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St James Town Residents Council Hosts Summer Town Hall Meeting with City Councillor and MPP.
By Fred Alvarado Fred is a community journalist with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE
On July 11th, 2023 a St James Town Community Town Hall meeting was held at 200 Wellesley Street East Community Centre to speak about the pressing issues that are deeply affecting residents in the St James Town neighbourhood and downtown East communities such as housing & affordability, safety, hate crimes against the LGBTQ2+ community, and the drug poisoning emergency.
The meeting was facilitated by the St James Town Residents Council, constituted by a diverse team of community members that came together to support the residents of St James Town by providing information workshops, community building activities, networking, advocacy, town halls, special events and accessing social services.
The Town Hall meeting had MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam and City Councillor Chris Moise as guest speakers.
The discussion was moderated by St James Town community members Dr. Deepika Papneja, Jennifer Creede and T Williams.
In addition to exploring community feedback and opportunities, Kristyn Wong-Tam provided an update on her work at Queen’s Park on behalf of the residents of Toronto Centre and shared her thoughts about the importance of a new Toronto Mayor being able to talk about the needs of St James Town community. City Councillor for Ward-13 Chris Moise is also looking forward to working with new mayor Olivia Chow on important issues such as affordable housing and transit.
RPTV News interviewed St James Town Residents Council Co-Chair Dr. Deepika Papneja to know more about the Town Hall meeting's successful turnout.
“We have been planning for this event for several weeks coordinating with MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam’s office and it was a huge success. A lot of people from our community attended, they asked very relevant and important questions that concerns our neighbours, issues related to safety, housing, affordability, and gun violence, issues that are very close to our heart,” said Deepika Papneja.
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