There is an often repeated witticism regarding small Alberta towns having a liquor store and 7-Eleven on every corner. This is only a slight exaggeration of course. However, if one were to suggest in New Westminster there is a sushi restaurant on every corner that might just be an understatement.

The Knit 1 Take 2 knitting group that meets Sundays at Waves Coffee is holding their Second Annual Knit in the Park this Sunday, September 18th, from noon to 4. They’ll be meeting at the bandshell rain or shine and activities include the very fun Yarn Steal and a Potluck. From their email:
If you want to participate in the yarn steal please bring 100 grams of yarn, wrapped.  Please select a yarn you’d enjoy knitting. The event is also picnic pot luck. Since this is a picnic please choose food that’s easy …

Around this time last year I posted about the 11th Annual Doggy Fun Day so it should be no surprise that I’m posting again! The 12th Annual Doggy Fun Day is Sunday August 28th in Queens Park from noon till 3pm. Check out doggy-centric displays and enter the many raffles. Check out the Royal City Rockets Dog Agility Team as they perform at 12:30pm and 2:30pm. And don’t miss the best part – the doggy games! Egg & spoon races, 7 legged race, doggy look-a-like contest, special doggy tricks, and …

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.

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?

Theatre does not have to be a faraway and inaccessible activity that happens mysteriously somewhere else. But rather, theatre created by those living in the same community can be something that brightens the cultural landscape on the most direct level possible. It takes a city already enriched by its own history, and makes sure that the history goes on for current and upcoming generations of those interested in artistic expression.

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 …

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.

New Westminster’s heritage architecture is one of its biggest assets. While there are pockets of heritage neighbourhoods throughout the Lower Mainland, New Westminster is lush with vintage appeal. At June 14th’s Regular Council meeting at 7pm, Mayor Wayne Wright will recognize two award-winning local historic properties and present plaques to a number of recent homes that have received municipal heritage designation status.

Wrapped up in nostalgia for wonderful garage sales past, this year we made some crucial errors in judgment at the annual Queen’s Park Garage Sale.

Leaving the house with kids can be very hard work. Such hard work that it is often tempting to just not do it. I can’t get away with staying home anymore; my kids need to be run like dogs and if we don’t leave the house in the morning, that morning will end with me getting tied up and scribbled on with Sharpie or with a guitar being smashed over someone’s head, ’70s-rock-band-style.

One of the long-held New Westminster traditions that I had never personally participated in is the perogy dinners offered by the Holy Eucharist Cathedral of the Ukrainian Catholic church (separate archbishop system, same Pope, not Orthodox). Last Friday night we decided to change all that so we loaded up the minivan and took our hungry selves over to 5th Street and 4th Ave for an Apostolic good meal. Perogy night is always a Friday, once a month. The next dinner is October 30.
The set up is classic church basement. Folding …

The 10th Annual Doggy Fun Day is set to happen Sunday, August 30th from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. It takes place, as in previous years, on the playing field above the dog park in Queens Park. Billed as “fun and games for dogs and their people”, this year’s DFD is being put together by the Pacific Volunteer Education and Assistance Team for Animals (VEATA, for short), which is a relatively new group helmed by long time well known animal volunteer, Cheryl Rogers (who some of you may simply know as “the lady …

This is a guest post by Rob Jones, who shares some of his first impressions of New Westminster as a new resident of our city. You can read more from Rob on his blog, The Delete Bin, and also find him on Twitter @clippernolan.
There are elements of every city that makes it unique, makes them feel like home.
My experience with big-small towns is well established, even if I am a recent resident of New Westminster. Like New West, my hometown of Oakville Ontario was founded next to a busy waterway; …

Note: Updated at 8 p.m. with new information from the Globe & Mail, CBC and Province websites.
New Westminster’s Canada Day celebrations took an upsetting turn towards the close of the Queen’s Park festivities when an elderly driver crashed a car into a park bench in the Rose Garden, injuring at least two people – one critically.
News reports about the injuries vary. CBC says four people were hurt in the crash, but the Globe & Mail and Province say only two. All sources agree that a couple in their sixties were …

Our family unit and other Tenth to the Fraser crew are heading out to Queen’s Park today, like so many other Royal City citizens. I have been attending Canada Day in this park almost my whole life. For a long time, I thought of it as a big town party just for me – and a thousand of my closest friends.
The boys and girls from town would stampede from one end of the park to the other (unsupervised – this was the 1980s) looking for flag pins, balloons, cookies, cake and …