News & Views Archive
THE COLUMN: Film industry says the show must go on, Mr. Harper
Insight Film Studios hosted a Vancouver International Film Festival gala Saturday (September 27) at Edgewater Casino. Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not sponsor nor attend the party, but he would have loved it. Last week, he derided artists, describing them as people who dress in finery and attend galas — elite types undeserving of government subsidies. Now, here was a bunch of actors dressed to the nines, gathering for a party at a casino where they were probably assembling to gamble away your tax dollars. It was a photo-op tailor made for the Prime Minister as though it were an Armani suit. Not that the Prime Minister would be caught dead in an Armani suit. An ill-fitting Hudson’s Bay sweater, perhaps.
NEWS: Downtown Ambassadors’ 24/7 schedule draws mixed reactions
Today (October 2) marks the one-month anniversary of the Downtown Ambassador program expanding to 24-hour service.
NEWS: Downtown Ambassadors’ 24/7 schedule draws mixed reactions
Today (October 2) marks the one-month anniversary of the Downtown Ambassador program expanding to 24-hour service.
Tenants’ rights groups map out West End evictions
Despite homelessness in the Metro Vancouver area having increased 39 per cent since 2005, and vacancy rates continuing to hover below one percent, the precarious housing situation facing renters and modest-to-low-income individuals often slips under the public radar, making it difficult for people to find support and seek advocacy when faced with eviction or unfair rent increases.
CURIOUS TIMES
A weekly roundup of newsbites from the Truth is Stranger than Fiction department.
IN THE CITY
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Diverse range of NPA candidates vie for council nomination
Architect, banker, musician among those seeking to effect citywide change
THE COLUMN: Never mind Harper. What’s the latest on Obama?
In the election sweepstakes, the U.S. has the power of mass distraction.
RANT/RAVE
It is ignorant comments like the ones from Angela regarding where and when a mother should breast-feed her child [“Who’s the boob here?”, Aug. 28] that is a perfect example of what is wrong with our society!…
Vision Vancouver becomes largest civic party
Vision Vancouver is now the largest civic party in Vancouver, having surpassed a membership count of 16,000 at the end of August. But critics have questioned the legitimacy of the numbers because the process for signing up members — and candidates — seems lax compared to NPA policies. Vision’s $10 membership fees can be paid on a pay-what-you-can basis, and Vision accepts landed immigrants and refugees as members, while the NPA does not. The NPA also prides itself on a stringent screening process that NPA council hopeful and retired banker David Lee describes as “tougher than joining HSBC 20 years ago.”
Saving the homeless, one football game at a time
A weekly roundup of newsbites from the Truth is Stranger than Fiction department.
Lecture series examines city’s political past to help shape its political future
The exigencies of daily city life — and the politics that shape them — can give short shrift to critical moments in Vancouver’s history that continue to inform our current situation. The new Paradise Makers Lecture Series, which takes place at SFU Harbour Centre on the first Friday evening of every month through the fall, aims to turn that around.
In the city UPCOMING EVENTS • inthecity@westender.com
Marathon of Hope: In 1977, Terry Fox was a young runner who lost his leg to cancer and decided to run across Canada in an effort to raise money for cancer research. Twenty-eight years later, the annual Terry Fox run has raised over $400 million worldwide. Schools will participate in a nationwide run on Sept. 26, but locally-organized runs happen Sept. 14. Show your support by going to TerryFoxRun.org to find a run in your community.
THE COLUMN By Steve Burgess
Life is short. Don’t let anyone else author your must-do list.
RANT/RAVE
I am so sick of meeting people here in Vancouver who claim to be “aspiring” models, actors, musicians, etc. I use the word “aspiring” loosely because I don’t see the majority of these people going to auditions or playing small-time gigs to get noticed…
Nightclub closure draws attention to city’s cultural struggles
“Archaic” bylaws unfairly target small music venues, critics say
In the city UPCOMING EVENTS • inthecity@westender.com
Get Your Geek On: A modest mouse when compared to San Diego’s Comic-Con, the Vancouver Comicon is still a treat for those who love a little ink-and-strip. It’s an entire day devoted to alternative and small press comics, zines, and artwork. There’s also an opportunity to hobnob with Vancouver artists like Ken Boesem (The Village) and Kelly Everaert (Jungle Tales, Trilogy of Terror). Sunday, Sept. 7 at Heritage Hall (3102 Main), 11-5 p.m. $3 (14 and under free).
CURIOUS TIMES
Want to make a world-changing discovery? Do more drugs!
Public forums to address affordable housing crisis
Looking out the window of his West End apartment on a rainy Tuesday morning, Spencer Herbert sees a stretch of hundreds of other rental units like his. “I’m looking out now at the thousands of apartment owners and renters here,” he says, “and we’re all at risk.”
Green Party members urge discussions on federal arts cuts
Green Party members urge discussions on federal arts cuts
Burgess turns 50, gets appropriately depressed
This is not a column I want to write. I hope no one will read it. Labour Day is approaching, it’s a relatively sedate time of year, people are away or at least distracted — perhaps this item will pass unnoticed. Lord knows this is a subject I had hoped to avoid, personally and journalistically. It certainly wasn’t my idea to turn 50.
RANT/RAVE
This is my first time calling your line and I hope you can help me — you’re my last resort. I live on Barclay between Bute and Thurlow, and for the last few years there has been a security or apartment alarm going off incessantly, all the time. It will ring for a couple of minutes and then go off. I just hope these people realize how they’re impacting the hundreds and hundreds of people who live in this area, who have shift work, who need to sleep during the day.
Cycling advocate calls for improved bike lanes in Vancouver
I’m a kamikaze cyclist,” says Gil Penalosa during an after-breakfast walk through Chinatown, while he pauses to take a photo of the new bike lane on Carrall Street. The resulting snapshot will become part of Penalosa’s photo collection of bikeways and walkways, taken during his international travels. Some of them were presented — with his trademark quirky humour — as part of a talk about strengthening pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, at a packed SFU Harbour Centre lecture hall last week (August 20). In the days following the SFU presentation, Penalosa met with city politicians and appeared in a guest speaking engagement at the Canadian Urban Transit Association’s youth summit on sustainable urban transportation.
‘Flying University’ offers an alternative education
School doesn’t always teach us everything we want to know. A group of Vancouver academics, artists, and activists is looking to turn that around with the launch of the Vancouver Flying University, a new community project that opens with an exhibit at Gallery Gachet (88 East Cordova) during the first week of the SWARM arts festival on Friday, September 5.
