Finally !! SOMEBODY in the media get's it right - places blame where it lies

And it comes as no surprise to me who it is - Alex G. Tsakumis Rebel With a Clause

"BREAKING NEWS: The Police Were Badly Outnumbered–Gregor Robertson’s Stanley Cup Riot, Christy Clark’s Facilitation, Jim Chu’s Unprepardeness–AND PENNY BALLEM MUST BE FIRED!"

Fire Mayor Robertson!

This riot was completely predictable and in large part, preventable. It happened in 1994 and the Mayor Gregor Robertson should have known there was a good chance this would happen if the Canucks lost and taken steps to protect the city by bringing in more law enforcement. He did not, and the result is hundreds of injuries and millions of dollars in damaages and a big black eye for the city of Vancouver.

When are the citizens of this city going to wake up to the fact that Mr. Robertson is not here for Vancouver, but for himself and that he is dangerous for Vancouver? What's it going to take for citizens to realize it?

For more insight into the character of this man, scroll down to the post July 13, 2010, and get a load of how our good mayor behaves when he doesn't think he is being recored by the press. Vancouverites need to give their heads a shake and replace this mayor ASAP.

Mob beats man trying to quell riots in downtown Vancouver

This is one of the most disturbing and disgusting sights from the riot. Here is what an ugly, violent mob looks like.

Mob beats man trying to quell riots in downtown Vancouver Read it on Global News: Mob beats man trying to quell riots in downtown Vancouver

The Big One: Are we next? - March 18, 2011 The Star.com

By Mary Ormsby Feature Writer

Canada’s West Coast will be cleaved, crushed and submerged by an earthquake and tsunami similar to the twin disasters that decimated parts of Japan.

It could happen today. Or 100 years from now. One certainty: It will be The Big One.

“Statistically, we’re about due,’’ says Stephen Johnston, professor of tectonics at the University of Victoria’s school of earth and ocean sciences.

The frequency of The Big One is about every 300 to 500 years on the West Coast; the last one was in 1700. Despite cutting-edge science, earthquakes cannot be easily predicted, says Johnston.

“We had the Chilean earthquake last year, the Sumatran earthquake on Boxing Day 2004 and we, on the West Coast, are waiting for the Cascadia subduction zone to rupture in the same fashion,” the geologist says.

Continued, click on title

Updated Earthquake Maps Show Fault Lines Run into BC - April 2008

Two British Columbia fault lines running south of Abbotsford and south of Victoria could potentially cause earthquakes measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, according to a new study released by U.S. seismologists.

Political blogs: Fair commentary, or just plain nasty?

Political blogs: Fair commentary, or just plain nasty?

Righteousness trumps reason

Righteousness trumps reason

It's 4 p.m. on a rainy Monday. From my perch on a Starbucks stool near the corner of Dunsmuir and Hornby, I have seen exactly one bicycle pass in the last 10 minutes. The bike lane is perversely reminiscent of Moscow's limousine lanes, which were reserved for the use of party apparatchiks as they rushed in their limos to the Kremlin. The great Russian masses had to bottleneck down the remaining pavement.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/letters/Righteousness+trumps+reason/3614613/story.html#comments#ixzz11K75gNo7

Potty mouthed Mayor Gregor Robertson

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.