Mindy Sichel: “I’m often the first person to raise my hand“

This is an expanded version of the article that appeared in the March 2021 Centretown BUZZ.

Alayne McGregor

When Mindy Sichel walks down her street, she’s reminded of the power of citizen action and community associations.

Three years ago, she and her neighbours, with the help of the Centretown Community Association (CCA), successfully persuaded a developer to change the proposed design of a nearby building. It was proposed to be flush to the sidewalk, leaving no room for greenspace, nowhere to pile snow in the winter, and with icicles falling down on the sidewalk.

The building now going up at Kent and McLeod was redesigned to have a five-foot setback from the sidewalk, which gives room to breathe, she said.

That success persuaded Sichel to join the CCA board in 2018, and then to become CCA president this January.

Sichel and her partner bought their house on McLeod Street 20 years ago (“before it was cool”), and live there with their 10-year-old child. Sichel has worked in the high-tech sector since moving to Ottawa in 1997.

What does she love about Centretown? “The walkability of the neighbourhood and how basically anything you need is within that 15 minutes, or in most cases even less. The diversity of the people. My neighbours come from all kinds of different backgrounds and do all kinds of really cool things.”

She says she’s “always been interested in what’s going on. I’m the kind of person who stops and reads the panels on those development application signs. I love talking to people, when I’m outside and walking around.”

At the CCA, she joined the Planning and Trees and Greenspace committees. Her experiences there confirmed to her that “by getting involved you can actually effect change and make things happen. That for me is the coolest thing about a community association.”

“We do lots of little things”

She said she agrees with former CCA president Shawn Barber, who said that “the community association doesn’t necessarily do big things, but we do lots of little things. And when you do those little things, over time they add up, and they make changes to our community.”

“And that’s what the community association does,” she said. “We do lots of little things. During the pandemic we did lots of advocacy to get Queen Elizabeth Drive to be closed to cars – and then it actually happened. We made that change. At the start of the pandemic, people who were either homeless or precariously-housed couldn’t find washrooms when all the coffee shops closed. That’s really important and we agitated to get public bathrooms and as a result the city ended up installing porta-potties throughout Centretown. It was a change that makes a difference for people.”

Working together in an association allows people to show their experiences and knowledge (for example, how to read an arcane planning documents), she said. “Together we’re stronger. The community association is an assembly of a lot of people who have been working on this kind of thing for years and years. And they’re people who care about the same kinds of things that you do.”

Sichel said that CCA board members encouraged her to run for president. “I thought, ‘Well, this seems like an exciting, important thing to do.’ I also joke I have volunteer-itis! When there’s a call for volunteers, people to get involved, I’m often the first person to raise my hand and say that I’ll do it. Now that I have a kid to take care of and a job, I try to balance it a little bit and sit on my hands sometimes because otherwise I get involved in too many things and I can’t do everything.”

Making sure all members could vote

For the first time in years, there was a contest for CCA president this year, Sichel running against local activist Charlie Brenchley. At the same time there was a large spike in association memberships, from 130 at the beginning of the year, to more than 200 by the January 19 AGM. The association now has 249 members, Sichel said.

The association’s elderly website–which the CCA is working to replace–had problems. On the day of the AGM, there were 30 to 40 people who had technical problems with registration and might not be able to vote.

“I said, ‘That’s not OK. We need to make sure that these people if they want to vote, let’s try to figure out what we can to make them be able to vote.’ ”

Sichel and Brenchley went through the list and called or emailed each person individually to ensure their membership payment went through. “Both of us played hookey from our regular jobs and lives, and spent the day calling people to say ‘Hey, we had a problem with your payment or your form didn’t go through or we weren’t sure you were living in Centretown.’ ”

Although Sichel won the election, she and Brenchley have kept working together closely, she said, developing a CCA Communications Committee.

More dynamic and diverse

During the election, Brenchley told the AGM that “there are people who want to be part of this organization. They just don’t necessarily feel represented at the table.”

Sichel said she responded to this criticism by being welcoming and open to different people. She pointed out that new members on the current CCA board “are more dynamic and diverse than we’ve ever had before, pulling in from different parts of the community. Younger people, more diverse people, and that’s how we go about being representative. More renters, more LGBTQ, more racialized minorities in general.”

As CCA President, she said, she wants to continue supporting the Planning Committee as it looks at new developments like 267 O’Connor and a proposed new residence for homeless indigenous women.

She also values the very practical work of the volunteer gardeners in local parks. And she’s reviving the CCA’s Transportation Committee, which is being helmed by new board member Ward Verschaeve, and will deal with everything from pedestrians to cars to scooters.

“Our board has grown in diversity, and having more people from different communities and from different places. I think it’s also paying attention to more and more different things, like the Anti-Racism Working Group is an important start. We’re also talking more about affordable housing because affordable housing has always been something that the CCA has been interested in, but we have more and more people who say, hey we need to push on this. Affordable housing is a really key issue for Centretown and we need to get involved. So that’s something we’re trying to do more of.”

In December, the CCA Board supported the McKenney/Menard motion to reallocate funds from the police to social services, at the request of the Anti-Racism Working Group. More recently, they supported the idea of a tax on vacant housing.

“We have all these developers and city staff who are working on building a more densely-populated city, a more densely-populated Centretown. The CCA says that’s great, but let’s make sure that we focus on the aspects that make Centretown liveable. It’s not just about density. We can’t just go around putting up these big towers and expect that that’s going to make Centretown a more liveable place. What about greenspace? What about having a place where people can go and relax in a park? What about trees? What about making sure we have the proper transportation infrastructure? Whether it’s walking and having the sidewalks cleared so people can get through, having bike lanes, making sure there’s places to go. And also having things like grocery stores.”

Sichel said she was excited by the enthusiasm of CCA members; at the January meeting of its Planning Committee, more than 40 people attended.

“What’s really exciting about the CCA is how many people are getting involved and how many people care enough to show up and come out and want to discuss things.”