Clay and Glass Gallery: Things are looking up.

The Clay and Glass gallery is busy developing its sustainability plan, and will present its plan to Council in June. A lot has happened since the financial issues first surfaced last fall. Two new board members have been added, the board has reviewed its role and responsibilities vis-a-vis staff, a development committee has been established, and it is in the early stages of re-branding its Mission. These are all quite positive developments, and bode well for a very exciting future for the gallery.

There is a public input session planned for Wednesday April 28 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, at RIM park, room 208. If you have any interest or thoughts about the gallery, you should attend the session. If you cannot make it, there is an opportunity to provide input at the gallery website, or leave a comment here which I will forward on.

Ticketing for Parking on Lawns simplified

On Monday, Council passed a motion which will enable by-law staff to issue the equivalent of a parking ticket to any cars that are illegally parked on lawns or someone else's driveway. In the past, it took 30 minutes to issue a ticket, because the owner of the car had to be identified. Now it will take only about 2 minutes.

This is a good example of how the city continues to to improve its operational effectiveness, and in this case, how it make our by-laws more meaningful.

Waterloo finances look up

It is satisfying to see The Record editorial commenting on the progress we have made since the days I held public meetings and the extensive internal reviews 6 years ago to deal with the Rim Park financing fiasco. At that time we set out three budget targets get our finances under control. This paved the for the current three year budget providing stability and predictability to our finances. We are the only municipality in Ontario to have a 3 year budget, and now our city staff are being asked to speak to other municipalities and at conferences on how to implement them. We have made such great strides.

Conestoga Sailing Club

Sailing in a passion of mine, and some good friends and long time Conestoga Sailing Club members, Ben and Eliza are planning a sailing adventure, which may take them around the world. They started sailing at nearby Conestoga Lake when they enrolled their children in sailing lessons, and then got hooked themselves. Ben has since built his own boat, and has a website with some of his boat building and sailing experiences. When we think of Waterloo, we may not think of sailing, but if you learn to sail well at Conestoga, you have a solid base of experience to sail anywhere in the world.

Clay and Glass Gallery

Ione Thorkelson, who exhibited at the Clay and Glass Gallery in 2004, has just won the Governor General's Award for Visual Arts for 2010. In an email message to the gallery she stated that "This is a very exciting time for me. The CCGG has had a huge effect on my development. An opportunity to stretch all my abilities to fit that grand space sent me off in new directions."

I am the Councillor Liaison on the board of the gallery. We are in the process of developing a sustainability plan for the gallery. One of the challenges is to ensure that the gallery is seen as relevant to the community, both the artistic community and the community at large. Being able to attract Canada's leading artists should surely fall into that category.

WCEAC had their AGM last week, and invited Steffanie Scott, a local UW professor and Co-Chair of the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable, who gave a broad reaching talk on our food system, starting from a global perspective to local food priorities. This is a very interesting and relevant topic, especially for those who are interested in what can be done to buy locally produced food, and to encourage more of this.


Northdale has also been back in the news, with residents at 251 Albert street constructing a sexually explicit sculpture of a nude women with a kiwi fruit stuck between her spread legs. The Cord wrote an editorial suggesting this was art, that there are more important issues and questioned the why there was a controversy. True enough, but as I wrote to The Cord, neighhourhood norms should be respected.

On a more positive note, Kingston is also dealing with issue of intensification in near campus neighbourhoods, and have recently issued their recommendations.

Waterloo Council will be receiving a staff report at the end of April with options for Northdale, and Council will have to make some decisions in May. Shortly after that will come recommendations on the licensing of rental units.