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Good day, community-minded readers of The Weekly Gumboot. Over the next few days/weeks, your favourite blog will be undergoing some changes so that, forever more, we can provide some sexier and more cutting edge service to you, the people. We're making this happen with a two-fold strategy. First, our Correspondents will be attending a two week long "community twitblogging for the interscape" and team-building retreat in Prince Rupert; they will return better than ever and with a thirst for community-building. Second, we're making The Gumboot prettier from the back-end (not sure exactly what what means, but the guy we "hired" won't stop talking about it).
Keep your eyes open for our new direction. And thanks, as always, for your support, comments and, most importantly, the memories.
Stay classy. And keep reaching for those rainbows.
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.
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.
Does our community need cars? Sure it does! I mean, we're reliant on all kinds of stuff from far, far away. And we live in places that, for a lot of us, are far, far away from where we work. And we can't always twitblog to our friends; we need to go and see them - you know, to personalize the experience in a way that pressing yourself against a computer screen just doesn't quite pull off.
Moving on...
So, yes, in today's big picture, we need cars. But on a glorious Sunday (June 14, 2009 to be specific), the people who visited Commercial Drive shared a common experience of, um, experiencing of a carless (not careless) community. But that's enough from me. Let's see what World Renowned Health Promotion Specialist, Michelle Burtnyk, has to say about the Car Free Community.
Great job, Michelle. I especially like how your report concluded with random additions to the community. Welcome to Vancity, Steve Sloot!
Shhhh! This is a dirty secret that nobody likes talking about. Well, it's not really a secret, because there is information about the issue everywhere. More accurately, we are - as we should be - embarrassed by the glaring fact that, in our great nation of Canada, 1 in 10 people (nearly 3.5 million of us) live in poverty.These findings come from a report recently released by the Salvation Army, and the document also outlined the unfortunate statistic that 35% of homeless men in British Columbia are employed. Infuriated by such a grim forecast for our Olympic Nation? Not sold on the data? Well, you can email the Salvation Army's Territorial Public Relations Director, Andrew Burditt, at andrew_burditt(at)can.salvationarmy.org if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Moving on...
Wow. 3.5 million. People. Canada. Employed homeless people? No wonder people from the developing world are so staggeringly disappointed by our Canadian communities when they visit. According to the Human Development Index, Canada is tied for fourth (with Luxembourg and Sweden - take that, Switzerland!) as the overall most desirable country in which to live. The World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the United Nations think we're doing a pretty good job of, well, being a society. Here's a pretty key problem with our society, though: according to a 2007 Statistics Canada report, "the income gap between rich and poor has widened over the past ten years and income inequality is greater in Canada than it is in most other developed countries." No kidding. When a quarter of Canada's homeless receive income from paid employment and an astounding 57% receive income from other sources like welfare (37%), disability (16%) or a pension (4%), I wonder how bad things have gotten in places around the world, such as Switzerland, the UK and the United States, where the income gap is even worse. What will it take for us to create a just and inclusive society - in Vancouver, Canada and beyond? Or do we even really want one?
Here's a breakdown of how some resident experts think things are going:
The Big, Fat, Stinkin', Global Picture: I dunno, Bill Maher doesn't usually steer me wrong, and he has some pretty important things to say about our global, American-influenced addiction to greed. It turns out greed is not good. Too many people in Britain today are "professional, single and poor." In fact, a recent story by the up-and-coming news agency BBC suggested that the number of people living in poverty - the working poor - has increased by 300,000 since 1996. Someone who retires in Britain today is more likely than their parents to live out their days in poverty. With stats like these, should we really be "internationally developing" and offering advice to the developing world?
The Canadian Picture:Look, Canada. Recent findings show that 89% of wealthy Canadians do not want hungry peasant mobs with pitchforks overwhelming their gated communities (the other 11% love a good fight, apparently). Chuckle if you like, but also be mindful of history. In my third year at Bishop's University, I wrote a paper called Whoa Buddy, where you goin' with that pitchfork? (Peasant Rebellions in Seventeenth Century France), and, while we're not quite at a pitchfork stage yet, some of the data and stories from my paper are unfortunately similar to some of the situations today - 42% of homeless men in the prairies are employed; many of them have pitchforks, I reckon. And if you think that putting an idea of poverty into context using seventeenth-century examples is ridiculous, well, I have some Somali pirates that I'd love to introduce you to...
"The homeless population is disturbingly large and even more disturbing growing in size, in scope and in its connection to mental illness," said The Honourable Michael Kirby, Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. "Recent research shows 1 in 7 users of emergency shelters across Canada are children and almost a third of Canada's homeless are youths aged 16-24. Street counts of homeless people indicate their numbers have increased at an alarming rate." And keep in mind, statistics show that nearly a quarter of these people have jobs.
The BC Picture: A recent study by Simon Fraser University's Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction (CARMA) estimated that in British Columbia, the current financial cost to taxpayers for services to homeless people with severe addictions and/or mental illness is $55,000 a year per person. In contrast, providing these people with adequate housing and supports costs $37,000 a year per person. This saves taxpayers $211 million dollars a year in direct costs. A British Columbia shelter user put it in personal perspective: "In my case, I get enough money each month to live. I get over twelve hundred dollars a month - Old Age Pension, Canada Pension and supplement, so that should be enough for me to live on, but I'm having a terrible time trying to find affordable housing." Whether it's the Salvation Army report or a statement from the Ministry of Community or the Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction, the consensus opinion on how to tackle homelessness is with affordable housing. The Vancouver Pre-Olympic Showcase Picture:Recent findings show that homelessness in Vancouver has grown by about 250% since 1994. According to a 2008 "homeless count" by an SFU-led group of students, faculty and volunteers, there are nearly 15,500 homeless people in the Lower Mainland. If I were a businessperson in Vancouver, I'd demand affordable housing - and lots of it. Here's why: I strongly doubt that my employees who might pay between $650-$1,100 per month in rent are going to work for $8 an hour. I also don't think that employees who live in shelters or on the street are going to be incredibly motivated or engaged in my business. After all, it's in our business community's best interest to have affordable housing.
The 2010 Olympics are going to be the greatest advertisement for the city of Vancouver in the history of, well, the city of Vancouver. We even have a sexy, charming and downright nice Mayor! First, I hope this month-long ad is not a Harper-style attack ad. Second, when the world sees how beautiful it is here, I hope we have a strong enough commitment to social justice and not sell our city to the highest bidders from around the world who arrive, take-in the Olympics, drink the water, and commit to staying here no matter what the price. Vancity, we're less than a year away from a watershed moment - a tipping point - in our community's history. Let's not screw it up by being greedy... So what are the next steps?Well, I'm no expert like the high-paid staff at The Tyee, but it might be a good idea to explore some of the following five ideas:
Get students and young people involved through SERVICE LEARNINGinitiatives early and often. By linking academic learning outcomes to personal and professional development within the context of community service, well, our young people will grow of leaders with a more comprehensive understanding of the social problems that, clearly, continue to cripple our supposedly sparkling communities.
Talk about the problem.We need CITIZEN JOURNALISTS who have no loyalty to corporate sponsors to hit the streets with pens, paper, cameras, and good intentions (not to mention a sprinkle of idealism) to tell the stories of Canada's homeless in a way that will engage our entire community and motivate us to collaborate on all levels and solve the problem together. Or be vocal in a different way and wear a white Make Poverty History bracelet, just like in the picture!
Put hippies, land developers and oil barons at the same table. Like I said, we need to solve the problem TOGETHER. Growing up in Merville, British Columbia has given me a soft spot for hippies, mostly because I've got some in me. But I kinda sorta don't really like them most of the time (editor's note: mostly, they are frustrating, as the staff at The Weekly Gumboot makes it a point to be positive and see the good in all people, places and things; even cannibals in Winnipeg watching American Idol). Ironically, hippies rarely compromise - with each other or with those they deem worthy of "enemy" status. They also aren't very well organized. Oil barons are very well organized. For the most part, so are developers. We all have a common interest for prosperity and the betterment of our community. They're just subjective perceptions of a different sort. Working against each other in silos isn't going to solve anything, though. We need ideas from everywhere to build community. Now pass the bong, man...
VOLUNTEER. Barack Obama recently passed the Serve America Act. Rwanda has compulsory community service one Saturday per month. A recent pole in 24 Hours found that 65% of Lower Mainlanders do not want to volunteer. People. We can do better. And, as it turns out, we kinda have to if we want to be a global role model.
Make SOUND CONSUMER CHOICES. From global to local, purchasing products that are made by people who make a decent, livable wage is still the greatest way for us to make a collective and powerful impact on how things are done in our local, regional, national, and global communities. Have you seen how amazing the architecture, food and service at the Convention Centre? It reveals our potential...
A final thought. The Human Development Index has three symbols that put a ranked country's position in context: a green, upward triangle means it improved from the previous survey, a blue line means it stayed the same, and a red, downward triangle means it got worse. In the rankings, there are a lot of green triangles, indicating that, on the whole, things on are planet are getting better. No matter what the panic mongering media tells us.
Things are getting better, sure. And yet we still have 3.5 million people living in poverty in, according to the Human Development Index, one of the best country's on the planet. Things could be a lot better a lot faster if we all get a little more involved. So there it is. The next move is yours, community...
Kevin Quinlan is Gregor Robertson's Executive Assistant - aka Press Secretary to the Mayor - which (fun fact alert!!!) is the same position that Gordon Campbell held when he got started in politics. Does this mean that Kevin will be Premier of BC one day? Yes, it absolutely does. But that's not what this article is about. It's about Kevin being a stand-up guy. If I happened to be the Executive Director of a Gentlemen and Scholars Club (which I may or may not be) I would totally invite Kevin. Like I said, he's a class act.
Kevin Quinlan is also called "KQ". He also likes dinner parties. So, tonight (May 22), some of The Gumboot's contributors will be hosting a "KQ" themed dinner party in honour of our friend - and the guy who may or may not be secretly running Vancouver - Kevin Quinlan. But who is Kevin Quinlan? Nobody really knows. Well, readers, today is your lucky day, because I have created a Mad Libs-esque dinner-party-script for you to copy, paste, print, and perform; we (and you), the people, will get to decide who is Kevin Quinlan.
Hey, have fun with it!
- JCH
THE KEVIN QUINLAN MAD LIB
Everyone knew that Kevin Quinlan loved X-Files. But no one knew that he would ever actually be an X-File. One ______________ (adverb) evening, Kevin Quinlan was hustling through some last-minute __________ (noun) in the ____________ (noun). Suddenly, there was a __________ (sound) on the ___________ (noun). Kevin opened the __________ (same noun) and, before him were two ________________ (plural noun). "Come with us," they said (that's right, they talk). "There are some ___________ (adjective) paranormal occurrences that we need you to help us investigate." Kevin __________ (past tense verb) at them for __________ (number) seconds and then _____________ (past tense verb) the ___________ (adjective) ___________ (same plural noun) into the dark evening. But, Kevin soon discovered, nothing was what it seemed! The ___________ (same plural noun) were reall aliens from ___________ (name of planet). Aliens using their paranormal ____________ (noun) were about to ____________ (past tense verb), thought Kevin. And, sure enough, they __________ (same past tense verb) him for ____________ (number) hours. Not only that, they also _____________ (past tense verb) in a(n) __________ (adjective) way for ________________ (bigger number). It was _________________ (adjective)! Kevin had never ____________ (past tense verb) so much in his life. A few ____________ (unit of time) later, Agents Moulder and Skully showed up and took Kevin's _________________ (noun). Then they took his statement. And that is how Kevin Quinlan became an X-File, not to mention the biggest __________ (noun) in history.
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...
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” -Margaret Atwood
In the spring, at the end of the day, here in Vancouver, I smell like a lot of things: sweat, my perfume, the perfume from the girl next to me on the bus, teriyaki chicken, wet cement, soft water, coffee with milk, chlorine from the pool, car exhaust, pillow drool and fabric softener. The smell of dirt is noticeably absent from my “bouquet.” I think I’ve been getting little cues from the universe telling me this has to change; that I need to get a little more intimate with the dirt in this city.
This year, I was introduced to the Hindu Spring Festival of Holi – it’s the festival of colours. Holi fell on the full moon in February, before the vernal equinox this year. On that day, I was smeared in red; coloured powder wiped right across my face. Fires are lit during Holi, just as they are during Nowruz, the Iranian New Year celebrated on the first day of spring. The tinge of fire, black ashes left over, back into the dirt, back into the earth: these are the images and experiences that have welcomed me into spring this year.
I think it’s a good start to the season even if it’s not a clean one. It’s encouraging and it makes me want to add a little more soil to my smell. Getting in a little face time with dirt can be a tough thing when you live in a city. I’ve got access to a gymnasium floor, tiled pool and imported sand that lies next to the water along English Bay – but not vast amounts of good, clean dirt.
So, as my ode/resolution/promise to the spring of 2009, I’m going to try and pay a little more attention to dirt; where and how it competes with the city and whether the two can share a peaceful co-existence. I think I’ll start with the little bit of dirt that’s buried below the tree potted in the cement outside my apartment. Time to get down and dirty.
These days gangs are big news. Since January, 11 people have died by gun related violence. The shootings have thrown a spotlight (again) on the prevalence of gang living in our midst.
In the old days men like Lucky Luciano, Tony Soprano (yeah, I know he isn't real, but his character he plays is), Hal Bruce Porteous of the Hells Angels or local Indo-Canadian gang-star Bindy Johal led ethnic crews that shared a cultural and linguistic heritage. They may have dealt with outsiders, but membership and promotion came to only those "in the family". In the smash hit Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese sketches it out for through his character Henry Hill, who can never become a "made guy" on account of his Irish roots. The reasoning behind all of this was the shared community experience, based on ethnicity, ensured respect for the gangs core principles and protected against outside infiltration from cops or "others". Similar traditions were embedded into other gangs, be they Chinese, Russian, East Indian, Vietnamese, or Irish.
Nowadays, the big gang making many of the waves around the city is the UN gang. Modeled on the Italian Mafia with initiation inspiration taken from the Chinese Triads, this new gang has grown from a handful of Abbotsford high school friends into a potent criminal organization employing around 50-100 core members and hundreds of other associates in the space of a decade. They deal predominately in exporting and selling pot and cocaine, but also have been known to dabble in extortion, kidnapping, weapons trafficking and cross border drug trafficking.
What makes the UN gang so interesting, is their apparent departure from traditional single ethnic membership into a multicultural gang that recruits players of East Indian, Caucasian, Persian and Asian backgrounds. A recent picture of the gang published in 24 hours shows the diversity of their membership.
The UN gang's success in creating an organization that's able to connect its members through mutual interest (ie criminal interest) rather than blood. It's a good bet that their diversity has helped them penetrate a variety of communities that would otherwise be off-limits if they were a uni-ethnic gang. This type of multiculturalism is the darkside of building community. But its also interesting that it would come out of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, a place where we've had ethnic and cultural mingling for several generations. Will older style gangs embrace this new organizational model? Two generations from now, on the hit TV vid "Sopranos 2050" will Tony Soprano III defer to his made guy and conciliar Jon Ca Lee?
So there I was. With hundreds of others in line at the Commercial/Broadway Skytrain station. Waiting for the 99 B-Line to UBC. As per usual, when the bus filled up I stepped aside and waited for the next one to come, opening the way for hurried travelers to rush up and cram themselves into the accordion-connected rectangles.
And cram they did.
And then nothing happened. For about 10 minutes, nothing happened. The doors stayed open and the bus - now brimming with increasingly stressed commuters - stayed still. No one went anywhere.
And then another bus pulled up behind the first one; the full one; the stationary one. Still, nothing happened. Nobody went anywhere.
And then the second bus driver got out of the second bus. Looked around; looked confused. He got back in his bus.
Nothing happened.
People, given the curious circumstances, waited pretty patiently. And then something happened. The second bus driver, now perched keenly behind his steering wheel, honked his horn and beckoned to the three line-ups of people to come over and get in his bus.
Pandemonium ensued. Pan-freakin-demonium!
Line-ups, be-gone! Order, be damned! It was every person for themselves. As we rushed toward the second bus I found myself mockingly shouting, "People, there's gotta be a better way!" - a few of my busing brethren hesitated and, perhaps, reflected. But most of us just powered through the crowd. My subconscious might've just made a brilliant and distractivegambit, because not only did I get on the bus, but I got a seat!
And all this got me thinking about a conversation I had with a not-so-young man a month or so ago. We were talking about climate change, food security and if there is any hope for humanity. End of the world kinda stuff. He had (and still has) kids. So I asked him, "Given your bleak opinion of our future, what should we be teaching kids these days?" He paused thoughtfully: "How to grown their own food. And self defense."
Fair enough. And, this morning, I got a glimpse of what the future might hold for our communities.
This morning, the simple, every day order of a lineup crumbled so effortlessly at the honk of a horn and the wave of a hand. How are things going to go if/when less food comes into Vancouver than there are people who live here? The mettle of our communities will be tested on that day, my friends. What's your plan?
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