by Sean Orr | Aww…Lower Mainland developers feeling unappreciated for community contributions. Because if they weren’t forced to they would totally do it just out of the goodness of their hearts, right?

Almost satire: Developers have ‘slick’ dreams for ‘scary’ Downtown Eastside. This is what happens when you “declare war” in the DTES; this is what happens when you polarize the debate; and this is what happens when you blur nuance with ideology.

Not so scary after all: Vancouver crime stats show city’s getting safer, police and mayor say. That’s probably because all the Hells Angels moved to Kelowna.

Liz Evans responds to Licia Corbella: Insite saves addicts lives and often transforms them. “We need more policies to support an approach that wraps services around people, not beliefs”. Ahem, and not fear.

Unfortunately related: City of perpetual displacement: 100 years since the destruction of the Kitsilano Reserve. “Yet, in a city that only acknowledges its history through symbols and marketable gimmicks — the Gastown Steam Clock remains a model for popular history ” Of course, the alternative to the historification (yup, I made that word up too) of Gastown would have been a waterfront freeway connector called Project 200 . So, in this case, the gentrification of Gastown was also its saviour.

The Worst of Vancouver Survey. “Condo lifestyle got you down? Maybe Mayor Smiley’s toothy grin mit square jaw is wearing a little thin? Why not take a few minutes to channel that background angst into the inaugural edition of Scamcouver’s The Worst of Vancouver Survey”.

Canadian Man Sorry for Chugging Eight Beers and Swimming to Detroit. Priceless.

Is this Michael Dunahee? The resemblance is uncanny.

New West: Play Space for: (a) children (b) dogs (c) prisoners?