Kids ride their bikes at the 2009 Twelfth Street Festival in New Westminster. Photo: Will Tomkinson.

The West End’s annual 12th Street Music Festival  is coming up on Sunday, August 1, and will feature free live music from local bands on two stages, children’s entertainment, displays by local businesses & community groups and events for kids and adults.

Bands will include:

• Rainshadow
• Mike Van Eyes
• Mojo Stars
• Maffie & Crew
• Real Canadian Rock Band
• Syndicate
• Really Rod

According to festival organizers, highlights will include:

“It’s going to be fun for everyone,” said festival coordinator John Ashdown in a media release. “We have a great line-up of entertainment, exhibits, events and a wide variety of foods.”

During the festival, 12th St. will be closed between 6th and 8th Ave., and there will be booths stretching all the way up from Stewardson to 10th Ave.

After the festival, there will be a wind-up party at the Terminal Pub at the foot of 12th St., from 4-8pm.

IN BRIEF

• WHAT: 12th St. Festival
• WHEN: Sunday, August 1, 2010, from 11am – 4pm
• WHERE: 12th St. in New Westminster, between Stewardson and 10th Ave.

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But one thing that  I didn’t have was insight into just what kind of crime we were talking about. Fare evasion was lumped in with more serious crimes like assault and drug possession in the data I had access to. But I just saw that the Vancouver Sun has produced a series of infographics on SkyTrain crime (violent crime and drug crime) as part of a bigger series on public transit issues in Vancouver.

The Sun’s graphics show:

• New Westminster SkyTrain Station is the most violent station in New Westminster, and the fourth most violent in the whole line, with 26 incidents of violent crime reported in 2009. Eleven were related to weapons possession and 12 for assault. (The top three most violent stations in Metro Van are Broadway, Surrey Central and Metrotown.)
• 22nd St. is the next most violent station in New West, but it is in the middle of the pack in Metro Van. Nine of the crimes are assaults, with four robberies and two sexual assaults.

In terms of drug-related crime:

• New Westminster Station tops our local list again in terms of number of offences, but it’s almost all pot possession
• Other stations in New West were fairly low on the list compared to other parts of Metro Van. Almost all the problems related to marijuana possession, though there was also some cocaine possession. Braid Station had one incident of drug trafficking.

Again, to put it all into perspective, TransLink moves around 700,000 riders daily. In all of 2009, there were just 26 incidents of violent crime and 27 of drug-related crime recorded at New Westminster’s eponymous “worst’ SkyTrain station. And, as I mentioned last time, the risk of death related to driving is six times higher than the risk of being a victim of any sort of crime in or around the least safe station on the line.

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Fortified by Kraft Dinner, New Westminster Councillors Jaimie McEvoy & Jonathan Cote pulled an all-nighter voting for the Youth Centre in Moody Park in the Kraft Celebration Tour online contest. Thanks to them and others in the community who voted, New Westminster youth won the $25,000 prize! Photo: Angie Torres (via Flickr)

We often hear that New Westminster is a small town, not just in size but in style. And that can be both good and bad. This week, in the Moody Park Youth Centre’s campaign to win a $25,000 grant in an online contest, there was a whole lot of good going around.

It seemed that the whole town pulled together for the youth centre. To win the big prize, New Westminster went head to head with the city of Nelson, both trying to muster the most votes in one day. With no restriction on the number or frequency of votes, the Kraft Celebration Tour contest was as much about passion for the community as population numbers.

Said The Royal City Record about New West’s win:

New Westminster clobbered Nelson – who were hoping to use the cash for an upgrade to their curling club – by a score of 220,531 to 154,709 in the 24 hour contest that ran from 9 a.m. Friday to Saturday. Not bad for a city with an estimated population of around 60,000.

New Westminster rallied for our youth, urging each other on through many emails, tweets, Facebook posts and blogs to cast a vote (or more) for our town. Meanwhile, a group of teens gathered in the library to stay up all night watching movies and vote, vote, vote! City councillors and staff also took time out during the day to vote during coffee breaks and lunch hour. Then, two City councillors, Jonathan Cote and Jaimie McEvoy, saw each other on Facebook that night and upped the ante, challenging each other to pull an all-nighter voting for the youth centre.

Jonathan Cote on Twitter at 3:46 a.m.: "I am going to pay for this tomorrow..."

“We were both getting tired and getting ready to call it quits, so I put out the challange on twitter,” said Jonathan via email. “I thought with two kids under the age of three I would have the edge in staying up through the night.”

The wager? A dinner out with both spouses. The winner would pick the restaurant – and the loser would pick up the tab.

“Jaimie and I would occasionally check on each other on Facebook to make sure we were still up.”

All that time staring at the Kraft logo on the contest screen made both councillors crave Kraft Dinner. Jonathan said he made his around 2 a.m. and Jaimie around 3:30.

“Around 4:30, I thought I would rest my eyes a bit to get my second [wind]. Next thing I knew it, it was 7:30. As per the posts on Facebook, it looks like Jaimie made it to about 6:30. No word on which restuarant Alix and I will be taking Jaimie and Stacy to.”

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We all know someone who knows someone whose house has been broken into several times, or who has witnessed flagrant drug dealing, or seen a new ‘girl’ working 12th St. And then there’s the newspaper crime beat. A New Westminster man was recently arrested (and released on bail) for allegedly sexually assaulting a young woman near a Vancouver SkyTrain Station (and some people misheard it as a rape at 22nd St. Station). Cats were doused in paint thinner. Children were followed by a suspicious man in a truck near a school.

People remember stories, not statistics.

But when people believe their neighbourhoods to be unsafe, things get worse. When people are afraid, they don’t go out on the streets at night. They talk less to strangers (and neighbours). The change in behaviour leads to fewer eyes on the street and weaker neighbourhood ties. We get more crime, not less.

Unfortunately, we humans are just not very good at assessing the relative risk of certain behaviours. We overestimate some (the risk of being assaulted by a stranger when walking at night, for example) and underestimate others (the risk of being injured or killed in a car crash, which is one of the leading causes of non-disease related death).

In an essay on the psychology of security, security technologist and author Bruce Schnier identifies five common reasons why people are so bad at assessing risk:

In other words, ordinary dangers (car crashes, accidents at home) lack the powerful elements of story that make the extraordinary dangers (stranger attack or child abduction by a stranger) so compelling and scary.

Instead of focusing on the (now fewer) accounts of prostitution, drug dealing, and other bad behaviours, let’s focus our energy on things we can control. Clean up graffiti and litter. Be neighbourly. Spend time out on the street. Take care of each other and get involved in our community, and our city will continue to become a better place to live.

Note: this post was inspired by a comment I wrote on the Voice New Westminster blog, on the post by Jan Fialkowski, “Crime Stats Down in the City.” The post was also published as a letter in the Newsleader.

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The new Youth Centre at Moody Park is *thisclose* to winning $25,000 in the Kraft Celebration Tour contest. Up against only one other project in B.C. the youth centre campaign needs your votes to win. In addition to the money, the winning project will also get a live TSN SportsCentre broadcast in the community.

Take a moment please, and vote online during the 24-hour period the contest is open (from Friday, July 23 at 9am to Saturday, July 24 at 8:59am). New Westminster’s Youth Centre @ Moody Park will compete against a curling club project in Nelson, BC.

“While I’m happy to say it is an honour to be chosen as a finalist, I’d be over the moon if our Youth Centre @ Moody Park won this contest,” said Mayor Wayne Wright in a City media release. “Nelson will be tough competition but the community spirit we have in New Westminster gives us the edge.”

The Kraft Celebration Tour allows for multiple voting during the 24 hour voting period.

“I’ll be asking everyone I know to vote for New Westminster on July 23rd,” said Mayor Wright. “It’s something I’ve never said before but I’m happy to say it now: vote early and vote often!”

Information on when and how to vote online will be posted on the city website at www.newwestcity.ca. Voting rules for choosing the Top 10 Communities can be found at kraftcelebrationtour.tsn.ca/promote.

The $25,000 will go towards furnishing and equipping New Westminster’s first civic facility dedicated to youth. The Youth Centre @ Moody Park project was nominated by local resident and Century House member Vance McFadyen.

The winner in the New Westminster – Nelson contest will be announced on TSN’s Sportscentre on July 26. Go Youth Centre, go!

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What do you think of it? We’ll pass on any questions to the City & School Board and let you know what they say.

New secondary school proposal features new performing arts centre

New Westminster, BC — School District #40 and the City of New Westminster have announced a proposed plan that will see a new regional community performing arts centre to replace the existing Massey Theatre included as part of the New Westminster Secondary School replacement project. The announcement came following a thorough discussion process between the School District and the City.

“It’s been a lengthy process and the issues have been complex,” said Mayor Wayne Wright. “The proposed plan will see all major components of the secondary school site maintained with a new high school and state-of-the-art regional community performing arts centre, in addition to new elementary and middle schools delivered for the citizens of New Westminster. We look forward to sharing this exciting concept with the community and getting feedback in the coming weeks.”

As part of the proposed plan, Mercer Stadium would be maintained at the secondary school site and a new field added at the St. Mary’s site.

The proposed plan has been presented to the BC Ministry of Education for initial review. The Ministry feels that the proposal has merit and has encouraged the School District and the City to continue their collaborative efforts to achieve a solution that balances the education needs of students and the broader needs of the community.

The School District and City are planning public information sessions in early September, followed by focused consultation and public workshops. The consultation will take place as part of public consultation regarding inclusion of community programs in schools under the Neighbourhoods of Learning (NOL) program introduced by the Ministry of Education in 2009. Under this program, the School District can receive additional funding to accommodate programs that serve the needs of students and the broader community in new schools.

After these consultations have been completed, the Board of Education and City Council will each consider the findings of the public consultation process and determine whether the proposed plan should move forward.

“We’ve been working hard with the community and the City for a long time, it’s great to see it pay off with this agreement,” said Board Chair James Janzen.”We have 3,000 kids waiting for new schools, and a community that’s been living with uncertainty.”

Once a plan for New Westminster Secondary School is finalized, the school district will be able to proceed with the construction of a new elementary on the St. Mary’s site, a new middle school on the John Robson site and a new high school on the existing NWSS site.

More information on the proposed plan and community consultation process will be forthcoming. Updates will be posted on the School District’s website at www.sd40.bc.ca and on the City website at www.newwestcity.ca.

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Crowds gather to watch E.T. on an outdoor movie screen at Summerfest in Grimston Park. Photo: Harry Pehkonen.

Well, Summerfest in Grimston Park was a great success! Thanks to everyone who came. The turnout surpassed our expectations. We estimated that we had about 500 people at the movie alone, and maybe 1000 over the course of the afternoon. Our sleepy little West End park was packed with happy families!

The organizing committee for the 2010 event (MaryAnn Mortensen, Gavin McLeod, Renee Chadwick from NWPCR & me) are planning to do it again next year. We’d like to hear feedback from those who attended. If you were there, or even if you weren’t, we’d appreciate you letting us know what you liked about this year’s event, and share any suggestions on things we could add or change next year. You can comment on this post, or email us at info@tenthtothefraser.ca.

Here are some photos from the day:

Kids frolicking in the new playground at Grimston. Photo: Briana Tomkinson

Ron Ulrich, performing at Summerfest. Photo: Will Tomkinson.

My family was among many who gathered for a picnic & some playtime in the park before the movie. Photo: Richard Tomkinson.

A happy customer (my husband's second cousin) shows off facepainter Allyson Grant's handiwork. Photo: Will Tomkinson.

Settling in to watch E.T. Photo: Will Tomkinson.

Another view of the movie crowd. Photo: Will Tomkinson.

And here is a slideshow of photos shared on Flickr. If you want to share yours with us, please tag them “Summerfest” and “New Westminster” and they will appear in the slideshow below.

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A bus waits near New Westminster SkyTrain Station. Photo: Dennis Sylvester Hurd (via Flickr)

This week is I Love Transit Week, a celebration of public transportation hosted by TransLink’s The Buzzer blog. Join Buzzer blogger Jhenifer Pabillano and other transit-lovers Thursday, July 15 at The Heritage Grill in New Westminster for an evening meetup with food, games and fun! You can also enter to win a Summer Commuter Prize Pack from TransLink & Tenth to the Fraser.

Odysseus stopped up his ears with beeswax because he knew alone, he would not have the strength to withstand the lure of the sirens’ call. I did the modern green equivalent.

I never intended not to get my driver’s license. When I was eight years old, my mother bought a new Honda, and I remember asking her to hold on to our old car for me, so that I would have my own car to drive when I turned 16. I remember counting down to the magic day when I’d be allowed to get my driver’s license. But a funny thing happened when I finally did turn 16. Life got busy, and I put off writing my learner’s test. Then, at some point after that, my environmental conscience became activated. Suddenly not driving became a point of pride.

Thirteen years later, as I come up on my 29th birthday, it looks like I will finally submit to the pressures of my husband, mother, friends and countless busybodies who have nagged me over the years to get my license. It irks me that people count it as a deficiency not to drive. While there are times when it certainly would have been more convenient, in my mind the karmic debt of adding to the plague of single occupant vehicles in the Lower Mainland outweighed the occasional frustrations. Now, with two kids and an increasingly complicated schedule of to-ing and fro-ing, I am forced to admit that the convenience of driving is sometimes a necessity, and that it is unfair for my husband to always play chauffeur.

Guiltily, I am looking forward to having the freedom to go alone to places not well served by transit. I imagine gaily whisking my children off at the spur of the moment to do wild and wonderful things, singing happy road songs and stopping at a drive-through for cheeky treats along the way. But at the same time, I am fearful of giving in to this perception of ease, forgetting that there is a cost beyond the total at the pump and taking the car for granted.

I’m afraid that freed of my self-imposed limits, I will turn into the kind of lumpen lazybones that drives to the corner store. I get little exercise as it is. I don’t see the sense in driving to the gym so I can spend time on a treadmill when I could be walking my children to Moody Park Pool or muscling the stroller up and down hills to the SkyTrain station. As satisfying as those walks can be, I know if I had the choice to take the car, I would. It’s just too easy to indulge.

Taking transit encourages frugal trip planning. If I can’t bus there, I don’t go. I live only in walkable neighbourhoods. I apply for jobs only on major transit routes. I  plan to complete multiple errands per trip, and challeng myself to use only one bus ticket per trip whenever possible. In a car, the incremental cost of gas isn’t enough of a disincentive to really change transportation behaviour. But even an extra 15 minutes by bus can seem too much to bother. To some people, this might sound a bit masochistic, but it’s no different than a shopaholic freezing credit cards in ice. Sometimes it hurts, but I am convinced that taking the bus is good for me.

And this is (partially) what brought me to New Westminster. When the cost of an extra bedroom priced my husband and I out of the rental market in downtown Vancouver, our relocation choices were constrained by my reliance on public transportation. New Westminster, nexus of the Lower Mainland, was the next best thing to downtown for easy access to the places I needed to go. I miss walking to work, but in a city of just six square miles, I can walk almost anywhere I want to go (though here it really can be uphill both ways!). And yet there are five SkyTrain stations and buses every 15 minutes or less to all the main commercial districts. The commuting time to Vancouver is the same or faster by SkyTrain than by car at rush hour – and I can relax by reading or playing Bejeweled at the same time.

I really do love transit. What can I say? I like to cheer for the underdog. I don’t think people give public transportation the credit (and funding) it’s due. I consider doing without a private vehicle a public good. I am hoping that the 13 years I spent doing without will help fortify me against the lure of easy driving. I may have to swallow my pride and drive the damn car, but I hope to continue my transportation diet of buses, SkyTrains and my own two feet.

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SkyTrain at New Westminster Station; a robust transit system is the sign of a real city (Image courtesy of Richard Eriksson). One of the reasons I moved to New West was for its transit system. I have two Skytrain stations (out of six in total here in New West) and four buses to choose from to get me home from downtown Vancouver, and the surrounding area. That enables my choice of a carless lifestyle - and choice is what modern living is all about.

This week is I Love Transit Week, a celebration of public transportation hosted by TransLink’s The Buzzer blog. Join Buzzer blogger Jhenifer Pabillano and other transit-lovers Thursday, July 15 at The Heritage Grill in New Westminster for an evening meetup with food, games and fun! You can also enter to win a Summer Commuter Prize Pack from TransLink & Tenth to the Fraser.

Listen: A robust transit system is one of the hallmarks of civilization.

One of the things that the Ancient Romans gave to the Western world is a widespread way to get around the whole of their empire. Even then, one of the ways to draw their civilization together lay in a transit system to match the times, to suit the cultural paradigms and economic realities of the day, and to grow with a shifting population. They knew that it is the way to the future.

In the ancient world, it meant roads. And today, it means an affordable, accessible public transit system that runs on clean energy, and stands as a force to change the world for the better.

What? Change the world for the better? Isn’t that overstating things just a bit?

No.

I don’t think it is, actually.

Now, it must be said that I’ve written about the need for public transit systems before elsewhere, particularly in public transit as a green building strategy. And sure, if more of us used public transit, there would be less automobile traffic, and therefore less carbon monoxide in the air, and less need to bore holes in the earth and risk our oceans and other natural habitats to keep those cars on the road.

Nothing against car travel in general, mind. But, what if we didn’t need it? What if our priorities informed by a new vision of the future allowed us to consider petroleum dependence and mandatory multiple automobile ownership to be the remnants of a century gone by? When I said that one of the hallmarks of civilization was a transit system to suit the cultural paradigms and economic realities of the day, and to grow with a shifting population, this is what I meant.

OK, so here’s something to consider. We need to think about how to re-define what it means to live in cities, and in suburbs too, in this 21st Century of ours. Simply put, I think we should leave traffic jams, enormous invisible clouds of exhaust fumes from millions of individual cars, and vast stretches of parking lots to hold those cars out of it as much as is humanly possible.

And again, as much as automobile traffic isn’t intrinsically bad per se, what if we could allow people to move all around their cities without cars, from more points of entry? What if we could do it more efficiently, with less overall cost, with less pollution, and with less dependence on fossil fuels which is becoming a dead end in the sustainable energy stakes?

Here’s something else.

What would happen if public and private sectors got together on this; companies, urban planners, community leaders, elected officials, academics, engineers, and more? What if these people enabled tracks and transportation hubs that could deliver you into the lobby of your building itself, because buildings, stations, and tracks have been entirely integrated into city planning? What if the money you spend on gas and insurance for your car could be split, with some of it supporting that system, and the rest supporting a better holiday, a home improvement project, or greater contributions to your child’s education fund with what’s left over?

Here’s what it comes down to.

When I was a kid, the 21st Century, which was the Future at the time, was imagined as a consumerist’s heaven, with food in pill form, robot maids (which I’d still love, if any scientist eggheads are reading this) and appliances that could grill the perfect steak just by asking it nicely. But, that was a vision imagined in a time where this was what people were thinking most about, to wit; affordable, labour-saving goods.

It was post World War Two during the fabled ‘Baby Boom‘. It was a boom period where consumer goods were concerned, too – like automobiles, folks – which were rolling off assembly lines. At that time, everyone could afford them, unlike during the Great Depression. And unlike now, in an age of increasing gas prices, and at a time of massive environmental damage related to unchecked industry.

The Future as it was imagined was a 20th Century vision of what the 21st Century would be. But, now we’re actually here in the 21st Century. And now that outmoded vision of the future has to change. Thinking about new ways to travel to our jobs, to see our families, to shop, to go on vacations, and to feed economies which are sustainable are the new flying car, folks.

Investment in the emerging technology in sustainable energy, and in turn made practical by a transit system that can support cities and suburbs that are planned around them are the keys to a new vision for what defines this epoch in history. To not invest in public transit is simply behind the times.

The Ancient Romans gave the Western world roads. And it changed the world. We’ve come a long way since all roads led to Rome. Let’s treat our public transit as a necessity, and maybe the road we’re on will lead us into a future we can count on for better communities, better cities, better lives.

TransLink BC is helping us to celebrate I Love Transit Week, July 12-16. Check out the posts to be found on TransLink’s the Buzzer Blog for more information.

5 Songs About Transit

• Trans-Europe Express – Kraftwerk
• IGY – Donald Fagen
• Riding on the Metro – Berlin
• Down in the Tube Station at Midnight – The Jam
• The Day We Caught The Train – Ocean Colour Scene

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Wifi access will be available for up to 15 users per location at Queen’s Park, New Westminster Public Library and the Uptown Business District at 6th Avenue and 6th Street. Access codes for each location are:

• Queen’s Park – 1122
• New Westminster Public Library – 3388
• Uptown Business District – 2233

During the pilot project, users will be limited to Wifi access for one hour per day. Access point hardware and technology is provided by Bell and Motorola.

I asked New Westminster’s Chief Technology Officer Alvin Chok via email about the limitations on access, and this is what he had to say:

Briana: Could you please tell me why the wifi access is limited to only 15 users, and only one hour per day? How is this enforced?

Alvin: Right now, our Internet pipe is via a coupled T-1, which has a limited data capacity of 3 mbs; henceforth, we have to limit the number of concurrent users as well.  However, we are replacing the T-1 with a bigger E-100 pipe (100 mbs) which should be ready by mid-August (according to our telecommunications vendor). We should be able to accommodate more users then.

Users can try out the Wi-fi network for an hour and their sessions will automatically terminate after an hour.  However, we do not strictly enforce the one-hour per day rule. Having said that, we would like to ask our users to be considerate so that others can try it out as well.

Briana: Is the access code entered as a network key, or is it similar to how many airport hot spots work, where users are redirected to a browser page where they must key in a password or sign up for paid service?

Alvin: The user must enter the access code in order to access the Wi-Fi network. It is a login screen via the Datavalet gateway.

Briana: Does the wifi access work with smartphones such as iPhone and iPads? I ask only because I’ve had trouble accessing gated wifi systems using my iPhone, particularly those that rely on an Internet Explorer start page to gain access.

Alvin: Good question – I tried on my Blackberry and it seemed to work without the need to go to Internet Explorer. We have not tested the Ipad yet.

The pilot project will continue until December 2010. Following the pilot project, city staff will evaluate the performance and reliability of the wireless technology, assess user feedback and review potential for improving municipal operation efficiencies. Based on the findings, a recommendation as to whether or not to expand Wifi across the City will be made to City Council for consideration.

In the media release announcing the project, the wifi initiative was described as being part of New Westminster’s long-term “Livable City” strategy to attract businesses, residents and visitors to the Royal City.

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“I have a few friends who despise transit, but I like it! Why NOT pay the discounted UPASS fare and get unlimited travel around our great city?! It’s so fun travelling via transit when special events are happening because you could meet to many people it’s crazy; Olympics, Canada Day, etc. I also like the texting feature where they will text you times for the next bus; it’s super helpful. The bus is where you don’t need an excuse to not do homework, stress, worry about life…it’s my down time to just reflect. Some bus drivers are awesome characters! GO TRANSIT.”

Thanks everyone for playing – and sharing what you love about public transportation! The winner was picked via a random number generator.

Photo: Waferboard (via Flickr)

This week is I Love Transit Week over at the Buzzer Blog. TransLink blogger Jhenifer Pabillano describes it as “a low key but sincere celebration of what people like about transit (even though there’s much we don’t like!)” All this week, The Buzzer Blog will be publishing essays, photos and interviews about transit, and you’ll see some of these also in the printed edition of the August Buzzer on SkyTrain and buses.

Tenth to the Fraser will be participating too. Look for two pieces related to transit in New Westminster to be published this week, one from me and one from frequent contributor Rob Jones. Transit and transportation is a huge issue here at the nexus of the Lower Mainland, so if you feel inspired to, feel free to submit a guest post about your take on the issues. You might also like to re-read Rob’s piece about his daughter’s love for Columbia SkyTrain Station and perhaps visit the current library exhibit illustrating New Westminster’s transportation history.

Then, on Thursday, July 15, Jhenifer is hosting an evening transit meetup called I Love Transit Night at New Westminster’s Heritage Grill. “I Love Transit Night” will feature food, fun and games. Here’s a link showing last year’s live meetup.

Plus, The Buzzer has offered us a Summer Commuter Prize Pack to give away to our readers. To win, just leave a comment on this post sharing an anecdote or commentary that illustrates what you like about public transportation. We’ll pick a winner via random draw at the end of I Love Transit Week and announce it on the blog. (Please be sure to leave a valid email address in the comment form so that we are able to contact you if you win!)

The prize pack is a tote bag filled with stuff for a summer commute, including:

• TravelSmart tote bag
• TravelSmart water bottle
• Personal hand-held fan
• Travel pillow
• Mini puzzle for passing the time
• A granola bar snack
• Vanity Fair magazine
• 2010 Olympic transportation map
• Transit stickers and buttons
• 3-zone bus pass (available after July 16)

If you’re in the mood to read more about transit in New Westminster, here are a few more good reads from our archives:

• The law of Maximum Transit Wait Time (according to local blogger Waferboard)
• New West SkyTrain safety stats challenge assumptions
• Cote goes car-free (about the week councillor Jonathan Cote bused, biked or walked everywhere)
• Jen Arbo’s Pedestrian thoughts

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At the event, you will learn:

• the easiest and safest way you can lose the baby weight quickly and forever
• how your metabolism has been keeping your weight on and how to overcome it
• the single most important person that is impeding your weight loss goals

The event is Friday, July 16 from 10am to 11am at Thank You Mommy Wellness Center, 52 6th Street, New Westminster.

Call 604-831-2080 to register (I am told there are only a few spaces left).

Thank You Mommy Wellness offers group fitness classes in New Westminster for pregnant women as well as exercises new mums can do with their babies to shed pregnancy weight.

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Shadows & Dreams presents William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Saturdays & Sundays at 2pm from July 17 to August 1 at the Queens Park Bandshell.

Vancouver may have Bard on the Beach, but New Westminster has Bard in the Park, and it’s free to boot.

Shadows & Dreams Theatre Company returns to the Queens Park Bandshell every Saturday & Sunday at 2pm from July 17 to August 1 to perform William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

Here’s a summary of the plot of Twelfth Night, according to Wikipedia:

Like many of Shakespeare’s comedies, this one centres on mistaken identity. The leading character, Viola, is shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria during the opening scenes. She loses contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, whom she believes is dead. Masquerading as a young page under the name Cesario, she enters the service of Duke Orsino through the help of the sea captain who rescues her. Orsino is in love with the bereaved Lady Olivia, whose father and brother have recently died, and who will have nothing to do with any suitors, the Duke included. Orsino decides to use “Cesario” as an intermediary to tell Olivia about his love for her. Olivia, believing Viola to be a man, falls in love with this handsome and eloquent messenger. Viola, in turn, has fallen in love with the Duke, who also believes Viola is a man, and who regards her as his confidant.

Set in the Regency period in England, Twelfth Night is fast, witty and full of biting humour. Shadows & Dreams calls the play a ‘masterpiece of disguise, deception and desire.’

Twelfth Night is part of the New Westminster Parks and Recreation Sunday Summer Revue. For more information on the other Summer Revue productions call the Parks Info Hotline at 604-527-4634 for schedule information or visit www.nwpr.bc.ca.

In brief:

• What:
• Where: Queen’s Park Bandshell, New Westminster (For directions visit: http://www.nwpr.bc.ca/parks)
• When: 2pm, Saturday July 17th, 24th, 31st & Sunday July 18th, 25th, August 1st. Performances are rain or shine – if there’s an audience there’s a show.
• Tickets: Free! (Come early to score the best seats)
• More info: call 604-515-0704 or visit www.shadowsanddreams.org

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Exploring the new playground at Grimston Park, on 7th Ave. at 19th St. in New Westminster. Photo: Briana Tomkinson

Bring your swimsuits and a picnic blanket to Grimston Park on Saturday, July 17 for Summerfest, a new community celebration in New Westminster’s West End. Enjoy a family-friendly evening of play and live music, shop the mini-Farmer’s Market, and finish the evening off with a special free screening of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial under the stars.

The festival kicks off at 4 p.m. with the opening of the mini-Farmer’s Market, run by the Royal City Farmer’s Market, featuring fresh produce, artisan bread, hot samosas, unique beer-infused hot dogs and more. Papa Dave’s Pizza will sell fresh pizza on site, and Village Coffee Lounge will offer coffee by donation.

Summerfest will feature free live music including Royal City Farmers Market favourites Ross Werlick on steel guitar, Chris Messytone on accordion, Ron Ulrich’s classic pop-rock covers, blues band Delta Blue, and folk singer-songwriter Gillian Hobbs.

Grimston Park boasts a brand-new playground for kids to explore, as well as a large wading pool, open late this day only. There will also be water play activities and kids’ crafts led by New Westminster Parks, Culture & Recreation staff and preschool activities by School District 43’s Strong Start program. Kids and grown-ups can also lend a hand in completing the final piece in an award-winning series of mosaic art installations on 12th St.

Finally, at 9:30 p.m., families will gather on the grass to munch on free popcorn from Community Savings Credit Union and enjoy the classic Steven Spielberg film E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial and view the Fraser Fest fireworks.

As the only public gathering place in the West End, Grimston Park is the heart of the community, says Summerfest organizer MaryAnn Mortensen.

“For me, Grimston Park is the West End’s meeting place for adults, kids, nature and dog lovers alike,” says Mortensen. “It’s so much more than a park, it’s a place to connect with others.”

Summerfest is brought to you by Tenth to the Fraser, the West End Residents’ Association, the West End Business Association and New Westminster Parks, Culture & Recreation.

Sponsors of the festival include Derrick Thornhill from Park Georgia Realty, The New Westminster Newsleader, Community Savings Credit Union, and New Westminster MLA Dawn Black.

IN BRIEF:
WHAT: Summerfest in Grimston Park, a community picnic & celebration featuring a free screening of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, live music, mini-Farmer’s Market and children’s activities.
WHEN: July 17, 2010 from 4-11:30pm
WHERE: Grimston Park, 7th Ave. at 19th St., New Westminster

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Pattullo Bridge construction, circa 1936/1937. Photo: Tomkinson family archives

Get a glimpse of New Westminster’s transportation history from 1900 to 1990 through a collection of historic photographs on display now at the library.

‘Trains, Trams & Automobiles’ is an ongoing exhibit with pictures of transportation and related infrastructure in New Westminster drawn from the library’s Historic Photograph collection. Included in the display are photos of steamships, bicycles, airplanes, filling stations, and the construction of the SkyTrain.

I just love looking at old photographs. I’ve whiled away hours surfing the New West Historical Photograph collection online. Will’s family also has a collection of vintage photographs from New Westminster’s early days, such as the one on the right showing the Pattullo Bridge construction.

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18-month-old Wesley shows off an autumn 'treasure' found at Grimston Park. Photo: Briana Tomkinson

New Westminster Museum & Archvies’ Rob McCullough is working on creating an interpretive panel about the history of Grimston Park to be unveiled at the inaugural Summerfest in Grimston Park, Saturday, July 17. Rob is currently seeking photos, stories and comments from those who have enjoyed the park over the years since it opened. Please comment on this post, share photos on our Facebook page, or email your comments to rjmcculloch@newwestcity.ca if you’d like to participate.

For 150 years the City of New Westminster has achieved much to be proud of. Mainly through the dedicated efforts of City residents like Douglas Grimston, New Westminster can boast a broad variety of green spaces, parks, arenas and playing fields. Many of these spaces would not exist had he not decided to act as a community voice; speaking to the needs of the City for healthy recreation opportunities. The City acknowledged this by renaming a park after Grimston in 1955.

West End residents rally in 2008 to preserve Grimston Park after word gets out that it could be the site of a new school. Photo: Will Tomkinson

Just over 50 years later a group of New Westminster residents rallied together to save Grimston Park as it might become the site for a new school. Their voice was heard and today the park is experiencing a renewal. The new adventure park with its play structures are being unveiled on July 17, 2010 and the voices of those residents who rallied to save the park should be heard alongside the rest of its story.

Our City’s history is the voice of its community and dedicated residents. All too often key components of our story have been missed or overlooked simply because no one thought to record them. Please take some time to put a few brief sentences together on what Grimston Park means to you and your family. These words will become part of the legacy you leave behind as members of our community. If you have any images of you and your family enjoying Grimston Park or rallying to save it please include them with your words so they might be incorporated into our interpretive panel for the park opening on July 17th.

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