Police seize baby living amid drug paraphernalia in Surrey squalor - Vancouver Sun

METRO VANCOUVER — An eight-month-old baby boy was seized from a “disgusting” Surrey home last week after he was found among drug paraphernalia, cigarette butts and sharp objects, the RCMP reported.

Langley RCMP officers went to the house in the 15000-block of 88th Avenue on Friday to investigate a report of property stolen from a Langley home. Once inside, they found a baby crawling among paint balls and numerous tools.

Critical Mass Vancouver July 31, 2009 Part 8

Watching this video, it doesn't take long to notice that this isn't about biking, but about occupation of a critical transportation corridor, and on the Friday of a long weekend no less. Notice how they block both lanes of the bridge and stop in the middle of the bridge and hang out. This isn't about participating, but about exluding others, and incoveniencing the maximime number of people not in their camp.

What's even more amazing is that the current city authorities have taken the position that it is better to "avoid confrontation" with anarchists, than to maintain freedom of movement for law-abiding citizens. The police actually authorize unlawful behaviour rather that maintain order.

If the current city officials can't or won't maintain rule of law, citizens should find new ones that can and will. Otherwise the chaos and anarchy will spread.

Faulty argument - Letter to Editor - The Province

The police position that this evening's Critical Mass "protest" is "protected by Charter rights" is utter nonsense.

The Charter protects Canadians from governmental action which infringes fundamental freedoms and then only to the extent that the government action is not a reasonable limitation in a free and democratic society. Just what government action is it that is being protested?

Further, who gave the police the right to determine that a Charter right is at issue? Those judgments are reserved for the judiciary or elected officials.

The "blockade" of public streets is a violation of the law and it is not up to the police to decide which laws they will enforce or not. The police do not have the right to abrogate my entitlement to live in a society of laws.

Donald Jordan, Q.C., Vancouver

Cyclists' sense of entitlement excludes any respect for rules The Province

Rules are like kryptonite to cyclists.* Stop signs are there for amusement and "one way," apparently, means "any one way you wish."

Many of them don't wear helmets. The sidewalk is the same as the street. And I swear, if I ever saw a cyclist signal a turn I would drop dead in gobstruck shock.

All this is nothing new.

Vancouver cyclists have always had a difficult relationship with rules.

3,000 cycle city streets en masse

Gregor Robertson appealed to Critical Mass to help him get elected, took part in rides - Vancouver Sun

That's Gregor Robertson on the far left during a "critical mass" ride in 2008, today the city of Vancouver's mayor. It's no wonder anarchy is free to run amoke with mayors kike this. These guys will do anything to be elected.

Statement from Vancouver police regarding Critical Mass protest - Vancouver Sun

Gnarled but glorious - National Post

Of course there is plenty of beauty left in Vancouver. Which is why I am so determined to draw a line in the sand against the spreading decay. One such bright spot is a most unusual tree located directly in front of my residence. So unique, that the National Post decided to run an article about it today.

Walking home one night last week, we paused beside our favourite tree. A strange and gnarled beast.

It's hard not to stop and stare. The tree is an anomaly; there's not another like it in the neighbourhood, not even in tree-haven Stanley Park next door. Continued....

False Creek North man alleges attack by shelter users - MetroNews Vancouver

Magnet for mayhem in False Creek North - Vancouver Sun

Mayor Robertson's homeless shelters are an ill-considered failure that has left a neighbourhood in chaos

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson's bold social experiment to open two no-barrier shelters in False Creek North is a prime example of how not to approach the homeless problem. Not only did the mayor fail to inform residents that the shelters were opening, but he situated the shelters within metres of a pre-school, daycare and seniors' residence with little regard for the consequences.

In months, the shelters transformed the once peaceful neighbourhood into chaos. Instead of these "no-barrier" shelters bringing in homeless people with shopping carts and pets not allowed in conventional shelters, the facilities have become a magnet for drug dealers, prostitutes and petty criminals.

False Creek North residents routinely witness people using and dealing illegal drugs (crack-cocaine and heroin) and carrying weapons. Residents have been intimidated, threatened and assaulted. We've seen prostitution, public sex acts, malicious vandalism, theft, and our properties used as dumping grounds for used syringes, condoms and human excrement requiring that the shelter alley be hosed down nightly.

In 12 years of living in False Creek North, I have never seen such disturbing sights. Residents no longer feel safe in their own neighbourhood.

Gallery: Life by the HEAT shelter on Howe - Vancouver Sun

A series of photos taken on July 16, 2009 around the Howe Street HEAT shelters.



























A homeless individual uses the sidewalk as a toilet in this, one of a series of photos taken on July 16, 2009 around the Howe Street HEAT shelters.














A man smokes from a crack pipe in this, one of a series of photos taken on July 16, 2009 around the Howe Street HEAT shelters.

Helter shelter - 24 Hours Vancouver

Another good article by the Rebel with a Cause, this time about the hastly opened and closed homeless shelters that are hurting residents in the Granville Street bridge area. I love it when someone sticks up for the underdogs.

BRIDGE TO NOWHERE - Vancouver 24 hours

(Excerpt from July 9th issue: "From the big chair" by Alex Tsakumis (Rebel with a clause))

A mayor of Vancouver so wholly unable to process the damage he is doing; that his bovine defiance has destroyed any goodwill he brought into office; a man who will not consult on major projects with key city staff and cannot control the wing-nuts in his party to the detriment of the taxpayer; a man who does not know the embarrassment he is causing to the people of Vancouver by offering up initiatives that cannot work and the irreparable damage he is causing neighbourhoods en route.

Sound familiar?

Sam, you say?

No, my darlings: It’s St. Gregor, the sweaty huckster, who now wants you to believe an ill-conceived bridge across False Creek, to satisfy the cycling fascists, will only cost you $45 million (and not one call to planning or engineering ahead of time). Try at least $100 million. But remember how he said through the election that $30 million was too much? So, why the foolhardy Burrard Bridge trials then? Another wasted $1.5 million.

Your money is being thoroughly flushed into the Tidy Bowl surf, while the NPA sleeps straight to a Suzanne Anton mayoral run in 2011 (thanks to the collusion of the NPA Board) that will surely kill what’s left of the party after they are annihilated.

Just dig the hole now.

Excellent letter to the Editor today - Vancouver Sun

Jeremy Bentham would weep

The decline of a city following counterproductive practices is an unpleasant spectacle.

Recently, in addition to a startling upsurge in gangland killings, Vancouver has suffered from faulty management. The assuming of a billion dollars of debt to build housing for Olympic athletes who will occupy the structures for two weeks is one example. The decision to plant shelters for the homeless in residential areas, which then degenerate into cesspools of criminal and anti-social behaviour, is another. Depriving the congested and logistically vital Burrard Bridge of one lane for the benefit of a few cyclists is a further instance.

Perhaps the inspiration for City Hall entails an inversion of the Hedonic Calculus devised in the 18th century by Jeremy Bentham: Social policy aims to provide the greatest happiness for the greatest number. In Vancouver, the inversion results in the greatest misery for the greatest number, at the greatest expense.

Eric P. Levy

Vancouver

(Thank you Eric for this excellent letter!)

One bridge too many -- and too expensive - Vancouver Sun

A dedicated cycling-pedestrian bridge across Burrard Inlet has little hope of attracting traffic

Vancouver model shopping cart - real Beauty, Eh?

Homeless Hell Hole Below Science World - The Tyee

Judy Graves has spent the past dozen years touring Vancouver's dark parks, garbage-strewn alleys, and mouldy abandoned buildings. Graves, who co-ordinates the city's pioneering street outreach program, said the roughest place she's found yet is located directly beneath the glistening dome at Telus World of Science.

"This is the worst," Graves said as she led The Tyee on a tour of the murky labyrinth at the eastern edge of False Creek. "This is the place that scares me the most."

Resist 2010: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics. (LOW RES) from BurningFist Media on Vimeo.

Thinking outside the blue box

Alas, one man's music is another man's racket. Last month, Vancouver's engineering-services department asked city council to consider a bylaw amendment that would order businesses to put locks on commercial-waste containers to keep the binners out. Proponents of the measure say they are sick and tired of the noise and mess created by having so many people tramping through the alleys behind their homes and businesses at all hours.

Binners seek shop for cart repairs - (Victoria) Times Columnist

Article about how they want a repair shop for (stolen) shopping carts used by "binners" in Victoria. The legitimizing of illegal and disturbing behaviour. Great. Of course nobody even thinks about what the residents want. Nobody seems to wonder if residents actually WANT people trashing their neighbourhoods day and night...duh!

P.S.: There are some interesting comments by readers below the article.

Property crime's 'Ground Zero - The Province

That's the Downtown Eastside's status, police say, and it's an under-reported problem

British Columbia or Colombia? - The Economist

Organised crime brings fear to Vancouver’s streets

Gastown residents alarmed at recycling depot's relocation plans

These folks have every right to be worried. If the recycling depot moves across the street from where they live - their hood will become a living nightmare.

The best thing to do is to LOCK UP EVERY SINGLE GARBAGE BIN in the city.

Scroll down to the YouTube video posting of Hastings Street added February 17th. THAT is what this couple's street will look like if United We Can moves across the street.

City wants homeless in emergency shelters during Olympics - Vancouver Sun

A few minutes later, wondering how far I was from the office, I looked out the taxi window again. It was another city. Dozens of people stood in what looked like a breadline outside a shelter. At least 100 people sat or lay on garbage-strewn sidewalks. Surrounding buildings were boarded up. A skeleton of a woman was begging on the curb.

Had the Great Recession finally hit Vancouver? Had I been transported to Detroit?

Nope. Just another day in the Downtown Eastside, on East Hastings Street. First, I wondered if the people at Mercer had seen this. Then I wondered what our political leaders have been doing for the last five years.

Olympics highlight pressures on the city - Vancouver Sun Letters

On a recent Saturday night, I once again took the thought-altering drive through the Main and Hastings area of Vancouver. If anything, the situation looked worse than ever.

Last September, I took my second trip to New York City, the first being 40 years ago. In 1968, I couldn't believe what I saw -- street begging, bars on windows, people sleeping in doorways. Although that city has been cleaned up, Vancouver has now become what New York City was.

On my recent visit to Manhattan, tables were set up at various corners, with a vested attendant and a 40-litre plastic water jug for donations to the needy and homeless; those were the only places where passersby were encouraged to give money. Seattle's Pioneer Square had a booth for the same purpose the last time I was in that area.

The police presence (on foot) in New York was remarkable, frequent, friendly and effective. You could often see the squad captains talking to the officers, then dispersing patrols from the Times Square subway station. I felt safe on the subways I feared to ride in 1968. I went out alone (a 59-year- old woman) a few times in the evenings and felt perfectly safe. I would never do that in most downtown areas of Vancouver.

Little more than 10 months remain until our guests arrive for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It serves us not at all to pay later for what we don't do now, in human costs above all. Every one of us has a responsibility to help.

Don't let Main and Hastings as it is today be the memory that Olympics visitors take away.

Eileen Robinson

Pitt Meadows

Council's extravagance too much for taxpayers - Vancouver Sun Letters

Re: Free tickets for dignitaries?, March 24

You have got to be kidding me. The city of Vancouver may be on the hook for tens of millions of dollars for bad decisions on the Olympic athletes' village, merchants are out of pocket or out of business because of bad decisions on the Canada Line and the cost of security for the Olympics is nearing $1 billion. The fact that city council has approved spending $257,500 to buy Olympic tickets for visiting "dignitaries" tells me that these people have either no clue or no consideration for their citizens.

Paul Shuley

Port Coquitlam

Council's extravagance too much for taxpayers - Vancouver Sun Letters to Editor

Re: Sustainability should include taxpayers' ability to pay increases, Miro Cernetig, March 23

Miro Cernetig deserves much credit for his well-written and precise commentary of what is posing as leadership at Vancouver City Hall these days. This clean sweep that occurs every time there is a change of government is a practice that must end. It is both costly and unnecessary. Letting former city manager Judy Rogers go and paying her more than $570,000 was wasteful and showed a total disregard for taxpayers. And why would we have to pay former chief financial officer Estelle Lo some $450,000 when she left on her own? There's more than $1 million right there!