Almost a decade ago, youth in New Westminster said they wanted a dedicated space of their own. The city had programs and special spaces for children and seniors, but little for teens. Middle schoolers and high schoolers said they felt out of place in public but adult-oriented spaces. They needed a place they could just hang out.

Beating out 73 competing submissions, The City of New Westminster has won the 2010 Downtown Merit Award from the Washington-based International Downtown Association on the strength of our Official Downtown Community Plan.

Hey fellow #NewWest dog people! Did you know there is a whole day dedicated to dogs having fun and playing silly games in our fair city? That’s right! the 11th Annual Doggy Fun Day is coming up on Sunday August 29th at the playing field just above the dog off-leash area in Queens Park. The action happens from noon to 3PM.
Events include the Royal City Rockets Dog Agility Team putting on a show at 12:30pm and 2:30pm, displays and prize draws, and long time favourite doggy games: egg and spoon …

New West gets its thrift on this weekend at the 4th Annual Quayside Boardwalk Festival & Sale. On Saturday, August 21 from 10am to 3pm, the boardwalk at the Quay will bustle with bargain-hunters seeking their treasures.

The West End’s annual 12th Street Music Festival is coming up on Sunday, August 1, and will feature free live music from local bands on two stages, children’s entertainment, displays by local businesses & community groups and events for kids and adults.

We often hear that New Westminster is a small town, not just in size but in style. And that can be both good and bad. This week, in the Moody Park Youth Centre’s campaign to win a $25,000 grant in an online contest, there was a whole lot of good going around.

Hey New West: our teens need your help. And all you have to do is visit a webpage and click a button.
The new Youth Centre at Moody Park is *thisclose* to winning $25,000 in the Kraft Celebration Tour contest. Up against only one other project in B.C. the youth centre campaign needs your votes to win. In addition to the money, the winning project will also get a live TSN SportsCentre broadcast in the community.
Take a moment please, and vote online during the 24-hour period the contest is open (from …

Summerfest in Grimston Park was a great success! Thanks to everyone who came. The turnout surpassed our expectations. We estimated that we had about 500 people at the movie alone, and maybe 1000 over the course of the afternoon. Our sleepy little West End park was packed with happy families!

You can now access free wifi in Queen’s Park, the New Westminster Public Library, and the Uptown business district, courtesy of the City of New Westminster.

Vancouver may have Bard on the Beach, but New Westminster has Bard in the Park, and it’s free to boot.

Shadows & Dreams Theatre Company returns to the Queens Park Bandshell every Saturday & Sunday at 2pm from July 17 to August 1 to perform William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Bring your swimsuits and a picnic blanket to Grimston Park on Saturday, July 17 for Summerfest, a new community celebration in New Westminster’s West End. Enjoy a family-friendly evening of play and live music, shop the mini-Farmer’s Market, and finish the evening off with a special free screening of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial under the stars.

New Westminster Museum & Archvies’ Rob McCullough is working on creating an interpretive panel about the history of Grimston Park to be unveiled at the inaugural Summerfest in Grimston Park, Saturday, July 17. Rob is currently seeking photos, stories and comments from those who have enjoyed the park over the years since it opened.

Green Drinks is a monthly meeting of people interested in sustainability and the environment, and is usually free of themes or agendas. This week, however, there’s a special focus on Metro Vancouver’s ‘Zero Waste Challenge.’

The new playground at Grimston Park is now open, and it is AWESOME. The park’s designers have done an incredible job creating a welcoming and imaginative space to play for kids of all ages. While the temporary fence is still partially up, and there’s still some work to do (laying sod, painting the wading pool), the playground and pool are now open for play.

River Market’s grocer may not officially open its doors until September, but the team behind the market’s renaissance is already reaching out to the New Westminster community. The market’s ambition reaches beyond milk, bread and bok choy. It is to be a place of culture and community, a place of inspiration. It begins with a simple contest in collaboration with Tenth to the Fraser called P.S. New West.

Boy, it sure doesn’t feel like summer outside. As some of you know, I am in the midst of planning a new summer festival for New West, appropriately called Summerfest in Grimston Park. It hardly seems possibly that we’re only a little more than a month away from the July 17 event with all this rain!