Just a quick update on the controversial United Boulevard Extension plans for you: The Buzzer’s Jhenifer Pabillano took many of the questions and criticisms raised in your comments here, on the New Westminster Environmental Partners website and on NWEP President Pat Johnstone’s blog, Green New West (great commentary btw, Pat) to TransLink’s Director of Roads Sany Zein.

I like Christmas presents that get used up or used often. My husband just brought up the Christmas decorations from our crawl space and somehow we’ve become the kind of people who have 13 Rubbermaid containers full of them. (13!) Trying to find room for everything made me realize how cluttered our house is getting, so I’m not into giving or receiving gifts that are just going to take up more space. Since I’ve committed to shopping locally for a year, I’m also interested in finding gifts that are made as locally as possible. Here are some of the places I will be doing my Christmas shopping this year.

The Van Dop Gallery is kicking off a series of open houses to celebrate the season. The first one is this weekend, November 27th and 28th and features new works by Carole Arnston.
“All art is but imitation of nature” (Author Seneca the Younger).
Winter is near and Carole Arnston, the West Vancouver oil painter, is revealing new works that use a seasonal palate at the Van Dop Gallery’s Spirit of the Season Grand Opening Nov 27 & 28 from 11am-5pm.
Best-known for her large- scale floral abstractions and landscape vistas, Arnston’s series: …

Seems Translink is listening. Here’s an email we received earlier today from Ken Hardie:
As promised, we have scheduled an additional session for New Westminster residents to look at options for the United Boulevard Extension.
It will be at the Justice Institute on Tuesday, December 7th from 6 to 8:30 pm.  Unlike the session we held there last week, the one on the 7th will include a presentation and open-mike session in the theatre, that will provide a better opportunity for people to get the background on each of the options and …

Maybe you’re tired of paying $6 for free-range eggs (that might not be so free-range), or perhaps you want an unusual backyard inhabitant. Regardless, we seem to be in the age of the urban chicken, though to date it seems to be more talk than action; most backyards in New Westminster seem to be distressingly poultry free.
New Westminster, unlike Vancouver, has had a by-law on the books regulating the keeping of chickens   since the late 1960s (bylaw 4271, drafted in 1967 and passed in 1968).
The by-laws are a little restrictive …

I got this letter from the folks at Family Place. This is a place very near and dear to me and I am thrilled to pass on this info. Kudos to those who were able to make this happen for Family Place and for all families in our community. Family Place continues to offer their main daily drop in location at 93 Sixth Street as well.

After almost 10 years of providing a family resource program at Royal City Centre Mall we lost access to the Community Room and have …

Today was the big reveal of Donald’s Market at River Market. On the first day of snow at the beginning of the great winter of 2010/2011, more than half way through November, we all finally got to see what Mark and his team from River Market have been building.

A while back we partnered with River Market to host the P.S. New West poetry contest. River Market selected the winners and gave them the prizes, but their email to me with the winners’ names got lost in my email inbox. I just rediscovered the note today (oops). My inbox is a scary, scary place. Anyway, a bunch of you have been asking me about the winners, and here (belatedly) is who won. Sorry about the delay!

New Westminster toy store Pedagogy Toys has been saved from closing thanks to a show of support from the community and a well-timed offer of skookum new digs in River Market at the Quay. Like so many other New West parents, I’m a fan of Pedagogy Toys, and so I wanted to find out more from owner Karen Smecher about the move from Sapperton to the Quay. Karen kindly agreed to answer a few questions via email:

TransLink’s United Boulevard Extension plans are a hot topic in New West. The article we ran earlier calling for citizens to come out to the upcoming public consultation meetings and speak out against the plans has become the most-commented post in our blog’s history.
A number of comments in that post referenced an article written in the Coquitlam Now about the project that led some people to believe New West had already given approval to proceed, which the City says is not the case. The City of New Westminster forwarded me …

The SPCA Thrift Mart, a well known and active business member of our community, is once again putting together a Coat Drive to help gets coats to some of the Lower Mainland’s most needy. I posted about the SPCA coat drive experience I had a few years ago, and wanted to remind you all of this annual event. This is the 16th annual coat drive, and organizer Roni-Lyn Saunders says the need is greater than ever. Roni and her dad have been working hard to put together this year’s coat drive …

If you’ve ever wondered why Skytrain has a dip in the guideway along Brunette, it isn’t to create a roller-coaster experience, but was designed to accommodate an overpass connected to United Boulevard in Coquitlam with Brunette Avenue. This United Boulevard Extension is a potential disaster for traffic congestion in New Westminster. The proposed connector doubles the capacity for traffic to enter New Westminster from the expanded Hwy 1 and Lougheed corridors, while there remains nowhere for it to go except to overflow onto residential streets.

Urban Academy will host its fourth annual Christmas Magic at the Manor Craft Sale on Saturday and Sunday, November 20 and 21 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The popular sale will raise money to support the non-profit school’s activities, including its Art, Drama, French, and Music programs.
What makes the sale extra-special is that it’s held in what used to be Robson Manor—a Victorian-style home that has been converted into a JK-Grade 10 school (with plans to expand to grade 12). Parent volunteers put in countless hours emptying out all …

If kids aren’t on your shopping list and you don’t plan on attending our Exclusive Shopping Night at Pedagogy Toys on November 20th, consider heading over to the Sapperton Pensioner’s Hall at 318 Keary Street for a Brain Teaser Trivia Night, hosted by VEATA. The doors and no-host bar open at 6PM and the trivia starts at 7PM. The cost is $20 per person, and all funds raised go to the Pacific Volunteer Education & Assistance Team for Animals Society. Door Prizes will be given away, first one is at 6:45pm. …

For many younger people, it can be harder to understand the importance of Remembrance Day because fewer Veterans are left surviving from times of war. Over the past 150 years, thousands of people have protected New Westminster, and fought, served and died elsewhere around the world during several times of war, since the time Queen Victoria sent the Royal Engineers here to protect the Fraser River.

One of my favourite local shops is Pedagogy Toys.  As a graduate of the Small Business program at Douglas College, owner Karen Smecher loves what she does and is committed to providing high quality toys and other kid items. She recently went on the hunt for a harmonica just for me and we are still toot-tooting our way around the house with our awesome green harmonica.
I was really impressed with her new exclusive to Pedagogy line of reusable lunch and snack bags lined with Tyvek! Ingenious! She’s also designed play items …

The New Westminster Environmental Partners will be holding an Urban Transportation Forum and Annual General Meeting on November 9 at the Douglas College Student Union lounge. The event, moderated by Tenth to the Fraser Will & Briana Tomkinson, will feature local and regional transportation experts discussing what works in transportation planning, what doesn’t, and what’s coming to New Westminster.

From the River Market renovations to the cheap rent, here’s one woman’s top 10 reasons why she loves living in New West. What would you put on your list?

Milan, Paris, London … and New Westminster? Well, it may be a little while before the Royal City is commonly thought of in the same rank as those other famous bastions of fashion! But there are nevertheless more people working the fashion and modelling industries here in New West than you might think. Models, photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists, wardrobe stylists, you can find them all here, ranging from experienced professionals to aspiring beginners and even quite a lot of people who do it just for fun!