Our guest speaker spoke in the beginning about the perceptions that individuals have of Niagara from both an economic and tourism standpoint. One thing I found interesting was the perception of many individuals visiting is that many only see Niagara as a tourist destination and only think of Niagara Falls. After they visit they realize this is not that case and go away extremely impressed by the uniqueness of Niagara.
At this conversation café we asked everyone what their dreams for Niagara 10 years from now are. Some of the responses were:
– Prevent the Urban sprawl
– Integration in terms of better coordination of services and avoiding duplication of services. Talking together more than segregating by municipalities.
– Bring employment opportunities back to the area
– Improve our weaknesses
– Bring back the infrastructure
Other thoughts that were brought up that we would like to highlight are:
– Someone mentioned that Niagara has more to offer than the whole of Canada
– Involvement and understanding of the community are key to successfully moving forward
– What makes Niagara, Niagara is its culture
– Niagara needs to move with the trends. We are at a point where a change needs to happen and we have the blank slate to work with.
– We hang around our own kind too much and need to go out into the world and explore. We would appreciate or better see what Niagara has to offer.
– No matter where you go Niagara has that small town atmosphere to it. Could parochialism be the cause of this?
– We are all Niagara, regardless of what area of Niagara we live in.
Someone also mentioned to check out the survey on the best places to live in Canada and see how we compare…it might surprise you!
We ask you the same question what do you want to see for Niagara? What do you think makes a great community?
