In London's fast

In London's fast-growing Ward 7, infrastructure lags top candidates' concerns

Candidates say roads, sidewalks and transit have failed to keep pace with rapid growth

For Ward 7 candidate Dan Meinen, one of the area's problems is illustrated by a missing sidewalk along a short section of Hyde Park Road, just north of Fanshawe Park Road.

Over the past decade, the area north of the intersection has been filling in with new homes, including apartment towers on Dyer Avenue completed more than eight years ago.

Pedestrians heading south to businesses on Fanshawe Park Road often cut through the Rona parking lot rather than navigate snowbanks along the stretch of Hyde Park Road without a sidewalk.

To Meinen, it's a symptom of a wider problem in the fast-growing ward: infrastructure often lags behind growth.

"Ward 7 has a lot of reactionary infrastructure development," said Meinen. "A city with a $1.4 billion budget should be able to afford a $50,000 sidewalk."

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When the city began the process of redrawing ward boundaries to smooth out population imbalances, Ward 7's growth stood out. At just under 50,000 people, Ward 7 had the highest population of London's 14 wards by far, a big reason why a significant chunk was lopped off as part of the boundary review.

Filling infrastructure gaps is a big reason why Meinen, a decorated Canadian Forces Veteran and City of London building inspector, decided to enter the council race as a first-time candidate.

It doesn't hurt that it's a wide-open race with incumbent Coun. Corrine Rahman opting to run in Ward 5 this time.

The slate of candidates includes two city workers, two former refugees, two former journalists, a college professor and a business owner.

Meinen, who was awarded the Sacrifice Medal for his service in Afghanistan, wants to bring efficiencies to city hall operations.

He points to years of growing traffic congestion as the city approved new subdivisions on Sunningdale Road. That section of Sunningdale, which connects to Ward 7, is now in the process of being widened from two lanes to four between Hyde Park Road and just west of Richmond Street.

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The work is due to wrap up this year on a project that came to council as an environmental assessment back in 2012.

"If you go back n the 1950s they were talking about widening Sunningdale Road," said Meinen. "Seventy plus years later, we're finally doing something about it. We have very reactionary upgrading."

Another focus of Meinen's campaign is traffic safety.

Back in 2020, a car slammed into his house in the middle of the night on Attawandaron Road, which lies just outside the Ward 7 boundary. No one was hurt, but Meinen said the city could do more to curb speeding and cut-through traffic on residential streets.

Another candidate in Ward 7 is Djuma Moïse Sharifu, a volunteer outreach co-ordinator with Crown of Victory Mizeituni International Church. Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sharifu spent ten years at a refugee camp in Uganda before coming to Canada.

Like Meinen, he's concerned about increased speeding on residential streets.

"My message has always been about community engagement," he said. "London is growing, so their involvement matters most."

Also running in Ward 7 is German Gutierrez. Originally from Colombia, he's worked in banking and as a video journalist, and continues to work with the Inter American Press Association, a non-profit group that protects freedom of the press. These days he's a professor at Fanshawe College.

Gutierrez agrees infrastructure in the ward is lacking but says early canvassing has shown that crime, including auto thefts and package piracy, is a growing concern.

"Many merchants have told me there's a lot of shoplifting," said Gutierrez. He also said problems with homelessness and open drug use aren't limited to downtown.

"The immediacy of help is not available due to provincial de-funding," he said.

Waseem Kazzah, 35, came to Canada from Syria as a refugee in his early 20s. Now he's a Western University grad and certified professional accountant at Canada Life. If elected, he'd be taking a pay cut but says his campaign is about bringing more transparency to how city hall operates and engaging young people in municipal politics.

"As someone who came here as a refugee, I know how to build a new life from the ground up," he said. "To me, public service is about giving back."

As a self-described "numbers guy," whose resumé includes work in the city's finance department, Kazzah wants London to create an online dashboard showing where each tax dollar goes, similar to the city's public dashboard tracking its response to homelessness.

The city already post its budget information online, but Kazzah believes a dashboard would make that information easier for residents to understand.

If elected, Kazzah would be well below the average age of London's current city council, something he sees as an advantage.

"We need someone who knows how to face the challenges that my generation is going through," he said.

In his pitch to boost accountability at city hall, Jonathan Sher points to his track record as an investigative journalist. Sher spent 21 years at the London Free Press, where he uncovered overspending and other issues before leaving the paper in 2018.

"Since I left, I've seen problems in this city intensify and I've seen council and the city fail to keep pace with the challenges it faces," said Sher. "I know how city hall runs. I've held them to account as a journalist."

Sher asked to meet CBC News at the corner of Sarnia and Wonderland Roads, an intersection traversed by 48,000 vehicles on a typical day.

"As we get closer to rush hour, it will be like a parking lot," said Sher. "It hurts commerce, it hurts emergency response."

Sher said council has been too slow to make a decision on widening Wonderland Road, one of the city's busiest traffic bottlenecks.

In 2021, the previous council opted against funding an environmental assessment to widen Wonderland from four to six lanes.

Then in spring of 2025, the current council opted to restart the study to widen Wonderland.

Sher sees that delay as costing Londoners both time and money.

"We need a council that doesn't push off making the tough decisions, and that can plan for the long term," said Sher.

Other candidates running in Ward 7 include Sam Hajar, who worked as a business and zoning co-ordinator for the city. His campaign website says he wants to cut red tape at city hall.

Kamrul Ahsan is a mechanical engineer and business owner.

Ahsan wants to expand transit service in Ward 7. The London Transit Commission currently has three routes that serve the ward, with only one extending north of Fanshawe Park Road.

"I'm running to make sure [Ward 7] gets transit, walkability and a fair share of the city's capital plan," he said.

Candidate nominations close on Aug. 21. Voters head to the polls on Oct. 26.

Andrew Lupton is a reporter with CBC News in London, Ont., where he covers everything from courts to City Hall. He previously was with CBC Toronto. You can read his work online or listen to his stories on London Morning.