By now the Golden Pheasant Tea art is littered with holes. Hence the “holy.” Get it? I don’t think you get it.

Photo by Jedediah Photo

Local News Golden Pheasant Tea, St. John's

Photo by Jedediah Baker

Local News Golden Pheasant Tea, St. John's

This is painful.

Photo credit: Jedediah Baker

The building itself is almost ageless having survived three city fires including the Great Fire of 1892. Now part of the side that has for years prominently showed this colourful art is being renovated.

As seen in Google Street View

It was only a few years ago (2004) that this wall was restored after having lost some of its 74 year lustre. It was a $10,000 restoration contract issued by the city.

The same city that is shutting out condos and big businesses for proposals that interfere with downtown St. John’s heritage is allowing this? How two-faced.

From The Scope: Golden Pheasant Tea mural - Link courtesy of Ryan Pugh

Local News, Politics Art, Golden Pheasant Tea, St. John's

A friend of mine asked today where Victoria Park. I was going to be a dick and send him a Let Me Google That For You link but when I did the search I realized it didn’t up, at least not in Google Maps, as I expected.

I created a map for anyone looking to go to Victoria Park for some sliding now that St. John’s finally has snow.

View Victoria Park in a larger map

The top of the hill is on Hamilton Avenue.

Environment, Local News Hamilton Avenue, Sliding, Snow, St. John's, Winter

A few years ago now my friends and I created a shot-by-shot remake of the entire Thriller video by Michael Jackson.

Now that Halloween is fast approaching I noticed that there are a lot of people searching for this Thriller video.

I thought I’d put it front and center.

Check out our Thriller Remake Video in St. John’s Newfoundland.

GregPike.ca Michael Jackson, Newfoundland & Labrador, St. John's, Thriller

Well despite all my defending Mount Pearl to my St. John’s counterparts as a man who grew up in this city, it seems I was wrong, in a sense.

I know a few people who ought to enjoy this post.

If you compare the indices below you can see that Mount Pearl is virtually only ever average or below (though it should be known St. John’s in much in the same boat). Part of this can be accredited to our education system, part of it can be accredited to our dependencies of St. John’s.

For instance, everyone assumes Mount Pearl has no arts scene because there are never any events held in the city. Well that can almost single-handedly be attributed to the fact that there is no infrastructure to handle it. Consequently Mount Pearl artists show off their wares and talents in St. John’s. The Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl is trying to combat that.

I am sure there are other factors that Mount Pearl’s averageness as well.

In the same census, St. John’s is ranked as the single highest improver in a 5 year span, skyrocketing from a total score of 65 to 80. Yes, better than Mount Pearl. I said it.

From Yahoo News: St. John’s impresses in Maclean’s magazine’s ranking of Canada’s smartest cities

Local News, Rants Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl, CLI, Mount Pearl, St. John's

I have been arguing this for years, but bottled water consumption in a place like St. John’s is totally needless.

Some large corporation is making billions off your cost-of-bottled-soda purchases.

Furthermore people are spending ridiculous amount of money on something that is better provided for free. Especially in St. John’s where tap water is clean, healthy, and delicious.

Has it occurred to bottled water buyers that Memorial University stopped vending bottled water for a reason?

Check out this infographic to get an idea what you are getting yourself into when you drink bottled water.

Key points:

• Bottled water is 10,000 times more expensive than tap water (when it isn’t already free)
• 40% of bottled water is nothing more than tap water
• Bottled water often does not meet health standards
• Bottled water is not tested for e. coli
• Bottles are wasteful, very few are actually recycled.

Rants Bottled water, Memorial University, St. John's

I can’t say it should be illegal, because undoubtedly some people do need to use studded tires.

But the average intra-city driver does not need studs in their tires. Why people in St. John’s are adamant to have studs when they are driving on slush-cover asphalt is beyond me.

If wearing studs was neutral to city infrastructure I wouldn’t mind. But it’s not!

Studded tires cause severe damage to roadways when under regular use.

They are banned in some states in the US because of the damage they cause compared to the relative safety benefits they provide. Studded tires only perform better directly on snow or ice and have less traction when on asphalt.

“Pavement ruts caused by increased wear from studded tires can cause the dangerous conditions of trammeling, hydroplaning on accumulated water in the ruts, excessive road spray, and premature damage to pavement markings.”

To top it off cars with studded tires require as much as 1.2 to 15% more gas than cars without which contributes poorly to the environment.

It is still a matter of great debate between the advantages and disadvantages of using studded tires, but those who use them tend to contend they are safer. Studies show that radial tires actually offer comparable safety without all of the asphalt damage.

I rant about this today because it is clear that studded tires have become very popular and you can see it in the roads of St. John’s. There aren’t many roads in the city right now that aren’t adversely affected by the use of studded tires.

People who use studded tires should be subjected to a tax that goes to pay for fixing the roads they destroy.

From Washington.edu: Studded Tire Information
From Tire Information World: Studded Tire Report

Rants Radial Tires, Roads, St. John's, Studded Tires

Anytime it’s snowing in St. John’s and the roads are in hard shape I always hear people say “I’m not taking the highway” referring to Pitts Memorial Drive.

Everytime I hear this I feel like defending the highway in poor driving weather.

The “Arterial” as it is called is part of the Governement of Newfoundland and Labrador’s highway infrastructure and thus it’s snowclearing is managed by the provincial government. Compared to the City of St. John’s those roads are immaculate in the snow.

Additionally the highway swurves around the turns of the hills on the southern side of St. John’s and is surrounded on both sides by thick coniferous vegetation which prevents virtually any blowing snow.

To top it off this is a popular highway where there is a lot of traffic. Even when the plows cannot keep up on the accumulation of snow the flow of traffic keeps the roads clear.

When it comes to driving in poor winter conditions I am confident there is no safer road to drive on. Outer Ring Road is a completely different story.

Rants Newfoundland & Labrador, Pitts Memorial Drive, St. John's, Street Cleaning

On January 4th St. John’s began issuing snowclearing tickets as promised. They advertised on the radio and on television. I rarely pay attention to either, but even I was aware of the snowclearing date.

All the same, 300 motorists found themselves with hefty $45 snowclearing tickets the next morning.

Needless to say,  many were not happy.

You leave your vehicle on the road overnight when snowclearing is in effect and you deserve a ticket. I agree with this. Otherwise we have messy streets in the morning because plows were unable to maneuver properly through them.

But 300 tickets on a clear night? City Council is just going out looking for people to ticket needlessly. Random sweeps are fine. The odd ticket for a violator will prevent people from parking on the road overnight. Obviously if it snows, nail them with a ticket. Otherwise, frig off.

There is no need to ticket so many people on a night where there was no snowclearing and the weather forecast indicated no chance of snow.

But if the city must ticket absolutely everyone with a tire on the road, then why not put the money they make to snowclearing?

In one night of ticketing they raised $13,500.00. Take out the expenses for ticketing those violators and you have a significant profit from one night’s work. Surely this kind of cashflow could be put towards improving the city’s dismal snowclearing efforts.

If St. John’s put as much effort into actually cleaning the streets as they do ticketing parked vehicles we’d have wonderfully clean streets.

Local News, Rants, Service St. John's, Street Cleaning