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The Orillia waterfront plan is very interesting. I have an MSc in regional planning (Guelph, '73); yet as a pastor I do not usually write, but just pray about such matters.
However, I do have intense personal experience very relevant to the recommendation for pedestrianization.
During my wife's last years, we could not have parked to the west, and pushed her walker to a picnic table in the interior.
Even on mowed grass, it would have been too rough and difficult. Especially with her painful, powerless bad right shoulder.
Not to mention, she was not really supposed to sit at a picnic table, even if she could get to it. Artificial hips.
And of course, when she was dying of heart and lung disease, she could not do even slight exertion, either.
As outdoor folk, we would drive to a handicapped parking spot in the interior of the park, and have a picnic in the car.
We would share our lunch, enjoy the scene, and pray for people (and even their dogs) who passed by. This was one of our great joys in our physically limited life. And I am very grateful to Orillia.
I urge the Mayor and City Council to ask their consultants to consider enhancing, not diminishing, accessibility to the park, to brighten up the days of handicapped users. They are our neighbours too, after all.
Ralph Wood
Orillia
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