From my friend Rudy Carrasco Let me cite David Batstone’s defense of an instance of child labor, from a June 2003 issue of SojoMail, as an example. Batstone shows how, in the light of day, the concept of and need for “just child labor” emerges out of on-the-ground necessity. In his article, he writes about [...]
urban
The State of the Debate on Housing Right Now in Saskatchewan
This comes from a December 14, 2011 Question Period in the Legislature. Direct from Hansard Ms. Chartier Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Social Services has been housing many people in hotels like the Coachman, the Sunrise and the Quality Inn in Regina. There’s been one man who’s had to call the Coachman home for [...]
Bike Friendly Los Angeles
A guide to cycling in the most car driven cities in the world, Los Angeles Los Angles’ reputation as a car-only town has been cracking for years, and recently that reputation may have crumbled for good. The much hyped “Carmageddon” (in which a section of the 405 freeway was closed down for a day) did [...]
Mexico City trashes it’s garbage problem
Interesting article on how Mexico City has become so successful in reducing waste that it is closing it’s largest landfill. Mexico City will close one of the world’s largest garbage dumps by Dec. 31 and will instead turn the garbage from millions of people into reusable materials and energy, MayorMarcelo Ebrard announced Monday. Some 700 [...]
Occupy Saskatoon
Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer I was down to the Occupy Saskatoon quite a few times trying to help them out with men and women who were homeless and staying there. Since I normally have a camera of some sort with me, I snapped a couple of photos when I down during daylight hours.
Column: Homeless need not just shelter
My latest in The StarPhoenix I enjoy winters in Saskatoon. There is Wintershines, the Meewasin skating rink, turning down Blades tickets because I don’t want to drive out to the Credit Union Centre, and reminiscing about when Blackstrap used to be open. No matter how cold it is at the end of the day, I [...]
10 Empties U.S. Cities
Anyone home? Anyone at all? One of the unfortunate results of a bad housing market is an increase in vacant homes, which has grown by 43.8 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Homes can be vacant for a number of reasons, but are defined as both rental inventory that are unoccupied and [...]
The Junction
Sean Shaw uncovers to things about the City of Saskatoon. The first is the City is looking at redeveloping The Junction. The Junction concept plan seeks to link together major redevelopment projects in three Saskatoon core areas by recommending public realm improvements, identifying future uses for vacant/contaminated lands, increasing investor confidence, and synchronize past studies [...]
The role of the arts in building a great city
The Mayor of Calgary has headed east to tout the virtues of living in Calgary. In his speech in Toronto Tuesday night, Nenshi discussed a host of promising cultural projects and investments into artistic spaces in Calgary, including the construction of Canada’s National Music Centre, a new downtown branch for the city’s public library and [...]
Need Help with School Supplies? The Salvation Army Can Help
This is modified post that I posted at the Salvation Army weblog. The last couple of years the Salvation Army Community Services has been collecting and distributing school supplies for families who need some help in getting their children ready for school. This year The StarPhoenix helped our cause with a great article about what we [...]
The Problem with City Centre Church
This isn’t a theological post so don’t worry. It’s actually about urban design and it’s a problem that Safeway/City of Saskatoon created, City Centre Church just inherited. For those of you who don’t know, City Centre Church bought an old Safeway store on 20th Street. I walk by periodically and something about it has really [...]
