Posted by Magda
Things are quiet around city hall these days, so it seems like a good time to head off for a vacation. Watch for news, though, of next week's OMB hearing regarding the former Lafarge lands. And we'll be right in the thick of it come September, with decisions pending on the hydro merger and on which library option to go with, plus the closing date on the compost bids and the continuation of the budget process.
Posted by Magda
The OMB will be back in town next week, Tuesday and Wednesday, to tackle the issue of the former Lafarge lands. Last I heard from the Howitt Park Neighbourhood Group, they were traising money to hire their own planner to come up with an alternate plan.
It'll be interesting to see whether that becomes part of the discussion next week. Stay tuned.
Posted by Magda
I just talked to Lori Kirschner of So Boutique, who's closing shop after 17 years. She was eager to explain her decision to close to a reporter. Many people are assuming she's closing because the downtown isn't viable, she said. That isn't the case at all -- she's had a great run downtown and is eager to move on to other things, she said.
Everyone seems to have a different take on the state of our downtown. I've heard night-and-day analyses from various longtime business owners -- some loving it, some wishing they'd never opened up here. It was heartening to hear from Kirschner that she's done well by the downtown.
Read the full story on changes coming to the north end of Wyndham in the paper tomorrow.
Posted by Magda
The popsicle test took me to uncharted territories. I went to the fourth node (of the city's planned nodes, I'd only ever been to three: Imperial and Paisley, Woodlawn and Woolwich and Clair and Gordon). Watson and Starwood doesn't look particularly node-like; ok, it doesn't look node-like at all. There's nothing but homes for miles. It didn't help that I went in the middle of yesterday's downpour. Apart from cars and the occasional transport kicking up waves of oceanic proportions, there was one lowly pedestrian, holding a soggy newspaper over his head in vain.
I can see better now why Councillor Bob Bell is fighting for commercial development in the east end. Hopefully that'll include a popsicle store or two.
My popsicle melted, Guelph Mercury, Aug. 6
Posted by Magda
Wyndham Arts is in fact moving across the road, to the location of So Boutique (thanks to Ed Pickersgill for pointing this out). They made the decision in part over uncertainty about what's to happen with the building they're currently in -- city hall is considering tearing it down to make room for the new main library.
Which leaves that end of Wyndham pretty desolate -- just the Family Thrift store and some apartments, framed on one end by Hush salon and on the other by a collection of bars. Seems like it might not be too hard to tear the buildings down after all.
Things have happened pretty fast, Wyndham Arts co-owner Chris Ahlers told me this afternoon, since it became public in June that the city was considering expropriating those properties. I'll post a link here when the story appears in the paper -- likely sometime in the next couple of days.
(That's Ahlers in the photo -- taken by Ryan Pfeiffer -- posing in front of the art store.)
Posted by Magda
San Francisco is considering making it illegal to throw pizza crusts in the garbage. If the bylaw passes, residents could be charged up to $1,000 for sorting garbage into the wrong bins.
It's interesting because Guelph, obviously, has long had a similar system. As other Ontario cities developed composting programs, though, they didn't follow our lead on that -- in Toronto, for instance, residents get a green bin, but there's nothing stopping them from directing their food waste to landfill.
San Francisco has managed to divert 70% of its trash from landfill, and the new bylaw is intended as a way to get to 75% or more.
S.F. mayor proposes fines for unsorted trash, San Francisco Chronicle, August 1
Posted by Magda
A recent study by Guelph company RWDI is making waves in the food industry and among environmentalists.
RWDI found that eliminating drive-thrus doesn't make the air any cleaner. That's because drivers wend their ways around lots, looking for a spot to park, then stop and restart their cars, emitting just as much as they would idling in the drive-thru.
The conclusion: there's no benefit from banning drive-thrus, something Guelph council has recently discussed.
It's driven lots of online discussion.
Guelph city staff are currently working on a policy for drive-thrus throughout the city, after Councillor Leanne Piper recently suggested they be banned. Stay tuned for the outcome of this discussion.
Posted by Magda
The city has almost bought a new property to house the youth drop-in shelter. It's the building that used to house Women In Crisis on Norfolk Street, in the north edge of downtown. But there's still a ways to go -- the purchase offer is conditional, and there's lots -- up to a year's worth -- of renovations to do. But this seems like a big step in the direction of offering at-risk youth a roof over their heads.
Read the whole story in the paper tomorrow.
Posted by Magda
I spent some of this afternoon walking around downtown with a popsicle. I wasn't eating it, just walking with it.
I was conducting the popsicle test.
And it was successful.
But I'm feeling kind of sticky. There's popsicle on my notepad. Popsicle on my shoes. And very little of it in my stomach.
I was trying to determine what it means for a neighbourhood to be walkable. The popsicle test was invented by the Congress for the New Urbanism as a way of measuring whether a neighbourhood is walkable. The premise is that if your eight-year-old can walk to a convenience store, buy a popsicle and get home before it melts, your neighbourhood is walkable.
So I decided to put Guelph to the test. I made it 619 metres before my popsicle died a tragic death. Now the serious calculations begin. (By which I mean, now the poring over a city map with a length of string in my hand begins.)
In the meantime, here's an interesting measure -- different from the popsicle test -- of the walkability of a community. My Exhibition Park-area neighbourhood scores 73 out of 100 -- though the program seems not to know of any grocery stores this side of Cambridge.
Posted by Magda
When Guelph Hydro folks recently came to the paper for an editorial board meeting, my colleague, Lisa Varano, asked them for the business case behind the proposed merger with Horizon Utilities. She was told it wouldn't be released because of confidentiality agreements.
She made a formal freedom of information request to the city for the business case and today learned it had been turned down. The request is being refused because disclosure would reveal third party commercial or financial information given to the city in confidence, the letter says. It would also reveal information whose disclosure could harm the financial interests of an institution or prejudice the economic interests of an institution; instructions to be applied to negotiations carried out by an institution; and plans relating to management of personnel of an institution that have not yet been made public.
Lisa is appealing the decision. Based on our track record with such things, the outcome will come continue far, far after the merger decision is made.
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