Two-Spirit, Indigenous Artist Caeleigh Lightning Featured at Watson and Lou

Prints by local artist Caeleigh Lightning are now available at Watson and Lou located in downtown Peterborough.

Photo courtesy of Caeleigh Lightning

Lightning is a 21-year-old, two-spirit, indigenous artist who came to Peterborough to attend Trent University.

“I have mixed ancestry,” said Lightning. “On my moms side we’re am Samson Cree Nation from Maskwacis, Alberta and on my dads side we’re from Dublin, Ireland.”

“I try to communicate a lot of my experiences as a mixed person with those two cultures in my art,” she said.

Lightning hopes that her art shows different identities and bodies, and allows people to accept the beauty in individuality and uniqueness.

Photo courtesy of Caeleigh Lightning

She recently graduated from Trent University’s Indigenous Environmental Studies and Sciences program and is now heading to Concordia University to complete her Masters of Design.

Art was never considered a realistic career path for her.

“I started incorporating art into a lot of my projects at Trent,” she said. “Anything that I wouldn’t really know how to put into words, I would ask if I could communicate it visually instead.”

She says that by her professors giving her that opportunity she began to consider herself an artist by trade.

Photo courtesy of Caeleigh Lightning

Copies of her prints are now available to purchase at Watson and Lou, a shop located downtown Peterborough that carries locally made goods.

“Having my work in a shop with other local artists I admire has been surreal,” she said.

“When I was younger I didn’t see this as a possibility, I didn’t think people would be interested in my art,” she said. “My sister always used to tell me to take myself more seriously. I used to not even call myself an artist.”

Lightning’s art can be found at Watson and Lou or on her art account on Instagram.

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Downtown Curbside Pickup Parking Zones Being Removed

The designated curbside pickup parking zones in downtown Peterborough will begin to be removed this week with the regular parking rules resuming for those spaces.

Photo courtesy of the City of Peterborough

The City created the curbside pickup zones in January 2021 to assist residents and businesses during the provincewide lockdown.

With the easing of public health regulations allowing the return of indoor dining, retail and many personal services, curbside pickup activity has reduced according to the City.

The City consulted with the Downtown Business Improvement Area and several downtown businesses on the current need for the designated curbside pickup parking spaces since the province has emerged from the lockdown and public health regulations have eased to allow more indoor activities.

By resuming regular parking rules for these spaces, customers will be able to use the spaces for up to two hours instead of the reduced 15-minute limit for the designated curbside pickup parking zones.

Residents and visitors are reminded that on-street parking in the downtown is limited to a maximum period of two hours unless otherwise posted, and parking rates are $1.50 for each hour.

Customers can pay for parking at a parking meter or a pay-and-display machine with coins. The HotSpot App allows customers to pay for parking with credit or debit.

Parking is free evenings after 6 p.m., weekends and statutory holidays. The first hour of parking is free at the King Street Parkade on King Street between George and Aylmer streets.

The City will continue to monitor parking requirements and any changes to public health regulations to consider further adjustments to parking services, if necessary.

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Temporary Parking Lot Available During Simcoe Parking Garage Rehabilitation

The City of Peterborough has provided a temporary parking lot during the closure of the Simcoe Parking Garage for rehabilitation announced Tuesday.

The Simcoe Parking Garage under construction on Simcoe Street. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The lot is at the northwest corner of Simcoe Street and Aylmer Street North for downtown residents and visitors. It opened Tuesday and will remain in use during the closure of the Simcoe Garage. Driveway access to the lot is from Aylmer Street.

The temporary parking lot will provide approximately 30 new spaces, including two accessible spaces. That adds to the 1,490 public parking spaces in parking lots, garages as well as on-street spots in the downtown area.

Beyond the public, municipally-owned parking facilities, there are privately-owned, publicly available parking lots and garages in the downtown area, such as the Peterborough Square parking garage, that provide additional parking capacity.

A pay and display parking meter has been installed in the new temporary lot and customers can also pay for their parking in this lot using the HotSpot mobile parking app. The pay and display machine is located in close proximity to the accessible spaces.

The planned parking rates for this temporary lot will be consistent with other municipal downtown parking lots, with the $1.50 hourly rate applied between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., on weekdays, to a maximum of $10.50 per day. Patrons would receive free parking in the weekday evening hours, after 6 p.m., weekends and holidays.

During the rehabilitation project, customers who normally use the Simcoe Parking Garage are encouraged to use other parking spaces that are available in surface parking lots throughout the downtown area as well as the King Street Parkade. A map of public parking lots is available at peterborough.ca/parking.

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Entrepreneurs Are Preparing for Patio Season As Permitted By the City of Peterborough

As Downtown Peterborough increases space for pedestrians and patios, several entrepreneurs are eager to serve their customers with patio dine-in beginning Friday.

Chemong Lodge (pictured) has been sold by the Northey family to the Adam and Addison Brown, owners of Dr. J’s BBQ & Brews. File Photo

Existing approved patios are permitted to open with the province’s announcement of Stage one re-opening for the Peterborough region.  

Restaurants have been unable to serve dine-in customers since late March due to the emergency brake shutdown announced by the Government of Ontario.

“After a quiet winter and two months of being on lockdown, we’re very excited to see people out on the street again enjoying all that downtown has to offer,” said Susan Tung, owner of Hanoi House.

Tung is a first-time entrepreneur with her Vietnamese restaurant located in downtown Peterborough on Hunter Street and on Lansdowne St. W.

Tung outside her first of two locations of her Vietnamese restaurant: Hanoi House. She opened her business on February 14, 2020. Photo Courtesy of Hanoi House.

Tung is not the only restaurant owner excited to be able to serve dine-in customers again. Taso’s Restaurant & Pizzeria is eager to open its doors to the public for dine-in.

“We’ve been crazy busy this week making sure everything is in place to be able to open our patio for Friday,” said Taso Hatzianastasiou, owner of Taso’s Restaurant & Pizzeria. “We’re really excited to be able to bring back our serving staff and finally welcome customers.”

Taso’s is known for their homemade pizza and Greek cuisine. Hatzianastasiou took ownership of the property on March 30, 2019 and renovated it into Taso’s. Photo courtesy of Taso’s Restaurant & Pizzeria.

The re-opening of restaurants is one more step towards normalcy from the COVID-19 pandemic that has drastically affected the world since March 2020.

”The sentiment of opening is an overwhelming feeling of relief,” said Adam Brown, co-owner of Dr. J’s BBQ and Brews and Chemong Lodge. “I’m relieved that our staff can get back to work, that our guests can feel some sense of normalcy and that we can get back to what we love to do.”

Adam and Addison Brown of Dr. J’s BBQ & Brews and Chemong Lodge will have their first summer owning both businesses. Photo courtesy of Adam Brown.

The City of Peterborough released guidelines that businesses opening patios need to follow under the easing of its emergency orders.

Establishments must take measures to ensure physical distancing of at least two metres between patrons from different households, including: 

• Using reservations – no lineups. 

• Limiting the number of patrons allowed in the outdoor space at one time. 

• Ensuring enough space between tables, including to allow for movement. 

• Access to indoor facilities is limited to patio/outdoor dining area access, food pickup, payment, washrooms or other health and safety purposes. 

• Liquor sales licensees who wish to temporarily extend the physical size of their existing licensed patio, or temporarily add a new licensed patio within the approved period are authorized to do so if all the following criteria are met 

  • The physical extension of the premises is adjacent to the premises to which the licence to sell liquor applies. 

  • The municipality in which the premises is situated does not object to an extension. 

  • The licensee can demonstrate sufficient control over the physical extension of the premises. 

  • There is no condition on the liquor sales licence prohibiting a patio. 

Peterborough Public Health and the City of Peterborough have collaborated to determine precautions that must be followed by businesses choosing to reopen existing, previously approved patios. These precautions include: 

• the restriction of the number of patrons on the patio to a maximum of 50% of the previously approved capacity; 

• the prohibition of any overhead structures such as tents and canopies; the use of umbrellas is encouraged to provide shade

• ensuring that tables and chairs are at least one metre from the outer limit of the patio, in order to facilitate physical distancing. 

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Downtown Peterborough Gets the Green Thumb With Launch of Green Team

One City Peterborough has added a new horticultural team, called the “Green Team” to make downtown Peterborough a cleaner and more welcoming community hub for everyone this summer announced in a press release on Tuesday.

One City Peterborough’s Employment Program began in 2018. Photo Courtesy of DBIA.

The team cares for all the planters and some green spaces downtown. that came with the new pop-up patio project. The Peterborough Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA) purchased all the botanicals for this summer’s streetscape including flowers for 75 large patio planters and another 31 painted flower pots.

“This is an exciting extension of our strong partnership with One City Peterborough and it offers an excellent opportunity to help some of the most vulnerable people in our downtown,” says Terry Guiel, DBIA executive director. “We’re looking forward to seeing the Clean and Green Team downtown, showing their downtown pride and we hope you will give them a wave when you see them.”

Workers will be able to explore the world of urban horticulture as they learn how to care for the many plants in Downtown Peterborough.

 "One City is excited to once again partner with the DBIA to offer opportunities for employment, community engagement, and care for the downtown,” said Jenny Bloom, One City Peterborough’s Employment Program Facilitator. “Our employees take pride in contributing to the beautification of downtown and this new Green Team will have them doing just that while also gaining new skills in gardening, and spending time outdoors.  We can't wait to see the positive impact this program has on our community."

“Congratulations to the Peterborough DBIA on expanding their partnership with One City Peterborough and introducing the new Green Team program,” says Diane Therrien, Peterborough mayor. “Thank you to all of the volunteers and members of the DBIA and One City Peterborough for introducing this exciting project and all of your work to keep Downtown Peterborough clean, vibrant and a destination to enjoy great local food and shopping.”

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A Painted Paddle Installation Is Launching In Downtown Peterborough

The Downtown Vibrancy Project will be launching a new outdoor public art exhibit to celebrate community connection during lockdown with its February 1st Painted Paddle debut—a series of paddle art installations in Peterborough’s central entertainment and shopping district. 

During the month of February, locals will be able to safely tour the Painted Paddle art exhibit by visiting a number of storefront windows scattered throughout the downtown, as part of a new art crawl experience.

Places providing window space for the art installation include: Peterborough & the Kawartha Tourism’s Visitor Centre, Le Petit Bar, St Veronus, The Boardwalk Game Lounge, Sam's Deli, Black Honey Bakery, Cork and Bean, B!KE, Watson and Lou, Cottage Toys, By The Bridge, GreenUp Store, Night Kitchen, DBIA Office, Meta4 Gallery, Avant Garden, Sustain, Bluestreak Records, and Peterborough Social Services.

Kelleigh Traynor-Hartnett, a retired Police Officer, painting the Peterborough Police Service’s paddle for the Painted Paddle project. (Photo courtesy DBIA)

Each paddle will be as unique as the artist, generating a distinctive visual story of our community’s history, and its connection to the common paddle.

Notable featured paddle artists and organizations contributing art for the Painted Paddle include: Mayor Therrien, Hiawatha First Nation, Wiigwaas Hiawatha Store, Peterborough Police Service, DBIA, GreenUP, Trent Gzowski College, Trent Veg Garden, Peterborough Pollinators, Princess Gardens Retirement Residence, Empress Gardens Retirement Residence, St Anne's School, VegFest, B!KE, City Councillors Zippel and Akapo, Art School mother and daughter team, Eileen and Kendron, local Anishinaabe artist Kyler, and local artist Tiphaine Lenaik. 

The Painted Paddle exhibit will be on display until March 5th. Exhibition paddles will be available for auction from Febrary 19th at 8 pm to March 4th at 8 pm ahead of the First Friday event on March 5th, with proceeds going towards the One City Employment Program. For the virtual auction, click here.

To participate in a self-guided tour of the Painted Paddle, community members can access a full map of paddle exhibit locations here.

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City of Peterborough Setting Up Curbside Pick-Up Zones In Downtown

To support local businesses during the provincewide shutdown, the City of Peterborough has announced it is setting up curbside pick-up zones in the downtown core.

Signs will be installed to designate areas as a “15-minute curbside pickup zone”.  Each block in downtown Peterborough will have a zone on both sides of the street. 

During the shutdown, more customers are making quick stops for curbside pick-up rather than visits that require longer-term parking. The pick-up zones will ensure convenient, high-turnover parking access for customers.

"Local businesses are the backbone of our community and it's important that we support them, especially during this challenging time," says Mayor Diane Therrien.

Photo courtesy City of Peterborough

HOW CURBSIDE PICK-UP ZONES WORK

-> To ensure curbside pick-up zones are available for customers to conveniently access businesses, a maximum time limit of 15 minutes will be enforced.

-> Drivers using the new curbside pick-up zones will not have to pay for parking in these zones as long as they comply with the 15 minute time limit.

-> While stopped, drivers should turn off their vehicle in order to avoid idling as required under the City’s anti-idling by-law.

-> Parking longer than the 15 minute window could result in a parking ticket with a fine of $25.

Existing commercial loading zones, accessible parking spaces, bus stops and no-parking zones adjacent to intersections will be maintained, and drivers are reminded that enforcement of existing parking restrictions in these areas will continue. Theses spaces are not to be used for regular parking or for curbside pick-up zones.

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DBIA Partners With Ferrero Chocolates To Give Away Boxes of Premium Chocolates To 4 Local Organizations That Do Vital Community Work

Ferrero Chocolates is looking to give back this holiday season and reached out to Business Improvement Areas across Ontario. The application from Peterborough’s DBIA caught their attention and they offered 84 boxes of their new premium chocolates—Golden Gallery Signature Chocolates.

The DBIA will be giving away boxes of premium chocolates to four local organizations that do vital work in the downtown: One City Peterborough, the Youth Emergency Shelter, Friends Peterborough, and the Aylmer Street Pharmacy.

Jenny Bloom (One City Ptbo), Terry “Mr. Downtown” Guiel (DBIA) & Christian Harvey from One City (Photo courtesy DBIA)

“I was elated that Ferrero would show such great support for BIAs across Ontario with this extremely generous offer,” says Terry Guiel, DBIA Executive Director. “It’s wonderful that we can use that generosity to spread a bit of joy to some in our community that may not feel very included during the holidays.”

“This year has been a struggle for so many Canadians and that’s why it’s more important now than ever before to find ways to support those who need our help,” says Maureen Romansky, Senior Marketing Director, Premium Chocolate, Ferrero Canada. “We’re proud to be able to play a small part in bringing some joy through the gift of chocolate.”

“This chocolate donation is going to raise the spirits of all the young people with us on Christmas morning,” says Brooke Erickson, Y.E.S shelter’s Community Engagement Coordinator. “Because youth in shelter rarely have anyone to buy holiday gifts for them, we asked what they would like, so we can provide something for them to open on Christmas morning. Like most kids, almost all of them asked for candy and chocolate.”

Terry Guiel (DBIA) & Engi Hakim (Aylmer Street Pharmacy), photo courtesy DBIA

The Y.E.S. shelter works to reduce and prevent homelessness by providing shelter, education and transitional supports for youth and families in Peterborough and the Kawarthas. During the delivery of the chocolates to Y.E.S., Guiel will be joined by Atria Development, who will be making a cash donation to the shelter.

“We are so grateful to Ferrero for this gift,” adds Christian Harvey, Executive Director of One City Peterborough, which focuses on housing, food security, community safety and inclusion. “In a year as we have had, where our most marginalized have faced so much, a moment of joy or a little chocolate can mean a lot.”

“Something as simple as giving someone a holiday greeting while handing out a few chocolates during this time can make them feel special and included in our community," adds Pharmacist Engi Hakim of the Aylmer Street Pharmacy, which mainly distributes addiction treatment medications such as methadone and suboxone to the clients.. "For some, this could be the only positive interaction they will experience during the holidays.”

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Over 800 People Turned Out To Support Local Food Producers At Special Holiday Lakefield Farmers’ Market

It was a great turnout this year at the Lakefield Farmers’ Market “Special Holiday Market” held on Sunday, December 6th in the Municipal Parking Lot next to the Village Inn in Lakefield.

“The market was pleased to try a Special Holiday Market this year and it was a huge success,” says Market Manager Jenny Ross. “Over 800 people came out to support local food producers and vendor sales were 50 percent greater than on a normal market day.”

Linda Coons brought along her little dog “Spike”, all dressed for the occasion of the Lakefield Farmers’ Market “Special Holiday Market”.

"Even Santa showed up to do some shopping in what customers depend on as a COVID-safe and friendly shopping experience," adds board member Jennie MacKenzie.

Even Santa showed up to pick up some great gift ideas at the very successful Lakefield Farmers’ Market “Special Holiday Market”.

Many of the vendors are available for off season sales. Their contact information is located at lakefieldfarmersmarket.net.

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Peterborough Downtown Holiday Shopping Passport Season Begins

You can now downtown with your seasonal Holiday Shopping Passport for your chance to win up to $3,000 Downtown Dollars. 

Starting Monday, November 9th, shop at nearly 150 downtown businesses with your Holiday Shopping Passport and get a stamp for every $10 you spend. When your passport is filled (20 stamps), complete the form and drop it off at a ballot box at one of the participating businesses. Each completed passport is a ballot for a draw to win downtown dollars.

“The Holiday Shopping Passports are always a favourite for our downtown shoppers,” says Terry Guiel, Executive Director of the Downtown Business Improvement Area. “It has been a difficult year for many people and many of our downtown businesses. The passports are a great way to reward people for shopping local this holiday season.”

Whitney Inacio, Mike Hall and Lindsay Barr show off the Downtown Dollars being given away to the winners of the Holiday Shopping Passport draws. (Photo courtesy DBIA)

Holiday Shopping Passport draws will be:

• December 2 — $500

• December 9 — $500

• December 16 — $500

• January 13 — $1,500

The DBIA and participating businesses are working to minimize physical contact with Holiday Shopping Passports. When getting your passport stamped, place it open on the counter of the business so that it can be stamped without being picked up by the business owner or employee.

Last year’s program saw shoppers stamp more than $2.3 million worth of local purchases on their Holiday Shopping Passports. 

In addition, a reminder that parking is free for two hours in downtown Peterborough from Black Friday (November 27th) through to the end of December, courtesy of the City of Peterborough.

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