From the category archives:

Community

Peak Oil Vignette 5 – Hope and Reality

by Mike Thomas on March 12, 2010

in Castlegar, Community, Development, Peak Oil Vignettes, Sustainability, Transitions, Urban Farming

Walking from the large brick building that used to house the airport terminal operations, but now was given new life as a fruit farming centre, Janie scanned the snow line on the mountains surrounding the valley. The flat land around what was once known as the West Kootenay Regional Airport was once a living farm. In fact, [...]

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Twitter for Municipalities

by Mike Thomas on March 8, 2010

in Blogging, Business, Community, Management, Rossland, Technology

I’m a twitterer. I’m bored of the monologue style of media that still dominates the old school thinking. Telling people what you want them to hear with no easy opportunity for dialog is so 90’s. That’s why I think it is essential for municipalities to embrace social media and build participation in the demographics that are [...]

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Castlegar Springs

by Mike Thomas on February 25, 2010

in Castlegar, Community, Regulation

The Grade-A services we enjoy in Castlegar from the library, water, sewer, streets and sidewalks, right through to the snow clearing operation comes with a hefty price tag. There is an indication out there that we are about to find this out, either through reduced services or increased taxes, as council balances a shift of taxes away from the industrial tax base, predominantly funded by the Celgar pulp mill.

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I Have Not Forgotten the Hens

by Mike Thomas on February 10, 2010

in Community, Sustainability, Urban Farming

Just to let my regular readers know, I haven’t forgotten about the issue of Urban Hens in Castlegar. For today’s post, I’d like to share this video from El Cerrito, California that shows some great examples of community building around a family’s chickens.

Castlegar City council has chosen to not pursue the issue, instead relying on the Community [...]

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Castlegar Gaming Centre Update

by Mike Thomas on February 4, 2010

in Business, Castlegar, Community, Development

It seems that the expected progress on the Castlegar Gaming Centre has not come to fruition. City Council received a letter from the BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC) on the 7th of December 2009 stating that the they understand the City’s concerns with the fact that Terrim Properties has not been able to meet any of [...]

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Changing Cultural Needs

by Mike Thomas on January 9, 2010

in Blogging, Castlegar, Community, Technology

Visit any great city or centre of learning, and one of the focal points of culture and knowledge is the library. Considering that statistically, one in four Americans didn’t read any books last year, it is not surprising that the question of the cultural relevance and future strategy of libraries is being questioned by some.

What [...]

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2010 Predictions

by Mike Thomas on January 1, 2010

in Blogging, Community, Kootenays, Sustainability, Transitions

It's that time of the year again, some people make their New Year's Resolutions, others make predictions for what 2010 will bring. I like predictions, not because I hold them up as a prophesy or other imperative of how things will turn out, rather, I see them as a distillation of an author's research over [...]

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