Urban Vancouver

B.C. Place Stadium will get a new retractable roof -- but not in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. And the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer club will likely make the stadium their new home, at least for the time being.

B.C. Place Stadium will get a new retractable roof -- but not in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics. And the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer club will likely make the stadium their new home, at least for the time being.

Jacqui Cooper will attempt to become the first woman to make five Australian Olympic teams after deciding to extend her aerial skiing career to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

JACQUI Cooper will attempt to become the first woman to make five Australia Olympic teams after deciding to extend her aerial skiing career to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

JACQUI Cooper will attempt to become the first woman to make five Australia Olympic teams after deciding to extend her aerial skiing career to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

JACQUI Cooper will attempt to become the first woman to make five Australia Olympic teams after deciding to extend her aerial skiing career to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

JACQUI Cooper will attempt to become the first woman to make five Australia Olympic teams after deciding to extend her aerial skiing career to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada.

The Vancouver Public Space Network has done the City a service by surveying all of the declared mayoral candidates, plus Clr. David Cadman, on public space issues. Perhaps recognizing that public space is not his strength, Mayor Sullivan declined to participate. Surprisingly, Clr. Louie also did not participate.

You'll find the answers to the all of the questions questions, from Robertson, DeGenova, Ladner and Cadman here. Some of the more interesting ones include:

Will you increase the number of public toilets available, in parks, in the Downtown Eastside, and elsewhere that they are needed, and if so, how do you envision doing this? What about other public amenities like drinking fountains, street furniture, and bike racks?

Do you plan on supporting and continuing Project Civil City?

The Vancouver Police say that they intend to reduce street disorder by using the Safe Streets Act and Trespass Act to “combat behaviour and activities that contribute to urban decay” (VPD Business Plan 2008, p. 13). Do you support this approach?

Do you support an expansion of surveillance cameras into public spaces?

What is your position on the city’s funding of Downtown Ambassadors, and other possible Ambassador programs across the city?Visit pivotlegal.org for more information about Vancouver's low-income housing crisis.

Ryan Muraro of Waukesha is now a fourth-year senior student studying industrial design at UW-Stout. But he could easily be described as a “fast track” student.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Former USST member and two-time Olympian Wendy Wagner is part of a University of Utah team that has been hired to map snow characteristics for the Vancouver Olympics.

Just got an e-mail from a campaigner with Insite, the safer injection site in Vancouver. A convoy is rolling across Canada to raise awareness about the site and increase knowledge about how it saves lives. Here's the summary of what they're up to, which sounds like way too much fun:

Yesterday we packed some Insite staff, some 12 foot posters of "junkies" as kids, a few megaphones, and 1200 crosses into a U-Haul and they headed off to pay a few conservative MPs a visit. Namely, Stockwell Day, Stephen Harper, Stephen Fletcher, and Tony Clement.

Today they were at Stockwell Day's office (Minister of Public Safety) in Penticton. They are on their way to Calgary now, where they will set up camp in front of Stephen Harper's constituency office at 11:00am. By Friday they will be in Winnipeg, and next week will be spent in Ontario.

I can give you more info about the Winnipeg/Ontario demos as we go, but our most urgent thing is getting people out to the one in Calgary tomorrow.

Here is the when and where in case you are able to post this or send it out to your own Calgary homies.

WHERE: 1600-90th Ave at 14th St. SW, Calgary - Stephen Harper's Constituency office

WHEN: Thursday, May 15th at 11:00amVisit pivotlegal.org for more information about Vancouver's low-income housing crisis.

With a remarkable sense of timing giving their impending decision to shut down Vancouver's safe injection site on June 30, the Federal Government has kicked $10m into Vancouver's kitty to fund 20 long-term stabilization beds for women with addiction issues (read: survival sex trade workers in the DTES).

It sounds like in addition to the beds they'll be opening a 24-hour facility similar to the Health Contact Centre called the ACT Team for up to 75 people with active addictions who are multi-barriered (have addiction and mental health issues):

The ACT team will offer a multidisciplinary staff of approximately 12 members representing the fields of psychiatry, medicine, nursing, therapy, and rehabilitation, and round-the-clock service capacity for 70 to 75 clients with the most severe functional impairments, who do not access traditional mental health and addictions services.

The target audience probably doesn't access housing either, but don't ask the federal government about that, it's a touchy subject. These beds and the ACT Team appear to be an addition to the Willingdon site, bringing the total number of new stabilization beds to 120.
Visit pivotlegal.org for more information about Vancouver's low-income housing crisis.

VANCOUVER - In his refrigerator in Fredericton, Mayor Brad Woodside still has a bottle of champagne from the 1988 Calgary Olympics torch relay.

Anyone who reads this blog knows the great admiration I have for the journalism of Frances Bula.

However, to quote esteemed nineties Canadian rapper Maestro Fresh Wes, this is a throw down.

A show down.

Hell no, I can't slow down.

A guy named Mark has set up a voting scheme whereby you may vote for your fave blog on civic political issues. Mine is there. I started at number 9, but I'm up to 5. I'm gunning for Frances, who is number one, and is soliciting votes as we speak.

If you wished to take the time to vote, that would be great. The winner gets a couple of hundred bucks, which I hereby pledge to donate to purchasing as many copies of Five Ring Circus from Conrad Schmidt as possible, and sending them to libraries across the lower mainland.

You can vote here: www.votermedia.org/vancouver/vote .
The contest info is here: http://www.votermedia.org/vancouver/. This jam is amplified.

Correction: A thousand apologies to the keeners among you, the links are funked for some reason with Blogger, so you'll have to cut and paste.Visit pivotlegal.org for more information about Vancouver's low-income housing crisis.

The Rocky Mountains in British Columbia will be a major venue when the Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver. Many illustrious athletes will be looking to produce a gold medal. Cory Gross, on the other h

Canwest weekly paper the Vancouver Courier has taken the time to run an article by beard-growing contest winner Mark Hasiuk that has, I hesitate to admit, gotten my goat by the horns. A mixed metaphor to be sure, but remarkably accurate.

The article in question describes a public meeting concerning the use of Britannia Community Centre by the Olympics for a month in 2010. Hasiuk depicts the large number of Commercial Drive residents who turned up to express concern about hundreds of surveillance cameras, security perimeters, cost overruns, broken promises and corporate agendas related to the Olympics as a mob of confused and violent conspiracy minded privileged honkeys from Planet X.

Oh, and they were somehow "raiding" a public meeting by speaking at an open mic. Check out these selections:

Britannia Rink meeting raided by anti-Olympians. . . fear-mongering activists seek to kill renovation deal. . .like raiding guerillas. . . a conga line of anti-Olympians shrieked apocalyptic predictions . . . the mob of anti-Olympians. . . "Who the hell were those people?" . . . the mob's mono-culturalism. . .the anti-Olympic swarm . . .dead pigeons, he said, had been placed around Britannia Rink doorways and nearby alleys have been desecrated with violent anti-Olympic graffiti. . . their far-left, anti-everything ideology does not allow for such compromise. . . bitter natterings of a confused and defeated political fringe. . .

In contrast, the apparently slightly more than two people who showed up in favour of turning over their community centre and rink for a month in return for just over $300,000 worth of renovations (compare that to the $18m, or $500,000 per night that GM place is receiving from VANOC, or the $5m spent by city council to turn parking lots into "party zones" for two weeks) were described as modern heroes, rooted in the community and advocating for hundreds if not thousands who were too poor, marginalized, and scared to face up to the anti-Olympic mob:

Conversely, backers of the Britannia/VANOC deal--mainly minor hockey volunteers, parents and public educators--base their support on pragmatic grounds. . . let's hope the Britannia Centre board listens to the voice of true community leaders. . .

While the Courier at least had the good sense to place the article in the Opinion section, query first whether the writing standards at the Courier have been lowered, and second, whether we have moved past the "First they ignore you" phase into the "Then they make fun of you" or the "Then they fight you" phase.

Don't hesitate to note that Hasiuk sees the pro-choice movement as radical, and feels the media neglects the Christian perspective [at page 16] in their efforts to "bombard us with moral permissiveness that says anything goes." One assumes he must believe the media says anything goes except speaking against the Olympic agenda or advocating against the erosion of a women's right to choice. N'est pas?Visit pivotlegal.org for more information about Vancouver's low-income housing crisis.

VANCOUVER - A plan to crack down on people attempting to scalp tickets to the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver is being applauded by Canada's Olympic committee and Games sponsors.

One of the main men behind Norway's legendary Winter Olympics in Lillehammer 14 years ago and one of its star skiers are poised to front a new effort to secure an Olympics up north in 2018. One of the biggest hurdles is simply building public support for the expensive project.

Oslo - Petter Ronningen, a veteran from several Olympic bid campaigns, was Wednesday named new head of the 2018 winter Olympics bid committee for the Norwegian city of Tromso, broadcaster NRK reported. Ronningen has experience from campaigns for the ...

Vancouver Coastal Health is opening the first 30 beds at its Willingdon mental health and addiction facility on June 30. Willingdon is a former youth rehabilitation centre / youth detention centre / whatever centre that sits on more than 20 acres of land in Burnaby. The centre is being revitalized by the Province in response to a VPD report that suggests the department is sick of responding to mental health calls.

Think of it as the new Riverview, but with a more residential setting and, I'm told, far more progressive and innovative programming.

A further 70 beds will be opened between July 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008. I'm advised that patients will generally be voluntary check ins, but that involuntary admissions will also be regulars. Patients will be referred to the facility from the Community Court program, the provincial jails, and through community mental health workers.Visit pivotlegal.org for more information about Vancouver's low-income housing crisis.