Friday Feature: Shop your ward
Last week, Shawn Fraser, Executive Director of Carmichael Outreach announced that he would be running for the Ward 3 seat on Regina’s City Council this fall. To kick off his campaign, Shawn issued a shop local challenge to himself and his family – they have committed to only shopping at businesses in Ward 3 for the next month. He also invited all Ward 3 residents to join him. So, this week our Friday Feature is Shop Your Ward!
Political campaigns aside, I think this initiative is great. When citizens support local businesses it builds an understanding of and a commitment to the place they live, it provides opportunities for neighbours to meet and share information, and it helps to promote the development of mixed-use, complete communities (something citizens have said they want to see more of during the Design Regina process).
I think it would be great to see people doing this all over the city! By shopping in your ward (both at small local shops and at chain stores), you are supporting a service in your community instead of pushing it to go elsewhere. Keeping businesses and amenities in neighbourhoods helps to encourage new patterns of development and may even encourage other small businesses to take root.
So to start off this lovely May weekend, I’d like to extend Shawn’s challenge to all citizens of Regina. Take the next month and try to shop exclusively in your ward. Visit your old standby shops (your local corner stores and coffee hangouts), but also take the time to dig deeper and find new or lesser-known shops as well. It might even help you to identify what services are missing in your local community that you can advocate for!
We here at RUE want to know what you find! Perhaps we can start a google map of local shops for citizens to share!
I too will be taking up the challenge from my temporary home here in Toronto. I just looked up my local ward and will be doing my best to shop within it – I’ll need to do some research to find the more affordable shops in the area… though I suppose there is always Honest Ed’s! ;)
Have a great weekend!
** mouse over images for credit info.
Transportation Plan
New roads but do they promote all transportation types?
This week the city and consultants IBI are holding open houses to discuss Regina’s transportation Master Plan. There are two remaining meetings from 11am to 3pm at the Southland Mall on Friday and again the same time at Victoria Square Mall Saturday. Here‘s the Leader Post’s reflections from the first open house Wednesday.
If you can’t attend an open house you can still provide feedback to the Design Regina website.
This is a great opportunity to let the city know that active transportation options must be promoted in Regina. If different planning processes, like the Transportation Master Plan or OCP, continually show that people want improved active transportation resources in the city, its more likely citizens will begin to see changes.
Village of North Regina
Here are some pictures from the Jane’s Walk I lead around the Village of North Regina at the beginning of May. It was a very wet afternoon and unfortunately the group got soaked. There was even time for hail which, luckily, we were able to shelter from. When the walk continued, washed out conditions meant tricky footing the participants. Periods of sun and then more showers followed.
Back in the saddle
I can’t believe it – my first year of the Masters of Urban Planning (MUP) program at McGill is done! It has been a whirlwind to say the least and, while I’m excited to have the summer away from classes, I am already a little sad that this adventure is half done.
This year has been fantastic. McGill’s School of Urban Planning is really great – inspiring faculty, challenging classes, and really amazing students. It’s hard to believe that 8 months ago we all arrived as strangers and worked our way through polite, formal conversations about our favourite planning related topics. Now I can’t imagine not having all of these people in my life to talk transportation, design, and even planning law with… there are, of course, some really nerdy (read: fantastic) planning jokes thrown into the mix as well. Seriously. If I could love these people more, I would!
McGill School of Urban Planning class of 2013 or, more affectionately, the MUPpets!
McGill’s program is small (there are only about 24 of us in each year), which creates a real sense of family and camaraderie. The school strives to bring a diverse range of students into the program. Some come from engineering, architecture, and geography (what would be considered natural matches for planning), but there are also those with backgrounds in linguistics, classical history, marketing, economics, environmental biology, and music composition. Each person brings a really interesting perspective to the program, our projects, and larger discussions related (and not related) to urban planning. It has made for an extremely rich learning experience and I know that next year will just get better.
For now we are all off to complete our summer internships (a requisite part of the program) – and are all going in many directions both geographically and with the types of projects we’ll be working on. We have students interning in Amsterdam, Croatia, and Burma as well as many of us sprinkled across the US and Canada working on projects with municipal planning departments, private consultants, and developers. I can’t wait to hear about each person’s experience… and I hope to share it with you as well! I’ll be soliciting updates from my colleagues throughout the summer with hopefully a few pictures and thoughts from their adventures.
For me, I’ll be spending my summer working for IBI Group, a consulting company with offices in many cities around the world. Most of my time will be in Toronto but I will actually have a bit of time back in Regina! I’ll be working on a range of projects, including the downtown transportation work that IBI is currently undertaking in the Queen City. I can’t wait to be challenged in new ways and hopefully put my new skills to the test. I’m also looking forward to reading books that are not completely related to school (though I have packed Jan Gehl’s ‘Life between buildings‘ to read…I couldn’t resist).
I am also looking forward to having more time to dedicate to RUE over the summer. It has been difficult to balance everything over the last 8 months, but I’m glad to get back on the horse and keep the conversation going.
Here’s to a great summer ahead of us!
Sunday afternoon, April 29th, the Cathedral Sparks kicked off Jane’s Walks 2012. The group of 5 and 6-year-old girl guides, lead by Sparks leader Karen Meagher, spent time reflecting on their favourite things in their neighbourhood. The walk began with a recording of conversations between the Sparks and Karen while they were drawing images from their neighbourhood. The group, about 35 people, then went walking through Cathedral, down 13th Avenue and ending up along the dike at the southern end of the neighbourhood.
Regina’s Jane’s Walk Take Four!
Over the next few weeks we at RUE are making our final rounds to remind everyone to come out to Regina’s 4th Annual Jane’s Walk. The main Jane’s Walk weekend takes place over May 5 and 6 in neighbourhoods across Regina and across the world. Walks go rain or shine so come prepared (comfy shoes, clothes for warm (or cool) weather, etc. For more info about Jane’s Walk in general, you can check here and here.
For our 4th year we have a few fun things going on:
1) As a pre-Jane’s Walk weekend we have a very special walk being led by our youngest guides yet. This weekend on April 29, at 1pm the Cathedral Sparks (Girl Guides) will be leading participants around to show them their favourite places in their neighbourhood. It is a unique opportunity to get a girl’s eye view of what is important. Remember, this walk takes place a week before the official weekend – April 29, 1pm… mark your calendars.
2) Martin Gourlie, one solid half of the RUE team is leading a walk in the former village of North Regina. This should be interesting – it is an area of the city that I imagine few people frequent and likely fewer people know the history of. Martin has done some digging and you should go check out what he’s found.
3) As part of the 100th anniversary of Connaught School, there will be a tour about the school and the community.
4) We also have a little piece of exciting news – Dennie Fornwald’s Silent Midnight Walk in the Heritage Community has be listed as one of the Top-10 Original and Offbeat Tours to check out by Projects for Public Spaces out of New York!
For a full list of all the wonderful walks taking places in Regina this year, click here.
Connaught School Discussion
Wednesday, April 18th there is a community meeting hosted by parents at Connaught school, located on Elphinstone and 13th avenue. Parents want to discuss and hear how the community feels about building a new school or renovating the existing building.
I attended the P3 Architects’ presentation at the April 4th consultation (see this by Trish Elliott) meeting and during that initial part, there was no mention of renovation. The presentation focused on new types of learning environments and school structures rather than present options for reuse/renewal. It would seem people must act quickly to register a desire for retention of the original building because removing it, at least from the consultation, felt like an inevitability.
The meeting starts at 7pm and will be held in the nutrition room which can be accessed from the Wise Owl entrance on the northwest side of the building.
Rosemont Court
Tuesday evening (April 3rd) I attended an open house at the Rosewood Park Alliance Church, the former St. Patrick’s Elementary school and the site of a proposed new housing development (City and leader post). THis project is notable because the developer, Newrock Developments, is partnering with Classic Communities to provide mortgage assistance to buyers as was done with the Eastgate Villas development last year.
There will be 78 town-house style units in three different sizes, two to three bedrooms, all more than 1000 sqft. The cost is estimated between $240 000 and $260 000, but Classic Communities provides money towards the mortgage down-payment, providing assistance in home ownership.
The Future of Connaught Community School
Today we have a guest post by Trish Elliott about the future of The Connaught Community School. Enjoy!
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By Trish Elliott
École Connaught Community School, located on Elphinstone and 13th, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012. For the past year, students, community organizations and parents have been engaged in exploring and celebrating the school’s cultural and architectural heritage. A big community festival is planned for Sept. 29-30 on the school grounds, which in recent years have been transformed by community volunteers into an urban park for all to enjoy.
Meanwhile, the Regina Public School Board board invited citizens to attend a meeting in the school gym on April 4. Their notice stated “examples of 21st Century schools will be provided,” followed by further meetings “where decisions as to the future facility will be made.”
The major question is whether the century-old building will undergo a major renovation, or whether it will be simply demolished and replaced with a modern structure.
The contracted consultant is P3Architecture, the same firm heading up the Regina Public Library and Crescent Apartments projects. Looking at it optimistically, this could be an excellent opportunity to establish a new model for how we treat schools in Regina – one that respects local heritage and recognizes the considerable environmental and economic benefits of renovation. With its wide hallways and thick foundations, Connaught is as good a candidate for renovation as any school could be.
This won’t be an easy corner to turn, however. For starters, P3A’s project gallery shows no examples of previous heritage restorations, although representative James Youk said the firm does have renovation work on its resume, and that they have a highly qualified heritage architect on their team.
Certainly respect for the existing built environment was high on the minds of many meeting participants. However, the process by which this input will go forward remains unclear. Both P3A and board officials stated no decisions will be made, despite what the earlier public notice said.
Instead, the option of either a rebuild or a renovation will be placed before the Ministry for final arbitration. It was explained the options will be cost-only – meaning numbers will rule, not community sentiment. How the numbers are put together – what gets valued and what doesn’t get valued – becomes highly important in this situation.
Cathedral Area residents have never done well by sitting back and putting their fate in the hands of others to decide. One of the questions that arose was why the consultant must put forward a rebuild option, if there is a clear community preference for renovation of the existing structure. The answer seemed to be ‘just because.’
Active citizen participation at the next meeting – Thursday, April 26, 7 p.m. in the school gym – is crucial for shaping what kind of recommendation goes forward, and for monitoring how engineering and heritage assessments will be interpreted.
From the provincial level down to local school boards, the system is highly biased toward endless cycles of demolition and new construction. The bias was clear even in the discussion of school grounds, when a board representative stated the board will create and maintain green spaces and playgrounds for new builds, although it does not do so for its existing buildings (Parents raise funds and cut the grass, with the City of Regina chipping in matching grants).
New buildings are easier to deconstruct, making school removals a simpler process. In public comments, both the province and Regina Public have let it be known that school buildings should not last more than 50 years. The board has shown a preference for single-storey large-footprint construction to replace compact older buildings. As well, a new engineer’s report declares Connaught will become unsafe within five years. This provides a strong tool for convincing the school community that the century-old building must come down ‘for the sake of the children.’
The board generally defends unpopular decisions by saying it’s ‘all about the children.’
But the future of Connaught School is also all about the surrounding community, all about the city, and all about establishing sound fix-it-first policies that protect the public interest.
At issue is ongoing neglect of public buildings and chronic under-funding of the activities that go on inside them – a problem certainly not restricted to the education sector. Meanwhile, tremendous resources go into sod-turnings for new buildings that will face their own neglected future until someone declares them unfit, unleashing the next round of multi-million-dollar tenders.
As a historic school, Connaught offers its students and surrounding community cultural and educational value that cannot be replaced at any price. It provides a green, community-built public space that will most certainly be engulfed by new construction. Anchoring one end of the city’s most significant heritage corridor, its future is important to all Regina citizens.
Scheduled meetings are open to all. Here are some helpful resources for those who are interested in historic schools:
Our Living Legacy (short video)
Renovate or Replace? The Case for Restoring and Reusing Older School Buildings
Historic School Renovation Success Stories
Older and Historic Schools: Restoration or Replacement and the Role of the Feasibility Study
Renovating Schools: Good for the Pocketbook and Good for the Soul
A Community Guide to Saving Older Schools
How to Save Your Historic School: 10 Action Steps
Design Regina Meeting
Tuesday there were three design Regina meetings at the Artesian on 13th Avenue to discuss Strategic Priorities from the OCP process. You can view the slide deck for the presentation on the Design Regina website (here).
If you want to participate in the discussion, there is a survey you can fill out(here). Survey’s are due by April 3rd, any submitted by the deadline will be included in the report to Executive Committee on April 25th and then on to City Council on April 30th. If you want to present at Council, contact the City Clerk’s office by calling 777-7000 or submit an Online Request Form, the Clerk’s office will contact you with information. You can find information on presenting as a delegation from the City website (here).
For a review of the meeting, continue past the jump.
