ReThink London: World leading ideas needed

This is going to be a busy day. No time for blogging. But, I want to leave you with a thought or two.

London wants to be a world leading, well run community. According to what I understand from attending ReThink London events, the city want to be known for its innovative approach to urban living.

O.K. Here are the little bits of sand, the irritants if you will, now to fashion the comforting pearls.

1. Mass transit is a challenge almost everywhere for a number of clear reasons. One being that, if given a choice, people like cars.

2. Google has spend a bundle perfecting robotic cars. I believe they have logged more than a million miles without an accident (while under robot control. One car had an accident caused by a human driver and another was rear-ended in traffic.)

3. Some places in the world have, or are, experimenting with community cars. These are cars that are available to those who have paid a fee to be able to access the service. Pick up a car and drive it from one community lot to another close to where you were wanting to go.

4. There are cars being built in the world, but not offered for sale in North America, that are very interesting when it comes to urban transportation. e.g. The Volkswagen Up. Read about the Up here;

- Reviewing the Volkswagen Up (New York Times)
- Just passing through impressively (New York Times)

5. There is an unused automobile assembly plant on the south edge of London, the closed Ford St. Thomas Assembly Plant.

6. Some communities have, or are, experimenting with computer controlled bus routes which can deviate from established routes to pick up and drop off riders. An older, failed, non computer managed system was the Dial-a-Ride Service in the '70s in Santa Clara, CA or the Dial-a-Bus run by GO Transit briefly in Toronto in the early '70s. I lived in T.O. at the time and recall the pluses and minuses of the GO Transit plant. Adding today's computer power to the Santa Clara or the Toronto systems would change the dynamics of the experimental operations.

7. Ultra small cars could be run on narrower-than-normal lanes dedicated to the ultra small vehicles.

8. Somewhere in the above there is a creative, imaginative, not being done anywhere else in the world, idea on rapid transit and if a company like Google and/or a car company making a suitable, ultra small, urban car (an automatic would be, I believe, a requirement and this puts the UP out of the running), could be convinced to conduct a community-wide experiment using London as the test bed something could be achieved that was unique and not break the bank costly.

I apologize for any typos but I've got to get going.

Cheers!

ReThink London could take inspiration from Savannah, GA

Savannah, Georgia, is one of my favourite places when it comes to a successful street grid. Check out all the parks or squares that dot the heritage section of this Southern city.

Notice all the squares dotting the heritage neighbourhood in Savannah, GA.

At the ReThink London meeting I was told that urban planning is a new concept. I'm not so sure. I think urban planning is as old as urban living. Humans like planning stuff. It's in our make-up.

From Savannah Squares:

As originally laid out, each of the Savannah squares was at the center of a basic organizational unit called a ward. Each ward contained a square. All communal activities of a ward took place in the square which was at its center. As the wards and squares were planned, the east and west sides of each square contained two large lots, known as “trust lots”. These lots were reserved for public buildings, such as churches, schools and institutions. On the north and south sides of the squares, the land was divided into 20 “tithing lots”, with a lane down the middle for passage. These lanes form the streets of Savannah’s historic district today.

When I was in Savannah, I loved the walkable nature of the heritage area. It was laid out before the car but it was as easy to drive around as to walk around. Savannah is famous for good reason. The old town is a wonderful place.

ReThink London: See what others have done

On Saturday, June 23, 2012, ReThink London is holding its next event. Those attending are being asked to craft a vision for London. Participants will discuss community goals and city priorities in five different areas and then they will discuss the policies and strategies necessary for success.

I love cities. All my life I've had strong feeling about cities. But being opinionated doesn't make me an urban planner. The Saturday meeting will not be all that long: Three hours. Being prepared will be very important if anything of substance is to be accomplished.

I wondered what the twenty-year plans of other cities were like and I recalled I had noticed Birmingham, Michigan, had posted their plan from 2006. Birmingham is a cool city. In fact, the idea for London's downtown pocket patios was inspired by the platform patios in Birmingham.

Click the link and check out the proposals. The famous new urbanist firm of Duany Plater-Zyberk is behind the work. It shows.

Check out the two pictures from the Birmingham Report on the right. The top one shows how the location looked in the recent past; The second image shows the new building that has been erected.

Now, think of the boring brick residential apartment complex recently built where the former Hudson's department store was in East London. It would be a dull building anywhere but being just down from the heritage Lilley's Corners means it is a clear blight on the streetscape.

Let's be clear, Birmingham isn't the only city putting up new buildings that enhance their city. Markham, Ontario, has plans to achieve something very similar on their main drag. In fact, our very London has pulled this off: Think Capitol Theatre and the Bowles Building beside it.

In the London core, the Bowles Building on the right is new.

The Bowles lunch building is a completely new facade made to look  like the original facade that unfortunately had deteriorated over time. The facade could not be saved and so was replaced. Some fancy, curved stuff disappeared but few notice the missing details.

There's a lesson here. If you can demolish a heritage building and then rebuild it with almost no one the wiser --- as was done with the Bowles Building --- you can erect new buildings with a heritage feel anywhere such a structure is needed. Done right, the result looks good without being too costly. Achieve the look with design and not expensive materials.

Review: 2011 VW Jetta TDI

The new VW Jetta sports a classic look overlaid with gentle curves.

It has been two years eight months and almost 63,000 km since my wife and I last went car shopping. I had a short list of cars I liked and my wife had a short list of cars she didn't. Although the VW Jetta TDI didn't appear on either list, in the end that was the car that caught our eye. (Link to U.S.A. VW Jetta site.)

The TDI in the name signifies the car is powered by Volkswagen's Turbo Direct Injection diesel engine, an engine that has been given some serious updating with the arrival of the 2015 model. Having now driven thousands of kilometres in a TDI, I am prepared to answer a number of the most common questions concerning diesel car ownership.

First, how much more expensive is it to buy diesel fuel rather than gasoline? Many car reviewers argue that the savings gained by driving a fuel thrifty diesel is consumed by the extra cost of the diesel fuel in comparison to regular grade gasoline. Is this true? Not in my experience. I drive in London, Ontario, in Canada.

When last I checked, if I had burned gasoline rather than diesel I would have saved all of $32.20 burning gas. That's pennies. But, take the high mileage of the diesel into account and the diesel becomes the star of the fuel cost story.

At one point, my TDI was returning 40.2 mpg (Imp.) or 33.5 mpg (U.S.). That's far better than a comparable gasoline powered car. For instance, a 2011 Toyota Corolla with a 2.4 L, 4 cylinder and a five speed automatic may deliver 25 mpg (U.S.) in mixed city/country driving.

Taking both cost of diesel and fuel consumption into account, I calculate I have saved something in the neighbourhood of $2000 in fuel costs so far. Very nice. Does that cover the extra cost of the diesel over the gasoline engined Jetta? No it doesn't but it is closing the gap. I can see the break even point on the horizon.

Remember, these figures are mine. Your numbers may differ. If you drive a lot of highway miles, the difference may well be in your favour. For the longest time I was making a monthly trip to Burlington and my mileage was noticeably better. Now that I am driving almost exclusively in the city, my TDI fuel economy has suffered.

One last word on fuel economy: I'm often asked, what is the best fuel economy achieved by my diesel thus far? The answer is a little better than 60 mpg (Imp.). To achieve this, I stayed off the freeway on a drive to the Kitchener/Waterloo area. By taking older, slower highways I kept my cruising speed between 80 and 90 km/h. An ideal speed for the achieving the lowest possible fuel consumption figures.

VW Clean Diesel Distance Calculator

What is the farthest I've driven between fill-ups? That one is easy. Twice I have driven from London, Ontario, all the way to Montreal, Quebec, without needing to stop for fuel. You gotta love it.

VW Canada has posted a Clean Diesel Distance Calculator. Type in your postal code or address and discover how far from home you can travel on one tank of fuel. VW figures I could drive all the way Mont Ste. Anne's for a skiing holiday in Quebec without making a fuel stop. I believe them

The base VW Jetta TDI has a stick shift but my wife and I opted for the DSG (dual-shift gearbox) automatic transmission. This added $1400 (Cdn.) to the price of our car but we are glad we did it. You see, the manual shifter has collected some complaints. Reportedly, the 2011 Jetta TDI has a relatively stiff clutch pedal. Some drivers encounter stalling problems when pulling away from a stop. Others have complained their cars stall when shifted too early into second gear. Holding the car in first gear longer, some say, eliminates these stalls.

The stalling complaints are not new. According to Consumer Reports (CR) in an August 2010 article:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into stalling problems with 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI diesel cars. . . . CR went on to report their manual transmission-equipped 2010 Jetta and Golf TDI were both overly easy to stall in some low-speed situations, such as second-gear stop-and-go traffic. That said, Consumer Reports did not experience stalling as described in the NHTSA report.

My second car is a Morgan I bought new in 1968.

I have drove a stick shift for 45 years, a Morgan Plus 4 with no syncro in first. I think I understand the present VW problem. I found my Morgan ornery at first. And when others, not familiar with the little roadster, tried to drive her, she balked. Some cars insist on being understood.

After 43 years shifting an old moss box, I opted for the DSG tranny. This sophisticated double-clutch transmission can be thought of as two transmissions in one, each fitted with its own clutch. This is how Autos.ca. describes the set-up:

"One clutch manages the odd gears (1,3,5), the other clutch manages the even gears (2,4,6). When you’re in an “odd” gear, the transmission pre-selects or pre-engages the upcoming 'even' gear, so that changes are almost instant" — some claim the DSG system can shift in as little as 8 milliseconds.

Both my wife and I have found our DSG tranny well matched to our TDI's torque-rich power curve. The turbo diesel pumps out 236 ft-lbs of torque at 1,750 rpm. (The new engine in the 2015 delivers very similar numbers.) This big hit of torque in the low end of the power band gives the  illusion of the car being incredibly powerful for a four — it is — but if you think it is far faster than other cars in its class, well, it isn't.

It must be noted that some owners have complained that their DSG transmission shifts harshly. It can be tricky programming a computer controlled transmission to please everyone. When I wrote this, Volkswagen was still trying. A few months after buying our Jetta, the dealer upgraded the firmware in our DSG transmission to fix a problem we didn't know we had.

The transmission firmware, found in the Electronic Control Unit or ECU, uses "fuzzy logic" to quickly adapt the shift response to the driving style of the driver. The DSG tranny, controlled by the onboard computer, doesn't exactly learn as some claim but it does custom tailor its shift points during use. The December software upgrade apparently modified the "fuzzy logic" algorithm used by our ECU.

The Jetta TDI transmission can be operated as either a six speed automatic, this save fuel, or as a sporty five speed. In the D or six speed position both my wife and I have believed the engine felt like it was lugging a little at low rpm's — especially in the city.

It is not actually lugging I've been assured. Diesels don't lug like gasoline powered cars. Yet, some folk find this annoying and their complaints forced VW to modify the computer code to rectify a non-problem.

A quicker cure for the lugging problem is simply using the sport setting. This allows the revs to climb higher before the shift. In the city, I like the extra bounce this puts in the Jetta's step. But, as much as I like the sport setting, I keep returning to D. It keeps my fuel bills low. One month I didn't spend $40 on fuel. You've gotta love it.

Lastly, the driver can shift the DSG transmission manually by sliding the shifter all the way to the right. In Tiptronic mode, push the gear shift forward to up shift and pull the lever back to down shift. In this mode, the DSG transmission is operated primarily by the driver, but there are some built-in overrides to protect the transmission from driver error. Of course, there is no clutch pedal.

As you have probably already gathered, the VW diesel is not a thumping, clunking iron beast pumping out sound, fury and blue smoke. They don't call it a clean diesel for nothing. A modern direct injection diesel engine burning today's Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) fuel cuts exhaust emissions and eliminates diesel odors at the tail pipe.
Is it hard to find ULSD fuel? No. All diesel fuel sold at stations across Canada and the United States is now ULSD fuel. It's the law. The only problem I have run into is pulling up to a pump only to discover that the nozzle is too big a diametre for our car. Apparently, large diesel trucks are filled with fuel using an oversized nozzle to save precious time by pumping more fuel quickly. Recently, on a trip to Montreal, we encountered this problem.

All that said, I must admit that there have been times when our Jetta didn't hide its diesel heritage. For instance, on cold winter mornings, before the engine has warmed, the engine can be louder than usual. But, these times have been only momentary distractions. Generally our TDI has been very well mannered, keeping its unique diesel voice politely muffled.

One nice feature of our Jetta are the heated front seats. Both the seats and the seat backs quickly get warm and toasty. With three levels of heat intensity, you can wean yourself off the luxury of the smile-inducing heat in stages. No need to suffer heated-seat-withdrawal.

Diesels, by the way, take a little longer than a gas engine on fiercely cold winter mornings to pump out cabin-warming air. On those mornings, all too common this winter, the heated seats are a godsend.

During the cold months, I fill the tank more frequently with the goal of minimizes the chance of  water condensation contaminating my fuel. I understand this can occur in an almost empty fuel tank. And, speaking of contamination, I always try to say I am fueling the car and not gassing it up.

I do this to remind myself I am driving a diesel. I understand keeping gas out of the tank has been a problem for some diesel drivers. The nozzle on a diesel pump is usually a larger diameter than the one on an unleaded gas pump. This difference makes it difficult to put diesel in a gasoline powered vehicle but it does not protect the diesel driver from gasoline contamination.

I know one Jetta TDI owner who pumped gas instead of diesel. That resulted in a big, unexpected bill. Then he lent his car to a friend who topped it up with gas before returning it. Another big bill. Then he had an attendant at a full service station, or should I say fool service, pump the wrong fuel. Aauuggh, again! Another tow to the VW dealer and another big bill.

Many diesel pumps and/or nozzles are colour coded. But the colour coding is not consistent. In and around London, Ontario, bright yellow indicates diesel. In the States pump nozzles may have a green, black or even red plastic cover, depending on the station and the location.

Look for the word diesel; Keep the brain in gear; Keep gasoline out of the tank.

I also stay away from biodiesel. Another driver I know had serious problems after the biodiesel congealed in the cold Canadian winter. The result was a costly repair consuming a lot of the accumulated fuel consumption savings.

My "no biodiesel rule" is stricter than the recommendation from Volkswagen. The German car maker allows a 5 percent blend of biodiesel. I might play with biodiesel in the middle of the hot Canadian summer but otherwise I say no thanks. For more about the Jetta TDI and its green creds, follow this link to a Hybrid Cars article.

I guess I can't put off addressing the styling of the new Jetta. Obviously, I like the look but lots of early reviewers didn't. On its release, the automotive press recoiled at its conservative styling and at the choice of cabin interior materials. "Too much hard plastic," the critics said. Some went so far as to call the look "cheap."

Note the wicker seats in the Renault 4CV Ghia Jolly from '62.

My response? I say, "They don't know cheap." I'm old. I'm in my 60s. I can recall when cars really had cheap interiors. I believe it was a Renault 4 my friend Kathy drove in the '60s that had front seats made of canvas suspended from steel-tube frames. Now, that was cheap! (But that car was also cool, as was Kathy.)

That said, the Jetta interior is on the simple side and to me that's good. The Honda Civic was on my list of potential cars, as was the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus.

Ford Fiesta interior

All got bounced for a number of reasons. One reason common to all was the look of the interiors and the complex stack of controls rising from the centre console. Lots of buttons and often lots of faux matte aluminum-looking surfaces. And lots of confusion for an old geezer.

One note: My nephew, an architect, bought a Fiesta. He loves it. He finds it a wonderful subcompact hitting well above its weight class. Clearly, one man's confusion is another's delight. Don't write off any car because of a reviewer's opinion. Go to the dealership and take a look for yourself. Go for a test drive.

VW dash layout is simple and executed in hard, black plastic.

We also considered the Prius and the Lexus hybrid. I liked the look of the Prius but my wife didn't. The Lexus hybrid was out too, out of stock, with no new cars expected for 60 to 90 days. All the problems in Japan at the time slowed deliveries of the fuel sipping luxury car.

Plus, both my wife and I were leery of the batteries in those hybrid cars. I have had bad luck with rechargeable batteries in cameras, computer notebooks and toys. Rechargeable batteries are not a selling point with me. Time may prove me wrong. We'll see.

The Jetta TDI Comfortline instrumentation could have been more complete. I miss a temperature gauge and an oil pressure gauge, for instance. It would be nice to have the cruise control placed in a handy spot on the top of the wheel spokes instead of being found on a control stalk which is somewhat hidden.

On the other hand, when driving in the States I can program the digital dash display to show my speed in mph: Handy. Also, there is an outside temperature display that flashes and beeps a warning if the temperature falls close to freezing. Disc brakes on all four wheels are another bragging point but personally I have never been disappointed by cars with drum brakes on the rear, and I think they are cheaper to buy and to maintain.

I have tested my Jetta's accident avoidance abilities; It passed. A fellow pulled out from a driveway into my lane. I made a quick dodge around the careless dude. The Jetta handled beautifully. My wife tells me that she too has had to take quick, evasive action. She found the car responsive while in-control. She gave our Jetta two thumbs up and she's a tough critic.

Our car has lots of pluses but so do many of its competitors in the compact car market. I'm thinking of the stuff that came standard on my Jetta Comfortline: traction control, stability control, ABS brakes, air conditioning, cruise control, adjustable steering wheel, heated seats, anti-theft system, alloy wheels . . . . Lot's of cars can match that list feature for feature.

When it comes to features, there is one car that easily beats my 2011 Jetta — and that's a new Jetta. Stuff that was optional is now standard and some of mechanical components have been upgraded. A new Jetta may look the same as mine but in reality it is a better car.

One last confession: I can't really afford my Jetta. I'm retired and money is tight. When I was working, I drove the least expensive cars I could find. When I left the newspaper, I was driving a Saturn Ion. I hang my head in shame. My Morgan never had to share garage space with the Ion.

So, how did I afford a car that's worth almost twice that of my old Saturn? I didn't pay for it, at least not all of it. Volkswagen has a program where you pay back only a portion of the cost of your new car. There will be a balance owing at the end of the payback period. After 60 months, I will be stuck with a balloon payment for just under $8000.

When the five year loan is repaid, I must make the balloon payment. I will probably get a 30 month bank loan. If the car is worth more as a trade than the balance owing, I may just trade-in my Jetta and buy a new one.

Kelley Blue Book in the U.S. figures 48-cents/mi over 6 yrs.

My hope is my Jetta will be a fine car to own, with reasonable maintenance costs. It's already saving me cash on fuel, lots of cash. (I'm spending about 9 cents a km on fuel. This climbed from about 7.7 cents as fuel prices rose over the past few months.)

VW recommends an oil change every 15,000 km or 9300 miles. That's good; A TDI oil change is more money than I'm used to paying — the cost at the dealership is just less than $100. That's not surprising as the VW branded oil is more than $10 a litre. Still, all costs considered, this is fractionally less for oil than I had been paying. Another small savings.

At 60,000 km I am required to have the oil and filter changed in my DSG transmission. The dealer charges $425 for this service. I have heard some whining over this maintenance cost but if you look at the big picture, this oil/filter change does not amount to even a penny per kilometre. This is not a "break the bank" cost.

I can see a brake job in my future. Brakes wear, that's life. I can live with this. It's my engine and my tranny I'm praying will only require normal servicing. To me, both seem like sophisticated pieces of machinery and sophisticated can translate into expensive when repairs are needed.

Let's admit it. Some things can be compared easily and some things can't. If you want to compare gas mileage of various cars, I advise using the EPA site out of the States. The EPA numbers are far more accurate than the numbers released by the Canadians.

Important stuff, like the DSG transmission and the turbo charged diesel, are far harder to evaluate for others, especially when the competition in the car market is so fierce. This is why it is so important that you take a VW Jetta TDI for a long demo drive. Talk to the dealer and do more than circle the block. Get a feel for the car, and let the car get a feel for you.

I did and the car sold itself.

Photo: PR Volkwagen

_______________________________________________________

Two sour notes: With less than 65,000 kms on the car, the front coil spring on the passenger side exploded. My wife and I were at a service centre on 401 when the spring, part of the front suspension, broke with a loud bang. Luckily, the car was not moving at the time. Witnesses said they saw a burst of dust coming from the front of the car and then the front passenger side corner fell an inch.

We had the car towed to the nearest VW dealer where is remained for five days. We were forced to rent a replacement automobile in order to complete our trip. VW is picking up the cost of the tow and the repairs as the car is still under warranty but it appears they may only reimburse us for $300 of our out-of-pocket expenses related to the incident: hotel room, unanticipated restaurant meals and rental car. We spent more than $400 and are annoyed that a major component failed while under warranty and yet we are out money.

But that is not the end of this story. When I brought my Jetta in for its 105,000 km oil change and inspection, it was discovered that the front coil spring on the driver's side was broken. My believes she heard it 'explode' one night while parked in our garage at home. She thought the loud bang might have been a very large bird flying into our garage door. She was puzzled when she found nothing in the morning.

Now, both front coils have had to be replaced. This simply shouldn't be. My bill for what should have been a simple oil change and inspection came to just more than $800. Wow!

Did VW get install a batch of defective coil springs? Something is certainly amiss. I am beginning to believe that having these coils fail is not a rare occurrence. One theory holds that automobile manufacturers, like VW, in striving to cut the weight of their vehicles have cut too much. They have trimmed so much from the front suspension coils that these important items are now prone to failure from metal fatigue caused by thousands of miles of constant flexing.

ReThink London: The answer is "fused grid"

The woman was at the ReThink London event because she cared about her city. After the presentation, she had one simple question for the speaker: When it comes to urban land use, is the traditional grid pattern the best approach for conserving land? The speaker didn't have an answer.

I did. I had my notebook computer open on my lap, connected to the Internet. The London Convention Centre is a public hotspot. I googled 'CMHC' and 'fused'. Voila! (If you don't understand voila, google it.)

Visit the CMHC site and you will learn that the grid pattern of streets often encountered in older neighbourhoods provides connectivity at the expense of tranquility and safety. These are but two of the good reasons people stopped building neighbourhoods with long, straight, intersecting streets going it seemed to infinity.

Read reporter Randy Richmond's piece, They call it placemaking, in The London Free Press and posted online by the city planning department. Read it carefully, read it critically, ask questions and use google to search for answers.

If you think critically, you may come to the same conclusions as the CMHC-sponsored research.

[The traditional] grid pattern ushered in the era of traffic calming through use of speed bumps, traffic circles and stop signs which together impede traffic flow, increase automobile emissions and noise, reduce air quality and often lead to driver frustration. These grid street patterns are the most land consuming and consequently the least environmentally sustainable.

The research showed that neither the grid street pattern nor the looping suburban street pattern were the optimum solution. A new hybrid of the two approaches, called the fused grid, was suggested. It got this name because it is a synthesis of two well known and extensively used street patterns: the grid, in use since about 2000BC, and the Radburn, a recent approach to street planning.

The claim is made that "the fused grid balances the needs of the pedestrian and the motorist. It responds to the quest for economic efficiency and the need for environmental stewardship. It promotes active transportation which improves health and reduces vehicular travel and green house gas (GHG) emissions."

If you are attending ReThink London meetings, I would highly recommend reading the CMHC post on the fused grid: A neighbourhood and district layout model. Stratford, Ontario, studied three options for a new residential neighbourhood, and selected the fused grid model. Download a free copy of the CMHC report, Applying Fused-Grid Planning in Stratford, Ontario.

Wikipedia also has a good article on the fused grid.

ReThinking ReThink London

Voting is time consuming, especially when voting for multiple images.

 

rethinklondon.ca

Don't get me wrong; I like the ReThink London concept. The problems I have encountered are in the details.

Take the ReThink London website. I would rate it only fair. Each time I visit the site, I come away with another thought for improvement. I've sent off an e-mail to the ReThink folk and we'll see what they say, if anything.

Show and Tell

So, what has bothered me? Let me tell you. Visitors are encouraged to submit photos to a Show and Tell page. All the images are displayed as part of one big mosaic. To see a small image large, click on it. It will grow a little and a coloured transparent overlay at the bottom of the image will appear. In the bottom right is the word 'view.' Click on 'view.' Finally, the image enlarges.

At this point, you can vote on the image or add a comment. This is a nice feature but it does not seem to be being used. My guess is burying this panel stops visitors from voting and/or commenting.

The only way I've found to return to the mosaic display is to use your browser's back button and start again. Voting and commenting is tedious and time consuming. I would suggest, at the very least, that the ReThink London team eliminate the in-between step. Let the images enlarge to the max with the first click.

Join the Conversation

ReThink London is trying to encourage dialogue. To that end the RT team has posted a Join the Conversation page encouraging visitors to comment on a couple of questions:

• What do you like about London?
• What would you change about London?

A quick glance at the numbers indicates pretty fair level of visitor involvement --- or do they? The first question has attracted 414 comments and the second one has attracted 622 comments. But click the comment link and you will discover that it may be only one person posting the bulk of the comments.

Does this verge on spam?

Five one line comments submitted by participant in a time spanning less than two minutes. Suspicious? I thought so, but I was wrong. This occurs over and over again with the longest run of one line comments posted in a brief length of time being 65. But there is an explanation.

Londoners are submitting comments on suggestion cards. Often these comments are only one line long. The ReThink London team take these cards, read them and input the comments. They do not have the right to attach the writer's name and that is why these long lines of suggestions are all signed 'participant.'

I suggest supplying a short explanation and then typing all the one line comments into the system one line after another. The way it is done now the first comments that are input are buried. Very few people will see them. It is difficult to see all the comments as they are spread over a number of pages.

Surely, it cannot be that hard to allow replying to a comment in a bullet-formatted list. Following is an example of what I am describing.

What I like about London:

• Historic buildings downtown
• Emerging artist community
• River Valley Corridor Parkway
• The older neighbourhoods - Woodfield, Wortley Village, Old East, Blackfriars
• Lots for seniors to do
• Easy commute to work
• UWO
• Meadowlily
• Western Fair; London Nationals

This, of course, still does not encourage dialogue. Now, we need an easy way for people to converse, to discuss a suggestion. To work together to fine-tune an idea.

Voting

My idea here would be to have a couple of voting fields: One a thumbs up and the other a thumbs down. This encourages good ideas, ones that have a lot of support, to rise to the top. This also helps to drive bad ideas to the bottom. Ah, if all this was done we'd be enjoying something approaching a conversation.

That's it for now. I will bring my notebook to the meeting tonight. Possibly I will be able to show this post to someone at the Convention Centre.

Cheers!

What is food?

Image: Princeton University, Office of Communications, Denise Applewhite

In a Princeton University study male rats were given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), the stuff produced at Casco Inc. in London, Ontario,  in addition to their standard diet of rat chow. The animals gained much more weight than male rats given water sweetened with table sugar in place of the HFCS. The concentration of sugar was the same as in some soft drinks; The HFCS solution was only half as concentrated as found in most sodas.

"Sugar is sugar is sugar," claims Paul Choquette. I think it is understandable that Choquette, as plant manager of the Casco plant in London, Ontario, believes this myth. But, according to many researchers, Choquette is wrong.

Evidence is mounting that fructose, in the large quantities we consume today, is endangering our health. The body easily stores glucose as glycogen, while excess fructose is more likely to be turned into fat by the liver. Fatty liver is the most common chronic liver disease in the United States, affecting 10-20 percent of Americans. (Source: Yale Scientific.)

Casco makes what is commonly known as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). At least, that is how it is identified in the ingredient lists found on food products sold in the United States. In Canada and Great Britain the sweetener is identified as sugar/glucose-fructose.  This change in name has fooled many in Canada into believing their Canadian bottled soft drinks are free of HFCS sweetener; They're not.

In the States HFCS cannot be called corn sugar. The Corn Refiners Association would like to market the corn syrup sweetener as a natural ingredient made from corn. To this end the association petitioned the FDA in the States to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup to corn sugar. The FDA said, "No."

As pointed out earlier, the Canadian government has taken a different approach. Agriculture Canada calls glucose/fructose a generic term for high fructose corn syrup and accepts that HFCS is commonly referred to as "corn sugar" in Canada.

Whether you call the syrup HFCS or glucose-fructose, it is a sweetener that even Choquette admitted gets a "bad rap." But, it's only when consumed in large quantities that issues arise, he told the paper.

He's right there. Corn sugar in large quantities is bad for us. Of course, all sugars consumed in large amounts are bad for us, but HFCS carries a little extra punch, which many believe comes from the heavier fructose load often carried by the highly processed sweetener.

According to Dr. Varman Samuel, Assistant Professor of Endocrinology at Yale University, folk today are simply consuming too much sugar: Period. The fact that most of that sugar happens to come from the widely used sweetener, HFCS, is not really the point.

So, is the Casco product off the hook? Is their sweetener mostly a less expensive replacement for the the more expensive cane or sugar beet product? This is a possibility but the research is ongoing and no one wants to blacken the name of an industry without cause.

And so controversy continues to swirl around the Casco corn sugar sweetener. Duke University Medical Center has reported that fructose containing beverages may be harmful to the liver. Manal Abdelmalek, associate professor of medicine at Duke said:

"Our findings suggest that we may need to go back to healthier diets that are more holistic. Fructose, which is predominately consumed in soft-drinks and processed foods, may not be as benign as we previously thought."

What this means to me is that the food industry in London, Ontario may be going in the wrong direction. On reading the recent stories in The London Free Press, I couldn't help but notice many of the biggest players in the food industry in London are marketing calorie-laden, highly processed foodstuffs like high-fructose corn syrup (Casco), beer (Labatt) and Chicken McNuggets (Cargill).

I also found it interesting that many of the big food producers highlighted in the paper are foreign owned. Many of our big players started out as Canadian companies but were taken over by foreign interests. History tells us that foreign-owned plants can be quickly be closed for a multitude of reasons. Think Electro-Motive Diesel closed by Caterpillar. Or the now deserted Ford assembly plant on the southern edge of London. Or the Westinghouse transformer plant — gone but not forgotten. We have the PCBs to remember the multinational by.  The list goes on and on and on.

What I also find interesting is what we don't have in London, or the surrounding area or even in Ontario: canners. Canned peaches now come from South Africa, canned corn and peas from the States, fruit cocktail from China. Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm, closed  CanGro Foods in St. Davids in 2008, the last remaining fruit canning plant in all of North America east of the Rockies. The plant had been in operation for more than 100 years. The same year Sun Capital was involved in the closing of the CanGro Foods canning plant in Exeter, Ontario.

There are reasons orchards in London, Ontario, are abandoned. The market for Ontario fruit has collapsed.

The London Free Press has finally stumbled upon an interesting angle as its series examining London, Ontario goes on and on, week after week, month after month. The paper has discovered where London is located on a map of Canada. It's smack in the middle of some of the best farmland in the country.

The local paper figures London should be putting more effort into attracting businesses with strong connections to agriculture. The paper is so eager to showcase successful "food" businesses that it hasn't stopped to consider what is being produced and for whom and by whom.

I'd like to leave you with this written by Mark Bittman for The New York Times on the question: What is food?

Bittman's dictionary calls it "any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth." That doesn’t help so much unless you define nutritious. Nutritious food, it says here, "provides those substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition."

According to Bittman, sugar-sweetened beverages don’t meet this description any more than do beer and tobacco and, for that matter, heroin, and they have more in common with these things than they do with carrots. They promote growth all right — in precisely the wrong way — and they do the opposite of promoting health and good condition. They are not food.