It’s Friday here in London, Ontario, our fabulous, innovating, evolving city, where the road ahead may be a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma1 but a patient citizen can always make it through the construction to some good, good shawarma2, mmmm. It’s sunny! (But no wolf blanket in Victoria Park yet.)
Hello, my (checks notes) 184 subscribers, who qualify as community leaders by the simple act of giving a damn. I’m Mike, with communications support for my leadership team, acting in the public interest with journalism up to three times per week. Every Friday, I send out a curated ROUNDUP of impactful stories worth a glance, if you’re inclined. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’m terribly earnest3 about it, so bear with me.
In which I talk a lot
I’m going to start with the podcast chat I had with Craig Needles, a ginger man of my acquaintance4 who does great work over at Blackburn News. We talked about a variety of issues and you might hear my hasty, far-too-early predictions for the municipal election in October. Maybe I’ll change my mind, but I think something is in the air, and it’s not just the smell of the spring thaw.
That podcast episode is an incredible 51 minutes long and I’m glad I had the presence of mind to take a coffee. Thanks to Craig for the invitation and for trying to keep me pointed at the mic. I’ll work on that.
Click for Dundee accent and London chat
Always play the hits
You might note that, as I do this weekly, some issues keep coming up. I’m considering hard-coding the following, meaning I’ll look out for something in these areas:
Housing
Homelessness
Education
Roads, transportation, transit
Healthcare (basically LHSC and St. Joe’s)
Drug use (or similar, separated from homelessness)
Local government (or similar)
The Lightning Round (a useful receptacle)
Do you have suggestions? What are the issues vexing minds and flexing muscles5? Thanks to the people who are sending me messages - I’m always open to feedback and such. Good chats and thoughts to consider.
And we’re off.
Housing
My own posts cover Mayor Josh Morgan’s housing incentive pretty well. Here’s the initial meeting and the reaction.
And the LFP picks up the next chapter with this great story about how everybody wants to spend the housing incentive money now.
The Free Press’s Norm De Bono reports on 6,000 planned homes in the south of the city.
The same outlet’s Jonathan Juha shares this report on a major office-to-homes conversion. (When a city has a local daily paper, it makes such a difference to us all.)
Ontario suspends HST on new homes. LINK
Homelessness
Just a repeated link to my post about the Cheese Factory Road Micro-modular Shelters, which are really successful.
Health
Gotta love a positive story sometimes. Look at the way St. Joseph’s Healthcare is helping vulnerable people with this project (CTV, Reta Ismail).
Roads and so on
Matt Brown has Councillor Skylar Franke on his podcast to talk about transit, BRT and more. Enclickenate this.
And Ryan Goodison at the Freeps takes apart LTC finances in this excellent piece. And, the usual good work from Daryl Newcombe at CTV, same story basis.
IMPORTANT: Highbury Avenue’s noise
So Daryl Newcombe says Highbury Avenue goes budump budump and I say it goes th’dum th’dum. I asked Jack Moulton of the London Free Press to get in touch, and he says this:
“I’d argue Highbury has been patched so many times it’s just constant noise rather than anything rhythmic.”
Which is just a whole lot of use, isn’t it? Thanks anyway, Jack. Sigh.
Local government
Yesterday I shared about extended terms for municipal boards - the ABCs6.
Here’s a good story where our public broadcaster localizes discussion of the Ontario budget. Always useful - and superb to see how the CBC supports public interest reporting.
Huzzah! Andrew Lupton has worked through who’s running and who’s not this election year. Wonks like me are always overjoyed by city council stories like this. I’ll still do my own at some point, too.
The Lightning Round
A local story here about the massive, massive social media court case. It’s been established that there is a duty of care to children when providing social media services (that’s my Scots LLB kicking in, so cut me slack with terminology).
The London Food Bank has launched its spring drive. And TV report here.
And you might want to dip into the Sunshine List, thanks to the CBC again.
Best buildings - winners of the Don Smith Commercial Building Awards.
AND THERE IS A KITTEN SEASON! Why was I not informed?
Local creators, local content
Sports: Gameday London - get those London Knights facts and happenings.
Business: London Inc - rounding up biz news every Friday.
Roving and storytelling: Cedric Richards’ Southern Ontario Journal.
Commentary: Steve Cordes’ Community Matters.
Discussion: Matt Brown’s podcast.
Theatre, daaaarlings: The Beat Magazine and TheatreInLondon.ca.
Sugar for the ears: Larry Cornies’ audio blog
Got more? Tell me. I collect this stuff.
Oh for goodness’ sake
Enough. Let’s have a weekend. Somehow my home insurance company is paying me to paint my own house, so I’ll be back next week with complaints about my creaky old joints. It’s a sair fecht7, right enough.
- Mike
Churchill again. Still don’t like him.
This may be shameless clickbait but I would totally welcome your recs.
The Grand Theatre is doing The Importance of Being Earnest, which I just love, daaaaarlings.
Part Bob Woodward, part Rex Bob Lowenstein.
I want some of that lemon pound cake.
Shwarma House on Commissioners on Byron. I can't eat shwarma any more (long story) but the two Lebanese gentlemen who tiled three bathrooms, a kitchen, and a laundry room both swear by it.
Just subscribed after catching you on Needless, so thank Craig (and tell him to get you on the Friday Round Table).