“Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer’s out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone.”
– lyrics from the song ‘Boys of Summer’ by Don Henley of Eagles fame
A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted August 31st, 2024
It never fails.
There is no reason why this boardwalk in Mel Swart-Lake Gibson Park should have almost nobody walking on it after Labour Day. Summer is still here. Photo by Doug Draper
Every year at this time, as we come up to the last five or so days before Labour Day, you hear the same line over and over again, coming from radio and television hosts and from many of the people you cross paths with in the community.
The line goes like this; “It’s the end of summer,” and I hear it used in the context of everything from ‘taking one last walk on the beach’, to ‘having one last outdoor picnic or barbecue before putting the lawn chairs away’ and rushing around for last-minute supplies for ‘back to school’. Continue reading
Toronto – This August 28th’s announcement by Energy Minister Stephen Lecce is a significant and shocking reversal on electricity planning in Ontario.
Not content with making lame jokes about our crumbling healthcare system, Doug Ford’s latest announcement will put even more strain on our hospitals.
St. Catharines, Ontario – Niagara residents with a chronic illness and their care partners can access a specially trained registered nurse to assist them in managing their symptoms and day-to-day well-being in the comfort of their homes.
The board assists the Commission by reviewing and assessing progress by the governments of Canada and the United States to implement the Agreement, identifying emerging issues and recommending strategies and approaches to prevent and resolve complex challenges facing the Great Lakes, and providing advice on the role of relevant jurisdictions to implement these strategies and approaches
QUEEN’S PARK—Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles is calling on Premier Doug Ford to come clean about his role in the Greenbelt scandal as the RCMP investigation continues and key Conservative staffers face questioning.
It was August 1969 and my brother and I were walking to a record store in downtown St. Catharines and in the window we saw this colourful poster featuring a white dove perched on the arm of a guitar.
There has never been a better time to harness the power of the sun for our homes.
Lincoln, ON– The Town of Lincoln is announcing several community engagement initiatives starting in Fall 2024 to rally the community towards a collective, ongoing goal of a healthy urban tree canopy.
From Doug Draper – More than a decade ago and about a decade after I decided to leave my job at what was left of the once-proud St. Catharines Standard, I was asked to write a review for a now-defunct news magazine called Pulse Niagara on a film documentary TV Ontario would be airing on the poor conditions foreign farm workers were suffering in Ontario.
A new report released (this August 13th, 2024) by Environmental Defence, Big Oil’s Big Year –
Toronto, Ontario – A new backgrounder released by Environmental Defence today
*NOTE: City of St. Catharines’ public meetings for proposed Community Improvement Plan amendments have been rescheduled to a special City Council meeting on Monday, Aug. 26 at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall. *
Today in not-so-fun-facts: In Ontario, you don’t need any sort of license to operate a private zoo. If you have the money you can purchase a lion, tiger or camel, and charge visitors to come and see it – living conditions be damned.
A July poll commissioned by Environmental Defence, and conducted by Abacus Data confirms that the overwhelming majority of people across Canada — 84 per cent — want less single-use plastic in the grocery store.
Thirty-seven years after American-born James Baldwin’s death in 1987, his books and so much of what he had to say about racial and social justice remain as relevant and as well read today.
In the summer of 1969, when close to half a million young people were grooving to the music of some of the best musical artists at the time at the now-legendary Woodstock Festival in Upstate New York, there was another large music festival that that took place in New York City’s Harlem district that went largely ignored by the mainstream media.
For over a year, temperature records across the globe have been shattered by the one-two punch of the climate emergency and the most recent El Niño event. We’ve had so many broken records that the media hardly bother reporting on them any more.
A Brief Foreword from Doug Draper at Niagara At Large – For all of you who have never really visited the heart of Buffalo – who may have just driven on the beltway to get to the airport or to the Walden Galleria mall or the state thruway and have only been exposed to abandoned and broken down mills and warehouses and housing that has fallen into ruin along the way – GardenWalk Buffalo will take you to neigbourhoods where the architecture and tree-lined streetscape rivals any town or city on the continent.
Niagara Bee Group is holding its first Honey Harvest party of the year this Friday, July 26th at Apple Hill Apothecary in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
There were and still are a number of people out there who were naive enough to believe that Trump’s brush with an assassin’s bullet earlier this July might do something to temper that reptilian monster that makes up the core of him.
Niagara Region Public Health is informing residents that Niagara has received its first confirmation of West Nile Virus (WNV) in mosquitoes in 2024.
There’s no mistaking it, we’re having an unusually hot summer this year.
Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife, NDP Finance critic, released the following statement in response to the FAO’s latest review.
If you are living in Niagara, you probably know someone who is having difficulty affording housing.
You’ve probably already heard about the irreversible damage of the Ford government’s) proposed Highway 413.
Niagara, Ontario –Brock University experts are calling for stronger consumer protections after millions of Ticketmaster customers were alerted that their personal data may have been comprised in a security breach.
Niagara At Large 