Guelph Politico: August 2017

Thursday, August 31, 2017

MANGEZ! Dine Safe Guide for August 16-31, 2017

Twice-monthly, Guelph Politico posts the latest inspection results from the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit inspection of local restaurants, hotels, cafes, grocery stores and other businesses that handle food. We call it "Mangez!", and this column highlights the latest inspections done by WDGPH, and the results they've posted.

It's September! It's Back to School! It's Back to Council! It's Back to the Politico Calendar!

GUELPH POLITICAST #94 - The Chairs of Guelph's School Boards

It's the last days of August, which also means that it's the official end of summer. If you're a student anyway. This time next week, students of all ages will back at class, making new friends, learning stuff, and begrudging that their summertime freedom was taken away from them just when they were getting the hang of it. So who do we blame for this madness?

The "Coles Notes" Version of Guelph Transit Changes

So this coming Sunday, taking the bus is going to slightly different than it has been in the last couple of years. There are a lot of new changes to get your head around, so to get you started, here is a break down of all the changes coming to the system as of September 3, which is hopefully the simplest way to explain it all...

City Council Recap: What Happened from June and July 2017?

In case you're more of a reader than a listener, or maybe you just want to reference back to something quickly, over the next three weeks, Guelph Politico will post a recap of the first seven months of 2017 at city council in three parts. This third part covers June and July...

What Kind of Change.org Does Guelph Want Right Now?

What matters to the people of Guelph? That's a question those of us in the media struggle with all the time. So I decided to look at the website Change.org to see what people in Guelph have been caring about this summer, and what issues, ideas and challenges they're trying to draw attention to. Think pets. Think transit. Think the environment. See what difference some people on Change.org are trying to make for Guelph below.

Committee of the Whole Preview - What's on the Agenda for the September 5 Meeting?

It's time to get back to ~~school~~ work, with the first Committee-of-the-Whole session since July, and money matters seem to matter most in this first gathering of city council for fall 2017.

At Least Guelph Transit Uses Social Media...

In the year 2017, if you want to complain, you go to social media. A whole industry there is built on rating what rocks and what sucks, and that includes the way you get around your city. Online, there's often not a lot of love for Guelph Transit, so I was curious, where do other municipalities stand when it comes to interacting with their customers online? It turns of that Guelph Transit is a leader in that regard.

GUELPH POLITICAST #93 - Scott Thomson, Guelph Jazz Festival Artistic Director

September is coming, and everything will get back to normal. Then again September starts with one of the biggest cultural events of the year: the Guelph Jazz Festival. Now in its 23rd year, the Jazz Fest is getting ready again to fill the downtown core with the finest improvised and creative music from across Canada and around the globe, but this year, things might sound a little bit different.

City Council Recap: What Happened from April and May 2017?

This Week in Press Releases - August 14-18, 2017

Every week, the City of Guelph and other groups send out notices to announce new events, imperatives, and information that you need to know. Here is this week in press releases.

GUELPH POLITICAST #92 - Robert Routledge, U of G Student Life

Brace yourselves, Back to School is coming. In about three weeks, the summertime quiet of Guelph will give way to the hustle and bustle from a suddenly swelled student population as 20,000 undergrads come to the city to continue their education or initiate it, and Student Life will be there to help welcome them.

RECAP: Mayor Guthrie Facebook Town Hall - August 15

This evening, Mayor Cam Guthrie held a town hall on the Facebook group "Guelph This & That" live from his hotel room in Ottawa. The 90-minute Q&A covered a wide variety of topics, so in case you missed it, just want the highlights, or are not a part of the "This & That" group, here's the blow-by-low of what the mayor discussed, and what questions were asked.

City Council Recap: What Happened from January to March 2017?

PC Nominee Drops Out Over Party Politics

Last month, Green Party Mike Schreiner became the first person to be made a candidate for Guelph's seat in the 2018 provincial election, but now the local Progressive Conservative party is making news. Not for putting forward a candidate, but for loosing one.

GUELPH POLITICAST #91 - The Open Sources Guelph 2017 Interviews

This week on the Guelph Politicast, we're doing a bottle episode for another show entirely. If you don't listen to Open Sources Guelph (and why wouldn't you, you can find it on the same podcast channel as the Guelph Politicast), this is your chance to get a taste of what we offer every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU.

Lafarge Protestors Want Developers to be Good Neighbours

On Friday, several residents and activists teamed-up to stop work for the day at the Lafarge site in the city's west end. After years of threatened development and negotiations, the land owners were taking the plunge and cutting down nearly 2,000 trees for a project to be named later, but it was was not to be on this day. Why? The neighbourhood wants the developer to be more neighbourly.

Residents and Activists Stop Chainsaws for the Day at Lafarge

Thursday night, a group called Friends of the Howitt Creek sent out a press release to all local media, the City of Guelph, and the developers of the Lafarge site to let them know there would be no trees cut down on Friday. They were going to protest...

GUELPH POLITICAST #90 - The Year at Council So Far...

You don't really know how busy seven months of council look like until you write out all the highlights in a single script and record them for a podcast, but that's what we've done for this week's podcast.