Tag: vancouver

The nasty Vancouver election! An incumbent apologizes!

Left-leaning, progressive Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has twice won at the polls but this time, it appears he’s in tough against challenger Kirk LaPointe, the former journalist (who was my boss at not one, not two, but three different news organizations in my career) who is the candidate in this race for the Non-Partisan Association. Check out the latest accusation from Robertson against LaPointe.  Some — but not me, of course — might say this sounds like a desperate accusation from an incumbent feeling the heat from a challenger. Here it is, as reported on Twitter by former CTV journalist Kai Nagata

 

That “DPinBC” is Dimitri Pantazopoulos, the pollster who was instrumental in Christy Clark’s big “upset” win — a win which defied all public pollsters predications. And, yes, Dimitri has been a “Harper advisor” at some points. But here’s what “DPinBC” tweeted in response to Nagata’s tweet:

Meanwhile, as we reported on my program, Battleground, on Sun News Network tonight (above), Robertson is now apologizing to voters for not getting it done the first time they elected him mayor and the second time they elected him mayor. But he promises that if he gets a third chance, by golly, he’ll make it all right.

In downtown Vancouver, taxpayers spend a fortune on "slum housing"

Brian Hutchinson has a piece in today’s National Post that ought to get a little more attention in B.C. for what it says about how the provincial government is managing the public purse while trying to deal with the problem of homelessness [My emphasis]:

A total of 900 hotel rooms [at the Marble Arch Hotel] — most of them around 350-square-feet — will be improved by 2017. That’s a staggering $128,888 per room.

Taxpayers will have spent approximately $32,000,000 just fixing the Marble Arch, once the latest batch of “major” repairs is finished. The tally doesn’t include $3.9-million that has already been spent on building operations and support services since 2007. Nor does it include future “maintenance costs” to be borne by the province.

Worse, the Marble Arch will still be an inefficient, unsightly dump after all the work is done, sometime in 2014. There’s not much to improve on its looks and character, but the latest restoration effort will still have to adhere to Vancouver’s rigid heritage conservation restrictions; these typically forbid upgrades such as new windows. Single-pane glass in old wooden frames will just have to do.

Heritage conservation isn’t cheap, either. Three years ago, another publicly funded, century-old SRO in the Downtown Eastside was restored for $14,365,000, or $608-per-square foot of living space. Brand new homes in affluent neighbourhoods can be built — let alone purchased — for less.

via After throwing $84M at SROs, Vancouver’s spending $128K per room on renovations | Full Comment | National Post.

Today's Lesson: Pipelines are evil!

The press release I’ve reproduced below just arrived at the Sun Media bureau in Vancouver from a teacher employed by the Vancouver School Board. She is leading her students in a protest of the Northern Gateway pipeline. The students are adults looking for high school credits and, as the teacher notes, many of them many not speak English as a first language. But, by golly, they’re going to learn that pipelines are bad!

Now surely, even opponents of the Northern Gateway Pipeline must agree that, as a pedagogical exercise, this is a bit over the top for a public school class. By all means, use the pipeline debate as a teaching moment. But taking a bunch of students who may have only a working knowledge of English and ask them to get high school equivalency credits if they produce work that agrees with a teacher’s particular policy or political bent bent seems to me to be a wee bit over the line. 

July 26, 2012

Press Release

Hello!

My name is Amie Wolf.I teach art at South Hill Education Center, Vancouver School Board, Adult Education. South Hill is located on Fraser Street at 45th Avenue in Vancouver, BC.

The center serves adults returning for high school credits, many of whom are immigrants and international students from all over the world.

On Wednesday, August 1st and Wednesday, August 8th, 2012, from 1-3pm, about twenty of my adult art students will create and then present a large outdoor graffiti moss mural on the North wall of the Sunset Community Center (6810 Main Street, Vancouver).

This imaginative mural will be in protest of the proposed Enbridge Pipeline. Juliana Bedoya, professional artist and founding member of Something Collective, has developed, secured funding for and executed this community building arts initiative.

Thank you for your consideration and we hope to see you!

Sincerely Yours,

Amie Wolf

[Address and phone withheld]

UPDATE: Bedoya, the “professional artist and founding member of Something Collective” was, to put it mildly, surprised to see this press release from Wolf. You can read her e-mail to me below. Wolf subsequently sent a letter to Bedoya “terminating” the project and Bedoya’s participation in the project.

Dear David,
 
I am Juliana Bedoya, the professional artist member of Something Collective (somethingcollective.ca) that is working with the students from the South Hill Education Centre on this mural proposal using moss graffiti as a medium.
 
Today I have been dealing all day with the teacher herself, the principal at South Hill and all the parties involved from the city, with fact that the teacher Amie Wolf added the “protest against the Enbridge pipeline” as an item from her own personal agenda to the process I’ve been having with the students. She even sent this press release without consultation and previous authorization from my side. I strongly disagree with her attitude towards this community engagement process acting on behalf of the students and me. 
 
During this process I’ve been facilitating at South Hill, the students reflected on different environmental issues, but they didn’t even mention the pipeline was an issue of their concern to be added as a theme for their mural proposal. The teacher added this component as an external environmental issue that wasn’t addressed during the facilitated sessions. 
 
I would like you to take this press release back and make sure the project is tied to the We Are Here, A Community Mapping Project and not to an initiative derived from a collective reaction against the Enbridge pipeline. 
 
Thank you for all your help.
 
Sincerely,
 
Juliana Bedoya