Proper Vietnamese food has finally come to Downtown New Westminster—and Le Saigonnais has brought it with style! As a resident of the neighbourhood, I’ve been waiting with bated breath for the first influx of this cheap and delicious cuisine.

I’ve been a frequent viewer of Tenth to Fraser for some time now, looking over all the great articles focused around this town, which I have now lived in for over ten years. The negative image of our beautiful city has begun to bubble up inside of me, inspiring me to put on display the inner beauty and character that the Royal City emanates from the century old buildings and remarkable landscapes.

I was lucky to win a couple of tickets to this years incarnation of Freelance Camp, an ‘unconference’ hosted by The Network Hub. It’s certainly a nice change to see an event promoting freelancing, networking, and technology come to little New Westminster.

Many readers are familiar with Burger Heaven. In any city there is always one restaurant who uses their dishes to poll readers on hot button issues or elections, and in our fair city, Burger Heaven is that restaurant. But do their burgers boast yum factor?

If I had an HGTV producer’s blank cheque to go redecorate my living room, my first stop would be Red Brick. On October 5 from 5:30-7:30pm, the store will host the fall kickoff event for NEXT New West, a monthly casual social group for young professionals.

Perhaps nothing better symbolizes New Westminster’s often polarizing politics than the Westminster Pier Park project. The ambitious, even audacious, $25-million project involves reclaiming a long stretch of blighted brownfield bordering the Fraser River for a new public park.

With two locations in New Westminster, is Okonomi poised to become “favourite sushi” in all those reader surveys?

Since moving to the downtown area of New Westminster over three years ago, I had toyed with the idea of seed bombing one of the many derelict areas near the tracks or guerilla gardening in the unused parking lot across from our condo. The planter at Burger Heaven, however offered an ideal location given its proximity to our apartment and generous size. Motivated by an interest in urban farming projects in cities across North America and a promise to myself to be more action-oriented, I decided to indulge the itch to grow something and go for it. After a few e-mails to the owner of Burger Heaven and a couple of meetings, I began working on the garden.

Downtown New Westminster has it going on. Well, it could have it going on if it could once again capture the vitality of its once historic past. From an urban planning perspective you could not wish for a better template; you’ve got history, great public transit, a waterfront, shopping, density. So what happened, why did the city turn its back on the downtown?

Tucked back off Columbia Street, sharing a cozy retail space with quirky Arundel Mansion is Aroka Vintage, a recently opened vintage décor wedding shop. Owned and run by Dawna Graham, a resident of New West, Aroka specializes in the sale and rental of niche décor items and dresses. Not sure what qualifies as niche décor? Think ornate tea cups and saucers, glass dessert cups, finely decorated china, pewter candle sticks, brass clocks, lamps and more. It’s like stepping into a beautifully curated antique shop minus the dust.

Back in 2009, I wrote a guest post on Tenth to the Fraser entitled, “Taking the plunge into community involvement”. I’m hoping at the end of this post I can convince one of you to take the plunge. It’s a topical subject, with Briana’s recent New West Wednesday’s topic asking about people’s involvement (or not) in their local residents’ associations. Commenters are discussing their experiences and I’d have to say mine’s been overwhelmingly positive, which certainly makes me a bit sad about moving away.

Jen checks out independently owned and operated Queens Park Florist – just in time for Mother’s Day.

I try to eat a heathy breakfast of oatmeal and fruit most mornings. While this is probably what i should be eating, sometimes I crave something a bit more. Since moving to the other side of downtown, I’ve been frequenting Couzies on Carnarvon.

In New West, we certainly know how to celebrate! This year there are two days of Easter fun! There is, of course, the annual Antique Car and Easter Parade on Sunday, but with the re-opening of the River Market this year, there are now festivities on Saturday for everyone to enjoy, especially if family lunches and dinners take you out of the action in Queen’s Park on Sunday.

The Army & Navy Shoe Sale is always a sure sign of spring. It brings back memories of our annual shopping excursions to the New West store when I was a kid. When my sister and I were young, Mom started the tradition of annual shoe shopping, just us girls, wide eyed at the rows upon rows of shoes, so many options it was overwhelming. This year’s Army & Navy shoe sale starts Wednesday, April 27 at 8 a.m

For those who haven’t yet heard, Translink is back with a new round of consultations on the Highway Nobody Wants.  The first in a series of United Boulevard Extension workshops is this Saturday, 9:30am-12pm at the Sapperton Pensioners Hall, 318 Keary Street.

I’m always searching for licensed places in New Westminster to fulfill roles in my life. I hang out at the Heritage Grill with some regularity because I like live music. I have spent more than one evening at the Terminal Pub because I want to watch a game. I have stopped in at Frankie G’s once or twice for trivia. My soccer team has been hitting the Dublin Castle after practices. And sometimes I want to go somewhere dark and quiet, with comfy chairs, a decent wine list, a pretty …

Can the North Fraser Perimeter Road, creating a four lane truck route through New Westminster even be built? Let’s examine the feasibility of the City’s mitigation wish list.

We won; we stopped the flood gates of the United Boulevard Extension from opening and releasing the hordes of new commuter traffic on to already chocked New Westminster streets. Or did we?

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.

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?

BOO! Ah, autumn. I love it! The leaves… the smell… the pumpkins… the little ghouls! Halloween is one of my favourite events of the year, with a bit of something for everyone. Now that my son is getting to an age where he gets it (wear this, knock on door, say “tickoteet”, present candy holding device and be rewarded!) I’m started to realize how fun it can be. With a 150+ years history, New Westminster offers a lot in the way of creepy spots and stories, outside of the knowns like …

New Westminster may have a great family Halloween tradition in the making with The Metro Hall’s ‘spooktacular’ Haunted Hall. On October 31, The Metro will transform its 8000 square foot events centre into a Haunted Hall in support of local charities. The family-friendly event will feature creepy cobwebs, ghosts and goblins, spooky sounds, a bouncy castle, tricks and treats, Halloween movies on a big screen and haunted hall tours with live spooks for the not so faint of heart.

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.’