North End St. Catharines’ Hidden Gem: Municipal Beach

Estimated Reading Time: 3 Minutes If you live in North End St. Catharines, you probably already know about the hidden gem that is Municipal Beach. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend you take a family walk or bike ride down to the end of Arthur Street one warm evening and soak in the sunset. […]

Estimated Reading Time: 3 Minutes

sunsetbeach

If you live in North End St. Catharines, you probably already know about the hidden gem that is Municipal Beach. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend you take a family walk or bike ride down to the end of Arthur Street one warm evening and soak in the sunset.

Pauline, the kids and I spent many summer nights there last year and we’re looking forward to doing the same this year. And we love it so much, we’ve made it our passion project.

Last night, we proposed a name change to make this spot even better. The motion was brought forward by Grantham Ward councillor Bill Phillips and they voted unanimously to ask the city to research costs and procedures in changing the name and decide if more civic engagement is necessary before they move forward.

Read the letter below to find out more about the Vanderkuip passion project that is Sunset Beach.


Dear Mayor Sendzik and City Council;

Spring has sprung and summer is just around the corner. At the Vanderkuip house, us and our kids anxious to get on our bicycles and find new and wonderful areas here in our community. Over the last few years, this has become a weekly ritual and we continuously find ourselves at one of the city’s best kept secrets: Municipal Beach.

Last year, the beach was definitely a highlight in our lives and we had to have visited over a dozen times. The sand is pristine, the entry is shallow and child friendly, and the shoreline was immaculately kept — thanks to many volunteers and city staff.

It was so exciting to see people use the public dock to put their boats and Sea-Doo’s in the water or watching the kite surfers skim over Lake Ontario on windy days.

As the season went on our family together built countless sand castles. Eventually, we began going more and more to watch the beautiful sunsets over the water. Those sunsets are certainly special, cascading over the water with the rest of the Golden Horseshoe on the horizon. And our family were not the only ones basking in the beauty of our community beach and those sunsets. We were surrounded by legions of people sitting and taking it all in.

We started wondering, “Why do people need to go on vacation to see beachside sunsets when we have some of the most special sunsets in our own backyard?” And this is why we are writing to you today.

We would like City Council to consider a name change for Municipal Beach and adopt the moniker so many people are already using: Sunset Beach.

This dreamy new name fits this stretch of beach to a tee. The renaming of the beach to Sunset Beach has all kinds of branding opportunities associated with it and will certainly raise awareness to one of Niagara’s great hidden gems.

As summer approaches. Sunset Beach will certainly be on the top of our end-of-day agendas. We are already looking forward to spending summer evenings watching tranquil sunsets with our family.

 

Sincerely,

Final Signaturepauline signature

Karl & Pauline Vanderkuip


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