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

On Dissolving Dungeness Crabs and Showering Luxury Condo Buyers With Diamonds

Tea & Two Slices is a long-running local news round-up by NEEDS frontman and veteran dishwasher Sean Orr, who lives and works in Gastown, deeply aware of his privilege.

The colonizer always comes out: Horgan concedes Trans Mountain pipeline will go ahead while repeating support for Coastal GasLink. I mean, of course it will. Reconciliation be damned. UNDRIP be damned. Hereditary chiefs be damned. But the fact that the BC NDP ran on doing everything in their power to stop TransMountain and not on “Oh, we’ll see what the courts say…” is just salt in the wound.

Meanwhile: Climate activists arrested in David Eby’s office; RCMP orders others out of Jonathan Wilkinson’s office. Andrew Nathan, formerly of Briarpatch Magazine, reminds us:

A note on David Eby, BC NDP MLA and Attorney General. He’s the former executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association and wrote a 65-page handbook called The Arrest Handbook: A Guide to Your Rights.

He just had youth climate and Wet’suwet’en solidarity activists arrested for occupying his office. This is where social democratic politics will take you: administering the status quo at the barrel of a gun.

Meanwhile, in Victoria: Indigenous activists file complaint, allege Victoria police caused ‘multiple’ injuries at protest. “We are completely disappointed that rather than come and meet with the Indigenous youth standing in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en, the province decided to arrest them. We continue to call for peace and non-violence.”

This was not really surprising, especially from a police department that wants to drive around blasting flood lights everywhere: Victoria police request ‘cruise lights’ to increase visibility on roads. Increase visibility on roads? Lol. You spelled criminalize poor people wrong.

ROYAL RUMBLE: Native band claims Harry’s B.C. mansion on ‘stolen land’. “The Tseycum Nation claims the pair’s rented $18-million mansion is built on land “stolen” by British colonizers almost two centuries ago”. Why the fuck is stolen in scare quotes when it’s universally acknowledged that the land was never ceded? I know I shouldn’t read the comments but I almost gave myself a hand cramp reporting these scumbags to Facebook, including: “The godless savages were defeated…”, “Ever noticed there is always an Indian with thier (sic) hand out…”, and “We got anymore of those blankets laying around?”

Facebook comments are one thing, real life is another: Victoria resident says WestJet employee uttered racist comment, refused to let her on plane. “Customer claims she was told ‘You guys can’t handle your alcohol’ by WestJet employee”. Jesus.

Racist comments in real life are one thing, Nazis actively organizing in our communities is another: ‘They work at night’: Someone is distributing white supremacist flyers in East Van.

Justin Fung has started a Jason Botchford “Van Provies” style Twitter round-up for housing called The #VanREalities and I’m here for it: The #VanREalities – Hindsight is 2020. Thanks for picking up the slack, buddy! there’s so many gems that I missed.

The best would be Mayor Kennedy Stewart quoting a Globe & Mail story that has little actual data on how more rentals in Vancouver would lower rents:

Runner up would have to be starchitect Bjarke Ingels posing with Brazil’s fascist president Bolsonaro. But hey, you can rent a BMW from the concierge, so…

Concord Pacific, not wanting to be outdone, thinks giving away $80k diamonds to compliment their luxury condos during a housing crisis is a good look: Concord Pacific and De Beers Jewellers celebrate Lunar New Year with a special partnership. Honestly, at this point, it’s as if they are just begging for the people to show up at their doors with pitchforks.

And in “other cities doing more about the housing crisis than we are” news: Berlin is taking radical measures to control rents. Can it hold back the tide? Proving that our problem is not a problem of supply, but a problem of global land price inflation.

Exhibit B: Montreal Airbnb hosts ordered to pay more than $50,000 to condo syndicate. Drag them!

Vancouver should not have a desire for streetcars. At first I was like, “whaaat they’re cool” but then: “streetcar proponents see it as an economic and neighbourhood-building solution, as much as it is a transit solution…” And by neighbourhood-building you mean gentrification. Gotcha.

Vancouver’s Little Saigon Facing Gentrification? One more reason this ‘rush to rental’ craze is problematic.

Meme of the day from Unaffordable Vancouver Memes:

One more reason why allowing Uber and Lyft to operate in Vancouver was a terrible idea: Taxis threaten to scrap accessible vehicles over ride-hailing dispute, vulnerable people caught in middle.

Honour bound: Donate to the Warming Tent for Vancouver Homeless.

Bonus: The Pacific Ocean is so acidic that it’s dissolving Dungeness crabs’ shells.

There is 1 comment

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.