Show us how you decorate and entertain for the season. Send your festive photos to our lifestyle reporter julie@ptbocanada.com. This photo comes to us courtesy of PTBOCanada reader Al Dawson.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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Take a slow evening drive (or walk) to unwind from the Christmas stress this holiday. Try the short jaunt off Sherbrooke on Woodglade Blvd, across Kawartha Heights Blvd to Wintergreen Trail. Then travel along Springwood Road and turn on Woodgrove Crescent. Some of Peterborough's most festive houses are along this route.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt & Julie Morris]
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Start your Christmas weekend off right with a trip to the Farmers Market, which is still open this Saturday (although some vendors might not be there).
They are also open next Saturday, December 31st.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]
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In no particular order, here we go...
1. A place(s) to play ping pong in downtown Peterborough.
2. PCVS
3. More hilarious tweets from @/PTBO_Y_U_NO.
4. More jobs being created in Peterborough.
5. Buses running later at night in Peterborough. It's near impossible to get a cab when the bars close. And we don't want to see people ever drinking and driving.
6. More music and cultural festivals. The more, the merrier. (Our music scene is one of the best in Canada.)
7. More people biking on Peterborough's streets and trails. More people biking in general.
8. The Peterborough Petes in the playoffs.
9. More great music acts at the likes of Historic Red Dog, Market Hall, Showplace, The Spill, Spanky's and Gordon Best.
10. More plaid.
11. An authentic Irish pub.
12. PCVS
13. More restaurants and businesses opening, and less closing.
14. Less blackouts for no real reason.
15. Reggie's launching a hot dog version of their burger.
16. More tourists coming to our great city.
17. More great anti-bullying programs in the city. More people standing up to bullies.
18. More Creative Cocktails, which was one of the best things to come to Peterborough this year.
19. More funny typos on signs.
20. Continued generosity of Peterborough community.
21. A continued resurgence of the downtown—and the continued good work of the DBIA.
22. Continued transparency from city council, the Mayor's office and our tweeting Mayor, who has settled into the role nicely and is having a great first year in office.
23. A couple town hall meetings. Or one. Hey, why not? Healthy thing to try to bring community together.
24. People doing random things like dancing on bubble wrap.
25. Another great Festival of Trees downtown.
26. More Tom Phillips columns.
27. More people trying breakfast at The Only Cafe. It's worth the wait.
28. More readers submitting tips.
29. More local people and businesses joining the Twitterverse.
30. More parody accounts on Twitter. Good satire can be a great equalizer.
31. Continued development of the Peterborough Wednesday Market and Saturday Farmer's Market.
32. A splash pad at Nicholl's Oval.
33. PCVS
34. Peterborough Roller Derby taking off.
35. Less domestics on police reports. Less drug busts. Less break and enters. Less stabbings. Less crime. More jobs.
36. More flash mobs around Peterborough.
37. CP Rail bridge gets fixed, allowing pedestrian walkway/bikeway again (and our shortcut back to East City)
38. More Peterborough playlists.
39. The return of 4 Dudes On The Balcony.
40. More Stormtroopers. More Band Wagons.
41. Continued impact/recognition of Peterborough's Creative Class.
42. More shocked looks on the faces of visitors to our Zoo when they discover it's free.
43. Peterborough Square and Portage Place making an Eighties comeback.
44. Less complaining and whining about what's wrong with the city, and more solutions for how to fix things.
45. More/continued attention to the amazing artists, musicians and athletes in this city.
46. PCVS
47. A show called Culturally Speaking on TV Cogeco as spinoff of Politically Speaking.
48. The excellent owners of the now closed Have You Seen... returning with a new venture.
49. More people visiting our awesome galleries and museums—the Canadian Canoe Museum is world class.
50. Not as many people wearing pajamas as outdoor wear.
51. A town square. Well, at least more discussion about it.
That's it, you rock.
What do you hope to see in Peterborough in 2012? Add to our comments section below.
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Welcome to the first day of Winter/Winter Solstice... but where on earth is the snow?! All we see is fog.
Thankfully, the hours of sunlight get longer after the 22nd!
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Evan Holt]
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Every year, I continue to read the book How To Be Santa Claus. It's filled with stories of the Christmas spirit and what it means to be Santa Claus—how Santa's look is so important and that his beard must look real and he must wear actual boots and not just boot covers. After reading it again this year, I headed off to the malls to check out our local Santa's doing this very important job this year.
Lansdowne Place Santa
Portage Place Santa
If you're interested in the journey it takes to be a Santa Claus, also check out the movie Becoming Santa.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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By Anonymous
2014 has proven to be yet another challenging year for the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. Since the Board reaffirmed its decision to close PCVS in 2012, there has been a string of events that has made that decision easy compared to those the recently elected Board will have to face in the New Year.
All of members of the Board from the City of Peterborough who were elected in November are new and face a particularly difficult term with a clearly divisive Board. The Board votes over the last three years clearly indicate a serious division between those from Peterborough and those outside it.
The first evidence of this division came with the Peterborough-based "camp" that was against closing PCVS and the more rural "camp" of those for it. The "camps" have clear geographical boundaries. Trustees from Peterborough consistently lose votes because they were outnumbered by those outside Peterborough.
With the majority of the Board being from outside Peterborough, they have vocally blamed the Peterborough-based trustees for what they have called a self-centered view from Peterborough. One even went so far to say that what is good for Peterborough is unlikely to be good for the other communities in the KPRDSB. If Peterborough had dealt with the PCVS issue years ago, one Board member claims, the KPRDSB would not find itself in its current, dire circumstances.
The tensions at the Board that first emerged with the contentious votes to close PCVS have led to several costly trends. First, students are flocking to the Separate Board schools to such an extent that the Separate Board needs another school to deal with the limits to their high schools' capacity. More concerning are falling grant revenues from the Ministry of Education because of declining KPRDSB enrolment and the resulting freeze on teacher hiring—full time and part time.
But falling grant revenues are nothing compared to the reaction of many Peterborough property taxpayers. More and more residential and commercial property taxpayers are voluntarily switching from directing their taxes from the Public Board and sending their tax dollars to the Separate Board. Downtown Peterborough businesses led the way when it became clear that the Board majority consistently voted against the interests of Peterborough residents; a wave of residential taxpayers followed by switched their tax allegiance.
A large, influential, and vocal faction of retired, "empty nesters" have shown their dissatisfaction for the KPRDSB's neglect of issues important to Peterborough by sending their education taxes to the Separate Board.
Rising costs along with rapidly falling revenues spells financial disaster for the KPRDSB.
More students than ever having to be bussed since the closing of PCVS, and the rising cost of gas has increased costs modestly. However, even with the $750,000 the Board earned from the sale of the PCVS collection Group of Seven paintings, the costs related to the temporary closing of Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School has dug them into a very deep financial whole.
When the construction of the two new elevators at TASSS was begun, some "issues" with the building arose meaning it suddenly being closed in early December for major repairs. Reminiscent of the 1990s, TASSS students—including those moving from PCVS—will be attending Kenner Collegiate in rotating half days "shifts" beginning January 2015. The $10 million renovations—including the expansion of the parking lots to accommodate 200 more cars—are expected to be completed for the opening of school in September 2015.
The declining enrolment in the KPRDSC high schools has been particularly apparent in their arts program. With fewer students in the arts program and the dislocation for repairs to TASSS, the arts program has been suspended as of January 2015. Students in the program will take a regular academic program with some emphasis on the arts being integrated into the program in their English Literature classes. Those wishing to pursue the arts in high school are, without the support of the Board, considering recently opened arts programs in other, similar communities.
With none of the Peterborough-based KPRDSB Trustees being re-elected in the Fall 2014 election and the exit of the Board's Director late in 2013, it is hoped that a more balanced approach that will take the interests of Peterborough residents seriously will occur in the New Year. Still, all indications are that the financial pressures on the Board can only lead to yet another KPRDSB high school being closed. More realistically, there is likely to be a high school "gifted" to the Separate Board from the Public Board.
Although the new Director and Trustees from outside Peterborough deny any connection between the closing of PCVS and the dire straits the KPRDSB must navigate, there is little doubt of the connection by those walking by empty retail outlets and silent music venues in Peterborough's downtown. One long-time downtown business woman upon announcing the liquidation of her business declared downtown Peterborough "officially dead."
The most likely item on the KPRDSB agenda for its first meeting of 2015 after discussing how much larger its deficit really is, will be the beginning of the discussions leading up to the closing of yet another Peterborough high school.
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[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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If you see a typo on a sign or funny signs, email pictures to tips@ptbocanada.com.
[Contributed by PtboCanada's Julie Morris]
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