posting
06-24-2007, 09:15 PM
June 23, 2007
Hello all,
1) Many of us attended the Skeleton Park Music Festival and the MPNA's Summer Solstice festival in McBurney Park yesterday. The weather was ideal, the turnout was fantastic and the proverbial good time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a great success! And thanks especially to everyone who volunteered their time at the lemonade stand, bake sale, the kids' craft tables and the games. You know who you are, and you know how much your help was appreciated.
Incidentally, Tom & Rae Brackenbury forgot their purple jogging baby stroller in the park after the final musical act, Slaves of ******, left the stage. The stroller was not in the park Sunday morning, and they *really* need it. If anyone picked it up for safekeeping, please contact the owners at tbrackenbury@cogeco.ca.
2) As you may be aware, the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca (http://www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca))toured Ontario earlier this year to hear people's opinion's about whether Ontario should change the way it elects provincial representatives at Queen's Park. After its own extensive self-education process and the public forums, the Assembly members recommended that Ontario adopt a form of proportional representation to replace the current first-past-the-post system. During the next provincial election in October, Ontarians will also vote in a referendum on whether to endorse this recommendation and switch to the new voting system, which generally would see parties represented at Queen's Park according to their share of the popular vote (i.e. if Liberals get 35% of the vote, Liberals get 35% of the seats).
MPNA resident Lea Westlake is leading the Yes Vote Kingston Campaign to encourage local citizens to vote for a new electoral system in October. The campaign will be holding its first meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday June 27th at Central Public School. Dr Jonathan Rose, who served as the Academic Director of the Citizens' Assembly, will be outlining the citizens' recommendation for a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system. After the presentation, the campaign will start organizing for the fall referendum.
Yes Vote Kingston is a multi-party group which supports the recommendation of the Citizen's Assembly. All like-minded individuals are welcome to attend. For more information contact Lea Westlake at 546-9710.
3) I recently sent out a mass invitation to MPNA members to join the MPNA group on Facebook. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Facebook is a social-networking website – currently the world's fifth most-popular website – that people join and fill out a profile about themselves and their interests. This profile is then posted on Facebook and (in a limited way) becomes visible to other Facebook users. Over time, you can create a list of Facebook "friends" with whom you can share messages, photos, videos, and so on. You can also join "groups" – like the one I created for the MPNA – which consist of people with similar interests.
Since I have had some questions about this, I want to clarify that MPNA members are not obliged to join in the MPNA Facebook group and it will not replace these email updates or the MPNA website (www.mcburneypark.ca (http://www.mcburneypark.ca/)). The fact is, people either love Facebook or hate it. I personally find it sort of fun, and I started the MPNA group in that spirit, but also because I think it can provide another way for MPNA members to connect, share information and get to know one another better. The way I see it, the whole MPNA project is about building community, and if Facebook can help us do that, I'm willing to give it a shot. I hope you are, too.
So ... if I've persuaded you and you're willing to check it out ... Facebook is at www.facebook.com (http://www.facebook.com). If you're new to the site, you must first register, which is easy. To get to the MPNA page, type in McBurney Park Neighborhood Association in the little search box on the left-hand side. Then click "Join this group" on the right-hand side, and you're in!
4) A good-news final note. You may recall that in my last update I described how Central Public School on Sydenham Street had been targeted for closure in a recent consultant's report commissioned by the Limestone District School Board. The consultant's plan would have closed Central, Sydenham and Winston Churchill public schools and consolidated them at a new school on the Winston site. The same report also recommended that KCVI close and its students be accommodated at a new high school to be built at QECVI. It's needless to say that, if adopted, this shortsighted scheme would have had a devastating impact on our neighborhood and Kingston's downtown.
The good news is that Ron Sharp, the school board's soon-to-retire Director of Education, recommended this week that the above downtown schools remain open for at least another five years. In other words, Central School will remain open for the foreseeable future. The news was not so rosy for a handful of other schools, most notably (for Kingston) First Avenue and Frontenac public schools just to the north and west of the MPNA area. The Director recommended that the Board explore the idea of consolidating these schools on the site of the Memorial Centre. It will be interesting to see how this proposal plays out in coming months.
That's all for now. Have a fantastic summer!
Alec Ross
Co-ordinator
McBurney Park Neighbourhood Association (MPNA)
www.mcburneypark.ca (http://www.mcburneypark.ca/)
Hello all,
1) Many of us attended the Skeleton Park Music Festival and the MPNA's Summer Solstice festival in McBurney Park yesterday. The weather was ideal, the turnout was fantastic and the proverbial good time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who came and made it such a great success! And thanks especially to everyone who volunteered their time at the lemonade stand, bake sale, the kids' craft tables and the games. You know who you are, and you know how much your help was appreciated.
Incidentally, Tom & Rae Brackenbury forgot their purple jogging baby stroller in the park after the final musical act, Slaves of ******, left the stage. The stroller was not in the park Sunday morning, and they *really* need it. If anyone picked it up for safekeeping, please contact the owners at tbrackenbury@cogeco.ca.
2) As you may be aware, the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca (http://www.citizensassembly.gov.on.ca))toured Ontario earlier this year to hear people's opinion's about whether Ontario should change the way it elects provincial representatives at Queen's Park. After its own extensive self-education process and the public forums, the Assembly members recommended that Ontario adopt a form of proportional representation to replace the current first-past-the-post system. During the next provincial election in October, Ontarians will also vote in a referendum on whether to endorse this recommendation and switch to the new voting system, which generally would see parties represented at Queen's Park according to their share of the popular vote (i.e. if Liberals get 35% of the vote, Liberals get 35% of the seats).
MPNA resident Lea Westlake is leading the Yes Vote Kingston Campaign to encourage local citizens to vote for a new electoral system in October. The campaign will be holding its first meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday June 27th at Central Public School. Dr Jonathan Rose, who served as the Academic Director of the Citizens' Assembly, will be outlining the citizens' recommendation for a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system. After the presentation, the campaign will start organizing for the fall referendum.
Yes Vote Kingston is a multi-party group which supports the recommendation of the Citizen's Assembly. All like-minded individuals are welcome to attend. For more information contact Lea Westlake at 546-9710.
3) I recently sent out a mass invitation to MPNA members to join the MPNA group on Facebook. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Facebook is a social-networking website – currently the world's fifth most-popular website – that people join and fill out a profile about themselves and their interests. This profile is then posted on Facebook and (in a limited way) becomes visible to other Facebook users. Over time, you can create a list of Facebook "friends" with whom you can share messages, photos, videos, and so on. You can also join "groups" – like the one I created for the MPNA – which consist of people with similar interests.
Since I have had some questions about this, I want to clarify that MPNA members are not obliged to join in the MPNA Facebook group and it will not replace these email updates or the MPNA website (www.mcburneypark.ca (http://www.mcburneypark.ca/)). The fact is, people either love Facebook or hate it. I personally find it sort of fun, and I started the MPNA group in that spirit, but also because I think it can provide another way for MPNA members to connect, share information and get to know one another better. The way I see it, the whole MPNA project is about building community, and if Facebook can help us do that, I'm willing to give it a shot. I hope you are, too.
So ... if I've persuaded you and you're willing to check it out ... Facebook is at www.facebook.com (http://www.facebook.com). If you're new to the site, you must first register, which is easy. To get to the MPNA page, type in McBurney Park Neighborhood Association in the little search box on the left-hand side. Then click "Join this group" on the right-hand side, and you're in!
4) A good-news final note. You may recall that in my last update I described how Central Public School on Sydenham Street had been targeted for closure in a recent consultant's report commissioned by the Limestone District School Board. The consultant's plan would have closed Central, Sydenham and Winston Churchill public schools and consolidated them at a new school on the Winston site. The same report also recommended that KCVI close and its students be accommodated at a new high school to be built at QECVI. It's needless to say that, if adopted, this shortsighted scheme would have had a devastating impact on our neighborhood and Kingston's downtown.
The good news is that Ron Sharp, the school board's soon-to-retire Director of Education, recommended this week that the above downtown schools remain open for at least another five years. In other words, Central School will remain open for the foreseeable future. The news was not so rosy for a handful of other schools, most notably (for Kingston) First Avenue and Frontenac public schools just to the north and west of the MPNA area. The Director recommended that the Board explore the idea of consolidating these schools on the site of the Memorial Centre. It will be interesting to see how this proposal plays out in coming months.
That's all for now. Have a fantastic summer!
Alec Ross
Co-ordinator
McBurney Park Neighbourhood Association (MPNA)
www.mcburneypark.ca (http://www.mcburneypark.ca/)