Around two years ago, inspired by SFU City Conversations, four councillors from municipalities throughout the region had an idea to bring important city-building conversations, now called Metro Conversations, out from the confines of the City of Vancouver, to the rest of the region.
It is important that these conversations about affordable housing, transportation, and equity are not just focused on one municipality, but the region as a whole. That is why we decided to bring these conversations, in partnership with SFU Public Square, to other centres throughout Metro Vancouver. Mathew Bond of the District of North Vancouver, Kiersten Duncan of Maple Ridge, and Patrick Johnstone of New Westminster, and myself hosted these conversations connecting citizens and topic experts.
“We realized that not everyone could make these conversations,” said Councillor Patrick Johnstone. “This is why we are excited to be launching our podcast series, enable access for more people to engage in the conversation.”
Metro Conversations around single-family housing, short-time rentals, affordable housing, gender in politics, and transportation were held in Lynn Valley, Downtown PoCo, New West, and Langley City, engaging with around 150 citizens of our region over the past year.
Funded by a SFU Community Engagement Initiative grant, Metro Conversations follows the model of SFU City Conversations, an SFU Public Square program, with short presentations from experts followed by moderated dialogue among participants.
“Connecting with community is part of everything we at Canada’s engaged university,” says SFU Public Square executive director Janet Webber. “We are thrilled to support Metro Conversations and have these important discussions reach and engage citizens throughout Metro Vancouver and are very excited that this new podcast will allow the program to reach an even wider audience.”
The podcast series includes the best of the in-person conversations, and exclusive online-only content.
The podcast series is also available today on:
iTunes: http://itunes.convo.city
Google Play: http://play.convo.city