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On Gregor’s Big Victory And Calling The DTES A “Failed Community”

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by Sean Orr | I voted neigh: Gregor Robertson re-elected mare of Vancouver. Oh, c’mon you kids! Quit horsing around!

Analysis: Why Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson won. It turns out it was because “Vision clearly held the lead in pork pie hats and skinny jeans…” Also, to borrow an old adage from the straight-edge scene, if you don’t stand for something you’ll fall for anything: “It was an energy that felt positive, as if these people were for something rather than against it…”

A case for wards? Interactive map shows you how your Vancouver neighbourhood voted. To borrow a lyric from my old band, Taxes: “This city is divided / in two halves / east-side west-side / have-nots and the haves…”

How many people plumped? Anne Roberts: Boost your voting power by plumping.

Pregnant with power: Vancouver Aquarium breeding ban to be lifted say NPA commissioner. So you run on a platform that Vision pushes its ideology without due consultation and this is the first thing you do? I mean, not even Tea & Two Slices will take a stand on this issue (we’ll leave that to Reddit).

Solzhenitsyn rolling in his grave: Vancouver’s ‘gulag’: Canada’s poorest neighbourhood refuses to get better despite $1M a day in social spending. Once again, the mainstream press conflates the idea that maybe we shouldn’t be letting people die with enabling. “… the result was a 221-page document that expertly skirted around any mention of the Downtown Eastside as a failed community in need of a drastic turnaround. The report only mentioned the word ‘drug’ six times…” That’s funny, because your article mentions federal transfer payments, the non-existent national housing plan, frozen welfare rates, renovictions, slum lords, harm reduction, NIMBYism, and the fact that it costs more to leave people on the street than to house them a grand total of zero times. Perhaps the author – an award-winning reporter who has written stories for Reader’s Digest and the inflight magazine of a helicopter company – would rather we killed all the poor.

Meanwhile, in Opposite Land: Insite Loves People Right Where They Are.

To calm you down, here’s a Buzzfeed article about Mr. Rogers. Aw…

Totally unrelated:

The heritage battle for Chinatown. OMG, do not touch Tosi’s! Can someone copyright it as an art project? Super dis: “Almost immediately, the two (highrise) buildings in the 600-, 700-block Main go up, and they’re just basically Yaletown condos. Not even Yaletown — Yaletown has more character.”

Meanwhile, Portland Hotel Society sells Downtown Eastside building to B.C. Housing. RIP, The Only.

Speaking of audits: As CRA audits charities, there’s a scandal within a scandal. This is CRAzy.

While the CRA is disrupting the work of often tiny NGOs, the government is simultaneously laying off international tax auditors who specialized in investigating the tax avoidance strategies of 1-per-cent-ers and corporations.

Bonus: It Only Takes 175 Words for this Canadian to Lay an Epic Smackdown on Idiot Americans Who Rejected Obama for the GOP.

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.