2 Friday, September 11, 2020 brooklintowncrier.com Less than half the picture: By Richard Bercuson "Just breathe" - Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) Let's first get one thing out of the way: I'm pro-police. Perhaps it's because I've known, taught or coached so many. (A detective came to my school once to educate staff about gangs. Turns out he'd been in my English class and remembered me - fondly!) I'm also pro military, pro nurse, pro doctor, and mostly pro teacher. In fact, I'm pro those who protect my butt, save my butt, heal my butt and teach me about my butt. Now you know where I'm coming from. The name-calling may commence. Secondly, Brooklin is a wonderfully safe community, despite the alarmist rhetoric spewed on social media. Long time residents will recall the days before strip malls and housing developments. Brooklin had just three schools, a popular downtown bakery, and Connie's, which closed last fall after 40 years. There wasn't much crime. Maybe the few viable targets were too far apart. Consider how exhausting and time-consuming it would've been to travel hundreds of meters (then, yards) to break into a car or house. Porch piracy, as both a term and an act, did not exist. It's inevitable that Brooklin's affluence and growth include a concomitant increase in certain crimes. There are lovely cars in our driveways (rather than in garages) and during the pandemic, our front steps have been festooned with packages. Speeding is a problem. Teens have been out late at night - why? ask their parents - looking for who knows what to do. Graffiti has appeared in places. We can't prevent some crimes but we can be vigilant and it's pretty easy to do. Not whining on social media is a good start. Demanding to know where the police are suggests we should have cruisers patrolling all night. It's a ridiculous notion, borne of neither thought nor research. If you want your taxes to shoot up to pay for it, then sure, we could have a police station in Brooklin and/or cops everywhere. Similarly, the whole defunding police movement is knee-jerk. I agree: police don't need to sit at street repair sites nor direct traffic when a light goes down. Perhaps, too, there's a case for other professionals to deal with specific domestic events. Certainly these bear thorough investigation. And not to put too fine a point on it, it's rather tough to predict crime. Whatever perceived "hotspots" there are in Brooklin are mostly of our own doing. Solutions, however, abound. What're your teenagers up to? Buy motion-sensor lights and security cameras. Mine and a Facebook posting led to a tipster helping me nail the culprit who swiped Purolator bags from my porch. He said he was bored. At 1:30 am! Mea culpa: I left them out overnight, a clear and dumb invitation, right? Join Neighbourhood Watch. Do you know your neighbours? Lock your cars and leave nothing in them. Record the plates or take video of dumbass drivers. But mostly, let's chill. We're dealing with enough to further stir the very pot we're already roiling in. Future Growth Projects Discussed At Special Meeting The public planning meeting held on September 8 included three major projects which will impact Brooklin over the next few years: The Winash Development at Highway 407 and Baldwin and future developments on Thickson and Columbus Roads. Applications for other parts of Whitby were also on the agenda. The Winash Development, located at 5605 and 5380 Baldwin South Winash, wishes to develop "an industrial subdivision containing 8 blocks and three public roads, including a community centre block, a business park block, a health precinct block, two gas station blocks, an auto mall block, a prestige industrial block and an open space block." Whitby Planning Commissioner Roger Saunders provided outlines of these projects to accompany staff reports on each. The Town's Planning and Development Department included sketches of the projects, as seen here. The projects fall under the Brooklin Secondary and Transportation Master Plans as previously reported. Brooklin will see a provincially mandated growth of over 20,000 people within the next 10 to 15 years. Due to COVID restrictions, members of the public and delegations needed to register in advance in order to attend in person. The public could otherwise watch the meeting via its live stream and submit questions to the Town Clerk beforehand. In addition to delegations, those in attendance included Town staff and the chair, Councillor Mulcahy.