"Although this level of government has the greatest impact on citizens’ daily lives, it is weak, ineffectual, rudderless and dominated by special interests," writes Garth Turner.
Over the last five centuries, says Frank Lloyd Wright, what humanity has called architecture has been "phony": "It was not innate, it wasn’t organic and it didn’t have the character of nature.”
More than 40 years after the debut of this British farce on the Shaw Festival stage, "One for the Pot" returns with excellent performances that contain the elements needed to make this for-the-masses comedy a laugh riot, writes Penny-Lynn Cookson.
"As a pretentious British boss of mine said many years ago ... 'I have found that around the world, one can get on with two languages: English, and loud English,'" writes Ross Robinson.
"I provided you with an opportunity to do the right thing, which you have obviously declined to do. Please be advised that I intend to pursue this in the appropriate forum(s)," writes Derek Collins.
"I am certain the summer of 2024 is going to be a classic, one for the memory books. So many problems in the world, political, financial, and just plain not good. But here we are, on a parking-lot-like crowded main street," writes Ross Robinson.
Sure, it’s a nice place. Most folks would be happy living in the coach house. But is it $4.5 million nice? The latest listing on my Old Town street (one block from the flip now on sale at $3.9 million) is part of a larger local story.
"Will the ever-expanding AI universe create a society not unlike drones, unable to draw on our own accumulated experience and intelligence to think critically?" writes Don Mustill.
"The citizens of NOTL are uniformly educated, intelligent, informed and realistic," writes columnist Brian Marshall, commenting on letters to the editor sent to The Lake Report this year about contentious development plans in story for Niagara-on-the-Lake.
"Our former chief librarian chose to accept a generous severance package and is now enjoying an early retirement. Property owners have borne and paid the cost of her choices," writes Steve McGuinness.
"Not to ignore our lovely green spaces and charming wineries, but compared to the Loire Valley, Australia or New Zealand, we come up a wee bit short," writes Lauren O'Malley.
"I had no idea what a five-star hotel entailed and I suspect none of those who support the Parliament Oak plan and threw that phrase out did either," writes Gail Benjafield.
"NOTL is resilient and has gone through many transformations since 1812 and will continue to thrive and prosper regardless of the current and future changes," writes Tony Giordano.
"As it is, the health-care system is overloaded. Physicians and patients alike are frustrated with long waiting periods to see physicians and nurse practitioners. For now, health-care organizations such as the Harvard system, see ChatGPT as a partner for physicians — but how long will that partnership be complementary and equal?" writes Dr. William Brown.
"When truth is clearly evident, it speaks for itself." Agatha Christie, the world's best-selling novelist and Queen of Crime, leads us to seek the truth in a noir genre courtroom drama of justice, dislocation, love and betrayal.
The Canada Day festivities around town, as always, again this year were a tremendous community gathering — but at Simcoe Park, there was one big problem.
"As a Canadian citizen, a voter and a community organizer living in Niagara, I strongly support permanent resident status for undocumented people, also referred to as comprehensive regularization," writes Kit Andres.
"How often have you heard or read that the role of town councillors and staff is to defend the town's official plan against those seeking to deviate from it?" writes Ron Fritz from Queenston.
"The comments by Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa and Coun. Maria Mavridis to counter the criticism by resident Bob Bader (published in a story June 20 headlined, "Mayor and councillor push back against hotel criticism") are not at all convincing," writes Derek Collins.
To anyone who reads this publication, it isn’t news that the majority of our council — in approving the rezoning of the Parliament Oak property to allow for the construction of a contextually inappropriate hotel — continued its practice of wielding a machete on the fabric, character and cultural heritage landscapes of Niagara-on-the-Lake.
It was raining, so we drove. But forget about parking. The streets of Old Town were jammed. Dorothy and I ended up walking through the wet and the dark halfway back from where we started.
"As a former library trustee in Lincoln, I’ve followed your reporting on the wrongful termination of chief librarian Cathy Simpson, who apparently was discharging her responsibilities dutifully, yet ran afoul of a strident cabal, consisting of a misguided resident, some mutinous library staff and a plainly hysterical library board chairperson," writes Kevin Burns.
Much of Niagara-on-the-Lake, it seems, is at loggerheads with its municipal leadership — not all, but a majority of councillors seem opposed to listening to the people who voted them in. Or, if they're listening, they're not supportive of what "the people" are telling them.
Dear editor:
The battle of the Titans vs. the NOTLers continues unabated.
The Titans want big hotels, big event venues, high-end condos, affluent customers, high traffic.
NOTLers...
As we move into summer, we sometimes start to see more diseases pop up in our gardens. Some plants are more prone to certain diseases than others, but even so, you can take some precautions to limit the amount of damage that the disease will inflict on the plants.
Dear editor:
Last week, I sent a letter to Niagara-on-the-Lake's town councillors and the lord mayor asking them to adhere to the town plan regarding...
Dear editor:
I read Coun. Maria Mavridis' response, published in the June 20 issue of The Lake Report, "Mayor and councillor push back against hotel...
