24 November 2006
market fresh
Region of Waterloo has been promoting "Buy local, buy fresh" by means of a map to local farmers selling fresh products at the farm gate. Maps are available here:
Still very much a local tradition is shopping at one of the local farmers' markets. Photos above record one such Saturday shopping trip to the Your Kitchener Market: flowers and produce grown locally with exception of the imported grapes, bread from a Toronto bakery, and cold cuts without the preservatives and sliced fresh on the same day from the Osogood market stand. A feast for the eyes as well as the means to keep mind, body, and soul together---AND for a few political statements to follow.
Getting to this particular version of the Kitchener Market proved to be a challenge. The first stumbling block was that name for the poorly conceived building: YOUR Kitchener Market. Why the spin? and the reminder of a taxpayer investment that has yet to prove its value? The first look-see proved disappointing: the fake Ersatz steeply pitched barn roof hoisted over some concrete slabs? and then once inside, the stalls barely resembled what fond memory held so dear: the old farmers' market behind the 1924 City Hall frequently visited while growing up replaced in due course with its reincarnation, the farmer's market adjacent to the Market Square building. Good memories both of them but in due course replaced with trips to the farmers' markets between St. Jacobs and Waterloo bursting over with Mennonite local colour. Nonetheless, there are times when RR has only 30 minutes or so to spare and Kitchener's market is just down the street -- short pause at Cedar Street entrance to parking garage until police officer waves to get moving & then a quick walk through to her favourite stands.
What prompted the change in heart? Just another coffee maker that did not live to brew the next cup & the decision to stop supporting Walmart's globalization efforts by purchasing one from a totally-owned Canadian business. As expected, every brand on the shelves are manufactured elsewhere i.e. not in Canada; but, the markup in the transaction went into Canadian hands. Same with the market purchases in the photos above. Buying locally supports our local farmers & keeps the profits within the Region. If farming continues an economically viable option locally, we just might save more of our farmland from unchecked urban sprawl!
Here's food for thought: "The currently dominant mode of globalization is oriented to maximizing private profit and accumulating financial wealth...Competition, induced by globalization, may benefit businesses linked to transnational corporations, but harm local neighbourhoods. The outcome in any given situation reflects a balance of contending interests. Markets are never free. Competition is governed by game rules shaped by those whose interests dominate."--Willem van Vliet
Postscript for the record, list of local farmers' markets:
1. Your Kitchener Market 300 King St E: year-round Saturdays 7 to 2; summer Wednesday to 11 Oct 9 to 3;
2. St Jacobs Farmers' Marketsx 2 cor King and Weber: year-round Thursdays and Saturdays 7 to 3:30; year-round Saturday market 7 to 2, summer Sundays to November 10 to 4 p.m.
3. Cambridge Farmer's Market cor Dickson and Ainslie: year-round Saturdays 6 to 1;
4. Elmira Farmers' Market Maple Street Parking lot: summer Saturdays May to November 8 to noon;
Labels: Berlin/Kitchener history
23 November 2006
slouching toward Bethlehem?
Rambling Rose has been haunted by the phrase "slouching towards Bethlehem" as she worked her way through a mountain of verbiage written about the municipal elections. All those clippings were recycled to the regional landfill site this morning ; what remains are the post distilled from them -- a few still to be corrected ( typo here, spelling error there, miscalculation elsewhere) but rest assured, gentle reader, this is the last post on that particular subject.Today's illustration is of the Unity Day Rally in Montreal 1995 & the only occasion RR played hookey and ever so glad she did. Note where the maple leaf is? She was under that exact spot when shot was taken. Seems to me we are all slouching our way to Bethlehem!
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert,
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert,
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
--W. B. Yeats ( 1865-1939), Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer
Labels: pensees
an agenda for civic reform
In no particular order, Rambling Rose creates a checklist of needed reforms at the municipal level culled from her 2006 municipal notebook:1. Engage our youth actively to participate cf. Jason Hammond, young regional candidate: “My generation is concerned with a lot of critical issues such as climate change, public transit improvements and protection of our drinking water. It's a vicious cycle with young people and politics, especially local politics. The system doesn't work for [us], because the politicians know there is no vote there...'Then they (young people) don't vote for a system that doesn't work for them.''-- Luisa D’Amato, “Up against the region's generation barrier,” The Record 14 Nov 06,
2. Request your City Council as member of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario to lobby Queen's Park for
(1) a province- wide advertising campaign just prior to the next municipal elections in 2010*;
(2) apply pressure to get a current, updated voter's list in place. Too many voters did not receive notices or when they arrived found they were still listed at a previous address;
(3) Create an independent provincial body similar to Elections Ontario/Elections Canada to collect information and independently review ward boundaries as cities continue to grow -- * kudos to Councillor Vrabanovic for promoting this in Kitchener.
3. Form a City of Kitchener citizens' panel immediately after the election to study the issues and make recommendations on increasing the size of council. Ward 6 candidate Piatkowski called for a city council with 10 to 12 members, including one ward to represent the downtown.
4. Limit councillor terms to maximum two to three ( 8 to 12 years should be enough!)
5. To ensure more transparency, the following need to be done:
a) Create a lobbyist registry so that anyone can see which local companies and individuals are trying to do
business with the city or influence the way councillors vote;
b) Require ongoing lists of contributions made to a campaign to be made available during the election campaign; cf. this observation: " Campaign donations received from individuals and companies doing business with city....which are “Often related to planning, zoning, subdivision plans and developments”--source: Terry Pender, “Upcoming vote puts donations in spotlight,” The Record --date?
c) Issue tax rebates for donations to municipal election campaigns. City council simply has to pass a
by-law spelling out the size of the rebate that will be given to individuals, companies or trade unions donating funds to election campaigns.
6. Take at least one Council meeting per ward to a secondary school in that ward and invite, really invite public participation. RR is thinking here of that demographic average 35 year old voter and where she last saw him/her in large numbers. Guess where? At the Recplex over in Waterloo-- either watching or waiting for a youngster to finish swimming lessons. Rather interesting this jotting from my election notebook: Kitchener by-law restricts signs to 30 days prior voting date; prohibits candidates from campaigning inside city-owned community centres or arenas. However, no restriction on campaign signs on regional roads. Source: T Pender, “Sign restrictions help incumbents, candidate charges,” The Record 2 Sept 06.
Noted on Friday 24 Nov 06, this letter to editor by Rod Hoddle: "Kitchener's city clerk told me there will be a review of the existing six ward city council during this new term, and the public's input will be invited. Hopefully, when the dust settles, we will see an increase in the number of wards. That would be a positive step in electing some new councillors, and an essential change for a better and more progressive tomorrow." ===> Kitchener City Clerk is Randy Gosse. E-mail the Clerk and your ward councillor to express your support? Can't hurt. Can it?
Photo Sandamara Images 2005: Bisch Road, Woolwich Twp farm horses.
Labels: politics
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
