THE ROUNDUP | London, Ont. Local News | Homelessness, neighbourhood traffic and more | Your need-to-know this week | And how to pronounce 'asphalt'

Our local news week | London City Council and more | Public interest journalism | Comms language | A man with leprosy | Executive Summary For The Informed Voter | Built For Recovering Doomscrollers

Feb 27, 2026

Hello, folks of London, Ontario. Here comes another ROUNDUP of local news, equipping you as engaged residents of this great city. This is public interest journalism, because it’s nice tae be nice, and also I have to occupy myself somehow in a place full of people who can’t pronounce this word:

It’s a silent movie made in Germany in 1929, where nobody said “ash-fault”.

Go ahead and try it, Londoners. This is what we call a shibboleth1. I will make no further comment upon it.

Ahem. Taking local news by the issues first, here’s a summary for the informed citizens who lead London. Let’s go!

Homelessness issues

Downtown Councillor David Ferreira is generating a lot of discussion with his comments about “Variety store” for-profit healthcare, and I almost linked to some of it, but that seems wrong for this blog. Let’s stay off socials, where the mind crumbles.

Here’s an exchange on the costs of ‘hubs’, between Councillor Susan Stevenson and Mayor Josh Morgan.

And this week’s round table from local news ginger ninja Craig Needles features a discussion about safer supply, including video blogger Steve Cordes.

Opinion alert: I think it’s wrong to profit from people’s unavoidable, desperate needs. I agree that we should stop privatising essential public services.

Neighbourhood traffic

Councillor Corrine Rahman2 led a successful effort to communicate better with citizens about traffic calming. Good for her! And, languishing alone like Robert the Bruce’s diseased dad3, I wrote this grumpy piece, which remains true but could’ve been more positive4.

Hoicked from that Andrew Lupton at CBC, and edited just enough to make it legal.

And look at the cheesy grin that Councillor Skylar Franke is wearing in this story, celebrating the new four-way stop at Edward Street and Duchess Avenue. That’ll warm the cockles of your heart! Lots more to be done there, and of course (opinion alert - from this former Wortley Road PS parent) the maniacs of Old South should pay attention and slow down.

Ah, let’s spoil ourselves and share this old fave from Vice.com, back in 2021:

Click the link for the story, but the gist is the F-150 is about the same length as a Sherman tank.

Moving on now.

Municipal affairs

Let’s point to some strong reporting from City Hall this week.

First, the redoubtable Jack Moulton digs into council expenses for the London Free Press, continuing an annual tradition we all love. As usual, it’s a mixed bag and nobody seems to do the same thing with their expenses, but it’s always a good read. And I’m not too proud to want a PVM golf ball, like everybody else.

Craig Needles had Councillor Sam Trosow on his podcast to talk about developer donations.

And just feast your mince pies upon this treat from Daryl Newcombe of CTV London, who brings us excellent journalism from the Audit Committee. Here’s his intro:

A pair of municipal incentive programs that flowed millions of dollars to developers and private industry were not being monitored to determine if their longer-term objectives were being achieved.

Ouch. That’s quite a read. Nice one, Daryl.

And the Lightning Round

Just a quick smörgåsbord.

London is the “Forest Capital of Canada”. That’s the media release. Presumably this will have some positive outcomes. Every time I try to read the various reports of this, my mind slides right off into something new. I’ll keep trying.
“Virtual reporting” for more crimes. Hmmm5.
I gathered the City of Music discussion in this blog post on Wednesday. Since then, Matt Brown’s had Councillor Trosow on his podcast to discuss the issue.
This week, Matt also interviewed Rachel Macauley of Ronald McDonald House about a capital campaign.