"A&M are pumping their latest project. It’s a whopper. If the sisters get their way with local politicians (once again), the old Rand Estate will turn into a five-storey, 111-room luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel," writes Garth Turner.
"Should any future council enact an interim control bylaw, underwritten by a duly compliant study, it will be largely legally unassailable," writes Brian Marshall.
"Niagara-on-the-Lake should not be treated as an extension of a 'Vegas North' casino economy. We are not a desert entertainment strip," writes Keith McNenly.
"I have heard that during his 26 years as mayor, Henry Paffard advocated for the planting of over 1,000 trees. By any measure, that’s a lot of limbs and leaves and shade and oxygen. And with trees come squirrels," writes Ross Robinson.
"Regardless of differences of opinion over development projects, I recognize that public discourse should be conducted respectfully and without casting aspersions on others," writes Stewart Hall.
"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...
Dear editor:
Recent planning decisions made in Niagara-on-the-Lake are so egregious that I believe the lord mayor, the members of council who voted in favour...
For much of our human evolution, climate played a major part in the success or failure of various human species variants — including the last, homo sapiens — the lone survivor as Chris Stringer so aptly put it in the tile of his 2012 book, "Lone Survivors: How We Came to be the Only Humans on Earth."
Dear editor:
Most people don’t understand that if the old Parliament Oak school site is rezoned commercial, allowing a building height of 19 metres, then...
This marks the debut of columnist Garth Turner as a regular contributor to The Lake Report. He's a longtime journalist, commentator and former federal...
Dear editor:
Councillors who voted for the Marotta hotel referred to an unapproved draft tourism report stating we need more high-quality hotels in Old Town.
Yet...
