ST. JOHN'S - On Saturday, more then 50 people showed up to the Foran Room of St. John's City Hall. They were not there for a public meeting, or information session, but a dialogue. The event was titled “Your City, Your Ideas”, and was an endeavour of Happy City, a citizen-run organization whose mandate is to “inform and encourage the discussion surrounding development and growth in St. John's”. Since organizing a Public Forum on Smart Growth in downtown St. John's last February, Happy City has been working to inform and encourage debate through their website and other social media. Happy City's unique approach aims to simply encourage debate, not take sides. Through their website, individuals can submit their ideas on how to make St. John's a better place, and how to address what people see as issues in this fine city of ours. Although the organization's origins trace back to what was a divisive fight over a proposal from Fortis Properties — which was ultimately withdrawn before council could vote on it — Happy City has always taken the high road. During the Fortis kerfuffle, they strove to refocus the debate on the broader issues of development in the downtown and throughout the city, rather then on any individual proposal coming to council. When it comes to individual proposals it's often too personal, with a line drawn in the sand, forcing people to take a side. Happy City has done well to steer away from this sort of polarizing debate, and instead acted in the most positive manner possible, focusing on how to make St. John's a better place. This is something we can all agree we want.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdyK4Z_HS_w[/youtube] St. John's - On Saturday, October 30th from 10am to 1pm. a public dialogue will be held in the Foran room of city hall. This public dialogue is not an initiative of council to  review of our out-of-date municipal plan, but a continuation of the work of HappyCity.ca, who organized a public forum on smart growth in downtown St. John's back in February. Since February, Happy City has been using their newly updated website, facebook, youtube, and ...

ST JOHN'S - If you have ever walked down Solomon's Lane in St. John's, past the illustrious Ship Pub, you would have seen a massive blank wall to the office building, on the other side of a parking lot. The area has high traffic, being located in betwen Water Street and Duckworth Street, in the heart of downtown. You may have thought, as I did "that would be a great place for a mural". The Nickle Independent Film Festival has ...

[caption id="attachment_5178" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Photo by Andrew Harvey"][/caption] Anyone who has visited Newfoundland will tell you that it is the people that make Newfoundland as amazing as it is. When it comes to cycling in St. John’s, the folks at ordinary spokes are part of what makes cycling in Newfoundland as amazing as it is. Ordinary Spokes is a volunteer operated community cycling organization based in St. John’s. The started operating in November 2009, and opened the doors to their bike repair shop in January ...

[caption id="attachment_5104" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Bikes on Water St."][/caption] In Newfoundland people have always managed to flourish despite a harsh climate and rough terrain. Cyclists in St. John’s especially so. St. John’s is a city perched on the side of a hill, founded hundreds of years ago, with modern streets usually evolving from cart paths. Luxurious wide paved shoulders which can safely accommodate bikers or bike lanes are confined to newer peripheries of the city, or the planned streets of neighbors such as Mount Pearl. Cyclists also combat (quite literally some ...

ST. JOHN'S - This past weekend, I had the good fortune of attending Landmarked. When I first heard about the event, I was intrigued. It was described as: Part choose your own adventure, part conceptual art tour and part choreographic documentary. Landmarked is a site-specific interdisciplinary project that honors the past, is alive in the present and awakens the senses, transforming undiscovered, unused or undervalued environments into fully animated dance-scapes. Landmarked addresses the value of urban space by looking at personal, shared or historical associations to the geography of the city while exploring the interdependence of people and place. After reading this description, I still did not have an very clear idea of what I was in for, but I was excited, and ready. Sally Morgan, artistic director and choreographer for Landmarked said the the idea came from a conversation she had with Sarah Stoker (one of the dancers in Book of Hours) on the topic of city planning and development. Morgan says that here in St. John’s, they “haven’t thought about it [planning and development] here”, and hopes Landmarked will encourage people to be more aware of the surroundings, and to find new meaning in the spaces, and sites we see every day.

ST. JOHN'S - This weekend in St. John's, a unique combination of performance and art installation will occur. The format of the happening will be individually determined, allowing each individual to choose their own pace as they work their way through multiple sites in downtown St. John's. Sally Morgan will be in charge of artistic direction and choreography, while collaborating with Craig Francis Power for visuals, multimedia and design, Chris Driedzic for sound, and Jessee Walker for design. Landmarked will feature performances and ...

ST JOHN'S - Ever wonder how much money goes into a municipal campaign? In St. John’s municipal election last September the 32 candidates vying for 11 positions claimed a combined total of $303,098 in campaign contributions. Candidates had until Dec 31st 2009 to submit a campaign contribution and expenses disclosure form. On this form, each candidate must claim the total amount they received in donations, and list the names of all contributors over $250. As an inquisitive mind, and a former candidate in the election, I was curious how much my competitors raised in donations during the campaign. After calling the City, and waiting several weeks, I received a package including the photocopied original campaign contribution and expense forms from each candidate. This was awful nice of the City, especially considering it was free, but photocopies are not the most useable forms of information. I spent several hours plugging all of the information into excel, so that it could be manipulated to find out something more interesting then who has the worst handwriting (which, if I had to choose, would be current Mayor Dennis O’Keefe).