Kingston waterfront news: September 2009
THE LIMITS OF SOFT CULTURAL POWER, from the September 10th edition of The Economist, about UNESCO and World Heritage Sites, which today number nearly 900.
Guarding precious and vulnerable places is one of the better things the UN's cultural agency does -- but it may topple over if it stretches too far
The article comments are interesting too. The ones pointing-out tourist-trappism certainly ring-true here.
PAUL DAVIS of Kingston, sailing with Bill and Joanne Abbott of Sarnia, won the Soling Worlds in Toronto.
It's the second Soling World Championship for a pair from the Abbott family and Paul Davis, the prior one being in 2002.
AN UNBELIEVABLY STUPID IDEA, renaming Breakwater Park after a 1758 transient who couldn't possibly lose, gets moved forward.
To be crystal clear:
Between Bradstreet's departure in 1758 and the arrival of the first surveyors in 1783, there was no European settlement at Cataraqui. The French fort and outer buildings lay in ruins and the area was of little interest until the closing of the American War of Independence.
There is no truth to the popular claim that Bradstreet helped lay the foundation of Kingston. This is not to diminish the significance of his raid or his role during the Seven Years' War, but it took another conflict and the emergence of a new military and refugee problem for the British to gave Cataraqui a new lease on life, leading to the founding of "Kingstown."
The Kingston Historical Society, unable to prevent the perpetual renanaming of Market Square after modern-day narcissists, grasps at straws for relevance.
THE SEPTEMBER THOUSAND ISLANDS LIFE is up.
It includes an article about the iconic Willow Island.
THE LAKE ONTARIO PARK RAILROAD rolls-on at a September 16th public meeting.
By now the recurring pattern is plainly evident:
- Defer maintenance of a municipal asset for decades.
- Spend megabucks on an one-time, ostentatious remediation plan.
- Repeat.
Previously: Paving paradise, to put up a 'fake' park from July, and How to run a railroad from last March.
SAM LAZIER, a truly great friend of our waterfront, passed away earlier this week. He was 83 years old.
Funeral today at 2 PM at at St. George's Cathedral. Donations for those wishing may be made to the Kingston Marine Museum.
THE GREAT CANADIAN SHORELINE CLEANUP goes-down on Saturday September 19th at 9:00 am.
Kingston's official shoreline cleanup locations include
- Breakwater Park and MacDonald Memorial Park
- Doug Fluhrer Park, on the Cataraqui River
- Marine Museum of the Great Lakes Shoreline and Dry Dock.
The official website appears very officious, with allusions that signing-up is required.
Don't be put-off by that. It's probably because they need to plan for the number of t-shirts, clipboards for the always-interesting tallies, garbage-bags, pick-up logistics, and whatnot.
Just show-up. If they don't have a TD-Bank-branded t-shirt for you, that's tough. It's well-worth doing. The area around the Marine Museum in particular needs some TLC.
Or, you could just grab a couple of green garbage bags and some gloves, don your boots, and head-down to your favorite stretch and make it a little better. Any day.
See photos from past cleanups. It looks like fun. The people you'll meet are all givers.
DROWNING IN SIMPLE-MINDEDNESS, great article by Andrew Coyne in MacLeans' Magazine in August.