Use of Forcillo: Toronto cop charged with second-degree murder in Sammy Yatim streetcar shooting. Some are worried he is being made an example of, sort of like when you shoot someone 9 times on an empty streetcar for waving a knife around…

The gentry have landed. That’s just it. They haven’t. Is there encroachment? Yes, of course. But does it count as gentrification? The definition of gentry on wikipedia is: “well-born and well-bred people of high social class.” Assuming that one could equate this minority with today’s understanding of the 1%, one look at the demography of Woodward’s would refute that. Indeed, the article makes note of “hipsters” whose bohemian, culture-whoring tendencies would also refute the definition of gentry. Upper middle class suburbanites indeed; these are people who actually bought Rennie’s pitch of an “intellectual property“, and are in a way reversing the dreaded White Flight and so re-populating our downtown core. As initially skeptical of Woodward’s as I was, clearly the neighbourhood hasn’t been totally ruined. Of course there are casualties (artist spaces and SROs alike), but gross hyperbole – eg. “gentrification is a process of immense violence inflicted on the bodies, minds, and spirits of those who are deemed in the way of political and economic power” – only serves as an ideological counterpoint to the hyperbole of the corporate media, as in “clean up the DTES”. The reality on the ground is much more nuanced and grey than either side wants to admit. Why?

So stop blaming hipsters and fancy restaurants, and stop blaming China: The Myth of Foreign Real Estate Investment. “(On one hand) anyone who brings up the subject of real-estate ownership in Vancouver is a racist, carrying on a century-long tradition of Yellow Perilism. On the other: we’ve hardly begun to understand the scope of the incursion, and anyone who denies it must have ties to the development industry, doesn’t want the international-money gravy train to halt, and will pursue self-interest even if it means wrecking the city by turning it into a ruin of empty, expensive towers and mansions”. Meanwhile, Investors Group Acquires Olympic Village Apartments…

Enbridge’s missing islands redux? Skeena River missing from LNG project map.

On point: 5 ways a 14-year-old crushed an arrogant interviewer. Yeah, and then after the interview, O’Leary challenged her to pound a 6-pack of Molson Ice and called her a ‘homo’ when she declined on account of the law. (ok, I made that last part up)

What Moxy! Woman claims shift lost to younger staff. Damn this heteronormativity!