A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

TEA & TWO SLICES: On Damn Hippies, Sad Thatcherites, And A Tech Hub On The DTES

by Sean Orr | With the death of Thatcher yesterday, Free Market fundamentalists everywhere have been weeping into their copies of Atlas Shrugged: Margaret Thatcher the revolutionary architect of modern Britain. If only the Free Market was actually a free market!

COPE springs eternal: COPE will challenge Vision for Vancouver mayor’s job in 2014. Unfortunately, most of their campaigning will come in the form of ill-advised pickets at fancy restaurants and bilious blog posts.

And speaking of bilious blog posts: Downtown Eastside Tech Hub: City commits to “capital incubation” at the expense of housing and jobs. I understand that this symbol of the paradoxical relationship between the open drug market and policing (the flagship of the social experiment known as the DTES; the highly visible first pillar) is important, but do you really think someone would want to live in the old Police Station? Also, shouldn’t the government be opening up infrastructure all over the place? Does this blogger at The Mainlander see the Vancouver Film School (with their buildings swarming Victory Square) as first-level agents of gentrification? I mean, is she against all capital, or just some?

Report: Nation’s Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization. Sorry, I just had to.

The real working class of Vancouver: Divisions and Disparities in Lotus Land: The Social Geography of Income Polarization in Metro Vancouver. Social Housing In The Suburbs (SHITS) now!

Report provides tools for adapting to sea level rise. So wait…the BC Liberals now believe in climate change? Damn hippies!

Local bloke exposes hole in Liquid Natural Gas: Methane Beneath our Feet. It is better to read this entire article out loud in the Daniel Plainview voice.

Sometimes when I’m bored I read the letters in The Province: Letters: Roberto Luongo, Ten Commandments, climate change. “Hatred and anger are rampant and increasing.” Actually, aside from pockets of leftover archaic religious extremism, society is advancing by leaps and bounds. I’m sorry, but when I think of the Ten Commandments I think of Charleston Heston clutching a rifle in the wake of the Columbine massacre. It’s just so hard not to.

Why I voted to keep the HST (as horribly mismanaged as it was): Why PST in B.C. marks return of a ‘profoundly stupid tax’. Did people even read the question on the ballot? It wasn’t “do you like that the Liberals totally lied about it?”. Nor was it “hey, do you like taxes?” It was “do you want to take this wad of your own tax dollars that the Feds are giving us to streamline our tax system at a reduced rate of 10% because we fucked the whole thing so badly?” Seriously, I can’t wait until the NDP re-introduces it in…oh, let’s say around 2016.

Shout out: You Say Party’s Stephen O’Shea becomes Green Party candidate. #attaboy

There are 3 comments

  1. “Did people even read the question on the ballot?” I think the answer to that is apparent from the result, Sean: Of course not. They let themselves be led down the garden path by a ragtag coalition of political opportunists led by Bill Vander Zalm, of all people. You should know you’re on the wrong track when you’re blindly following Bill Vander Zalm, for Christ’s sake.

  2. The media’s reporting of the HST in regards to the hospitality industry is shocking. When it came in the news went crazy saying restaurants will have to close and lay people off. Now they are saying it’s going to be a boom. On neither end did they mention the BC Liquor Tax anywhere. It’s like it’s an invisible tax that doesn’t exist. Ask the average diner if they are aware of it, most are not. People are led to believe that everything in a restaurant is now 7% cheaper. In reality, alcohol is now 3% more expensive (5% GST + 10% liquor tax =15%). Only food is now 7% cheaper. So now if your $100 night out consists of two $20 entrees and a $60 bottle of wine – a fairly average dinner bill – your total will be a whopping $1 cheaper than it would have with HST. I challenge anybody to find me a major news article on the BC HST in restaurants that accurately illustrates this.

On Ken Sim’s So-Called “Swagger” and ABC’S Class War

Sean Orr is back from his hiatus with a rundown of the local headlines that have been running on a ticker tape through his mind over the past six months...

On Post-Election Recuperation, Platform Paradoxes and Refund Communities

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds irony in "safety, affordability, and sustainability", and shouts out a bunch of amazing local organizations working on the frontlines.

On Running for City Council, Playing Whack-a-Mole with Homelessness, and the Public Washroom Deficit

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds a park ranger with a grudge, a gross misuse of air quotes and Tripadvisor slander.

On Living in a City Preoccupied with Street Cleaning, Chandeliers, and Campaigns Against the Homeless

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr hones in on the recent Langley shootings, and the ongoing criminalizing and dehumanizing of the homeless population.