The Grimston Park playground consultation is chugging along. For those who are curious, two proposed design directions are now up on the web, and the Parks dept. is looking for feedback on which one most appeals to the community, as well as specific feedback on types of equipment we want to see.
It seems a few things have changed since the first consultation: now one of the options includes salvaged pieces of the old playground, possibly including the tower (roof removed to discourage late-night partiers and homeless sleepers) and the iconic …

This time next year, Grimston Park could look substantially different.
The summer wading pool and winter toboggan hill will remain untouched, as will the lacrosse box and tennis courts. But the towering adventure playground with the plunging slides and the rattling drawbridge will be gone. So too the iconic tires cupping the border of the playground at the edge of the steep slope to the lacrosse box. Replacing these will be … well, we don’t know exactly what yet.
Today was the day of the first public consultation about the park. After the …

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; …

 
This spring, Will ripped out the ivy covering the front slope of our yard, built a wooden retaining wall to contain the soil, trucked in some compost and rich soil, and together we seeded the whole thing with lettuce, beans, herbs, tomatoes, strawberries, artichokes, brussels sprouts and more. 
It looked terrible for the first month or so, while we waited for the weather to match our gardening ambitions. Impatient, we planted zucchini seedlings that withered in a frustratingly late frost and a border of bug-repelling marigolds that moped (but survived!) until …

Some time ago, I guest posted about our challenges in finding a good Chinese take-out place in New West. Some mentioned Hon’s while others recommended the Dragon. Having eaten at both, I found a new contender.
The Lucky King Seafood Restaurant on 832 12th St. in New West is great. They have only been managing the place for two months and I’m sure the work being done on 12th doesn’t help with attracting foot traffic.
I’ve already read one letter in our local paper regarding their most excellent (sorry …

 
Over the last weekend, our family took advantage of the beautiful weather and the crowd gathered for our son’s birthday and we launched off a couple of model rockets from the Grimston Park field. We had a BLAST, (Yuk Yuk)! We do this ever so often. Once, last April, as soon as we had everything set up, it started to snow and the rocket launched into a growing blizzard of white.
 
The launches have been nothing fancy, a little kit rocket that we painted red and blue and stuff with an …

Tenth to the Fraser regular reader and commenter, John Ashdown, from the Village Coffee Lounge (free wi-fi! Good food! Support local!) is a busy guy. Among other things,  he is also is on the board for the Royal City Farmer’s Market and is the newly elected president of the 12th Street Merchants’ Association. He has also graciously found time to agree to host a tasting party for little old me, and my fledgling tiny company-in-the-making, Chai By Night.  
On Saturday, February 28th, from 12PM to 2PM (or while supplies last), I’m inviting …

I have to admit I am a little late getting this on the old blog. John, of the Village Coffee Lounge, told me about this event a few weeks ago and while I was waiting for the newly elected 12th Street Merchants Association president to get all the details sorted out and send me the blurb,  it completely slipped my mind until I was looking at my calendar and wondering what to do to celebrate Valentine’s Day with my husband. 
Take Your Sweet to 12th Street is an excellent way to …

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As I was walking my dog in the West end this evening, I crossed the 14th street side entrance of St. Aidan’s Presbyterian Church. Besides being painfully hard to spell, St. Aidan’s Presbyterian Church is
well known as a center for early childhood development. Indeed, the portico of the West entrance to the basement of the church is festooned with resources and contacts for public nursing, language arts, and general infant health. I thought I could work in the word entablature there somewhere but that will have to wait …

Previously mentioned in Tenth To The Fraser’s guide to “blunch” in the Royal City, Amelia Restaurant on 12th St. is a local greasy spoon phenomenon. Vancouver Sun reporter Shelly Fralic, who I hear is also a New Westie, shared her review yesterday in the Sun:
One of the reasons it’s been a neighbourhood fixture for decades is the All-Day Breakfast Special which, for $3.50, delivers a pile of eggs, bacon/ham or sausage, perfectly crisp home-made pan fries and toast, or, if you’re hungrier than the average bear, a $4.95 Workman’s Special, …

Well, I got a parking ticket. I ranted about snow removal not too long ago and someone in the comments suggested that the city would be sure to give me a parking ticket but God forbid they actually enforce the snow removal bylaws.
Anonymous commenter, you are a prophet. Please tell me the winning lotto numbers.  
Don’t get me wrong, I was parked illegally and I’m not going to argue that fact now that I realize what the bylaw is. But I’m pleading ignorance here. I was parked on a side street …

This is a guest post by Ruth Seeley of No Spin PR.

I’m more likely to go out for breakfast than for any other meal these days. Working from home, it means I can give my day a little ‘shape’ by getting up early, reading, writing, tweeting, pitching, greeting, etc. for three or four hours, then take a shower break and head out to do errands, get some fresh air, and have breakfast.
On bad days this sometimes doesn’t happen till 2 or 3PM, however, so I’ve had to invent a …

This is Mooki:
 
Don’t let her fool you, she actually hates you. Well, that’s not true. She resents you being alive but appreciates any food offerings you might have for her. Mooki is a Shiba Inu, and if you know your dog breeds, you know that shibas are notoriously standoffish and act more cat than dog. Mooki is no exception. I have shared my life with Mooki for 6 years (she’s 9). We joke that Mooki is one part hate, one part lazy, and two parts fur.  Here is Mooki doing what …

The Newsleader’s Michal McQuillan writes a great summary of Wednesday’s meeting to brainstorm solutions to build a west side middle school. Those ideas will be narrowed down to two or three options today [Saturday].
Many of the same questions kept cropping up.
• Why doesn’t the provincial government buy or expropriate land for the school?
• What impact would it have on programs of choice?
• How could the school affect other schools?
• And why can’t the middle school be built on the former cemetery site?
After participants returned from a brief break, workshop moderator …

Grimston Park will be protected space, and will not be considered as a future school site according to last night’s school board vote. This is great for the West End, who would have lost its only large park, but leaves New West in a bit of a pickle. New schools must be built, but where? To further complicate matters, our school district is facing a $2 million budget shortfall. We have neither time, nor money, nor resources. So what to do?
Some creative thinking is called for! Some of the ideas …

Like many Lower Mainland communities, graffiti plagues New Westminster. Typically blamed on ne’er do well Burnaby ruffians (surely our own sons and daughters wouldn’t dare!), here in the West End it seems every lamp post and electrical box is tagged with the “artists’” arcane scrawl. Recently our own back fence was hit. Every inch was marred with gobbledlygook in giant bubble letters. We were furious. How dare those (Burnaby!) scallywags come down our alley and scrawl all over our fence! The offending oeuvre had no discernible message or artistic value, …

Photo of NWSS library doors by BuckyHermit (via Flickr)

A small geographical footprint is both one of New Westminster’s charms and one of its challenges. Density is inevitable. Sprawl is not an option. This is great, if you’re assessing public transit feasibility or walkability within the city. It means, however, that options are limited when it comes to new development.  

New West has long known it needs new schools. The current high school is in need of upgrades and isn’t adequate to house all of the city’s kids. The original idea …