3 handsome possibilities

Fabula (Francis Bula) has been doing an “addictively” sensational job covering the municipal elections. Some comments:

I’ve come up with 3 handsome possibilities for November:

Possibility of a Vision-COPE alliance?
I like the sounds of that actually. I would vote for Vision’s playboy-juice man if he were endorsed by my favourite oppositional Santa Claus-looking councilor, David Cadman. As previously discussed, Vision and COPE don’t’ necessarily have to duke it out if both of them can agree to be chummy. As Fabula stated, Gregor Robertson isn’t one of the “traitors” that split COPE and therefore is baggageless.
And there are also talks of David Eby and Andrea Reimer running. I assume Andrea Reimer will be aligned with Vision… David Eby? Where would he be? I think he should be aligned with COPE because everybody would vote for David Eby just because he’s a freaking hero.

COPE runs David Cadman
I don’t know if it is definitive if Cadman is definitely not running. I think not. I think if Vision did something to really piss off COPE there would be a possibility that Cadman would run. As I said, I do not like the idea of COPE not running a candidate just because I’m afraid COPE will be diminished as a party. As I said on the babble board that called me sexist, “COPE can’t afford to be Vision’s bitch this election.”
I think if Cadman and Robertson can’t come to a friendly agreement and build some sort of alliance then Cadman has to run to keep COPE alive and well. COPE will inevitably lose, and Cadman will then lose his seat (which I don’t think he’s prepared to do) but at least COPE will still be an official party in the minds of citizens. I think people will eventually forget about COPE if COPE does not make a strong stance, or strong appearance this election.

Ladner wins
Now if COPE runs Cadman they might split the left vote and Ladner will win. But I don’t think Vision is too scared of that happening and I do not think they really should be too scared of that happening. Vision pretty much stands alone this election as a strong team. I myself am making the stance now that I will vote for Ladner. Unless Vision does something absolutely amazing, I’d like to see Ladner being called “your worship” come November. People still don’t get why I like Ladner… I just do.

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Juice man squeezes out first ballot victory: Gregor Robertson wins Vision nomination

So Gregor Robertson wins on the first ballot. Easily. I must say, I am surprised.
No surprise De Genova didn't have a chance though.

But I'm surprised there was a sorry turnout for Louie. I still think Louie would have been the better candidate against Ladner. Now, come election in November you have pretty much the same people running against eachother. Robertson has been called, "Peter Ladner's younger, taller, more tanned brother". Pretty much the same politics, just different parties.

I still believe Ladner will take it in November. He's got more experience and he's much more competent than our little playboy-juice man Gregor.

But how about the news of a Louie campaigner coming out to tell Francis Bula the they lost. Talk about unprofessional. That campaigner is going to be in trouble, no doubt. You don't admit defeat until it is official. Especially to media.


You can read more from Francis Bula:

[Robertson] defeated two-term city councillor Raymond Louie and park-board commissioner Allan De Genova. The vote drew a record number of voters, almost 7,000 out of 13,000 members, which is almost unheard of for a civic nomination race. He won easily on the first ballot with over 3,400 votes out of 6,771.

(By the way, I wanted to find a picture of Gregor with his juice- but do you realize that there is not a single picture online of him and his Happy Planet juice? No endorsements for his OWN juice? Strange. There IS, however this picture... what the hell is it?)

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Vision Vancouver prediction

Raymond Louie

look at all those chinese people rallying behind him.

solid.

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Discrimination in Housing

Many people don't realize that a lot of people are homeless because of discriminatory housing policies. When finding my own place to live I faced discrimination. In some buildings a young student can be seen as bad because we "party all the time" and are irresponsible. In some houses they WANT a young student so they can mesh with the other roomates in the house.

But being a student really is the least of a persons problems because it is a short moment of one's life. So imagine NOT being able to secure housing because you were an immigrant, you didnt' speak English, you were black, gay, in a wheelchair, or lord knows.. not as good lookin as the other people wanting the place.

That is discrimination, my friend and it is illegal. Landlords or housing providors are not allowed to discriminate on any of those basis even though you feel they would be a better tenant/roomate due to some preferences. It is a difficult debate because we have been brainwashed to believe in PRIVATE PROPERTY and that our property is ours to deny other people entrance.

The US is really good at doing testers- having Black people answer an ad for an apartment, the landlord say "it's taken" and then have a White person answer the same ad and said that "it is still available". Canada does not do such testing. We like to assume we are more tolerant, we are less racist than the United States, but Canada just conceals it better. I DO believe that US has more extremes in racism, but at least it is all out there. In Canada we have structural racism, hidden racism, concealed in such a way that we can ignore that there is still a huge income gap between whites and non whites doiing the same work, or ethnic ghettos in our housing system.

Housing is NOT like the insurance sector. You cannot judge someone based on perceived risk. So when I was posting to sublet my apartment, I was incredibly pleased to see on Craigslist a new policy on Equal Opportunity Housing. I'm really proud of Craigslist for taking this on:


http://www.craigslist.org/about/FHA.html

When making any posting on craigslist, you must comply with section 3604(c) of the Federal Fair Housing Act. This law generally prohibits stating, in any notice or ad for the sale or rental of a dwelling, a discriminatory preference based on any of the following protected categories:

Race or Color
National Origin
Religion
Sex
Familial Status (more)
Handicap / Disability (more)

The Fair Housing Act provides additional protections, and limited exceptions, that are explained in publications from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD") and the Department of Justice.
HUD has issued guidance on advertising, including for roommates.
State and local laws often prohibit discrimination based on other factors (e.g. sexual orientation, age, marital status, or source of income).
You may report housing discrimination to HUD at 1-800-669-9777, or to a fair housing advocate near you.
If you encounter a housing posting on craigslist that you believe violates the Fair Housing laws, please flag the posting as "prohibited".
In addition to penalties that may be applied by regulatory agencies, attempts to post discriminatory ads may be blocked and/or subjected to other remedial measures. RECOMMEND this Post on Progressive Bloggers CLICK HERE!

Spacing Magazine competition

One of the unfortunate issues is the lack of youth involved in the political system. Call me crazy, but y'all babyboomers are gonna be dead one day and there isn't going to be anybody competent to take over because youth have been reduced to working for minimum wage at Starbucks (with the added bonus of getting free coffee and a caffiene addiction to Starbucks coffee for the rest of their lives).

So when an opportunity comes along to engage youth- we better take it. Spacing Mgazine's coordinator, Matt Hague, wanted to let me know they are having an urban design competition. Check it out:

DEADLINE: Monday, September 22, 2008WEB SITE: http://spacing.ca/thinktorontoFACEBOOK: http://spacing.ca/thinktoronto-facebook/PDF of POSTER: http://spacing.ca/thinktoronto/poster/thinktoronto-poster-schools.pdf
- - - - - - - - -
thinkTORONTO invites people — 35 years old or younger — with creativeideas on how to improve Toronto’s public spaces. The competition thatwill help celebrate the magazine’s 5th anniversary in December 2008.Architects, urban planners, landscape architects, designers, artistsof all disciplines, students, and the urban curious are allencouraged to submit their plans to tweak, improve, or redesignstreetscape elements and specific areas of Toronto.
thinkTORONTO seeks ideas from the next generation of city builderswho want to challenge how we view Toronto’s public realm. Thecompetition gives participants a platform to explore and experimentwith Toronto’s urban landscape and generate a dialogue amongTorontonians about creative and sustainable solutions in our sharedcommon spaces.
- - - - - - - - -
ABOUT SPACING MAGAZINESpacing focuses on the joys, obstacles, and politics of Toronto'surban landscape. Since the launch of the magazine in 2003, Spacinghas been hailed as an innovative publication that swings way aboveits weight. Spacing has changed the way the local media reports onpublic space issues and its editors and contributors are consideredamong the next leaders of Toronto. In both 2007 and 2008, Spacing wasnamed Canadian Small Magazine of the Year by the Canadian Society ofMagazine Editors; Spacing publisher Matthew Blackett was given aUrban Leadership Award by the Canadian Urban Institute in 2007; in2006 the magazine took home a gold medal in the National MagazineAward for Best Editorial Package, and in 2008 captured a silver medalin the same category. The magazine's blogs have been consistentlyvoted by numerous local publications as one of the city's best onlinemedia outlets.

-Erica Blair, Toronto RECOMMEND this Post on Progressive Bloggers CLICK HERE!

CCAP DTES and Concord Pacific?

Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) a very worthy organization has forwarded this for dissemination:

C A R N E G I E C O M M U N I T Y A C T I O N P R O J E C T Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
For Immediate ReleaseFriday, June 13, 2008
Downtown Eastside Welcome Wagon to Visit Concord Pacific.
"There's still time for you to be a good neighbour, Terry."
This is the message that Downtown Eastside residents and their supporters will bring to the CEO of Concord Pacific at his office today. In the last few weeks, members of the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), tried to get an appointment with Terry Hui, but didn't succeed. They want the owner to reconsider his application for 1/2 million dollar condos at 58 West Hastings and instead turn over the property for social housing. The group wants the site named after Darrel Mikasko, the homeless man who couldn't get into a shelter and died in a fire trying to stay warm.
"Concord made billions off the Expo lands and can afford to give a little back, especially in our neighbourhood where people are going to be pushed out because of new condo development," said Robert Bonner of CCAP.
Joe Le Blanc, a resident of Vet's Manor said Concord is "putting their condos between the Portland Social Housing Project and the Grand Union Hotel, between despair and hope. We need more hope and that means more social housing."
"It would be nice for developers to give back to the community they are making so much money off of us", said Phoenix Winter, another CCAP member from the community, who is referring to Concord's condos on Powell Street now under construction.
The welcome wagon troupe will bring in some special gifts in a basket to Terry Hui that they hope will inspire him to consider donating his land to Downtown Eastside residents in need. Among the gifts, will be a Hope in the Shadows book, 200 letters calling for social housing on the site, tickets to the premier of the film "The Way Home" about homelessness and a sample of critters that plague the Downtown Eastside.

Time: Friday, June 13 at 1:00 p.m.
Place: 1095 West Pender Street, Vancouver - meet outside front doors
Contacts: Wendy Pedersen 604-839-0379; Jean Swanson 604-729-2380 RECOMMEND this Post on Progressive Bloggers CLICK HERE!

Get over your male whiteness: On political correctness

I was recently invited to put my opinion down on rabble.ca, a national progressive political website. In true VancouverManifesto style I have been prohibited to post due to my language being interpreted as racist, amongst other things.

When did we become SO hypersensitive and SO politically correct? Political correctness is just an attempt to "make pretty" real issues. Political correctness is an ideology in itself- an assumption that you are doing justice and correcting wrongs by stepping around the raw words that have been used in a derogatory way in the past towards marginalized groups. Pretending that constructions of race, gender and other ideologies do not exist do not do justice to those who were/are marginalized- it conceals the fact that racISM and sexISM DO exist. Not recognizing that there is difference and that people perceive eachother with such difference (whether we like it or not) also does not do justice.

PC is just a way to "make us all equal". I do believe in equality in humanity, that every person should be treated with equal respect. But I also believe that history has not treated us in such a way. "There is nothing so unequal as treating unequal people equally." PC terms attempt to erase that groups have been terribly wronged and pretend that we all just need to clean the slate and start off fresh. Wrong. We need to recognize that there IS imbalance, history has CREATED inequity, and we need to FACE it head on and redress what we have done.

Anyways, that rant was bit beyond the scope of what I take issue with, but I am unhappy that people are so touchy and I find it offensive that people are SUCH on the defensive that they assume the worst.

Go ahead and see for yourself:
http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=002026

Good lord. White hetero males can't catch a break. It's good that I am none of the above...

you can disagree with me, but don't censor me. RECOMMEND this Post on Progressive Bloggers CLICK HERE!

LADNER wins!

Ladner wins by 80 votes!
I have often been attacked for my Ladner love, but I'd like to think that this blog contributed to my boyfriend's win.

http://thevancouvermanifesto.blogspot.com/2008/03/peter-ladner-i-like-you-so-run-as.html

Blog by Francis Bula:
I don't have time to do any more, so here's my story as it will appear, more or less, in the paper tomorrow. Have to run to dinner with my family now -- yes, I DO have a life. document.write(parent.prscreen)

In a stunning turn of political events, challenger Peter Ladner has taken the mayoral nomination away from sitting Mayor Sam Sullivan.The results produced screams in the room, after a day where the voting among Non-Partisan Association members had been so close that no one was willing to make a prediction.The vote results were 1066 to 986. Park-board candidates who had supported the mayor also won among the four who were chosen out of seven candidates.

Both men were gracious to the other in their speeches."I wish I could do this without having to deliver this blow to Sam Sullivan. He has worked harder than any mayor in the city," said Ladner, a two-term councillor who made his run for the nomination without the support of another sitting councillor. "I will have no hesitation in supporting the legacy that Sam has left us."

Sullivan, acknowledging that the members had clearly indicated they wanted new leadership, also said he will support Ladner to create a united team to fight the opposition in the fall campaign."They are well-financed and well-organized," he said. "They will try to look united. I want to put the interests of the city first.

"The battle pitted Ladner, an avid runner and cyclist from an establishment Vancouver family, against the mayor, who grew up in the east side and became a quadriplegic after a ski accident.Ladner had argued that he was running for the mayoral nomination because the party had been driven to an all-time low in popularity under Sullivan's leadership. "

All the polls have said the voters want a change in the mayor's office," he said earlier in the day. "If we don't deliver that change, Vision and COPE happily will."Sullivan had argued that he has won many elections by coming from behind and he pointed to his success as the "chief fundraiser" for the city, with 3,000 units of social housing committed by the provincial government and millions of dollars in money from anti-drug and mental health programs from the federal government. Ladner started his challenge late, only announcing in March that he was going to compete for the mayoral nomination. He was also handicapped by a late start fundraising, which Sullivan had been doing almost since the day he was elected in 2005, and people's unwillingness to go come out publicly against a sitting mayor.

Turnout throughout the day was slightly lighter than for the epic Christy Clark-Sam Sullivan nomination battle in 2005, when 2,300 of the party's then 4,600 members turned out to vote.During the morning, voters were mainly Caucasian but in the afternoon, large numbers of Indo-Canadian and Chinese voters started to appear and streamed in steadily until 4 p.m.The main excitement of the day came when an Anti-Poverty Committee protester walked into the hotel alone, picked up a pitcher of Coke and dumped it on the mayor's head, saying "Here's to Civil City," according to observers.Sullivan's campaign co-chair, Stephen Rogers, hung on to her until police, who had been swarming through the hotel because of a planned APC protest, arrived.Most voters were extremely reluctant to say how they were voting, but a few did.

Hendrik Hoekema, an east-side resident, said he came out to vote for Ladner because he's known him for 30 years and "I think he'd make a much better mayor."Former mayor Philip Owen's son, Chris, came by to vote for Ladner.Sarup Mann, on the other hand, voted for Sullivan because he likes his policies around EcoDensity and tax cuts for small businesses. Mann, who came with his whole family, runs a small telecommunications business."It's important to keep our community feeling and we need small businesses. For a lot of the small businesses, the tax is really affecting them," said Mann, who also described himself as a very active federal Liberal organizer.

Ladner's team stayed focused and worked on getting voters out in any way possible throughout the day, They had 14 drivers and phoned people repeatedly throughout the day, with their campaign using political software that has also been used by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign.At the end of the day, Ladner supporter Reg Tupper came running down the hall towards the voting room, pushing elderly Iva Bricel in her wheelchair -- part of the last push in the Ladner campaign.

Sullivan had promised that he would hold a caucus meeting Monday morning to bring everyone together to talk about how to go forward from the vote.Ladner says it all has to be worked out yet how he will manage to run a campaign for the party, while the mayor continues to hold office and get the help of political assistants.Vision Vancouver candidates, who will be finding out next Sunday who will win their three-way mayoral race, said Ladner's win means that the election will now be focused on issues rather than personalities, which they welcomed.

Neither Gregor Robertson or Raymond Louie would speculate on how Ladner's win might affect their own chances within their party. Many political observers have assumed that Robertson's appeal will be somewhat diminished if he has to run against a man who, like him, is someone who draws from both sides of the political centre, is known for promoting green initiatives, and has run a small business.

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Wheelchair accessible: Vancouver 1, Toronto zero

Earlier this month the Sam Sullivan had a perfect photo op for Translink’s 100% wheelchair accessible system. I don’t know that we can credit Sam Sullivan for this breakthrough in Vancouver, but I have to admit that the city is making amazing progress with respect to making physical spaces accessible to people.

Mayor Sam Sullivan said being able to get around with ease and freedom is a luxury most people don’t know they have.
“It’s amazing to (now) be able to go into any bus in the city,” he said.
“I love the new buses,” McCain added. “I love the fact that you can back in and don’t have to lock your chair. You don’t need any help.”
“(This) will get more people on the transit system.”

What I liked about his quote is that it demonstrated that the busses are accessible physically and mentally. To be disabled sucks. Other than having the bonus of getting one of those sweet motored wheelchairs and with the potential of having wheelchair races (Seinfeld- George’s fake disability), not having mobility sucks. And with the new busses “you don’t need any help.” That like.. almost brings a tear to my eye how beautiful that is. Honestly. Like, how unempowering is it to need assistance ALL the time? It’s finally nice for a change that people who need the lift can get on like everyone else. Now I’m not going to admit that I won’t get irritated when I’m in a hurry- admit it, those lifts take a shit load of time. When I’m in a hurry it’s all the wheelchairs and baby strollers who want to come onto MY bus (whoa, that was a lot of hate in one sentence- but you have to admit that DOES go through your mind every now and then). Anyhow, point is, kudos.

And to all the haters of the new bus system- let me just let you know that they only really have a couple seats short of the old busses. Everyone complains that they have fewer seats- but I totally did the seat count on the cushy blue busses and the orange busses. It just seems smaller because the seats are a lot leaner.

Anyway, this sparked my interest also because of something I read in a Toronto indie-newsflash.

Toronto, a city that pales in comparison in accessibility needs to learn a thing or two about Vancouver. Now it isn’t their fault on a lot of fronts because the city was built a lot earlier and planners and architects certainly weren’t thinking about gimps back then. Most of the houses are old New York style walk ups (something some Vancouverites wanted –relaxing the building codes to make buildings cheaper- something I’m not a fan of). If we want to BE an inclusive city, we have to DESIGN it that way as well. So when I heard this anecdote I was freaked out by how insulting this restaurant was to this patron in a wheelchair:

To the Owner of the Everest Restaurant & Lounge...

My name is Aaron Shelbourne ….

I have been to your restaurant many times. One month ago, I went to your restaurant with a friend. We had a nice meal, and at one point I had to use the washroom. It was not wheelchair accessible and I nicked the door with my wheelchair on the way out. After I had finished my meal and left the restaurant, your manager, Ms. Karma Sanchok, ran out and told my friend that we were not welcome back at Everest. She said that the restaurant was newly renovated and wheelchairs aren’t welcome because they cause damage.

Your reaction to the ‘damage’ that I allegedly caused is discriminatory and totally unacceptable for a number of reasons. First, rather than speaking to me directly, you spoke to my friend and did not make eye contact with me. Rather than expressing your concerns to me, you ignored me. This behavior on your part was unacceptable because I am a person and I make my own decisions and deserve to be treated as such.

Further, your behavior is discriminatory because you overreacted to the ‘damage’ that I allegedly caused. Your restaurant provides a public service. You can not keep people away because you would rather not incur the normal wear and tear that goes along with assistive devices such as wheelchairs, walkers or canes. An appropriate response on your part would have been to recognize and acknowledge that your restaurant bathrooms failed to accommodate my needs, rather than blame me. If you were so concerned about possible damage to your restaurant, you should have thought to include wider bathroom doors and steel doorframes when you recently renovated your restaurant. A public service such as yours must adapt to the needs of people who use wheelchairs, rather than ask people who use wheelchairs to accept the barriers that able-bodied people create.

[…]

Sincerely,
Aaron Shelbourne

-abridged letter

Everest, a trendy type place on Queen West is restaurant I have been to, by the way, and I am not impressed with their service OR food. Anyways, to end, Vancouver 1, Toronto zero.

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Starbucks is taking over Toronto too

The Toronto Star published something very interesting today.

It is a story about Starbucks. I think Vancouverites take our coffee shops for granted. Satrbucks doesn't often make the headlines. In Vancouver we sort of assume it will happen. Death, taxes, Starbucks. All in the same. But Toronto has a critical eye on some of the Starbucks that have gone in their downtown in the last few decades.

If you’ve ever been to Toronto you know that they have as many Tim Horton’s as we do Starbucks. I can understand the appeal. It’s cheap, open 24 hours and is a one stop shop for a snack, meal and/or coffee.

But Toronto isn’t exactly a café-culture town. It’s really a pub town, people streaming up and down the streets of Bloor, College, Queen and Richmond in their respective neighbourhood watering holes. But perhaps Toronto is trying to get some of the café culture acclaim that Vancouver and Montreal so enviously master.

There’s a bit of a history at the Starbucks in Toronto. In 1996 it opened a block away from Dooney’s Café (who was slated to close before Starbucks agreed to sublet* the property back to Graziano Marchese, Dooney’s Café owner), famous literary hang-out of some of the best lefty writers (most of whom come from Vancouver, actually). On the same intersection today (around Bloor and Bathurst) is a Second Cup and an Aroma Espresso (a smaller coffee shop but bourgeouis nevertheless. Starbucks then opened a location near Drake Hotel, known as a bohemian art and culture mecca in a revitalized art gallery district. Now Starbucks announced its new location at Queen and Bathurst, a bit of a dodgy area but a few steps away from the best yuppie gentrifiers in the city in the King West area. The beggars, looking especially sickly, still walk about in the area.

We have to remember that Starbucks, like any efficiently capitalistic big business calculates where they open. Businesses open up shop on projected earnings (i.e. income level in area, street traffic, other businesses in the area that will encourage or hinder its presence etc). So Starbucks knows a thing or two about Queen and Bathurst. It knows that the income level is going up. It knows the area is yuppifying. It knows that it has the range and concentration of amenity in the area to attract street traffic. So, move over Richard Florida and your “Creative Class” thesis. Screw the gay-index and the bohemian-index. Lets get us a Starbucks-index.

*Sublet, meaning that the land is still held by Starbucks and profits still goes to Starbucks. You just can’t win….

-Guest post submitted by Erica Blair

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Housing Unaffordability

Care of Michael Shapcott- A housing activist located in Toronto:

A staggering one-in-four Canadian households are in the housing affordability danger zone – paying 30% or more of their income on housing. Even more troubling, the poorest Canadian households – renters – face the worst affordability problems.
New data released today by Statistics Canada confirms that the cost of housing – rental and ownership – has been rising faster than the rate of inflation, and has been rising faster than household incomes. Full report HERE.

That translates into a nation-wide affordable housing crisis for renters and owners, which the StatsCan numbers confirm has grown worse in the five years leading up to the 2006 Census. Behind the figures is the terrible reality that millions of Canadians don’t have enough money to pay their rent, or mortgage payments, and also cover other necessities such as growing energy costs, medicine, food, transportation, clothing and other basics.

Renters feel sharpest pain
In most parts of Canada, renters have households incomes that are about half (or less) of the income of owners. The affordability crisis is biting deepest among tenants, with more than 40% of all renters trapped in the affordability squeeze. This means that the lowest-income Canadians are facing the worst affordability problems.

Growing pain for owners
More Canadian households have moved into ownership in recent years. But the latest StatsCan numbers report that affordability problems are growing faster among owners than renters. The most recent ownership affordability report from RBC Economics (March 2008) reports: “Nation-wide housing affordability deteriorated in every consecutive quarter throughout 2007 to end up at its most unaffordable level since the housing bubble peaked in 1990.” So, the ownership market is offering no relief for tenants ensnared in their own affordability woes, and has trapped a number of new owners between rapidly rising costs and stagnant incomes.

-Michael Shapcott


What does this mean for Vancouver?
Housing bubble wise we always assume that Vancouver is safe because it is so damn nice. I tend to agree. But I do realize I might be a little naive with respect to the rampant speculation.

Time and time again we have discussed how EcoDensity will not solve our affordability problem. Brent Toderian said, at best, the supply could ease the affordability problem for now. But then what? Are we to ignore that market-housing is NOT a system that will work for 25% (and rising) of our population? RECOMMEND this Post on Progressive Bloggers CLICK HERE!