News
Morning Brew: An Axe
Scared residents still want temporary homeless shelters shut down. Aw, come on, watching the drug dealers and toy-dog walkers vie for bench space at Emery Barnes has made year two of life in Yaletown existentially bearable.
Meanwhile, Pivot has a petition going to save the shelters, which run out of funding at the end of this month.
B.C. issues first smoking-in-the-car-with-your-kid ticket. $109?? Come on, the guy was clearly under the influence of alcohol and far from framing any rational decisions. And any parent-smoker knows that a passenger side 13-year-old (not to mention drunkenness) causes cigarettes to light themselves. Have the police no mercy??
Plans for six new waste-to-energy plants around the Lower Mainland. "Instead of seeing garbage as garbage, we're seeing garbage as a resource that we can actually use." We of the Morning Brew firmly support said perspective. Only meta-Canwest-phorically, of course... burning our garbage is probably not the best idea.
Marijuana activist Tim Felger shunned by Abbotsford. I'm convinced this guy was hired to make Marc Emery seem intelligent. I mean seriously man. I still call dibs on that bike when it turns up at a police auction though.
ALERT: Two local reporters and three UBC studies confirm that Immigrants who speak English find better jobs. Meanwhile, cabbies and convenience store clerks continue to enjoy higher job security than Sun staffers, provide more for community than UBC Geographers. Literacy is so overrated...
Big piece from this month's Megaphone is now online: Eating Below the Poverty Line... "what if it's not the drugs? What if it's the poor diet day after day after day that's slowly killing people?"
Local Iranians sleepless and frightened for friends back home.
Surrey bank robber busted after passing the teller a note written on his own personal cheque.
The implications of eHealth. Your medical records are (finally?) going electronic. Forget about the higher powers having access to last night's facebook photos... how about the post-party gastric lavage and levofloxacin?
Some local love as Canadian Design Resource highlights the internationally acclaimed art of B.C. Bud. Just wait until they start cataloguing the endless amount of ecstasy emblems created here on the west coast.
So it looks like a "no-election caper" may have been pulled off by the "Parliamant Hill Gang" (that'd be Iggy, Thugsy, Frenchy, and The Stache...) Bill Tielemen would like to see an election this summer. Presumably because it's become a lot easier to drink on the job as a pundit on a blog. But seriously, did Thugsy break the law with last year's vote or what?
Canada's forest industry world's worst performer in 2008. Don't worry guys, I think I smell some new jobs over in the garbage-burning sector.
He saved a bear with CPR, but what's the fuss? Yeah yeah, just shut up and sign you movie deal weirdo. I mean honestly who's not always up for a good bear movie? I would also very much enjoy a t-shirt involving bear CPR.
The "preternaturally subtle" drypoint work of Milne & Hartman is on display at the Burnaby Art Gallery for another month and looks quite enticing.
The Straight also offers nice guides for summer arts and film festivals. Also a thorough roundup of music to avoid (folk fest, you're cool).
A textbook case of social neglect: the untimely death of Frank Paul.
photo courtesy of the ever wonderful Simon Clarke, in the BR flickr group
Discussion
14 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
"sticking homelessness right in these faces may be the best first step"
I have to agree with you on that one, but only if it's actual homelessness. If these places just offer an easy base of operations for the pushers, who then attract the stereotypes their business produces, isn't throwing this in faces counterproductive?
Sorry for the double-post, but this is an article for Morning Brew if I every saw one.
Ministry Removes Question from History Exam
that dog in the photo one of the cutest in vancouver ... i see the guy and his dog all the time ... either at waterfront, begging and the dog is exhausted .... or the guy's riding his bike and the dog is sprinting to keep up
take take take thats all poor people want to do in vancouver.
even when offered food, housing, a transit pass and some money to go on...its not enough.
why would it be when you can demand and get what you want.
poor people...in new clothes in vancouver...how can that be
make a lifetime out of demanding what you want.
even if you only get a little back, why bother to work to achieve on your own in handout vancouver
"poor people... in new clothes in vancouver... how can that be"
ever consider that poor people are wearing "new" clothes because there is a huge sector of society that buys excessive amounts of trendy clothing only to wear something a few times before seeing the next thing they "must have", then passing the barely worn onto thrift stores, charities etc.... i highly doubt the homeless are doing their shopping down robson st.
thanks yaletown for accepting half the degenerates that usually loiter outside my building all night @ Tinseltown that the police do nothing about.
i haven't seen 'rachel' around lately. she's a crack addict/dealer who's voice sounds like that fat gay guy from Independence Day mixed with the woman from Throw Momma From the Train (OWWWEEEEENNN) stirred in with a little Nancy Spungen shrieking. Normally she's outside my apt fighting all night over lighters and rock deals, in between coughing fits that sound like explosive forced vomiting that go on for hours (yes, hours).
Enjoy.
giselle:
that dog in the photo one of the cutest in vancouver ... i see the guy and his dog all the time ... either at waterfront, begging and the dog is exhausted .... or the guy's riding his bike and the dog is sprinting to keep up
The pups name is "Chomper" and he (his owner) was accused in the sun or province (front page) of blowing pot smoke in its face when in fact all he does is smoke cigarette butts.
think about it:
"poor people... in new clothes in vancouver... how can that be"
ever consider that poor people are wearing "new" clothes because there is a huge sector of society that buys excessive amounts of trendy clothing only to wear something a few times before seeing the next thing they "must have", then passing the barely worn onto thrift stores, charities etc.... i highly doubt the homeless are doing their shopping down robson st.
I have no problem with people dress in a fashion that makes them feel good about themselves but most of the trendy rejects go to the second-hand shops and the not-for-profit organization volunteers unfortunately.
its amusing how a couple of posts were assumptions made about the new clothes on homeless people.
yes, clothes new and used are given to lots of charities...excellent.
funny how no one commented about the other items brought up.
I mean why work for something when you can go from agency to agency in this town and get everything for free.
free food (did you know you can actually get a free hot meal every two hours in vancouver if you wanted)
free showers
free shelter
free clothes
free medical care
free transit passes
free hygiene supplies
hell, even free condoms
then people claim there still isn't enough handouts.
just demand what you want and feel is owed to you in vancouver and you can still then spend your days on the beach. lovely.
pathetic.
this pic makes me warm and sad...
tred:
its amusing how a couple of posts were assumptions made about the new clothes on homeless people.
yes, clothes new and used are given to lots of charities...excellent.
funny how no one commented about the other items brought up.
I mean why work for something when you can go from agency to agency in this town and get everything for free.
free food (did you know you can actually get a free hot meal every two hours in vancouver if you wanted)
free showers
free shelter
free clothes
free medical care
free transit passes
free hygiene supplies
hell, even free condoms
then people claim there still isn't enough handouts.
just demand what you want and feel is owed to you in vancouver and you can still then spend your days on the beach. lovely.
pathetic.
I fully agree but the main problem isn't just that all this stuff is available (their's a joke amongst the streeters, "you can't starve in Vancouver")to many people who would rather scratch their asses on the boardwalk then I fully agree, but the main problem isn't just that too much stuff is available (theirs a saying amongst the streeters, "you can't starve in Vancouver") to a lot of people who would rather scratch their asses on the boardwalk then look for a place to live or work, but also the fact that so many not-for-profit organizations in this berg (registered and unregistered) shoveling the goods out without much concern for what else is being done by other organizations. Its nuts, there are literally thousands of societies doing what ever the hell they want in Metro Vancouver with no governing or organizational insight into what is really needed out their by the three levels of government.
i remember seeing this guy on the street too, homelessness is a huge problem in vancouver, just look at our downtown east side where else in the world is the center of the street drug market directly across from the police station. Its pathetic..
JR
you can follow me on twitter
http://www.twitter.com/vancouverlimo
and I forgot to mention how many 'homeless' have cell phones.
don't forget the cell phones. lol
I saw Chomper tonight, and many other nights, and he was definitely stoned, not just 'exhausted'. There's a difference when the animal is completely non-reactive, and has glassed over red eyes. Really. That just isn't right.