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From today’s paper:
U.S. High-Speed Rail Draws Local Interest
Capital Budget of $132.5 M Proposed
Both the high-speed rail and the regional transit projects are simply a dream at this point, but it is encouraging to see that they are being considered somewhat seriously by some folks.
And on the subject of alternative transportation, I officially “retired my ride” this week. I guess that means the Great Car-Free Experiment has now drawn to a close. Thanks for playing along.
This week I had the good fortune of participating in a tour of the Canada Hair Cloth Building in downtown St. Catharines. This was a working factory until 2007 and will (hopefully!) be home to the new Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts at Brock.
This is an absolutely exquisite building and I look forward to seeing this space transformed over the coming months.
When the semester gets busy the regular blogging comes screeching to a halt. When I first started blogging RBOCs were all the rage — a quick and dirty way to post about unrelated topics. I’m sure there are new terms for this practice now, but I’m too tired to think of them.
In no particular order:
-I had much fun in Toronto last week: The Royal, a play at the fabulous Tarragon Theatre, shopping in Kensington Market and a dee-licious dinner at King’s Cafe.
-I also took in a live NHL game last week. My favourite team (the Edmonton Oilers) were playing against the Buffalo Sabres, so Colleen and I got tickets, donned our Oilers gear and headed “over the river” to check it out. Ultimately the “good guys” lost, but we still had a most excellent time. The game was very good (the shots were nearly even), and the Buffalo fans were a lot of fun. I grew up in Edmonton during the “dynasty years” and was lucky enough to have gone to a number of games back in the day, but it has been ages since I’ve taken in a live NHL game. I must do it again soon!
-And on the subject of Buffalo, we discovered a very good brew pub. If you are into good beer, check out the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. You won’t be disappointed!
-The James A. Gibson Library at Brock has just published their latest newsletter. In that newsletter is an article about Brock faculty who blog and it features yours truly. Neat.
-Rumblings of an expanded GO service in Niagara have me feeling hopeful. This doesn’t counter my disappointment over the decision to remove the recently-created bike lanes in downtown St. Catharines though.
-I’m thinking a lot about climate change these days. I’m also thinking a lot about how amazing David Suzuki and the folks at his foundation are. I wish our elected leaders would get with the program. Dr. Suzuki is urging all Canadians who care about climate change to give the PM’s office a call about this — there are even prizes to be won for doing so.
-Today in my Canadian Art History class I brought in a film on Pegi Nicol MacLeod. I seriously adore this artist and imagine she would have been a lot of fun to hang around with.
-Why is Battle of the Blades still on my TV? Why???
-On the other end of the CBC Television programming spectrum, I really, really enjoyed the 3 part series, Darwin’s Brave New World. If you missed it you can catch the episodes online.
Looks like St. Catharines is about to lose a set of bike lanes because the lanes are being blamed for causing heavy traffic jams. The message here? It is ok if cyclists and others going car-free are inconvenienced, let’s just not upset those in cars.
Sigh…
[Update: the weekend paper had more on this issue.]
As residents of St. Catharines know, a fire struck Liberty! Bicycles this past summer. The word is starting to spread that they will reopen in a new location downtown. This is excellent news — I’m going to start saving up for a new Electra bike to celebrate the occasion!
From the Liberty! Bicycles website: ” To carry us into the future, Liberty! Bicycles has purchased a 15000 sq ft facility in Downtown St. Catharines. Being true to our roots, we decided on a Downtown location although there was substantial pressure to move the business into either Megaland, or Boxville. Unfortunately, those non-Downtown options offered nothing in the way of style. For us, the decision was obvious. So, over the course of the next few months we will start the transformation of an old urban warehouse into what we hope will be the coolest bike shop this side of NYC. We will implement our plans phase by phase creating what we hope will become the centre of bike culture in Niagara. As we move forward, we will provide updates right here. Wish us luck! In the meantime, drop by our temp-shop if you need your bike repaired. We have 2010 catalogues and information about Cannondale, Specialized, Kona and Electra bicycles on hand.”
The recent announcement that there will be new sidewalks put in various locations around the city is surely good news for anyone concerned with car-free issues in the region. A big thank to the City of St. Catharines for this!
Another “trouble spot” that always worries me is along St. David’s road leading up to the Brock campus. I frequently see students walking along the shoulder of the highway, going back and forth from Thorold (where a lot of students live) to the campus. There have been many people expressing their concerns about this over the years, and I’ve heard various rumblings that this location might be a candidate for bike lanes and/or sidewalks. I do hope these rumours prove to be true before an unthinkable tragedy happens!
As we celebrate car-free day I can’t help being saddened by this news coming out of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Another cyclist killed in a car-bicycle accident, and this is especially tragic since the Niagara Regional Police have not yet been able to identify this man.
Cycle safely my friends.
The idea of getting a regional transit for Niagara up and running is in the news again. I sincerely hope that this can be achieved. I’m heartened by the Mayor of Port Colborne’s assertion that transit is “a No.1 priority.”
The paper today also had this piece on “Sharrows” — love it! This reminder to share the road is especially timely as it falls on the heels of this awful story of yet another car-cyclist collision. This one has left me feeling especially rattled, since it is in my neck of the woods and it was on a route I often ride.
The good folks over at GCAST (The Garden City Alliance for Sustainable Transportation) are urging Niagara Residents to participate in “Car Free Day” on Sept. 22nd.
For more details, see this article from the St. Catharines Standard.
The Great Car-Free Experiment continues and I’m happy to report that things are going well. Of course it is easier because I am attempting to get around in pleasant summer weather and I am on a summer timetable. I have, however, decided to take this experiment into September. I’ve been walking, biking, busing and car-pooling my way through August, and I want to see how long I can keep it up. I just cancelled my fall parking permit, so I guess that means I’m committed to this project.
The City of St. Catharines just announced another set of bike lanes, so this is certainly good news on the car-free front. The biggest challenge I’ve had with cycling around this region, however, is the lack of bike racks. I’ve been really surprised to discover just how hard it is to find a bike rack at retail centres. So far this has been the single biggest deterrent to getting around by bicycle. Today, for instance, I had to go to the grocery store — I could have easily biked, but I opted for the bus because I wasn’t sure if I’d find a place to lock up my bike in front of the grocery store. I thought I’d encounter more difficulties with the traffic, but that hasn’t been an issue as the drivers in this neighbourhood have been quite courteous. But bike racks? I didn’t anticipate this to be a problem. Come on people — there are all sorts of bike rack options out there, let’s work to make this region a little more bike-friendly!
Oh, and while I’m at it — how about making this dream of a regional transit a reality? I was chatting with a friend about going to see some plays this fall and I realized that it is easier for me to get to downtown Toronto (a distance of about 107km) to take in some theatre than it is for me to get into the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake (a distance of about 20km). What the heck?!
