Past Events

Happy City Events

This is where you will find the archive of past events that we have organized and hosted over the years! Not all of our events are captured here, but it should give you a good idea of what we do and what we offer as an organization.

Some of our past events include:

2023

Active Streets Festival

August 26, 2023

On August 26th, Happy City St. John’s hosted its 2023 Active Streets Festival at the Downtown Pedestrian Mall to encourage people to walk, wheel, skate, or get moving.

Kenny’s Pond – Jane’s Walk 2023

August 15, 2023

On August 15, Happy City Chair, Anne Malone, led a walk around Kenny’s Pond. Kenny’s Pond Retirement Residence helped set up the walk.

Jane’s Walk 2023: A Sensory Walk through MUN Botanical Garden

July 20, 2023

On July 20th, Happy City St, John’s hosted a Sensory Jane’s Walk through MUN Botanical Garden. MUN Botanical Garden helped set up the walk.

2021

2021 Annual General Meeting

October 28, 2021

On October 28th, Happy City St. John’s hosted its 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Zoom for the second year to look back on our activities over the previous year, discuss what to work on as an organization over the next year, and elect our 2021-2 Board of Directors.

2021 Election At-Large Town Hall

September 14 and 15, 2021

In the lead-up to the 2021 municipal election, we hosted an online town hall over two nights where voters could get to know the at-large candidates and ask them about their stances on different city issues, including accessibility, supporting community groups, the future of transit in the city, and municipal budgeting priorities. You can find more information about the town hall here.

Special General Meeting

July 21, 2021

In July 2021, we held a special general meeting to fill three interim seats on our Board.

Jane’s Walks 2021

May 21 – June 6, 2021

Jane’s Walks is a series of free, citizen-led neighbourhood tours that help people discover unseen, under-celebrated, and unique stories about their community. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we hosted our 2021 walks online. All 2021 Jane’s Walks for Newfoundland and Labrador can be enjoyed here and are offered in video, audio, interactive webinar, and visual formats.

2020

2020 Annual General Meeting

October 21, 2020

On Wednesday, October 21, Happy City St. John’s hosted its 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Zoom to celebrate 10 years of Happy City St. John’s and to elect our 2020-2021 Board of Directors! During the AGM, we reported back on a year of activities, sharing highlights from the past 10 years, elected six (6) new board members, and engaged our members on where we should focus our efforts in the next 12 months and beyond.

Ward 2 Town Hall

October 14, 2020

In the lead-up to the Ward 2 by-election, we were so excited to have candidates Carol Furlong, Matt Howse, Lorne Loder, Gregory Noseworthy, Ophelia Ravencroft, Shawn Skinner, and Greg Smith join us to answer residents’ questions about the issues that matter most to them, including financing, accessibility, and public engagement. Watch the full video here.

Jane’s Walks 2020

May 6 – June 9, 2020

Jane’s Walks is a series of free, citizen-led neighbourhood tours that help people discover unseen, under-celebrated, and unique stories about their community. Due to COVID-19 and our attempt to flatten the curve through social distancing, Happy City St. John’s hosted its 2020 walks online. All 2020 Jane’s Walks for Newfoundland and Labrador can be enjoyed here and are offered in video, audio, interactive webinar, and visual formats.

Neighbourhood Summit

February 21 & 22, 2020

The Neighbourhood Summit focused on empowering individuals, groups, and associations to build stronger neighbourhoods. Summit participants learned about and engaged in topics that are meaningful to their communities.
 
This year’s topics included welcoming newcomers, working with the City, holding neighbourhood events, and much more.
 
Kicking off Happy City’s Neighbourhood Summit 2020, we were thrilled to welcome Councillor Lindell Smith for a keynote speech, “How can a community be truly welcoming? The role of government & community in supporting newcomers.”
 
You can find more information about the event here.

2019

Jane’s Walks 2019

May 3, 4 & 5, 2019

Jane’s Walk is a series of free neighbourhood walking tours that get people out on the streets to discover unseen, under celebrated and unique stories about their city.

The free walking tours are held on the first weekend of May each year all around the world, and are led by locals who want to create a space for residents to talk about what matters to them in the places they live and work.

You can view a list of Happy City’s 2019 walks here.

2018

Neighbourhood Summit 2018

September 22, 2018

The inaugural St. John’s Neighbourhood Summit was held on Saturday, September 22. Presented by Happy City St. John’s in partnership with The Harris Centre, the Summit was a day-long event focused on building neighbourhood capacity in the City of St. John’s, and included sessions ranging from how to build and maintain a neighbourhood association to placemaking to bike network design to how to connect with your city councillors. You can read about it here and here.

Bikefest 2018 

September 16, 2018

We partnered with the City of St. John’s and other local partners to organize the inaugural Bikefest. This event was held on Sunday, September 16th, on Water Street between Beck’s and Bishop’s Coves, and included guided bike rides, free tune-ups, cycling education (for kids and adults), and plenty of cycle-related entertainment.

2017

Kenmount Terrace Town Hall

Fall 2017

On November 8th, 2017, Happy City held a neighbourhood forum at St. Michael and All Angels Church in Kenmount Terrace. Approximately 45 residents attended this session. You can find the report from this town hall here.

Municipal Election Summit 2017

Spring 2017

Organized in partnership with Memorial University and Municipalities NL, the 2017 Municipal Election Summit offered attendees a chance to learn from people who have been involved at every level of the Municipal process. Shannie Duff, Lynn Hammond, Ross Reid, Ronald Penney, Josh Taylor, and many others led discussions about how the municipal system works and how to participate in it effectively.

2016

Gut Feelings: A Celebration of Quidi Vidi Village

Spring 2016

Quidi Vidi Village, sandwiched between Quidi Vidi Lake and Quidi Vidi Gut, was first settled in the mid-17th century, making it one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city. It is a home for its residents and a magnet for tourists.

Happy City hosted a special pub night with a panel of some of the key people bringing new life to the Village.

2015

Envisioning Cochrane Street: Neighbourhood Engagement Session

Fall 2015

In 2015, The Cochrane Street United Church was planning the renovations which led to the redevelopment of its annex into 10 supportive housing units, a commercial kitchen, and non-profit office and community spaces.

As part of the planning process, Happy City co-hosted a neighbourhood engagement session to hear ideas from the community about how this space could work, and how it could best serve the community of St. John’s.

BusFest

Summer 2015

In partnership with Municipalities NL, Cities for People, GoBus Accessible Transit and Metrobus, we organized a day-long event celebrating public transit in St. John’s. We encouraged people to leave their cars at home for the day, take the bus, and tell us about their experiences on the bus. The day involved performances by musicians, poets, and actors on buses around St. John’s, as well as a chartered bus from the Bell Island ferry as a demo of expanded service.

2014

Doing Density Right

Winter 2014

In partnership with the St. John’s Board of Trade and the Canadian Homebuilders Association we hosted a a major series of dialogue sessions, an online survey, a public forum, and more focused on discussing how St. John’s could sustainably add density in the areas marked out for intensification in the new municipal plan.

Snow Business

Winter 2014

After a particularly brutal winter, we organized a large-scale survey and public forums that gathered citizen ideas on how to improve how St. John’s deals with snow – many of which were quickly acted on. You can read our final report here and the city’s final report here.

Downtown West Forum

June 2014

With lots of big changes coming to the western end of downtown, we saw a need to talk about the neighbourhood as a whole – so we hosted a public forum and design session.

Municipal Plan Summary Release

Fall 2014

We released a short-form summary of the huge new municipal plan to help citizens understand the changes coming to their city.

Municipal Plan Revue

Fall 2014

Planning doesn’t have to be boring! Our Municipal Plan Revue brought together an improv troupe to interpret some of the citizen input we’d gathered about the municipal plan.

Happy City Hours

Began 2014

Happy City Hours were an intermittent series of informal pub nights where people who love talking about their city could gather, sometimes with a special guest to talk to.

How to Run a Forum 

Summer 2014

We assembled a toolkit for other community groups looking to organize forums of their own.

Placemaking Talk

Spring 2014

We hosted renowned planner and “placemaking” enthusiast Dr. Katherine Loflin for a talk at the Rocket Room.

2013

Think Big All-Candidates Forum

Fall 2013

We hosted a large, well-attended forum for all candidates in the 2013 Municipal Election focused on discussing big-picture topics and their vision for the city – issues that sometimes don’t come up in other forums at election time.

Candidate Survey

Summer/Fall 2013

We developed a survey distributed to all municipal candidates during the 2013 election and shared the responses through social media, our website, and more.

“My Happy City Is…” Campaign

Spring/Summer 2013

Summer student staff interviewed people all over town to gather their ideas on what their “Happy City” would be; this informed a lot of our advocacy in future years.

Transportation Research

Spring/Summer 2013

We did research into transportation options for mid-size cities, the history of transit improvements in St. John’s and the potential for the future.

2012

Be the Planner

Summer 2012

We led a social media campaign asking people to “Be the Planner” and come up with creative ideas for sites around town – vacant and underused ones, especially.

Your Neighbourhood Ideas

Summer 2012

We gathered survey responses online and in-person to the question “What are the best things about your neighbourhood” and “What would you change?”. Outreach included hosting a neighbourhood BBQ and attending St. John’s Pride.