Thought I’d keep up the tradition. Here’s a list of places outside of Lethbridge I went this year. I’m not counting gas stops or places where I spent less than an hour.
Where did you go?
I recently purchased a new cell phone. Given the parameters of the deal I was offered and available funds, the phone I ended up buying did not have the ability to sync with Outlook (the software of choice for keeping our family organised).
Since then, however, I have found a way to get it a step closer to acting like PIM, or at least two of the most popular features I use in Outlook: email and event reminders. And Google helped me do it.
The key is setting up notifications in Gmail and Google calendar and having text messaging capabilities on your phone.
In Gmail, complete the following steps:
You will now receive emails on your phone. Keep in mind that some providers may truncate your emails (mine truncates messages to 160 characters).
Now for Google Calendar:
Keep in mind that some carriers charge for incoming messages. Fortunately, mine does not.
Now if I could find a way to transfer my 400 contacts over.
Cardston High school announced their new rodeo academy programme. When comparing it with the Vauxhall baseball academy and the Warner hockey school, Todd Ojala, Vauxhall High principal, said the following:
“If you’re in a small community and you’re not trying to improve it and make it a better place we all know what happens. We all move to Lethbridge and there is no small community anymore.”
Maybe now that there’s proof we’re siphoning population and economy from other communities, we’ll start receiving more infrastructure dollars from the government.
When I was running for a seat on city council in 2001, one of the most common issues I heard brought up was the fact Lethbridgians wanted the downtown revitalised. I think that is all and good and could go a long way to improving the city.
Another thing I noticed based on focus groups and committee meetings I attended regarding the revitalising the downtown was that residents did not want high-density development.
This makes no sense to me. why would you not be in favour for the thing that would be the most helpful to revitalising the downtown?
What the downtown needs to be revitalised is people. Plain and simple. Building bigger roads to bring more cars downtown isn’t the answer; nor is building more parking spaces. The easiest way to get more people downtown on a permanent basis is to build more housing; in particular to build more housing using the same amount of existing space.
High-density housing will bring many more people downtown on a permanent basis, providing more consumers, more entertainment patrons, and more transit users. As a result, the downtown will attract higher-end retail and hospitality establishments, result in better (and more frequent) entertainment options, and create improved transit options.
In addition, such housing will reduce (or at least slow down) the spread of urban sprawl—a plague in the open prairies surrounding the city. The city will spend less money on roads, sewer and the delivery of services (such as gas, water and electricity).
One would think that after 20 years, it would be time for Lethbridge to see at least one more high rise apartment building.
