Tenth to the Fraser

New and improved, tenthtothefraser.ca!

2008-12-27T12:03:00.000-08:00

We've moved! Find us now at http://tenthtothefraser.ca!

Shiloh's 'Blue Christmas' service reaches out to the grief-stricken

2008-12-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

Shiloh Sixth Avenue church offered a special "Blue Christmas" service yesterday for people coping with loss and grief. Aside from a minor flood in our basement this season due to a burst pipe (eek!) and the occasional family tiff we have not yet been faced with adversity at Christmastime. We have been lucky. I imagine for those who do experience tragedy at this time of year, it must be especially hard because everyone around you seems so happy. Songs of joy and peace, and all that.

Writes the Burnaby Now :

For those struck by tragedy, the most wonderful time of the year can be a season of pain.
"Everything tells you that you're supposed to be happy and excited and getting ready for Christmas, and there's just this place inside of you that says, 'I'm not there,'" says Shannon Tennant, minister at Shiloh-Sixth Avenue United Church in New Westminster.
Last Sunday, Tennant led the church's annual Blue Christmas service, a time of peaceful reflection - and a refuge from the bright lights and shopping mall Santas.

I was particularly intrigued by the description of the service later in the article:

The Blue Christmas service at Shiloh-Sixth Avenue has much in common with ancient Winter Solstice celebrations, held on the shortest day of the year, Tennant says.
"In ancient times, people would actually gather in the morning to invoke the sun, because they weren't absolutely sure it would come up without them."
The service is also a reminder that the first Christmas came at a time of hardship and uncertainty for the Jews.
"At that time, the Jewish people were heavily taxed. They had Roman soldiers stomping around being annoying," Tennant says.
"So (Jesus) was born partly to give people hope, to so show them that God is with them."

This is exactly one of the reasons why I love Christmas. As the days grow darker and the nights get colder I find it weighs on me. When the lights go up on the houses and the Christmas tree comes inside, it's a reminder that no matter how dark it gets, the light will return. It is a reminder to keep up hope when life is difficult, that good things are just around the corner. We are not a religious family, but I find this symbolism very meaningful.

A Christmas story

2008-12-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a lovely hint of a story to think about as we approach Christmas: when soldiers were posted to B.C. in 1943 to guard against a feared attack by the Japanese, New Westminster opened its doors and made sure every last one had a home to go to for Christmas:

Despite omnipresent danger, tasteless bully beef and hardtack rations in the field, and nearly dying of pneumonia one year, Christmas in the army was the only place Charles Goodman wanted to be in his youth.
Having left home in Saint John any lying about his age so he could enlist in 1943, the 15-year-old found joy and escape from unhappy family life in military camaraderie.
Sent to B.C. to defend against a feared Japanese attack during his first military Christmas, Goodman recalls the town of New Westminster opening its doors to feed and fete every soldier on the festive day.

That gives me some warm and fuzzies. It's so typically New West.

On anonymity

2008-12-21T18:57:00.000-08:00

I was just re-reading an post on the Burnaby Politics blog about a rumour that former Conservative MP Paul Forseth could return to politics in the Burnaby-New Westminster riding currently held by Peter Julian. As a resident of this riding, I am mildly interested, though at the moment it is nothing but a rumour. This blog post is not about the rumour, however. It's about the reader response: thirteen comments on the post, all anonymous.

I struggle with this on Tenth to the Fraser. We have our own semi-regular commenters who choose to remain anonymous. I like to hear from them, but I wish they would leave a name or a handle with their comments. I'm sure there are valid reasons why people would choose to be anonymous, but I confess my knee-jerk reaction is to assume either cowardice or axe-grinding.

Now, before you flame me (anonymously) in the comments section, this is nothing personal against any of our anonymous commenters (or any on Burnaby Politics). I just feel the level of dialogue on a public forum is better when people are willing to stand behind their comments. Using your real name is best, in my view, because it forces a person to consider the effects on reputation when they post a comment. A nickname is acceptable if it's how you are known online. Given the option to use a nickname, I just don't understand choosing to be "Anonymous."

I'm not planning to prevent anonymous comments at this point, unless such comments turn hateful. While they are sometimes stinging, so far I haven't felt they have crossed the line. Or at least, not too far past. But I would like to express my preference that commenters here include their name or nickname.

We aspire on this blog to represent a variety of voices and opinions in New Westminster, so we especially value the contributions of those readers who respectfully disagree. Thank you, all of you who have shared your opinions with us. Perhaps some of you will consider sharing your opinions in a guest post in the new year - assuming, of course, that you are willing to sign your name to it.

School trustee Lori Watt gives a kidney for Christmas

2008-12-20T13:44:00.000-08:00

New Westminster school trustee Lori Watt calls giving a kidney to friend and acting coach Nathaniel Deveaux the "most unique" Christmas gift she has given in a recent Newsleader profile. No kidding!

It started with a phone call when Watt asked, “What blood type are you?”

“B positive,” he replied.

“I’m B positive too.”

That’s when she started thinking about it. After doing research on transplant surgery she told Deveaux she would donate her kidney.

A battery of medical tests showed they were a match and the surgery was scheduled.

“When we both got out of surgery we were each asking how each other was. The other day he walked over to my room in the hospital and thanked me profusely,” said Watt.

“I feel like we were brought together to work on [the play] The Museum Project. Then this happened. I just feel really blessed to be able to give back this way.”

Bee in my Bonnet

2008-12-19T16:04:00.001-08:00

Hi! I'm Jen. Briana has invited me to be an occasional contributor for Tenth to the Fraser, and leave it to me to introduce myself by posting a slightly rant-errific type of post. This is re-posted from my personal blog at www.arbolog.com.

I have a bee in my bonnet about an item that only really comes to light about 2 weeks a year. Kale and I walk every day, sometimes twice a day. I usually use the carrier, because I like having my hands free. Once in a while I will use the stroller. Here is us two days ago:

From Kale 3 to 6 months

Because it snows so infrequently here on the West Coast, I have a feeling that people feel like they have no obligations to remove the snow on the sidewalks in front of their property. In fact, I have a feeling that not all of them even own a snowshovel.

New Westminster is rather hilly, one might say, and the neighbourhood I live in is right at the crest of the big hill and as a result, when we go out walking every day, we walk up or down a hill no matter which direction we walk in. The city is pretty good about plowing and salting the roads - as one of the oldest settlements in BC and one that is so proudly independant, I would suspect that they actually harbour a rather large fleet of winter snow removing trucks.

But these days, being so… pedestrian, I hardly care about the roads other than Ross getting home safely.

People: aside from moralling being obligated to foster a sense of a caring community and actually being concerned with whether or not your neighbour takes a tumble on the walk in front of your house, you are also legally obligated to do so.

Not to get all harrumph-y here but… ahem:

Excerpt from the

Street Traffic Bylaw No. 6027, 1991
Passed January 6, 1992
506. A person being the owner or occupier of real property shall remove snow, ice and rubbish from any sidewalk and foot path bordering that person’s real property and from the roof and other part of a structure adjacent to or abutting on any portion of the street, not later than 10:00 a.m. of the day
after the snow, ice or rubbish is deposited thereon.

Certain neighbours of mine spend a great deal of time decorating their house for Christmas. But you think they bother to get out there and shovel the walk in front of their house? NO. So what happens? Well, the snow gets tramped down by those of us who have to or choose to walk on by. Then it melts a little, because it’s so sunny and gorgeous out. And then at night it freezes into a sheet of glass. Never mind the fact that I’m carrying a baby and if I slip and fall I’ll likely hurt Kale, what about the seniors? I tried using the stroller but I had to give up - pushing it through the slush was even more dangerous than carrying Kale.

I hate to get all “I’m calling the bylaw people!” but seriously, what options do I have? I considered knocking on their door and asking, but what happens if they freak out about the confrontation? People tend to get a little nutty when they realize that a) they are totally in the wrong, and b) someone is calling them on it, so do I really want to go and knock on my neighbour’s door and get sworn, yelled, or worse, swung at? Not really.

So seriously. Be a good neighbour. Avoid getting sued. Shovel and salt your sidewalk. Those of us out walking say “Thank you”.

From Kale 3 to 6 months

What New West's teenage sledders really do

2008-12-18T23:43:00.001-08:00

Ice Blocking (February 2008) 087
Originally uploaded by *Jame*

My fair brother posted previously on the many snowy and wonderful ways (and places) that people can sled in our fair city... however timely this may be, what with the freakish sub-zero weather and inches of snow and all, he has made one critical omission.

Ice blocking.

What is this, you ask? Well, in our (usually) temperate climate, what's a young non-drinking teen to do for fun in a city of hills but no snow?

Answer: Buy a few blocks of ice from your local gas station, and head on up to the steepest sledding hill you know - New Westminsterites (and churchy teens from miles around) flock to Burnaby Mountain Park, mainly, as well as the Eastern Meadow slope of Queen's Park (ending in McBride Boulevard) and Robert Burnaby Park. If it's one of the 360 days of our year when we have no snow at all in Vancouver, then you will have an open hill of green, green grass on which to sit your bum-on-iceblock, give a little push and voila! You are off, ice blocking with the best of them.

While this sport has variously been demonstrated on Saved By the Bell and MTV's Jackass, curiously, this phenomenon seems most common among church teens. Perhaps this population are the only ones crazy enough want to do this while still sober enough to accomplish it. Of the various youth & young adult church groups I went to over my time, they all had this one crazy, seasonless sport in common. While the history of the activity may be debatable, it's not hard to see why it remains so popular - apparently humankind simply has a mad urge to slide down a hill with a cold hiney once in awhile, regardless of the snow availability. It's universal.

Evidence #1: GoIceBlocking.com (the Las Vegas Association of pro-Ice Blockers)

Evidence #2: Wikipedia: Iceblocking (written seemingly from an Australian point of view)

Evidence #3: Jamaican Bobsled Team

Sledding Set Slide to Southern Slope

2008-12-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

I really can not believe Miss 604 beat me to it!

New Westminster is a haven for snow sledding for the youthful and the young at heart. As any one who has walked uptown from the New Westminster Skytrain station can attest, we have got some hills in this fair city! While there are a good number of sledding sites around the Royal City and a notable one at the North East corner of Queen's Park, perhaps the snowy hill most slid upon is the one on the South side of Grimston Park, in New Westminster's West End.

Miss 604 agrees noting briefly that it is "rather tube-friendly", an important technical detail for the sledding enthusiast. With the long, excitingly steep decline, gradual leveling bottom and stunning Fraser River / Delta Shore views, this park really offers the best slope available for safe sledding. While the diminutive denizens of New Westminster used to freely slide down 6th street and 8th street (a practice now reserved for BC Transit vehicles) the slopes of Grimston Park offer a safer thrill and an alternate "bunny hill" in the park by 7th ave for the young sledding fan that, let's admit, is still mastering walking.

I would love to post a sledding photo of the Queen's Park hill or another (perhaps by Richard McBride or Hume Park?) Send us one and we will post it up.

Speaking of school budget shortfalls

2008-12-17T20:47:00.001-08:00

The Vancouver Sun reports that New Westminster will ask school district managers to come back to the classroom as teachers to help offset costs for substitutes due to the $2 million shortfall.

School district managers could be teaching in New Westminster classrooms next month as part of an urgent plan by the district to eliminate a $2-million shortfall without laying off staff.

Senior managers from the board’s head office will work as teachers on call from January until June in a move estimated to save $19,000. A manager is also expected to fill in as vice-principal at John Robson elementary to save $15,000.

More substantial savings are expected through cuts to school budgets ($818,000) and operations and maintenance ($325,000), according to a plan approved by trustees this week. District staff will talk to partner groups early in the new year to determine how such savings can be achieved with only six months left in the school year.

School Trustee Michael Ewen is quoted as saying he likes the idea of senior managers spending time in the classroom, because the experience would benefit them when making decisions that would affect students.

A comment on the story by a Sun reader, on the other hand, points out: "One might be cynical enough to suggest that many of the folks who 'manage' are those who hated the classroom in the first place and thought they were moving up some ladder to escape the long hours and miserable conditions of the classroom drudge."

Ooooh, snap.

No school in Grimston, school board decides

2008-12-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

Grimston Park will be protected space, and will not be considered as a future school site according to last night's school board vote. This is great for the West End, who would have lost its only large park, but leaves New West in a bit of a pickle. New schools must be built, but where? To further complicate matters, our school district is facing a $2 million budget shortfall. We have neither time, nor money, nor resources. So what to do?

Some creative thinking is called for! Some of the ideas I've heard kicked around include:

Sending some New West kids to Burnaby schools (working with that city's school authorities, of course ... though attending by stealth would be funnier ... I'm picturing balaclava-clad kids scurrying across Tenth every morning, hiding behind bushes and trees like you'd see in some Merrie Melodies cartoon ... maybe that's just funny to me)
Building a new high school in Queensborough, where there's a little more room to breathe
Building multi-storey elementary schools instead of single-storey
Building parking lots underground in order to build on smaller lots (not currently funded by the province, but that should change IMHO)

Any other ideas? At this point I'm wondering if I should be planning to homeschool!

New West news roundup

2008-12-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

Roundup of some recent news items related to our fair city:

Casey Cook wants Grimston "off the table" for new school site [The Record's Time Out Corner blog]
New West-based Credit Counselling Society offers tips to rein in holiday spending . [Financial Post]
Royal City Ballet's Nutcracker ticket sales for Vancouver performance affected by news of Ballet B.C.'s financial woes [Georgia Straight]
Local kid made good Justin Morneau named Canada's top baseball player [CBC]
Fraser Health Authority apologizes after a Royal Columbian Hospital night nurse shaves off a Sikh man's beard [Maple Leaf Sikh]
Local lacrosse star Paul Parnell will be inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame next year [Province]

Shopping local is good for the soul

2008-12-15T12:49:00.000-08:00

This is a guest post by Brad Howard of Clever Mink's, a great little gift shop at 711 Carnarvon St. If you've got an idea for a guest post, go ahead and drop us a line.

Having never blogged before I found the idea daunting so I sought out some friends' opinions. Some said you've got to open big to grab the reader. You've only got 4.3 seconds of their attention (that might be last year's figure, this year's is doubtlessly shorter) or they'll move on to something splashier. Make 'em laugh or make 'em cry. Talk about how to get crazy good sex or how to lose weight in an hour or about how to find inner peace but in a really fun and exciting way.

Others suggested it would be better for me to start small but be authoritative by sticking to a narrow topic that I know extremely well. Cleaning out a cat box comes to mind as does muttering to myself when stuck in traffic. Hard to imagine though, how either of those will stoke the fires of passion and controversy that fuel this strange critter known as the blogosphere. Even the word "blogosphere" seems a bit foreign to me, rolling awkwardly off my tongue like when I try to work rechereche into a conversation.

I am non-digerati, growing up in a time when computers were only seen on TV shows where they always occupied an entire room, were covered in rapidly spinning spools for some reason, and were often at work in some nefarious world-threatening plot. Or sometimes they were saving the world from said plot but suffice to say there was generally a plot involved. Cut to the present and the whole computer thing turned out to be more about letting a bunch of regular people express their thoughts and try to be interesting doing it. I'm not sure I'm up to that.

Clever Mink's is a gift shop with a funny name and, like as not, you've never heard of us. The fault for that is on us, of course, with our marketing plan that relied perhaps too heavily on mental telepathy and optimism. Nevertheless, we do exist and we do most of our existing right here in New West. Proudly so, not only as new business owners and residents in town but as new immigrants to this country.

We left the States, Bush refugees we have been called and worse, a tad over a year ago to venture into this lush green (sometimes white) land of yours with a plan firmly in mind to try to do something fun. And fun it has been, as only the commitment of a good chunk of one's savings into a strange new business during the most perilous of economic times can be fun. Other words leap to mind as well but fun is really the pick of that litter.

We decided to open our humble establishment during the dead of summer and on a street, we only subsequently learned, that had a city-wide reputation as being a great place to avoid ever going. Luckily for us our new neighbors at The Hideout Cafe, Shamryn's Hobby Shop, Queen's Park Florist, and the many others hereabout have welcomed us warmly and made us feel at home in this spot. Best of all have been our great customers, those stalwart few who've bucked the area's bad rep and actually managed to find us and have begun to spread the word about us far better than we ever could do ourselves. A big shout-out and thanks to you all.

Now I can't say as it'll improve your sex life or help you lose weight or give you that exciting version of inner peace you've been looking for, but shopping local stores is good for the soul, no doubt about it. And good for the town.

It may be an old idea but a town needs to be more than a mere collection of homes where working people rest their heads. Any town worthy of its name, especially one that possesses the rich history and character that ours does, needs its shops and markets, pubs, eateries, theatres and galleries in order to remain vibrant and liveable.

We like to think that someday soon all of us will look back at 2008 as the beginning of a renaissance in the downtown core, the time when New West decided to reclaim its place as the jewel on the banks of the Fraser river. But then we have to be optimists- we're business owners. Happy Holidays to all.

Come visit us at 711 Carnarvon St. or online at www.cleverminks.com.

Ask for Nancy or her sidekick Brad.

Remembering New West's Great Fire in 1898

2008-12-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

Local blog Regarding Place has an interesting feature called "A Year in Five Minutes" in which they write a quick overview of the highlights of a given year in history here in the GVRD. The latest was 1898, which was marked by (among other things), New Westminster's Great Fire :

Another Great Fire

The year was bad for New Westminster. The entire downtown section of the city was burned in a great fire September 10/11, including almost all the commercial section. Hundreds were left homeless. Almost 60 city blocks were leveled. Vancouver Fire Department historian Alex Matches writes: “The fire started in a riverfront hay storage warehouse and spread to two sternwheel river boats, the Edgar and the Gladys, which drifted down river setting fire to every wharf they touched. The raging fire then jumped Front Street and was quickly spread uptown by fierce winds.” Damage was estimated at $2.5 million, an enormous amount in 1898 dollars. Only two brick buildings were left standing. The VFD had saved one of them.

The VFD had a busy year closer to home: after a few years in which fewer than 100 fire alarms came in annually (58 alarms in 1894, 97 the following year, 64 in 1896 and 62 in 1897) expansion of the city—largely fueled by the Klondike Gold Rush—led to 131 alarms, the highest the city had experienced since incorporation 12 years earlier.

Front St., from Lytton Sq., New Westminster, after September 10 fire, 1898. Photographer: C.E. Bloomfield. Photo #Out N584.

Read the full article for more - it's interesting stuff for the history buff.

Tyee gives props to New West recovery centre

2008-12-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

The Tyee's got a great list of 50 ways to help the homeless, building on Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson's pledge to end (!) homelessness in Vancouver by 2015.

New Westminster is mentioned twice:

8.) Lobby for treatment funding in private, and put the spotlight on alternative treatment in public. Check out Vancouver Coastal Health's innovative DayTox program, and take a look at one of the more successful private recovery houses, such as The Last Door in New Westminster.

and:

39.) Invite the neighbours. Include representatives from Burnaby, Richmond, New Westminster, Surrey, the Langleys and the North Shore communities in everything Vancouver does. "And every so often," one local activist noted, "Mayor Robertson needs to lean over and say to Mayor Corrigan, 'So, you're going to do some of these projects too, aren't you?'"

As everyone here knows, homelessness is also a major issue in New Westminster. One would hope that Robertson's gang would not pronounce homelessness 'ended' if it simply pushed people outside of Vancouver proper and out towards New West, Burnaby, and other areas of the Lower Mainland. This is truly an issue that should be addressed at a regional level.

Lots of good ideas in this piece (Thanks Tyee!). Here are some of the ones that stood out for me:

2.) Ask property owners to help. Make an offer to the owner of every closed hotel or shuttered apartment building in the city: Lease your building for use by BC Housing and/or a non-profit housing manager for a period of at least three years, and the city will both give you a tax break and allow your development application to proceed without interruption.

13.) Dedicate more women-only buildings and programs. Women endure daily intimidation and frequent assault inside shelters and residential hotels. Besides, there are already far more men-only programs.

14.) Provide meals. At the end of a pilot project in which meals were delivered daily throughout one Downtown Eastside residential hotel, residents reported using fewer drugs -- and most had gained weight.

23.) Seize grow-ops. Just as some law enforcement agencies seize vehicles, explore the possibility of seizing grow-ops and drug houses, renovating them, and converting them to rooming houses. Let the former owners sue for the value of the (usually trashed) property seized.

25.) Detox on demand. No matter what shape a new treatment landscape assumes, detox for everyone who wants it will play a part. The city needs to partner with agencies and NGOs to create more spaces immediately.

32.) Provide housing after treatment. Perhaps the most shameful gap in the housing safety net is the one many addicts fall through after they get clean, as they are returned to the same sort of social housing in which they used.

33.) Replace Riverview: 275 beds were slated to be replaced by recovery units throughout the city. In the years we've spent waiting, the need has grown to the point more may be required. Ideally, these would be built as small supportive facilities scattered throughout the city

New Westminster needs to prioritize homelessness just as Vancouver has. We have a homelessness coalition and strategy, but there are still far too many people living on the streets or in substandard conditions here. I am hopeful that our lone new councillor Jaimie McEvoy will bring his passion for this issue to city hall and continue to advocate on behalf of the marginalized there, just as he has as project coordinator at Shiloh's Hospitality Project .

While we're on the topic of homelessness and poverty, I wanted to remind everyone to take some time to donate to organizations that help alleviate this suffering while we celebrate during the holidays. New Westminster's Food Bank is administered at Shiloh, and you can donate there or online. The Food Bank says it can stretch $1 into $3 through bulk buying and supplier relationships, so it's worthwhile donating even small amounts of cash instead of cans. Or, support Union Gospel Mission's annual Christmas dinner: $32.90 will feed and care for 10 people in our community this Christmas.

Irving House's twist on Christmas tradition: apple garlands

2008-12-11T20:18:00.000-08:00

Those seeking ideas for sustainable decorations this Christmas, should cast their eye to the keepers of the past. New Westminster's Irving House museum is profiled on Gardenwise for their unusual twist on a traditional garland that uses real apples for a beautiful and memorable look.

At Irving House in New Westminster the halls really are decked with boughs of holly — and lots of other traditional accents that transform the home into a celebration of a Victorian Christmas.
There are probably not many better places to evoke the spirit of the season than at this heritage home, where visitors are transported back to the 1860s and the ambiance of Victorian times.

Full instructions (and more illustrations of these lovely and eco-friendly decorations) are on Gardenwise .

Bus smashes into New West Salvation Army thrift store

2008-12-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

CBC photo

CBC reports $100,000 worth of damage to the Salvation Army thrift store on Columbia St., though thankfully no one was injured.

New West's Brad Ross stirs the pot

2008-12-10T20:12:00.000-08:00

The Surrey Leader reports that New Westminster's Brad Ross has provoked a testy bit of back-and-forth between provincial transportation minister Kevin Falcon and Delta city council. Ross commutes to Delta, facing a regular bottleneck at Highway 91 and 72 Ave.

New Westminster resident Brad Ross, who makes regular trips across the [Alex Fraser] bridge, wrote Falcon to ask if there were plans to build an overpass.

According to the minister’s written reply, the traffic lights are still there because Delta “strongly favoured an alternate and more costly configuration, and we were unable to reach agreement.”

Ross forwarded the response to Delta council last week.

There was supposed to be money for improvements to the intersection in 2003, courtesy of a federal-provincial Border Infrastructure Program.

The Falcon letter also said a full intersection was “not viable as part of the project, due to the close proximity of Burns Bog.”

Coun. Scott Hamilton scoffed at the comment.

“The minister is talking through his hat,” Hamilton said, noting the land is privately owned and not part of the bog conservancy.

“They (the program) just ran out of money.”

So there you go, if you too share Ross' commute and wondered what the issue was at Hwy 91 and 72nd ... it appears to be a political bottleneck as well as a daily traffic headache.

The pinnacle of guest room perfection - in New West!

2008-12-10T19:54:00.000-08:00

In a recent Globe & Mail column, Vancouver-based HGTV designer Kelly Deck draws on the example of a New Westminster friend's home to illustrate dos and don'ts of guest room decor :

For seven years, Gillian has been ceaselessly redecorating the interior of her New Westminster home. Last Sunday, we ascended a narrow fir staircase to a room where Gillian has created a warm and romantic retreat for the guests she and Michael are expecting this holiday season. As is her habit, the room is a clever blend of old and new, with a general air of welcome.

As I drove home that afternoon, I thought about why Gillian's guest room felt right and well thought out, while those in many other homes (ones by designers included) often feel wrong. I think she's got a few easy do's and don'ts for us.

Sounds very Queen's Park to me! Seriously though, I do think that many homes here in New West aspire to that "clever blend of old and new, with a general air of welcome." Deck never says that her friend Gillian owns a heritage home, but the "narrow fir staircase" and the aim to blend old with new hints at it.

For those who are wondering, the tips in the article include:

Give guests room to store their junk
Don't be too feminine
Buy good sheets
Smash that cheap ceiling light
Don't skip the window finishes
Resist putting family photos on the wall
Remember the thoughtful touches

From the photo with the article, this is indeed a stellar example of a guest room. Gillian from New West has even framed a collection of cheeky poems as the wall art! Kudos to Gillian. Wonder what other gems local decorating divas have concocted ...

Photo slideshow: Alex Fraser Bridge

2008-12-08T09:45:00.000-08:00

And Now for Something Completely Different...

2008-12-03T17:57:00.001-08:00

Followup on our favourite Arbologger's post about the Coca-Cola Santa, here's another 'Beta' Santa, perhaps soooo proto that it's 'Alpha!'

Prepare for a New Westminster Holiday Tradition, the arrival of Sinter Klaas to open the holiday season. Children will wait in anticipation on the Quay boardwalk for Sinterklaas and the Black Peters to arrive - you can help your 2 year old to chant like the Dutch kids do, 'Zie ginds komt de stoomboot uit Spanje weer aan...' (See there the steamship from Spain is coming again...) to welcome Sinterklaas on his traditional mode of transportation - the steamboat (in New West, our Paddlewheeler.) Apparently, our local celebration is the last one in North America in which Sinterklaas still has a traditional arrival by boat. Check out the tradition of SinterKlaas and I think you'll see that he is the real Santa 1.0.

The big day is this Saturday, December 6th, the actual feast day of St. Nicholas (though the traditional Netherlands Sinterklaas day is celebrated on the eve of his Feast Day). Sinteklaas will arrive at New Westminster's boardwalk as he has for will greet the children gathered there - and if my childhood is any indication, he will give out small, hard bits of gingerbread and salty licorice and will cuddle you silently in the midst of a December downpour.

Among the Sinterklaas Welkom onlookers now are parents who in 1985 as children were present for the first arrival. The event remains a top attraction for the public market on the Fraser River bank.
Right from the start 19 years ago, local officials, MPs, MLAs, the Mayor and sometimes all councilors [sic] (and even a Premier), have been on hand to welcome the Spanish bishop. In particular councillor Casey Cook, who fondly remembers Sinterklaas calling on his hometown The Hague when he was a boy, has been there as a dignitary for years. One year he remarked that none in the crowd of onlookers seemed more excited than the grandparents.

More to be seen at http://www.sinterklaas.ca.
Full schedule at http://www.sinterklaas.ca/Sinterklaas_Arrival_Details_2008.htm

Peter Julian on the coalition, and what it means for New West

2008-12-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

Hubris has led to a great fall for Stephen Harper. Having won a mandate for another minority government, Harper acted as though he had won a majority and gave the three opposition parties the common enemy they needed for an attempt to wrest control from the Conservatives and propose an alternative coalition government.

And Canadians said ... WTF?!

As news of these developments percolated through the Twittersphere, blogosphere and news media, many of us discovered that we understood less than we realized about how our political system works (myself included). I am not alone in spending some time catching up on the nuances of parliamentary democracy lately.

It's not a coup, as some have called it. It's a rarely used but legitimate political option exercised when the Prime Minister really screws up. The last time something like this happened in Canada was over conscription in the First World War.

As you know if you've ever voted (or remember the fundamentals of your high school history), we don't vote directly for our country's leader. We vote for a local representative. The leader is the person who can rally the most support in the House of Commons. This is almost always the leader of the party who won the most seats. This time, the leader of the party with the most seats is also (arguably) the most reviled political leader in Canada. While he did squeak past with a win in the last election, he did not enjoy the support of a majority of Canadians, and he has now lost the confidence of a majority of our Parliament.

I spoke with Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian today to get his take on the situation, and what it means for New Westminster.

Julian said all this began when Harper failed to deliver on his promise to move quickly after the election to implement a plan to address the economic crisis. While he had pledged to take a moderate approach and work with all parties in the House of Commons, the budget update instead included a number of controversial plans that impacted social programs, public election financing and other issues.
"He basically lobbed a grenade onto the floor of the House of Commons. He took a hard right shift attacking basic principles like collective bargaining and pay equity for women," said Julian. "He used the economic crisis to put forward a very hard right shift, which is not at all what he committed to in the election campaign. He committed to being moderate."

The NDP, Liberals and Bloc response was not what the Conservatives expected. The economic crisis and the threat of another election wasn't enough to bully them into passing the budget. Instead, leaders of the three parties began planning to oust Harper. Our local MPs, Julian and New Westminster-Coquitlam's Dawn Black played key roles in clinching the plan. Black was the NDP caucus representative who helped negotiate the coalition agreement, while Julian worked the phones responding to media queries.

"There's no doubt in my mind that the government will be defeated in the House," Julian declared. "The debate right now is which day."

The Conservatives have a limited menu of what Julian called "procedural games" that they can use to try and forestall or delay losing power to this coalition. The Globe & Mail has a great analysis of Harper's options. None sound terribly appealing. I feel a little sorry for the guy. Another story in the Globe suggests Harper's plan is to prorogue Parliament, which basically means shutting down Parliament and cowering through Christmas with the hope of a fresh start in the New Year.

I asked Julian about his response to the some of the big questions I'm hearing about the coalition. As far as he's concerned, over 60% of those who voted did not choose the Conservatives, and the coalition has the support of all other parties (Green included) and independents. Said Julian, "Everybody has come together except the Conservatives in Stephen Harper's government."

Critics of the coalition are pointing out the irony of depending on the support of a separatist party for the survival of the government, but Julian pointed out that the Bloc is not a part of the coalition itself. The Bloc has agreed not to initiate a motion of non-confidence for at least 18 months. The Conservative government has also depended on the support of the Bloc to pass budget updates, so Julian contends this is a non-issue. According to Julian, while the Conservatives have been accusing the NDP and Liberals of selling out to the Bloc in English Canada, in French it's the Bloc who they accuse of selling out.

"It's fair to say the Conservatives have been masters of manipulation," Julian said.

The economic stimulus plan that will be released soon by the coalition targets improvements for housing, infrastructure, industry and changes to employment insurance programs (removing the two-week waiting period before receiving benefits to spare people's savings, supporting more retraining programs). The strategy seems to be to allocate funds to projects that will improve our communities while creating jobs for both workers on the projects and those who will benefit from those people's spending. Julian mentioned that three mills recently closed in New Westminster, and he estimates the impact is about 2.5 jobs were indirectly affected for each job lost.

The infrastructure investment could be of real use to New Westminster. Like many communities in Canada, we sorely need to do some significant upgrades. Julian estimates the 'infrastructure deficit' across Canada to be worth approximately $100 billion. The proposed stimulus package is only about $30 billion, so we can imagine there could be some squabbling over that pie. Assuming the coalition gets the go-ahead from the Governor General, Julian would sit down with New Westminster mayor and council to discuss infrastructure priorities and then take our ask back to Ottawa. The coalition's plan was not yet online when I spoke with Julian, but when I get the link I will share it so you can read - and decide - for yourself.

Huzzah! for the 'beta-Santa' at the Burnaby Museum

2008-12-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Jen at the Arbolog shares her misgivings about buying into the Coca-Cola Santa in a recent post, and reminds us of a great alternative for those who prefer to hearken back to Yule logs and mistletoe rather than deadly Wal-Mart shopper stampedes and Christmas With The Chipmunks (Vol. 1). Says Jen:

I did some research and found Father Christmas at the Burnaby Village Museum, who is willing to listen to children’s wishes and you can take your own photos. Huzzah.

Father Christmas is the pre-Santa, the Beta-Santa, if you will. He’s a kindly old thin dude, with a long beard and robe - sort of Gandalf type of dude - and was around way before Toys R Us and the Sears Wish Book and iPods and Wii’s were, and is more of a Sinterklaas than a product of a good marketing department at Coca-Cola.

Thanks Jen!

New West MPs' role in the emerging coalition government

2008-12-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

Twitter tells me today that 'we will have a new federal government in Canada within days.' The Liberals, NDP and Bloc have put aside their differences and have formally asked the Governor General to allow them to form the Government of Canada, led by Leader of the Opposition Stephane Dion at the next opportunity.

As an NDP stronghold, this could be New Westminster's best chance to get on the national political radar. The Georgia Straight has speculated that Burnaby-New West MP Peter Julian (profiled a few days ago on this blog) could have a good shot at a cabinet post in a coalition government, while a story on BCLocalnews.com suggests New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Dawn Black is the New West MP to watch.

In the leaked transcript of a supposedly confidential NDP caucus meeting (shamefully recorded and distributed to the press by the Prime Minister's Office), NDP leader Jack Layton mentions that Black is a key member of the team that negotiated the deal with the Liberals. According to the transcript posted on local blogger Anthony Damonse's site , Layton says he chose Black because she is "someone that I happen to know is also respected and trusted by key Liberals."

Here is Layton's suggested defense for caucus members who face critics of the coalition:

What about the legitimacy of the democratic process, yeah, what about it? [Harper] was given a minority, and he refused to work with the other parties, he had 38% of the vote and he’s trying to govern like he had 100% of the power, he’s the one who’s got democracy wrong, not us. So do not be defensive, to work among what we are doing is to give effect to the wishes of the majority of Canadians, have no doubt about that. The coalition for Canada, I love the idea, it could be a deal-breaker for the Bloc (laughter) so if we don’t go, we call it “The Coalition for Canada and Quebec,” (lots of laughter).

And for those concerned about the Bloc's involvement, Layton says:

I’ll just say one other thing about the issue of the Bloc: nothing could be better for our country, than to have the fifty members who’ve been elected to separate Quebec to actually helping to make Canada a better place. I think we just approach it on that basis, and say we’re willing to make Canada happen, here’s other things that we’re going to be investing in and transforming together, they’re willing to work with us, we’ll accept that offer.

We'd like to hear from Peter Julian and Dawn Black on this. We're trying to reach them and we'll let you know if they have anything to share that may provide some context for New Westminster in all this.

Meanwhile you can track developments as they happen on Twitter. General commentary is being tracked using the keyword #coalition . Opponents of the coalition are tweeting with the keyword #canadarally, and further information is online at rallyforcanada.ca .

Update: The pro-coalition side is gathering at 62percentmajority.ca.

Glenbrook Parents to School Grimston

2008-12-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

Royal City Blogger Niki Hope, who excels at all things educational in her website, has recently posted that the Glenbrook Middle School Parent Advisory Council has passed a resolution that, while focusing on the need for a new High School, also calls for the use of Grimston Park as a school site for a middle school.

While the idea of a school on Grimston has been almost universally reviled by the West End community (see Facebook Page Here) and the need for a middle school is still hotly debated, I don't personally see why the Glenbrook folks (and fine folks they be, I am sure) would really concern themselves with building a middle school way on the other side of town. Perhaps the Westend folks could suggest the removal of Queens Park in favour of a municipal waste to energy incinerator (you see, I am exaggerating for effect).

The content of the letter is below. I invite all concerned to comment here. I will try to have expounders of the Grimston School topic (for and against) send in comments also.

December 1, 2008

Jim Alkins
Project Director
School District #40
1001 Columbia Street
New Westminster, BC
V3M 1C4

Dear Mr. Alkins:

As the Parents’ Advisory Council (PAC) for Glenbrook Middle School, we are writing to you regarding the school construction public consultation process in our City. After significant discussion at our meeting on November 24, 2008, the PAC passed the following motion:
THAT the ÉCOLE GLENBROOK MIDDLE SCHOOL PARENTS’ ADVISORY COUNCIL:
• urges the construction of the high school move forward as soon as possible:
• supports the idea of building a new middle school on the west side; and
• believes that Grimston Park should be considered as an option for that middle school.
CARRIED.

In our view, it is absolutely critical that this initiative – AND PARTICULARLY THE HIGH SCHOOL – move ahead as quickly as possible and NOT be allowed to “go back to the drawing board.” Too much time and money have already been spent and further delays will only continue to compromise the education of all our children.

Yours truly;

Stephen Bruyneel
Chair

It's Christmas Time in the City.

2008-12-01T19:18:00.000-08:00

Driving along 7th St in the West End two nights ago, we were drawn towards the festive glow coming from one end of the street. We meandered over and there it was, a Christmas light display that just had to make it on to the Blog!

I took some pictures with my trusty cellular phone and as you can see, the effect is less than crystal clear but this is only a beginning. I sense a series coming on, highlighting some of the best and brightest Christmas light displays in the New Westminster scene. Send us your pictures (see the email link above) and we will get them up here! Also, share your favorite light display neighbourhoods in the comments and check back for more of the best of New Westminster's Christmas light displays!

Photo slideshow: New Westminster heritage buildings

2008-12-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

Graffiti teaches life lessons?

2008-11-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

Like many Lower Mainland communities, graffiti plagues New Westminster. Typically blamed on ne'er do well Burnaby ruffians (surely our own sons and daughters wouldn't dare!), here in the West End it seems every lamp post and electrical box is tagged with the "artists'" arcane scrawl. Recently our own back fence was hit. Every inch was marred with gobbledlygook in giant bubble letters. We were furious. How dare those (Burnaby!) scallywags come down our alley and scrawl all over our fence! The offending oeuvre had no discernible message or artistic value, at least not to our eye. As Will stood in the drizzle and spent several cans of black spraypaint to restore our fence, we gnashed our teeth over the little punks who think this sort of thing is fun.

Yet today I came across the blog of a 'graffiti artist' who swears he learned important life lessons while tagging lampposts and fences. What are these lessons?

Never give up - Even though I was terrible at doing graffiti in the beginning I stuck it through because I really wanted it to work out. I wanted to be good at graffiti for some reason. Fast forward to 2008, I am the same way. When I want something not much can or will stand in my way, that’s an awesome trait to have. I never give up I just get pissed off, I mumble and I move forward. I hate being sh*tty at anything so I work long hours so I get good fast at whatever it is I’m into at the present time.
Resourcefulness - I order to survive in any business and in graffiti you need to be resourceful and have some way to adapt. Many times police would find out about the “artwork” and we had to find new locations to paint on. Part of the process was to scour “spots” (places to paint), under bridges, abandoned walls and so on. I had a pretty good gift for finding graffiti spots all the time. I took that trait and I can usually find a way to make money from any type of topic I start researching from loans, car accessories etc. I can find what many other people cannot find, and make it work. That is a huge skill in a competitive world.
Dedication - I saw many kids come ago when I was a graffiti artist. Most people where never dedicated to getting good at graffiti, I like some others were. It was important to me that my “pieces” looked good. i tried to make them look as good as possible. I didn’t see the point in writing on walls if it looked like junk. Personally I really wanted to make the place look better not worse. I dedicated lots of my free time to drawing and also painting the “perfect piece”.

One lesson graffiti artists don't seem to learn is empathy. While they may see alley fences, light posts and abandoned buildings as canvases, their legacy is typically nothing more than an eyesore that property owners must clean up. The worst part is that graffiti that is not removed has now been proven to increase other incidents of crime in the neighbourhood.

The Economist reports that the 'broken windows' theory of crime (that one broken window leads to many, and that allowing litter and graffiti to remain in a city correlates with higher instances of other crimes including theft) has now been proven to be correct:

A place that is covered in graffiti and festooned with rubbish makes people feel uneasy. And with good reason, according to a group of researchers in the Netherlands. Kees Keizer and his colleagues at the University of Groningen deliberately created such settings as a part of a series of experiments designed to discover if signs of vandalism, litter and low-level lawbreaking could change the way people behave. They found that they could, by a lot: doubling the number who are prepared to litter and steal.

I didn't know this, but the New Westminster police have a graffiti task force. You can report graffiti on the website and sign up to be a graffiti volunteer specialist.

Here's what graffiti volunteers do:

Volunteers with this program work in cooperation with New Westminster Police and New Westminster Bylaws. They provide education and resources to victims, and encourage merchants and residents to remove tagging and report problems to the police. Our volunteers do not clean graffiti, but do document and photograph graffiti vandalism in hopes of assisting police with information that will lead to an arrest.

Here's more from the NW police:

Graffiti may never be entirely eradicated. However, incidents of graffiti can be greatly reduced. Most importantly, do not ignore graffiti. The longer it is left, the more costly it will become for you and the rest of the community. Graffiti generates fear of neighbourhood crime, instability, and declining property values.

Email the police at graffiti@nwpolice.org if you see graffiti. They will investigate, and may also be able to provide some cleanup tips if it is your own property or neighbourhood that has been hit. If you're looking for advice on cleanup, the Graffiti Hurts website has a helpful table of common surfaces and best methods of removal.

Photo slideshow: New Westminster

2008-11-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

Famous New West war photo highlighted in Sun's coverage of B.C.'s 150th birthday

2008-11-29T08:39:00.000-08:00

B.C. celebrates its 150th birthday this year, and as part of the Vancouver Sun's coverage , it put together a list of the top 10 photos in our province's history.

Somewhat surprisingly to me, only one is taken in New Westminster (but I suppose they had to spread it around a bit). It is the iconic image of a little boy running after his father , who is marching off to war. The photo was taken on Columbia Street by photographer Claude Detloff for The Province newspaper, and the man in the photo is Pte. Jack Bernard, a member of the B.C. Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles).

From the newspaper's description:

This photograph by Dettloff, who was honoured by his peers for this candid street portrait of a tender moment, was hung in every B.C. school and became one of the most widely recognized Canadian images from the Second World War. Whitey Barnard, who was enlisted to help sell war bonds with this photograph as a backdrop, later settled in Tofino.

I've always loved the photograph, and I'm glad it was included in the top 10 list. Given that next year is New Westminster's 150th birthday, maybe our local historian Archie Miller and the New Westminster Historical Society will compile a similar list from the city's archives. The city will be doling out grants for the coming year for projects celebrating our 150th, and I hope one of the winning ideas will show off our rich photographic archive.

Update: Amazingly, the Sun's slideshow of Royal visits doesn't appear to include any to The Royal City! And no mention is made of Royal visits to New Westminster (named after the Queen's favourite part of England)! Here's one from my husband's family's archives:

This Just In....(insert telex noise here)

2008-11-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

Eagerly awaiting the last official results of the 2008 New Westminster civic elections, we are pleased to relay that the judicial recount for the position of school trustee has been completed. In a message this afternoon from New Westminster Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Doris Fassbender, the results were announced:

Following a two day judicial recount at the BC Provincial Court, New Westminster Registry, Judge Her Honour Alexander declared the results for the office of School Trustee for the 2008 General Local Election for the City of New Westminster. Brent Atkinson received 3665 votes and Vivian Garcia received 3663 votes. Therefore, Brent Atkinson was declared School Trustee-elect.

As reported here, Vivian Garcia was endorsed by re-elected Mayor Wayne Wright.

Mailbag: Shop New West this Christmas

2008-11-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here at Tenth To the Fraser, our editorial team has been kicking around ideas for localizing our Christmas celebrations this year. Our family will attempt to source most of our food locally, and I had in mind to explore local shopping opportunities as well. One of our readers is taking it one better, and plans this year to do all her family Christmas shopping locally.

Hey there. I just checked out your blog for the first time today at the suggestion of my husband, Blair Fryer [ed. note: Blair is the City of New West's communications manager]. What a great resource for New West! I just posted a link on my Facebook page so that all of my NW friends can check it out.
I also wanted to tell you about something Blair and I are doing this Christmas which might be of interest to you. We've decided to do all of our Christmas shopping in New West this year, purchasing as much as possible from local businesses. (The Wii for the kids might be the only exception. Best Buy is technically in NW but doesn't exactly qualify as a local business!) There are so many fabulous new shops and galleries on Columbia and E. Columbia, I don't think we will have any problem finding perfect gifts for our family members, teachers, coaches etc. Gifts certificates for a our favourite cafes and restaurants are another option. I'm planning to let all of our friends know about this via email and Facebook in hope that others will consider doing the same, or at least supporting some local businesses as they make their Christmas purchases. It's a great way to support our community, particularly during such difficult economic times. It's also a message to other businesses that NW is a great place to set up shop.
Congratulations again on your blog!

Rebecca Maurer

Thank you for your note Rebecca! Your email was a timely reminder for us (and our blog readers) to remember New Westminster businesses when planning our Christmas shopping this year.

In the post I wrote on Peter Julian's idea for a destination B.C. history museum and arts centre downtown, my co-author Jocelyn said in the comments:

I vote they take over the Burr theatre and knock down an ugly next-door neighbour for the museum part. Columbia seems perpetually on the edge of greatness, perhaps this would push it over. Can't you see Columbia as the Commercial Drive of the Fraser?

The funny thing is, while Columbia may be teetering on the edge of greatness today, once upon a time the 'golden mile' was the place to shop. A recent Newsleader article paints the picture:

It was the 1950s and 1960s, boom years for New Westminster’s most famous street nicknamed the “golden mile.”

Woodward’s, Eaton’s, Army and Navy and Spencers, all dominant retailers of the time, were found on the mile—actually four to six busy, crowded blocks.

It was one of the busiest retail districts in Canada, said historian Archie Miller—busier than Toronto’s Yonge Street, Vancouver’s Granville Street and Montreal’s rue Sainte-Catherine.

Think about that for a minute. Busier than Younge Street, Granville Street or rue Sainte-Catherine. Oh, New West! What a decline! And yet it is improving. More boutique businesses are opening along Columbia and in Sapperton, and many locals are hopeful that we really could be approaching the tipping point to retail greatness once more. If and when we do, it will be thanks to people like Rebecca and Blair, who look away from the generic frenzy of mall shopping and seek out unique gifts from local shopkeepers.

Spirit of the City

2008-11-27T13:20:00.000-08:00

I just came back from my weekly lunchtime yoga at work, and as I sat down for a dose of 102tF, it got me thinking about the role that the spiritual life, and churches in particular, have played in our Royal City. Without any real historical training or knowledge (Will and Peter Julian will have to help you with that), I figure that when New West was settled and in the decades after, churches likely played an important role in developing a sense of community in our city.

The first church to open in New West was the one that Will (of 102tF) and I attended as children (and played many games of floor hockey in its church hall), Holy Trinity Cathedral on Carnarvon Street. Founded in 1859 by the Reverend John Sheepshanks, its first building was destroyed by fire in 1865. It's current stately building dates from the second structure built on that site which was lost in the great fire of 1898 - the surviving stone walls were found to be sound enough to support a rebuild, and so the current structure was built up from the ashes of the old (meaningful, no?). Though it is now an unsightly grey, crowded in on all sides by condo towers, it is a beautiful building on the inside and has unmissable stained glass windows. This parish was named the cathedral seat of the diocese in 1892, but the second in a series of "Capital Controversies" occurred in 1929 when Archbishop de Pencier named Vancouver's Christ Church Cathedral the seat of the diocese (though New Westminster remained the diocesan title and HTC remained a "Cathedral" in name and beauty). It's parish continues going strong today if parish activity can be measured by the sheer number of activity links on its website.

Knox Presbyterian Church set down its roots in the building it still occupies in Sapperton in 1891, as "The Wee Kirk on the corner" and has been an active member of the community ever since. Bringing it's denominational history of sound education in Sunday School (aided by the opening of its "Christian Education Centre" in 1956), Knox has been the heart of Sapperton since it was founded and it's distinct architecture make it one of New West's most recognizable buildings.

The first Gurdwara in New West was started in 1919 by Sikhs who worked the sawmills dotting the Fraser River. Bhai Bisan Singh, a dedicated Sikh, formed the Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar in his home, gathering others for meetings and readings of the Holy scripture Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The New Westminster Khalsa Diwan Society (The local community of Sikh believers) formed when Singh purchased the lot next to his house in 1919 and donated it to the congregation (though formally incorporated in 1974). The present Gurdwara opened in Queensborough in 1975 and it's tall red flame light is one of the many sights welcoming people New Westminster as they drive over the Queensborough bridge Northbound.

New Westminster has also been the home to the cemetery of BC's oldest and largest Orthodox Jewish Synagogue, Congregation Schara Tzedeck, in Vancouver. I tried to pin down whether there was an active temple/synagogue in NW but haven't found anything yet, though the contributions of many prominent Jewish people shaped New Westminster: Muni Evers, New Westminster's longest-serving Mayor (see here and here); More recently, the Congregation Sha'rai Mizrah (Gate of the East)has served New Westminster/Burnaby/Coquitlam from a converted Kingdom Hall off of Lougheed Highway.

No discussion of religion in New Westminster could go without the introduction of Dr. Vasant Saklikar, who, after moving to Canada from India in 1959 and working in education systems across the country, became rector of Sixth Avenue United Church in 1976 and quickly became a community icon - his work on the School Board and as an advocate and activist made him a frequent sight in local papers. Saklikar raised his family in the West End and was named Citizen of the Year in 1998. The now-named Shiloh-Sixth Avenue United remains a politically and socially active parish to this day, where newbie New West council member Jamie MacEvoy is director of their Hospitality Project, bringing comfort and aid to New Westminster's vulnerable people.

Another United church has a prominent place (and role) in New Westminster's history - the venerable Queen's Ave United Church building sits just up the 6th Street hill from City Hall, and has hosted a faith community there since 1859 (not to mention the piano recitals and music day camps Will and I went to as kids!), tying HTC for first church in the new colony though the building wasn't built until 1860, as Queen's Avenue Methodist Church. When the Wesleyans, Presbyterians and Congregationalists merged in 1925, its name was changed to it's current. Another congregation which was tested by fire, QA lost it's first church building to New Westminster's Great Fire in 1898, and its second building was replaced by the current iconic stone block building across from the Armoury in 1959. I didn't know this until now, but QAUC also owns Grace Hall, a small building in the Queen's Park area which was once used for sunday school and is now home to community groups (such as the Brownie group I went to as a kid!). I have certainly always associated QAUC with music, and the congregation has a reputation in the community for great musical events and performances.

New West has played host to spiritual communities of all kinds, but there simply isn't room to do justice to them all. Many are small but in their own way left their imprint on the community - who can forget the Foursquare church and the Evangelical Free church (both on 10th, and technically in Burnaby) who maintain an active, and often clever, dialogue with the community via their church signs. We can't leave out the orthodox churches (of which there are 4), and several intentional religious communities in New West currently and historically, such as the Sisters of St. Anne, the Loyal Protestant Home (now Royal City Christian Centre) and the Russian Orthodox convent on 5th Avenue (anyone know the name of this one?). I'll leave these for a later post. In our "geeked out" discussions of New Westminster's politics and history, we can't leave out the rich history of many different faith traditions that have shaped and advanced New Westminster as the community it is today.

Meet our MP, Peter Julian

2008-11-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

New Westminster packs 60,000 people into just 15 square kilometres. Despite the skyscrapers and traffic jams, this city of ours still behaves like a small town. The annual Remembrance Day ceremony at the armory is a hugely popular civic event. We have just one high school. Our mayor is a jolly guy who drives an old Ford truck. And our MP, Peter Julian, is a friendly Salmonbellies fan who, like many of us, still carries a bit of a chip on his shoulder from 1868 when Victoria stole the title of B.C. capital from our town. His dad even wrote a book about it (entitled, "A Capital Controversy").

Julian called us up a few weeks ago after seeing our blog and asked if we'd like to sit down and have a chat. We invited him over to our home and spent two hours talking about New West issues over a glass of red wine and a plate of crackers. We didn't press him on political issues so much as try to get a sense of the man and his passion for this place. It was a cracking good conversation and more fun than a barrel of bonobos to a couple of folks like us who geek out on all things local.

Those of us who live here know that there is more than one New Westminster. To some, it's the crown on the sign they drive past every day to work (Welcome to New Westminster! Thank you for visiting! Welcome to Burnaby!). For others, it's where they bought their bridal gowns or where they browse antiques or the place where Chickpea relocated from The Drive.

Julian's New Westminster is deep-rooted family history, civic pride, political engagement, heritage homes and amateur sport. He described it this way:

It's a Salmonbellies game in midsummer. It's the Hyack Festival. It is going down 12th St and seeing five people you know. It's getting 250 people at an all-candidates' meeting or standing-room only for the civic election forum. It's 2,500 people at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day.

Julian's very well-liked in New Westminster, and it's easy to see why. He's passionate about this city. He's knowledgeable about local history, passionate about New Westminster's potential and appears to genuinely love his work as our MP. Leading up to the last federal election, this riding was declared an NDP lock (though Julian says he always campaigns as though he's a few votes behind), and the results have shown the NDP and Julian making incredible gains in this riding since he was first elected in 2004. When he defeated Mary Pynenberg back then, it was only by 300 votes, whereas four years later, in October, the margin of victory was almost 7000 votes.

Julian has just begun incorporating social media into his campaign strategy through his Facebook page - and I suppose he can now add blogger relations to the list - but I think he prefers making connections with his constituents the old-fashioned way, through door-knocking and handshakes. Although recently Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan speculated that Julian might be a good candidate for an NDP premier here in B.C., Julian doesn't feel called to that office (or at least not yet). When we quizzed him on his ambitions, Julian insisted that he loves his work serving New West and Burnaby as our MP and has no plans to pursue a leadership role with the NDP, saying,

These are not the kind of positions you decide on. You are called to it. If in 10 years my phone was ringing off the hook, maybe, but not now.

Back to the 'Capital Controversy.' Given the Julian family interest in the matter, it's no surprise that one of the ideas Julian suggested would put New West on the map was to build a new museum and arts centre in the city's downtown.

Julian believes such an attraction would draw tourists who are interested in B.C. history. And it is true that New Westminster's history is really B.C.'s history, from the First Nations settlements to Judge Begbie's reign at the law courts to Hollywood Hospital's LSD experiments on celebrities to the Royal Westies' contribution in both World Wars.

We are museum buffs here at Tenth To The Fraser, so we like the idea of building a fitting home for the historical artifacts scattered among various small collections around the city. From the fabulous collection of military memorabilia currently housed at the armory (and practically impossible to see due to eccentric operating hours) to possibly even the Samson V , which cannot continue to float at the Quay forever, we already have some very interesting content for such a museum. As the geographical centre of the Lower Mainland and the first city in Western Canada, there is no better site.

A tribute to our history is a worthy thing, but we also need to think more creatively, more innovatively. New West is beset by many of the same problems as our neighbouring communities, but perhaps because we are so compact, so small-town, we feel the impact more greatly. Julian spoke quite convincingly of a need for provincial and federal relief for New Westminster, to fund badly needed infrastructure improvements, to provide adequate resources to assist the homeless and those living in poverty, and so on. I agree that is part of the solution, but one line from Barack Obama's campaign has been drumming in my head of late:

We are the change we seek.

It is such a simple statement, and yet so powerful. We are the change we seek. Our governments, local, provincial and federal, all have a role to play, but we must not shirk our individual responsibility to do whatever is in our power to realize the change we wish to see in our community. None of us alone can feed all who are hungry or house all who are homeless, but there is always something we can do. Take the initiative to paint over some graffiti or pick up some garbage, volunteer at the UGM , vote in your elections and above all connect with your community.

They love us, they really love us!

2008-11-25T15:02:00.000-08:00

In TenthToTheFraser's short little life, we've made a big splash. Okay, I can't take credit for any of it - I was just approached as a civic-aware, once-a-new-westie-always-a-new-westie girl to pen my piece for this blog only about 6 weeks ago - but we've been cited in the paper, recognized on other blogs, scooped almost every other major outlet, big or small, on New West's electoral standings, and now we've been nominated for the Canadian Blog Awards, in the "Best Local Blog" category.

It's up to you, New Westies - now that we all feel so bad for how terrible the voter turnout was in the recent municipal elections, exercise your francise between November 23rd and 29th by voting for Tenth To the Fraser: click the link on the sidebar, or below. You can vote once per round of voting, per computer. (Round 2 is next week - don't worry, we'll remind you.)

Vote Here for TenthToTheFraser for Best Local Blog

That's a big community wave in a small town for such a short time. Who knows, maybe 102tF will become as big as the Hyack Anvil!

Need a break from the Goo Goo Ga Ga?

2008-11-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

Although there are a lot of children in New Westminster, it can be hard for new parents and newcomers to our city to meet other parents and establish a network for social interaction and support. During the summer it's not so hard - just head out to your local park, the Queens Park spray park or Grimston Park wading pool and you'll find a ton of parents with their kids.

During the cold, wet winter months, it's more complicated. While there are a number of well-established local parenting groups, a lot of information isn't yet online, and most of our groups are not affiliated with well-known national programs. When Googling for information La Leche League, for example, parents have to turn to neighbouring municipalities because there is no representation in New West.

Some local parents are stepping up to create the parenting communities they seek. Jen from The Arbolog, for example, has created a new Facebook group for parents in New Westminster to "swap, buy, sell, give away, chit chat, and compare notes."

As Jen wrote in an email to me today:

"The sad thing is there are hardly any parent type resources. I learned the closest La Leche League is deep dark Poco or into Vancouver, so other than the Family Place and the Mom's morning thing at Olivet Baptist I haven't found hardly any! I also look at www.yoyomama.ca a lot. Even though its sort of Vancouver-centric they do list NW a lot."

After our son Wesley was born, I attended the Public Health-sponsored Baby Talk program at Centennial Community Centre (Wednesdays, 1-3pm), for instance. The program is geared towards new parents (though it is mostly moms), and includes a speaker on a parenting-related topic and social time for parents and babies. I didn't meet a kindred spirit through the program, but it was great to check in with the public health nurses, weigh my baby and just plain get out of the house.

It was through Baby Talk that I learned West Coast College of Massage Therapy occasionally has free baby massage classes for parents. I can't find any information about it online, but if it interests you, give them a call and ask if/when they'll be offering it again. When I went, it was loads of fun. I've never seen so many babies in one room!

I also attended Olivet's Mom's Daybreak group a few times. I had a good time, and they have the HUGE bonus of providing free childcare for the duration. Unlike most other groups, the point is not for you to socialize your child, but rather to get a break and have some adult conversation! Olivet's group also has speakers and craft sessions to keep things interesting. They are not especially 'churchy', although when I attended they did include a short Bible story session. Despite this, I felt no obligation to attend the church or even be a Christian to participate.

The Family Services of Greater Vancouver site lists a bunch of parenting resources for our community. There are drop-in programs in pretty much every community centre for parents of kids under the age of six, plus some interesting specialized programs. Running quickly through the list, a lot of programs seem to be targeted at Aboriginal parents, and also single parents and teen parents.

Some programs that I haven't experienced personally, but which sound interesting are:

Dads' drop-in at New West Family Place, Thursday nights, twice a week. I am always glad to see father-specific parenting programs.
Toddler drop-in at Canada Games Pool Wednesday and Sunday mornings
Motoring Munchkins at Queen's Park Arenex Wednesday and Fridays, described as 'a playground on steroids' in a recent Newsleader article
Community Kitchens, where parents can come to learn new recipes and meet new people

As I was doing some research for this post, I came across the Tiny Tots Coupon Book again, which is like an Entertainment Book for parents of young children. Little did I know - the ladies behind the Tiny Tots book are based right here in New Westminster! You can buy the Tiny Tots Coupon Book at Dimpleskins and Pedagogy Toys in Sapperton.

Royal City Bloggers and Journalists Agree: We Suck at Voting

2008-11-18T20:01:00.000-08:00

Who really won the recent New Westminster 2008 municipal election? Not us, because we are a bunch of chumps that can't make it to out to stuff a slip of paper into a box. Do we harbour some long hidden fears of elementary school gymnasiums? Terror at the nasty chance of an electoral paper cut?

Our manifest idiocy has not gone unnoticed by the scribbling classes. Even here, at Tenth to the Fraser, we have noted our past 26.2% participation lameness. Now, with renewed evidence of our callous disregard for our franchise, Shelley Fralic boldy scolds us in today's issue of the Vancouver Sun (Nov14, 08, A4) ,

In short, our growing pains, while an indication of a bright future and a solid economic base, are profound.
So you'd think the citizens of my town, who chose this place to live, would give a damn about what happens to it.

And you know, Fralic is not alone in her keen perception. She rightly points out that while New Westminster is the kind of town where you can meet with several generations on a bright day in the park and know all of them, we must reconcile that community spirit with the dearth of spirit that is made plain by this year's dismal showing. Pat Tracy from the Record agrees in her blog and wants to cause a 'hoofra' of her own and call attention to the fact that with such apathy, even large families can sway a sizable portion of the poplar vote.

Strengthening the chorus of those who decry the poor participation, Niki Hope eloquently reminds us of what I have heard and also hold to be true, that:

It is pretty sad that so few people bothered to walk a few blocks to help determine how their hefty taxes will be spent and who will help guide their children’s education.

Now after that kind of drubbing, and from so many sources, come on citizens! I want to see you volunteering at the Shiloh Church food bank, donning an or joining a municipal committee. We owe it to ourselves to vote and further to participate in a meaningful way in our city. Dance with seniors, hug a hooded teen (or whatever); anything to ameliorate our mass participation in nothing on voting day.

Shelter cats in need of adoption

2008-11-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

If you've been thinking about getting a pet, please first take a look at the New Westminster animal adoption site. The city's website says that the shelter is currently at double capacity and desperately needs to find homes for cats and other small animals like chinchillas and bunnies.

This high shelter rate places animals at an increased risk of illness and injury. It is critical that these animals are placed into good homes as soon as possible. Small animals such as rabbits and chinchillas are also available for adoption.

If Barack Obama can do it, you can too.

What the...?

2008-11-17T00:26:00.000-08:00

Okay, there is simply no accounting for my previous post, and for that I apologize. It doesn't make that much sense, I know. Just chalk it up to election overexposure. Too many burger polls at Burger Heaven.

But I had to post again after reading so many of the comments, especially those from Poli-Sigh and Anonymous in exchange with the City Communications Manager and both Briana and Will (co-editors of the blog) on this post and others. Can I just say how great it is to see people getting into discussions like these? I know when Will and Briana approached me to help them write for this blog, I was initially a little skeptical about it but it's neat to see the traffic increase and the types of discussions that are being started in the comments.

I feel like I did when the Orange Room first opened (sigh) - perhaps there really are people out there in our fair city who really care about what happens to it and have ideas about how to make it the best it can be! I'm struck (again) by the thought I have everytime we have a municipal election - especially in a city as small as New West - though we are voting for leaders for our city, this does not remove our responsibility to contribute our time, our ideas, and our energy to make it the city we want!

So, dear readers - what do you want to see happen in our Royal City?

Post-election Post (Editorial)

2008-11-16T23:21:00.000-08:00

Now that the dust has settled and the result is no different than last election (Is it just me or does anyone else have deja vu from October?), perhaps there's no wonder that a proportion of New Westminster's citizens voted (in a completely non-binding way) to increase the electoral cycle from 3 years to 4 - perhaps this proportion of the population believes that since nothing will change, why go to the expense to have elections so frequently?

I'm sure that in the coming weeks, editors, electors and candidates will toss around theories for the lack of change of the council, the apparent dearth of an expected "Grimston Park Effect" and as to how to deal with a 50-year age gap between sole newbie, Jamie MacEvoy, and the rest of City Council, but I am pretty confident that it can all be boiled down and neatly answered with my pet theory about New West - I call it the "One Highschool Effect" or OHE for short.

I have long held that it is the peculiar makeup of New Westminster's school district that has kept the politics, neighbourhood relationships, development plans and even traditions bound to a small town mindset. One highschool of 2200 kids (when I was there) provided the sort of demographic funnel that kept almost everyone in the population within 4 or 5 degrees of separation - just enough to mean that you wouldn't stop everyone on the street for tea and cakes, but just right to mean that everybody's mom, dad, uncle, realtor, dogwalker, dry cleaner, Waffle House owner knew whose kid you were, and likely what elementary school you went to (and thus your neighbourhood and socio-economic status).

In a town where most families have children who grow up, leave, and then come back to raise their kids, often with three or four generations of one family having attended the same high school, memories are long and tradition is revered. In a town where it must seem like most "newfangled" developments seem to fail - the once shiny and bustling Quay Market now dreary and empty; hundreds of shiny new condos built on the old Penn lands all leaky, and an apparent inability to keep any sort of floating vessel at the Quay for long, and the loss of Royal City Centre as a viable retail space - perhaps there is some suspicion of new ideas, and the people who bring them? Perhaps this small-town feeling that has preserved New West's historical charm, has kept residents wary of change - especially where their government is concerned.

Certainly it seems that the longest serving members of Council are those who are also older - whatever happened to Jerry Dobrovolny, who was the youngest - and cutest! - thing to hit council when I was a teenager. He was the first one to use large-format campaign signs, the first to put his face on his signs and the first one to use colour. The net effect was to send the message that perhaps Jerry, a late-thirties family man and city engineer in Vancouver, was perhaps the only candidate running for council in 1995 who knew how to use a computer. When did he leave?

One quick look at New Westminster's Mayors shows how this city likes to hold onto its leaders. Muni Evers' service spanned three decades, from 1968-1982; beloved Mayor Betty Toporowski served almost 10 years (despite the "racy" painting incident!), and with a third term looming ahead of him, mayor Wayne Wright is likely to top up to 9 years himself. There hasn't been a single-term Mayor since J.L. Sangster in 1949-1950! (Take that, Sam Sullivan...)

It seems obvious that New West values its history and perhaps is wary of change. This is bound to change given the rapidly changing demographics of both the city and the provincial population in general, however I can't help but wonder whether there isn't still a silent majority block of voters whose wishes are felt every three years when they again vote in a comfortably familiar set of Mayor, Council and School Board.

Perhaps if the lack of change in governance across the board is part of a larger community effort to thwart change through historical preservation, the mayor and council may need to watch out or they might find themselves on display in Irving House one of these days.

Leaf collection this week

2008-11-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

If you've tried to put out a bag of weeds and leaves on garbage day lately, you'll have discovered that yard waste collection has ceased for the year here in New West.

If your leaves are piling up, you're in luck this week: the city will be collecting them for one week only this month , between Nov. 17-21. (and again for a week in December, from the 15th to19th). The city says to use labeled garbage cans or biodegradable paper bags (gold stars for you!).

Thou shalt not use plastic bags, lest NWEP smite thee.

New West says 'no' to change

2008-11-15T22:07:00.000-08:00

Despite a well-organized campaign by the Voice party to convince voters New Westminster needs profound change, the resounding public response has been a polite, "No thank you." Unofficial election results show only one new face on council: 12th Street booster, longtime Douglas College Student Union leader, Save St. Mary's Hospital organizer and antipoverty activist Jaimie McEvoy, who appears to have stolen the seat of our longest-serving councillor, Calvin Donnelly . Donnelly has been a city councillor for 18 years, since first elected in 1981 (according to the city website's official bio ... I assume he has not been in office the whole time or else it would be 27 years, no?).

It's the same story on school board, despite the vocal outcry over plans to situate a new school in Grimston Park, six of the seven school trustees are incumbents - and the seventh is former city councillor Casey Cook . There is a slight touch of drama here: Wright-endorsed newcomer Vivian Garcia was so narrowly edged out by incumbent Brent Atkinson (sorry, can't find a link for his bio) that there will be a recount to confirm the tally.

And the final confirmation that New Westminster voters are pretty happy with the way things are? The response to the referendum question on whether council terms should be extended from three years to four was YES . That one's a bit of a puzzler though - civic elections throughout the province occur every three years on the third Saturday in November . The referendum question is explicitly non-binding. Are we really going to put ourselves out of sync with every other municipality in the province and move to a four-year election cycle? I don't know about you, but the first I heard that this question was on the table was when I had my Sharpie in hand at the polling station. It's a surprise to me that we're even considering the question.

The story of the night for me is just how poor a job the news media did of reporting election results from municipalities other than Vancouver and Surrey. Of all the TV stations, CBC included, only Shaw Cable (!) had special election coverage. Other stations just had superficial updates during commercial breaks. Online, the story wasn't much better. The only site that did it well was the official City of Vancouver site, which reported faster results than any of the media sites (and, of course, didn't cover New West!).

New West results were not online at all (except as reported by us, repeating Shaw Cable's coverage). Because Shaw wasn't online, and their numbers went by so fast, we actually snapped photos of our TV screen in order to capture local information for this blog. We were monitoring the Vancouver Sun, CBC, the Georgia Straight, 24 Hours, the Record and the Newsleader and it pains me to say that we were the first to report New West results online. The Record wasn't too far behind in reporting the first results after all poll results had come in. The Newsleader had nothing until the results were complete. The big media organizations had nothing at all for New West.

The very best coverage was on Twitter. Big Media's overstretched staffers couldn't beat the efforts of dozens of passionate political junkies scouring the Internet for information on the election and sharing the dribs and drabs of info as it came in. CBC's best move came in asking the Twitter community to tag election-related Tweets with the code #civicelection2008, which allowed for easy, consolidated tracking of most of the related commentary.

To me, all this is more evidence that the rest of the Lower Mainland considers New Westminster insignificant, and that is something I hope to change somewhat through my efforts online. I'd love to see more people blogging and Tweeting and Facebooking the New Westminster perspective and trumpeting our city's successes so that the rest of the Lower Mainland might see that New West is more than what they view through the windshield trundling along Stewardson.

For those of you who didn't choose to vote, you lose all right to complain for the next three (maybe four!) years. If you felt your taxes were too high, crime too bad, arts undersupported, parks lacking or schools crowded, you had your chance to effect change. Suck it up, buttercups.

The final election results will be posted on the City of New Westminster's website on Nov. 19 after 4 p.m.

New Westminster civic election results

2008-11-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

All polls reporting: so far, results show Wayne Wright still has the 'Wright' stuff (har de har har). Blair Armitage appears to be out of luck.

Council results so far:

Jonathan Cote
Lorrie Williams
Betty McIntosh
Bill Harper
Bob Osterman
Jaimie McEvoy

School Board:

Casey Cook
Lorrie Watt
Lisa Graham
Jim Goring
Michael Ewen
James Janzen
Brent Atkinson

2008 online civic election results

2008-11-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for information on civic election results as they roll in, here are a few sites to check (I am watching and will post New West information as I see it as well):

City of New West official results on the website.
Lots of chatter on Twitter. Do some keyword searches ("civic" seems to work well, and you can also try "new westminster"), or follow me @10thtothefraser (I will retweet any New West-related info as I see it).
The New Westminster Record is posting updates online . As of 8:20pm, Wayne Wright had the lead , but only two polls were reporting.
CBC is promising live updates online (nothing there as of 8:55pm for New West). CBC is also asking people to tag their Tweets about the election with #civicvote2008.
The Vancouver Sun has is liveblogging election results from around the Lower Mainland. No way to filter the info by municipality, and no way to get automatically pinged when there's something new. Refresh, refresh, refresh. They have also set up a live video feed ... but seem to be having some technical difficulties. No audio, last I checked.
The Georgia Straight is also posting results via blog , but they have less volume of coverage than the Sun. Straight results are also appearing in the Straight Twitter feed .

Know of any other sources? Post 'em in the comments.

Tenth to the Fraser Endorses Candidates for Mayor and Council, School Trustees

2008-11-13T22:57:00.000-08:00

As previously announced, we, as the authors of this blog, have decided to endorse a slate of candidates for Mayor, Council and School Trustee. We have tried to pay close attention to the political events and articles in the local paper but, we are ordinary citizens and we have no insider's knowledge of the various alliances that our local candidates may have with each other. This is our endorsement as independent folks and this is our blog so... these are the endorsed candidates for Tenth to the Fraser:

Mayoral Candidate: Wayne Wright

Wayne has been warm and approachable throughout this campaign and as recently reported on tenth to the Fraser, we have not exactly had the Armitage campaign beating down our door to get our vote. I have found Mr. Wright more conversant on the issues, plugged in to the needs of the city and I have noticed that Mr. Armitage stays so close to his talking points that he seems to give the same speech at every event. Frankly, in addition to a workable attitude, we have also found that this city has made some great progress over the last years and that Mayor & Council should be tasked to keep it up. One of my hopes for the Mayor is that he gets a better communications strategy. We are advocates of digital transparency in city politics and I think that can start at the Mayor's office.

Council:
Lorraine Brett
Linda Fletcher-Gordon
Jamie McEvoy
Betty McIntosh
Neil Powell

Brett is creative, modern and articulate and seems like the kind of person that transforms a committee into a group of people that gets things done. Linda Fletcher-Gordon seems compassionate and truly interested in advocating for the stated interests of residents and she values research and consideration when making decisions. McEvoy has shown a level of service and volunteerism that we rarely do in society today. If any candidate can be seen to represent the interests of the marginalized in our city, it is McEvoy. Betty Mack (McIntosh) is so well liked by the citizens and a real civic booster. I imagine her as the perfect council member for regional boards or junkets. She also brings years of council experience and institutional memory to the table. Neil Powell would be a new face to council but a familiar on on the police board. I was more impressed by his communications at the candidate meetings than by any other Voice candidate.

Council: Honourable mention
Matthew Laird
Gavin Palmer
Jonathan X Cote.

These guys either only got one of the votes available here at Tenth to the Fraser, or were interesting enough to be raised from the forgotten remainders of the campaign list. Matt Laird has a great website and on that site, he has some very interesting ideas. His facility with the internet point to a willingess to offer a new level of civic transparency in the Royal City he only has one of our two available votes. In person, he does not deliver on his potential. As reported here before, I (notice the singular) think that he might have a hard time adapting to the team nature of our city council. Gavin Palmer didn't get very high on our radar but his apparent common sense and his dogged advocacy for the Queensborough neighbourhood are admirable. I endorse Gavin Palmer as Mayor of Queensborough. Jonathan Cote gets one vote here on Tenth to the Fraser. I can' t really say why. His answers seemed general and non-committal. He showed an exemplary command of the use of buzz words and he was always in a suit. I guess that just about earns one vote around here. (ahem).

School Trustee:
Casey Cook
Mayleen Crespo
Ben Kapusta
Kirpaul Kaur
David Phelan
Shelley Waldie

I don't think we can honestly endorse a full slate here on the trustee side. Even the above list might be streching it. It is not because there are not fine candidates running, just our level of information. Casey Cook has been highs and lows with me. I had some great chats with him recently and I love how he voiced his early opposition to the parks into schools controversy but I have often found myself grumbling at the Record or the Leader after reading one of his letters. He gets the nod. Kirpaul Kaur must be the best thing since sliced bread if you judge by her telephone campaign and lawn signs. She also spent some phone time with us and really made an impression. Kapusta has the right idea (IMHO) when it comes to middle schools, parks and etc. I want to learn more but at this point, he gets a nod also. The other candidates seemed to meet my capricious requirements. I have read statements by them and tried to distinguish their positions from the noise of my dishwasher and that nagging feeling that my 18 month old is playing with a toilet brush. They get the nod for beating my signal to noise ratio.

There you have it! How Tenth to the Fraser will vote. Go on out there New Westminster; VOTE! We barely saw 1/4 of the electorate vote in the last election. Lets see if we can beat 40%. Don't take our word for it. Exercise your franchise this November 15th.

Winner, Best Campaign Staff: Kirpaul Kaur

2008-11-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

Taking a (web)page straight from the David Plouffe hand book, this local school trustee candidate has been kicking it Obama style by launching a polite and engaging army of telephone campaign staff on the voters of New Westminster.

Oh yes, after getting a call a week ago, my wife asked some questions about the "School on Grimston Park" controversy (against btw) and as a follow up, she asked further questions that the volunteer simply could not answer on Ms. Kaur's behalf. "May I take your information and Kirpaul can get back to you?" Why Yes! Lets do that! One day later, Kirpaul Kaur herself called in, eager to help answer a voter's questions and assist the democratic process (get that vote!). Almost 40 minutes later, we were satisfied that we had been talking to a genuine, honest and thoughtful candidate.

While in a recent article in the Record, she states that a third middle school was a priority, Kirpaul (and all of the candidates) submitted their brief blurbs before the Grimston Park Blowup. Since that time, many candidates have learned, like the citizens of the West End, of the details behind the school building options. She stated that she wanted to lead and direct a process that would solicit options from stakeholders and the community, synthesise them down to a manageable format and present them for deliberation to the public. We need some schools built but which ones do we need, how do we want to organise them? She also advocated a level of transparency and informatuon sharing that can only be achieved through the internet.

So then this evening, not 15 minutes ago dear readers, I was called by another Kaur-ista. "Hello, I am calling in support of Kirpaul Kaur". After a brief an ironic conversation, my call waiting started to beep. I ended the Kaurnversation and picked up the other line: " Hello I am calling on behalf of Kirpaul Kaur!"

Woah, if that is not someone who can get things done... I don't know what is.

ENDORSED: Kirpaul Kaur by the two voters at Tenth to the Fraser.

Interview With Mayoral Candididate, Wayne Wright

2008-11-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago, I contacted both candidates for mayor: Wayne Wright (independent incumbent) and Blair Armitage (Voice New Westminster) and invited them to reply to an email interview to discuss various topics and give voters a view into what they were both like as people. I say I contacted them but really I contacted Wayne Wright and a few gatekeepers for Mr. Armitage. After striving twice and half-heatedly feigning interest for a third time, I gave up on the possibility that Mr. Armitage would lend his 'voice' to this blog; so this post goes to Mayor Wright alone.

Getting the answers from Mayor Wright was no stroll through the Queen's Park Rose Garden either I will tell you. The response email was not sent properly or perhaps sent correctly but to someone else, and I did not receive it when the Mayor intended me to. After some back and forth however, he did promptly return a call and arrange for a moment where we could go over the responses via telephone. I was pleased that he had followed up to ensure I had the email and impressed at how generous he was with his time. Perhaps he learned the earth shattering importance of this blog from Matthew Laird, a recently featured candidate for council...
Well then, here are the questions and answers, presented as paraphrase, not verbatim:

10-2TF: What is the best part about being the Mayor of New Westminster? What has been the most fun?

Wright: It is really the people I meet and have met in the city. That is the most fun. The best thing is to really move forward on the issues and make a difference.

10-2TF: What advice would you give to any new councillors that may be elected this year?
Wright: For our new councillors, I think it will be really important to listen and learn and get a sense of how things are done before diving into a topic or an issue.

102-TF: What big issue or problem led to the formation of the 'Voice New Westminster' slate?

Wright: I think they are basing their campaign on dishonesty. They talk about problems that are dealt with and dissatisfaction in the city when a very recent Ipsos-Reid Poll measured an almost 90% satisfaction rate from the citizens of this city. By all of the meaningful statistics, our crime rate has also fallen and is now lower than at any time in the last ten years.

10-2TF: What kind of administration would we see from Wayne Wright, if re-elected, over the next three years?

Wright: Residents would see the same kind of administration as they see now with an open door policy to anyone who wants to lend their advice or opinions. They will continue to see an inclusive and responsive Mayor's office.

10-2TF: What role, if any, do you see New Westminster playing as we host the world for the Olympics in 2010?

Wright: New Westminster does not have a direct role in the games but we will have a role to play hosting the world. I have a few surprises that we are working on that will really leave an impression but I won't be saying anything about that yet. We also have the opportunity at that time to really invite everyone to join us in 'Celebrate 150' as New Westminster commemorates our 150th year.

I have a few surprises that we are working on that will really leave an impression but I won't be saying anything about that yet.

10-2TF: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

Wright: An eagle. I was named as an eagle by the First Nations. The name was a gift and I was honoured by their choice. (Citizens may recall that an eagle illustration decorates the back of the Mayor's somewhat antique Ford Truck as a spare tyre cover, along with the phrase "Good Bye, Good Luck!".

10-2TF: There has been a lot of talk in this campaign about the mood or attitude of the various platforms. Some candidates speak endlessly about 'being positive' while others have presented a very dark and negative view about life in the city and have suggested that a souring relationship with city staff is an example of this attitude. What do you think needs to happen to improve this?

Wright: If you walk into City Hall --and ask anybody--people will say that it is a fantastic place to work, it is the best and it always has been. We have the support of our staff.

10-2TF: For some voters, environmental concerns may be at the top of the list of issues that are important to them. What initiatives do you propose that might improve our environment?

Wright: Now there we have just completed a study of all city vehicles in use and have some great recommendations on how to better use the vehicles we have for better fuel economy and, where appropriate, to change the way we use some vehicles and change some of the vehicles that we use. Also, we will continue to encourage responsible development in the city and environmental construction methods. When it is complete, New Westminster will have the only gold standard LEED constructed building in British Columbia. We should be proud of that and we will do more in the future. (Note: LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, provides standards for environmentally sustainable construction.

10-2TF: Many voters are most interested in social issues. What do you see as an area for improvement?

Wright: It is our parks, we need more parkland in this city and we are working hard on that for our waterfront. We need to see more amenities like the Civic Center for downtown and investments in other parts of the city. We will have the casino revenues to assist with that.

10-2TF: For business and employment: what is the best way to foster growth in the City?

Wright: We have to preserve the industrial lands we have left and mixed use lands. In the downtown we have seen a real benefit from changing the traffic and driving methods there. Also, while keeping our historical heritage in place, we need to be flexible with the developers that are here to do business in our city.

10-2TF: Thanks for being a part of this questionnaire! I have only one more question. What is something funny about yourself that you could share to help voters relate to you as a candidate?

Wright: I'll tell you one thing. In the Philippines, in Quezon -- our sister city there -- the Mayor, Sonny Balmonte, started giving me a nickname, "Sunny Wright." In parts of the Philippines, they are not as fortunate as here. They paint their houses bright colours to help keep up the spirit and I guess he thought I had a "Sunny Disposition." Recently, also, Fidel Ramos, the "Savior of Democracy" in the Philippines, stopped by here in New Westminster for a visit while on his way back from Toronto. The Consul General called and asked if I would mind meeting with him and I jumped at the chance. It is great to meet with leaders like that and represent the people of New Westminster.

Well that is it folks. I wish I had something for you to compare it to but only the one mayoral candidate sees the awesome power of the mighty blog, I suppose.

The future of newspapers

2008-11-12T17:39:00.000-08:00

The Newsosaur has it right:

Because newspapers still have more staff and more time to develop stories than any other local medium, they can do this immediately by training their firepower on truly significant matters, if they quit staffing meaningless press conferences; penning fluffy features; rewriting self-serving publicity releases; laboring over elaborate but inane graphics; obsessing over crime news, and transcribing dull but unimportant civic meetings.

This is not to say that all press conferences, features, new releases, graphics, crimes and civic meetings are meaningless. They are not. But it is to say that considerably more editorial imagination and discretion could do a world of good right about now.

Newspapers need to get off their haunches, boldly pick their shots, and then rip the lids off their respective towns, turning themselves once again into confident and thundering voices delivering coverage that compels attention and delivers results.

Amen.

CTV coverage of Grimston Park protest

2008-11-10T21:11:00.000-08:00

Trainman3 vs WhickerNW on YouTube!

2008-11-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

Shaw TV's two-minute clips of our civic election hopefuls are now up on YouTube, but they're not all in one place.

WhickerNW appears to have uploaded clips of all the Voice candidates - school board included - while Trainman3 has focused on the independents.

Our mayoral hopefuls have also each uploaded a promotional vid to the site.

Here's incumbent mayor Wayne Wright, running on his record:

And challenger Blair Armitage:

New West history online

2008-11-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

New Westminster is one of B.C.'s oldest cities. Despite the ravages of fire and flood, many of New West's historical buildings still stand. Our history is one of the things that differentiates us from the newer municipalities that have since eclipsed New West in size and renown.

Most of our residents know we were once British Columbia's capital city (until dastardly Victoria, Jacob to our Esau, stole this birthright), but you may not know what it was like in the 'olden days' here. Our resident historian Archie Miller does his part, leading the New West Historical Society, writing columns for the local papers and offering historical walking tours of the city, but today I discovered some digital fodder for the imagination in the New Westminster Heritage Database.

I love old photographs. Looking at the faces in black and white always gets me daydreaming about how it might have been back in those days. There are some spectacular shots in this collection online. If only it was more browsable and bloggable! Put it on Flickr!

Editorial: "Growing Up" at City Hall

2008-11-06T17:22:00.000-08:00

Reading the earlier posts on Lynda Fletcher-Gordon, it reminded me of my early teenage years growing up as a part of the engine of civic democracy.

When I was in Grade 7, I remember having a bit of a mishap, cracking my knee and spending about 3 weeks at home on the couch in front of the Christmas tree with my leg in a splint. One day in the midst of that, there was a phone call for me: I didn't want to move (understandably at that point, the splint on my leg was bigger than I was) but my aunt insisted that this is one call I wouldn't want to miss.

It was then-Mayor, Betty Toporowski, calling to ask me if I'd like to be on an advisory committee - one of several committees open to public and business involvement, run by city council and help to advise on policy issues, research and citizen interest in certain areas.

The previous summer, Dad and I had worked with Gunther - a neighbour who was a park planner at city hall (I'll always remember he lived in the tan-yellow house on 1st street with the owls on it) - to offer some input on the development of a wheelchair-accessible playground in Queens Park (across the street from my childhood home). He had seen me so many times as a little kid, wheeling from my house at 1st Street and 5th Avenue, up and over about 5 blocks to get to the only curb ramp up and into the park. I'm told that he championed this park idea, and so brought it to our family when it was time to make the big decision... and how many kids get to pick out the playground equipment for their own park? (I tell you, this did nothing to keep my budding ego in check.)

Apparently as a result of that, word got back to Mayor Toporowski about the collaboration with our family, and she put out the invitation to my parents to have them sit on the Special Services and Access Committee, advising issues of accessibility all over the city. Unbeknownst to me, they declined, stating that I was the expert and perhaps she should invite me instead. (!) So that day when I was stuck at home with my leg in a huge splint, I was the youngest city appointee in New Westminster's history - at the age of 12.

I marvel at this in hindsight, as an aunt of 2 teenagers and 4 little boys, how a room full of adults - our council mandate included 2 or 3 city councillors, the City Engineer, a rep from Parks and Rec, 4 New West citizens and the Engineering Department secretary - coped with a VERY chatty teenager in their midst... I'm not sure if I could have been so gracious if I were to be forced to do so with my almost-14-year-old nephew in such a formal setting.

But they did, and that experience remains one of the most formative in my life. I regularly attended the meetings, on the first tuesday of the month at City Hall. I had special permission from school to leave early, and the Engineering Department secretary, Betty, would call and arrange a Handy-dart to bring me down to City Hall (until I became too cool for the loser cruiser and started getting there on my own). I met lovely people like Martin Bowles, a gentleman who had had polio as a child and had spent his life doing volunteer and civic service, who was a true model of an advocate for people with disabilities to me.

Our work was measurable and rewarding: we directed the city to install audible crosswalk signals at major intersections for people who are visually impaired. We gave out awards to buildings and agencies in the city who made special effort to become more accessible, and directed City Engineering to upgrade curbs to ramps. We issued warnings and took complaints from people with access concerns on public land, and gave feedback to City departments like Parks and Recreation for how things could be made better. (Ever used the wheelchair change room at Canada Games pool? You're Welcome.)

I was able to work with and learn about politics at a very early age, and became familiar and interested in the electoral and governance process in a way that I'm not sure I would have otherwise. I learned a lot from the people I served with, but even more, I think that their enthusiastic (and patient) acceptance of me as I was in my early teen years gave me an enormous amount of confidence that has shaped the way I tackle obstacles to this day.

One of the things I am most proud of that I participated in was our effort to partner with then-BCTransit to increase the amount of accessible bus stops throughout the city. Back then, riding the bus was hit or miss for me, because only a very few of the bus stops were designated as accessible stops. When I brought this to the committee, we used our allocated funds that year to match BC Transit's funds so they could upgrade twice as many bus stops all over town - something that no other city was doing.

At the age of 16, I was the longest-serving member of the committee. I had worked with 5 city councillors, accepted an official proclaimation ("National Access Awareness Week"), and been in the paper a bazillion times. This is one of the brilliant things about New West - I remember my childhood, and particularly my experience on this Advisory Committee - with such a sense of volunteerism and cooperation that I see in New Westminster's people even today. I wouldn't say it's necessarily unique to our city, but it certainly does make it better.

So - my thanks to all who served with me and made me into the advocate I am today:
Betty Toporowski Lynda Fletcher-Gordon
Pat Connolly - City Engineer Helen Sparkes
Betty G. Martin Bowles
Casey Cook Gaby Gasztonyi
Betty McDonald ...and others whose names I can't remember!

So - citizens of New West. Don't just sit there and gripe about your city... volunteer on an Advisory Committee!

Tenth to the Fraser Endorsements Due

2008-10-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

Many newspapers and websites have chosen through history to forgo complete objectivity and endorse a candidate or candidates in an election. Often, the choice made is an illustration of that publication but it is often the intent of the endorsing journal to present a choice that, in their view, would be preferred by their readers. Such is the value of knowing ones audience. The New York Times, for example, first endorsed a presidential candidate with Republican Abraham Lincoln, who would later lead America in a war to emancipate the slaves of the Confederacy, and has most recently endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, also a unique product of the story of Africans in America.

Here on Tenth to the Fraser, we have no historical leg to stand on. As far as you know, we could be rabbits escaped for the Queen's Park Rainbow Playland Petting Zoo but nevertheless, we have decided that we will be endorsing our own custom slate of candidates for Mayor and council.

Blog Editor Briana and I (William) will each be presenting our picks later this week, after we have had a chance to hear another scheduled All Candidate Meeting (this Tuesday) and hand out gobs of Hallowe’en candy. In an election that will be so poorly followed an attended, we figure it is almost a necessity to publish these choices as a way of synthesising and evaluating what is available from the candidates.

Or we are both full of it. You decide.

Mea Culpa, New Westminster Style!

2008-10-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

Earlier on Tenth to the Fraser, I reviewed an All Candidates Meeting at the Queensborough Community Center. I really appreciated the event, difficult as it was in organizing an evening where 17 different candidates for Mayor and Council all tried to introduce their next three year plan to the citizens of New Westminster.

I tried to give readers of this blog a brief window into the candidates positions, and present my impressions about them as candidates. We will be covering tomorrow evening's All Candidates Meeting (Oct 28th, 2008 at the Queensborough Community Center again) as well and I hope the evening is just as illuminating.

One of the counsellors whose performance I reviewed was ill at ease with how he was perceived and had heard from others in the community also. Matthew Laird, independent candidate for council, contacted me earlier today to discuss the event. To review, here is my briefly stated impression on his message at the meeting:

Matthew Laird (council, ind) I was surprised by this candidate. I have spent some time on his website and he has some very interesting ideas and suggestions, many of witch I find compelling. In his remarks, he certainly has a good list of practical, achievable improvements (increased composting and others) but he seemed to have his emotion or frustration with city council run away with him. He made his points aggressively and with a fast speaking style and was hostile to the record of the last councils. My wonder was how he would be able to work with the next council and team if he was elected. He certainly has vision but a more friendly and less confrontational pitch style might come in handy.

He explained to me that he had not been feeling himself that evening and that for a variety of reasons, the presentation in Queensborough was not his usual style. In a related blog post, Mr. Laird elaborated:

At last Tuesday's Queensborough debate I made an error, my opening remarks were far too negative in tone. I'm embarrassed to have conducted myself in this manner, directly contradicting how I said I would run my campaign.

I take full responsibility to the excessive attacks on the current council, while they're certainly not perfect, my remarks crossed a line. I would like to apologize to my fellow candidates.

When Matthew Laird says he is for a different kind of politics, he really believes it. Whether acknowledging the criticism from others and presented here on this website will help his campaign or not, it does show a certain level of conviction, if not micromanagement, to directly address the issue and apologise.

As I had mentioned in my initial review, I do find many of this candidates issues compelling. Perhaps at tomorrow night's debate, I will see the side of Mr. Laird he intends for me to see. Until then, check back here for updates.....for Election 2008!

Homelessness in New West

2008-10-25T22:07:00.001-07:00

Council candidate Lynda Fletcher-Gordon has provided a link to a PDF file with some stats on homelessness in New Westminster. She and Jaimie McEvoy have been the candidates who have, in my opinion, placed the most emphasis on the issue in our city so far.

Both candidates have a track record in this area. Fletcher-Gordon is the Executive Director of the Purpose Society and she and McEvoy are involved in the Homelessness Society, which produced the report I've linked to above.

Some interesting facts from the report:

Homelessness has increased by about 35% in New West compared to the 2005 count (it has increased throughout the GVRD)
58% of the homeless who were counted in 2008 were living on the streets
74% are men (slightly above the regional average of 72%)
27% identify as aboriginal (slightly below the regional average of 32%)

Vancouver-wide stats:

48% of the people counted were homeless for a year or longer;
80% lived in the municipality where they were counted for one year or more;
71% considered their ‘home’ to be in Metro Vancouver;
61% reported an addiction problem;1
33% reported a mental illness.

Top three reasons for being homeless (as identified by the homeless in the GVRD):

Lack of income (25%)
High cost of housing (19%)
Addiction problems (17%) - interesting note: 68% of the street homeless reported an addiction problem compared to 48% of the sheltered homeless.

Recommendations:

Establish a homelessness resource centre with programs and facilities focused on addiction recovery, employment assistance, medical services and life skills training
Create additional spaces in transition housing for women and children fleeing abuse (estimated demand is 3-4 times available space)
Create social housing spaces for single adults (the majority of social housing projects currently focus on families, people with disabilities and seniors)
Improve access to addiction and mental health services

Traffic congestion in New West

2008-10-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Traffic congestion and public transit infrastructure are named among the top issues for most civic election candidates in New Westminster - and it seems we're not alone. Greater Vancouver is experiencing major growing pains related to suburbun expansion. Cost of living has boosted growth in areas like Pitt Meadows, Coquitlam, Surrey and Abbotsford, but the majority of jobs are still located in Vancouver. The result is gridlock due to the funnel effect of so many people coming into the downtown area through a limited number of access points.

Unsurprisingly, those at the wide end of the funnel want to twin the Port Mann bridge, hoping it will speed their commute into town. We at the narrow end - New Westminster, Burnaby and Vancouver - are more likely to oppose it, fearing it will only bring more non-residential traffic into our communities.

Writes the Vancouver Sun:

In the south-of-the-Fraser communities of Langley, Surrey, Delta and White Rock, where gridlock on the bridge is a huge issue, nearly 75 per cent of candidates agreed or agreed strongly that the bridge should be twinned.
Artist's rendition of a twinned Port Mann Bridge.
Handout
In the Tri-Cities area, support was even higher. Eighty-five per cent of candidates agreed.
In the core communities of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster, where many fear that more lanes will bring more traffic, only 30 per cent either agreed or agreed strongly with the bridge twinning.

New Westminster council candidate Betty McIntosh said she'd like to see the new South Fraser Perimeter Road completed to siphon off some of the traffic that now runs through New Westminster, which, as the geographical centre of the region, has a disproportionate number of vehicles travelling through it
"New Westminster is a compact, well-planned city with a large volume of transit users. We can work, live and play within our city boundaries," she said.
Lorrie Williams, also running in New Westminster, said the city could "easily become just the crossroad to other places" and it needs well-planned commuter and truck routes and cooperation with other municipalities to share the burden.

As a central access point for the Lower Mainland, New West benefits from proximity to both the city and the suburbs, but as this issue highlights, there is a dark side. Too much traffic is just pass-through traffic, and it impacts local traffic, air quality, quality of life and also our businesses.

The Sun quoted Williams and McIntosh, but here are some opinions from other local candidates on the traffic situation here in New West and what to do about it (quotes from the Sun's poll data and candidate websites):

Mayoral candidates:

Wayne Wright (incumbent): "Always a problem in a Geographic centered city like N.W. Biggest issue is North Fraser Perimeter Road and bridges and how they will be brought through the city.The road goes directly though the middle of downtown and our new residential areas and the bridge heads are congested already.We will be working directly with Translink and the Province to address these problems. There will be solutions but there will be large capital costs necessary to do the right thing."
Blair Armitage: Ipsos Reid poll rates traffic as high priority with New West voters (note: I tried looking for more detail on the Voice website but I was unable to find the info I was looking for. If you're reading this Voice, SEO is everything. Get your Google juice on!)

Council candidates:

Jaimie McEvoy: "New Westminster needs more support for cyclists, include more bike routes and bike racks throughout the city ..... We need to ensure that when Patullo Bridge is replaced that city council is a strong advocate for its citizens, ensuring that the new bridge improves traffic, and does not increase traffic on our local streets."
Matthew Laird: "New Westminster is at the cross roads of the Lower Mainland, we have an opportunity to be an example of progressive urban planning, making a walkable, livable city focused on sustainability."
Bob Osterman: "New Westminster has over 350,000 cars driving through our city each day, our roads are clogged and the consequent accidents and car pollution concern every resident. To go from West to East at rush hour can take 30 minutes to travel 2 miles."
Lynda Fletcher-Gordon: "The amount of traffic in New Westminster will not decrease. In fact, without the provision of more public rapid transit, it is likely to increase. While we want to have a walkable city, we also need to consider how to keep the traffic moving and avoid gridlock. While I support traffic calming devices generally, the traffic calming devices on the main roads and intersections contribute to the gridlock that often happen - especially at 6th and Royal. They cause congestion as those drivers who want to use an alternative route or merely turn from Royal onto 6th are prevented from doing that."
Terrance Owen: "New West suffers from severe road and rail cross-traffic to and from other municipalities. These road and rail routes fall under federal and provincial jurisdictions. The city needs the cooperation and support of these senior levels of government to provide alternate routes and containment that will alleviate the problems created for New West."

The Vancouver Sun is leveraging the data gathered in their municipal candidates' issues survey well here, but this quote from their article again highlights how they missed the mark from a technology standpoint.

To help you on voting day, Nov. 15, you can use the database as a personal ballot, printing off a list of all candidates and then circling those that best reflect your views.

Print it out and circle the candidates you're voting for? C'mon Sun, you can do better. The data is there, all that is needed is the technical execution to make it more useful. If the Sun doesn't have the technical resources, they could at least provide the data in an easily remixed format so that others with the knowledge and the desire could create something better suited for the Web.

Readers, if you notice that I'm missing a candidate's published comments on the issue, leave a note in the comments. If any political candidates wish to expand on their comments, go right ahead!

New course series for heritage home lovers

2008-10-24T23:46:00.000-07:00

Heritage home aficionados can now sign up for applied courses on home restoration through the Vancouver Heritage Foundation:

... the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, established in 1992 and best known for raising money and awareness through workshops and its wildly popular annual heritage home tours, to offer a unique educational series.
It's called Old School: Courses for Building Conservation, and it's designed to meld heritage theory with hands-on practice.
The $400 certificate program comprises a mandatory core course called Heritage 101, as well as seven elective courses.
Graduation - and it's expected it will take you about two years to complete the program schedule - is dependent on attendance and most courses are available evenings and weekends, in fall and spring sessions.
If you're not looking for the diploma, you can pick and choose individual courses, which range in price from $12 to $100, and include Windows and their Conservation, Research the History of a Building, Creating a Budget for a Conservation Project, and Creating a Conservation Plan.
Instructors include familiar names in Metro Vancouver heritage circles, like consultant and author Don Luxton and Eric Pattison, a New Westminster architect who specializes in heritage building.

Source: "No longer a deal, vintage homes priced for heritage and "green" benefits", Vancouver Sun

New West candidates on the issues

2008-10-24T21:18:00.001-07:00

When it comes to e-campaigning, many of our local candidates fall short.

A few - the Voice slate, Jonathan Cote, Matthew Laird - are doing a reasonable job of leveraging the web to communicate stance on the issues.

The others who have inadequate web presences or lacking any website at all are doing both their campaigns and New West citizens a disservice.

Mass media can only communicate so much about municipal politics, due to the constraints of the form. The web, on the other hand, has the potential to provide much more detailed and localized information if leveraged appropriately.

Thankfully, for New West voters, The Vancouver Sun has stepped in to help fill the information gap. The Sun has published a municipal election database online incorporating information from civic candidates around the region about where they stand on local issues.

Here's how it breaks down in New West.

According to their survey answers, here are the key differences between mayoral incumbent Wayne Wright and rival Blair Armitage:

While Wright is running on his record as a capable, experienced manager of our city, Armitage is out to change the status quo. In particular, Armitage feels that council hasn't been responsive to citizen concerns regarding proposed developments.

Both candidates named crime and traffic congestion in their top three issues, however Armitage also feels taxation is an issue while Wright is concerned with homelessness
Armitage's answers are research-based, citing poll data, news reports and regional statistics to support his points; Wright's responses seem more qualitative, drawing on his experience as mayor for the last six years.
Wright supports maintaining our local independent police force, while Armitage would like to see a consolidated Metro Vancouver police force
Armitage strongly supports increasing development fees, while Wright is neutral on the issue
Armitage wants to proceed with twinning the Port Mann; Wright opposes the project
Armitage believes New West is "plagued with sprawl and poor land-use planning" while Wright disagrees
Armitage believes government bureaucracy and inefficiency is costing taxpayers
Armitage supports changing from an at-large election system to wards

I'm finding the Sun's data very helpful in gaining clarity on what each candidate stands for. As a blogger and data nerd, I do have some constructive criticism.

The data should be fully indexed and easily searched/compared. It is, after all, intended to help aid comparison between candidates. It's hard to get that perspective when you must look at one at a time.

Ideally, the Sun would make the raw data available for people to parse & sort as needed to extract the information they seek. The experience as it stands is exactly like a printed pull-out voters' guide. I appreciate that it is accessible online and that the paper made the effort to compile the information, but I also can't help see it as an opportunity lost.

UPDATE: I figured if I wanted the data I better do something about it. I've published a consolidated spreadsheet online via Google Docs aggregating the info from the Sun. It's only partial - many of our candidates have not responded yet - but I will update as I see that new candidates' views are added.

A case study of hope

2008-10-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

Like many other places in the Lower Mainland, New Westminster has a homelessness problem. The problem isn't just a lack of money for shelter, of course. Many, if not most, of the people huddled in doorways on Carnarvon and shuffling along Columbia are also struggling with addiction and mental health issues.

These people can be very scary. The worst of them are so full of rage that it boils around them.

This is the story of one such angry woman, called "Crow." She took out her pain on both friends and foes until the day she turned her life around, calmed down and got clean.

She didn't do it alone. New West Union Gospel Mission volunteers persisted through her black moods and their efforts were not wasted.

When she came for a free meal at the UGM, she was offered more than soup and sandwiches by her angels.

Eventually they helped her realize her spirit was starving. Drugs and alcohol were her way of numbing the pain she secretly felt.

"Most alcoholic-addicts are spiritually starving because of the trauma they suffered in their lives. Most of us escape that trauma through alcohol and drugs so we don't have to feel, we don't have to remember, we don't have to do anything," she said, surveying the crowded New Westminster mission following a pancake breakfast.

As she speaks, there's a violent outburst from a man who's come to eat, perhaps because he's missed the meal.

"That used to be me," said Lagarde, who describes herself as an animal when she lived on the streets.

It's reassuring to hear of examples like this, of people who seemed hopeless and yet came through on the other side. And it's a good reminder that those of us who are lucky enough to have opportunities others lacked need to overcome apathy and give back.

New middle school could be built on parkland

2008-10-23T23:29:00.001-07:00

Photo of NWSS library doors by BuckyHermit (via Flickr)

A small geographical footprint is both one of New Westminster's charms and one of its challenges. Density is inevitable. Sprawl is not an option. This is great, if you're assessing public transit feasibility or walkability within the city. It means, however, that options are limited when it comes to new development.

New West has long known it needs new schools. The current high school is in need of upgrades and isn't adequate to house all of the city's kids. The original idea was to rebuild on the same site. The catch? Our secondary school is built on an indian burial ground.

It's like something out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I keep expecting some kind of monstrous hell-beast to emerge from a Hellmouth deep in the bowels of the school, threatening to bet all the city's kittens at poker and cursing the local mallrats with syphilis.

So, we need new schools. And we can't build them on the site where NWSS has stood for 60 years in case executed Tsilhqot'in warrior Chief Ahan was buried there 144 years ago.

Something has to give. And that 'something' seems likely to be park land. Three parks are currently being considered for a new middle school site, all in the West End:

While residents would lose some park space (and potentially see more traffic), we have it on good authority that if land for the school is carved out of a park like Grimston, the site would also see upgrades that could offset the loss.

In any case, this is all still tentative. The city is gathering feedback now, so if you want to learn more about the ghost of Chief Ahan or share your opinions on the new school site, there are some important dates to know (all events at the NWSS library):

Oct. 25 (11am, 1 & 3pm) & Oct. 30 (7pm) (just in time for Halloween!) - Historical research on the cemetery at NWSS.
Nov. 1 (11am, 1 & 3pm) & Nov. 4 (7:30pm) - Public info sessions on middle school options.

editorial interlude - the middle of everywhere

2008-10-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

And now for an interlude, appropriately enough, from the Starbucks at Chapters in Metropolis (née metrotown). New Westminsterites of my vintage will remember it as Metrotown, that mecca of all things cool and consumer-related.

When I was a kid, Metrotown was THE only place to see a movie, buy reasonable clothes, shop on your own, and oftentimes, eat. Sure, some of that was owing to the uniquely terrible palate of one's teenage years, but I know I'm not alone in saying that Metrotown was the mecca for everything. Growing up in New West was to be a throbbing teenage parasite on the side of Burnaby or Downtown Vancouver.

As a grown (and driving) adult, I see New West from a much different perspective, but the conclusion is the same - it is a city, unique in so many attributes, yet slighted by it's position as the town "on the way" to everywhere else. The middle of everywhere by public transit (and still is, as the junction between the Expo and Millennium lines) and by car is how New West is known to many, but truly understood by a very few. As much as these traffic flows brought, they took away far more, as a population too small to sustain its own immediate amenities - cinemas, nice nightspots, real shopping and tourist destinations - flocked to frequent those in Metrotown, Downtown Vancouver, or more recently, those in the TriCities.

I've found that one of the sad things about growing up NW is looking back and seeing the deterioration of every major development meant to draw people to the city in less time than it took for you to go from hotwheels to a Class 5 Drivers License. One by one, they all fell apart due to neglect, poor attendance and disrepair - The New Westminster Quay, now a shadow of its former self; Woodward Place/Royal City Centre's loss of its anchor stores; the Burr theatre - even the High School has been left in tatters, waiting for decisions about its fate.

It's a favourite sport for New Westminster folks to blame the traffic arteries that encircle our community and mass-transit lines that criss-cross the neighbourhoods for the demise of the city's entertainment and retail services. One might even say that this sort of complaint is common to any small-ish community, so nearby a large city that it can't help but lose its dollars to the bright lights and better sushi of the mall next door. When our family moved to New West in 1985, the Skytrain was just being finished - but I still remember how the downtown (already in pretty bad shape) deteriorated when New West Station was opened. Suddenly, this little homey town with the "marrying and burying" reputation and the first Spaghetti Factory anywhere was transformed into that town you ride through on your way to somewhere else. The place you wouldn't dream of disembarking the skytrain, bus or car unless you were forced to by an ill-placed junction.

Still, New West has much to thank it's transit corridors for - it is certain that Columbia Street's (slow, hiccuping) revitalization would never have happened if it weren't for the Millennium Line and excellent bus service in that area. One wonders what would have become the city if Highway 1 didn't skirt the northeastern edge, bringing bus and truck traffic in and out. Like it or not, car traffic and mass transit were as formative for New West as the river has ever been.

So, what? Can (or should) anyone change New West's "little sibling" place in the GVRD, always the bridesmaid, never the bride in the minds of consumers? (Except, of course, if you are a bride, in which case Columbia Street is DA BOMB.) No - and according this New West girl, it's time we found new and better ways to embrace our traffic-laden future, embracing green technologies and ways of working that don't contribute to the gridlock on Front Street, 20th Street, or McBride Boulevard. I see it starting, in a way - one of the main signs of life in New West for me has been the renovation and revitalization of Uptown. The Royal Bank building on 6th and 6th was knocked down, replaced by a condo-and-retail mix, as was the entire seedy strip mall on 6th ave between 6th street and 7th.

The survival of the modern metropolis cannot continue to rely on the same bimodal commuting patterns. I see New West's future in the past - by hearkening back to cities built in Victorian times, where cities were built as interlocking villages, each with their own vibrant shopping, entertainment and residential districts. I lived for a short time in Melbourne, Australia and in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Both shared a common civic roadmap that wove civic neighbourhoods throughout the big city, rendering it needless to go elsewhere if you just wanted a bite to eat or tea with a friend. Yes - New West is stuck between the river and a hard place, but that's no reason that we can't deliberately build a community, around Stuart McLean's maxim, "if you can't be big, be small."

Except for New West, perhaps it is better said, "If you can't be there, be here."

PS: In discussing this post after the fact, I bemoaned to Briana that my favourite New West eatery, whom I hold single-handedly responsible for bringing yaletown yuppies back to the 'burbs, has closed. She informed me that it wasn't due to the usual problems - lack of traffic and lack of cash flow - but due instead to the owners' desire to spend more time with family.
Regardless, I still say that the problem with New West right now - despite the sort of brilliant potential that fosters places like the Orange Room, is that as long as we continue to depend on the standard roundtrip work commute from the burbs to Vancouver and back, there will never be the type of people available to open businesses like the Orange Room and truly invest in the "town-centric" lifestyle that most here seem to be looking for. If you want it, folks, you've got to go out and set up shop!

Opening Salvo: Mayoral Candidates

2008-10-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

As reviewed in a previous post, all 17 candidates for Mayor and Council were present at the Oct 21st All Candidates Meeting, hosted by the Queensborough Residents Association. We have heard from the Council hopefuls already. Here I review my impressions on the Mayoral candidates; Wayne Wright (incumbent) and Blair Armitage. Each man had an opening and closing statement and moderator Dean Wells had a number of questions reserved just for the Mayor's race.

Blair Armitage looks the part. He is a squarely built, senatorial and businesslike and he began his remarks forcefully calling for a police depot to be built in Queensborough, perhaps into the addition planned for the community center. A law an order candidate; that is how he came across. Cleaning up crime and graffiti (I just did some cleaning my self as a matter of fact, on the back fence) and making the town safe for all the families.

Armitage was cutting in his attack on what he views as an aloof council (and Mayor) that doesn't listen to the views of the citizens groups. He cites opposition to development projects and towers that were approved even though they were spoken against in council meetings. He did come across as being against further development or building. I would be interested to hear more on how he would plan to handle the pressure for growth in the Lower Mainland.

During the question period, many of his answers were direct and matter of fact and he often did not use the time alloted to him by the moderators. During one memorable answer Armitage insinuated Mayor Wright had presented a Gucci Plan to cover the open ditches in the neighborhood with the design that it would be rejected and that Queensborough residents really wanted a modest plan. Mayor Wright's proposal to deal with the shocking projected cost of the ditch remediation plan was to do a pilot project over a short block to get a better idea on the true costs. Both candidates received hearty applause for their positions.

The loudest and most sustained applause was after Mayor Wright's opening remarks. He passionately (and maybe a little too loudly) boosted the record of the last council and New Westminster as a city. He was a bit of a bull-dog politician during this two minute opener but he used that time to insist that he looked after the whole city, as a unit and that he maintained an open door policy for any citizen. I was almost a little uncomfortable hearing him loudly "take full responsibility for the lase six years" of governance. It was as if you were a kid watching your dad in an argument with your principal. After insisting that no city in the Lower Mainland was better prepared for the expected recession, he took his seat to a full and lengthly applause. I noticed VOICE candidates Wandell and Osterman shifting uncomfortably as the hall went quiet again.

One Exchange I appreciated was a question on illegal suites:

Illegal suites have not been closed down and the likelihood of our city's bylaw being enforced is remote. What is your position on this?

Mr. Armitage, presented a position that "we can not allow our citizens to blatantly thumb their nose" at the by-laws and he suggested a mechanism to make it easier or more attractive for owner's of illegal suites in New Westminster to get their suites approved and updated to code. Mayor Wright's response showed a clear difference in philosophy between the candidates as he firmly insisted that unless great strides were made in affordable housing with more participation from other levels of government, illegal suites were a necessity in the city and should only be monitored to ensure public safety. In my view this was the one point on the debate that showed the greatest contrast. I have included the answers here on a video for you to decide.

Yikes! Bias. I Hardly Know Thee.

2008-10-22T12:25:00.001-07:00

I was just reading Pat Tracy's neat blog From the Editor's Desk . Her most recent post is about the difficulty in remaining unbiased while relating political events. Or at least being perceived as unbiased. As the editor of the Record and the Burnaby Now, she has to keep on top of those concerns as her papers cover the municipal elections:

And then there’s New Westminster, where The Record has been accused of both being for and against the new civic slate, Voice, which is running a full-throttle campaign.

I have also had this experience now with this website. Hey, the stakes are low but these pages are for all of New West so when I was writing about the recent all candidates meeting in Queensborough, I wanted to give each candidate a fair review. As I sit down now to write about the presentations made by the Mayoral candidates, I think to myself, 'do I really need to be fair?' There are plenty of opinionated blogs out there. I think for now, every one gets an even shake. There is lots of time for broad generalisatons and disparaging remarks between now and November 15th.

Let me know if you agree!

Opening Salvo: Council Candidates

2008-10-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

The Queensborough Residents Association hosted what was for some, the opening salvo of the 208 Civic Election Season in New Westminster. With 25 days until voting day, this all candidates night at the Queensborough Community Center was the first of five similar nights where the 2 Mayoral Candidates and 15 prospective city councilors present their views to the public. The night was moderated by QRA President Dean Wells.
The roughly 35 citizens who attended the 'debate' were treated to a list of questions, some pre-posted and some freshly minted by the Queensborough Residents Association. Each candidate also presented opening and closing remarks. The event started at 7pm and lasted about 2 hours.
With so many questions and 17 candidates there is no way to present each answer or position here but it was a great night to see the personalities on display. My perception of the event was that it was lively and upbeat but with an undercurrent of dis-satisfaction and even rancor amongst the Voice New Westminster candidates and Mayor Wright and others that support him. I am no NW political insider but I seemed like this election is the latest battle in a larger struggle between the two groups.
Matthew Laird (council, ind) I was surprised by this candidate. I have spent some time on his website and he has some very interesting ideas and suggestions, many of witch I find compelling. In his remarks, he certainly has a good list of practical, achievable improvements (increased composting and others) but he seemed to have his emotion or frustration with city council run away with him. He made his points aggressively and with a fast speaking style and was hostile to the record of the last councils. My wonder was how he would be able to work with the next council and team if he was elected. He certainly has vision but a more friendly and less confrontational pitch style might come in handy.
Bill Harper (council, ind, incumbent) Bill Harper is known by many New Westminster-ites but less by me so this really was an introduction. He was proud to highlight the past councils record and strengths and stress the importance of business growth and the re-development of commercial corridors. Harper is affiliated with the CUPE union backed campaign.
Lynda Fletcher-Gordon (council, ind) One of 5 female candidates (with Betty McIntosh, Susan Wandell, Lorrie Williams and Lorraine Brett) wanted to look to the future to determine our needs and find a mandate from residents through consultation and active collaboration. Her 'research and sound planning platform' might resonate with some even as it leaves out any policy proscriptions for today.
Jamie MacEvoy (council, ind), a labour endorsed candidate was at easy with his message after decades of volunteerism and activism with New Westminster's homelessness, refugee and low income assistance issues. In my view he presented a positive vision on how New West can continue re-building its commercial base. I liked his up-beat attitude on the past 6 years and the future of the city and his 'pledge' to work diligently with any and all of the elected candidates if he is chosen as a counselor.
Gavin Palmer (council, VOICE) Introducing himself as "Palmer, Gavin Palmer", this Q'bro resident and founder of the QRA highlighted his past work for traffic and bridge safety in that neighbourhood and felt at home with an easy, likable manner and a folksy way of relating to others. Mirroring the VOICE position of criticizing a lack of transparency on the current council, his remarks prompted Lorrie Williams to shake her head in disbelief from her position at the table.
Lorrie Williams (council, Ind, incumbent) herself a teacher and Q'bro resident and a labour endorsed candidate was in fact the first to speak and the last of the evening. She also had the bad luck of being asked wild-card questions (that were not previously released to the candidates) rather than the pre-printed ones simply on the basis of the debate lottery. She spoke well and highlighted her dedication to Q'bro and New West. In her closing remarks she said how she loves this city and watches it closely. I appreciated that.
Steve McClurg (council, VOICE) campaigned for the VOICE slate in its entirety rather than focusing on his own attributes as a candidate. Not one of the most positive or up-beat candidates, McClurg also presented the last council as unfortunate and the views of citizens as unheeded.
Calvin Donnelly (council, ind, incumbent) has served the council for 18 years and his experience with the issues showed in his answers. He is often found at civic events hosting amplified public karaoke parties in the streets. He was the only candidate to evoke the New Westminster of past generations in his description of yesterday's Queensborough as a farming community filled with hard workers. His facility with the details of tendered contracts, city policies and mandated legal procedures showed (as it did for Betty McIntosh) but he did not offer any new ideas or policies to bring to this election. I would have liked an indication that he is working to meet the challenges we have in front of us as a city and I will be looking or that in the next debate.
Betty McIntosh (council, VOICE, incumbent) surprised me by saying she was with the VOICE slate and that "we can think what we want about that", meaning that if we thought it was good, well fine, but if we disapproved, don't hold it against her because she is her own boss. I believe it too. She presented herself, as always, as a competent, positive individual with a keen and judgmental point of view on the daily topics. Her 9 years on council and many years as a nurse root her to the community and she seemed fully happy and casual in the role of candidate.
Jonathan Cote (council, ind, incumbent) is one of the four younger candidates on the 17 remember list. In his answers and speeches he so artfully avoided saying anything concrete or notable that the most I learned about him was that I was pronouncing his name wrong (Koat-ay, not Kote). While he had a positive attitude and a professional manner, his catch-phrases and buzz words only really revealed that he wanted to get elected again, not why he should be on council for 3 more years. Cote is a labour endorsed candidate.
Terry Owen (council, ind) is a business owner on Columbia St with a very entertaining way of talking. He seems unpredictable and he talks very fast. He is running on a policy of good fiscal planning and a thorough examination of the issues. I will have to reserve further judgment for another experience though. Mr. Owen seemed a bit nervous addressing us folkies but that could all disappear by the time the next candidates night is held. Mr. Owen was asked to run for council by incumbent Mayoral candidate, Wayne Wright.
Niel Powell (council, VOICE), another younger candidate highlighted his work on the NW Police Services committee and as a member of Sapperton/McBride Residents Association. A teacher and comfortable speaker, Mr. Powell's ongoing priorities were the preservation of our natural environment and the opposition of the Waste to Energy Plant at the CanFor location in Sapperton. I liked this candidate but he is in my demographic. He repeatedly referred the the 'stewardship of our natural resources which I think is odd for such a small, heavily urbanized fully integrated city. What natural resources, the rose garden in Queen's Park? Poplar Island?
Bob Osterman (council, VOICE, incumbent) is looking or re-election on the voice slate as a candidate firmly against Wayne Wright and others on the current council. His remarks indicate a fluency with the issues and the responsibilities and operation of civic government and like many of the voice candidates, he call for the Mayor and Council to listen more to the citizens. No candidate explained why this was really and issue but it came up a few times. Mr. Osterman is concerned with towers being built here, and there and with the direction of development in the city .

That sums up the counselor's portion of the event. Check back soon for my take on the Mayoral Candidates and some uploaded video of some of their answers.

Heritage Walks from SkyTrain Stations

2008-10-21T21:35:00.001-07:00

Vancouver historian John Atkin has published a book about heritage walking tours near each SkyTrain station. Local blogger Just A Gwai Lo has made it a mission to try out (and blog, and photograph!) each one.

He recently followed the New Westminster Station route, and what struck me was his assessment of our city:

New West holds a strong place in B.C. history, having the distinction of being British Columbia's capital city, though it doesn't hold much in my imagination, spending most of my time in Vancouver or its suburb to the East, Burnaby. I've spent far more time in Surrey than in New West, and New West has always been closer!

It's really sad that this is how New West is perceived outside our borders. It has become little more than a pass-through place for most of the Lower Mainland.

Being a hidden gem has its benefits (I'll never forget our first realtor's fumbling attempts to explain 'the Burnaby premium' - meaning you pay more for an uglier place in a worse neighbourhood as soon as you cross 10th Ave) but it just doesn't sit right with me.

Labour Council election endorsements

2008-10-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

The New Westminster and District Labour Council has endorsed candidates for council across the region. Here in New West, the NWDLC's picks are:

Council:

School Trustee

Michael Ewen
Vivian Garcia
James Janzen
Lori Watt

The NWDLC is an organization representing trade union members locally. It is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress.

Among the issues they advocate for:

• creation of a universal child care system;
• protections against privatization of our public health care system;
• an increase to BC’s minimum wage;
• changes to the Workers Compensation regulations to protect workers who work alone;
• government accountability and workplace standards for foreign workers;
• federal anti-scab legislation;
• stop the BC Liberal government from removing local government decision-making on transportation infrastructure in the Lower Mainland.

Via: New Westminster NewsLeader

"Premier Julian"?

2008-10-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

Fresh from his breezy win in the federal election, Burnaby-New West MP Peter Julian is making political observers take notice. Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has hinted he thinks Julian is leadership material, and now even a Liberal campaign worker for Julian's recent rival Gerry Lenoski says he can picture him running for Premier.

For any candidate to increase their margin of victory from 329 votes in the election of 2004 to 13,151 votes in 2008 is politically noteworthy. And to hit 46.4 per cent of the popular vote is equally noteworthy when one considers there were five other candidates running in the race.
I have to admit that Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan's view that Mr. Julian has the makings of a party leader are not just bravado or bluster.
I saw Mr. Julian perform at a couple of all-candidates meetings, and he is already ready for prime time. Good oratorical skills and personable - it's a hard combination to beat. But since there is no realistic reason to believe Mr. Layton is apt to step aside anytime soon, the mayor's assertion suggests to me that he dropped one of those oblique political hints one so often sees in politics, that the leadership to which he was actually referring was that of the provincial NDP.
- Paul Le May, letter to the editor published in the Oct 18 Burnaby Now

Voting is hard!

2008-10-19T23:24:00.000-07:00

In the last federal election, Canadian voter turnout hit a record low, with just shy of 60% of the population casting a ballot on October 14, 2008. Hearing that over one-third of us chose not to exercise the right to vote is depressing ... until you hear that fewer than one-third of us bothered to vote at all in the last round of civic elections in British Columbia in 2005. With 26% voter turnout, New Westminster was only slightly below the B.C. average of 30%.

This is not something to be proud of.

And yet, this year's election, we may see even worse numbers. Few people in Canada were happy with this month's federal election results, no matter who they voted for. The whole exercise, as Rick Mercer pointed out, was nothing but a $300M waste of time.

Says Wikipedia:

The basic formula for determining whether someone will vote is

$P B + D > C$ ^[4]

Here, P is the probability that an individual's vote will affect the outcome of an election, and B is the perceived benefit of that person's favored political party or candidate being elected. D originally stood for democracy or civic duty, but today represents any social or personal gratification an individual gets from voting. C is the time, effort, and financial cost involved in voting. Since P is virtually zero in most elections, PB is also near zero, and D is thus the most important element in motivating people to vote. For a person to vote, these factors must outweigh C. (Emphasis mine)

Whether or not the formula above is strictly true, it sure sums up the feeling for most people.

It takes creative thinking and an Annie-like sense of optimism to believe that your individual vote will impact the outcome of an election at the best of times. When you live in B.C. and CBC literally calls the outcome of the election the minute the polls close in your province, before any ballots in your province are counted, it's almost impossible.

Add to this a growing cynicism about the political system and the politicians in general, and you get a populace who don't feel their vote matters and doesn't feel there's much benefit in choosing one person or party over another (because "they're all crooks"). That leaves only civic duty - or in today's context, a sense of social or personal satisfaction in voting- to get you to the polling-place.

What does all this have to do with the civic election? Well having just gone through the rigamarole of a federal election that cost millions of dollars and changed virtually nothing, what little sense of 'duty' that still exists today has been spent.

For conscientious voters, it also means that having done the research to pick a federal candidate, you now have to start over and select not only one favourite, but a pack of them, including mayor, councillors and school board.

The time-pressed among us simply pick a party at the federal level rather than getting to know the local candidates, but that's often not an option at the municipal level. Here in New West, party politics are only just beginning to infiltrate the local political scene, but it's not really clear what policies really differentiate Voice New West from the current council other than a dislike of current mayor Wayne Wright (note to Wayne: time to update your site ... it's still plugging all-candidates' meetings from 2005!).

To paraphrase Teen Talk Barbie, "Voting is hard!" By which I mean, yes there's some work involved, but it's time to suck it up buttercup. Your city council is guaranteed to make decisions that will impact your quality of life, from potentially increasing property taxes to supporting community gardens, to improving parks and rec facilities and shaping the character of your neighbourhood.

Will and I will blog the information and impressions we have regarding New Westminster politics leading up to and beyond V-day. We're trying to line up some interviews with our local candidates, and we'll also try to dig into some of the top issues we see here in New West.

Drop us a line in the comments if you've got a specific question or issue you want us to tackle before the election and we'll do our best to accommodate.

Election 2008!

2008-10-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

It is a great time to start a blog about New Westminster. Not only have we just completed a federal election cycle (where two incumbent New Democrat MPs Peter Julian and Dawn Black were returned to Ottawa to represent their ridings) but a municipal election is at hand as well. Hope for a warm, dry day for Saturday November ~~14th~~ 15th! That is our day to go to the polls. The City web-page has information here and you can find links to many of the candidates running for Mayor, council or as a school trustee in the sidebar of this site.

In keeping with this blog's mandate to be about all things New West, I will to my best to keep the site updated, add commentary and present some of the interesting personalities and highlights of the campaign. I have emails in

now with a number of candidates asking for interviews or statements and just this weekend I kicked things off with a visit to the official campaign launch events for both Mayoral candidates.

I have to say, this might be a confusing year for some New Westminster

voters. For the first time that I know of, there will be a slate of candidates known as Voice of New Westminster running as a team against all other candidates. The Mayoral candidate for Voice, Blair Armitage is one of the founding members on the slate and the current Chair for the VANOC (2010 Olympic games) steering committee for the athletes village. On Saturday, yesterday, Voice New Westminster opened their office at the base of Belmont towers (near the Hub Barbershop, across from Starbucks). The office was busy with lots of supporters and street traffic and they were serving coffee, tea and cookies.I have not really gotten to the bottom of the reason for the slate as it has been the usual practice to run as an individual candidate in New Westminster elections. With some luc

k, I hope to have some direct information from their campaign.

Today was the opening of the campaign office for the re-election of the incumbent candidate, Mayor Wayne Wright. Their office in the 600 block of 12th st was also busy as a number of supporters shared laughs, hot-dogs, empanadas, and refreshments. Mayor since 2002 and often cited as the driving force behind "The Worlds Largest Tin Soldier" Wayne Wright shared the day with other candidates, supporters, curious citizens and other notables like members of the city's emergency services and recently re-elected MP, Peter Julian.

From my uninformed position, the voice group does seem motivated to change the landscape of New Westminster city politics but the folks at Mayor Wright's campaign do not lack for a positive attitude. The atmosphere at the 12th street campaign office was upbeat and festive. I expect to see a lively contest between the Armitage/voice contingent and those supporting Wayne Wright's bid for re-election. I hope to get into this more as the campaign goes on. Check back here for updates.

Tenth to the Fraser

2008-10-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

New Westminster was the ideal location for a bustling metropolis, built up by the Royal Engineers as British Columbia's first capital. Today it is known as that suburb you drive through to get downtown.

My family is from here. My great grandfather came to this city through Montreal from Manchester, England. He raised a family in a duplex, still standing, on the corner of 10th avenue and third street. He was a carpenter at the BC Electric trolley factory at the bottom of 12th st. My grandfather studied at UBC and was a biologist for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on the Fraser. He and my Grandmother, a head nurse at Riverview, raised their family in a house on 7th street, across from Lord Kelvin Elementary. It was only recently torn down and replaced. My Grandfather shot the photograph on this post; the construction of the Putello Bridge in 1937.

I was raised on First Street with my family and now I raise my children in the West End, near Lord Tweedsmuir Elementary. This website is to illustrate just what kind of town New Westminster is. It has often had an undeserved reputation but I have always known it as the perfect jewel in the center of the Lower Mainland. Tightly knit, self sustainable yet fully a part of the greater metropolis around it, New Westminster sits at the intersection of our regional commerce and the heart of our regional identity.

Here, I hope, you will read interviews with notable personalities within ours, the Royal City; explanations of current events, political goings-on and a place to showcase features of our city in our past and present. It is an interactive site, so feel free to contribute.

There is a lot to look forward to! We have an upcoming civic election, featuring for the first time the newly formed Voice New Westminster slate. We have seen a vast change in the city since 1986 and certainly in the last five years. In my view, New Westminster could be the jewel box of the lower mainland. With defined, tightly knit neighbourhoods, heavily integrated transit options and a distributed commercial base, New Westminster is a city for its Citizens. I invite you to explore it with me.

Political Links

2008-10-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

New West links

2008-10-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

Tenth to the Fraser

New and improved, tenthtothefraser.ca!

Shiloh's 'Blue Christmas' service reaches out to the grief-stricken

A Christmas story

On anonymity

School trustee Lori Watt gives a kidney for Christmas

Bee in my Bonnet

What New West's teenage sledders really do

Sledding Set Slide to Southern Slope

Speaking of school budget shortfalls

No school in Grimston, school board decides

New West news roundup

Shopping local is good for the soul

Remembering New West's Great Fire in 1898

Tyee gives props to New West recovery centre

Irving House's twist on Christmas tradition: apple garlands

Bus smashes into New West Salvation Army thrift store

New West's Brad Ross stirs the pot

The pinnacle of guest room perfection - in New West!

Photo slideshow: Alex Fraser Bridge

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Peter Julian on the coalition, and what it means for New West

Huzzah! for the 'beta-Santa' at the Burnaby Museum

New West MPs' role in the emerging coalition government

Glenbrook Parents to School Grimston

It's Christmas Time in the City.

Photo slideshow: New Westminster heritage buildings

Graffiti teaches life lessons?

Photo slideshow: New Westminster

Famous New West war photo highlighted in Sun's coverage of B.C.'s 150th birthday

This Just In....(insert telex noise here)

Mailbag: Shop New West this Christmas

Spirit of the City

Meet our MP, Peter Julian

They love us, they really love us!

Need a break from the Goo Goo Ga Ga?

Royal City Bloggers and Journalists Agree: We Suck at Voting

Shelter cats in need of adoption

What the...?

Post-election Post (Editorial)

Leaf collection this week

New West says 'no' to change

New Westminster civic election results

2008 online civic election results

Tenth to the Fraser Endorses Candidates for Mayor and Council, School Trustees

Winner, Best Campaign Staff: Kirpaul Kaur

Interview With Mayoral Candididate, Wayne Wright

The future of newspapers

CTV coverage of Grimston Park protest

Trainman3 vs WhickerNW on YouTube!

New West history online

Editorial: "Growing Up" at City Hall

Tenth to the Fraser Endorsements Due

Mea Culpa, New Westminster Style!

Homelessness in New West

Traffic congestion in New West

Artist's rendition of a twinned Port Mann Bridge.

Handout

New course series for heritage home lovers

New West candidates on the issues

A case study of hope

New middle school could be built on parkland

editorial interlude - the middle of everywhere

Opening Salvo: Mayoral Candidates

Yikes! Bias. I Hardly Know Thee.

Opening Salvo: Council Candidates

Heritage Walks from SkyTrain Stations

Labour Council election endorsements

"Premier Julian"?

Voting is hard!

Election 2008!

Tenth to the Fraser

Political Links

New West links

NEW WESTMINSTER LINKS

RESIDENTS ASSOCIATIONS AND CITIZEN'S GROUPS

CULTURE

PEOPLE OF INTEREST IN THE ROYAL CITY

NEW WEST SPORTS

NEW WESTMINSTER ON FACEBOOK