Placard-waving, slogan-chanting angry residents marched on town hall this week.

People are angry and, perhaps most of all, disappointed.

It’s not a sight we encounter often in Niagara-on-the-Lake but it is concerning that so many people are so upset.

And despite some naysayers and those who have suggested the protesting is just a bunch of rich, privileged Old Town homeowners who are fretting about their property values, the discontent seems to be rooted more deeply.

Simply dismissing the anger and angst as misguided or self-serving doesn’t serve anyone’s interests.

In a few hundred words, we can’t hope to analyze and get to the bottom of why we’ve reached this point. But when people feel the need to take to the street in NOTL to express their displeasure, certainly something is percolating.

A big part of it appears to be that people don’t feel their voices actually were heard.

They feel town council has not really listened, that when speakers made presentations, the 5-3 voting fix was already in and citizens’ voices were tolerated but not really listened to.

Perhaps the lord mayor and councillors could have done a better job at communicating their positions and reasoning. And a better job of listening.

Perhaps election promises that seem to have been cast aside or forgotten should have been revisited by those now on council.

Perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered.

Perhaps the reality on the ground is that the times and the rules have changed.

Perhaps no one would be placated unless council had reversed course and voted as the voices of opposition wanted. But the reality is we elect people and trust them to make decisions in the best interests of the whole town.

Perhaps the anger vocalized by those who protested this week can now be channelled into something positive in working with the town and council toward a better future. Or perhaps the breach between the two solitudes is just too wide.

Perhaps we are simply at a point in NOTL’s life where, sadly, provincial rule changes and pressures mean that infill development in Old Town (and other pockets of NOTL) will be far different than many want.

Perhaps the loss of the town’s appeal over the King Street condo building is a bellwether telling us loud and clear that in Doug Ford’s Ontario this is the future. And that future is now.

Perhaps also, in retrospect, those who were adamantly against the original Parliament Oak development proposal, the King Street condo and other projects around town (including Tricia Romance’s plan for the Rand estate years before) would now have a different view given how times have changed.

We’re not suggesting people give up, throw up their arms and walk away.

But just as it is wise for the town to pick legal battles it has a hope of winning, perhaps a reset is in order for how we as a community can and should approach the inevitable development proposals that are surely coming our way in NOTL.

Perhaps we can bring some order to the chaos and conflict.