Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Remembering James Orr Baxter
You can find lots of interesting things on the Internet, even the sign up sheets for J.O. Baxter, a 19 year old Scottish boy living in Winnipeg in 1916. His family had only come over in 1913 but in 1916 he was ready to go home to fight for his country. (Whether that was Scotland, England or Canada I do not know. I do not know if he knew.) JO signed up for adventure and he found it. The 12th Field Ambulance, a primitive MASH unit, left Winnipeg after quick training and was sent to France and Belgium. There they were gassed, shot at and shelled in many battles. JO was injured by a shell while carrying a stretcher and sent over the Channel to England to recuperate and flirt with pretty nurses. He spent the rest of the war working on hospital ships going back and forth between England and Canada. A letter from a nurse in Boston shows he got around pretty well despite his leg wounds. He came home after the war, took agricultural training at the U of M, froze on an Interlake sheep farm and soon found his way back to Winnipeg as an Orange Crush salesman on Fort Street. He married a young Scottish girl who lived a few doors down on Fort Street and spent the Second World War in the Divisional Hospital scrounging black market goods to take home in his bicycle bag. Perhaps not the best soldier, JO was a much better grandfather. Today I remember him.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Happy 40th, Sesame Street
You heard it this morning on CBC 2. Now see it on Youtube.
R.E.M. - Furry Happy Monsters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7_xzAWLv-g
R.E.M. - Furry Happy Monsters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7_xzAWLv-g
Monday, November 9, 2009
Seizing the day: Winnipegger Will Barmeier
Dear Friends
November 9th, 1989 ! The fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism and I was there. Raise a glass with me and let’s celebrate the good life.
Will Barmeier
Friday, October 30, 2009
Not in my backyard, please.
On Monday night the Riel Community Committee will deliberate an application by Terracon Development to create a mini-warehouse storage facility at the southern end of St. Anne’s Rd . The old trailer park that they want to develop is almost at the Perimeter Highway. Their 100,000 sq. ft. facility will consist of four one-story buildings. City Planning maintains that it has always been of the view that “the subject location would be suitable for a private storage facility, primarily because of the proximity to the Perimeter Highway.” That certainly seems plausible at first read. Local businesses on Aimes Rd., a nearby street in St. Boniface, also access the Perimeter. Semis and large trucks can pull off of the Number I Highway bypass to easily offload their cargo with no disruption to the local residents. The case of 1341 St. Anne’s Rd is a bit more complicated than that, as you shall soon see.
While St. Anne’s Rd. is in St. Vital (Gord Steeves’ ward) over 30 of the three dozen current inhabitants of Creek Bend Rd. and Sioux Rd. West live in St. Boniface (Dan Vandal’s ward). Mr. Vandal is therefore not a disinterested party in this zoning change. The third councillor, Fort Garry’s Justin Swandel is probably full aware that Sentinel Self-Storage at 3101 Pembina Highway in his ward is one comparable to the Terracon facility. Like Terracon it is almost adjacent to a major route, the Perimeter Highway. Sadly, that is where the comparison between the two projects ends.
Sentinel Self-Storage is currently zoned INWWH – Warehouse. In this case a self storage warehouse is zoned as just that, a warehouse. It has a long narrow entrance that leads directly off of Pembina Highway. So what of the Terracon development?
The City has decided that the new warehouse is to be a “ ‘C-3’ Commercial Corridor Zoning classification which is intended primarily for uses that provide services to residents of the community in areas that are dependant on good automobile and truck access. These types of commercial uses are subject to frequent view by the public and visitors to Winnipeg and therefore should provide an attractive appearance with a higher level of landscaping, good access and modified signage. The subject site is deemed to be an appropriate location for the identified use.”
Will the proposed facility open off of the Perimeter Highway? No. Will it enter off of Harrison Road, the currently unused gravel road fronting the Perimeter? No. Will it enter off of St. Anne’s Rd, as the trailer park had done for many decades? No. Surprisingly, the facility will be accessed off of Creek Bend Rd., a currently graveled road slated to be paved at its St. Anne’s intersection next year by developer Pre-Con Construction for the 232 unit Oxbow on the Seine condominium project. The semi-trailers, 3 tons and pickup trucks using the four warehouses will enter the complex through a rapidly growing condominium area at the leading edge of South St. Vital’s advancing suburban sprawl.
Of the 4 large lots lying between the Seine River and St. Anne’s Rd. one is being developed (Oxbow), two are for sale and one is owned by an absentee American-based landlord presumably waiting for the necessary utilities to reach his property. In 5 years there may very well be over 600 condominiums on this block, with well over a thousand residents. This is high density to say the least. The Oxbow project is not being marketed to sedentary seniors. It is being marketed to young people who want an affordable home minutes away from the Number 1 bypass and the fastest route to lake country. The new entrance to Creek Bend will access St. Anne’s Rd, currently a two lane blacktop just south of the recently twinned section. Already there are long lines of traffic waiting to turn at the Perimeter on holiday weekends, blocking access to Creek Bend. An extra thousand St. Vital residents will soon be using this non-signalized turnoff. If ever a developer decides to continue the Royalwood subdivision in St. Boniface the old, narrow one lane bridge over the Seine to St. Boniface will probably be converted into a bicycle bridge for the expanding trail system in South St. Vital. This would make Creek Bend Rd. into a cul-de-sac, with but one way in and one way out. Semis and large trucks from the Perimeter turning right off of St. Annes’ Rd. and right again onto the spur to 1341 St. Anne’s Rd will encounter users of the new bike trails going to River Park South and the thousand new residents coming home from work in their cars. It will not be a pretty meeting.
Definition: Gerrymander - to adapt to one’s advantage, manipulate
It is sad when a long time landowner becomes landlocked by the Province’s rights of way for future clover-leafs, especially if that cloverleaf will probably never be built. It is sad when a landowner is unable to sell his property for the price that he thinks that it deserves. The question is; do the present and future residents of Creek Bend Rd. have to share their bedroom community with heavy truck traffic entering their community to correct that wrong? Are they responsible for maximizing the profit for the owner of 1341 St. Anne’s Rd.? If the City is short of vacant commercial space suitable for offloading trucks in South St. Vital, are the future Creek Bend residents responsible? If their many cars prevent semis from making their needed wide turns onto Creek Bend, are they responsible? If they block truck traffic with their bicycles, are they responsible? Of course not. If a C-3 property is truly “dependant on good automobile and truck access”, who would be in the wrong here, the developer for asking for a gerrymandered road to access a landlocked lot through a densely populated neighbourhood, or the officials who approved it? I say that both of them are in the wrong
The Riel Community has the opportunity to kill this project on Monday evening. They should do so without delay and without any remorse. This is bad idea whose time will never come, especially after Creek Bend Rd. is developed over the next five years. The people of South Winnipeg deserve much better than this. This is 2009, not 1979, after all.
While St. Anne’s Rd. is in St. Vital (Gord Steeves’ ward) over 30 of the three dozen current inhabitants of Creek Bend Rd. and Sioux Rd. West live in St. Boniface (Dan Vandal’s ward). Mr. Vandal is therefore not a disinterested party in this zoning change. The third councillor, Fort Garry’s Justin Swandel is probably full aware that Sentinel Self-Storage at 3101 Pembina Highway in his ward is one comparable to the Terracon facility. Like Terracon it is almost adjacent to a major route, the Perimeter Highway. Sadly, that is where the comparison between the two projects ends.
Sentinel Self-Storage is currently zoned INWWH – Warehouse. In this case a self storage warehouse is zoned as just that, a warehouse. It has a long narrow entrance that leads directly off of Pembina Highway. So what of the Terracon development?
The City has decided that the new warehouse is to be a “ ‘C-3’ Commercial Corridor Zoning classification which is intended primarily for uses that provide services to residents of the community in areas that are dependant on good automobile and truck access. These types of commercial uses are subject to frequent view by the public and visitors to Winnipeg and therefore should provide an attractive appearance with a higher level of landscaping, good access and modified signage. The subject site is deemed to be an appropriate location for the identified use.”
Will the proposed facility open off of the Perimeter Highway? No. Will it enter off of Harrison Road, the currently unused gravel road fronting the Perimeter? No. Will it enter off of St. Anne’s Rd, as the trailer park had done for many decades? No. Surprisingly, the facility will be accessed off of Creek Bend Rd., a currently graveled road slated to be paved at its St. Anne’s intersection next year by developer Pre-Con Construction for the 232 unit Oxbow on the Seine condominium project. The semi-trailers, 3 tons and pickup trucks using the four warehouses will enter the complex through a rapidly growing condominium area at the leading edge of South St. Vital’s advancing suburban sprawl.
Of the 4 large lots lying between the Seine River and St. Anne’s Rd. one is being developed (Oxbow), two are for sale and one is owned by an absentee American-based landlord presumably waiting for the necessary utilities to reach his property. In 5 years there may very well be over 600 condominiums on this block, with well over a thousand residents. This is high density to say the least. The Oxbow project is not being marketed to sedentary seniors. It is being marketed to young people who want an affordable home minutes away from the Number 1 bypass and the fastest route to lake country. The new entrance to Creek Bend will access St. Anne’s Rd, currently a two lane blacktop just south of the recently twinned section. Already there are long lines of traffic waiting to turn at the Perimeter on holiday weekends, blocking access to Creek Bend. An extra thousand St. Vital residents will soon be using this non-signalized turnoff. If ever a developer decides to continue the Royalwood subdivision in St. Boniface the old, narrow one lane bridge over the Seine to St. Boniface will probably be converted into a bicycle bridge for the expanding trail system in South St. Vital. This would make Creek Bend Rd. into a cul-de-sac, with but one way in and one way out. Semis and large trucks from the Perimeter turning right off of St. Annes’ Rd. and right again onto the spur to 1341 St. Anne’s Rd will encounter users of the new bike trails going to River Park South and the thousand new residents coming home from work in their cars. It will not be a pretty meeting.
Definition: Gerrymander - to adapt to one’s advantage, manipulate
It is sad when a long time landowner becomes landlocked by the Province’s rights of way for future clover-leafs, especially if that cloverleaf will probably never be built. It is sad when a landowner is unable to sell his property for the price that he thinks that it deserves. The question is; do the present and future residents of Creek Bend Rd. have to share their bedroom community with heavy truck traffic entering their community to correct that wrong? Are they responsible for maximizing the profit for the owner of 1341 St. Anne’s Rd.? If the City is short of vacant commercial space suitable for offloading trucks in South St. Vital, are the future Creek Bend residents responsible? If their many cars prevent semis from making their needed wide turns onto Creek Bend, are they responsible? If they block truck traffic with their bicycles, are they responsible? Of course not. If a C-3 property is truly “dependant on good automobile and truck access”, who would be in the wrong here, the developer for asking for a gerrymandered road to access a landlocked lot through a densely populated neighbourhood, or the officials who approved it? I say that both of them are in the wrong
The Riel Community has the opportunity to kill this project on Monday evening. They should do so without delay and without any remorse. This is bad idea whose time will never come, especially after Creek Bend Rd. is developed over the next five years. The people of South Winnipeg deserve much better than this. This is 2009, not 1979, after all.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Jason Fayre (Blind Ex-Winnipegger) on CBS News
Photo - Jason Fayre and his son, Pandu. (CBS)
DENVER, Oct. 26, 2009
Blind Man Adopts Son He'd Been Looking For
Assignment America: Blind Boy Spent 5 Isolated Years in Indian Orphanage Before Denver Couple Gave Him a Home
By Steve Hartman
CBS News
CBS) People will adopt older kids. They'll adopt disabled kids and neglected kids. Kids who can't read, kids who can't talk - there are people willing to adopt. But all those things in one child? CBS News Correspondent Steve Hartman reports there are few who want that. Born blind, Pandu was dumped at a hospital gate in India. At the orphanage, he was the one child who was there year after year, until last year. That's when the 5-year-old got swept up by a Denver couple who said he was just what they were looking for: a little boy with his father's eyes.
DENVER, Oct. 26, 2009
Blind Man Adopts Son He'd Been Looking For
Assignment America: Blind Boy Spent 5 Isolated Years in Indian Orphanage Before Denver Couple Gave Him a Home
By Steve Hartman
CBS News
CBS) People will adopt older kids. They'll adopt disabled kids and neglected kids. Kids who can't read, kids who can't talk - there are people willing to adopt. But all those things in one child? CBS News Correspondent Steve Hartman reports there are few who want that. Born blind, Pandu was dumped at a hospital gate in India. At the orphanage, he was the one child who was there year after year, until last year. That's when the 5-year-old got swept up by a Denver couple who said he was just what they were looking for: a little boy with his father's eyes.
Jason Fayre teaches blind people how to be self-sufficient. So when he and his wife Lalena, who can see, decided to adopt they chose not to just give any child a home, but to give one special child a real chance - a chance he would have never had otherwise.
"I think we can offer something to a blind child that maybe a lot of other families can't," said Jason.
Pandu is so much better than when they got him. After 5 years in a crib with virtually no human contact, they say Pandu was almost wild. But a year later he's in a mainstream preschool, and he's beginning to speak for the very first time. He's even learning the finer points of picking out a pumpkin.
Of course, he chose a Braille one; like father like son.
"Pandu and him have always kind of had this connection," said Lalena.
Although it'll be years before Pandu can fully appreciate the enormity of his good fortune, there's no doubt he understands something pretty special is happening to him. You don't have to be a blind man to see that.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/26/assignment_america/main5422582.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/26/assignment_america/main5422582.shtml
Monday, October 26, 2009
Piano Stairs
An answer to my own question. A reason for the existence of the Internet. Thought provoking short videos like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=player_embedded
Sunday, October 25, 2009
RIP Geocities
Goodbye Geocities
I spent too many hot summer afternoons updating the thousands of links on my old Geocities web-pages. Those Sunday afternoons I will never get back again. Yahoo is shutting down all of its Geocities sites tomorrow. Visit them for the last time tonight if you wish. I have three sites that will be going dark. Thanks to the Internet Archives at least some of their remnants will be preserved. We are are indeed living in the midst of the digital dark age. As Amazon deletes 1984 from our Kindles, as Yahoo erases millions of hours of volunteer labour from the web, as our newspapers contract to a small dot the size of the last signal from CKX in Brandon, we have to ask ourselves this.
Is the Internet really such a good thing for civilization?
RIP my old friends
http://web.archive.org/web/20050101083924/http://www.geocities.com/annemichaels/
http://web.archive.org/web/20050520172419/http://www.geocities.com/saveourseine/
http://web.archive.org/web/20080102030757/http://www.geocities.com/waverleywest/
from the Internet Archive:
Libraries exist to preserve society's cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it's essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world.
Many early movies were recycled to recover the silver in the film. The Library of Alexandria - an ancient center of learning containing a copy of every book in the world - was eventually burned to the ground. Even now, at the turn of the 21st century, no comprehensive archives of television or radio programs exist.
But without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. And paradoxically, with the explosion of the Internet, we live in what Danny Hillis has referred to as our "digital dark age."
The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet - a new medium with major historical significance - and other "born-digital" materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.
Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it through the ages.
The Internet Archive is opening its collections to researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive has no vested interest in the discoveries of the users of its collections, nor is it a grant-making organization.
I spent too many hot summer afternoons updating the thousands of links on my old Geocities web-pages. Those Sunday afternoons I will never get back again. Yahoo is shutting down all of its Geocities sites tomorrow. Visit them for the last time tonight if you wish. I have three sites that will be going dark. Thanks to the Internet Archives at least some of their remnants will be preserved. We are are indeed living in the midst of the digital dark age. As Amazon deletes 1984 from our Kindles, as Yahoo erases millions of hours of volunteer labour from the web, as our newspapers contract to a small dot the size of the last signal from CKX in Brandon, we have to ask ourselves this.
Is the Internet really such a good thing for civilization?
RIP my old friends
http://web.archive.org/web/20050101083924/http://www.geocities.com/annemichaels/
http://web.archive.org/web/20050520172419/http://www.geocities.com/saveourseine/
http://web.archive.org/web/20080102030757/http://www.geocities.com/waverleywest/
from the Internet Archive:
Libraries exist to preserve society's cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it's essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world.
Many early movies were recycled to recover the silver in the film. The Library of Alexandria - an ancient center of learning containing a copy of every book in the world - was eventually burned to the ground. Even now, at the turn of the 21st century, no comprehensive archives of television or radio programs exist.
But without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. And paradoxically, with the explosion of the Internet, we live in what Danny Hillis has referred to as our "digital dark age."
The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet - a new medium with major historical significance - and other "born-digital" materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.
Open and free access to literature and other writings has long been considered essential to education and to the maintenance of an open society. Public and philanthropic enterprises have supported it through the ages.
The Internet Archive is opening its collections to researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive has no vested interest in the discoveries of the users of its collections, nor is it a grant-making organization.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
