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.

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.’

New Westminster parents of preschoolers and gradeschoolers who hoped to enroll their kids in programs of choice may need to adjust their plans, as School District 40 prepares to shuffle the locations of so-called ‘Programs of Choice’ – Early French Immersion and Montessori. It all comes into play in the fall of 2012, or when the new elementary and middle schools are ready.

By now we’ve all heard the big news; Donald’s Market is coming to the River Market at the Quay. However if you’re like me (and everyone else I’ve spoken to except one person), your first reaction was, “What’s Donald’s Market?” I had to take a field trip to answer this question. So over the past two weekends I jumped on the Skytrain, shopping bags in hand, to visit each of the Donald’s locations. First up, Commercial & 8th Avenue.

New Westminster can be a tough customer for a cyclist! There’s a reason they call it uptown. So how can the average rider find a comfortable route from downtown to uptown? Frequent rest stops for snacks and beverages at the local eateries, of course!

River Market just sent out the following information, via its e-newsletter. I’m copying the text here, for our readers who are not subscribed

“I want to go to Columbia. Because it’s a really good place, and they have toothbrushes there.” So said The Girl, my four-old daughter to me on the SkyTrain just yesterday.

New Westminster may soon have the distinction of having the most large grocery stores per capita in the Lower Mainland. Wal-Mart has applied to open a new grocery supercentre in its Queensborough store. Thrifty Foods has just been announced as an anchor tenant in Sapperton’s coming Brewery District mixed-retail/residential complex next to SkyTrain and Royal Columbian Hospital. A new Safeway is coming to the Plaza 88 development at New Westminster SkyTrain. And of course, the River Market will open this summer as a newly food-focused destination with an as-yet-unnamed anchor grocer.

Setting a new standard for café quality in New Westminster, Quantum Deli and Bistro brings a little slice of Yaletown to our Downtown area (cat-sized dogs not included).

One of my many nerdy pleasures is games. Before having kids, I loved to play both computer games and board games. I even played a little Magic: The Gathering with friends (and liked it!). So you can perhaps imagine the little frisson of fun I felt when I stumbled upon a new board game shop just a block off New Westminster’s bridal boulevard.

I know some people out there aren’t on board with the City of New Westminster’s decision a while back to purchase the land along the waterfront of the Fraser River. But, like the Olympics, the decision was made, it’s inevitable, and you either have to quietly rage about it or just get on with trying to enjoy it.
Admittedly, I’ve always been one of the supporters of the decision to purchase the land and do something – anything – with it. I can’t stand looking at the wasteland that is that …

The City of New Westminster has selected Lafflines Comedy Club owner Barry Buckland as the purchaser of the historic Burr Theatre. At a purchase price of $850,000, the successful bid was evaluated based on several economic, cultural and heritage criteria. Lafflines Comedy Club will relocate to the theatre under the new name Lafflines at the Burr Theatre by summer 2010.

For years we have lived in the shadow of construction cranes towering over Columbia St., and this promised revitalization has not yet come. Yet I think this long-overdue hope will soon be realized, as we approach a critical mass of major development projects and an accompanying demographic shift that really will have the power to transform New Westminster’s downtown.

New Westminster is a haven for unique boutiques. Perhaps it’s the character buildings lining our main shopping districts chock-a-block that draw the proprietors of these neat little businesses … or maybe just the low rents that can be found in some of our legendarily ‘up and coming’ neighbourhoods.

Here are some of my picks for places to go when you’re looking for that unique ’special something’ for the person who’s hard to buy for.

Where oh where shall the civic centre go?
It’s unfortunate this saga of lost opportunities, the best of course being a combination of The Burr and the prior city owned CIBC building next door. These two beautiful, historic buildings side by side, what better opportunity for historic Columbia Street? Sadly the CIBC building was sold off to a new owner who understood its value, walking past this building and looking in the window you see an amazing example of architecture.
Next it was 801 Columbia Street, this was it, this was where …

The City of New Westminster has secured nearly $22 million in funding under the Build Canada Fund, administered by the federal government and Province of British Columbia. Projects earmarked for funding include the Westminster Pier Park ($8.3 million from each level of government) and streets and sidewalk revitalization ($2.66 million from each level of government).