- The belly aching about the decision to maintain social housing at the Olympic Village continues in certain circles of the city that have a problem with people of lesser means living within such a neighbourhood. But let’s take a step back, and consider a couple of points. Regardless of the commitment made to the IOC, a development that has public money invested into it must consider broader criteria than simply cost, and encouraging mixed use and integrati0n within such a jewel for the city is entirely appropriate. Secondly, while it is easy to throw out the plan that sales would drive more social housing at another site, how long it would actually take to have such housing in place is quite another story. Finding the ideal site (city or privately owned), picking a development partner, and securing additional funding from other levels of government could take as long as 5 years…if all goes as planned. So, this pie in the sky “sell the units, buy more at another location” plan isn’t well thought out in the least. Finally, this is about NOT waiting around in limbo for other governments who clearly have little intention on moving any further ahead on investing in this area. There are many options available to the city to initiate the construction of housing, and in my opinion, they should start looking into advancing by leveraging their assets.
- While I am still obsessed with ensuring that my beloved Habs make it through to the second round (last night was unbelievable), the Canucks and their fans most definitely deserve this. Now with a few days off before the series with Chicago starts, I certainly hope that Francesco Aquilini can bring along at least one player to tomorrow’s festivities, as a rally without one voice who skates on the ice for the team would be a real disappointment.
- 10 more days of vacation seems like a bad decision on the surface (particularly for parents), but it is also a necessary measure in response to the flaming bag of crap that the province has handed school boards across the province. They negotiate the contracts with teachers. They raise the health premiums. They demand that each school board requires one full-time staff person just to manage the carbon offset requirements via the province. And yet they never send along enough funds to cover their obligations. Thursday’s meeting is going be painful…but I hope that resulting anger is directed at the right place, as it is Gordo and his pals in Victoria that are abandoning children, not the school boards.
- Try as they might, tomorrow’s efforts to counteract the memories of the electorate is little more than a transparent political ploy. The fact is, changing the name will not make up for a group of political followers who had clearly run out of ideas by the end of the last election campaign. Furthermore, it is volunteers that give a party a shot at achieving electoral success, and from past history, the only way that this group can inspire that kind of commitment is when a coup attempt is being made on their leader. Without anyone suicidal enough to step up and call themselves the leader of such a moribund entity, and with no reason for people to return outside of a cosmetic bait and switch, this party…or association…or gathering…of whatever the hell they want to call themselves this time around, is going nowhere.
- To Alex Tsakumis, whose vitriolic, swearing and insult laden phone etiquette I had the misfortune of experiencing last week (the mysterious number on my call display tweaked my interest and prompted a call back), I say this: your threats don’t impress me, and your information doesn’t scare me. And anytime you are actually ready to extend an invitation that goes beyond empty rhetoric, let me know the date, location and time, and I will be there.
- New name? How about the “hurry-up and wait” line…or the “we have no cash, but let’s get hopes up” line…or maybe the the “decade” line, to indicate the minimum amount of time before anything of this sort gets built. Sorry people, but this is a non-starter for me, and all the consultation seems quite confusing, considering that we still wait in limbo for the Evergreen Line to become operational.
