Coal-end

Posted on February 4, 2010 by s||A

Last week I printed google-map directions from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Media Centre to their National Convention Centre. I then followed these directions.

At 10:23am, I left the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Media Centre/Convention Centre and using only the times and directions on the map from Beijing, I ended up at the point at which Stanley Park meets English Bay and the West End at 11:17 am.

The derive, or ‘drift’ was an essential method of urban exploration for the Situationist movement (1958-1971). A ‘drift’ is a day or multi-day long wander through a city, directionally random, yet with a strong focus on the poorer and thus more invigorated neighbourhoods. Psycho-geography is the method of recording such wanders, and involves the division of the city into non-cartographic sectors, based on such non-specific criteria as ambience, emotion, authenticity, and welcome. Today, many romantically-inclined urban aficionados might include these terms under the umbrella of ‘community’.

Coal Harbour is a distinct psycho-geographic community from the West End, and they are divided by Robson St.

COAL HARBOUR

The architecture and landscape of Coal Harbour are very authorized (read: planned + manicured), making a true ‘drift’ difficult, as the body is directed along a very specific set of paths and journeys
It is possible to have the awkward hallway you-go-this-way-I-go-that-you-go-my-way dodging game in the middle of cross-walk, with only two people present.
Coal Harbour is a place of hierarchical spectacle. This ranges from the spectacle of the mountains and the voyeurism of viewing people on the seawall from your glass tower; to the micro topography of the seawall’s successively higher grade of walking path, benches and bike path
Your presence in Coal Harbour on a weekday must be authorized: this can be demonstrated through: conference name tag, business suit, olympic dog-tag, construction vest and work boots, landscaping or rent-a-cop outfit. Servant or served, you cannot be neither without being actively observed and questioned by those with the correct clothing mix
North-south penetrations of the city are difficult, roadways, signs and pathways consistently direct you on the west-east axis

THE WEST END

Predominantly low-rise, residential architecture, combined with a few key commercial strips, filled with drift potential; alleyways, small streets and through-passages abound. A heterogenous built environment means the body is constantly intrigued by its’ surroundings
Also a place of spectacle, yet it is a dinner-theatre event to the formalized national opera house of Coal Harbour
Mobility scooters and/or short haircuts are requirements for inhabitation
Rent-a-cops take the time to coo at small babies, without looking askance at your loitering
Name tags are removed with care and stowed in re-usable shopping bags

The ‘drift’ is a non-judgmental journey, rather the experience is to simply allow situations to happen to you and you turn cause situations through your very presence. Based on these observations and your personal experience, what do you think of these nieghbourhoods’ psychogeographic feel, or community? Have you drifted before?

The Plight of the Republican Party

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Kurt Heinrich

SP back in the house?

It can’t be easy being a Republican these days.

Not only did you soundly lose the last presidential election, but you control neither the house nor the senate. Odd feeling for a party that’s previously controlled the legislature for nearly 12 years.

Now, with the recent passing of health care reform, many of the pillars of the right (like low taxes and many of the ubiquitous “family” oriented values) are increasingly coming under siege.

Often the feeling that your values and core principles are under attack can energize people. That’s where campaigns are born and what nurtures them into movements. And no movement is totally complete without a leader.

These days, American politics increasingly seem like a pitched battle between partisans of both sides. The Democrats have Obama at their helm.

But for Republicans, there is no such icon to rally around. One of the biggest problems is the difficulty of shoring up the party’s support on the one hand, and the general electorate’s support on the other. When the base of the party is composed of voters who hold similar values, that’s not a problem. But when your base is unaligned with the general sentiment of the times, you end up with someone like Sarah Palin.

Not so big an elephant anymore.

Palin doesn’t strike most observers as presidential smart (certainly not in the league of people like Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, or even George Bush Sr). She isn’t particularly charming either. But she does possess something many other more qualified candidates do not: name recognition and strong conservative values, which have both given her a growing power within the party’s grassroots.

Is she electable in a battle against the bright and shining hope? Not likely.

So who is? Let’s be honest – plenty of people. The problem is, many of the best candidates are continually being dragged to the right, forced to say radically conservative things and kowtow to the religious power-brokers of the party. This in spite of the fact that most Americans want more help from the government, not less, particularly in tough economic times like these. Afterall, when you lose your job (or are worried about losing your job) do you really want a government that says, “you’re on your own”?

And yet, many hardcore Republican activists refuse to recognize this vulnerability and ignore the fact that the farther right they drift, the farther they move from the average voters’ sentiment. As Globe and Mail writer Konrad Yakabuski writes:

No record of accomplishment is enough to compensate for a perceived failure to adhere to the most rigid conservative values. Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, might be considered a catch for any party. But Republican stalwarts have organized a campaign to thwart her bid to become the party’s Senate candidate in California in 2010.

Popular Florida Governor Charlie Crist has similarly become suspect in the eyes of the Republican base. It was bad enough that he initially supported Mr. Obama’s $787-billion (U.S.) stimulus package and has backed legislation to cap greenhouse-gas emissions. His worst faux pas, however, was hugging the Democratic President.

The photo of that embrace has become Exhibit A in the campaign to paint Mr. Crist as an ideological heretic and prevent him from winning the primary to become the Republican candidate for a Senate seat in next year’s midterm vote.

In the end, the inevitable forces of party politics are doing the Republicans a disservice. Disqualifying some of the best candidates before they even have a chance to run. Unless this is fixed soon, they’ll end up with Sarah Palin (or some right wing carbon copy come 2012. That’s not a winning proposition.

Montreal, Sleazy Politics, and the Sopranos (sort of)

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Kurt Heinrich

Montreal - the Jersey of Canada?

Well, the results are in and it turns out that just because you oversaw a regime replete with corruption in an election campaign dominated by headlines like: Quebec corruption crackdown yields 10 arrests, Montrealers say they won’t let systemic corruption stop them from voting, and Montreal Mafia controls 80 per cent of road contracts, whistleblower says doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be Mayor of Ville de Montreal for a third time.

That’s certainly the lesson learned by three time champ, Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay, who earlier this month clinched re-election in an extremely tight three way race with Vision Montreal leader Louise Harel and Richard Bergeron’s Projet Montreal. It certainly wasn’t a grand slam (Tremblay won with only 37.5 percent of the popular vote and lost several key candidates in the process) , but nevertheless he won. Now he says he is setting out to “regain the confidence” of voters.

The confidence issue he’s talking about tarred just about everyone seriously involved with a whole grocery list of corruption allegations. According to a recent Globe and Mail article published:

Among the allegations were reports of bid-rigging for lucrative road-work contracts by a clique of construction companies; Mob connections on key infrastructure projects; trips by Mr. Tremblay’s former right-hand man on a well-connected businessman’s luxury yacht; a contract for a new municipal water meter system that went scandalously over-budget and was ultimately cancelled; and shady corporate campaign contributions.

All of this makes for quite an interesting political “community” to run an election in. Kind of reminded me of what it might be like to run for councilman in Jersey in the fictional world of the Sopranos.

Tremblay promises to clean up corruption - just like Batman.

What’s most fascinating (and funny) to an observer like myself, is trying to contextualize it all in the Vancouver political community. Sure, we know the municipal political community (sans finance reform) is sort of like the wild west. But the idea of wise guys having sit downs with the likes of City Councillors or a certain Vancouver City Hall Press Secretary and threatening the life of Mayor Gregor Robertson is something beyond imagination.

Now with the election over, things are starting to get back to normal – sort of. There are currently several police probes under way and a growing amount of public pressure on Quebec Premier Jean Charest to launch a full fledged public inquiry into just how big an influence the mob has on the construction industry at the municipal and provincial levels.

My question though is just how could the political community in Montreal become so corrupt that all of this could happen?

More importantly, though, it made me thankful that we don’t have a similar issue with organized crime and municipal politics here on the West Coast (at least none that I know of).

BC’s Conservatives and Political Diversity in BC

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Kurt Heinrich

The implosion of political parties isn’t anything new to BC politics.

Over my lifetime, we’ve seen the total destruction of the Socreds and the near total destruction of the BCNDP a half a decade later here in BC.

All of this has left Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals sitting pretty on the centre right of the spectrum, unchallenged and secure in power in Victoria. But like any party, as they rule, they’ve slowly, but surely, managed to alienate many right wing voters who’d rallied to their cause in the early years due to total lack of options on the political right.

Hate the BC Liberals and their iron clawed fiscal management style? Fair enough. However, you’d be hard pressed to peg the leader (Mr. GC himself) as especially socially conservative fellow.

The Once Glorious Leader.

Enter Wilf Hanni – now former leader of the BC Conservative party – a upstart political entity loosely aligned with the Conservative Party of Canada.

That’s right – BC really does have a conservative party. Didn’t know they existed? Neither did I until fairly recently.

These folks are interesting. According to the party website, they’re in the game to: “strive for a province that is progressive for the benefit of all individuals. A long-term objective of self-sustaining government that does not rely on personal income tax for its operating needs.”

How this conservative crew plans on offering health care or a decent educational system without income tax is beyond me – but perhaps that’s the point. If you’re rich and aren’t paying taxes, what do you need public education for?

Anyway, Hanni has a past you’d expect of a conservative politician occupying, not the centre right, but the right of the political spectrum.

He’s a former leader of the Reform Party of BC and oil industry consultant. In 2006, he was elected to lead the BC Conservative Party. At that time the BC Conservatives were about as well known as the Nude Garden Party. They lacked just about everything (organizers, funding, big name endorsements, grassroots members) that a contending political organization requires to make a good showing in the polls. Unsurprisingly, they went on to lose the next election badly. However, despite their defeat, they managed to triple the number of votes they got this time around.

However, only a few months after their latest defeat, fearless leader Hanni himself decided to take off, bringing what seems like half the organization’s board of directors with him. That’s bad news for any organization, but for a fledgling political party, a split like that can be devastating. Hanni references personal and political differences and an inability to work with some of the more uncompromising elements of his party. This regularly seems to be the case with many fringe parties.

To be perfectly honest, I’m very disappointed in this news. Not because as some might think (I’m looking at you co-editor) I’m a closet conservative. No, my disappointment is rooted in a somewhat more convoluted reason.

For one thing, having more legitimate, rather than fringe choices is a good thing in a democracy (ie. It’d be great to see more/any BC Greens in the legislature). More importantly though, I’d hoped that if BC had a real right wing party, the BC Liberals might be persuaded to becoming a bit more, well, “liberal”. That’s the dream anyway, one which seems to be becoming more of a pipe dream than anything else. Ultimately, as long as the centre and right wing of BC politics remain united, Mr. Campbell’s BC Liberals will continue to shy away from a progressive agenda. Afterall, when your cart works fine, why re-invent the wheel?

Despite all this I continue to hold out hope that one day fortune or backroom deals (either one, I’m not too picky) will yield a bit more diversity in our political community. That’d be a good thing for everyone.

Libraries, Literacy, and Community

Posted on August 23, 2009 by Michael Boronowski

Literacy, both reading-and-writing and community literacy, are critical components of a strong community.

Informed discussion, enlightened imagination, and literal comprehension are the pillars of an active and engaged people. They enable organization, planning, and debate; all of which are critical to a healthy and functioning society.

Public Domain - Vancouver Public Library 04

CC publicdomainarts on flickr

It is difficult to overstate the importance of libraries and literacy.

While it is true that communication tools have led to improved access to information, the effectiveness of that access in terms of promoting local community development and community literacy is greatly diminished by the quest for monetization and the decentralized and isolated nature in which we receive it.

One of the great defining aspects of libraries, beyond providing access to a wealth of information, is that they are communal in nature. Scan the offerings at your local library and you will find activities, courses, support, services, and events that help build strong communities at a grassroots level.

Helping parents raise literate and informed children, helping students and teachers with research and access to information, and opening our eyes to publications from around the globe that provide insight into every aspect of our lives. All provided not for profit, but for our collective good.

Libraries serve as a critical grounding during a time where we are all-to-easily distracted by links of the day, explosions on television, and celebrity gossip publications.

They reveal and support the best in us all. The loss of any of these services would be detrimental to our communities, yet at the moment we find that loss a very real possibility.

BC provincial public libraries have not yet received their 2009 annual operating grants from the provincial government, nor have they been told how much money they will be receiving – both of which usually happen earlier in the fiscal year. There have been strong indications that the Province has decided to stop funding libraries and that this funding may be cut from the current and subsequent budgets.

http://www.stopbclibrarycuts.ca/public.htm

With articles in community publications across the province, the reaction to this holdback by media points to the importance of libraries to our communities.

Hopefully that coverage leads to informed debate and action that results in a long-term plan to support libraries and the communities of British Columbia.

It’s our chance to support those that support us, to bring positivity to a political debate that is all-too-often debased with uninformed comment, and to steer our representatives towards a very real way they can support the communities from whence they came.

You can find out more about what funding means to British Columbia’s libraries, and how you can become engaged through the British Columbia Library Association. If you’re interested they have an official response and list of other resources as well.

You Get What You Pay For

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Kurt Heinrich

A burden we all need to carry.

Right now there is an uproar over the provincial government’s plan to introduce HST. The plan is to harmonize provincial sales tax with GST bringing PST into a whole bunch of industries (restaurants, grocery stores among others) which had up to this point avoided them.

Business points to this new tax and scream about layoffs and jacked up consumer prices.

The NDP is rallying signatures. Editorials are lamblasting the Premier. People are griping to each other about how a) stupid and b) unfair the whole tax is.

What gets me about all of this is the seeming disconnect people have about why the HST is being introduced int he first place.

Taxes, as any political strategist (or person on the street for that matter) can tell you, aren’t popular. Why do governments bring them in? Because they can’t afford to supply the existing level of services (read education, health care, transportation infrastructure, etc) without a larger source of revenue.

Right now, BC, like the rest of the world, is in the midst of a recession. Profits are down, people are making less money and spending less of it. That means all sorts of traditional government taxes aren’t generating income like they used to. Yet at the same time, there aren’t fewer people going to the doctor (like is probably the case in the US’s privatized system) nor fewer people riding transit or going to school.

Canada and British Columbia have a terrific education system, and despite a lot of griping about hospital lines and other medical headaches, one of the best health care systems in the world. I don’t know about you, but I want to keep it that way and (ideally) continue to improve it. You don’t do that with less money – you do it with more money.

So when the provincial government looks at the balance sheet at the end of the fiscal year, they’re in an unpleasant conundrum: Keep services the same and yet somehow do so with withering profits. How can they do this? This simple answer is they can’t – at least not without figuring out a new revenue source.

Enter the HST.

While unpleasant, this new tax will go a long way to adding billions of dollars to the budget. In the end that will mean fewer cuts to the core services we all value. And that’s a good thing.

Progressive Community Eats its Own

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Kurt Heinrich

These days things are starting to heat up with the coming provincial election. Both the NDP and BC Liberals are campaigning like mad. While Gordon Campbell champions his environmental policy and economic plans in the oil and gas sector up north, Carol James is lampooning the controversial carbon tax, trying to wave it around like the red flag of a mantador in front of the bullish voter.

It’s a wedge issue for many voters in rural ridings and one the NDP is hoping to exploit. They were certainly making head-way with their “Axe the Tax” campaign last year, though the boiling rage of voters of yester-year when oil prices were at all time highs and the sting of the tax was still initially being felt, has not (yet) returned.

Enter Tzeporah Berman. A well known activist and greenie, Berman was one of the key activists at Claquot Sound as well as the executive director of PowerUP Canada and a cofounder of ForestEthics. You’d think her credentials as a environmentalist couldn’t be in doubt. And they weren’t, at least not until Berman wrote an email to Carol James accusing the NDP of using climate change and the environment in a hypocritically political way. The response online hasn’t been pretty.

Like many environmentally minded people, Berman has become quite frustrated by the NDP’s attempt to capitalize on the green revolution while avoiding making any political sacrifices. The Liberals, love em or hate em, took a hit when they brought in the carbon tax, and while nobody (except the liberal spinners) say its the be all and end all, it is a big step in the right direction.

Meanwhile the NDP say they have a better idea. Cap and trade. Why? Because “working families (read: rural drivers) are bearing to much of a burden. Ok, fair enough. So bring in something in addition to the carbon tax. But don’t come to a voter like me and say, its all about the environment and then in the same breath pitch me with the “axe the tax” catchphrase.

By far the worst part of all this is the fissure the environmental issue is creating in the lefty political camp. Increasingly it is becoming apparent that many in the labour movement (not all by any stretch though) don’t share many of the values of the greenie urban dwellers that used to vote predominately NDP. This tension, and the frustration it has elicited, has manifested itelf in a fairly strong worded attack on Berman and her credibility, pilliaring her as an NDP traitor and sell out to Campbell, BC liberals, and even the oil/gas companies. BC’s Patrick Moore has been one comparison that has been bandied around.

Unfortuntately, the reality of the situation is much more complex. Berman can be an environmentalist and a supporter of the carbon tax. The two, in fact, go quite well together. She can also be a supporter of the carbon tax and a progressive at the same time. This is something it’d be important for many to remember, particularly those hoping to take the orange and blue flag to Victoria in May.

In the end, it seems to me the more environmental measures the better. Carbon tax? Good. Cap and trade? Great. Rather than campaigning to destroy the tax, the NDP would be more diligent to campaign on augmenting it with a better system (if that’s really what they want). But then, that might not play so well in the polls, now would it.

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