5. Active, Connected Riverside
Why This Matters
Health is not created only in hospitals and doctors’ offices. It is affected by whether people can walk safely, whether children have places to play, whether seniors can sit and rest, whether someone with a disability can navigate a sidewalk, and whether neighbours have places and reasons to encounter one another.
This commitment includes practical community connection as well as healthy neighbourhood design. Walk With Denis is one example: regular neighbourhood walks where residents can join me for five minutes or the whole walk, bring the dog, bring a coffee, raise a concern or simply connect. It lets a councillor experience the ward at walking speed and keeps representation visible and accessible.
What City Hall Can Do
Yes. Parks, recreation, sidewalks, trails, accessibility, public spaces and councillor engagement are all legitimate municipal concerns, although not every activity requires a new City program.
Who Needs to Be Involved
Residents, parks and recreation staff, accessibility partners, community groups, schools, local businesses and the councillor directly.
Cost and Funding
Walk With Denis itself would cost little or nothing. Physical improvements to parks, sidewalks or amenities would vary and should be handled through evidence-based maintenance and capital planning.
Existing parks, recreation, accessibility and infrastructure budgets, grants and community partnerships where appropriate.
What I Will Do
Hold regular neighbourhood walks, log issues residents identify, follow them through City processes, and use what I learn at walking speed to inform budget and infrastructure priorities.
My Action Plan
Establish regular “Walk With Denis” neighbourhood walks as a working method of representation—rotating through Ward 6, accessible where possible, dogs welcome, with residents invited to raise issues while we see the street or park together.
Maintain a simple issue log from every walk: location, concern, responsible department, date referred, response and outcome. Follow-up is the difference between a photo opportunity and representation.
Use the walks to identify small connectivity improvements—benches, shade, crossings, sidewalk repairs, trail links, park amenities and accessibility barriers—and feed them into maintenance and capital planning.
Support low-cost community activity in parks and public spaces through partnerships with recreation, libraries, schools, neighbourhood groups, arts/culture organizations and local businesses where appropriate.
Look for missing links between destinations people already use—parks, schools, shopping, transit, waterfront and community facilities—so walking and rolling become practical choices, not just recreational ones.
Report back periodically on what residents raised and what changed. The goal is a ward where people encounter one another, participate and feel that public space belongs to them.