seen this movie before: neighbours kill affordable housing because of concerns about safety, or neighbourhood character, or green space, or height, or whatever else they can think of, and the housing never gets built.
