At Waters Edge
A conversation about accelerating trends and anticipated changes to the way we live

A Tale of Two Cities This is a Tale of Two Cities. Houston, Texas is the fourth largest city in the United States. It has a population of about 2.4 million people and Harris County about has about 4.3 million residents. Over the past ten years Houston / Harris has reduced chronic homelessness by 63%. […]

So how did Finland accomplish these results? As already set out in an earlier instalment, Article 19.4 of the Finnish Constitution establishes housing as a basic human right in.  Finland bases its resultant strategy on four guiding principles to eliminate homelessness: 1 – Housing enables independent Lives The homeless can go straight to living in […]

Think First of the Homeless When I think about places to live, I think first of the homeless. Imagine  standing on a street corner at eight o’clock in the evening with all of your earthly belongings. It is drizzling and cold. You have no where to shelter, call your own, sleep, or feel safe. Maybe […]

123 Avenue Donegani – Valois Pointe-Claire, QC, H9S 4P8 1-(514)-694-6161 I am a big supporter of local retail. However, the owners have to get it right. Les Délices have done just that! They opened in a spot ideal for success but that had seen failure after failure . Predecessor cafés never opened at the same […]

Community imperatives are to provide shelter, sustenance, places to work, areas to shop, and opportunities for personal growth and entertainment. But first, some basics are required. Towns and villages grew in areas where the basics to support life were plentiful. Typically, that meant good agricultural land and good access to water. Other valuable considerations included […]

City building is a messy business. Most started as a collection of self-sufficient neighbourhoods or villages. Mobility was limited so people lived, worked, farmed, and entertained themselves in compact, densely-populated, self-sufficient neighbourhoods. Everything was accessible by foot.  London I always think of London, England when I consider cities as a collection of neighbourhoods. Two thousand […]

Since I don’t have a category for things I don’t like, I am sticking this here. I hate Tim Horton’s! Why do so many Canadians like this horror show of a – ummm – I am not sure. Is it a coffee and donuts shop? A sandwich place! Oh, I think they now have all-day […]

Love your lawn? Do you hanker for a perfect carpet of green fescue? How many hours do you dedicate to weeding, watering, and mowing to get those perfect geometric stripes?  Has this summer proven difficult for lawns where you live? Watering restrictions? Pests? Perhaps your lawn wars begin in the spring when you take on […]

Laird Lawrence MacEwen, also known as the Prince of Muck, died this spring at the age of 81. He now lies buried in an open field where his cows still graze. In his last years, he was often heard carrying on conversations with his beloved bovines. He chose his burial spot to keep up with […]

(Short read – less than three minutes) What do you do when on vacation? Do you go to the beach and drink rum punch? Or, see how many places you can visit in Europe in fourteen days? Maybe run from museum to museum to museum in Paris? Take a cruise – I know – many […]

The Southern Baptists make up the largest protestant denomination in the US. And in 2019, the Houston Chronicle revealed that its 47,000 affiliated churches faced 380 accusations of sexual abuse.  Plus, remember Tammy-Faye and Jim Bakker and 21-year old church secretary, Jessica Hahn? Jerry and Becky Falwell and the pool boy? And then there are […]

The wall of noise just keeps growing! It was bad enough to get stuck at a street corner with another car’s stereo at full blast! And usually accompanied by thumping base lines. Base lines that shake every car whose occupants pray that the green light will come quickly. Now with phones and blue tooth speakers, […]