Vancouver keeps on rolling out the poor-bashing laws

via The Mainlander:

On today’s agenda at City Hall sits a proposal to increase the maximum fines on 42 city by-laws by a factor of five. Among the changes are measures to levy $10,000 fines on low-income people for sleeping outside, jaywalking, and engaging in “illegal” street vending of recycled wares, a crime councillor Kerry Jang recently called “unacceptable behavior.” A homeless person in Vancouver already gets a minimum $1,000 fine for erecting a tent in public (under the illegal Structures By-law covered by The Mainlander here, here and here), but the new revisions propose extending that punitive logic to all aspects of daily life.


I have written about poor-bashing and anti-homelessness laws a lot before but this just adds to incredulity.  City Hall is actually considering INCREASING a fine the homeless already can't pay to 10 000$.  Seriously.
How STUPID is this idea?

The article continues to talk about how Vancouver continues to criminalize the poor.  Penalty for not paying the fine, or doing other criminal activities such as sleeping in a public space, erecting a tent in a public space etc will result in jail time.  

So this is the logic:

1) The capitalist economy squeezes people out of jobs.

2) People become precariously housed and many experience cyclical or chronic homelessness.

3) Shelters are 1) Beyond capacity AND can be 2) Filthy and health hazards

4) People who take their chances are the streets to potentially get sick and die from the cold are not ALLOWED to build their own structures, like a tent, that will keep them safe from the elements.

5) Shelters? Return to step #3.

6) The homeless are then shipped off to the carceral system where they will have a record and both their experience of criminalization and their criminal record (for trying to survive, by the way) will hinder their ability to find gainful employment in the future.

The City of Vancouver wants to solve homelessness by beefing up police on the streets and shipping the homeless off to jail.

This is a ridiculous solution to a broken economy.

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Yarn Bombing: Likely the most adorable way to make a statement

I was travelling through Argentina and saw, for the first time, a little "tree cozy" (at least that is what I called it at the time).  I discovered that it's actually a thing and called "Yarn Bombing"

Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming,guerrilla knitting, urban knitting or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crochetedyarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk.

While yarn installations – called yarn bombs or yarnstorms – may last for years, they are considered non-permanent, and, unlike other forms of graffiti, can be easily removed if necessary. Nonetheless, the practice is still technically illegal in some jurisdictions, though it is not often prosecuted vigorously.^[1]

While other forms of graffiti may be expressive,decorative, territorial, socio-political commentary,advertising or vandalism, yarn bombing was initially almost exclusively about reclaiming and personalizing sterile or cold public places.^[2] It has since developed with groups graffiti knitting and crocheting worldwide, each with their own agendas and public graffiti knitting projects being run

-Wikipedia

How adorable is this?

  I couldn't think of a better way to mute a tank.
.

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Occidental Enclave: A community for White people who celebrate their privilege.

Occidental Enclave: A community for White people who celebrate their privilege.

So every now and then I come across terrible websites that I must report.  I found this site: Occidental Enclave: A community for Ethnic Westerners- "Ethnocultural Identity and Preservation"
It is the kind of website where White people can find other White people to complain about how equity-informed practices like affirmative action or NON-colonial teaching.

As you may not know, I am particularly interested in Critical Race Theory.  I found this thread through a pedestrian search.

Board index ‹ Symposium ‹ Melting Pots, Salad Bowls, and Trainwrecks Print view Critical Race Theory in our Schools Post a reply 4 posts • Page 1 of 1 Critical Race Theory in our Schools by Virgil » January 17th, 2013, 7:15 pm If this article is factual, then it is very disturbing.   http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/17/publi ... privilege/ Virgil   Posts: 177 Joined: December 20th, 2012, 7:28 pm Has thanked: 91 times Been thanked: 87 times Gender: Male Nationality: United States Meta-Ethnicity: Celtic Ethnicity: White guy Political Orientation:Libertarian Religion: Atheist Top Re: Critical Race Theory in our Schools by rambo von münchen » January 17th, 2013, 8:38 pm It is. It is especially pocketed in certain disciplines such as sociology, and then probably the next most polluted is anthropology. English textbooks I have seen are polluted with it and there is also a fringe element of it in psychology. http://www.westernrevival.org "We'll get you through your children!" - Allen Ginsberg "Klaus, give me funf." - Dieter RIP Brunn rambo von münchen   Posts: 1727 Joined: August 12th, 2012, 10:18 am Location: Pothead Obamabots Has thanked: 208 times Been thanked: 167 times Gender: Female Nationality: American Meta-Ethnicity: German and Colonial American Ethnicity: German Political Orientation:Conservative preservationist Religion: Agnostic mtDNA: H1 Top Re: Critical Race Theory in our Schools by Virgil » January 17th, 2013, 8:54 pm I find it interesting that any objection to this idea is met with charges of racism against the accuser. In fact, it is the critical race theory that is heinous and racist. Virgil   Posts: 177 Joined: December 20th, 2012, 7:28 pm Has thanked: 91 times Been thanked: 87 times Gender: Male Nationality: United States Meta-Ethnicity: Celtic Ethnicity: White guy Political Orientation:Libertarian Religion: Atheist Top Re: Critical Race Theory in our Schools by rambo von münchen » January 17th, 2013, 9:02 pm Coincidentally enough, a couple weeks ago I checked out at my campus library a stupid book by this professor Jensen. It's basically a manual of subversive tactics, although he spends a lot of time talking about himself. It's called Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream, here's a selection from it I transcribed -- “The task is to make editors understand that your views - no matter how radical - are not flaky and idiosyncratic, but represent a constituency. To do that, it is crucial that your op/ed not sound like it was written by the central committee of the Tea Party (whatever party that may be). Take care to avoid phrases that will be seen as left-wing clichés. Instead of talking about “worker control of the means of production,” talk about how workers should be able to make decisions about their own lives and work. Even if you think Marx proved a point, don’t write, “As Marx showed us…” I offer this advice not to denigrate but to be realistic; mainstream editors are turned off by anything that smacks of ideological fanaticism on the left (the right can, and does sound, as fanatical as it ilkes - it’s not a fair world.)” http://www.westernrevival.org "We'll get you through your children!" - Allen Ginsberg "Klaus, give me funf." - Dieter RIP Brunn rambo von münchen   Posts: 1727 Joined: August 12th, 2012, 10:18 am Location: Pothead Obamabots Has thanked: 208 times Been thanked: 167 times Gender: Female Nationality: American Meta-Ethnicity: German and Colonial American Ethnicity: German Political Orientation:Conservative preservationist Religion: Agnostic mtDNA: H1 Top Display posts from previous: All posts1 day7 days2 weeks1 month3 months6 months1 year Sort by AuthorPost timeSubject AscendingDescending

"It is critical race theory that is racist and heinous"

ahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahaha...
BWAhahahahaaAHAAHAH

sorry, I could not find that comment more laughable.

The article that spurred on this ridiculous thread was discussing Critical Race Theory informing grade school curriculum.  The article itself is far from balanced but worth a look: "Public high school in Wisconsin indoctrinates students in 'white privilege'."

Ok, so let me teach these White supremacists on a quick lesson:

Facts:
Colonialism in the Americas happened.
Colonialism involved European (as we understand as White-ethnic today) people killing Indigenous people.
White-Europeans claimed the Americas as their own BY subjecting Indigenous people to violence.
White people NOW call them selves "Americans" and have constructed an education system which teaches a particular story of how "Americans" conquered  a lowly, primitive people (the Indigenous).
White people continue to teach that THEY are the ones that have saved the Americas and THEY are the ones that have shed the light of "modernity" for other savages (both Indigenous and People of Colour)
White people have constructed, for themselves, a privileged position in a racial hierarchy THROUGH violence against Indigenous people and People of Colour.

Critical Race Theory teaches those facts and demonstrates how it MIGHT not be  so factual, moral or right to teach Indigenous children that it was BEST that they were exterminated on their own land by White people just because they had Guns, Germs and Steel.

Curriculum up until today has taught us half-truths from a privileged class of people who need to defend their status by justifying why it was, and continues to be, okay to inflict violence onto racialized others to maintain privilege.

Critical race theory teaches the truth.


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Restaurateurs poo poo on Food Carts in the No Fun City

Only in Vancouver, would regressive attitudes towards food trucks exist.  Like any other born and bred Vancouverite, I denied the "No fun city" moniker.  However, after doing quite a bit of travelling and living in other cities I realize Vancouver is a small small town with a handful of tall buildings.

City restaurateurs - some of them, anyway - are disenchanted with the proliferation and popularity of food carts, those Meals on Wheels for foodies. The restaurateurs claim the carts are eating into their profits. They say the carts have an unfair advantage because they haven't the overhead restaurants do and they don't pay property taxes.
So they want a moratorium on them. The head of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association, Ian Tosten-son, demanded that Vancouver city council stop its plans over the next two years to issue up to 30 more food-cart permits - augmenting the hundred or so carts already in operation.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Food+fight+Some+hard+cheese+with+your+whine/7800008/story.html#ixzz2HgAeRvUe

For a long time we complained that all we had were hot dogs.  And then we got Japadog which, really people, is just a hot dog with different shit on it.  But at least Japadog helped open our eyes to wanting more in our "world class city" and inspired a call out for more food trucks.  There are now dozens of food vendors downtown, at least 6 of which I would jump at the chance to have my 7th meal of the day, and now restaurateurs are poo pooing on it.

How about they stop complaining and realize that food trucks offer a completely different market.  Perhaps restaurants have lost a little initial business with the novelty of the new competition.  But once niches and tastes have set in we have the opportunity for BOTH to thrive.

Instead of complaining why don't restaurants take advantage of the food cart idea.
In Toronto, many restaurants ALSO opted for a food cart presence once food trucks were the new craze.  These restaurants got mobile exposure and undoubtedly, new customers flocked to the restaurants like Marben and Beast. Vij's in Vancouver knows what it's all about- a successful restaurant uptown and a crazy busy food cart downtown.

The success can also go the other way with food carts finding so much fame that they open their own locations.  JapaDog opened their small storefront on Robson and Seymour and people flocked.

So dear Restaurateurs,
Stop complaining.

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OpenBuildings | Architectural Directory

OpenBuildings | Architectural Directory

Sign up. I've been a fan of Yelp for awhile. I'd be curious to see how urban planners respond to "user experiences"

It reminds me of the Urbanarium which Gordon Price so vehemently supported during the EcoDensity days.

Heard about it from : http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20100813/crowdsourcing-architecture-criticism

Gone are the days when you have to trawl through Wikipedia and scores of architecture blogs to reliably research a building online. OpenBuildings.com is the Web site architecture geeks like me have been waiting for: it aims to collect everything there is to know about individual buildings into one mega-resource. Even better, the information is crowdsourced, Wikipedia-style. Readers can submit buildings to the site and upload images, additional information, or even their own opinions.
This last feature is the key difference between Wikipedia and this site. Wikipedia tends to be long on technical information and short on architectural criticism. A typical page on OpenBuildings, on the other hand, has all the basic information you might need—contractors, materials, costs, etc.—but it also has the potential to gather opinions, in the form of user reviews as well as links to articles by professional architecture critics. The site is still in its infancy, so there is little of this discourse so far. But I can’t wait for people to start uploading things like, “I work in this building, and the staircase sucks!”
Some other features are still works in progress, such as a publications tab where users can build a list of books about a building, by linking to the books’ Amazon pages. And I am very distracted by a bar at the bottom of the page where the site’s algorithm suggests “Similar Buildings.” I spent a long time pondering the similarities between New York’s Grand Central Terminal and Jean Nouvel’s National Museum of Qatar.
The site is clearly laid out, easy to search, and slowly building up a following. An iPhone app is also on the way, so you will soon be able to read about a building while you’re standing in front of it. If it takes off, OpenBuildings.com could not only revolutionize walking tours but also bring a breath of fresh, crowdsourced air to architectural discourse.

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