Morning Brew: January 7th

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Filed in News
January 7, 2008

Unfortunately, Homeless still a story in 2008. But don't worry, they'll all be gone by 2010. We just need to be patient.

East Side hotel evictions worry housing advocate. "When we took over, it was basically a one-hour motel". Um, bullshit Mr. Cohen. It was a boutique hotel designed by local artists, and you also threw out their art work, in some cases, worth thousands of dollars. (George Vergette)

As promised, the knee jerk reaction to the crack mouthpiece story: Our drug addicts need real treatment, not mouthpieces for their crack pipes. "Would you cross the street to give a drunk a clean shot glass? Of course not". So, none of our tax dollars go into harm reduction of alcohol? Drunk driving counter attack? And when was the last time you got AIDS from a fucking beer bottle? Update: "Free crack pipes send wrong message. Why not free taxi for alcoholics, patch for smokers?" Those are both great ideas.

Meanwhile West Side residents hope to drop kick drop-in centre. "Clausen and her neighbours want a cafe or other businesses established on the lower floors of the development that would provide 70 units of social housing. They believe a drop-in centre proposed for the site would concentrate too many mentally ill people in one place". You mean like Yaletown?

Activists attack NPA-dominated school board. What a disappointing headline. Here I was hoping for some awesome violence and its just a blog.

Meanwhile Canwest's love affair with Sullivan continues. "Sam Sullivan proposed to his childhood sweetheart, Lynn Zanatta, while on holiday in Italy". That's about the only thing he's likely to get done this year.

If this is such a great place, why aren't we happier?. Oh you can't use logic Paul, it doesn't work here.

Does Edmonton have a Pickton?

'The Wire': Made for Us?: HBO show seems wired in on BC headlines. Especially with the ports. I mean, you get all these pundits crying about crackheads when nobody seems to care that we're pumping cocaine through our port like it was Alberta Wheat.

Vancouver port's cruise business growth likely to slow down in '08. Good thing we just went 3 times over budget expanding the Convention Centre. Maybe we can use it to store all the coke.

Whatcom County submitting multi-million dollar Olympic security budget. Why does Bellingham need more security than us? Actually, I wouldn't mind bombing Bellis Fair either.

U.S. housing meltdown may be getting bad rap. Am I crazy or did this "journalist" just use 50 Cent as an example of how the US Sub Prime mortgage crisis; the biggest threat to the American Economy since the Dot Com bubble burst, is not really all that bad? Am I on drugs?

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Is BR the Sean Orr blog now?

Posted by: softball at January 7, 2008 8:35 AM | Quote Comment

The rationale for crack pipe distribution isn’t nearly as solid as that for subsidized needle exchanges i.m.h.o. Last time I checked the stats, crack pipes as a vector for HIV transmission were pretty marginal (and even those numbers were questionable, since crack pipe usage often occurs in tandem with other high-risk behaviours). And there’s nothing preventing “free” crack pipes from becoming broken and/or being shared once they’re in circulation. Moreover, the ready availability of free crack pipes, combined with their on-site promotion by health workers, will almost certainly interfere with individual efforts to stay clean. I’m open to being convinced, however, but we shouldn’t pretend that these programs are beyond question. And the term “harm reduction” is being prostituted way too indiscriminately by some people. I noticed Andrew Sullivan is even citing “harm reduction” to promote sero-sorting as a community-wide HIV-prevention method for gay men. Go figure.

Posted by: Lee at January 7, 2008 9:02 AM | Quote Comment

@softball

No kidding! I was wondering wtf happened to all the other content/posts/updates/etc. It's weird - every 2-3 months there is a post asking for contributors (of which they've never responded to my replies) and now nothing? They can't get anyone to write another update? What's the point? I'd rather go read Sean elsewhere and not have to worry about freaking BMW adverts.

Posted by: Anonymous at January 7, 2008 9:16 AM | Quote Comment

I'll second that. Morning Brew is BR. Move it Sean. Get your own ad revenue. Budgie's ? Moustache & Darling ? Six Acres ? Either that or get them to give you total control of BR.

Posted by: beckett at January 7, 2008 9:25 AM | Quote Comment

I'll third that... or fourth it... whatever :P

Posted by: Rebecca at January 7, 2008 10:06 AM | Quote Comment

Hey Sean,

Nice work..you're killing it.

Posted by: Matt at January 7, 2008 12:13 PM | Quote Comment

I enjoy almost all the content on Beyond Robson and would like to read more of the other writers – and not less of Sean. I don't think he should be slammed for being prolific – correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Morning Brew a daily news round up anyways?

Posted by: Sage at January 7, 2008 12:31 PM | Quote Comment

lol @

"They believe a drop-in centre proposed for the site would concentrate too many mentally ill people in one place". You mean like Yaletown?"

Posted by: Chris at January 7, 2008 12:38 PM | Quote Comment

I agree with Sage. Keep up the good work Sean, I like reading your stuff. And to the rest of the BR writers: where the heck are you?? how 'bout a post or two?

Posted by: lori at January 7, 2008 12:54 PM | Quote Comment

My comment wasn't meant to be a slam against Sean. It was an observation about the complete lack of diversity on BR now. There used to be a roster of ten or so frequently-posting writers here... now it just seems to be Sean posting these days (what happened to Degan et al? Did they quit? Forced to leave?)

Posted by: softball at January 7, 2008 1:14 PM | Quote Comment

I totally agree - Sean's carrying the whole load & seems to be the only one keeping this website alive & moving. I hope he keeps up the output, but I also would like to see other contributors contributing more regularly as well. What's up with that? Sean?

Posted by: Lee at January 7, 2008 2:45 PM | Quote Comment

You go girl!

But seriously, I was wondering about that myself. Then again, the only reason I hit up BR is for MB and the contrast it provides against all the Westender/Georgie Straight-lite Vancouver boosterism.

Posted by: christopher o at January 7, 2008 3:05 PM | Quote Comment

For those commenting about the recent lack of diversity on BR, your comments are totally valid. I personally felt (and my feelings were echoed my many others) that the quality of the writing on the site had slipped in the last 6 months of 2007.

As such, over the last few weeks we've had almost a complete turnover in our editorial and writing team. Sean, who's been with BR longer than anyone, is one of the few writers from 2007 that remain. I'm currently in the process of looking for a new team of writers and editors to help BR live up to the potential of what it can be.

You can find my original post about this here:

http://beyondrobson.com/announcements/2007/12/do_you_want_to_be_part_of_the_new_beyond_robson/

Tim

Posted by: Tim at January 7, 2008 9:24 PM | Quote Comment