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Steve Nash’s Energy Efficient Community

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During the month of October, youth in BC have an opportunity to Save Like Steve.

Once again, my main man Steve Nash shows what it takes to build community.

As discussed many, many, many times by the contributors to this blog, Steve Nash is the greatest. His resume already boasts job titles such as NBA superstar, entrepreneur,  philanthropist, film director, professional sports team owner, and now he’s adding to the list the role of badass Energy Waste Detective.

Steve’s collaboration surrounding BC Hydro’s Pocket Waste Buster App sees him playing the role of a mustachioed, 1970s-style detective who solves crimes against energy efficiency. Here are a couple of teaser trailers from the project:

Once again, Steve Nash reveals himself to be a spokesperson for noble environmental causes. In addition to wearing the world’s first basketball shoe made out of recycled materials, he’s championing one of our community’s most important causes in a downright edutaining way. Oh, and people can win fabulous prizes by participating in the contest.

Thanks, Steve, for helping us save energy and have fun at the same time.

Masthead photo courtesy of Steve Punter.

A Vancouver Transportation Story

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For my post this week I was originally going to write about the concept of reputation, with a particular focus on Lebron James and his classless, drunk-on-ego Superfriends performance (filtered nicely through the thoughtful lens of two heroes, Alexandra Samuel and Steve Nash). And then I was going to argue that rural living is superior to urban living in every way. And then I was going to discuss the ridiculousness of how 90% or more of medical, financial, delivery, and professional services operate on a 9-5 time line, which is exactly when most of their clients are working.

But that all changed after an epic 99 B-Line bus ride from Commercial Drive to UBC.

Here is the Cast of Characters who made up our commuter community today:

The Bus Driver of Bus Number R8061: a fortysomething man clad in a hipster hat and in possession of a pocketful of righteousness.

Broadway Bike Rider: a woman dressed all in black, wearing a helmet, fearless, full of conviction.

Jack Sparrow with a Bicycle: nice guy, we chatted logistics as we put our bikes on together at Commercial Drive (mine went on first because I was getting off at UBC)…and he looked like a pirate.

Thoughtful Young Commuter: glasses, short haircut, clever looking backpack: everything about the kid looked smart.

Engaging Senior Citizen: a very “big picture” thinker who tried to find common ground amongst our Wednesday morning commuter community.

The Chorus: the background opinions and verbosity that echoed the primary dialogue and also piped up to fill the heavy silences.

It happened exactly like this, more or less:

Suddenly, there was a fierce braking by the driver followed by a long, loud, incessant honk of the horn (not me, the bus’s horn).

“You’re in the middle of the lane!” said the Driver.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” said Jack Sparrow. “What are you doing?! That was not right. You’re only a foot and a half away from her! Jesus. You could’ve killed her.”

“She’s gotta share the road,” replied The Driver.

The Chorus: “What happened? What happened?”

“She is sharing the road,” spat Jack Sparrow.

“She’s in the middle of the lane. It’s a bus lane,” spat back The Driver.

“You might not agree with what she’s doing,” piped up Thoughtful Young Commuter (TYC). “But that’s no way to deal with it. What if your brakes failed? Hell, what if one brake failed? You would’ve run her over.”

“Look. Right there. It says ‘BUS AND BIKE LANE’!” pointed Jack Sparrow.

The Chorus: “Did you see it? Did you see it? Should we just call Translink or the police, too?”

The bus pulls up to the stop sign.

“Hey! You can’t take up a whole lane. It’s for buses,” The Driver shouted out the window to the Broadway Bike Rider (BBR), who was on his left. “Share the road.”

The light turns green and the BBR sped out in front of the bus. As she rode, the BBR pointed to the “Bus and Bike Lane” signs that dotted the street every 15-20 meters. Interesting.

Honking continued.

“They shouldn’t have a shared bike and bus lane. It causes problems like this one right here,” the Engaging Senior Citizen (ESC) contributed to the discussion, which was very lively at this point.

“Fine, honk at her when she’s 100 meters away, that’s fine,” Jack Sparrow was coaching The Driver on proper techniques. “Keep your distance. Fine. Let her know you’re coming and use the other lane to swing out and go around her.”

“She’s not sharing the road,” repeated The Driver.

“Look, she’s allowed to ride three feet from the curb. It’s her right,” said TYC.

“Okay, here, look to your left. Just pull out into the next lane – even just a little bit – and pass her. See, it’s just that easy. No need to act the way you’re acting, man.” The Driver was steering, but Jack Sparrow was pretty much driving the bus.

Red light. The doors fly open and the BBR finds herself – yet again – to be the target of The Driver’s verbal barrage.

“This is a lane for buses. You can’t ride in the middle of it. Get out of the road before something bad happens,” yelled The Driver.

“The sign clearly says it’s a bike and bus lane. We share it. You can go around me easily,” yelled back the BBR.

“So share it,” retorted The Driver.

The Chorus: “Why isn’t she riding on tenth? It’s a bike street. This guy is an asshole! I’d be riding in front of the bus too if he tried to hit me. What? Do you want to get run over by a bus?”

Dramatic re-creation of the Character "Jack Sparrow...on a bike"!

“There shouldn’t be a shared lane for bicycles and buses,” offered the Engaging Senior Citizen. “It doesn’t make any sense. Especially on Broadway.”

“[INSERT SEVERAL EXPLETIVES HERE],” expressed Jack Sparrow. “You’re encroaching on her! You’re pushing her against the curb!”

Sure enough, the 99 B-Line was inching ever so slightly on an angle towards the curb. Out of the corner of my eye I notice a cyclist on the sidewalk – on the wrong side of the road – weaving through pedestrians. A wry, ironic smile creeps across my lips.

“Do you understand what you’re doing?” asked TYC. “What do you think this is doing to the rider? She’s getting scared. You’re making her an enemy of buses. Stop it now. You’re already in enough trouble. Just stop it.”

Exiting Chorus Members on their phones: “Yeah, the bus number is R8061…”

“You need to get out of the bus lane!” chided the unrelenting Driver, mostly to himself, as the doors were now closed.

“[INSERT MORE EXPLETIVES]!” Captain Jack Sparrow was getting close to vigilante justice. “You’re a terrible person and I hope you lose your job for this.”

Away went the BBR, ahead of the bus, continuing to point at the bus/bike lane signs. The Driver, as he held down his horn, moved out around the cyclist, back into the bus/bike lane, and continued along Broadway (later he would produce another long, angry horning, but it was because of a confusedly-parked driver and, folks, that’s another story for another time). The Driver – clearly – was having a very  bad day.

THE END

Vancouver is an interesting place to cycle (and, apparently, take the bus!). In the past year the city’s built landscape has changed a fair bit because of the bike-friendly creations on the Burrard Street Bridge and the Dunsmuir Viaduct. These things are supposed to make cycling safer. And we’re supposed to be future-living in the world’s greenest, most bicycle-oriented city. Or at least that’s the idea.

In the past few weeks one of my pedaling friends was hit by a car and another was hit by pavement after avoiding a car. This year I’ve seen half-a-dozen sprawled-out, injured cyclists at the horrible Clark-and-Tenth intersection, too. And then there’s Kurt Heinrich, whose casual cycling through stop signs and traffic lights has earned him over $300 in tickets. I confront annoying sidewalk-bike-riders on Commercial Drive nearly every time I go outside. And then there’s this – the above tale of a very overzealous bus driver. No matter how you spin or slice it, cycling is a messy business here in Vancouver.

So there it is. This story is just part of the larger fabric. And I bet ten more just like it pop up in your lives by the end of the week.

-  JCH

Lessons in Community from…Phoenix?

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On Saturday night $teve Ca$h and the Phoenix Suns were ousted from the playoffs in game six, after a hard fought and competitive series with the LA Lakers. $teve, who if you haven’t already guessed by the mildly humorous dollar sign usage – is what the kids call “cash money”, renewed his contract in 2009 with Phoenix a relatively small NBA market.

Many speculated the $teve would test the free agent waters and sign with a New York or Cleveland where he would lay the foundation for a big market championship run. Na$h now reaching the twilight of his career, surprisingly opted to stay with his Phoenix franchise despite the long-shot odds of the Phoenix Suns making a championship run.

Why? Community. In 2009, after extending his contract Na$h stated:

“I really love Phoenix, being a part of this community and the fans have been fantastic for me… Obviously, you want to win a championship but chasing that can be really fleeting and it’s a much more stable and challenging outlook to be a part of group that you really love and enjoy. All of those things greatly outweigh the search for a title somewhere else.”

After Saturday’s elimination loss $teve echoed those comments, referring to community as the catalyst to make the “whole greater than the sum of its parts”. And the Phoenix Suns achieved that this season. Pre-season odds had them fighting for just a taste of the first round of the playoffs, instead the Suns finished with a 54-28 record, 3rd overall in the Western Conference.

How did $teve build such a community of overachieving high-performance? While there isn’t a single reason, lets start with being a model for teamwork.

$teve Ca$h is a leader who generates an atmosphere of friendly collegiality and is a model of respect, helpfulness, and generosity to the greater good. This energy draws others into active, enthusiastic commitment to the collective effort, and builds spirit and identity. This community identity is an incredible motivator in the face of challenge and adversity. Knowing that everyone around you is in support of each other and in support your well-being is the foundation of trust that every great community is built on. As community builds there comes an understanding that the relationships you forge beyond the simple task obligations, and ties are cemented into family bonds. It is these ties that fuel individuals to push beyond their perceived limits for the good of the whole.  These bonds are what $teve placed ahead of million dollar raises and championship chances in 2009.

“All the clichés really are true” $teve said. “You can be greater the sum of your parts”.

Canada’s Crush on Steve Nash

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Are you like me? Do you love Steve Nash?

Sure, people said that he looked “confused” during the Vancouver 2010 Opening Ceremonies, but I’ll tell you where he doesn’t look confused: on the basketball court, where he is averaging over 11 assists and 18 points per game at the age of 36. As it turns out, he also isn’t really confused behind the camera (and only sometimes in front of it, too, like when hydraulics malfunction). For you see, it is this kind of multi-dimensional awesomeness that makes Steve Nash, well, one of the coolest Canucks there’s ever been.

nash

Steve Nash, in my opinion, is the greatest person on the planet a cool guy because of four main reasons. Here they are:

1. Athleticism across several sports. Basketball is certainly where he makes his mad chedda, yo, but Nash is also a world class soccer player, bicycle rider, runner, surfer, hockey player, and, yes, dancer of the robot.

2. Entrepreneurial Savvy. Fast Company’s cover story about Nash is called “Transition Game” and it outline’s the point guard’s uncanny ability to see and predict change in the most confident of ways. Off the court, according to Fast Company’s Chuck Salter, this wasn’t always the case: “Nash was a camera-shy and endorsement-averse pro even as he became an all-star; he now pitches ad ideas to Nike and Vitaminwater and relishes cameos on Entourage and The Late Show with David Letterman.”

3. Inclusively Humouristic Canadianism. Clearly, Steve doesn’t take himself too seriously, and he’s all about involving others in his projects, whether it’s on the basketball court or in the studio, creating superawesome films like this one about Terry Fox. Many people argue that it is Nash’s very Canadian “from-me-to-we” attitude that makes him so good. And basketball guru Bill Simmons claims that, in the NBA, there isn’t a more authentic leader out there.

4. Community Building. Nash’s message couldn’t be simpler: make an assist. His foundation assists communities through environmental stewardship, sport and empowering youth. Check out The Steve Nash Foundation and learn how you can get involved.

In order to fully comprehend the above qualities, I’ve arranged a three-video-evaluation of the above criteria with the help of Fast Company Magazine, which featured Mr. Nash in their February 2010 issue. The magazine celebrated Captain Canada,  one of our country’s greatest athletes, for his entrepreneurial style and swagger. All scoring is done on a five point scale. Check out his moves!

THE VERDICT:

1. Athleticism across several sports = 4/5. He runs and weight lifts, giving us an idea of his athletic depth and breadth.

2. Entrepreneurial Savvy = 5/5. Fun Fact: Steve Nash pitched this idea to promote his Trash Talk basketball shoe, which is the first sneaker made out of post-consumer recycled material, brought in his cousin, Ezra Holland, to direct the commercial and then split the production costs with Nike.

3. Inclusively Humouristic Canadianism = 3.5/5. He calls himself the 60 million dollar man because, well, the Phoenix Suns signed him to a $66 million deal just before the commercial launched. It’s tongue-in-cheek, I get it, but there’s a lot of people out there making some Forty Two Thousand Dollar Man movies. Savvy?

4. Community Building = 5/5. No surprises here. The whole commercial is about building things. And, as usual, Steve includes his teammates!

TOTAL SCORE = 17.5/20.

THE VERDICT:

1. Athleticism across several sports = 5/5. Basketball? Check. Bike riding? Check. Swinging on a swing? Check. Dancing? Check. Amazing? Double check!

2. Entrepreneurial Savvy = 4/5. Sometimes being a good entrepreneur means putting your spin on someone else’s idea, like Will Ferrell’s…

3. Inclusively Humouristic Canadianism = 5/5. I think my dad has that shirt…

4. Community Building = 5/5. People laugh, people watch, people ask questions, and, most importantly, people feel involved in this quirky community.

TOTAL = 19/20.

THE VERDICT:

1. Athleticism across several sports = 5/5. Come on! He nutmegs some of the greatest soccer players in the world, pulls off some sweet urban adventure moves and masters the game of espionage. Not bad, Steve. Not bad at all.

2. Entrepreneurial Savvy = 5/5. It’s a funny thing, using a reputation built on basketball and Canadian-ness to promote – ahem - soccer to the world. And yet, here it is…SNF_redux

3. Inclusively Humouristic Canadianism = 5/5. Getting beaten up by the Milan team takes a special skill-set and, well, the whole premise is playfully creative at the expense of superstars.

4. Community Building = 6/5. You have to have massive street cred to pull off a project like this. And, hey, it also promotes a very healthy and worldly cause. Of course, we expect nothing less of Steve Nash!

TOTAL = 21/20.

So there it is. A critical evaluation of a hero, Steve Nash. But, at the end of the day, this is just one man’s opinion. And I encourage you to be part of the YouTube frenzie (over 300,000 views to date) and check out the digital work of Canada’s superstar.

Be sure to have fun with it. Because we all know Steve will.

- JCH

1,000 Ideas from Everywhere (and counting)

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Happy Friday, good readers of The Daily Gumboot. John here. Editor-in-Chief of Vancouver’s coolest new community-based blog that my parents read sometimes. So, over the last three days I have been fortunate enough to experience some very awesome and supercool and edutaining things. And, as you know, when things come together in such a beautiful and meaningful way, well, one can’t help but feel lucky to be a part of the community – or communities – in which they find themselves. So, here’s what happened:

1. Sir Ken Robinson spoke to a few thousand students, staff and faculty at UBC’s Chan Centre. If you haven’t seen it already, check out Sir Ken’s TED Talk about why “schools kill creativity” – it will certainly make you think. For example, when I was about eight years old one of my mom’s friends asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I told her that I wanted to be a fire truck. She said, you mean a fireman? I repeated myself, flabbergasted that she would think I’d settle for being a fireman when I could be the bright, loud, screaming truck that carried around several firemen. No, I want to be a fire truck, I said. And my mom just smiled. And she let – nay, encouraged – me use my imagination and be creative for years to come. Sir Ken’s talk was filled with stories fairly similar to this one (one actually involved a fireman and another involved his wife and Elvis). In any case, I have a new hero (don’t worry, Steve Nash, I can have many heroes), and his name is Sir Ken Robinson.

Sir Ken is hilarious, insightful and brilliant

Sir Ken is hilarious, insightful and brilliant

Some of the highlights of the talk included, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Imagination is the bedrock of the human condition; it is what makes us unique.
  • Creativity is the practical application of imagination.
  • He gave a shout-out to historians, saying that any good historian will tell you that there are multiple paths; ergo, there are multiple futures before us – just ask Jim Clifford and the Active History team.
  • We need to think differently about human ability and talent; communities, after all, depend on a multiplicity of passions, abilities, skills, and emotional capabilities.
  • “When writing a PhD in the Arts people must be stopped!” – this statement came in a response to Sir Ken chatting with a fellow who had just written a 385,000 word dissertation (the maximum for the project was 80,000 words…).
  • He spoke of the aesthetic beauty in mathematical problems; my friend Natalie, a math goddess in her own right, will echo Sir Ken’s belief that a new idea in math is judged by two things: whether it breaks new ground and whether it is aesthetically beautiful (as math is the purest form of communicating the natural world, and given that the natural world is beautiful, a math problem must be beautiful).
  • There is beauty and creativity in sciences and objectivity and truth in arts.
  • We need to transform, not reform, education.
  • Education should be organic, not linear | life is organic, not linear.
  • We need to break apart the industrialized, standardized model of education.
  • “Seeds of possibility emerge when the growing conditions are right. So how do we create the right conditions?”
  • “Students spread their dreams beneath our feet, and we need to tread softly.”
  • We need to look for happiness internally, not externally.
  • And this one’s my favourite: “your element (ie. what you do) exists at the intersection of talent and passion.”

Think about it, folks. Where does your talent and passion intersect? For me, it’s writing, education and community.

2. Margaret Atwood’s “Reading” of The Year of the Flood. Speaking of community, let’s chat briefly about Canada’s favourite literary figure (sorry, Elizabeth Hay

I'd put Ms. Atwood up against pretty much any stand up comedian out there; I'm just sayin...

I'd put Ms. Atwood up against pretty much any stand up comedian out there; I'm just sayin...

and Timothy Findley). On Thursday, my Special Lady and I took in Ms. Atwood’s “reading” of her new novel, The Year of the Flood. I use the term “reading” loosely, as, really, it was a beautiful and collaborative performance that became quite interactive towards the end. There was singing, acting, dancing, stand-up-comedy, education, preaching, and, yes, reading. Thousands of us crammed into the pews of St. Andrew Wesley United Church to take in a smattering of readings and hymns from The Year of the Flood. The energy was amazing. Dry, witty, dead-pan, sneaky, and amazing. Maggie Wood shared the stage with the performers and even bobbed her head along to the absolutely outstanding display of song by the trio delivering the God’s Gardeners Hymns throughout the reading. The show was unpretentious, local, globally thoughtful, and incredibly community-focused. To learn just how creative Ms. Atwood’s book tour really is, check out her blog, some articles and a wonderful post from one of The Gumboot’s Correspondents. If Sir Ken Robinson is a thinker and a talker about change, well, Margaret Atwood is a bit of a doer.

3. The Daily Gumboot just passed 1,000 unique page views. Speaking of doing amazing things, it turns out this blog has become semi-popular! Now, I don’t really know what “unique page views” means, but that’s not my job, so I’m okay with it. What our Operations Manager and Technological Evangelist, Mike Boronowski, tells us is that The Daily Gumboot received over 1,000 hits from different computers around the world last month. And, well, if you count the hits the blog receives from the editorial staff’s parents, man, we get more web traffic than the New York Times, baby!

Needless to say, it’s been a heck of a ride over the last month-and-a-bit. And I think we’ve lived up to our mantra of collecting ideas from everywhere and using them to build community. BUt, more importantly, what do you think? I mean, our correspondents truly run the gamut of sensation: from the tragi-comic-ironically-narcissistic (ie. Johnism) to the architecturally healthy (ie. affordable housing with social purpose) to the ridiculous (ie. the good thing that is the HST, social conservatives and alientating Toronto). It is an honour and a privilege to be that Captain of this pirate ship and, since Joel Plasket tells me that good things come in threes, I just wanted to end this note about the third amazing thing that happened to me in three days with a list of my three favourite things about The Daily Gumboot. Here we go:

WHat does this say? 1,000?!

WHat does this say? 1,000?!

1. Kurt Heinrich. This blog operates on a daily – not weekly – basis because of Kurt.  The guy is a worker and perhaps the most down to Earth, nicest person ever born in 1981 but actually from the 1950s. His passion for order, rules and collaboration within a neo-liberal political, social and economic system helps to create an excellent dialogue on the blog, as the Editor-in-Chief’s anarchy-meets-libertarian-sprinkled-with-pirates persona wouldn’t stand out like it does without him. The Joker wouldn’t be the Joker without Batman, right?

2. Get to Know Your Community. We’re so happy with this segment! There are so many amazing people doing so many amazing things all around the world. It has been exciting and interesting getting to know all of you in a fresh, positive and superfun way.  As we move forward, please let us know who we should be talking to and kick some names and locations of world-changers our way so we can share their stories with at least 1,000 other people.

3. The readers. In the last week or so, commentary and chatter about our posts has taken off and reached new levels. The comments have been meaningful, thought-provoking and hilarious. Truly, there are some great ideas being collected by The Gumboot. We (the editorial staff) will use such ideas to make our communities better places. And we hope you do too!

So what’s next? Well, that’s easy. 10,000. We shall increase collaboration tenfold. But no great thing in the history of Earth has even been done independently and without collaboration from several people in many communities. So, I challenge you to tell 10 friends about The Daily Gumboot and give them three reasons to read it. We also embrace ideas from everywhere (it’s kind of our thing), so if you have a few and want to share ‘em, we are always looking for special guest correspondents.

Thanks again so much for your collective and collaborative awesomeness, readers. And thanks especially for the memories.

Let’s keep reaching for those rainbows together!

- JCH