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Last week I attended an outdoor showing of SHREK at Trout Lake Park. The evening was sponsored by my employer Vision Vancouver as a fun community oriented event where people of all ages could come, set up lawn chairs and blankets and take in a night at the movies for absolutely nothing (no $15 Famous Players tickets for this show).
For an hour or so before the show began, dozens of people set up, munched on late dinners, indulged in the concession stand's fare, chatted and otherwise got to know their fellow neighbours. The energy in the park was terrific. Then the show got started. The sound was superior to a regular movie theatre, the screen crystal clear (no scratchy drive-in hear), and the backdrop of a starry night spectacular.
The event was a big success. Several hundred people turned out and like a gravity well in space, the more people arriving, the greater the draw it was for families and kids in the surrounding area to meander over and check out what was happening.
The success of this event signalled to me a real appetite for more movie nights in the park. As an enthusiast of both parks and movies, I think it would be a terrific idea if the Vancouver Parks Board moved forward on this initiative. Imagine how great it would be to have a well known family-oriented schedule of films in parks all around the city throughout the summer. Young and old could come out and sit on the grass and enjoy the parks well into the night when normally everyone packs up and heads back to the isolation of "home sweet home". These showings could also be terrific multi-cultural and independent film showing venues.
If they were popular enough, perhaps the Parks Board could even consider purchasing some of the equipment necessary to put the show on. This would cut costs even further and open the movies up to the community. Definitely a laudable dream and one well within our grasp.
That's right - 250 million. That's according to company founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's blog post. That's up 100 million from January. Funny the snowball effect of it all. Just recently, a German friend of many years past befriended me on facebook. Obviously its starting to cut across the Atlantic.
I think a big part of the success of applications like Facebook is its exploitation of social networking to peer pressure everyone in net-sight to get online and start making facebook friends, else one may find themselves left out of the loop. Plus the ability to stay simultaneously updated (some might say inundated) by news, photos, updates, links, videos, preferences, and random thoughts is undeniable and interesting (usually...).
Anyway, here's what Zuckenberg had to say about the success of it all:
From the beginning, Facebook hasn’t been about building a website. Facebook is about all of the people using it and all of the things that are important to you. The 250 million of you on Facebook today are what gives Facebook life and makes the site meaningful to everyone using it, so we thank you.
Each person who joins makes Facebook better by adding a presence to the site that friends and family can connect with and feel closer to. For us, growing to 250 million users isn’t just an impressive number; it is a mark of how many personal connections all of you have made, and how far we at Facebook have to go to extend the power of connection to the billions of people around the world.
Talk about a thriving and vibrant community. Give it another few years and it's population may well overtake the American population.
This morning dozens of cyclists turned out to make their voices heard on the issue of the new Burrard Bridge Trial Bike Lane.
The new lane protects cyclists and pedestrians with a new concrete barrier on both sides of the bridge. The result means one less lane for drivers heading out of the city. That's got some drivers crabby - particularly those who are dead set on keeping their single occupancy vehicle
commuting, despite a growing belief among the majority of Vancouverites that commuting green is commuting smart.
The trial has happened once in the past and wasn't successful. This time, there's been a huge amount of organizing and enthusiasm from the city's burgeoning cycling community. In addition, City Hall has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into communicating with drivers in order to shift traffic away from Burrard Bridge and on to the underused Granville Street Bridge. Below are some shots from this morning's ride all courtesy of Ariane Colenbrander.
If you haven't had a chance to check out the new bike lane, make sure you do so.
Remember those days when you, your folks, your friends, maybe your girlfriend would all mozy down to the ol' cinema? That was before the big Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon conglomorates took over the movie biz and "disappeared" (that's mob speak) many of the smaller community theatres.
Fun Fact: Back in the 1930 (the earliest year from which accurate and credible data exists), weekly cinema attendance was 80 million people, approximately 65% of the resident U.S. population. That's changed these days. At the beginning of the 21st century, that figure was only 27.3 million people, which was a mere 9.7% of the U.S. population.
And that's before the advent of the age of the home entertainment systems, big flat screen TVs with crystal clear HD screens, and of course amazing new sound systems capable of sound we could never experience on the older TVs. DVDs were almost as good as the big screens.
Then there's the increasingly fast download speed provided by high-speed internet connections. Suddenly you could download a movie quickly - and on pirate sites - for free. Why pay $15 for a movie, when you could see it on your home theatre before the release date for nothing?
So it seemed to me the time of the movie theatre was in its decline. After all, what could the future theatres possibly offer that I couldn't get at home? And then, I went to the Vancouver Acquarium. That's right, the aquarium.
I was there at the behest of my lovely redheaded partner. We joined dozens of kids and adults for the opening of the Acquarium's 4D Experience. In the theatre we were treated to the Shallow Waters episode of the landmark series Planet Earth - but with a big twist. First of all the whole show was in incredibly sharp 3D - awe inspiring when you see a giant whale or a host of sea snakes swimming towards you.
But by far more impressive was a combination of mist, air effects, bubbles and smells all of which are perfectly timed with what was happening on screen. When a whale surfaced and blew from his blow hole, we got sprayed, when thousands of little fish swam by bubbles on the screen and real bubbles hitting our noses, and when the sea snakes swam around us in 3D - air nozzles blew under our leg simulating the feeling of a predator swimming by. Then there were our seats, vibrating, jerking and generally bringing the show to life.
Watching Planet Earth is always an amazing experience. But experiencing it not only visually but on all five senses is something else. Can you imagine watching a horror flick and feeling the breath of Freddy on the back of your neck or the smell of the ocean where the action's taking place? Or imagine how cool it would be to smell the chocolate factory as Charlie walks through it and creepy Michael Jacksonesque Wonka prances about. The possibilities are limiteless.
I came across a recent article posted on BC political blogger Sean Holman's Public Eye Online.
Apparently there's a new group in town, who's raison d'etre is to drum Carole James and her right wing NDP supporters out of the party. The new group comes from a peculiar community of extremists who, in the wake of the BCNDP's recent thrashing at the 2009 polls, are crawling out of the woodwork in an effort to wrest power from James and her corporate backers. Yes, that's right, according to these folks James is a corporate shill who's decisions have dragged the BCNDP away from the Wonderland where they would cater exclusively to the working class (do you consider yourself a member of the working class?) and seek to constantly do battle with the dark forces of the petite bourgeoisie (I think that's me, but I'm not sure - maybe I need to brush up on my Marx).
Want to learn more - check out the group's facebook page.
For their inaugural event they've decided to hold a forum to discuss the future of the party titled "Take Back the NDP". Who have they enlisted to lead this discussion? None other than firebrand lefty Tim Louis. Strangely, Louis not only lacks an NDP membership (you'd think that'd be essential for group pledging to "take back the party"), but is widely viewed as so dysfunctional and difficult to work with that he was pushed out of COPE, the most lefty of all Vancouver's left of centre municipal parties. Wow - what a populist asset and consensus maker you just gotta have in your group.
Then there's Mike Palecek, an ardent Marxist who at least has some NDP street cred (according to his facebook page he's served on a smorgasbord of NDP offices). Doubtlessly he has some connections within the NDP, though probably not nearly enough to overthrow the corporate interests he sees pulling the strings.
"The NDP is supposed to be the party of labour - the party of the ordinary person. So we'd like to get that voice established back within the party," said Palecek in an interview with Public Eye Online.
According to Palecek, labour - despite donating hundreds of thousands of dollars (by far the lions share of the NDPwar chest) during the last election and supplying most of the BCNDP's key organizers (and executive officers) - doesn't have nearly enough influence. It's business (who incidentally donated a fraction of that amount during the election and disproportionately funded the campaign of Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals) who're pulling Carole James' puppet strings.
I have to admit I find these tidbits fascinating. Are there really people who still think this way?
The whole thing looks like it mainly has the support of only the NDP's most harcoreleftwing/socialist/marxist/communist/[insert other political/philosophical faction here]/trotskyist elements who usually (thank goodness) seem to be the least visible. Check their facebook event page and you'll see they have a record 25 guests at the time this article was published. With a vast proletariat army of supporters swelling their ranks like that, its a wonder capitalism hasn't yet been vanquished all over the world (let alone in the BCNDP).
I certainly hope they tape the meeting. Watching this community of activists try to come to any sort of consensus and compromise when the very political ideals many participants share rules out any appeasement as treacherous should be more entertaining than a midnight showing Snakes on a Plane (in other words - very entertaining).
Sampling the fare of different ethnic communities around town is a personal goal of mine this year.
Sort of like a mid-year New Year's reunion.
It all came about after dropping off our two South America-bound correspondents at the airport. On the way back I drove by the Vancouver landmark "DeutschesHaus", which sits plumply (yes, a building can sit plumply - especially a German/Bavarian Building) off 33rd and Victoria.
Driving buy I realized it has been a long time since I sunk my teeth into Bratwurst, Spaetzle, Currywurst, Blaukraut, and the old fried favorite - Wiener Schnitzel. What better way to celebrate the German community its heritage in Vancouver than to round up a posse and head down to DeutschesHaus to see what tasty times await.
It's also neat to do so, not at the latest trendy eatery off Main or Broadway, but rather in a den that local Germano-Vancouverites (that word has now been copyrighted by your's truly) keep coming to decade after decade. It's kinda like the Legion experience for those of you have ever frequented a Royal Canadian Legion and had the honor of chatting and sharing beers with some of our veterans in their home away from home.
It also wet an appetite to explore similar old school ethnic bastions that I know are hidden across the city, and which are rally points for dozens of other communities.
A few months ago, I visited one such place in Strathcona during Vancouver's East Side Culture Crawl. That day we hit up the a Ukrainian church basement and filled up on buttery homemade perogies (assembled, I like to dream,
painstakingly by old, thick and boisterous Ukrainian grandmas who while surviving Stalin, famine and the 5 Year Plans, managed to perfect the best perogie recipe in history), rich sweet and sour cabbage rolls, and hearty and salty Ukrainian sausage. It was a blast, made even better by the diversity of community that turned out and the great hosting of the local Ukrainian community.
The French cultural centre is another great example of delicious French cuisine imported to Vancouver (though its a bit more high class than the aformentioned examples - not a big surprise right?). There you can wander around the community centre and see what theatre, shows, and films are coming up until you're seated by a dainty francophone hostess who sketches out le menu dujour from memory and helps you select which entre to enjoy (will it be filetmignon or a salad defruits with fresh baguette? - oooooh the hemming and hawing). All this can be enjoyed for an incredibly reasonable price considering the quality of the meal and experience.
I'm looking forward to see if the Germans can measure up to the Ukrainians and French when it comes to tasty food and unique atmosphere. I'm hopeful they'll knock the sox off both of them, but knowing the culinary history of the German people, Im not willing to put more than a handful of change on it.
And if you have any suggestions of delectable restaurants that host and represent a cultural community in the Lower Mainland, let me know. I'd love to try em.
Seems like the last time we talked about Peter Jackson, it was surrounding his fantastic revival of Tolkien's Middle Earth - a peculiar world populated by men, women, dwarfs, elves, orcs, giant smouldering cave monsters and hobbits (among others).
Now Jackson's about to invite us to observe a new community by creating yet another new world. This one seems set to be steeped deep with Swift-like satire. District 9 is a new sci-fi movie set to hit theatres in August. The story is about a community of interstellar refugees who come to Earth and are marooned here. They're isolated by our government in District 9 - a slum in Africa (see some metaphoric connections??) where they're hated by locals and managed with less and less patience by world governments. Check out this trailer for the film:
I've got to hand it to the marketing guys who're developing this campaign. They've already created three YouTube videos, twitter feeds, facebook pages, and almost four separate websites, including one for the MNU(the company contracted to guard humans areas from alien contamination), the Everyone Deserves Equality blog (which has articles written by aliens and alien-supporters), Math from Outer Space (self-evident), and then large topographical maps detailing the breadth of District 9.
Hustling up excitement in the online and movie going community isn't anything new (see the "I Believe in Harvey Dent" campaign websites used in the lead up to the Dark Knight). But by doing it in an effective and all encompassing way, Jackson is charting into new water. If their use of social media and multiple online portals works to galvanize movie fans and whip up online hype (and thus offline theatre line-up hype) - we may see this creative marketing strategy become increasingly prominent for everything from upcoming features to toothpaste.
That might mean the TV and radio ad heavy buys might be a thing of the past to be supplanted by an increasing reliance on social media and online community creation to get out the word about products.
Let's take a train through the communist paradise of Pyongyang. Ready to go kids?
Well, let's hop on the tram and explore:
Ok. Now that we've finished our little tram ride, what were your first impressions?
For me there were a couple. To start with, check out how empty the streets are. When you compare it with the mass of people and traffic of South Korea (to the left), it's startling really. And this is downtown of the capital. Maybe the North Koreans, in a totally ass backward sort of way, have got the idea of decongestion right.
Another thing I noticed was the pure blandness of the place. Lots of bright colored clothes, and interesting street energy huh? Should we all be magically transported to Kim IlJong's paradise, half the Drive would doubtlessly be immediately purged for attire alone. Good luck Cloudman...So long Red Square.
Then of course there are the giant housing projects - similar in many ways to the buildings of the former USSR, its allies and even Japan. Missing are the character buildings that give cities around the world particular ambiance. I wonder which buildings are the homes of the upper level bureaucrats of the glorious leader's regime.
No homeless on the street though. I guess if everyone's poor, then you don't really have an opportunity to have a homelessness crisis like in Vancouver.
It's all a bit bland though huh? What are some of your observations?
It's something that most politicians are acutely conscience of. Just as the Cambie line transit planners who'd been originally considering sending Vancouver's latestskytrain line along the old BC Hydro train tracks through Kits, Kerrisdale and South Vancouver. The potential noise and property depreciation helped galvanize the city's west side against the project eventually leading to the decision to burrow (sort of) under Cambie Street.
We all can still remember the nightmare that created for commuters, shop owners, and residents.
Now a new group of condo owners in Vancouver's trendy Yaletown district are rallying against the city's HEAT shelters placed in their neighbourhood. Created in the winter to save homeless lives from the harsh winter cold, the shelters have since become a hub of community and the first line of support for the city's most desperate citizens.
Recently, Global News did a story outlining the Beach Avenue condo owners' concerns.
In short, neighbours are frustrated with a variety of issues stemming from the HEAT shelters including: semi-public sex in a nearby park, needles left lying around, new criminal elements, open drug use, and according to some people, the intimidation of residents by some shelter clients.
They also claim there was no consultation and the city simply decided there was a need and opened the doors without heads up to residents.
They're right. But there's a reason behind this quick unilateral action. In order to deal with the emergency situation precipitated by the freezing cold and record snowfall in the city, Mayor Robertson and his HEAT team had to move quickly, pushing the shelters through without the usual consultative process. Nobody wanted the tragic case of "Tracy" (a homeless woman who was burnt alive trying to keep herself warm) to be repeated.
Nobody is saying this isn't a tough situations for the residents of Beach Ave. What I take exception to is many residents' insinuation that the area is a closed community and they have no interest in figuring out how to live with neighbours who don't own, nor rent, but who simply survive. Community and neighbourhoods aren't confined to those who own a condo - we're all part of community.
On the Drive, we live right above a pharmacy that issues methadone, a recovery shelter, a bunch of low-income housing and a group of young homeless kids who make the garage next to us their home. Sure they're loud sometimes. Sure sometimes it pisses us off. But we do not disavow their right to be there and we deal with it.
For Yaletown's newest shelter residents, there needs to be a greater conscience that they are new to the neighbourhood and need to do their best to minimize their disruption and clean up after themselves. It sounds like the HEAT shelter staff are already rallying clients to do just this.
For the people of Yaletown, it's going to be trickier and take some bigger sacrifices. Treating their new neighbours with a little more leniency and respect would be a great start. The homeless tend to be pretty adaptable to new environments. Rich folks, on the other hand, tend to be decidedly less adaptable.
Desperate people have to go somewhere and a solution is not to ghettoize the Downtown Eastside to keep them out of sight from the cafe late crowd. As Councillor Kerry Jang has said, City Hall is committed to closing the shelters down, but only after homelessness in the area has been solved and everyone has a warm, safe place to sleep at night. Until then Vancouver's communities (both affluent and not) need to extend a hand to help, not a slap in the face, to the more desperate of us.
Do the residents of Yaletown really feel so strongly about the exclusive nature of their neighbourhood that they're willing to toss people back on the street and call the cops to sweep them away? I hope not. Because if they do, they'll probably discover pretty quickly that much of the street disorder (which according to BIAs has dramatically decreased over the last few months) will be back with a vengeance.
This year I've gotten involved with Homeless Soccer program called Dreamcatchers.
The soccer's a blast. Players from our team are drawn from the New Fountain Shelter. Each Sunday at around 9:30 AM, a bus pulls out from the shelter (one of five emergency shelters set up by Gregor's HEAT team) and heads to Britannia.
On the bus are a few outreach workers and a variety of enthusiastic (and sometimes if it was a big Saturday night - not so energetic players). Ages range and so do skill levels. Some players can pass, dribble and shoot without any effort. Others have trouble standing up. I'm in the middle.
Throughout the morning, we usually drill. Our coach, a deputy fire cheif who may or may not be named Steve (I just refer to him as coach, which helps me avoid looking like an idiot for not remembering his name after meeting him half a dozen times) takes us through drills. We do all the drills any soccer team does - square passes, kicking the ball against the wall to get a perfect touch, and of course, the ol' scimmage.
Last weekend we played a game against another homeless soccer team from the North Shore who came equipped with a full kit. Our team sported fancy Rob and Big black t-shirts. Rob and Big are two gangster-looking guys. They sport baggy jeans and baseball caps. No one on the team knows who they are or why they're on our shirts - but then that's part of the fun of it all.
Atired in our Rob and Big shirts, the team assembled. We had a great crew and it was a beautiful day to be playing. Coach had set up a rough court in Woodlands Park off the drive and we started passing the ball around to get warmed up. When the whistle went, our team launched into action.
At half time, I was near dead. Slowly the team was starting to colease togeather. We were passing faster and fewer whistles were getting blown on yours truly. Everyone was working up a healthy sweat in the afternoon sun. After husling off the field we indulged in fresh oranges and a case of warm bottled water. Hello plastic intake.
Despite an earnest effort, we scored but one goal that game. A teammate from OnSite took a swift shot and put it under the fancily garbed opposing keeper's arms. It was a great victory. I won't tell you how many goals the other guys scored, but I will tell you that they were sponsored by the Whitecaps and we were sponsored by Rob and Big. I'm not saying that made a difference, but...
Next week the team will assemble again for practice. Slowly but surely we're becoming a small but tight crew. One of the ways I know is that when Earl (a player who happens to be an amazing aboriginal wood carver) or Don (super groovy hip sporty fellow) happen to not come that week, we all notice. We're from different places and certainly very different experiences, but the soccer, like it can be all over the world, is a binding force a la super glue.
David looks at the history of the service, charting it's birth, its initial elite nature (comprised of some of the best educated and best travelled white men in the country) and its current methods of recruitment - which seem seem dead set on encouraging more of the same.
I put it out to you, dear readers - and particularly to those of you who have worked in a capacity for the federal government - is the Foreign Service and DFAIT in particular comprised of a disproportionate number of snobs? Do these snobs serve a purpose - do they have special skill sets, character, or education that enable them to do their job representing all of us abroad better than a lowly bureaucrat from HRSDC or Immigration? Maybe you get by my tone that I have an opinion about this.
More importantly, if indeed the FS needs to remodel itself, how will this effect the carefully constructed elite community of foreign service officers that has existed for decades? Good or bad?
One of the most inspiring things I've witnessed recently has been the generosity and general sense of hope implicit in the New Fountain Shelter. Here is a community built on compassion, which helps in a very real way some of our poorest citizens.
The New Fountain, along with four other shelters has been baring the brunt of the homelessness crisis and were opened roughly half a year ago as an emergency shelter. Since then they've assisted dozens of people to find permanent housing, pick up career skills, and provided a safe and respectful place for young and old to stay.
Safe and respect are key words here. No violence or violent individuals are tolerated and mounted in the staff room is a small list of names of violent offenders who have been permanently barred from the shelter.
"They're predators," said one of the staff members. "They come here to sell drugs and prey on our clients. When they do so, we ask them politely to leave."
A few hours in one of the shelters is illustrative.
The clients vary in age and appearance. Some have recently been released from jail. Others sport large gashes and open soars. Most seem very happy to have a bed to sleep on where they need not worry getting robbed while they sleep. Almost everyone is incredibly polite to service staff who hand out syringes, medical supplies, toiletries, donated clothing, and cookies generously.
The New Fountain is also equipped with a soup kitchen where residents can come for a quick meal. In the corner there's a small TV with a small group of folks camped out around it sweating in the heat. The shelter smells of vegetable soup. Everything is clean and tidy.
Other people are in their rooms - small 10 X 10 foot rooms with a canvas sheet serving as a door. We're note talking about the Hilton here. There are two beds in each room and around 15 - 20 rooms in the shelter. Since the shelter is intended to be as low barrier as possible, pets sometimes stay with clients in their rooms.
"Sometimes a dog, cat, mouse or other animal is the only friend the person has," said one outreach worker. "If we don't let them bring in their pet, they won't come in themselves. We try to keep the barriers as low as possible so we can help as many people as possible."
Many of the residents living in the shelter these days are worried. New Fountain and the four other shelters like it opened as part of the city's HEAT (Homeless Emergency Action Team) initiative have funding for now - but that funding could well dry up at the end of June. If it does, many of the folks who now have a home (for many this is the first home they've had in years) could find themselves alone and back on the street.
The diaspora that would follow would be tragic. One of the most commendable and advantageous things about the New Fountain and other shelters like it is that they provide a hub of community. Not only do they rejuvenate people who have suffered years on the street but they provide dozens of clients with services from helping them find employment to locking down more permanent housing. Here truly is a place where everyone knows your name.
The emergency shelters are critical because they are the first rung in the ladder of recovery. Without this rung, many people will find it almost impossible to climb out of homelessness - despite an earnest wish to do so. Let's hope the BC Liberal government agrees.
That's certainly not what the Canadian Border Services are saying, nor what the Conservative government is saying either. But it is what me, many of my friends, and many liberal and NDP politicians are saying. Most importantly, it's what the church community that's sheltering Mikhail Lennikov is certainly saying.
In case you haven't caught the news recently, Lennikov is currently hunkered down in Vancouver's First Lutheran Church off Kingsway. He's seeking asylum from deportation by the Canadian government who want to give him the boot forworking as a KGB contractor in the 1980s. According the government, anyone who's admitted to espionage against Canada or Canadians is subject to deportation.
According to First Lutheran Reverend Richard Hergesheimerm, his church was renovated several months ago to install a shower and make a livable space for Lennikov. They knew what the result of Lennikov's appeals would be and set about to get ready to get ready for the long haul. When asked about the church's desicsion to provide sancuary Hergesheimer replied "We know that what we're doing with sanctuary is illegal. We know that. But it's not wrong. We think were doing the right thing."
Lennikov's persecution and the desicsion to support his asylum has been fueled by a great deal of anger among the church's 225 congregants.
It's a reaction Hergesheimer hasn't seen before. All of the sudden elderly women are writing to their politicians for the first time in their lives in support of a former KGB agent who is a member of their congregation.
"This has made people very angry. Angry at what they see is an injustice," said Hergesheimer.
It's an injustice that Lennikov doesn't deserve. He has been a contributing member of his new home for decades. He's a longtime congregationalist (an attribute hardly identified with hardcore KGB agents) and he's got a wife and son who are settled and happily living here. He was not James Bonding about the country killing CSIS agents. He provided Japanese translation services. Too boot, if we send him back to Russia, he'll hardly be heralded by his countrymen as hero. Instead he'll have to start all over again - without his family - and that's if he doesn't find himself tossed in prison (as he says is likely). How does any of this make sense? Since when is the specific rule of law and lack of compassion of the Conservatives overrule common sense? Wait, don't answer that question.
Let's hope the conservatives come to their senses and realize they are persecuting a decent and contributing member of our society.
We live on Commercial Drive. Behind our apartment is an alleyway frequented by dozens of bottle scavengers as well as a growing colony of homeless people and drifters. The colony is lodged under an overhang parking area.
During the winter time, my partner sometimes dropped off hot soup or food for the residents living there. There were only one or two people living there at the time, which made sense considering the cold (read: rainy) and inhospitable Vancouver winters. Now as spring turns to summer, the population of the overhang has grown.
Initially, we didn't have any problem with this. Our homeless neighbours weren't bothering anyone. The minimal increase in garbage around the alley was a pain in the ass, but that was really the only issue.
Then as new folks joined the older residents, things began to change. More scavenging around the area made us feel a bit more self conscious about the possibility of crime in the area. And then there was the noise.
At first it was just a shout here and there. But often it seemed to be party time at the colony with all manner of yelling at 11 PM 12 AM, 4 AM etc. In the afternoons we watched as a white Mercedes cruised around passing out vials to our neighbours. We weren't quite sure why, but this was frustrating.
While we can handle the dealing; the noise is a problem. Neither of us enjoy being woken constantly through the night to loud hooting or screaming arguments.
Ultimately, we'll soon see just how effectively community can transcend income and status. The next time there is a loud flare up (and we aren't too groggy / lazy to get up), we're planning on wandering over to talk to our neighbours. We'll kindly ask if they mind keeping the noise down. We're hopeful that the fact that while drugs and booze may be an issue, the dictum of sharing common community space will prevail. If it doesn't (or if the drugs cloud out neighbourly decency), we'll most certainly find ourselves in a very difficult NIMBY dilemma.
It's a dilemma we don't want to find ourselves in, because the alternative of calling the cops is not appealing at all.
This weekend food enthusiasts from across the Lower Mainland rallied at BC Place for free samples and demonstrations at EAT Vancouver, the city's annual food festival.
The event was interesting.
When we attended it was mobbed by thousands of people who packed into the exhibition floor. The event saw dozens of booths ranging from booths by the Shark Club (serving their supposedly gourmet mini-burgers) to Indian booths offering the usual cheap deep-fried pakoras and samosas as well as rich butter chicken. Nearby were dozens of vendors hawking assorted samples of chocolates, yogurt energy drinks, carbonated pear juice, free knife sharpening, and even free chiropractic consultations (what this had to do with food is beyond me).
On the wings of the exhibition was a cheese seminar that taught participants how to tell a smoked Gouda apart from an Elemental. On the other side of the arena was a jammed area with scores of wine taster sampling around a dozen commercially sold beers and wines.
The festival highlighted big time FoodTV stars like Iron Chef Rob Fenie, Ricardo Revicci, and Anthony Sedlack (who like Fenie, heils from Vancouver).
However, by far, the highlight of the event for us was Chef Louie, a first time visitor to Vancouver from Louisiana's New Orleans. Chef Louie probably weighed 250 pounds and had a gut that could fit a pair of watermelons. He proudly waddled about the stage, and candidly chatted with onlookers about everything southern - from the spices he was using to the aftermath of Katrina - while adding enough butter to make Fat Albert blush. The end result was a, unsurprisingly, delicious chicken cream pasta dish and a salty cajun spiced shrimp broth soup served with crispy French bread.
In true cajun fashion befitting a man of his stature, we left only after he had invited my pretty red-headed partner to come by his hotel for the next day or so for a visit while he was still in town. Talk about a "rich" end to the afternoon!
When outright chaos exists, it's easy to forget that there is still a community of people who are connected by thousands of individual strands of commerce, dependency and power.
Nowhere is this illustrated better than in the Robert Taylor Projects of the late 1980s - the height of the crack epidemic. During that time, gangs ruled the people's world and the chaos of crack addition, homelessness, endemic poverty, and frequent violence turned the place into an inferno that defies the imagination of many middle-classers like yours truly.
It's a world where over 50% of people admitted to frequent or occasional crack use. Where young gangsters participated in voter registration drives financed by crack money. Where drive-bys during the community BBQ were a not-all-together infrequent experience. Where the local cops signed up at the precinct to participate in "raids" on gangster parties where they literally rob the thugs blind.
Where just about everyone was on some form of social assistance, the average take home yearly salary is $10,000 and it's not seen as uncommon for women to use sex as a way of keeping the heat on during the winter.
It's also a place where crack addicts, prostitutes, teenage gangsters tatted out and perpetually high and drunk intermingle with grandmas who cook collard greens and mac'n cheese next door to tenant hustlers constantly out to make a buck.
In his fascinating sociological study Gang Leader for a DaySudhir Venkatesh explores this world and evocatively illustrates the depths of a vibrant and self-sustaining communal system which offers many of the same services we take for granted everyday.
One of the most interesting aspects of Venkatesh's story connects to the interdependence of community leaders, gangsters and residents. Due to the corruption of the Chicago Housing Authority and the general disinterest of many Chicago police in entering the area, many residents were reliant on the gang organization and local powerbrokers (like tenant housing presidents) for their well being.
Door falls off its hinges during a subzero Chicago winter? Better have a good relationship with Ms. Bailey (the well connected favor broker and building president) - otherwise you'll be freezing till the cows come home before the CHA processes your request.
Beat up your girlfriend cause your high on crack and think she's cheating on you? You don't need to worry about the cops if you live in Robert Taylor, but you sure as hell need to worry about the local gang members who's business, along with selling crack, monitoring (and taxing) the area's prostitutes, and all sorts of other illegal activity, is to also to keep law and order. Why? Because a safe environment is just good for business.
One of the most fascinating things about all this is the way that community forges itself out of anarchy to deal with people's most basic (and sometimes more complex) needs. The veritable and diverse black market and underground economy featuring the sale of everything from children's candy to car repair, from babysitting to crack processing facilities (read - your kitchen stove) shows just how people adapt to their environment's economic demand.
Most interesting of all is Venkatesh's examination of pooling of resources among young un-wed mothers who's partners were either involved in the local Black Kings gang and not around or had been involved in the Black Kings until a rival gang member had gunned them down.
None of the women had enough money to maintain all the necessities of running water, electricity, childcare, and (unsurprisingly in North America I guess) television. To solve the problem, they formed a collective - eat your heart out Lenin - whereby each paid for one thing and then pooled the resources with the others.
The result? You woke up in your apartment, sauntered over to Shironda's place to get your food from the refrigerator and eat breakfast, then skipped down to Lisa's apartment several doors down to have a shower. Finally you ended up at Clarisse's apartment where you plunked yourself in front of a TV. Indeed these communities were so vibrant and tightly knit that according to Venkatesh, when the buildings were all slated to be torn down by the Clinton Administration, many families' main priority was to find a new home close by their neighbors to allow the effective continued pooling of resources.
Ultimately, the Robert Taylor projects were torn down and replaced by middle class condos. Their population dispersed to other poor and working class-black neighbourhoods in and around Chicago. However, their example of how community can survive in even the most hellish areas should give us a little hope - particularly when we're staring at the our own Robert Taylor in the streets and buildings surrounding Main and Hastings.
Here at the Gumboot we're all about discovering and learning about different types of community.
A little while ago I was hanging out at a cocktail party in sunny Tsawwassen. In case you're unfamiliar, the suburb community of Tsawwassen is sleepy and as suburban and white as you get. Hundreds of people have fled the big city, crossed the beautiful South Delta green-belt and made their homes among the bungalows, beach houses and palm trees that make the town stand out in the Lower Mainland.
Anyway, back to my cocktail party. So there I stood, half way through my third rum and coke when a friendly Tsawwassenite sauntered up next to me and started to talk my ear off. One thing led to another and pretty soon he was telling me all about a thriving swingers community he'd just discovered in the suburb.
"Couldn't believe it," he said. "I thought that sort of thing was in the big city, but the fact that people are doing that sort of thing when they have families and kids is something else."
According to my new friend the swingers community was pretty underground - French resistance style. You only found out about it if you were approached by someone who judged you as GGG (good, game n'giving). Apparently it was a pretty thriving club that had frequent get-togethers and encompassed more than just a few couples. Intriguing, I thought. Time to do some investigative gumboot journalism.
Turns out Tsawwassen isn't the only suburb community with a swingers community.
According to a recent National Post article, a swingers community in Alberta is under attack by the conservative family values types. A recent attempt to open the 4play club - a "dance and social club for sexually open-minded couples and single women" got an unfriendly welcome when the local villagers lit torches and raised their pitchforks up high as they marched righteously to City Hall to file a appeal against the new club's development permit.
The Canora Community League said the club proposal was wrong for a district trying to appeal to families.
"It boggles my mind. I can't even understand the concept of why they would want to put something in our community like that," said Eleanor Burke, a member of the league. "Do it downtown or somewhere, but not in a community where there are kids. I don't think it's morally right for the kids to see this."
Now obviously someone (presumably the owners and investors behind the club) have done some research and are convinced that there are enough horny and sexually playful couples in the suburb to make it worthwhile to put the shovel in the dirt.
Of course that's not satiating Eleanor or others who see "swinging" as detrimental to children.
Interesting thinking no doubt about it. But while many of us liberal westerners might chalkthis up to a heady mix of smallville syndrome and Albertan christian conservatism to create a classic cocktail of ignorance, it makes you wonder what would the reaction be if the little swingers community in Tsawwassen came out of its closet and decided to open a full blown club on 56th St. the main drag.
Even my friend at the cocktail party, a fairly liberal thinking fellow, seemed to think an environment where wife-swapping and swinging was going on wasn't the type of model family situation. It's no doubt tough enough when you walk in on your parents for the first time - imagine walking in on Mom in the throws of passion with your friendly neighbor Barry who lives just two houses down the street.
"Dad, Dad, Moms cheating on you", the child might cry.
"No, No. Barry, Mom, and I are all part of a special club," Dad would say after a recovering from a good ol' belly laugh.
Is this a totally ridiculous scenario. What does the Gumboot community think about swinging with kids? Swinging in general? How about about playground swings? I put it out to you...
This weekend the Liberal Party of Canada held it's bi-annual convention in Vancouver. The main draw of the meeting was the anointment and confirmation of Michael Ignatieff as the new Liberal leader. The whole thing was prefaced by two days of partying in so-called "hospitality suites", constitutional blibidy blab, policy workshops, election preparedness workshops, and a host of other meetings for MPs, executive members, supporters, journalists, and other observers.
One of the most heartening things about the whole saga (aside from Jean Chretien's hilarious speech using Stephen Harper's absence from a G-20 photo-op because he was taking a leak as a general metaphor for Canada under his leadership "not being there" when it counts) was the general sense of unity among federal liberals.
It's something that's new for the federal liberal party, and something that seems to be increasingly missing in the other two major federal parties. For the conservatives, the heavy hand of the PMO is becoming increasingly devisive and oppressive, prompting many grumblings among the rank and file. For the NDP, King Layton, Canada's greatest wannabe Prime Minister, is inciting similar frustrations among the party's grassroot supporters who are increasingly pulling for super star candidates like Thomas Mulcair to wrestle the party reigns from the iron clutch of the mustached geographer and his old school labour pals.
For the liberals the feeling of renewal was palpible. Equally exciting for many was the feeling that the old days of Chretien vs. Martin, Ignatieff vs. Rae, Dion vs. Everyone seem to be, at least till the next election, ensconed by what the Beach Boys coined, "good, good vibrations."
When the time came to mount the stage and give his speech after a roaring endorsment by former roomate and challenger Bob Rae, Ignatieff set the room ablaze in a heady roar of red and white thundersticks.
And while the other parties are increasingly moving to stakeout the gains they've made during the dark days of the Dion-era, increasingly Liberals move forward with the confidence of Top Gun's Maverick. Bring on the "Danger Zone" they say. Meanwhile polls these days are putting the Grits ahead of the Tories nationally. Momentum on the ground seems to be moving in a similar direction and in politics, you can't underestimate the importance of momentum.
These days blood's in the air. Tory blood. Watch out Mr. Harper.
That's right. Pretty soon Farmer's Markets across the lower mainland will be pitching their tents around the city and offering up local fare for fabulous (usually...) prices.
I love Farmer's Markets and am incredibly excited about the season that's set to start soon. In the past I've had some great experiences picking up fresh and tasty vegetables (thank you Courtenay Farmer's Market) and sightseeing in the open air of the market (Ladner and Kits Farmer's Markets).
Perhaps the keenest part about the whole experience is that it gives us urban dwellers a chance to taste (eat your heart out Costco sampling booths) and purchase produce, meat, fish, and honey (honey seems to be the main staple of almost all the markets I've been to). In fact part of the beauty of the whole experience is that everything is seasonal and you'll never know quite what sort of food will pop up that weekend.
The experience certainly beats the Safeway shopping sojourn and even (gasp!) the East End Food Co-op grocery run.
Nothing is more fun than trying a small piece of smoked salmon in the open air of Steveston as gulls crow about in the distance and the fisherman who caught the fish stands proudly near by.
So, without further adieu, here's a little list of some of the market's springing up this summer:
Trout Lake Farmers Market Saturdays, May - October 9am - 2pm each week May 16 - October 10 15th Avenue & Victoria Drive in the Parking Lot of Trout Lake Community Centre Map of Market Location
West End Farmers Market Saturdays, June - October June 6 - October 24 9am - 2pm each week 1100 Block of Comox Street across from Nelson Park at Mole Hill Map of Market Location
Main Street Station at Thornton ParkWednesdays, June - October June 10 - October 21 3pm - 7pm Thornton Park across from the VIA Rail Station and near the Main St Skytrain Station Map of Market Location
Kitsilano Farmers Market Sundays, June - October June 7 - October 25 10am - 2pm each week 10th Avenue and Larch Street, Parking Lot of Kitsilano Community Centre Map of Market Location
Winter Farmers Market Alternate Saturdays, starting November 8, 2008 - April 25, 2009 November 8, 22 December 6, 20 January 3(cancelled), 17, 31 February 14, 28 March 14, 28 April 11, 25 10am - 2pm WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac Street at Victoria Drive Map of Market Location
Holiday Market Saturday only Annually in December Saturday, December 12, 2009 11am - 6pm Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive *new location*
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