A wealth of reports on wealth creation

This is a copy of the commentary I read to open tonight's show:

Good evening. I’m Mark Leger. Welcome to ‘Serf City’ on CFMH 107.3 FM.

I became interested in Joel Plaskett and municipal development issues around the same time.

I imagine you wondering to yourself, “What is the connection between an ECMA award-winning musician and tedious civic discussions about fixing potholes and sewage systems?”

Well, let me explain.

It was 2003 and I was the editor and co-owner of here. It was the early days of the public angst about the brain drain, and city leaders were holding meetings and conferences and press briefings about how to keep our young people from leaving for the big cities in Canada and the U.S.

At here, we saw ourselves as the voice for that lost generation – lost, that is, by the city to more prosperous and interesting places. City leaders were anxious about the situation, and there was plenty of hand wringing at heretoo. We published ad nauseam stories and editorials about the problem and possible solutions.

Joel Plaskett was an inspiration in that context, because he was so committed to staying in Halifax rather than pursuing a music career in a bigger city. I remember seeing him in 2003 for the first time, before a packed house at the old Il Fornello restaurant on Canterbury Street. He struck a chord in me when he played, “Work Out Fine,” which contained a verse about his friends moving away to Montreal and Toronto.

All my friends, where did they go?
To Montreal, Toronto
All my friends, they split too soon
They split town with the fork and the spoon
They all split town and they left me
Sitting with a bottle of wine
Gonna pop the cork
Say my goodbyes
And everything'll work out fine

Halifax is a bigger urban centre than Saint John, but it still suffers from the same small-town anxieties.

Not much has changed since then. We seem to be marking progress more by issuing reports than by making concrete changes to the city that would make it a better place for young people to live and work.

In the early part of the decade, the Growth Strategy and waterfront inner-harbour land use plan were the blueprints for economic growth and regeneration of the city core.

These days, it’s the Benefits Blueprint, which we talked about on last week’s show, and Uptown Saint John’s new wealth creation strategy, which we’ll talk about on today’s show.

We’ll also speak with Joel Plaskett. He’s playing two sold-out shows in Saint John this weekend.

Also on the show tonight: an interview with Saint John native R.M. Vaughan. Vaughan is a successful writer and video artist living in Toronto. He recently published “Troubled,” a collection of poems about a failed relationship he had with his psychiatrist.

- Mark