Hello, fellow Londoners, and welcome to your free weekly ROUNDUP of local news. This saves us all stress and makes us better: it’s your sharp, skimmable, readable briefing on London, Ontario’s latest… waves hand… Yes, all that.
So welcome to London Ontario Online News, where five citizens (the full lineup is at the end of every post) provide you with new content every day, and ask you to support by subscribing, donating or otherwise interacting with the Little Media Outlet That Could.
Why? Because it matters. We - and in that I include you - are people who show up when it matters. We’re the people who want to make a difference. We’re paying attention, feeling the feelings, and often keeping our counsel against the day we can act - and that’s when we need good information to make a decision. Thanks for being London’s leadership team.
And thanks so much for subscribing! We’re up to more than 300 participants, including a super-encouraging number of folks who are willing to pay, and we could not be more grateful. We continue to work through becoming established, with some stability, as we make plans for the longer-term. In that, we’ll make sure our subscribers are well-served, so look out for more.
Soundtrack of the week
Canada Day is on the way, so let’s get Canadian with my own personal favourite Tragically Hip song, Wheat Kings. I have a lot of time for documentary maker Mike Downie, who’s mentioned in this song by his brother Gord. I heard him speak at a thing and it was impactful. I’ll write about it one day.
Mike Downie’s production company is Courage Films.
OK, so that’s the scene-setter and here’s your ROUNDUP. Remember it’s not designed to be read in full - the idea is you take what you need from it. And it’s measured, delivered with care, and designed to be a sustainable, long-term information source. (We don’t look for spikes in our traffic; we just want you all to stick around.)
Canada Day’s coming
Happy Canada Day (next week)! Here’s the City website’s info about celebrations, and Diana takes a measured tone about the day in her Arts and Culture Roundup here.
Backyard Chickens - news from local government
As usual, check out City Hall Notes here, for the specialized local government guide including Councillor Susan Stevenson’s questions about fairness at City Hall. I’ll add a couple of updates below.
Today in “we told you this would happen”, we have the City facing a planning appeal for a seniors home that was refused in the northwest of London. There’s a London Free Press story here.
Uncle Philip1 provides this summary:
London could face legal costs of tens of thousands of dollars after Jarlette Health Services appealed city council’s rejection of a proposed 224-bed long-term care home and 54-unit seniors apartment building at 945 Bluegrass Dr. Experts say the city may face an uphill battle at the Ontario Land Tribunal because municipal planners had recommended approving the project, while council rejected it following strong neighbourhood opposition over height, density and traffic.
You may remember this one from BARELY SIX WEEKS AGO, when it was the hot-button topic at City Hall for about three days. The debate in the chamber included clear predictions that this one would go to an expensive appeal and, well, here we are.
Six weeks. My post here (click the heading Housing and Development, or scroll down about two-thirds of the way) includes a summary and links to the reporting.
Six weeks.
Construction Corner
Ah, London. What needs to be said here? While everyone mutters “ha ha construction season” as if all of this is somehow acceptable and even funny2, there are still some news stories to guide us.
For a start, Craig Needles had a superb podcast episode interview with Jennie Dann, the Director, Construction and Infrastructure Services at the City of London. Craig asks… why?
I’m going to agree with the general feeling of dismay. It’s a lot of construction for one city, all at the same time and, well, I’d love to feel like it was better-coordinated.
Here’s another news hit about construction traffic on Oxford Street West. This week I also experienced Wonderland and Springbank and the closure of Boler Road, but I avoided getting sucked into the Philip Aziz work on Western Road. I hear tense tales of traffic on Wellington from LHSC staff and Highbury continues to be a challenge. I think we can all agree that life in London is an adventure.
It’s always worth keeping an eye on the City website, where they have an actual top 10 of construction projects to look out for.
More from the roads
The province is raising the speed limit on more highways to 110 km/h - including parts of the 401. This LINK has some reporting but there’s more and better info in the media release here, which includes the stat that 89% of provincial highways will have the new, higher limit.
Still on transportation: rail
Andrew Lawton MP is pushing to reopen the rail link with Port Stanley. Great story here for old duffers like me who like railways.
Break time - London’s hedge of stone
Would someone please explain this to me? I now avoid driving past Stonehedge Towers on Waterloo Street because the family are sick of me ranting. Is it a reference to Stonehenge? Or is it somehow about a hedge? If so, is that hedge made of stone? And are the towers also hedges or stones or stone hedges or something else?
Just: what
what
Anyway. More local news.
Housing
First, from CTV London, we have City Hall reporter Daryl Newcombe’s story about office-to-residential conversions here. That’s talking about 300 more homes downtown, and features landowner Shmuel Farhi, Mayor Josh Morgan and Peter Fragiskatos MP.
Daryl also focuses on the improved relationship between Farhi and City Hall. This is an extract from his story:
Farhi says his relationship with London City Hall has improved greatly over the last four years.
“I think we turned the page,” he explains. “I had a heart-to-heart talk with Josh (Morgan) and other politicians and support staff. I said, look, if you want a partnership with us, we will come and do things. And we doing by doing, not by talking.”
There’s also this story from the London Free Press.
If you could be in the room with Shmuel Farhi, what questions would you ask him?
Also in housing, there’s this excellent Jonathan Juha piece in the Free Press about housing starts, and why London is doing better than Toronto.
Homelessness
Here’s the latest on the future of House of Hope: LINK (I’ve supported this org in my main job as a communications guy.)
Healthcare
Norman De Bono updates us on the funding issues at LHSC, where the deficit has dropped by $40 million. There are some numbers there - it amounts to still having a $100 million problem but they’re working on it.
The Lightning Round
Let’s get struck and start with a strike.
Tensions on the picket line as Community Living staff continue strike action: LINK
London casino completes 27 months of renovations: LINK
The outdoor pools open tomorrow! London has 10 of them and it’s time to cool off. Good info and links at London.ca.
Independent storytellers
Cedric Richards’ Southwestern Ontario Journal is a great read.
Comment: Steve Cordes’ Community Matters.
Discuss: Matt Brown’s podcast.
Reflect: Larry Cornies’ audio blog.
Culture: The Beat Magazine and TheatreInLondon.ca.
Biz: London Inc.
Sports: Gameday London.
Enough
I’m trying to make these posts tighter and more readable, so feel free to send me any thoughts on what does or does not work. I continue to have a lovely time, and I’m so happy to have others involved, so this can continue when I have to go elsewhere.
Thanks for pressing the special buttons on our posts and helping us to feel heartened by it all. It really is a collaborative effort and we want to recognize every good story and every working journalist in town, because there aren’t many of us left and we should look after each other. Thanks for looking after us.
Time for a weekend. Look out for Steve’s Reflection, coming this afternoon. And thanks for following the Loon!
- Mike
Much more quiet about the World Cup these days3
The London Ontario Online News lineup
New content every day
We’re teaming up to send you a new feature every weekday:
Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown
Tuesday - Tour with Cedric Richards
Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie
Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn
Friday - Reflecting - with Steve Cordes
And free on Fridays: the ROUNDUP, briefing you on the stories you need to know, gathered in one place. Regular analysis of the issues affecting London and the region.
I use A.I. carefully and sparingly, to speed up work I would already do. I avoid generative A.I. in particular and frivolous use in general. Happy to discuss it.
It’s not funny. We should be asking hard questions about our quality of life, instead of making weak jokes at our own expense.
Home before the postcards.