City unveils next step in Nelson Downtown Urban Design Strategy

June 9, 2016

City unveils next step in Nelson Downtown Urban Design Strategy

Upcoming public Design Fest events aimed at refining broad array of feedback on vision for downtown core’s next generation

Nelson — Following up on last month’s first stakeholder meeting and community workshop, the City of Nelson is inviting the public to take part in Phase Two of the community engagement for the Downtown Urban Design Strategy.

The project is an effort to further enhance Nelson’s outstanding downtown district, and will include strategies for the public realm including, signage, sidewalk patios, lighting, street furniture, bike parking, public art, landscaping and amenities like electric charging stations and public washrooms.

“The creation of an Urban Design Strategy is so important to the future of our downtown,” says Mayor Deb Kozak. “And we are seeking public input.”

Two Design Fest events are scheduled: Design Fest: Hands-On Community Workshop to Develop Urban Design Strategies Saturday, June 18 Adventure Hotel 3:00 to 5:30 pm (pre-registration starts at 2:30 pm)

 Design Fest: A Presentation of Early Design Ideas for Downtown Nelson Monday, June 20 Capitol Theatre 6:00 to 8:30 pm (pre-registration starts at 5:30 pm) “Baker, Victoria and Vernon streets make up the City’s commercial, cultural and heritage heart,” adds Mayor Kozak. “And Nelson needs a comprehensive plan and vision — a road map — to maintain and enhance the downtown district. We also have to be prepared for the upgrade of downtown infrastructure like water and sewer systems, both of which are nearing the end of their lifespans.”

Mayor Kozak says an Urban Design Strategy will ensure that City Council will be well-positioned to invest in enhancements and maintenance over time. The City will be launching a website next week at www.nelsonurbandesign.com. City staff are also planning a series of pop up displays throughout the city this summer, for people who want to provide feedback on various strategies for Nelson’s downtown.

 Media Contacts: Mayor Deb Kozak — 250-352-8236 / dkozak@nelson.ca Senior Planner, Megan Squires — (250) 352-8221 / msquires@nelson.ca

How Millennials are Fighting to Survive Climate Change | Geoff Dembicki | TEDxEastVan

Lights, Camera, Action

So it was for Jen Johns on Friday, June 10th, when The Food Network was in Cranbrook from Toronto to film a piece featuring Jen Johns of 'Cookies, Cupcakes and Cardio'.

  Jen Johns and her partner are well known for their You Tube videos and blog titled Cookies, Cupcakes and Cardio.   With the downtown core as their focus, the team filmed sections showcasing Cranbrook, and some of our well- loved eateries including Sakura, Max's Place and Heidout.

A great boxer and an even greater humanitarian, Gerry Warner

A great boxer and an even greater humanitarian

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

It took me a long time to warm up to Muhammad Ali and that’s strange because I’ve been an aficionado of the “sweet science” as far back as the glory days of Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson, two of the sport’s greatest.

I knew the Champ was close to the end of his tumultuous life, because I’d been following his post-boxing career for a long time and his brave battle with Parkinson’s, one of the few defeats he had in his storied career.

Still, when I heard the sad news on the radio as I was getting ready for my morning run I was stunned as if I had been hit by an Ali blow myself. Honest to God, Ali was such a hero to me, it was like when President Kennedy was assassinated, the Twin Towers fell and Michael Jackson would moon dance no more.

Say what you want about the Excited States of America. They sure know how to produce legends bigger than life down there. Tall buildings too.

But as I said at the beginning, I initially didn’t like Ali at all. He was far too brash and arrogant for me. Just a big bag of hot air and braggadocio to me. He talked a good line alright, but as someone who’d seen boxer braggarts before, I thought it wouldn’t be long before someone knocked the wind out of this sails and he’d hit the canvas like a sack of spuds.

That was my thinking when the yappy 21-year-old challenged Charles “Sonny” Liston, a burly, ex-con with attitude, fists like pistons and the most menacing stare in boxing. Ha, ha, I thought. The “Louisville Lip” will join Sputnik in outer space when Liston gets through with him. But Liston was no match for the speed and agility of Ali, or “Cassius Clay,” as he was then known, and quit on his stool after six memorable rounds. In the rematch, Ali knocked Liston out in the first round, standing over him yelling at him to “get up” in one of Life Magazine’s most iconic sports pictures.

There must be something to this guy after all, I thought and I didn’t call him by his slave name Cassius Clay anymore. Nor did almost anyone else. But this was only Act 1, of the most remarkable career in boxing history and Ali soon transcended the sport itself becoming a Black Muslim to oppose racism and sentenced to jail for refusing to be drafted at the peak of the Vietnam War. “I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality . . .”

His eloquence enraged the boxing establishment and he was stripped of his title and didn’t fight for almost four years. But his courage and principled stand inspired millions and struck a devastating blow against a war that ignited student activists and anti-war protestors around the world and drove one of the best US presidents – Lyndon Johnson – out of office and played a major role in ending an unpopular war that almost tore the US apart and was one of the key events of the transformative 1960’s.

Not bad for a poetry spouting, US black man, who won almost every battle he fought in the ring and inspired millions of every race to oppose war and racism wherever they found it. No wonder he called himself “the greatest.” After he returned to the ring he fought titanic battles against Joe Frazier, “The Thrilla in Manila” and George Foreman “The Rumble in the Jungle,” who he was not expected to beat, but did with a spectacular knockout in the eighth round. But Ali couldn’t beat Parkinson’s and who can forget his shaky hands as he lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta and raised millions to fight the dread disease.

And now he’s gone and the world is the poorer for losing one of its greatest athletes and personalities – but most of all – humanitarians.

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and a long time boxing fan and fan of humanitarians.

On Jane Jacobs Centennary

Don't Leave City Planning to the Planners

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/06/03/Dont-Leave-City-Planning-to-Planners/

Why non-experts should have last say in changing neighbourhoods.

By Michael Kluckner, 3 Jun 2016, TheTyee.ca

Who should have the last say in our cities' planning decisions, the planner experts or the non-expert citizens who must live with the results?

If I wanted to make the case for the role of the non-expert, I could say just two words and then stop: Jane and Jacobs. The great urbanist author was the ultimate skeptic and analyst, a non-professional, an observer, and we have been celebrating her centenary and legacy in recent weeks. In the pre-architecture courses I took at UBC around 1970, all the professors were modernists and so told us to read the mega-project loving Le Corbusier and study Brasilia for ideas about the future. Reyner Banham with his love of Los Angeles was similarly fashionable, partly for the novelty of endorsing something as outrageous as a car-captive lifestyle in an architecturally kitschy landscape.

But all I wanted to read was Jane Jacobs. I wanted to live in a diverse, fine-grained, citizen-centric community like the one she described, and found a Vancouver equivalent in Kitsilano in the early 1970s. 

It's Jane Jacobs' Centenary, and Her Urban Dreams Live On

http://thetyee.ca/Video/2016/06/08/Jane-Jacobs-Centenary/

Happy 100th birthday to the urbanist writer. A look at her influence today.

Submitted by Christopher Cheung, 8 Jun 2016 

Vancouver equivalent in Kitsilano in the early 1970s."
There have been many celebrations of Jacobs this year, what would have been the year of her 100th birthday. Many have mused how her criteria of livable cities -- pedestrian-friendliness, mixed-uses, constant evolutions -- are still relevant today.

What's Happening.....

Saturday June 11th

Cranbrook Farmer's Market
Opposite Library beside Ktunaxa Gym
10;00am - 1:00pm

Cranbrook Community Orchestra
Knox Presbyterian Church
1:00pm
$5

Key City Theatre
The Little Jazz Orchestra
Lobby Lounge Stage
7:30pm
$20

East Kootenay Outdoor Club Hike
Kiakho Mountain
Lorne Sinclair 250-426-8864

One Hummingbird Visitor

photo courtesy Stewart Wilson

Scottish parliament votes narrowly in favour of ban on fracking

Scottish parliament votes narrowly in favour of ban on fracking
Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/01/scottish-parliament-votes-narrowly-in-favour-of-ban-on-fracking-snp

The Scottish parliament has voted narrowly in favour of a ban on fracking, after Scottish National party MSPs abstained following a debate that gave a strong indication of the changed nature of the new Holyrood chamber.
Scottish Labour had tabled an amendment in support of a full ban as part of an environment debate headed by the new cabinet secretary, Roseanna Cunningham.
The SNP announced a moratorium on fracking in Scotland last January, but has stopped short of an outright ban to allow for further consultation and a public health impact assessment.
After SNP members abstained, the motion was passed on Wednesday by 32 votes to 29, with Scottish Greens and Liberal Democrats joining Labour to defeat the Conservatives.

World Oceans Day and All Days

Today is World Oceans Day:

http://www.worldoceansday.ca/

Top 11 issues affecting our Oceans!

It is not very often everyone agrees on anything. Remarkably, the world’s top scientists and marine researchers virtually all agree on the issues facing our oceans health, and the demands being placed on what is arguably life’s greatest resource on the planet. Here are 11 of the top issues facing the health of our oceans, and our planet.

The oceans are among our biggest resource for life on earth, and also our biggest dumping grounds. That kind of paradox could give anyone an identity crisis. We seem to think we can take all the goodies out and put all our garbage in, and then expect them to keep happily ticking away indefinitely. However, while it's true the oceans can provide us with some amazing eco-solutions like alternative energy, they're are undergoing some serious stress factors. Here are the some of the biggest problems facing the oceans. Making changes in our daily lives often starts with awareness. Solutions are as simple as eating the right sort of seafood, to ensuring garbage stays out of our waterways and Oceans.

1) Overfishing

Many marine scientists consider overfishing to be the worst impact humans are having on the oceans. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that over 70% of the world’s fish species have been entirely exploited or depleted. By capturing fish faster than they can reproduce, we are harming entire ecosystems that interact with those species, from the food they eat to the predators that eat them. These losses make the ecosystems more vulnerable to other disturbances, such as pollution. A complete overhaul of fishing policies, requiring global cooperation, is needed to achieve a sustainable system.Overfishing is having some serious impacts on our oceans. Not only does it work towards wiping out a species, but also the other species of marine animals that are dependent upon those fish for survival. It's been shown that overfishing can cause marine animals to starve, since we're taking food from their mouths in too large of numbers for them to be able to get their fill. It is also estimated that most seas alreadyneed long term fishing bans if certain species are to recover at all.

There is much to be desired in the ways we fish. First, we humans use some pretty destructive methods in how we pull catches, including bottom trawling which destroys sea floor habitat and scoops up many unwanted fish and animals that are tossed aside. We also pull far too many fish to be sustainable, pushing many species to the point of being listed as threatened and endangered.

Reasons for overfishing are obvious in some ways, in that there are a lot of people who like to eat a lot of fish. The more fish, the more money for the fishermen. However there are other elements at work that promote overfishing that are less obvious, such as promoting the health benefits of one fish over another, or the health of fish oils.

Knowledge of what seafood can be sustainably eaten, whether that is the species of seafood or the method by which it is caught, is a must in order to help keep the ocean's fisheries healthy. It's our job as eaters to question restaurant servers, sushi chefs, and seafood purveyors about the sources of their fish, and read labels when we buy from store shelves. There are helpful tools that can assist us in buying and ordering seafood as well, from handouts to carry in our wallets to FishPhone. And of course there are our sustainable seafood slideshows that will show you what you want to look for when you're choosing your next meal, and what to avoid.

2) Irresponsible Fish Farming

Fish farming, or aquaculture, is the growing response to wild fish stocks rapidly depleting. While it sounds like a good idea in theory, it unfortunately has many negative consequences due to poorly managed operations. Nutrient and chemical pollution can occur easily in open-ocean operations when fish feed, excrement, and medication is released into the environment. Farmed fish accidentally released into wild populations can also have destructive effects, such as loss of native stocks, disease transmission, and damaging changes in habitat. Unfortunately, the biggest hindrance to overcoming the challenges of an industry that supplies nearly 50% of the world’s fish food supply is that it currently remains relatively unregulated.

To continue.....

http://www.worldoceansday.ca/education-resources/top-11-issues-affecting-oceans

Renewable energy surges to record levels around the world

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36420750

New solar, wind and hydropower sources were added in 2015 at the fastest rate the world has yet seen, a study says.

Investments in renewables during the year were more than double the amount spent on new coal and gas-fired power plants, the Renewables Global Status Report found.
For the first time, emerging economies spent more than the rich on renewable power and fuels.
Over 8 million people are now working in renewable energy worldwide.
For a number of years, the global spend on renewables has been increasing and 2015 saw that arrive at a new peak according to the report.

Falling costs key

About 147 gigawatts (GW) of capacity was added in 2015, roughly equivalent to Africa's generating capacity from all sources.
China, the US, Japan, UK and India were the countries adding on the largest share of green power, despite the fact that fossil fuel prices have fallen significantly. The costs of renewables have also fallen, say the authors.
"The fact that we had 147GW of capacity, mainly of wind and solar is a clear indication that these technologies are cost competitive (with fossil fuels)," said Christine Lins, who is executive secretary of REN21, an international body made up of energy experts, government representatives and NGOs, who produced the report.