CITY 3
News Story of theYear COMMUNITY 11
Do-gooders shine once again PEOPLE 20
2016 WAS A RECORDSETTING YEAR IN NEW WESTMINSTER SPORTS
Those we lost in 2016 THURSDAY DEC. 29, 2016
There’s more online at
Y O U R
SEE PAGE 28
NewWestRecord.ca
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
H O M E T O W N
N E W S P A P E R
Headline makers and head shakers of 2016 New Year’s Eve is almost here – and, for those of us in the newsroom, what better time to pause, reflect and remember all that’s happened in New Westminster in 2016. When it comes to news headlines, New Westminster is never short of things to write about. Earlier this month, the Record editorial team sat down to discuss the top stories of the
year. Our collection of awards, honours and special mentions include the News Story of the Year, the Newsmaker of the Year and several other awards, such as our Another One Bites the Dust award and The Not Hip Enough for New West award. Our choices are obviously subjective. How does one judge the relative merits of the city’s ever-changing brick and
mortar landscape to its political machinations? We don’t pretend these “awards” can possibly touch on everything important that happened this year – but they do cover many of the highlights. To see what we chose as the News Story of the Year, turn to page 3. On page 11, we shine the spotlight on some people who make our city great. And,
of course, we also remember those who died in 2016 – many who helped make New Westminster the city we all love. A big thank you to all of our newsmakers and those who pass on news tips and ideas – we couldn’t do it without you! Go to www.newwestrecord.ca to check out the awards that didn’t fit in print.
Housing, housing, and more housing Call them the ‘missing middle’ or just call them frustrated home seekers, but they were top of mind in 2016 Skyrocketing housing prices and chang- children grow up and move out on their ing housing needs may be forcing some own, aging parents can’t always live on folks to move out of New West. their own and need homes closer to their In a city where 95 per cent of the housadult children. ing stock is in single-detached dwellings As people’s lives and families change, and apartments/condos, home ownership they may want – or need – housing opis becoming more and more unattainable tions beyond single-family homes or for many families.The debate about “the apartments. In New West, that’s pretty missing middle” heated up in New West darn hard to find. this year during disDiscussions cussions about the about infill housofficial community ing and increasing plan – a discussion density in residenthat’s earned “The tial neighbourFrustrated Home hoods isn’t always Seekers” the Rean easy discussion cord’s Newsmaker to have, as it raises 2016 of theYear. fears among some Many people citizens about loss may stifle a yawn of heritage homes when the subject and a neighbourof official community plans comes up, but hood’s character. New West residents turned out in droves As 2016 draws to a close, the city’s planfor sessions related to the plan, which will ning staff have no easy feat ahead of them be finalized in 2017. Already two years in as they’ll now try to incorporate feedthe making, the plan attempts to address back from the council and the community, how the city is going to handle growth in where there is consensus on some issues the coming years (the population is exand mixed views on several fronts, into a pected to grow to 104,000 residents by draft official community plan.The plan 2041, meaning about 16,500 new homes will provide a roadmap of the places where will be required in New Westminster) and different housing forms will be considered to provide more housing choice for resiin the decades ahead as city hall tries to dents. meet the needs of a diverse community. With single-family homes out of reach And if we’re lucky, the plan will find a for many families, more and more folks way of balancing the desires of residents are recognizing a need to provide houswho value the character of New Westmining alternatives such as ground-oriented ster’s great neighbourhoods and the need housing like townhouses, row houses, and for more housing so families have housing laneway and carriage houses. options in the years ahead – and are enFamilies change. People have babies, dangered no more.
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SQUEEZED: Young families are getting priced out of the detached, single-family home market in New Westminster. The city is trying to find ways to create a diverse housing registry – but can it carve out a space for young families as the Lower Mainland faces record high home prices? PHOTO ILLUSTRATION GARY SLAVIN
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