Only in North America do asphalt shingles rule

The first time I visited Europe I immediately noticed that roofs were covered with a variety of materials but one was clearly missing: asphalt shingles. It is claimed that 80% of all residential roofs in North America are covered with asphalt shingles. Stats Canada reports some 40 million bundles  of asphalt shingles are produced in Canada annually.

Asphalt shingles were invented by an American, Henry Reynolds of Grand Rapids, Michigan. First used in 1901, asphalt shingles were in general use in many parts of the States by 1911. Cheap to buy and easy and quick to install, asphalt shingles grew quickly in popularity. The one drawback, a relatively short life, was easily overlooked by folk needing a new roof and needing it, as they say, yesterday.

A little over a century later, another drawback is being becoming evident; asphalt shingles consume a lot of space in a city dump. A typical roof can contain from 3-4 tons of roofing material. The Bob Vila site carries an article estimating U.S. landfills receive nearly 20 billion pounds of old asphalt shingles annually. Because of this, more and more asphalt shingles are being recycled into material for making blacktop for roads.

Durable, long-lasting clay tiles, so popular in Europe, are finding it a hard sell in North America. That said, another alternative roofing material, metal, is attracting quite the following with some 750,000 U.S. homeowners choosing metal for their homes in 2015.

In London, asphalt shingles are the clear leader when it comes to a roofing material but metal shingles are quickly gaining ground and solar panels have a lot of adherents.

A bogus facade is hardly heritage

When I moved to London back in the mid '70s, the Talbot Block was a wonderfully intact row of historic buildings. It was possibly the most historically important block in the city. At one point, more than a thousand Londoners held hands to circle the block and loudly protest its proposed destruction. It was to no avail. Essentially, everything was taken down. 

Only a poor imitation of the old hotel's facade remains as the exterior wall of the north-east corner of Budweiser Gardens, a sports and entertainment centre.

The City Hotel goes back to 1865. In 1886 it was extensively remodeled and enlarged. Later the name was changed to the Talbot Inn. 

At one point, one could get a good Mexican dinner there along with a cold draft. At night one could catch some of the best blues musicians on the bar circuit playing next door to the old hotel. 

The facade of the inn barely escaped demolition when the other buildings making up the Talbot Block fell.

Why did the historic streetscape disappear? Why, to make way for a new downtown mall and hotel complex which in the end failed to materialize despite the hasty demolition.

I always thought that more of the old hotel should have been saved and incorporated into the present sports complex. Possibly some rooms could have been retained for out-of-town visitors in London for a London Knights game. 

Retaining but a poor memory of the true facade, blue painted glass in the street-facing windows destroying even the slightest hint of heritage, what remains adds little to the character of downtown.

In Sweden sidewalks a gender equality issue

I have mixed feelings when it comes to sidewalks. Many of the argument in favour of sidewalks seem hard to refute. Then one encounters the huge dichotomy between the promise and the reality. This is a dichotomy that should not exist.

I've noticed that folk using wheelchairs in my suburb are as likely to be on a road as on a sidewalk. One some streets, like my court, the wheelchair user has no choice. There is no sidewalk. But on others streets, the sidewalk is impassable while the roadway is well plowed.

For this reason, I've been a promoter of the woonerf concept, at least for small courts and culs-de-sac. Today I discovered that there is another approach: the Swedish one. In Sweden they try to clear sidewalks first and they have added another argument as to why. Clearing sidewalks first is a move towards gender equality.

More women than men use sidewalks. This means the number of woment injured falling on sidewalks rendered treacherous by weather is far greater than the number of men injured. If you watch the first part of the following Swedish video, you will understand the Swedish position.

Teachers walking picket line; students hitting slopes

Ontario, the province in which London is located, is being hit by rotating teacher strikes. This coming Friday is another strike day for our granddaughters. I'm glad that two of the kids were keen to learn how to ski. Come Friday some friends are hitting the slopes for the day with their parents and Fiona and Isla have been invited to tag along.

I want to cheer. The girls will not be playing computer games. They will be out interacting with others and getting some exercise as well. Yeah!

Green Recycle Bins Make Kids Happy

Children see recycling as very important. The long line of green recycle bins in front of the school two of my granddaughters attend makes those two little girls very happy. It confirms their school cares.

I don't say anything. No sense bumming them out. But, I wonder why the school generates so much waste paper in the first place and I wonder where the scrap paper ends up. Is it really recycled?

Recycling almost everything, other than aluminum beverage cans and PET plastic often used for bottles, is a money losing proposition. Values have been dropping in recent years.

Still, the kids have the right idea. My granddaughters encourage me to use less and recycle more. Use it, then recycle it. It's time for the adults in their lives to stop just going through the motions. It's time to deliver on the promise made by that line of recycle bins.

Children are our future

My six-year-old granddaughter loves Lego and has for a couple of years. Me, I'm a new Lego believer. I grew up with Meccano: green-painted steel, brass pulleys and lots of small screws and little bolts.

So many toys are fun but at their core they are but a way to waste time. Lego is different. I watch as the little girl tackles the construction of a carnival ride. It's complex and intricate. It demands attention to detail while encouraging planning and patience and careful adherence to instruction. She works through the illustrated book slowly, insuring that the assembled piece is correct at each stage along the way. She does not want to find herself ripping apart her finished work.

A few months back, the city had a freshly laid road ripped up. Why? It was discovered that there were errors made in laying down the base layers. On the good side, the construction company accepted responsibility. The repair cost the city nothing.

But this was a mistake that my granddaughter is being trained to catch and to catch during construction and not after the final asphalt has been laid.

My wife and I had a young boy living with us for awhile. This was some years ago. He loved playing SIM City on my early Macintosh computer. He outgrew the computer game but he didn't outgrow his interest in cities. Today he cares greatly about the neighbourhood in which he lives.

Toys don't have to be time wasters.

This may be the last year for this scene.

The berm hides the gravel pit. Millions of tonnes of gravel and sand have been quarried there over the past decades.

This is coming to an end. The gravel pit is being closed. One doesn't close a big pit in a day, the steeps sides must graded, topsoil spread, grass and trees planted.

Already there are houses to be seen on the edges of the distant cliffs. By this time next year the berm and its trees may be nothing more than a memory.