The Sydenham District, which encompasses Queen’s main campus and much of the surrounding student housing, has its councillor seat up for grabs.
Four candidates — John Meligrana, Annie Palone, Andrew DaCosta, and Rajesh Kumar — are running for Sydenham District councillor. The race originally included five candidates, but Jago Garrett withdrew his candidacy on Aug. 18.
Previous Sydenham District Councillor Conny Glenn has left her seat to run for mayor, leaving the district without an incumbent.
READ MORE: Queen’s district councillor Conny Glenn announces mayoral campaign
According to the City of Kingston’s electoral districts map, Sydenham District covers the area south of Johnson St., extending to Ontario St., east to Gore St., with Sir John A. Macdonald Blvd. forming its western boundary.
Each candidate spoke with The Journal about their priorities for the district.
Andrew DaCosta
“I live here, I work here, I study here. My life revolves around Sydenham,” said DaCosta, ArtSci ’29.
Though a Queen’s student, DaCosta’s campaign website assures that he is “not running a campaign focused only on Queen’s students,” but focused on all residents of Sydenham District.
Studying Political Studies for his second year at Queen’s, DaCosta’s platform focuses on six main points: the housing crisis, active transportation, the relationship between the City of Kingston and post-secondary institutions, capital tax, keeping residents informed, and a report card outlining his work and progress.
DaCosta said Sydenham has not had a student representative on council in almost 40 years, pointing to Cam Watson, a Queen’s student who was elected as Sydenham Ward’s alderman — an elected member of a municipal government who represents a specific district or ward — in 1988.
He said this makes student representation a key priority for him.
He identified Kingston’s housing crisis as one of Sydenham’s biggest issues, saying candidates must be prepared to address it.
“If you’re not ready to address that, I don’t think you’re ready for this position,” DaCosta said.
He supports denser housing development to keep residents where they need to be, including students near campus and residents to essential services.
DaCosta said he recently met with Principal Patrick Deane to discuss Kingston’s housing crisis and possible solutions and initiatives that both Queen’s and the City could develop.
If elected, DaCosta said he would aim to establish a permanent office on Queen’s campus where students and residents could raise concerns with him or his team.
On sustainability, DaCosta said he is the only candidate in the race using recyclable paper signs rather than plastic lawn signs
“That’s a climate initiative I’ve been working towards even right now on my campaign,” DaCosta said.
Rajesh Kumar
While working as the manager of economic development on the Partnership and Innovation Team at Queen’s, Kumar, who has a master’s degree from Queen’s, is also a PhD student in the Smith School of Business. He has served as chief administrative officer in the Municipality of Clyde River, Nunavut, where he managed multi-million-dollar budgets and built partnerships with Indigenous leaders.
Kumar said he saw the challenges communities in Nunavut were facing from “very close quarters,” and, when he arrived in Kingston for his master’s degree, “realized things are not very different here.”
His campaign website highlights the four main focuses of his platform including creating safe, accessible, and liveable neighbourhoods, affordable housing, seeing that basic needs are met, and ensuring City Hall is fiscally responsible and kept accountable.
Being a husband and father of two, Kumar prides himself on being simultaneously a student and a family man, saying it offers him a unique but combined perspective of student life and family life. He said he understands first-hand the challenges of stakeholders.
Canvassing around Sydenham, Kumar said he has spoken with more than 500 residents and that his priorities come directly from conversations with Sydenham residents.
He identified housing as a major issue, saying many new buildings and units are not being built for the “common person.” He also spoke with unhoused individuals who are struggling with mental health challenges and substance use but have few places to turn.
“You can keep pushing your dust under the carpet, it does not mean that your house is clean,” Kumar said.
He wants to explore tiny homes, prefabricated houses, and mobile homes as affordable housing options, emphasizing that the City could pilot and refine these projects based on the challenges that arise.
When informing The Journal that he had withdrawn his name from candidacy, Jago Garrett noted that he had “withdrawn to nominate [his] fellow student, Rajesh Kumar.”
When asked about their relationship, Kumar said that they didn’t know each other before the race.
John Meligrana
As an associate professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’s, Meligrana, MPL ’91, has lived in Sydenham District for 25 years and wants to draw on his experience in the area to support students, newcomers, families, renters, and homeowners.
Meligrana’s campaign website highlights both Sydenham-wide and Kingston-wide issues, with his goal being to work “collaboratively to ensure inclusive, practical, and accountable local government.”
Within the first five to six years that Meligrana lived in Sydenham, he said he noticed a lack of communication between residents, students, and Queen’s.
In April 2005, he held a community meeting in Robert Sutherland Hall, where people attended presentations and breakout sessions to get “the ball rolling on the discussion about student-community relations.”
He said bringing the community together is “going to be a critical asset moving forward.”
Meligrana pointed to housing as Sydenham’s biggest issue. Regarding the Student Housing Strategy, he said “the word student is almost a misnomer, it’s going to be a community housing strategy.”
“This community has always had students living here and always will,” he said. “I think there’s goodwill amongst all members of our community, it’s just building upon that goodwill.”
Meligrana also said he plans to protect Sydenham’s tree canopy. Through his canvassing, he said several residents told him there have been issues with mature trees being cut down for no apparent reason. He said he would like council to review their tree removal policies as well as the role that Utilities Kingston may play to ensure that Sydenham’s trees remain protected.
Meligrana said he would like the city to continue tapping into their funds for environmental initiatives and promoting the fact that local neighbourhood associations can as well. However, he acknowledged that there may not be much allocated to these kinds of projects.
“I think the city has small amounts of funds that communities can access to do some kinds of environmental action plans,” Meligrana said.
Annie Palone
Palone works as a freelance urban designer and volunteers as a planning liaison for the Sydenham District Association and as vice-chair of Downtown Kingston Business Improvement Area’s (BIA) Streetscapes & Public Spaces Committee.
Having grown up on Traymoor St., she described herself as having “deep roots in the Sydenham District.”
During her interview, Palone identified liveability, affordability, and sustainability as her three priorities. However, her campaign website highlights four main priorities: liveable neighbourhoods, quality housing, sustainable growth and environmental protection, and a community voice at city hall.
When asked what she saw as Sydenham’s biggest issue, she pointed to housing and the Student Housing Strategy. She said the strategy could provide demographic data on the City’s student population, which she believes current census data fails to capture.
She also wants to continue initiatives championed by former councillor Glenn, including what Palone called a proposed “landlord registry” that distinguishes rental properties from owner-occupied homes. On February 8, 2024, Council approved Residential Rental Licensing, an iteration of Glenn’s 2022 pilot Residential Rental Licensing Program.
“I think the more data we have that we can use to drive our decision making, the smarter the decisions that we can make are,” Palone said.
Palone also pointed to sustainability initiatives, including potentially using waste heat from Queen’s future supercomputer to heat homes in the winter.
READ MORE:Queen’s signs MOU with Université de Sherbrooke to advance national supercomputing system
She also said “other questions” were emerging, including the possibility of Defence Canada using the Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute (KCVI) building as a supercomputing station. However, Queen’s owns the KCVI building and has not identified a future use for the property, and Defence Canada has not publicly announced plans to use the building for this purpose.
READ MORE: Queen’s owned KCVI in limbo as storage facility
Tags
2026 municipal elections, City Councillor, Elections, Sydenham district
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