Back At It, More or Less

Back at blogging that is. I've never really left it, since I've continued my involvement with the city's Community Stewardship Program, and participation with Friends of the Don East and the TRCA's Don Watershed Regeneration Council. Plus other volunteer activities at various sites.

I started the blog as an offshoot of the Task Force to Bring Back the Don. Originally, I wanted to communicate to my fellow members my experiences with the Don River and valley. I tried email, and then a yahoo group before I started the blog. Since then I have involved myself through Twitter and recently Facebook.

For awhile the blog was all there was. I put everything there including announcements, events, and my irregular opeds. Blog posting would sometimes simply be a link to somebody`s news article or even just a photo. Then Twitter arrived and I found that it was a better vehicle for the short stuff.

In 2010, Rob Ford was elected as mayor. Ford was the new man on the block and he wanted to put his own stamp on the city. Unfortunately, this included suppressing citizen involvement and he killed off 95% of the citizen committees that had remained throughout the Lastman and Miller eras. This sweep included Bring Back the Don. There was some backlash to this but through delay and obfuscation he effectively killed off the Task Force. Technically the TF is not completely disestablished, but the inability to hold meetings or recruit new members meant that the remaining active members eventually lost interest and moved on to other things and the TF is now for all purposes kaput.

During this time I lost interest in blogging and my interest lapsed except for a few Twitter posts. But I have received a few queries about the status of the blog and it appears that there is a larger constituency out there than just the old Task Force that is interested in the Don.

So I am going to try again. But rather than focus my attention on the blog I will be looking to increase the outreach by connecting through Twitter and Facebook. So if you`re an old blog follower, try cruising over to Facebook or follow on Twitter. Interesting things are still happening with the Don River, the valley and the watershed. There are still more things to be said and done before I am dead and gone.