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!

Connaught Heights homeowners are actively trying to block a specific business from setting up shop in the sleepy commercial strip on 20th St. just uphill from the SkyTrain The target of their opposition: 7/11.

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 …

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 …