Young people outline their vision of an ideal city

Ariane and Lukas Gagnon participated in the ABC Urbanism conference organized on January 18 by Vivre en ville, the Aylmer Heritage Association and the Aylmer District Councillor. Ariane loves nature and animals; she takes offence at the idea that some people destroy these. At school, she learned a lot about the Boucher Forest and finally came to the conclusion that there are too many houses, cars and shopping centres ... just to make money, she believes. Any ideas for her ideal city? A city with lots of plants, houses, no cars and especially smaller shops. Her brother goes on to say that there should be fewer companies trying to add to the business we already have too much of.  Lukas’ school is next door to the Destination Vanier project. He was very shocked when the trees were cut down. He had tears in his eyes as he imagined the animals crossing the street to find another piece of woodland. So he wanted to attend this presentation in the hope of collecting ideas to take back to his school. His goal:  to mobilize young people to change the vocation of this part of the business project. He left a little speechless, but smiling: who knows, the seeds of urban planning disseminated by today’s speakers may find their way to germinate new ideas in him? See photo on page 1. (trans)