The Olympics are coming!

The Olympics are coming!

Luckily, the economic benefits and resultant shower (golden?) of money will make all well in the Downtown Eastside. Homelessness will end, all the investment will mean 100% employment. BC (and Vancouver) will be "The Best Place on Earth ®". Eagles wheeling through clear blue skies, beautiful people tooling along the new improved sea-to-sky highway, riding chairlifts in a winter wonderland..

Or not.

As gentrified as the DTES is

As gentrified as the DTES is getting, what won't likely change is the number of halfway houses that shelter newly released sex offenders. And I'm not talking about the old men that occasionally play grab-ass, I'm talking about the hardcore child molesters. Let this be a warning to anyone that thinks that this neighbourhood will become the next big thing in real estate.

SRO/SRA

I wondered about that too. I think it was done because SRO also stands for Standing Room Only, which might put on an unwanted spin.

Gentrification is a far more benign force than the old style "urban renewal', and in the comparatively small land mass that is the City of Vancouver, is inevitable. What isn't is whether the people who become displaced are left homeless.

Even if we leave aside the humanitarian issues, homelessness is dangerous for all of us. The simple fact that those who live on the streets will be a locus of infection for things like anti-biotic resistant TB and staph. It is enlightened self-interest to assure that people have roofs over their heads.

Visual Aids

There are some folk working tirelessly on these efforts. I have on the radar a film that is being produced and released March 2 at the Rio Theatre (Commercial & Broadway) -- The Five Ring Circus, a documentary film about the Vancouver 2010 Games and underbelly of the glossy logos and optimistic Games propaganda. http://www.thefiveringcircus.com/

There is - again off the radar - another project underway

I believe CBC is covering it.

Some caring individuals are spending a lot of time one-on-one with members of the DTES community in an effort to assist them to help themselves.

My understanding is that this is not a fluff exercise and is continuing over a relatively long (at least 6 month) period.

I've heard that some of these interactions are being filmed for inclusion in a CBC documentary feature later in the year.

Does anyone else have details...what I've heard is purely grapevine and anecdotal?

G West Quote:These kinds of

G West

I agree 100% with you on this change from SRO to SRA = not for the homeless but I think for single day charges as in Youth Hostles

Implied right to accomodation at fixed cost

The author quotes Wendy Pedersen, a housing activist at the Carnegie Community Action Project: "If we lose that housing...there are going to be up to a thousand more people living on the Vancouver streets."

Yes, but only if these people are obliged to live in Vancouver (which would be in defiance of the mobility rights section of the Charter).

If I was on assistance permanently, I'd be off to some nice little town like Courtenay, where you can get a bachelor suite for $350.

http://cvic.bc.ca/rental.htm

Or is there a right to accomodation at a fixed cost?

How Many Homeless People are ICBC Victims?

It would be interesting to know what proportion of people who wind up as homeless downtown eastside druggies are there as a result of an automobile collision that has left them with permanent debilitating pain, and/or reduced mental capacities. Has anyone ever done a survey to gather this information?

When a vehicle is hit on a corner and suddenly spun around, the bodies of vehicle occupants are suddenly spun also. Because of inertia and the fact that the brain is floating in fluid, the skull spins slightly faster than the brain, the brain is "torqued" and nerve fibers connecting various parts of the brain are torn. The victims in this case may look ok from the outside and they may not have a neck injury, but the brain injury may leave them with moodiness and a loss of intellect that leads to permanent job loss - the first step to homelessness.

Someone I know became a prescription painkiller junkie after he was severely injured by a school bus that ran a stop sign and was then screwed-around by ICBC. See http://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/01/09/StrangerDanger/#comment-100043

If the victim had lived in the downtown eastside, he probably would have shifted from popping painkiller pills to injecting steet drugs and likely would have died in a back alley with a needle in his arm. Fortunately, he was able to find some fairly nice subsidized housing near Boundary Road with lots of excellent non-druggie role models around. The location of this subsidized housing probably saved his life.

In the earlier posting linked-to above, I mentioned how ICBC, and by extension incompetent drivers, had offloaded onto taxpayers the cost of the inadequately-compensated victim being on welfare for 7 years, the eventual cost of expensive medical treatment, the loss of tax revenue when the victim was unable to work, etc. But I didn't mention the cost of subsidized housing he was using while he was unable to work - housing which should have been paid-for by incompetent drivers via ICBC, freeing-up existing subsidized housing for others.

I also didn't mention in the earlier posting a woman I know who suffered a neck injury as a result of an automobile collision. She was screwed-around by ICBC because she went to work for a few hours after the collision. She was in a lot of pain, but the manager of the insurance office (ironically) where she worked was badly understaffed and begged her to come in to work. She popped a bunch of painkillers then dragged herself off to work (via transit bus) as a favour to her boss. ICBC used this against her, saying that if she was capable of working that day, then there was obviously no significant injury.

Yes, it was naive of her to provide ICBC with an excuse to not compensate her for the neck injury. And yes, it was extremely selfish of the boss to pressure her to come to work in this case. But you can't blame an automobile crash victim for showing poor judgement as a result of being stunned and confused after a traumatic event.

It's encouraging to see that ICBC is planning a massive increase in premiums for incompetent drivers. I would hope that a substantial amount of this money will go to provide subsidized housing for the victims of incompetent drivers, thereby freeing-up subsidized housing space for others.

One of the private MRI clinics is now offering fast MRI scans for automobile injury victims without any upfront payment from either the victim or the victim's lawyer. In this way, collision victims who are unable to get a timely MRI scan through the public system (i.e. most victims) are able to use the private MRI scans to prove to a jury that they were injured in a collision and are thus able to get a fair settlement out of ICBC. The private MRI clinic is paid after a jury has forced ICBC to pay the victim. If the jury finds against the victim, then the private MRI clinic eats the loss.

I vaguely recall seeing figures showing that ICBC pays about $1.5 billion per year for medical costs related to motor vehicle crashes. Even this amount represents a considerable load on an almost $13 billion per year medical system. But I suspect that the real long-term medical cost is much, much higher once you include hidden motor vehicle injury costs that ICBC refuses to pay. Add-in the medical cost of obesity caused by excessive use of motor vehicles, and I wouldn't be surprised if excessive/incompetent use of motor vehicles is consuming 1/4 to 1/2 of our health care system resources.

Forcing incompetent drivers to pay premiums commensurate with the damage they do can help to provide the cash to properly compensate victims. But it would be better yet to prevent these injuries to begin with by offering pay-as-you-drive/per-km insurance. Drivers with the worst driving records will pay a lot more per km than drivers with perfect records. The worst drivers will be motivated to do as little driving as possible.

A relatively small group of poor drivers are responsible for about 45% of the motor vehicle crashes that kill almost 500 people in BC every year and injure 15,000 others. We need to do everything we can to get these dangerous drivers out from behind the steering wheel. In the city during the hours when transit service is available, much higher insurance rates for bad drivers combined with a pay-as-you-drive option will encourage a lot of these drivers to take public transit. But during hours when it will never be economical to offer frequent transit service downtown and in the suburbs where it will never be economical to offer frequent transit service at any time, some other option has to be offered to get dangerous drivers off the road. The best option in this case is cellphone text-messaging dispatched part-time cab drivers (a safe form of hybridized carpooling/hitch-hiking) as described at http://thetyee.ca/Life/2007/01/02/CarlessParenting/#post98888 . These drivers are able to offer rides for less than bus fare since they are picking up passengers on the way to a destination where they're already going anyway.

There have been many occasions where judges have suspended the licenses of dangerous drivers for only a short time even after the drivers have killed someone. The judges say the killers "need" their licenses in order to drive to work from their homes in the suburbs. If we offer a large number of cellphone text-messaging dispatched part-time cab drivers as an alternative, judges will no longer have an excuse to give drivers' licenses back to rampaging killers and maimers who use motor vehicles as weapons.

Doesn't sound much like 'rights' to me

In fact, that's not what mobility rights are all about, as you well know - or ought to know, Yammer.

What you're talking about would turn the Charter on its head, not use it to help free people from the oppression it was designed to address - things like the Japanese Canadians being given the 'freedom' to stop living on the Islands and the Lower Mainland during WWII. Things like giving them the freedom to sell their chattels and goods at fire sale prices.

I think you need to re-think what your ideas of rights and obligations actually mean.

There ought to be a right to affordable housing for everyone - that's a real human right in my view and I support people like Wendy Pedersen who courageously point out, again and again, the obscenity of a culture and a government that will mortgage the economy and risk the future for their corporate friends and fellow travelers for things like the Olympics and the RAV but won't lift a finger for the folks of the DTES. And in fact will spout platitudes about them helping themselves at the same time that the business community and the government in Victoria can’t get out of the embrace they’ve been sharing with each other since 2001.

Time for a little more truth and honest and lot less playing to the cheap seats, in my view.

A Good Deal

I went away and licked my wounds. I can see now how this works and which people just like to see their own words on the net. Look at this: Wilson's recently acquired holdings include the 90-room Gastown Hotel at 110 Water St., (for which he paid a reported $3.3m. This is prime downtown property with huge speculation value. If you rent it out as a hostel at $35 a night that equals about $100,000 a month, $1.2 million a year. Your property is paid off in about 3 years, olympics time. Then you sell it off for $20 or $30 mil and you've made a new fortune. This is how the Donald's of the world work it. Wouldn't you? It's free money! This is how our system works, Ain't it grand?

Palharry

Welcome back

Palharry:

I'd like to be one of the first to welcome you back.

Its all about keeping the conversations and debates flowing.

Eh?

Alci, of course I know what I am *supposed* to do -- to rail impotently, but passionately, against the heartless, top-hatted Capitalist, stopping him from selling these extremely necessary buildings, if not actually pulling his intestines out to make banjo strings with which to strum "We Shall Overcome" as we march unified into a future free of need and want.

However, I don't know of any law requiring that he never sell them, or of any real reason why people have a right to live where they want regardless of affordability. Show me some law or precendent or even principle which addresses this. Otherwise it is you, not me, who is showing off for the gallery.

Grand, nope, not grand at all

Sorry, not at all.

Not when the victims of someone's profiteering are taxpayers, homeless and often helpless people – by failing to address these problems each generation just passes a bigger bag of problems on to the next. Not much value in those fortunes when compared with people’s lives.

Nothing grand about it. The ‘Donalds” of the world are enormous jokes, that's all.

G West

G West:
unfortunately the Donalds of the world are not enormous jokes. They are the standard by which we should all live our lives. Just ask the capaitla or rons or whatever. You should just live your life to accumulate as many dollars as possible(and beat your children if they question this) and the "majick hands" that make life possible, and ignore that empty feeling inside. Because you are going to be born again as a king. Like donald trump. Or even a Baron like our present "leaders". Nothing could be better(unless you're a Leftie in case we have to kill you.

Harry Bergquist

Thanks Harry, I'm sorry

I can see you're a far bigger joker than the Donald..

I'll just pull back the buttons here and you shoot.

Shades of Expo 86

A repeat of Expo 86. People were evicted so owners could tart up their places for the expected US visitors.I lived down there in a co-op way back when. Folks who lived in a roon with a hot plate and not much else ended wandering the street. Did the US tourists fill those places? No as most simply went back to Bellingham as they didn't like the local surroundings.

So will this time be diferent? I doubt it.

Cheap accommodation outside of downtown eastside.

If I was on assistance permanently, I'd be off to some nice little town like Courtenay, where you can get a bachelor suite for $350. http://cvic.bc.ca/rental.htm

It's not even necessary to go that far. I know someone who's renting an entire little cottage on the back of a farm in Langley District for $300 per month. The cottage is old. It's not going to win any architectural heritage awards. But it's well-insulated, warm and safe. The tenant is happy because he's not surrounded by the crack dealers, pimps, social workers and flying bullets we often see in taxpayer-subsidized welfare housing slums. Langley City council has recently legalized about 400 secondary suites. Comments during public hearings were mostly positive, but councillors Terry Smith and Ted Schaffer voted against the bylaw. Affordable housing advocates should remember these councillors' names during the next municipal election.

Here in Delta, our previous Mayor was booted out of office largely because she pissed-away something like $50,000 of our tax dollars on lawyers to force a single mother and her kids out of a nice, affordable basement suite with back yard access in a safe, low-traffic neighborhood. This happened right around Christmas about 10 years ago or so. Angry voters still remembered the event by the next election. Our current mayor and council are showing somewhat more sympathy to the idea of providing affordable housing by talking about allowing homeowners to convert unused garages into housing for relatives or renters in general. They haven't yet made basement suites legal, but they're not being as hard-hearted on the enforcement side compared to the previous mayor and council.

Vancouver City council is finally talking about providing low-cost housing and drug treatment centres in areas outside of the downtown eastside, but they're running into opposition from neighborhood residents. Opponents are not convinced by police statistics showing no rise in crime in areas around low-cost housing.

The opposition is likely driven by a fear of the effects on real estate prices when a low-cost housing / drug treatment centre is permitted in an area. I can't blame them entirely. If I knew the value of my home would be reduced $200,000 by a drug treatment centre being built next door, I wouldn't be happy about that either, regardless of whether potential buyers' lower offers were based on fact or emotion.

The most equitable way to deal with this impasse is to offer neighborhood upgrades such as undergrounding of phone/hydro lines, traffic calming barriers, improved sidewalks, bikepaths, etc. plus substantial property tax breaks to neighbors who are immediately adjacent to new neighborhood drug-treatment houses. The closest neighbors could also be offered a contract guaranteeing that the city will cover any difference in eventual selling price resulting from a drug treatment centre being located next to them. Even if there was a slightly increased crime risk, that would be more than countered by increased neighborhood safety due to traffic calming measures. The cost of these perks can be easily covered from revenues generated by selling-off extremely expensive city real estate in the downtown eastside that will become even more valuable once it's made clear the downtown eastside's massive, non-stop drug party will finally be broken-up by dispersing core participants all over the city.

I will give Vancouver council some credit for making affordable housing available by easing-up on basement suites. When a relative was attending UBC at a time basement suites were strictly illegal, he commuted back and forth to UBC from an apartment in Burnaby, adding to traffic congestion and pollution while tying up an apartment that could have been used by someone else. Meanwhile, an elderly relative lived in an old house in Point Grey with an unfinished basement. The student had worked several summer jobs in the construction industry. He had the necessary skills to build a basement suite in this house if he was allowed to. But at the time, it wasn't permitted. So the basement sat empty.

If we find low-cost accommodation for druggies in areas where they will be surrounded by role models who are not injection drug users, many of them will quit drugs entirely. Those who are injecting street drugs to deal with chronic physical pain caused by automobile crashes etc. may turn to safer painkillers in pill form. These people also deserve fast access to MRI scans and other modern diagnostic procedures to determine whether there is a treatable physical cause of the pain that drives them to drugs.

We can't keep the downtown eastside extermination camp running the way it is. We definitely should NOT expand the size of this extermination camp.

Thanks cycling commuter

That post makes a great deal of sense - offering an opportunity to move to a basement suite in Kitsilano is a different thing from forcibly moving the handicapped and the marginalized to Courtenay.

Finding ways to fight the NIMBY phenomenon will not be easy - especially in the heated up environment of crisis that the Olympics are creating in the DTES.

The health considerations and effective pain prophylaxis are also huge issues - both for stable communities and for potential employability.

We're experiencing much of

We're experiencing much of the same thing here in LA, and have been for a few years now.

Last year the folks I work for/with (SAJE) and some other organizations forced the city to enact a moratorium on SRO housing conversions (to "lofts", and boutique hotels, etc). Meanwhile, we're working on ensuring that moratorium becomes a full residential hotel ordinance.

http://saje.net
http://saje.net/programs/residentialhotelordinance.php

It was hard won, and there are some powerful players working against us, but it was, in the end, successful. The moratorium, that is.

Are there any solutions like that sort of thing on the table (or possible) in Vancouver, I wonder?

Deadwood

Has anyone watched this HBO series? It portrays a wild west town outside of America at the time. Brothels, drinking, drugs, fighting, no rule of law. Cowboys and Indians. Chinese opportunists, and a host of activities that were not really civilised.
The Feds came in, and everything changed. They were forced to clean up their act.
Maybe there is a parallel here, with the games coming, we are now in the real world.
Maybe there isn't a place for the East side anymore.
Why would this be a bad thing?
It's not an area that makes it better for people.
It's a den of inequity. Not to be self righteous, but in order to help these people who are destroying themselves, as we accommodate this self destruction, maybe this time is right to change things.
Not that we have any property rights under our laws, common law is still running the show.
Be kind. Kick them out and clean up the area.

chicamaravilla

Vancouver's a funny place. I read the four part series on homelessness in the LATimes a year and a half ago or so (perhaps you remember it) and sent a copy to a friend of mine who worked with a major philanthropic agency here for her comments.

At the time she said that things were much better and improving in the DTES. We had had the beginnings of what seemed to be a real attempt to address the problem - called the Four Pillars Strategy, more here:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/fourpillars/
which seemed to be getting some traction and was cutting into the number of deaths from overdose downtown.

Since then the city council changed and the new federal government here is barely honouring its financial support for the Safe injection site. Worse than nothing is happening on the housing front and - from the signs of what you've provided - I'd say you've moved well ahead of Vancouver.

Too much talk and too many people like this fellow above me here I'm afraid...and too much mindless drivel about being a world-class city.

Good luck.

By the way Ron

That phrase, the one you used to describe the DTES - "It's a den of inequity" - is a lot closer to the truth than you intended it to be.

IAMC

Very, very good commentary....

Seriously....we watch as these people kill and torture theirselves. Did you see the ratty looking people protesting the countdown to the olypmics???

Do you really believe these people can take care of themselves? If we give them the housing they want, they'll destroy it. Things are terrible down there and we have to clean it up....

The city must progress and progress is facing east towards Burnaby! Are we supposed to hault development of private lands in this city???

About 15 years ago, I used to drive through East Vancouver and think....I can't wait for Vancouver to develop this way...let's clean up this eyesore..

We can't promote this kind of behaviour.

Unfortunately Ron

It's dismissive attitudes about these 'people' (your term) who YOU can't have in the way of development that is the real problem here in this city.

You don't speak for me when you use the word 'we' and the sort of behavior your posts actually promote are the problem here.

I'm ashamed of my country and my province that Los Angeles, which was at least a decade or more behind us in addressing these problems (and it's not the only American city that has made real progress either) is now trying to stop the Juggernaut of development that rolls everything before it in the quest for more worthless paper dollars.

Even though the Americans have misplaced $8 billion dollars in Iraq, they've still managed more of a positive nature than we have here in BC.

We should all hang our heads in shame.

inequity indeed

Kick out the drunk drivers and give their homes to victims.

Kick them out and clean up the area.

In those many cases where someone has turned into a downtown eastside junkie after being run over and severely injured by a drunken, SUV-driving West Vancouver stockbroker, the West Vancouver stockbroker should be kicked out of his mansion and the house keys handed over to the homeless person. The West Vancouver stockbroker can then live an a downtown eastside flophouse and take a cab to his Howe St. office, thereby eliminating the risk that he will create more victims.

Inequity

A word . We shouldn't hang our heads in shame. We have done everything any civilised society we can do , short of giving out free money and drugs.
Is this issue worth writing a blank cheque?
The cheques are running out due to the new religion called enviromush.
You ( not me G ) don't really care about the enviro, you just discovered this issue as a vehicle to advance destructive liberal ideas that do more to hurt some people than help them.

Too late, too far away

Ah Say, I'd love to see the Olympics doc. "The Five Ring Circus" but it starts at 9pm which is too late for getting back to W.R. At least for me.

Do you know if it'll be showing anywhere else maybe earlier? Thanks for mentioning it.

Ron

I'm sorry. There is no easy way to say this.

You haven't got a single clue about what and who I care about, what I do and what I believe is important.

You haven't really taken a moment to read and understand anything I've written here in the last year. From the first time I noticed your posts here I could not believe that such a man as you existed in my country.

The only blank cheques are the ones being written with worthless money for piles of cheap and garish property while human beings live like animals and folks like you have one answer - kick them out!

You wouldn't know a thing about the environment because you don't live in the same one the rest of us do. I'm ashamed to breathe the same air as you do Ron. You give the human race a bad name.

This is the last time I will ever respond to you Ron.

I'm not political - I try to be a mensch. Moreover, I fall short all the time. But at least I try and someday before I die and with a lot of work and a lot more luck I might just get near to understanding exactly what it means to be really human.

there's no place like home

Ever wonder what would have happened to Dorothy if she had arrived back in Kansas to find the farm wiped out by that tornado and everyone gone? Would you care IAMC? Would you see her as an human being in desparate need of help, or would you see her as yet another ratty looking idiot whom you so kindly wish to kick out? And where is it you believe that she will find home? To an SRO in some town far away from you? Too bad. The few that are left are all full. In case you haven't noticed, the numbers of homeless have gone up by leaps and bounds all over BC... Canada... Europe... places that you might think of as as "civilized". Honey, as long as we as a society can look upon our fellow humans with disgust, we're still in the ocean sludge pushing up against the beach.

Your enviro ideas would be interesting too

IAMC, You say "We've done everything any civilized society can do short of giving out free money and drugs". Interesting. Please point out to me the main things we've done because I can't think of them myself.

By the way, the free drugs might not be such a bad idea, then the pushers would be having to find real work. I've been in the park in Amsterdam when the long van pulled up and well-dressed people hurried out from offices and workplaces to get their fix: Into the front of the van and out the back. Lots of them quit because it's somewhat embarrassing to have to do this two or three times a day in public. They have no need to steal.

Pain control alternatives for addicts.

health considerations and effective pain prophylaxis are also huge issues

The first step should be to use some of the money obtained from increased ICBC premiums squeezed out of dangerous drivers to train and hire enough additional MRI diagnostic imaging machine operators to run these million dollar machines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week instead of letting publicly-owned machines sit idle overnight and on weekends. Next step should be to use the machines to try to get a clear view of exactly what is causing the physical pain that's driving many people with spinal injuries to use drugs of various kinds.

Where some sort of disc surgury can alleviate intense pain, that should be considered. In cases where surgery is not a good option, some consideration could be given to a recently developed Australian procedure that uses carefully controlled/aimed microwaves to deaden a tiny group of nerves that can cause severe, debilitating spinal disc pain. One treatment is good for about 5 years before it needs to be repeated.

Just plain old exercise can do a lot to fight pain by releasing endorphins and strengthening the right muscles. Because of all the traffic, the downtown eastside is not a very safe place for anyone to get outdoor exercise by walking or cycling. It's even worse for someone who's traffic-dodging judgement is clouded by chemicals. That's part of the reason why I suggested local traffic-calming measures as a reward for outlying residential neighborhoods that accept small drug-treatment centres.

An article in the tyee last year suggested the calming effect of gardening can help some addicts win their battle against drugs. This is another reason why drug addicts would be better off living in the basement suite of a home with a back yard garden instead of living in a downtown eastside flophouse where chemicals are the only passtime available. They may be tempted to occasionally grow a few smokable crops in with the edible crops, but that's a lot safer for everyone than the injectible stuff.

Long-term prescription drugs in high doses should be the last resort because even though they aren't as lethal as injected street drugs, they can often cause health problems. They also interfere with employability as well as general enjoyment of life. In the short term, high-dosage prescription drugs could provide part of a bridge from street drugs to no drugs.

But whatever is done, it's always best to completely avoid using dye injected into the spinal column in conjunction with an old fashioned X-Ray machine so the medical system can save a few bucks over using MRI imaging to diagnose spinal problems. Some people wind up with a horrifically and permanently painful condition called arachnoiditis as a result of a reaction to the dye. Before MRI scans made these dyes unnecessary, many people with moderate spinal pain were plunged into a hellish neverending nightmare when the dye made the pain 100 times worse.

Is IAMC smarter than Gates, Page, Brin and Skoll?

The cheques are running out due to the new religion called enviromush.

When BC Hydro under the Socreds ran a program to loan their customers money to improve home insulation, with repayments added to their hydro bills, do you think this Socred scheme was enviromush? The Socreds thought it was smart economics. In many cases, it's a lot cheaper to add enough insulation to save X amount of energy than it is to build enough additional generating capacity to produce that amount. And that's not even taking into consideration the value of salmon and other fish lost to hydro dams or mercury from burning coal.

Do you think neural damage caused by exposure to lead and mercury is enviromush? Would you agree to write an IQ test now then write another later after ingesting lead and mercury for 5 years to see whether the lead and mercury raised your IQ or lowered it? Are you aware that Minimata disease is caused by mercury exposure?

Rona Ambrose did something useful last year when she told junkyards and auto makers that they're going to have to remove all mercury light switches from millions of old cars before the cars can be crushed. North American manufacturers didn't complete a phase-out of mercury until 2003 because it would have cost about 12 cents extra per vehicle to switch to mercury-free devices. The amount of mercury in a typical switch is enough to make all fish in an 8-hectare lake unsafe to eat. How's your math? Do you think 8-hectares of fish are worth more than 12 cents or less than 12 cents?

Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. He's invested a lot of his own money in environmentally friendly technology.

Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started their business 8 years ago in a rented garage, and in that short time, they built their company up from zero to a market capitalization of US $125 Billion. They drive hybrid vehicles and they are converting their headquarters to run on solar power. They have also invested a lot of their own money into a new company that's developing super low-cost solar cells that can produce electricity at a price that's competitive with natural gas.

Jeff Skoll is a Canadian multibillionaire who made his fortune as a co-founder of the very successful eBay auction site. Skoll is investing a lot of his own money in the same solar cell company as Page and Brin.

Are you a multibillionaire? Do you think you're smarter than Bill Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jeff Skol and many other financial geniuses who are supporting clean energy with their own money?

G west, moving the goalposts

While I agree that "an opportunity to move to a basement suite in Kitsilano is a different thing from forcibly moving the handicapped and the marginalized to Courtenay," I never said that the handicapped and marginalized *should* be moved to Courtenay.

I said that this is what I would do; see, I like Courtenay. And I can't think of an argument that would convince anyone that I must be permitted to live in an area I can't afford, by dint of human right.

I never addressed what *should* be done to accommodate people with disabilities. I didn't even make the assumption that everyone who lives in these hotels (or at least, is registered there) has a disability, though that seems to be the presumption being made, e.g. by Cycling Commuter.

My thinking on that matter is that, of course, civil societies provide for those who cannot shelter themselves. Duh!

Sure, it would be swell of the hotel owners to do their bit in that regard. But they should not be forced to be altruistic.

It's wonderful when social services are conducted voluntarily by private people, but where there's a gap, then government should step in -- in this case, to build social housing.

2010 Gentrifical Force

Excerpt from my book published last year regarding 2010 gentrification

Gentrification is the physical, social, economic, and cultural task of converting working-class and inner-city neighborhoods into more affluent middle and upper class communities. It’s done by displacing poorer residents and remodeling build-ings, which results in increased property values and a prettier city. The first things to go are low-income hotels. It started as early as 2005 in Vancouver. Olympic organizations have been doing this for decades. They know that some members of the community will create serious opposition when low-income residents are displaced. Pushing out marginal neighborhoods means low-income housing will disappear. It is the quickest, and in the short term, most effective way to tweak the style of the city. In some cities it is nip and tuck, and in others it’s major surgery. The manner in which it is done, and how it is presented to the public and media, has changed quite dramatically in the last ten years. It’s not easy to just push people out into the streets, so instead of doing it at the last minute, police forces are charged with slowly dividing the criminal element into small groups that will be easier to manage. Police put so much pressure on criminals they move to adjacent neighbor-hoods.

... gentrification sounds like a good way to clean up a neighborhood, but if you are able to see that there are preordained ways of Olympic gentrification of not only neighborhoods, but also entire cities and regions, it will help you recognize what is happening in your area. Olympic organizations do a good job of convincing residents that each region is unique. It makes us think we are special. They make it sound like we are pioneers, but the truth is, residents in Olympic regions are not pioneers. We’re more like sheeple. When it comes to protecting their interest, Olympic organizations know exactly what they are doing, and not much is left to chance. They are herders and have a plan, and you are part of it. Unfortunately, like a flock of sheep you have little choice unless you take control of how you are going to graze the landscape. Very few communities fight for control. Most just go along with the herd. Don’t count on politicians or the media to represent you or show you the way. They have agendas that do not align with yours.

Maurice Cardinal
Author: www.LeverageOlympicMomentum.com

Gentrifcal Force II

One more excerpt from my book . . .

In Sydney, landlords figured out it was better to concoct reasons to evict tenants than it was to try and raise current tenants’ rents. Raising rents excessively drove tenants in hordes to the courts disputing the unjustified increases as Olympic gouging. Instead landlords found it easier to evict tenants under the guise of making building improvements, or saying they wanted to move their families into the space, or they were going to tear down and rebuild. Just like in Vancouver, old tenants would get the boot and landlords would bring in new tenants at higher rates without making any improvements at all. The government did nothing to stop the carnage. To the contrary they rewrote regulations that made it easy for landlords to convert prop-erties to tourist or backpacker lodgings, as long as they met minimal zoning require-ments. Low-income boarding houses closed rapidly because landlords could make more money selling space to backpackers. Long-term boarding house residents were simply put out on the street. Lenskyj described in considerable detail all the predict-able catch phrases used by Olympic organizations and real estate developers in Olympic regions to promote Olympic frenzy. She explained they pepper promotional material with “new sports amenities, improved transportation, increased employment and revitalization of run down neighborhoods” to position themselves as benevolent do-gooders. It’s the same story line in every Olympic region. By 1999 in Sydney, exploding house prices and rent had spread to the entire region. Calls to the tenant’s rights groups doubled and in some areas tripled. People were being ravaged by Olympic frenzy while governments turned a blind eye. (hjl5)

Let the 2010 countdown begin ...

Courtenay or Bust

I like Courtenay too. It used to be nicer... before the big city folk started moving there! :-) As to the idea of sending the poor huddled masses to live there, esp. the drug-addicted ones, I'm wondering why those proposing the idea think the Courtenay locals will be any more welcoming to the idea than Vancouverites are, when a half-way house or similar is proposed for their neighbourhood? Especially if you plan to keep their drugs of choice illegal, as I am sure the always resourceful dealers will find a way to make sure the product gets to market.

Personally, I think we might consider building loads and loads of co-ops. They are an affordable way to let people build communities within an urban area. They take pressure off the housing market at the lower and mid-range prices. They still employ the trades and businesses to construct them. Who really stands to lose? What would a $2 billion co-op initiative across the province look like to the average Joe in fifty years compared to the upcoming 2010 Overrunlympics? A pretty damn good idea, if you ask me.

Also, Cycling Commuter's comment about conservation is dead on. It's much easier to save power than generate more. The naive assertion we can maintain the so-called "non-negotiable" North American way of life is mere bluster from people who are reluctant to face future realities IMO.

Good article, better comments

Journalism gets 3.5 stars and commentary 4.0

Nice stuff all.

That's out of 5.0, btw

That's out of 5.0, btw

Hotels, co-ops, or institutional care?

Mental health worker Patricia Hanley says she saw many of her clients disappear.

She says the deterioration of Vancouver's downtown Eastside is directly related to the gradual closure of one of the area's mental hospitals.

Riverview used to house more than 4,000 patients. Now the number is in the hundreds.

Ms Hanley says residents ended up living on the streets, getting money for crack through the sex trade.

from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6355285.stm

Sounds like BC needs to have thousands of spaces in residential mental health care or some equivalent, not hotels or co-ops.

Hotels, co-ops, or moving to some cheaper housing in wherever -- these are viable options for people who have their act together for independent living.

It would be expensive to build a new "Riverview" and/or invest in a lot of new 1-to-1 life skills social workers, but I think you have to spend money to save money sometimes -- it's neither cheap nor decent to have people with disabilities congregating in slum housing in an open-air drug market.

I suggest co-ops

because I think they would free up lower-end rental housing (and force down rental pricing) in other areas; allowing DTES residents wishing to escape Skid Row to live elsewhere in Vancouver. I would not suggest that they are a replacement for better care and some form of assisted-living for the mentally ill and/or addicted. I would agree that the current gov't is penny-wise and pound-foolish to a degree that boggles the mind.

Co-ops and CMHC

Co-ops are pretty cool, I've got friends who love them.

My understanding is that federal money for construction of co-ops dried up some time ago, though. Perhaps it is a national issue.

Who are we actually talking about?

The problem with this debate is that the issue of affordable housing as it tends to be discussed merges together some really different people -- drug addicts, mentally ill, working poor, and even lower middle class folks being priced out of the housing market. They all have really different needs and abilities, but the political debate from the left tends to mush them together. Partly because I think housing activists don't want to ghettoize the issue, they want to spread as wide a net as possible so their issue has broader appeal.

Most people stuck in the DTES, who are so stuck that the loss of SROs will put them on the street, need some kind of supported housing/assisted living/treatment. Cheaper basement suites are not going to do it.

True, there are no new housing co-ops being built, and many of the existing ones no longer can afford to offer subsidies. These days you need what used to be considered a middle class income (or would be in most other cities) to qualify. And you actually need to be pretty high-functioning to participate in a co-op.

flying fish

You need to get a bit more up to date. There are all kinds of successful initiatives combining a wide range of social, residential and demographic characteristics with retail and commercial applications as well. Please check out Chicago and New York City and, to a lesser extent, Toronto. None of which are exactly affordable.

I don't have the links here because I'm on someone else's machine. There was an excellent article on the subject in the Globe and Mail last fall.

I have a copy of it and I'd be pleased to send you a word file if you'll provide an email address.

The problem is not a lack of viable and decent solutions, in my view it relates more to an unwillingness to actually engage with a problem that Vancouver and Victoria have been trying to sweep under the carpet for generations.

Flights of fancy

Just call me the crazy right wing-nut on this issue if you like, but the thought occurs to me that if one is 'renting' these rooms, then does not the 'owner' of the property have the right to rent to whom he wants and at what rate the market will bear?

I understand the desire to have 'affordable' housing, I have been struggling to set some up ANYWHERE on Vancouver Island, not to be a slum-lord, but to commence a gentler way of addressing the issues of low-cost housing.

I have a FREE building, all I have to do is find a place to put it, recently I was told by Nanaimo City hall that my building is not expen$ive enough to go onto a plot of land that is zoned for the exact residential use that I have planned for it...now the fellow investors have backed out because none want to bother with the legal issues of challenging a city hall; and another deal has collapsed, which would have allowed for a family to have lower cost housing.

We are doing this to ourselves!

I understand that the 2400 hotel on Kingsway belongs to the city of vancouver, if the flap is all about building some lower cost housing, they already have the property, I bet that with the right incentives the project could be started this summer with a lot of 'manpower' coming from DTES persons whom would be put first on the list for the new accomodations. 5 stories of concrete and steel would not look out of place at the site.

Good point murdock :

Same old Left Wing crap by the usual TYEE suspects.

You'd think they would have figured it out by now .

It's their type of ILL-LOGIC that has not only maintained the status quo , but likely perpetuated it, and everyone suffers.

How about just SHUT UP for a while , Lefties...and quit the class warfare BS. Quit using the poor and homeless as pawns to mask your borderline psychotic detest for the very society you live in.

PS I see today that Vancouver Council is now upping fees for SRO conversion from $5,000 - $ 15,000...did I hear that right??? Is this a fine/penalty for doing something that was legal, so the Lefties can put a moratorium on foaming at the mouth for at least a day or so ?

To be continued....

murdock

Just out of curiousity , can you elaborate on the building you want to move and why the City is saying its " not expensive enough " ....even though the zoning otherwise is consistent ?

What do they consider the benchmark minimum price to be before they actually allow you to move a building onto the lot?

Many good solid buildings that would otherwise be demolished can be obtained for free or next to nothing , all you do is pay the moving costs.

Thanks.

maestro answer

to be frank it is an older (70's) mobile home (likely worth about $10,000); it will probably end up smashed to bits (since the owners want to develop the land that it is on right now) because I cannot find a place to put it...still working on a 'delay' with more private land, but without a septic or sewer system I cannot reasonably rent it out.

The land in Nanaimo was zoned for mobiles, but suddenly City hall is claiming that a 'similar value' building (similar in value to the others in the area) must be either built or put there. The other homes average building values are about $110,000 and a mobile worth that much alone would be either massive or have marble and gold fixtures or something.

I think it is a move to simply stop the older mobiles from being put in there ~ sigh it would be easier if they just were 'up front' in the first place and cancelled the zoning allowing mobiles, so as to not waste my time any more.

How about you take your own advice

You should shut up until you have something worthwhile to say. Quit using Leftie as a blanket term for everyone who doesn't agree with your laissez-faire, trickle-down nonsense. The very society we live in has f*cked-up priorities and your p.o.v. is a perfect example of those skewed values.

SRO conversion fees in NYC

are $35,000 AFAIK. Vancouver developers should quit whining.

Gee STUMP-sky

A might "knickers -in- a- knot" eh...

Interesting when the shoe fits...the Leftie crowd gets a might -ticked, in typical lathered - up and condescending fashion.

If you ain't a Leftie, ignore the comment.

PS Now go ride your bike and call the members of the non -male gender names...ya neo nutzi

No, just sick of your ignorance

it detracts from this forum.

Murdock:

When I read your post, it made me think about our own Local Gov't and it's policies.

I am sure you are aware of Official Community Plans (OCP) versus the current uses in place.

Example: The current uses of an area may be Single Family, but the OCP change may entail condos will be the future vision for the same area. Of course " Highest and Best Use " for the area will result in higher taxes (unless you access provisions of the Assessment Act :the 10 year provision ), due to the new OCP.

My understanding is that once the OCP changes, one may not be permitted to re-build under the original zoning..ie no Single Family house... it must comply with the new OCP vision.

Perhaps that is what is going on in your case.

However, if one is more persistent one can perhaps find loopholes, other precedents etc.

Gov'ts are rarely up front...but often they can create "de -facto" situations that make the circumstantial evidence on what their TRUE agenda is often overwhelming.

I've seen it happen before...Local Gov'ts are often the worst for screw -ups and inconsistencies. However, the onus is on the citizen.

I once called up BC Gov't and the department dealing with Local Gov'ts, and had an offical in this Local Gov't department tell me rather bluntly that Local Gov'ts at times know they are literally ignoring past legal precedents that the Local Gov'ts are aware of.

OR... Local Gov'ts " take chances " regardless,... but its up to YOU to catch them either way...keep that in mind.

Stump:

Stump :(noun) the Uber - ignoranus

PS Oops is that a spellink error ?

....oops time to buy some more punctuation runink out of periods and commas Make-ink Stump-sky mad-sky...good no be-ink in hurry then

funny is hard

And as we can see, too hard for you.

You keep committing the unforgivable sin of being boring. Give yourself a time out (and the rest of us a break from your inane attempts at sarcasm). Believe me you aren't making me mad. Just tired of having to scroll past your less-than-stellar contributions to the discussions. You don't think anyone is actually reading your tripe do you?

Gee Stump-sky

The embodied oxy-more-on

oops a spellink error. Darn -sky !

Gee ..Stump-sky quote-sky:

" You don't think anyone is actually reading your tripe do you ".

Stump-sky the "perfect one-sky" made a boo boo-sky . Shouldn't there be a comma " , " between "tripe" and "do you"..

ie "....your tripe, do you ? "

If nobody is read-ink it.... how can you comment?

Conclusion: you are a nobody-sky ,ie you are imply-ink " nobody " is readink it .

Now go wear your helmet , I think you forgot it last time...and the time before...and the time before...

Tripe

Actually, the sentence could be written either way, but the meaning would change with the addition of the comma.

My way expresses disbelief. Your way has me presuming to know what you are thinking and seeking your affirmation of such. The former is exactly what I intended to say.

Strunk and White dude. I keep recommending it to you, but obviously it's not on your bookshelf yet.

Anyway, enough free grammar lessons for you. They are obviously wasted and you're not paying attention.

As for reading you... unfortunately some of your more idiotic statements are hard to miss when I'm looking for entertaining and educating posts. Just because I comment on the more egregious wastes of bandwidth doesn't mean I wade through your War and Peace-sized wank-offs though believe me.

OCP? plan, plan...there aint no plan!

Whatever the Vancouver city council may have decided (regarding this livable regions strategy) 10 years ago, it is absolutely clear that every time the top end of city hall changes, so does the plan.

Get used to the reality that realty is rising in value, meaning that the shift to the 'so-called' gentrification is inevitable.

I say that the DTES is a dump, time to bulldoze woodwards (and pretty much everything within 3 blocks in all directions) and rebuild.

Is there hope for 'lower cost housing'?

Only if there are imaginative owners whom recognize that an area like the Coal Peninsula needs nearby housing and Yaletown has started to max out...

Enough Please!

They are not so much invisible as they are disposable people. Here today gone tomorrow. Or at least that is the hope of the province and the city. There is no plan to get rid of homelessness. THE PLAN IS HOMELESSNESS. Its easy to move them around and easy to get rid of the homeless(Canadian citizens) especially when laws are permitted which allow you to man handle those without a home.

I applaud you Mr. Campbell

your plan is a success you have managed to put women,children,elderly,youth, disabled, dying, etc to the streets by the thousands and in no time at all they will be dead or gone or possibly some may find work as one of the thousands of new crack dealers in bc. number one hot job in bc along with survival sex for the unemployed and out of luck
anyways you did good sir you got them all on the streets many addicted many sick honestly I don't know what we would do with out you and soon they will all be gone all gone and you will be home free so to speak!

oh yes and co ops are good

and the province is to handle the money allotted for new housing in an agreement with a recent agreement with the feds this also helps Coleman with the plan for HOMELESSNESS.

I have given it a great deal of thought lately and it is a viable solution along with other co ops for purchasing food, etc. more buying power

homelessness / accomadtation

many of the homeless are addicted,so
this propensity for the chronic need can lead the addicts to where total free give away drugs are being handed out,remember that a town for 7000 people was for sale at one time back five years ago up central coastfor seven mill. , with free transfer to that site and all the free wholesale drugs that our system can provide at a lower price the profit seeker dealers may be put out of biz.? N'est pas?
Just a suggestion but the dealers need customers if those are taken then dealers must wither. A supply /demand situation. I for one taxpayer am tired of this depraved politican /academe approach of continual study/seminars which benefit only the attendees in their pocket.
Is that the crux ? The middle class civil servants need aproblem to mull over for ad infinitum?
Please save our children by getting rid of dealers .
The local police cheif has informed me and all who can read the Victoria News that low level dealers are not going to be interferred with not enough manpower he avers.As it is now the tax dollars handed to addicts only get transferred to the dealers. Sorry the landlords missout with the homeless