The other day I noticed a bunch of Canadian geese down at the Fraser River Styrofoam patch. Why, I wondered, would they prefer to toddle here rather than fly south for the winter? More importantly, I wondered why was no one cleaning this mess up. I decided to take a half hour out of my day and putting it toward my own personal community initiative. I was going to pick up garbage and report my findings.

As most of you know, I’ve been involved with the Royal City Farmers Market since 2009 and I’ve developed an interest in urban agriculture. We have two hens now producing all the eggs we need to feed our family of three, and after a totally engaging talk at the RCFM AGM from John Gibeau last week, I’m pretty convinced we need a home bee hive to start producing our own honey. I’ve started consuming some really great books to help me get the most out of my city lot here in New …

Is a newsmaker a symbol? Or is a newsmaker, by definition, something tangible that gets people talking?

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. …

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.

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.

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.

David Phelan wants the New Westminster School Board to keep the focus on creating the best education system possible, protecting what we do well and being aware of emerging trends in education that can help us improve, such as the introduction of School Learning Gardens, partnerships with community organizations such as the Royal City Farmers Market and new technologies that can support learning.

Trustee candidate Glen Richmond would like to see more play space for students, fewer portables and a return of the School Liaison Officer program.