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Toronto: patios, buskers and an animated downtown

30 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Pointless legislation, Election 2010, downtown-BIA, Collingwood's municipal m..., Collingwood life
I just returned from a few days in Toronto, attending the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) annual convention. Picked up a lot of good ideas (especially around open government and open data) and information, which I'll post at a later point. What I wanted to write about here is how the host city handles its downtown and its patios,...

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Tags: buskers, downtown, patios, Toronto, Collingwood Municipal Madness 0 Comments


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Downtown slowly reopening, farmers' market returns, patio causes headaches

22 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Collingwood life, Collingwood's municipal m..., downtown-BIA, Pointless legislation
Construction proceeds apace downtown. Susan and I walked downtown (with Sophie) early Saturday to see how the newly-re-opened first block looked, do a little local shopping, and to gander at the farmers' market on its first open weekend (and buy a few odds and ends there, and downtown, too).*...

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Tags: Collingwood Municipal Madness, patios, downtown, council, closed for business 4 Comments


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Civil rights at risk with new bylaw

18 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Pointless legislation, downtown-BIA, Collingwood's municipal m..., Collingwood life
[size="2"][size="2"]It's frustrating when we have a public meeting about an important, new bylaw and it's evident from the discussion that no one else at the table actually read the thing. Councillor McNabb had no idea there even was one, and even had to get up in the middle of the meeting to go outside to look for a...

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Tags: responsibility, deputy-mayor, Collingwood Municipal Madness, bylaw, reading 10 Comments


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A new uke and a new site

17 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Collingwood life, Music and ukuleles, technology
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Spent most of last week working on Web sites, mine and a couple of contract jobs for friends. Haven't done a lot of Web-related work the last few years and I was rusty. I was struggling with some of the CSS elements, trying to remember...

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Tags: ukulele, Risa, Web design, Ian Chadwick 0 Comments


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Another in camera meeting I refused to attend

11 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Collingwood's municipal m...
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There were two in-camera meetings last night, one which I refused to attend, based on what I read in the confidential material presented to council before the meeting.

I protested in the open session of council about the appropriateness of...

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Tags: Collingwood Municipal Madness, in camera, secrecy 6 Comments


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Archiving vintage ukulele music

09 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Music and ukuleles, Collingwood life, Social values
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In the two decades between the end of World War One and the start of World War Two, the ukulele was arguably the most popular musical instrument in the Western world. It was small, relatively inexpensive, and with only four strings it was relatively easy to...

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Tags: vintage music, song book, archive, song sheet, ukulele, ukelele, music score 1 Comments


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World chess championship: is it getting duller?

08 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Chess
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Is it just me, or is the current World Chess Championship between title-holder Viswanathan Anand and higher-ranked challenger Veselin Topalov not as exciting nor the games as scintillating as championship matches in the...

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Tags: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, world chess championship, chess 2 Comments


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Toxic HST launched by province this week

07 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Provincial folly, Pointless legislation
The much-dreaded Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) snuck into our Ontario lives like a nasty thief in the night, this week. Unsuspecting home buyers who expected the HST to kick in July 1, met with a nasty, expensive surprise. Home purchases had another 8% tacked on, as of Saturday, May 1.

So did delayed closing costs, gym memberships, landscaping and...

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Tags: tax grab, Ontario, provincial, PST, HST, GST, McGuinty 0 Comments


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Newspaper story confusing about patio move

06 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Pointless legislation, downtown-BIA, Collingwood's municipal m..., Collingwood life
I've been getting some calls about the headline story in today's Collingwood Connection. Seems to some people the opening is murky about who voted for what. Unless you were there, it may not be very clear. The newspaper reported:

[quote]It appears patios in...

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Tags: Collingwood Municipal Madness, mayor, patios, downtown, BIA, newspaper 11 Comments


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Are you being a nuisance? Here's your ticket...

04 May 2010
Posted by Ian Chadwick in Social values, Pointless legislation, downtown-BIA, Collingwood's municipal m...
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What's a nuisance? Maybe you are. Here's your ticket, pay at the counter.

A nuisance is "a person or thing that causes annoyance or bother," say several [url="http://www.ianchadwick.com/forum/nuisance"]online...

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Tags: bylaws, Collingwood Municipal Madness, nuisance, panhandling 0 Comments



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