We at the Lakeview Community Association believe that we are fortunate to live in such a lovely and well kept neighbourhood. Unfortunately, some people (mainly kids with nothing better to do) don’t see it that way, and take to the streets armed with cans of spray paint to damage private and public property. This winter, our community sign at Hill Ave. and Montague Street was tagged, and it caused a great inconvience to Marci, our “sign lady” who had organize the sign to be cleaned up. Recently the city has advised us on what needs to be done if you notice graffiti in our neighbourhood.

Record. Take a photo of the graffiti. This helps the Regina Police Service investigate and find repeat graffiti offenders.

Report. Report all graffiti incidents by calling the Regina Police Service at 777-6500. The police will provide you with information on how to submit information as well as a photo. This can also be done online. 

Remove. This is the most important part to keep our neighbourhood looking “ship-shape.” Be sure to remove graffiti as soon as possible, as a quick response has also been shown to prevent graffiti from reoccuring.

Follow these steps and help keep Lakeview the best looking neighbourhood in Regina!

*if this tagline sounds familiar, it is because it is stolen from a newspaper cover which appeared on the Corner Gas episode “Grad 68.”

Give A Hoot- Stomp Out Graffiti* is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

As you have probably noticed, things have been pretty quiet around here lately. I could list off many excuses as to why that is, but the honest truth is just that I have been busy with school. Also, I coordinate the outdoor soccer program and that takes up a large chunk of time that I could be using towards writing new posts. Its not that there is no community news. In fact, there’s plenty! I have a few good ‘posts in the making’ that I have started, and will finish- just as soon as finals are over (Really! I promise!). Here are a few posts that you can stay tuned for:

-Why having a community garden plot is awesome and everyone in the city should probably have one

- The city of Regina is proposing to close both of the tennis courts in Lakeview, and something should probably be done about that.

-What the heck is going on with that huge chunk of property formerly known as Athabasca school?

-Information about our upcoming Family Fun Day

-The LCA needs more programs, and more volunteers.

- and probably much more!

Also, if anyone has anything they feel is newsworthy community information, please do not hesitate to email me

Coming Soon- New Posts (Really, I Promise!) is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

Remember Last Spring? is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

One of the first things I was taught in Economics class was that people respond to incentives. Well, if free skating and snacks isn’t enough incentive to get you out to the rink then I dont know what is. The LCA will be hosting a free skate on Saturday March 17th at the Optimist Arena on  222  Sunset Drive from 4 to 6 PM.  A snack (iced tea and chips) will be served afterwards. Instead of spending St. Patrick’s Day drinking too much beer and whacking leprechauns with your shaleighleighs, bring your family to the rink for some wholesome and best of all, free, family entertainment.

Come for the Free Skating, Stay for the Iced Tea and Chips is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

Its only January, but already I have recieved a handful of emails from concerned parents wondering if they have missed the dates for soccer registration. They usually follow one of these formats:

“Hey, I was just wondering, have I missed soccer registration yet? ”

or

“Please don’t tell me I have missed soccer registration this year, I missed it last year and can’t stand to see that look of utter disappointment on my child’s face again.”

or

“DEAR GOD TELL ME I HAVEN’T MISSED SOCCER REGISTRATION YET! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET MY KIDS IN, I’LL DO ANYTHING! MONEY IS NO ISSUE! ”

Well, concerned parents need not worry, soccer registration has not happened just yet. But, due to the alarming amount of emails that I have recieved in the past few weeks I have decided to post the dates for registration well in advance. They will be as follows:

Location: (for ALL registration dates)

South Leisure Center 

170 Sunset Drive 

Dates and Times: 

Saturday, March 3 ,9-11 AM

Tuesday March 6 , 7-8 PM

Wednesday March 14, 7-8 PM

These same dates will also be seen:

• On the LCA sign two weeks before regisration
• In the newsletter that will be distributed to all schools in the area
• On the Soccer Page on this website
• On signs throughout the South End
• On our facebook page  (which you really should “like” if you haven’t already)

Hope to see you at one of the registration nights! If you have any additional questions or would like to volunteer please do not hesitate to email me

Outdoor Socer Registration- It’s Coming, People is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

At one of our meetings a few months ago, Diana, a resident of this neighbourhood, came to visit us to discuss an issue she has been fighting ever since she moved here in 2006: noise. As someone who lives substantially west of Lewvan Drive, I was surprised. I didn’t know noise in the neighbourhood was at all an issue.  According to Diana, noise from vehicles on Lewvan Drive is so loud that she finds it unbearable to even sit on her deck and enjoy a cup of coffee.

As a person who is skeptical of everything, I was, of course, skeptical. Could vehicular traffic really be that noisy? I have lived in this neighbourhood my entire life, and I have never been bothered by any noise. I looked up the address that Diana gave to us, and found out that she lived quite a distance from Lewvan Drive. Was this “noise problem” really an issue, or was this just a person with oversensitive hearing?

One night, it turned out that a friend who I was visiting lived close to Diana’s street. On my way over, I decided to pop in and hear all of this noisy traffic for myself. I pulled onto her street, shut my car off, and rolled down the windows. Then I sat and listened. To all of the noise. The cars and semis barreling down Lewvan Drive could, indeed, be heard clear as day from where I was sitting on Diana’s street, some 500 meters away. After a few minutes of listening to all of the traffic, it became easy to understand how all of that noise could become bothersome.

So, what to do about it? It turns out that Diana has been lobbying the city for quite sometime to have the problem solved. Diana’s proposition is to install noise abatement along Lewvan Drive (Saskatoon has these, on Circle Drive). A few years ago, she even asked the city to do a noise study, which they agreed to do, and they set aside $155,000  in the budget to cover the costs.

Unfortunately, there have been delays. Diana writes:

“In December 2009, I presented these concerns to the City of Regina during a council meeting. The issue was discussed and the Council proposed a two-year traffic noise monitoring study. In March 2010, funding ($75,000) for the first year of the noise study was approved but deferred to the 2011-12 fiscal. When I contacted Tom O’Connell, City of Regina, in October 2011, he explained that because of higher priority projects, the traffic noise study had been delayed. Mr O’Connell anticipated a call for tenders would be completed soon; he also explained that a decision whether to fund the second year ($80,000) of the study would be made by December 31 2011. To help mitigate this two-year delay, a solution could be having a more intensive noise monitoring study completed by December 2012, using the combined 2-year budget of $155,000.”

So the city promised Diana they would do a two-year noise study, two years ago. But, because it is not deemed a priority issue, it has been delayed. Diana came to see us, and asked if we would write the city expressing our concern that this noise study should be done. In response, we wrote to Councilor Hutchinson and Mayor Fiacco and noted that “One of our roles as a community association is to assist residents who have concerns that they wish to bring to the attention of City Hall. Our association feels that [Diana] is raising a concern that deserves to be investigated. We urge the City to conduct the deferred traffic noise study as quickly as possible and to take noise attention measures deemed appropriate in light of the results of the study. We also ask that Lakeview Community Association be advised of what actions the City is taking in this matter.”

The letter we wrote to both Councillor Hutchinson and Mayor Fiacco was sent in early December. As of yet, we have not heard a reply from either of them. On December 31, Regina was to finalize its budget for the 2012 year, and since we have not heard back from anybody, it cannot be confirmed if the noise study was approved for this year’s budget or not. The city made a promise to do a study, and the promise should be kept. It is not fair for Diana (and other residents, who perhaps are annoyed by the noise) to be strung along year-to-year hoping that other projects won’t take priority over the noise study and cause it to get pushed back yet again. It is also concerning that when addressing concerns to both the city councillor and mayor, nobody responds. Is it not their job to look after concerns of the residents of the city that they represent? Even a response such as “got your letter, I’m looking into it” would have been better than no response at all.

So, as of yet nothing has been done. No noise study. No noise abatements. No response from the city. In the mean time, the Lewvan gets busier and busier, driving residents like Diana crazier and crazier.Clearly, if you are a citizen in Regina and have an issue you want addressed, you’d better have patience, as it seems to take a lot of  time and effort to get something done around here.

Noisy Lakeview is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Lakeview School

7:00-8:00 Pm

Hope to see you there!

Ye Olde Registration Night- Happening Soon is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

Believe it or not, us folks at the Lakeview Community Association occasionally deal with issues other than planning awesome programs for you and your family to enjoy. Occasionally, people come to see us with community-based issues that they would like resolved, but need assistance resolving. At our last meeting, we were met by a group of concerned citizens who are concerned about the direction the neighbourhood is going.

If you have not noticed, there is a lot of new development that has been happening in Lakeview lately. Taking a drive down Regina, McCallum or Hill Avenues you will notice a handful of new, large homes in places where older, small dwellings once stood. While these new houses look lovely, they raise some issues that are concerning to the citizens whom we met with.

While the older homes in the neighbourhood are set back from the street and have large front and side yards, the new houses seem to take up the majority of the property. This causes the newer homes to stick out from the older ones quite noticeably, making the small houses next door look like the new homes’ garden shed. Another concern raised was the issue of trees. In order to build these large homes, trees need to be cut down. This, it was pointed out, could damage our lovely, tree-lined streets. The most important issue that was raised however, was the style of homes being built.

The houses being built right now also vary greatly in terms of their style. While some are traditional, others are very modern-looking. Both styles have the “newly-built” look that makes it obvious that the house is not original to the neighbourhood. This, the group said, undermines the heritage of our neighbourhood. So, Do we even have “heritage”?  If we do, how do we keep our heritage?

I have no easy answers to that question. One suggestion that was put forward would be to have Lakeview desginated as a heritage neighbourhood. Doing this would be a huge undertaking, and would involve strict building codes when it comes to new home construction and the tearing down of older homes. This is something that I would personally be opposed to. People are choosing to build homes in Lakeview for a reason. The big lots, the convienient location, the arcitechtural freedom and of course the great people are all incentives to build new in Lakeview and I would hate to discourage people from doing so by implementing strict building codes.

It should also be noted that it is not the historical character homes that are being torn down. Rather, it is smaller homes that have been neglected or are in need of major repair  making saving the home simply not worth it. If there were rules and regulations that would prevent these homes from being torn down, they would likely fall into states of disrepair and dampen the image of the neighbourhood. The older homes in Lakeview that do have a unique archetechtural style or are of some important significance are certainly worth being saved and the homes that are designated as heritage properties are already protected by heritage laws.

The heritage of Lakeview is that of uniqueness. When the neighbourhood was first established in the early 20th century, there were no guidelines as to the style of home one good construct. There is a wide variety of archetectural styles amoung the older homes that do not share uniform guidelines, yet somehow fit together with one another. New development does not undermine our heritage, rather, it adds to the uniqueness of the neighbourhood. The wide variety of home styles as well as the mix of new and old construction is part of what makes Lakeview a great place to live.

what do you think of new construction in Lakeview? Leave a comment below!

What is Our Heritage? is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

I wish I had a river I could skate away on. Or,at least a rectangular piece of ice in the park that my friends and I could use to play hockey . Unfortunately due to unseasonably warm temperatures, the city is behind on the rink flooding schedules. Normally my friends and I would be several weeks into our Friday night hockey league (its not much of a league, its more just a bunch of guys with sticks and skates who really aren’t that great at using them). However, today I recieved good news. The Lakeview rink will open for buisness soon! Yay!

According to Billie-Jo, our wonderful special programs coordinator, the Lakeview rinks will officially be ready for skating Monday. The skate shack will open around this time as well. Billie-Jo has asked that I give some helpful reminders regarding the rink and ice shack. They are as follows:

• The Ice Shack Will be Supervised.

The Ice is Coming! is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.

Every year, the LCA allocates a certain amount of money for community-based grants. However, much to our dissapointment, these grants often go unused. So every year we end up sitting on a mound (well, maybye not a mound but at the very least a decent-sized pile) of cash that nobody uses!

This is where you come in. The LCA is looking for people with ideas to help benefit our community. An idea can be something as simple as planting a tree, or organizing a class. One of our board members, Lily, is looking into getting a nice picnic table installed in our community gardens on Queen street. This is the perfect example of something simple that takes little effort to organized and benefits the community.

If you have an idea that you would like to carry out, simply read our grant policy, then fill out an application. If the LCA board likes the idea, then we dole out the cash and you get to start your project! Your idea must be implemented within Lakeview and must be availible to all citizens, free of charge. Other then those few restrictions, your options are limitless. Be creative, and send us your idea!

Photo Cred: kfjmiller on flikr 

Have a Community-Based Idea? We’ll Pay You! is a post from: Regina Lakeview Community Association. You can get Regina community news sent straight to your email inbox by subscribing here.