Saskatoon and its satellite communities.

Saskatchewan's fastest growing communities aren't its largest cities, but the satellite communities around them. In fact half the communities that saw large growth rates were towns surrounding Saskatoon, the latest census tells.

Saskatoon

Five of communities that saw the largest percentage of population growth from 2016-21 were Saskatoon’s bedroom communities. The population centre that grew the most was Pilot Butte, where its population grew by 26% from 2016-21! The Mayor said residents are choosing Pilot Butte because they like the small town feel. And yet they are quite close (c20 ks) to large Regina, so enjoying the amenities close gives the best of both worlds.

Pilot Butte residences, work facilities and family parks

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Urban sprawl is a universal problem but the Faculty of City Planning of Saskatchewan Uni has proposed a scholarly & practical scheme. Prof Avi Akkerman said a bedroom community is one where there would be few people in the day, as they commute for jobs or study. Some growing communities have now developed their own business communities and recreational centres, which means they weren’t empty in the day. Called exurban communities, the communities are autonomous, independent of mother city.

The predictable growth of Saskatchewan’s exurban communities, now 288,000, is expected. Land was relatively cheap, agents enticed people to buy cheaper homes, and banks enticed people to take out the cheaper mortgages. And COVID-19 was probably a minor motive for people choosing to move out of large cities. Prof Akkerman acknowledged that the factors that once drew people to the exurban communities could be changing. Inflation is higher now, so costs are rising. While a longer commute may have not been a concern when petrol prices were relatively low, a volatile energy market could change the price of driving to the big city office.

Town councils have created a plan so that the structure can support the growth. Most Mayors welcomed the town's growth, saying they are prepared for even more people. More programmes and services that the residents want are being built but still with a small-town feel

In Jan 2021 Saskatoon was identified as one of Canada's top 10 fastest-growing urban centres. Despite economic challenges and dealing with the COVID, Saskatoon emerged with a strong future. Its growth of 7.6% from 2016-21 was impressive given the global crisis. The city offers a high quality of life, safety, controlled traffic congestion and many outdoor spaces that are for pleasure. And with plans to accommodate up to a million people, Saskatoon is continuously growing and developing.

As Saskatoon expands, surrounding small towns are also growing. These towns are developing unique identities beyond Saskatoon's influence, themselves attractive destinations actively shaping their own futures. Many families seek a small-town lifestyle near a larger city, so they are enhancing community services to build their own economic and cultural services. Eg Brighton Towns on Delainey (pop 14,500), has different townhouses available, communal green space, a community centre, pet walks and family bike spaces. With modern architecture, large windows and high-end finishings, the houses are an excellent move en route to buying a home

Does Saskatoon need a $2-billion perimeter highway? As developers design new subdivisions near the city, some urban planners are rethinking the proposed perimeter highway. The bypass, first proposed 20 years ago, would now cut through the growing city. So before spending enormous money, the planners have to look at the big picture.. which has changed. The province recently released a map showing the path of a proposed Saskatoon Freeway. A working group including staff from many of the rural municipalities is having consultations with landowners who may be affected by the bypass.

Traffic on old Circle Drive East piled up, 

CBC 

Prof Akkerman said Saskatoon would be more successful shelving the perimeter Saskatoon Freeway and limiting Saskatoon’s geographic spread. Note that decades years ago, Circle Drive was supposed to be a bypass perimeter freeway, and it ended up as a clogged arterial road. Another Saskatoon freeway could promote sprawl, burdening taxpayers with decades of upkeep costs. Officials could use other tactics to ease truck-related congestion on existing roads eg having trucks move outside peak hours. So the city and province must rethink the way they manage freeways, re-allocating the $2 billion.

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Highways published this route 

for the Saskatoon Freeway in 2018, 

CBC Canada 

Landowners are jockeying for position, now that the proposed route for a Saskatoon bypass is clear. Once the freeway arrives, the adjoining real-estate quickly goes up in price because of the precious access road. But Akkerman didn't think that the community at large would benefit.

The nearby communities were not merely bedrooms. White City & Warman developed their business and recreational facilities, gaining autonomy from larger cities. This growth is driven by affordable housing and a desire for more space.

affordable family homes, Warman.

Brighton Towns on Delainey

Colliers Rentals

Rising costs from higher mortgages and pricier petrol are making life more expensive for commuters. So bringing jobs closer to home is a wise decision. Employed Saskatoon residents wouldn’t drop their jobs because of attempts to bring more industry elsewhere eg Martensville doesn’t have to compete with its big neighbour, Saskatoon. Rather it will find niches that aren’t completely filled eg small workshops near workers’ residences. It won’t stop commuting into Saskatoon, but lowering the number of people driving every day would help the environment and reduce the drivers’ financial loads.

Demography is becoming more critical in understanding & managing the environment and population increases have growing negative impacts. Thus demography becomes an important complement to environmental science. But in a recent poll, 23% of people thought the city's roads was the top issue in the civic election campaign (CBC News).

Conclusion
If costs continue to grow for taxpayers, there are fewer resources to repair and replace the ageing structure in inner Saskatoon. While Prof Akkerman didn't believe the solution was to build only high-rise towers, it was important to use the space that residents already used. And Saskatoon needs to declare an urban growth boundary around it to mark the city’s outer limits.

Professor Avi Akkerman

Education News Canada

Akkerman is now lecturing in Demography, showing social sciences students the processes of growth, decline and distribution of human populations over geographic space. Perhaps people in other big cities around the world should participate in these lectures.

Thanks to CBC News Sep 2016; April 2019; and Mar 2022.

stolen art WW2: Cassirers, Camille Pissarro

 

Camille Pissarro, 1897

Rue St Honoré, Après-Midi, Effet de Pluie

Wiki

Millions of European Jews were forced to quickly sell their hom­es and businesses with WW2, their assets being confiscated by the Nazis. Works of art often seemed very significant to war heirs; they represented a last cultural conn­ect­­ion to their dead families. I particularly thank Marilyn Henry.

Sadly there had been an intentional campaign of con­fis­cation and destruction of European cultural prop­er­ty. Post-war, Allied Forces uncovered cac­h­es of looted goods and the U.S military returned mill­ions of art objects to the countries of the works’ origin. But those nat­ions were responsible for locating the actual heirs. Did they find them?

Once the Nazis sold the objects, the works entered the art market and were dispersed. Both the pre-war owner and the current owner may have had moral claims to the works, but legal ownership varied. Most Western legal sys­t­ems couldn’t deal with losses from other decades, and from oth­er coun­tries. Claims could be barred because Statutes of Lim­it­at­ion expired. Or claims and the rights of a curr­ent possessor were con­fused when art crossed borders. Add­ition­ally most nations had laws that protected good-faith pur­ch­as­ers. And who could define a forced sale? Only Germany recog­nis­ed some sales-under-duress.

In the U.S, most museums are private so ownership disputes were and are civil matters. The New York State Banking Dept estab­lish­ed its Hol­ocaust Claims Processing Office in 1997, to resolve claims without litigation. Since then, it accepted 142 art claims covering 25,000 objects. But the small staff of lawyers, linguists and hist­orians only secured the VERY slow return of 12 art works!

Camille Pissarro, 1897, Wiki

Boulevard Montmartre, Morning, Cloudy Weather

NGV Melbourne

Also in the U.S, the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal created a database linked to American museums, identifying thousands of items that had been in Europe from 1933-45. But while the portal could be searched by an artist’s name, country of origin and a painting’s name, it could not be searched by the family own­er.

An artwork’s ownership chain was often patchy. There WAS a res­ponsibility to participate in provenance research, but it was exp­ensive. The paper trail about prov­enance history was often deposited in: multi-national settings, private family memorabilia, govern­mental or museum arch­iv­es.

Some museums did no additional research to clarify the history, until a claimant came forward. Others eg North Carolina Museum of Art, took the initiative. Artworks with uncertain gaps of war-time ownership were reviewed by prof­essional provenance research­ers.

Museums and collectors are more willing to acknowledge legitimate claims than they were a decade ago, and to settle them without lit­ig­ation. But of course museums and collectors still dispute ten­uous claims. Most museums have put their entire collections on Web sites so now the assertion of claims is much easier than it was.

The size of wartime art thefts will never be known. The size of their return, through some heroic post-war efforts, was very great. But those efforts were eventually seen as incon­sistent with foreign policy, or reflecting cold war ten­s­ions by the 1960s. Only West Germany paid partial com­p­en­sation to some claim­ants; read Nazi Confiscated Art Issues.

Camille Pissarro, 1897

Boulevard Montmartre Spring
Courtauld Institute of Art

These days attention to war-era ownership is emerging in the art wor­ld. Major auction houses and museums have provenance re­search­ers, so sellers and buyers routinely check objects with the Art Loss Reg­is­ter - an international database of lost and stolen art formed in 1991 by auction houses and art traders. Un­for­t­unately this did not happen 50 years ago.. when scrutiny could have helped.

As more artwork is identified and located, other nations are quest­ioning the ownership of their holdings. A number of European count­ries eg Austria and Britain have enacted restitut­ion policies or established independent panels to review claims. However these re­view processes didn’t ensure the recovery of loot­ed art, even with clear evidence. Many claimants, especially the children whose parents died in the Holocaust, continued to be frustrated at the expense and time required to pursue a work.   

The same Pissarro painting in Lilly Cassirer’s Berlin flat, c1930.

artnet news

There were 15 Camille Pissarros (1830–1903) that were painted from his Paris hotel room window. One version was called Boulevard Mont­martre, spring morning,  moved through the hands of two of my favourite art dealers: Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris who acq­uired it from the art­ist in June 1898; and Paul Cassirer in Berl­in who acquired it from Durand-Ruel in Oct 1902.

Now consider Lilly Cassirer and her second husband Otto Neubauer, who swapped a beautiful Camille Pissarro impressionist painting for their free­d­om. A Nazi-appointed appraiser forced her to sell Rue St Honoré, Après-Midi, Effet de Pluie for $360 then. But when the coup­le fled Munich in 1939, they could not take the funds. Lil­ly’s first husb­and Fritz Cassirer, from the prom­inent German Jewish family of publishers and art dealers, had bought the painting from Pissarro’s agent in 1900.

Although the post-war German government voided the sale, Lilly nev­er re­covered the Pissarro. It was sold multiple times. In 1993, the Sp­anish government paid $350 million for the col­lection of industr­ialist-Nazi supp­ort­er Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and placed in their Museum.

In 2001 in the US, grandson Claude Cassirer (1921-2010) found the painting after years of searching and spent five years trying to recover the Pissarro through diplomatic channels. Finally Claude filed a federal lawsuit in California against Spain and against Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation to recover the paint­ing, now worth $40mill.   

Lilly Cassirer Neubauer and her beloved heir grandson Claude, born Berlin 1921

Claude's mother died flu 1921; Claude's grandmother loved and raised the child

itsartlaw

Claude Cassirer learned the painting was at the Thyssen-Bornemisza in 2000 and petitioned Spain and the museum to return it. See the legal proceedings: the District Court case was in 2006, the first appeal was 2009-10, the second appeal was 2013, the Spanish Law case was 2015 and a last decision was in 2019. Whose law should app­ly, Spain’s or the USA’s? In 2024 the U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit awarded the painting to the Spanish museum; it was legally bound to decide the case using Spanish law because the thefts occurred there. The Cassirers appealed the 9th Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court which vacated the Circuit Court of Appeals decision. It will now have to reconsider the case in light of the new California law on holocaust survivors' right to reclaim looted art.

Bishop of Durham in Auckland Castle.

William the Conqueror did not instantly dominate the whole of England in 1066. His trickiest problem was the muscular Earldom of Northum­b­r­ia. After discovering that nobles could not be trusted, William I pl­aced his faith in the Bishop of Durham instead. From 1075, the role be­came a Prince Bishop, giving the holder unmatched secular powers to raise their own army, mint coins and levy taxes.

After the Auckland Project was completed in 2021

the crowds arrived to visit the Castle

Bishop Auckland was a small town in County Durham, so much of Durham City's early history seems to have been influenced by the Bishops of Durham and their estate. First established as a hunting lod­ge, it bec­ame the principal country resid­en­ce for the powerful Prince Bishops of Durham who for cent­ur­ies were virtual rulers of N.E England. In fact the power of the Prince Bishops of Durham was second only to the Eng­lish monarchy. Commissioned to defend that monarchy, the Bishops were placed strategically close to the border between England and Scotland, so they needed a home to match their status.

It was no surprise then that they enjoyed Auckland Castle and its lush surroundings as their countryside estate, when the pressures of London, York and Durham became too much. While their role has changed with the passage of time, the Bishop of Durham still has influence in modern life.

The gateway

England's North East

In the subsequent 750 years, 56 different Prince Bishops presided over County Durham as an independent state, answering on­ly to the king and God. But with great power, came great responsibility. Were the Prince Bishops inspir­ing or deceptive leaders?

St Peter's Chapel

Historic England

St Peter’s Chapel was one of Europe's largest private chapels. Originally a medieval banqueting hall, it replaced the orig­in­al C12th chapel, later lost in the English Civil War. In the 1660s Bishop Cosin transformed the Great Hall into today’s beautiful sacred space. He added the decorative ceiling, carved woodwork screen and pulpits, to inspire people to feel the glory of God and the beauty of holiness.

Discover the Bishop Trevor Gallery, named after Bishop Richard Trevor (1752-71). In 1756 an English ship seized looted cargo from the Spanish, including the old master paintings. The captured works were sold in England and the only one of the 13 port­raits not bought by Durham was that of Benjamin. Bishop Trevor was de­lighted, having bought the series of paintings of Jacob and his Twelve Sons by Francisco de Zurb­ar­án (1641-58). They have hung in the Long Dining Room at the Castle 250+ years.

Chairman of Bishop Auckland's Civic Society, Dr Robert McManners, said the timing of the Bishop's purchase was vital. Zurb­ar­an’s income largely came from commissions from the estab­lished Spanish Cath­ol­ic church. Yet the artist meticulously painted these Jewish symbols at a time when the practice of the Jewish religion was outlawed by Papal Bull and enforced by the Spanish Inqu­is­ition. McManners noted that Zurbaran had sympathy for oppressed Jewish people in his local community, and admired the great risks that Catholic artist took to his reputation and livelihood. See my blog post or read Robert McManners, The Zurbarans at Auckland Castle, available at Bishop Auckland Town Hall

The Zurbarans paintings in the Long Dining Room

The Guardian

Bishop Trevor and other bishops had sponsored the Jewish Naturalis­ation Act of 1753 which gave disenfranchised immig­rant Jews, often escaping persecution in their own countries, the same rights as those born in England. Alas this progressive legis­lation was rep­ealed the next year, and soon the Durham bishop bought the paint­ings! Dr McManners believed Bishop Trevor and Francisco de Zurb­aran were both thumbing their noses at their Establishment Churches.

**
In 2001 money was short and Durham's Church Commissioners decid­ed to cash in their easily sold art assets, for £20m. While those with a sense of nat­ional history and art heritage wanted to keep the coll­ec­t­ion together in the Church. It took 9 years of intense lobby­ing be­fore the commissioners conceded, due to a £15m donation by art collector-investment manager Jonathan Ruffer via a new charity, the Zurbarán Trust. His gallery opened in 2021.

The Castle is one of the best preserved Bishops’ palaces in Europe, sit­­ting at the heart of multi-million conservation Auckland Project which started in 2012 and continued until 2019. The goal was to coord­inate the col­l­ection of galleries, gardens and parkland, all organised around Auc­k­land Castle. After discovering the C18th wall colourings, furn­iture and textiles that decorated this elegant castle, they were res­t­ored to their for­mer lux­ury. The team of restorers and conservators show­ed the scope of the power, wealth, infl­uence and faith held by the residents. The most major conservations occurred when the State Rooms were rest­or­ed to their original Georgian Gothic splen­d­our, as de­signed by ar­ch­itect James Wyatt. Now the Prince Bishops’ private resid­ence at Auck­land Castle is rev­eal­ing 8 centuries of opulence and influence, seen in 1,000 years of forgotten pol­itical, economic and religious history!

The deer house

Apart from the stunning castle/Bishop’s Palace, the town (pop 24,000) has a thriving arts and cultural centre – library, cinema, theatre, arts complex and specialist boutiques.

Mentoring local medicos in Africa

We, the Ladies Who Coffee, debated the best ever tv programme. I chose The Surgery Ship, an Australian series filmed when Mercy Ships visited West Africa in 2016 & 17. Thankyou to the helpful Surgery Ship for their data.

Staff waiting to board a Mercyship

Facebook

Each human deserves access to surgical and health care solutions. But in some parts of the world, people go without. Since 1978, Mercy Ships began a mission to provide hope and healing to those in need. Each year hospital ships are filled with volunteers who provide life-changing surgeries to children and adults who’d otherwise go without. The staff confront ethical decisions as they decide who can be helped and who cannot not. This is a complex journey for the volunteer medics as they deal with serious cases, and balance the patients’ fates in their hands.

Globally, 5 billion people lack access to safe surgery. Due to this lack of access to surgical care, up to 18.6 mill people die each year. Every day, children and adults in some of the poorest communities die from causes that can easily be treated in hospitals in many nations. 1 in 8 children die before they have the chance to go to school.

With international volunteers, ship staff can deploy state-of-the-art hospital ships to treat more people. As part of the commitment, the staff also train local health-care workers so this important work can continue. c70% of the world’s population lives near the coast, and the hospital ships provide unique platforms for workers to direct medical care to these villages. A customised 3-year partnership model goes to many African countries requesting support.

Grace, 17, from the Democratic Republic of Congo

before and after tumour was removed

express.co

 

A team of volunteer staff are aboard, going to the poorest nations on earth and facing the most severe issues anywhere. The challenge is enormous but the ship makes a huge difference by supporting the silent poor and by providing life-changing surgeries to those in great need.

The staff provides free corrective surgeries for hernias and goitres that plague unemployed adults, and children who miss school because of no accessible medical care. Doing critical eye surgeries gives patients with renewed sight and quality of life. Huge tumours left to grow unchecked, massive deformities and more; some had a 4 k tumour on the face for years, living a life of ridicule and shame.

anaesthetist prepares pre-operation

New Statesman

Many children live in pain and isolation by not having access to medical care for surgeries eg clef lip, cataracts and plastic reconstructive, and dental health care. Cleft lip surgeries are treated early in life in the West, but for many Africans, it can be years before surgery happens. This results in malnutrition and exclusion from the community. 

A child’s life can be severely impacted with poor eye health, so Mercy Ships provide corrective eye surgery and optical care for kids. Good dental health from an early stage means children are not susceptible to a myriad of other health conditions. Children and their families learn the basics of dental health and are provided with vital surgeries. Good dental hygiene prevents gum disease, cavities and teaches basic oral health education. 80% of the world’s fractures and the majority of club-feet occur in developing nations. Without quality orthopaedic surgeries, those who have these types of defects experience a life of pain and shame.

Infection control is a major issue in hospitals in both wealthy and developing nations. Mercy Ships teaches local medical staff to put safe-surgery protocols into practice but often the local environment makes it very difficult to keep even operating theatres clean and sterile. That’s where Mercy Ships projects like hospital refurbishment emerge, changing facilities that are uncleanable into areas where local staff can clean and sterilise, reducing secondary infections.

When the ship departs a country, the staff want to leave an improved healthcare system for the community. Before, during and after field services, Mercy Ships implements health care training projects that teach the medical knowledge, skills and attitude needed to heal patients long after. Infrastructure projects include renovating or expanding hospitals, helping these facilities become more available and to improve the quality of medical services. Previously, local staff struggled to care for their patients in very poor working conditions.

Dr Glenn Strauss performed the very first surgery aboard the Africa Mercy,

while mentoring local doctors

mercyships.co.za

 
The ship’s Medical Capacity Building Projects strengthen the standards of surgical care inside the local communities of the countries served. The legacy is a lasting impact that extends for years.

A child’s life can be dark because of a simple cataract. For most people in the West, a quick trip to the ophthalmologist resolves this issue, but for those who have no access to quality health care, their world dims. For 40 years, Mercy Ships has been dedicated to providing healing to those in need, via the dedicated ship volunteers.

Now to honour Dr Glenn Strauss who joined Mercy Ships in 1997 as an ophthalmologist with the Caribbean Mercy. He and his wife Kim continued to volunteer their skills for short-term missions, helping many to get care for the first time. Eventually the couple closed their practice at home and committed themselves to work fulltime on Mercy Ships from 2005. The couple developed Mercy Vision, a training programme for surgeons and paramedics from sub-Saharan Africa. Later he built a training programme in ophthalmology for regular surgeons.

Mercy Ships continues to provide essential surgery for the world’s most vulnerable people. And they also work to strengthen and support African health care systems via education, training, mentoring, equipment and supplies. Over 30 years, the staff trained 43,300+ local doctors and nurses who then trained others. The long-term impact of this medical training provides quality health care in the countries, long after the ship sails.

What is your favourite tv programme?