Monday, February 28, 2011

The Future of the SunnySide Triangle Building


The Future of the SunnySide Triangle Building, located at 1020-2nd Ave NW is undetermined.

SunnySide Triangle Building Strategy Group, a citizen driven ad hoc org, has been struck.

There is no formal contact info as of yet, but I would be happy to pass on any ideas, suggestions or concerns you may have. A facebook group will be up promptly and you can also comment there. This was the FB event.

My concerns are about negligence & "Acting With Due Care". Here is my letter, dated 28Feb11, to The Mayor & Council:

Dear Calgary Mayor & Aldermen,

The following questions are with reference to the property known informally as the Sunnyside Triangle Building (STB), located at 1020-2nd Ave NW.

1. There is a question of "Act with Due Care". How was this building allowed to deteriorate to such a state (presuming the engineering report is accurate), while in the care and control of the Calgary Housing Company and the City of Calgary?

2. Who slated the Sunnyside Triangle Building (STB) to be torn down? Who decided this course of action? How was it determined?

3. Have the citizens decided the future of this building and space through an engagement process?

4. What are the timelines associated with redevelopment?

5. Is this decision an act of City of Calgary Council?

6. A. What department was responsible for the STB property prior to "people being moved out"?
6. B. What department is now responsible for the STB building and property?

7. Please provide a copy of the final engineering analysis on the roof, with all proprietary information excluded.

8. Will the City of Calgary Council assist with access to this building for the purpose of a 2nd opinion on the roof?

Respectfully,

Paul Hughes


Saturday, February 19, 2011

Calgary vs New York City (5 Boroughs)


#YYC vs #NYC
Stats:
~1. Size? Comparable
~2. Population? 1.2M vs 11M
~3. Food Policy? Nil vs Progressive

New York is aggressively identifying all potential urban ag spaces, including lawns & rooftops. This is the NYC Land Inventory Project.

Calgary has an abundance of unused space, suitable for Urban Ag (most of Calgary is built on farmland), to the tune of 22,000 acres from an empty land inventory of almost 100,000 acres. Calgary is finally embarking on a LIFA: Land Inventory & Food System Assessment this summer, 3 years after it was first suggested to the Bronco regime.

NYC has 600 community gardens and numerous community farms.

Calgary has 50 community gardens on less than 10 acres of space & no community farms.

Calgary can become a world leader in Urban Agriculture.

CAFO: Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation

70% of all antibiotics used in this country R given 2 animals in CAFOs. This is how we get 95% of our meat. #yyc


A Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) is an animal feeding facility that confines animals for more than 45 days in an area that does not produce vegetation during the growing season. The term "CAFO" was first coined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to describe facilities that have a potential pollution profile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_Animal_Feeding_Operations

Friday, February 18, 2011

Citizens back on top?

Some quick comments on the YYCCC (City of Calgary City Council or Corporation of the City of Calgary) org chart. The 1st example, an older org chart, clearly has citizens at the top, reflecting democratic principles. The next, & latest version, has removed the citizens, symbolically representing the demotion given citizens by the current bureaucratic/administrative regime. It is unknown if YYCCC removed citizens intentionally, however the mere fact WE (the citizens) are absent is a massive contradiction to democratic principles & imagineCalgary targets for governance.

The last example is my quick rework to reflect the present reality, having become too impatient with the City Manager's office to do this after requesting the change last month.

Paul Hughes






Edit 1 date: 26June12: I found this from the City of Calgary Annual Report 2006: Milestones, clearly showing citizens at the top of the org chart...


Edit 2: This is the revised org chart as of March 2012, clearly showing citizens NOT on top of the org chart...

Edit 3: 
And now these org charts from past City of Calgary Annual Reports:
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

& the link that takes you to the revised March 2012 org chart:

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

City Chicks: Minimalist Coop with skylight






Foxy Modern Hen Houses For Urban Chickens

City chicks listen up: you too can roost in style. Described by its designers, Matthew Hayward and Nadia Turan, as “a stylish & sculptural piece of garden furniture with breakfast thrown in,” the nogg is a modern chicken coop designed to encourage domestic urban farming while adding elegance to your—and 2-4 hens—space.

Original post

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Community Gardens vs Community Farms



Urban Farming Project Sites
Feeding any large city requires much more than small scale community projects like community gardens. Such projects are useful educational & recruiting vehicles but community urban farming will maximize land base utilization and produce food on a scale that will help us meet imagineCalgary targets for food production.
Built environment and infrastructure system targets
Food
T1 By 2036, Calgarians support local food production.
T2 By 2036, Calgary maintains access to reliable and quality food sources.
T3 By 2036, 100 per cent of Calgary’s food supply derives from sources that practice sustainable food production.
T4 By 2010, 100 per cent of Calgarians have access to nutritious foods.

Natural environment system targets
Land and soil
T2 By 2036, sustainable urban food production increases to five per cent.
T3 By 2036, the consumption of urban- and regionally produced food by Calgarians increases to 30 per cent.
T4 By 2010, 100 per cent of Calgarians have access to nutritious foods.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Sugar Tsunami: Hyper Driven Youth: 1,400 empty calories of pure sugar. Is this really good 4 our kids?


Is this really good 4 our kids?
A Day’s Worth of Sugary Drinks Adds Up to A Whopping 93 Sugar Packets

In a continuing effort to educate New Yorkers about the potentially serious health effects of consuming sugary drinks, the NY Health Department launched the latest installment of its “Pouring On the Pounds” health education campaign. The 30-second spot shows how a day’s worth of sugary drinks can add up. Building on a previous campaign, sugar content is measured in “packets” to illustrate how a daily routine of just a few sweetened drinks can cumulate to a whopping 93 packets of sugar by the end of the day. These excessive amounts of sugar would amount to almost 1,400 empty calories of pure sugar – that’s nearly ¾ of the daily recommended calories for most adults. The spot ends with devastating images of the serious potential health consequences of obesity and diabetes.

See Video Here.

SHOK: Sugar Hurts Our Kids

Friday, February 11, 2011

Adopt-a-Stop to keep Calgary Bus Stops clean & snow free

Adopt-a-Stop to keep Calgary Bus Stops clean, snow free, improve service, increase safety and reduce transit costs.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Vandana Shiva, Global Food Justice Champion, speaks in Calgary


Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi will present the 2011 Calgary Peace Prize to Vandana Shiva, World famous environmentalist. Vandana Shiva, Global Food Justice Champion, speaks in Calgary


Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi will present the 2011 Calgary Peace Prize to Vandana Shiva, World famous environmentalist

Vandana Shiva speaks on democracy, gender, development & social justice
March 9, 2011 7:00-8:30pm
Murray Fraser Hall 162,
University of Calgary
Tickets: $12.00 online;
$15 at the door
To purchase advance tickets, visit
www.netcommunity.ucalgary.ca/shiva
Or call 403-220-2136
All event information available at www.ucalgary.ca/peacestudies
Supported by: Slow Food Calgary, Calgary Centre for Global Community, Project Ploughshares, Calgary Food Policy Council, Social Work Students, Political Science Students, India Canada Association of Calgary & Shastri Indo-Canada Institute
Lecture opens with Indian Classical Music
Samosas, chai & Dr Shiva’s books will be available for purchase in the event


Park Minus


Park Minus

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Really Bad Predictions



It will be gone by June.
~Variety, passing judgment on rock 'n roll in 1955

In all likelihood, world inflation is over.
~Per Jacobsson, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, 1959

We will bury you.
~
Nikita Krushchev, Soviet Premier, predicting Soviet communism will win over US capitalism, 1958 


Everything that can be invented has been invented.

~Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, 1899

I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious sensibilities of anyone.
~
Charles Darwin, in the foreword to his book, The Origin of Species, 1869

Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.

~Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929

If anything remains more or less unchanged, it will be the role of women.
~
David Riesman, conservative American social scientist, 1967


Democracy will be dead by 1950.

~John Langdon-Davies, A Short History of The Future, 1936

A short-lived satirical pulp.
~
TIME, writing off Mad magazine in 1956

And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all, safaris in Vietnam
.
~Newsweek, predicting popular holidays for the late '60s

Four or five frigates will do the business without any military force.
~British prime minister Lord North, on dealing with the rebellious American colonies, 1774


This antitrust thing will blow over.

~Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft

Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop - because women like to get out of the house, like to handle merchandise, like to be able to change their minds.
~
TIME, 1966, in one sentence writing off e-commerce long before anyone had ever heard of it

They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...
~
Last words of Gen. John Sedgwick, spoken as he looked out over the parapet at enemy lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864

Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose.
~Herbert Hoover, on Prohibition, 1928

It will be years - not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister.
~
Margaret Thatcher, future Prime Minister, October 26th, 1969

Read my lips: NO NEW TAXES.

~George Bush, 1988

You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees.
~Kaiser Wilhelm, to the German troops, August 1914

This is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time.
~Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, September 30th, 1938

That virus is a pussycat.
~Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988

 

Reagan doesn't have that presidential look.
~United Artists Executive, rejecting Reagan as lead in 1964 film The Best Man

Capitalist production begets, with the inexorability of a law of nature, its own negation.

~Karl Marx

Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.

~Grover Cleveland, U.S. President, 1905

Man will not fly for 50 years.

~Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer, to brother Orville, after a disappointing flying experiment, 1901 (their first successful flight was in 1903)

I am tired of all this sort of thing called science here... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped.
~
Simon Cameron, U.S. Senator, on the Smithsonian Institute, 1901

The Americans are good about making fancy cars and refrigerators, but that doesn't mean they are any good at making aircraft. They are bluffing. They are excellent at bluffing.
~
Hermann Goering, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, 1942

With over fifteen types of foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big share of the market for itself.

~Business Week, August 2, 1968

The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of mere gain.
~
Martin Luther, German Reformation leader, Table Talk, 1530s(?)

Ours has been the first [expedition], and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality.

~Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.

~General Tommy Franks, March 22nd, 2003.