Hello, fellow Londoners! I’m here again filled with civic pride and a determination to spread useful, true information that helps my fellow citizens. I’m Mike, communications professional, and I do this as public interest journalism because I reckon we could do with some. Maybe you agree. For sure, I know (checks other tab) 410 subscribers who seem to like the idea.
And this is London, Ontario, the somehow-sleepy city dozing on its collective porch and ignoring the honking in the distance which probably isn’t that big a deal but oh now there are sirens and that might be smoke and maybe I’ll go inside. Like everywhere humans have ever lived, London is filled with stories that suggest good things and bad about the old place, yet here we are, living in it together.
Let’s focus on the positive where we can, and be happy the City of London is upgrading playgrounds because every kid deserves a place to play. And, let’s also pay attention where we need to, and lead well, and make a difference to our city.
There is plenty going on around London, as you will know if you’re reading this as a subscriber to London Ontario Online News, also known as The Loon1. This is your executive briefing, assuming you, as subscribers, are the leadership team taking our city forward. We want to help you do that well.
Thanks for supporting us in return.
Base Line Road explosion latest
There’s an obvious place to start this week.
I think we’re all still a bit shocked by the incident on Base Line Road West last Wednesday afternoon and, as expected, it’s already a City Hall conversation.
This morning, I reached out to Councillor Skylar Franke to make sure Loon subscribers would have the latest, with City Hall Notes publishing at noon on Wednesdays. She sent me an update, which I’ll present in full here:
Councillor Franke had been aware for years of ongoing property standards violations at 129–131 Baseline Road West, with residents repeatedly raising concerns about garbage, tall grass, poor maintenance, and unrestricted access to the buildings. These concerns were elevated to bylaw and fire staff for regular checks and enforcement. The persistent lack of action to maintain these properties contributed to 129 Base Line Road West burning down in April 2024 after continued unauthorized access to the property.
In response to the explosion at 131 Base Line Rd W, Councillor Franke plans to introduce a motion in September directing staff to review the City's approach to chronic high-risk, non-compliant properties and recommend policy improvements and stronger penalties to encourage negligent property owners to take action.
Thank you to Councillor Franke. London’s landlords had better take note - this is going to lead to changes.
And I note that, despite strong media interest, we haven’t had updated reporting for a few days and I will share what pops up, as it does. I gathered the direct reporting in Friday’s ROUNDUP.
The person injured in the explosion remains in our thoughts.
Planning: data centres
Usually I like to stick with London news, largely because we have to draw the line somewhere and that line is pretty well-drawn already. But sometimes it makes sense to pay attention to regional news, and our region offers two interesting tales about the emerging issue of data centres.
In Strathroy-Caradoc, people showed up to oppose a rezoning that would add data centre use to a general industrial area. This story is still live at the local council, and here’s a Postmedia story.
And here’s the mayor of Kingsville, Ont. seeking proactive plans for when the issue lands there: CBC report.
Opinion corner: Do you have an opinion on data centres? I bet you do. I’ve certainly got one. Maybe that will be a conversation in London soon - certainly, with our nearby natural resources, it has to be an attractive place.
And my opinion, as a regular user of A.I.: it’s not worth burning the planet for. We need regulation. And a tight approach to planning and economic development would be a good start. Give us rules and a plan and we’ll develop better approaches.
Let’s move on to something that makes me happy: our lovely sponsors!
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Next up, one of our favourite topics…
Roads and construction
Our perennial issue. Here’s a themed Lightning Round:
A car crashed into a storefront on Springbank, injuring one person. LINK
Sunningdale Road is closed for two weeks for the final part of an intersection project. Construction is indeed everywhere, even at the very edge of the city. LINK
And this is quite a story: the family who say their home is being undermined by construction work. The story includes comments from Councillor Susan Stevenson and focuses on a property at 1224 Dundas (that’s almost at Highbury as you drive east). LINK
Steve Cordes in Old East Village
A quick house ad! Have you been following Steve Cordes’ thought-provoking series about life in Old East Village? On Friday, he spoke with Sarah Campbell of Ark Aid Mission, and you can find the video blog and interview here.
That’s number four in a series, and here are the others:
Steve’s our Opinion Editor here at The Loon and offers Reflections every Friday. Please take a look!
Education
Let’s make a little space for this issue, and a region-wide view of OSAP changes.
And that regular talk of a teachers’ strike is back, even as the parties keep working there. Here’s a Postmedia story about it.
Opinion alert: Have you looked at the school calendars2? The teachers go back for PD and all that on September 2 but the kids swing their backpacks for the first time on Tuesday, September 8. By that point, parents and other carers will be extremely keen for The Little Darlings to go back to school. And, more sensibly, I think there are many strong political drivers to get this deal done.
Housing
Here’s another in what is developing into an occasional series about housing conditions in London. I feel for these poor people.
Three weeks without hot water on Kipps Lane - story from CTV London.
One final plug: the 14 Wards of London, Ontario
Your guide to our guide to London’s 14 municipal sectors.
East London
Ward 1 - Where The Wooden Things Are
Ward 2 - With More Than A Commercial Corridor
Ward 3 - Coming soon
Ward 4 - All About Neighbourhoods Now
South London
Ward 12 - Coming soon
Ward 14 - With All The Rural Areas Now
West London
Ward 8 - With A Bog And Many Beds
Ward 9 - NEW THIS WEEK: With the Parks and the Peaks and the Produce
Ward 10 - Coming soon
North London
Ward 5 - Coming soon
Ward 7 - With The Mayors
Central London
Ward 11 - With The Village
Ward 13 - Downtown. This will be our final stop. Coming in September.
Enough
Except of course it is not enough. Oh no, of course no.
Next week, City Hall is back again, and today by noon we’re due to have the first versions of agendas for the next committee meetings. That should fire up the ole news cycle nicely, vroom vroom, and produce a new cloud of stories, cough cough.
But we’ll deal with that when we need to. One important lesson I’ve learned is to control the input of information in These Times, scheduling my encounters with difficult news and the like. One of my goals is to help you make sense of all the noise in our main timeline and consensus reality in ways that don’t stress you out or farm you like in the Matrix. And, I’ll be back soon to gather up more local news for another briefing. Stick with me.
See you on Friday for the ROUNDUP. And thanks again!
- Mike
The Loon (London Ontario Online News) lineup
New content every day!
We’ve teamed up to send you a new feature every weekday:
Monday - Buckle Up - podcast with Matt Brown - SPONSORED BY HAMILTON ROAD BIA
Tuesday - Ward Tours with Cedric Richards - SPONSORED BY LONDON BICYCLE CAFÉ
Wednesday - City Hall Notes by Mike Donachie - SPONSORED BY SPERO LAW
Thursday - the Forest City Arts and Culture Roundup by Diana Tamblyn - SPONSORED BY DOWNTOWN LONDON
Friday - Reflecting, with Steve Cordes - SPONSORED BY OLD EAST VILLAGE BIA
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 know it’s silly but it works and nobody came up with better. And it’s memorable, right?
Hi Mike & Team - I am thoroughly enjoying the new format and content of the LOON. Keep it up!
I have two thoughts on data centres. One, we (Canada) have a desperate need to repatriate our data and express digital sovereignty. This will require data centres, somewhere. Like a landfill, we need them but no one wants to host them.
That does not mean, however, that we need an extensive collection of overly large and resources intensive centres that power AI bots of limited, or no, use to the nation or its populace. Scale and purpose are important.