Never heard of energy resiliency or energy transition planning?  Neither had I until a few weeks ago, however will become a growing topic of importance in New Westminster over the coming years.
New Westminster Environmental Partners (NWEP) would like to invite the public to learn more at a forum on Energy Resiliency and Energy Transition Planning on Monday December 5th. This forum will be preceded by the NWEP’s Annual General Meeting and election of directors for 2012. The AGM will start at 6:00 with the public forum presentations starting after 6:30pm. …

As the Christmas shopping season arrives with Black Friday in the US, I can’t think of anything more ridiculous than camping outside of a store in order to buy stuff. Except for shooting, trampling or pepper-spraying your fellow shoppers in order to get at said stuff, of which there were many reported instances this year.

Battered & fried fish is usually a rare greasy indulgence for me. Cod can be rather flavourless, and often is more grease and crunch than fish. Not at The Crab Shop. The batter is crispy but not thick, and the cod tastes fresh and delicious. The fries are good too, and the homemade tartar sauce is divine. In fact, the fish & chips at River Market’s new Crab Shop is so good I couldn’t resist ordering it for lunch two days in a row.

The day Shelley Rothenberger came to sketch my portrait, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Like most of the subjects of the New West Artists Perfect Strangers show, I had never sat for a painter before. I was one of 25 New Westminster citizens, chosen to represent a broad cross-section of people, including the mayor, a local historian, and a barista. Each subject was randomly paired with a member of New West Artists, an upstart artist-run group supporting both career artists and emerging talent.

British Columbia tot pop stars Bobs & Lolo are coming to New Westminster for a free concert to kick off Royal City Centre’s Christmas activities this year.

Cities have their own vernacular. Some boast unique architecture, a common sense of style and still others, a mode of transportation favored by the citizens. Certain cities, however have their own scent or combination of scents – both good and bad.

A drug-addicted single mother of a 10-year-old girl trying and failing to hold her life together. A father of two, the sole breadwinner in the family, laid off from his job and desperate for work. Families like these struggle to scrape together money for groceries, let alone presents. As evidenced by the long lines at Metro Vancouver’s largest food bank here in New Westminster, many local families need help. They need you and me to step forward and offer it.

New Westminster author and nominee for the Governor General’s Literary Award JJ Lee will talk about his new book The Measure of a Man at the New Westminster Public Library on Thursday, December 1 at 7 pm.

Preliminary New Westminster election results are in, and the results are not entirely unexpected. As in the 2008 election, there is only one new face on City Council, but unlike last time, voters did opt for change on school board. And despite an energetic campaign by challenger James Crosty, incumbent mayor Wayne Wright won by a landslide.

Remember that scene in “You Have Mail” where Meg Ryan is explaining to Greg Kinnear why they should break up? She confesses to him that during the last election she went for a manicure and forgot to vote. That’s right, went for a manicure, and forgot to vote. Apparently this is more common that I would have thought as 75% of New Westminster’s population didn’t vote in the last election – were they at the spa?

Public endorsements of candidates are not uncontroversial. Pat Tracy, editor at the Record, has publicly come out against them, and those who do share their endorsements open themselves to criticism for their choices. Those of us on the ‘editorial board’ of Tenth to the Fraser, who do the daily work of writing for the site, soliciting & editing guest posts, approving comments and interacting with readers and Facebook and Twitter, debated whether or not to share our picks for this election, but in the end we decided we must.

When you cycle in New Westminster you see transportation issues through a different lens. Factors which affect a cyclist’s safety and mobility can be very different that those affecting trips made in a vehicle. In addition the vision and understanding of civic politicians towards cycling issues can greatly influence the quality and level of cycling in a community.

This is the second of two articles sharing election candidates’ opinions on children and family issues in New Westminster.

Kathleen McConnell asked the candidates about family issues in the New Westminster election, focusing on two areas: what elected officials can do to help families, and specifically what changes candidates would advocate for if elected. This post focuses on answers from trustee candidates; a second post will follow focusing on mayor & council candidates.

Last round of municipal elections I had a four month old baby and while we made it to the polls, I remember vaguely choosing a mayoral candidate, and a few councillors I knew and liked, and that’s it. I didn’t select any school trustees because in my mind, there was no point. My child was a mere four months old and I didn’t think that a school trustee would have an impact on me. At least not until he made it to school, right? And even then we were considering …

Mayoral candidate James Crosty says he wants to see a “bottom up” approach to planning for neighbourhood amenities, with more input from residents’ associations to determine what citizens want.

Incumbent mayor Wayne Wright is known for attracting development to New Westminster, but the issue that is most personally meaningful to him is reducing homelessness in our city.

Mayoral candidate François Nantel dreams of promoting New Westminster venues for short track speed skating, drawing the Strong Men Competition downtown and hosting Little League championships at Moody Park.

Inspired by our riverfront location and maddened by traffic, mayoral dark horse Vance McFadyen would divert truck routes to the city’s perimeter and dreams of connecting Front St. to the new Pier Park & Quay with a vehicle and pedestrian ramp, thus eliminating the need for train whistles in the most irritable location.

Incumbent trustee Casey Cook believes New Westminster is on track in terms of programs of choice and the number of support programs offered, however he believes more planning is needed to improve decision-making, including strategic, communications, performance management and transparent budget management plans.

Improving communication with parent advisory councils, teachers and the community at large is a priority for trustee candidate James Pepa.

If elected, trustee candidate Jonina Campbell says she would initiate a task force aimed at improving physical and mental wellness, which would include initiatives to get more children walking and biking to school.

Trustee candidate MaryAnn Mortensen sees a lot to like in our school district, including a wide selection of programs of choice and many dedicated teachers and staff, but the biggest issue she sees is how decisions are made a the school board table.

Jim Goring wants to explore how New Westminster can better engage children and teachers in the future.

Brenda McEachern Keen would like to improve the structural readiness of our school district to improve its ability to take advantage of new opportunities for students. She’d also like to see improvements in project management of new school construction.