Entries categorized as ‘Signs of our Times’
Could an endangered species of toads stop plans by a corporate conglomerate to erect a multi-storey condo on Bay Beach in the fabled Crystal Beach community of Fort Erie, Ontario.
The Fowler's Toad At Bay Beach, Fort Erie. Created by Paul Kassay
That is what Paul Kassay, a longtime advocate for preserving and enhancing the Crystal Beach area, hopes the Fowler’s toad will do for Bay Beach as many residents and people who own property there on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border prepare to fight those corporate developers and their own Town of Fort Erie at Ontario Municipal Board hearings, and at the ballot box during this October’s municipal elections. (more…)
Categories: Signs of our Times
By Doug Draper
(Please tell your friends and supporters of Niagara At Large to click on www.niagaraatlarge.com to read this article. That is the best way right now that you can support the future of this site.)
The Niagara Health System may be about as popular as the proverbial skunk at the garden party for many residents living in the region’s southern tier.
Another 'sign of our times'.
But the NHS, the organization created a decade ago to manage most of Niagara, Ontario’s hospitals, has at least one booster there – a Fort Erie branch of the Royal Bank of Canada! The bank is now sporting a sign that reads; ‘RBC Supports The Niagara Health System’.
And as offensive as it may be to some Fort Erie residents, angered by the cuts the NHS has made to their hospital, the bank’s support shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. RBC Capital Markets is among those financial institutions, along with TD Securities Inc., BMO Capital Markets and others, that stands to profit from NHS’s decision to build a brand new, super hospital in the north end of Niagara, where many of the region’s hospital services, including first-of-a-kind cancer treatment and cardiac centres, will ultimately go. (more…)
Categories: Signs of our Times
By Doug Draper
Here is one of my favourite signs along the Niagara River corridor – erected by the Niagara Parks Commission some years ago for the benefit of any visitors to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls who might be a little bit on the daring side.
A sign one thinks would not be necessary except for the stupidity of the human species. Photo by Doug Draper
Don’t know if there are any comparable signs on the American side of the river but given how litiginous a society there seems to be south of the border (or east of the border in this case) the New York State Park authorities might want to post a few around Goat Island and Terrapin Point just as a matter of ‘due diligence’.
The sign literally warns people not to jump over a fence which is the last stop left before plunging hundreds of feet to rock and water below the roaring Horseshoe Falls of Niagara. (more…)
Categories: Signs of our Times · Uncategorized
Niagara At Large is pleased to feature another in a series of ‘Signs of our Times’ on signs you might spot and share a photo of that make sense, make no sense, or just plain depict the sign of our times in our communities.
If you visit the front page of Niagara At Large and scroll down a few more stories, you will see one entry in this series already on signs by governments, bragging about spending our tax money on projects they should be spending our tax money on.
This sign was submitted to Niagara At Large with the caption - 'needs no further explanation'.
This one was submitted by Merilyn Anthoe, a Fort Erie resident and member of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens group dedicated to fighting for fair and accessible hospital services in southern Niagara. She submitted it as a photo that needs no further comment, which it probably doesn’t for Canadians and Americans living all year or part of the year on the Ontario side of Lake Erie in Niagara. (more…)
Categories: Signs of our Times
By Doug Draper
Niagara At Large is launching a new off-and-on-and-whenever-we happen-get-a-good-submission’ series that speaks to the good, bad and ugly across our binational Niagara region called “Signs Of Our Times.”
Signs of the Times photo by Bob Liddycoat
And when we say signs, we are talking about real signs up on poles, a billboard, on a picket line or displayed on a lawn or wall somewhere that you happen to spot in your communities and can share an image of with Niagara At Large. Send us a digital image of the sign; along with a bit of commentary on why you feel whatever message the sign conveys ranges from something that may be great for our communities, to something that is sad, disgusting or absurd.
We are starting this ‘Sign Of The Times’ series with an image of a cluster of signs captured by Bob Liddycoat, now a Wainfleet, Ontario resident and old journalism colleague of mine, taken on Ormond Street in his old hometown of Thorold, Ontario. You may have viewed them already on the right, up-hand side of this column. In Bob’s note on this one, he mentioned “three billboards from three levels of government telling us what a wonderful job they’re doing – all at our expense. …
“And if this is just one stretch of one street in one town in Canada,” added Bob, “imagine what they’re wasting across the country.”
What are they wasting, indeed! (more…)
Categories: Signs of our Times · Uncategorized
