Langley City will host its 2nd Film Festival on October 18th and 19th. This
year's themes are "The Emotion of Sound" and "The Natural Environment."
This short film festival has youth and general filmmaker categories. Young
filmmakers can submit films between 30 seconds and 5 minutes, while general
short films can be between 2 minutes and 20 minutes. Prizes range from $500 to
$1,000. Filmmakers must reside in BC.
You must have created any submitted film between May 1st, 2023, and May 1st,
2025.
In February,
BC Stats released
the last population estimates for municipalities in BC. While looking at the
year-over-year changes is interesting, there is value in looking over a more
extended period. I wanted to look at the population growth of municipalities
in the South of Fraser over the last few decades.
The following is the change in population between 2004 and 2024 by
municipality:
Surrey - 80%
Langley Township - 73%
Langley City - 44%
White Rock - 32%
Delta - 26%
One of the challenges with fast growth is keeping up with services. Building
new cultural and recreation facilities takes time and considerable finances.
For example, it is easier for Delta to plan for and build these facilities
than Surrey. Surrey is always in catch-up mode.
Langley City's growth is "middle of the road" for South of the Fraser communities,
but we still must invest in facilities to keep up with growth. We will need to
expand basic facilities like our operations and maintenance yard as well as
recreation and cultural facilities. With SkyTrain, population growth will
accelerate, which is why Langley City Council is creating our Invest Langley
City vision. This vision will outline when and what we need to build to ensure
that our residents and businesses continue receiving a high service level.
I'll be sharing more about this vision as it progresses.
On Saturday, Langley City held the first meeting of our Citizen's Assembly on
Community Safety. The Assembly will be looking into how we can meaningfully
improve safety in our community and shift response away from emergency
services, which is reactionary to proactive solutions. The Assembly will have
experts, researchers, and facilitators to support their work.
A Citizen's Assembly differs from a regular City Committee in several ways.
One difference is that the Citizen's Assembly membership reflects the makeup
of people in our community and is a form of direct democratic process.
A regular City Committee has people appointed by Council from the community
who are passionate about a topic, representatives from organizations working
within the topic area, and members of City Council. The Arts, Recreation,
Culture and Heritage Committee has specific membership requirements. For
example, one person on that committee must be from the performing arts
community, and another must represent heritage.
The Citizen's Assembly also has significantly more financial and staffing
resources behind it as the Citizen's Assembly will be putting forward
solutions for a complex challenge.
Council met the 29 people who are the Citizen's Assembly. The City hosted a
welcoming ceremony. After the ceremony, the Citizen's Assembly got to
business.
There has been a lot of interest in the Citizen's Assembly. You can
follow along with the Assembly
as the City will post information online. You can also
sign up for email updates
on the City's website. There will be opportunities for broader public
participation throughout the process.
The City put together a small video from the welcoming ceremony.
Saturday, March 15, was Langley City's 70th birthday, and we will be
celebrating our history throughout the year. The festivities started last week
with a cake cutting which included Eric Vogel, the grandson of Langley City's
first mayor, Hunter Vogel.
Council also thought it would be fun to recreate one of the first Langley City
Council pictures.
Langley City's First Council in 1955. Select the image to enlarge.
Re-creation of First Council Photo with Current Langley City Council in
2025. Select the image to enlarge.
The table, chairs, and gavel are original. The story is that these pieces of
our history were almost thrown into the trash but were saved at the last
minute. They are now in the small museum at the fire hall.
The City has
set up a 70th Anniversary webpage. You can stay updated on 70th Anniversary events and activities by visiting
the page. The City has also posted historic photos of Langley Prairie, the
community's original name, on the page.
For example, an online contest is running right now where you could win prizes
such as a 70th Anniversary Langley City Hat, a rec pass, or Downtown Dollars.
I look forward to celebrating the City's 70th anniversary throughout this
year!
