London's New Cyclist Superhighway

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/02/04/383789890/bikes-only-london-approves-new-cyclist-superhighway-plan

London Mayor Boris Johnson's ambitious plan to reshape how the city handles cyclist traffic got final approval Wednesday, clearing the way for the spread of segregated bike lanes and dedicated traffic signals. Johnson plans to create a network for cyclists that rivals the city's transit system.
"The board of Transport for London approved a plan to spend £160m (around $240 million) on segregated bike lanes," Britain's ITV reports. "The biggest investment will be on two controversial 'cycle superhighways' running east-west and north-south through central London."
Overall, London plans to invest more than $6 billion in its Road Modernization Plan, which includes everything from replacing streetlights to revamping tunnels.

The city says 84 percent of the 21,500 people who responded to the cycling proposal were in favor (public opinion polls showed less enthusiasm, with 64 percent in favor). And new figures that were released this week that showed cycling, already popular in London, had grown in popularity another 10 percent, marking a fifth consecutive quarter of record gains.
"These amazing numbers show how cyclists are becoming ubiquitous in London and prove, if further proof were needed, why we need to crack on with catering for them," Johnson said earlier this week.

What's Happening.......

Thursday February 5th

Rotary Film Series
Sunshine on the Leith
Columbia Theatre
7:00pm

Friday February 6th

Reception for the new exhibit
Let Them Run
Cranbrook and District Arts Council
7:00 - 9:00pm
see poster

Saturday February 7th

Columbia Landmark Theatre
Munch
Exhibition on Screen
Time?

Symphony of the Kootenays
A Night at the Movies
Open Rehearsal Noon to 1:30pm
Performance 7:30pm

Tuesday February 10th

Le Vent du Nord
7:30pm
Key City Theatre
Check them out at
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hcwrb

Wednesday February 11th

Friends of the Public Library
Travelogue, Yellowstone and Oregon Coast
College of the Rockies
7:00pm

February 12, 13, 14
Gypsy at the Key City Theatre
A Musical
Valentines Day Gala $30
Other days $20 and$17

Friday February 13th

Live at the Stage Door
John Wort Hannam
Brambles and Thorns
7:00pm for 8:00pm

A Canadian Icon at Risk

                                                 A Canadian Icon At Risk

In the 2012 federal budget the Conservative government announced their plan to cut $115 million from the CBC’s annual budget between 2012 and 2015. An additional cut of $130 million by 2016 was announced in April of 2014.

Total job loss – 1307 jobs. Impact on those who care about what it means to be Canadian – significant!

Why should we care? It is the CBC, our public broadcaster, that keeps us informed on what the issues are across our country (e.g. Cross Country Check Up), keeps us entertained (e.g. The Debaters) and gives us the opportunity to laugh while we learn (e.g. The Rick Mercer Report) to name just a few program highlights.

When you live in a largely rural region like the Kootenays, CBC radio becomes the friend that travels with you along our highways. Simply stated, we need expanded CBC coverage, not less.

Cutting millions of dollars will take us in the wrong direction both nationally and internationally. We need the CBC when we travel on business or vacation, or as part of the Armed Forces, to keep us in touch with home.

In the early 1980s I coordinated a series featuring BC’s Provincial Parks with CBC television called Adventure BC. I traveled the province with a producer, a cameraman and program host Bob Switzer, provided by CBC television. Using local experts, we featured what makes parks and heritage places like Cody Caves, Ft. Steele, and St Mary’s Alpine such important assets.

More Conservative government means not only will regional programming be a thing of the past, meaningful national coverage will also be seriously at risk.

If we care about Canada and the things that define us as Canadians, we can’t let that happen.

Wayne Stetski

Cranbrook, BC

'Let Them Run', Cranbrook and District Arts Council Gallery Exhibit - on now

click to enlarge 

Hand and needle felted panel by Robin Wiltse

Wax Sculpture by Dennis Klein

Salmon Sculpture by Patrick McIvor

Poison in the Cupboard, Good 'Ol Goats

Post Notes for the Council Meeting of February 2nd 2015

Mayor Pratt absent. Councillor Graham acted as Mayor.

Public Hearing for the City of Cranbrook Community Plan Amendment Bylaw 3814, See 6.1 2015
There were no presentations.
Delegations

5.1 Cranbrook Archives, Museum and Landmark Foundation
Charlotte Murray CAO and Tom Kirk Board President presented council with their upcoming plans for broadening the scope of the Museum.  The new name for the Museum was also revealed as the Cranbrook History Centre.

Bylaws

6.1 OCP Amendment Bylaw 3814

To consider third reading and adoption of an amendment to the Wildstone Neighbourhood Plan in the
City's Official Community Plan. The proposed amendment will:
• change the neighbourhood plan text by deleting references to a second golf course, amending
dwelling unit numbers to reflect removing the densities attributed to the subject parcel;
• remove the subject parcel (racetrack lands) from the neighbourhood plan area map schedules;
• amend the subject properties land use designation from Comprehensive Development to Low
Density Residential and Core Commercial;
• amend the proposed trail system map in the neighbourhood plan to realign the public pathways to
be consistent with the major road network and proposed utility alignments.
Adopted

Business Arising

7.1 Community Initiatives Appointments

That Council appoint Mayor Lee Pratt, and Councillors Blissett, and Hockley as the CST CIlAAP
project proposal review committee and set April 1, 2015, 4:00 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. (approximate end time)at the Manual Training School as the Community Involvement Date, and that Council consider
recommendations of the review Committee at the regular meeting of Apri127, 2015.
Councillor Cardozo voiced her concerns about the awarding of grants, specifically that decisions rested on the shoulders of three Councillors and representatives from the RDEK.  She went on to say that some other municipalities do have different systems which may be more democratic in nature. Apparently representatives from Columbia Basin Trust are willing to discuss other systems with council.  Staff were asked to look into this for next year.  In the meantime the system will remain for this granting year.
Carried

New Business

8.1 Mt Baker School, 14th Avenue pedestrians
That Council direct administration to pursue a cost sharing agreement with School District #5 for the installation of high intensity illuminated school zone signs on 14th Avenue.
Carried

8.2 Parcel Tax Roll Review
"THAT Council set a date for the Parcel Tax Roll Review Panel to be held on April 27, 2015, at 3:00 pm in the Council Chamber."
"AND FURTHER THAT Council appoint Tom Shypitka, Councillor; Wayne Staudt, Chief Administrative Officer; and Charlotte Osborne, Director of Finance & Computer Services, as members of the Parcel Tax Roll Review Panel"
Carried

10.1 Administration Report

https://cranbrook.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=4491

Spring Flooding Compensation
Fire and Emergency Services report

Correspondence

12.1 Early Years Generations Playground
Referred to Leisure Services
12.2 Community Forest Parking
Referred to Engineering

Inquiries
Councillor Cardozo inquired about the dangers of the crosswalk at Victoria and 3rd St S.  
This is not the first time the dangers of the crosswalk have been pointed out and the matter will be evaluated once more.

Blast from the Past

Cranbrook Courier, April 14, 1954

Click to enlarge

It's Candlemas Day, Groundhog Day...or Mid Winter and something to mark on the calendar

The roots of this light-hearted tradition span both oceans and centuries.
Chris Scott, chief meteorologist at the Weather Network, said Groundhog Day hearkens back to medieval Europe and the Christian festival of Candlemas.
Participants would light candles to brighten a dreary time and watch weather conditions on festival day for portents of what lay ahead, he said.
One Scottish couplet succinctly summed up the superstitions of the time: "If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, There'll be two winters in the year."
The old proverb had a basis in fact, Scott said, since European weather patterns were markedly different from the ones prevailing in North America today.
"You can get winters that essentially end in early February," Scott said in a telephone interview. "There was more of a realistic scenario of, 'Oh, what's it going to be? Are we going to see winter persisting for six more weeks or is this actually the end?"'
Scott said early Europeans eventually threw a prognosticating hedgehog into the mix, adding the animals had hibernation patterns that naturally brought them out of hiding around the time of Candlemas.
When German settlers began immigrating to the U.S. in the 19th century, they adapted Candlemas traditions to their new home with one simple innovation -- letting the area's native groundhogs do the forecasting.


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/roots-of-groundhog-day-go-back-to-medieval-europe-1.2215627#ixzz3Qbm5jtnM

Advance Notes for the Council Meeting of Monday February 2nd 2015

Delegations

5.1 Cranbrook Archives, Museum and Landmark Foundation

Bylaws

6.1 OCP Amendment Bylaw 3814

To consider third reading and adoption of an amendment to the Wildstone Neighbourhood Plan in the
City's Official Community Plan. The proposed amendment will:
• change the neighbourhood plan text by deleting references to a second golf course, amending
dwelling unit numbers to reflect removing the densities attributed to the subject parcel;
• remove the subject parcel (racetrack lands) from the neighbourhood plan area map schedules;
• amend the subject properties land use designation from Comprehensive Development to Low
Density Residential and Core Commercial;
• amend the proposed trail system map in the neighbourhood plan to realign the public pathways to
be consistent with the major road network and proposed utility alignments.

Business Arising

7.1 Community Initiatives Appointments

That Council appoint Mayor Lee Pratt, and Councillors Blissett, and Hockley as the CST CIlAAP
project proposal review committee and set April 1, 2015, 4:00 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. (approximate end time)at the Manual Training School as the Community Involvement Date, and that Council consider
recommendations of the review Committee at the regular meeting of Apri127, 2015.

New Business

8.1 Mt Baker School, 14th Avenue pedestriansThat Council direct administration to pursue a cost sharing agreement with School District #5 for the installation of high intensity illuminated school zone signs on 14th Avenue.

8.2 Parcel Tax Roll Review
"THAT Council set a date for the Parcel Tax Roll Review Panel to be held on April 27, 2015, at 3:00 pm in the Council Chamber."
"AND FURTHER THAT Council appoint Tom Shypitka, Councillor; Wayne Staudt, Chief Administrative Officer; and Charlotte Osborne, Director of Finance & Computer Services, as members of the Parcel Tax Roll Review Panel"

10.1 Administration Report

https://cranbrook.civicweb.net/Documents/DocumentList.aspx?ID=4491

Spring Flooding Compensation
Fire and Emergency Services report

Correspondence

12.1 Early Years Generations Playground
12.2 Community Forest Parking

Warner's Corner.... She's alive.... She's beautiful

The end is not nigh, but it’s getting nearer

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

“She’s alive . . . She’s beautiful . . . She’s complex . . . She’s finite . . . She’s hurting . . . She’s worth defending . . . She’s our Mother.”

Thus begins the most stunning video I’ve seen in my life and I’d like to share it with you before it’s too late. Please take me seriously because it’s all of us that’s threatened. You, me, every one we love. Every form of life on the planet. The planet itself. No one escapes this Grim Reaper because the Grim Reaper is us. Our greed, our materialism, our indifference to what’s happening right before our eyes that we refuse to see because we’d rather believe in the myth of our invincibility and that the rules don’t apply to us.

Well they do, but before I try to say more in my pathetically, inadequate way, see the video for yourself and try to deny that you didn’t feel the earth move a bit beneath your feet. Using our wonderful technology, the very technology that’s leading us over the abyss, turn your computer on and Google “She’s alive – Bittu Sahgal.” If that doesn’t work, go to YouTube and do the same. What you’ll see first looks like the eye of a Cyclops, but it’s really the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone Park, the third largest hot spring is the world and filled with pigmented bacteria and steaming microbial mats, a fate not dissimilar to what awaits humankind if  all of us don’t smarten up.

Don’t read any further. I said words are inadequate. But after you’ve viewed this astounding video rejoin me and I’ll attempt to explain what it says to me.

Glad to have you back. If that video doesn’t grab your gut, nothing will. As for its canary-in-the-mine-shaft message to all of us, I can only tell you what it says to me. We’re doomed! No, not tomorrow. Not likely this year or even the next decade, but we’re getting damn close. Think back to the video. Remember all the shots of the water rising? We all know why – Global Warming – but how many of us are willing to raise a finger to stop it? Precious few, and from a climatological point of view, it’s nothing short of a tragedy for all species of life on earth today. The UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change says industrial pollution by mankind is responsible for 95 per cent of the global warming we’re now experiencing. And what’s that warming doing? It’s melting the Arctic and Antarctic ice packs with sea levels predicted to rise between six inches and two feet (18 cm to 20 cm) by the end of this century. More than 100 million people live within three feet (one metre) of mean sea level. The implications are obvious. It won’t be long before New York starts to look like Venice and millions will be displaced in Southeast Asia, Europe, Florida and Richmond to name but a few. The oceans are also becoming acidified from atmospheric pollution, coral reefs are dying and fish stocks are in free fall, which could lead to large-scale food shortages world-wide.

You also saw the clear-cutting of the tropical rain forests in the video. Miles and miles of once green land turned to brown and barren wasteland much like the once lush clear cut blocks in the forests of BC, another chainsaw massacre. And then there were all those coal-fired generating plants belching smoke in the air over China and the people on the streets below many of them wearing face masks. I’ve been to China myself and can tell you that the Great Wall is as close to the suburbs of Beijing as the North Shore Mountains are to Vancouver, but you rarely see it through the smog.

And just in case you think Canada doesn’t share the blame, what about the Tar Sands of Alberta? They are so big they can be seen from outer space! When waterfowl land on the treatment ponds they die within minutes while the discharge goes into the already heavily polluted Athabasca River and is blamed for a rash of cancer deaths in Fort Chipewyan downstream.

Let’s cut to the chase. We’re a greedy and reckless species. We think mainly of ourselves unlike the brave souls being killed by poachers as they try to protect the forests and wildlife of the Amazon Basin. The attitude in the Industrial West is: “I’m all right Jack.” Let Nature take care of itself. Her bounty is unending. Don’t talk to me about a carbon tax to wean us off oil. That’s drug addict talk. We’re addicted to oil and if we don’t use the intelligence the Creator gave us to beat our addiction only one fate awaits us. Catastrophe!

Make sure you see the video.

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and tries hard to be an optimist despite all the assaults on Mother Earth.