POSTING #94

An Update on Life in Niagara

Recent postings have wandered around the world a bit and it seems appropriate to focus some attention on things closer to home---especially in a blog entitled Letter from Virgil.

So here are a few stories about Niagara today.

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Being relative newcomers to Niagara, we are frequently asked how we like the area. We are always positive---genuinely so---and reply that we find it a good place to live.

Recently, a long-time resident who had asked us this question nodded when we said we liked it and then added, "But it is a terrible place for issues. You turn around and there is another issue, with letters to the editor and public meetings."

He's right.

In an earlier posting I mentioned several issues that were big at that time, issues on which we didn't know which side to take because we were just too new to understand all the ins and outs of them.

Here is an update on some of those issues.

There was a debate about whether or not to close the Niagara District Secondary School, as the Regional Board of Education wanted to do. Despite political pressure and some court challenges, the Board won and the school closed at the end of June. The students are now being bused to Niagara Falls or St. Catharines.

Friends of the school are arguing that the school should be essentially mothballed in case the influx of young couples now underway will produce enough students in a few years to justify its reopening.

I suspect that the Board---which like all Ontario boards is chronically short of money--- would like to turn  the school and its large and valuable land into cash.

Another issue revolved around Project Niagara, which would have created an annual summer music festival on the shores of Lake Ontario with the Toronto skyline in the background. The National Arts Centre Orchestra from Ottawa and the Toronto Symphony would have performed along with orchestras from around the world.

The sticking point for local residents was how to get a couple of thousand people to the performances without creating traffic chaos and destroying the character of the town.

The project had received indications of financial support from different levels of government but the recession and rising deficits have scuppered those tentative commitments.

The project is now dead, but perhaps not buried.

Finally there was a debate about where to locate a state-of-the-art hospital for Niagara. Local politicians from Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Port Colborne etc argued that it shouldn't be located in 'greedy' St. Catharines, 'which always gets everything'.

Talk about sibling rivalry!

The hospital is now well underway---in St. Catharines.

But to keep peace in the family, Niagara Falls wins a consolation prize in the form of a transfer of the headquarters for the Niagara Regional Police Service, which has been in St. Catharines, to a large new building that will be located in the Falls.

There is now a new issue. 

Trish Romance (surely one of the most commercially successful artists in Canada) and her husband own the large, historic Randwood Estate and wish to develop part of it.  (Click here for an excellent website with great images of the buildings and grounds.)   Plans include a hotel,  a spa, a restaurant and so on.

There is an upcoming public meeting sponsored by the developers that will try to convince residents that the proposed changes will be a 'good thing', that will benefit the community. Neighbouring residents are very skeptical.

I will keep you posted.

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Recent statistics on visits by Americans to Ontario show some improvement for July compared with last July, but the figures for the first 7 months of 2010 are lower than for the same period in 2009. Obviously, the recession in the US, passport requirements and the higher loonie are still hurting our tourism business.

Meanwhile, trips into the US by Ontario residents are up markedly.

Before the statistics came out we had conducted a couple of totally unscientific surveys that came to roughly the same results as the official statistics.

We drove slowly along some of the main streets in the Old Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake counting license plates. Eight out of 10 cars were from Ontario, with a sprinkling of cars from Quebec and the US. Judging by dealer stickers, many of the Ontario cars were from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) It seems that the GTA is keeping the Shaw Festival and the other parts of our tourist industry afloat.

Good for Toronto!

The second survey was conducted in the parking lot at Fashion Outlets in Niagara Falls NY---home to 150 outlet stores. Again, 8 out of 10 cars were from Ontario, with many of those from Markham, Oakville and other centres in and around the GTA.

It seems that the GTA is also keeping part of the Western New York State economy afloat!

In our Fashion Outlets survey we found a Porsche with Ontario plates and a dealer's sticker from the GTA. We also happened to notice that the license plate had expired many months before, in February 2010

What conclusion should we draw from that?

That Porsche owners are somehow special and don't have to bother with trifling things like updating licenses?

That even Porsche owners are feeling some financial pain, and they are skipping license fees in order to make the monthly car payments---and to be able to shop for bargains at an outlet mall?

Or, that Porsche owners have many weighty things on their minds, and they tend to be a bit forgetful?

I will leave it to you, gentle reader, to figure out which of these hypotheses seems most apt.

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I'll conclude with another story about a fancy European car--- not as expensive as a Porsche but expensive.

A friend had bought a ticket for a relative living in the GTA, so the relative could accompany her to a costly conference in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

When the GTA person was ready to leave for the conference, she found that her car wouldn't start.

She decided to borrow her son's European car that he had stored with her while he went overseas for a few months. She checked the gas, which was fine, as was the license plate renewal sticker.

However, she forgot to check the car insurance.

The need to switch cars meant she was running behind schedule so she pushed the softly purring car a good bit above the speed limit on the QEW.

Exiting the QEW and getting onto Highway 55 she saw that she was just 15 kilometres from the conference. But time was still tight, so she kept her foot on the gas.

I should interrupt the story here to issue a warning about Virgil and speed traps. Coming  into the town, one can be driving along---posted speed of 80 KPH--- enjoying the vineyards and suddenly there is a small sign at the under-populated edge of Virgil that gives the speed limit as 50 KPH. The sign is easy to miss, as is the police officer standing well back from the road with a radar gun.

Until the officer pulls you over!

And that's what happened to the woman from the GTA.

Apparently, the police officer was a young man, and 'quite cute'. The driver explained about her car not starting, about being late for the conference, and I suppose fluttered her eyelashes---who knows.

The officer seemed sympathetic and said that perhaps he could let her off with a warning, but he should see the ownership and insurance documents first. The woman got the documents from the glove compartment and handed them over.

After studying the documents, the officer said that the ownership was OK but the insurance had expired. He was sorry but he would have to issue a speeding ticket plus a ticket for driving without a valid insurance certificate.

He told her how much the combined fine would be. She cringed a little and promised herself that she would give her son a bit of her mind about not keeping his insurance up-to-date. But in the meantime, she could get back on the road.

When she started to put the car in gear, the police officer shook his head. She couldn't drive an uninsured car, she would have to get a garage to tow the car away. She could have the car back when  she had a valid insurance certificate.

At that point the woman called her friend's cell phone. The friend, who was in the conference that had already started, agreed to leave right away and pick her up in Virgil.

The moral is, when nearing Virgil, watch for the speed limit signs and sloooooow down.

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See you on November 14th for Posting #95 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.