St. John's, Newfoundland photo by T_Bomb, member of Spacing Atlantic flickr pool.

St. John's, Newfoundland photo by Nancy Beaton, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool

St. John's, Newfoundland photo by Brian P Carey

 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origins trace back to what was a divisive fight over a proposal from Fortis Properties — which was ultimately withdrawn before council could vote on it — Happy City has always taken the high road.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.

St. John's, Newfoundland photo by earlesd, member of the Spacing Atlantic flickr pool

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 ...