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On Log Jamming, Excessive Dog Barking, and the US Dumping on Canada

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

The seeds of gentrification germinate in the ashes of East Vancouver structure fires: Fire destroys Value Village in East Vancouver. This property is worth $13.8 million according to Bob Mackin, and it’s the fifth fire on this block according to this Reddit user. Something smells, and it’s worse than piles of mouldy National Geographics and donated clothes.

Also up in flames: Downtown Eastside church destroyed in Wednesday night fire. This space doubled as an artist studio (one of the few remaining in the DTES). I had an art show here in 2010. It was also a party spot and I’m so fucking grateful the fire didn’t happen when hundreds of people were in there partying.

There was also a fire in one of Vancouver’s oldest buildings at Powell and Jackson, but the media seems to have missed that one.

Speaking of fire: Winters Hotel Fire Report Confirms Extinguishers Were Empty. Is this is murder by neglect? Someone has to be held accountable.

It doesn’t help that BC Housing seems to be run like a nepotistic tech startup founded by two charismatic brothers who are former real estate agents: BC Housing has ‘no formal criteria’ for contracts, review finds. Jen St. Denis reported on the board back in March, which was dismissed on Friday (after the evening news deadline).

And yet, it appears our outrage is limited to… logs. On a beach: Log jam: Vancouver wants its beloved beach logs back, but officials are wary. It’s too bad the Guardian fell for this. Log Jail is mostly a cute joke that has been seized upon by NPA pearl clutchers in another desperate attempt to appear relevant.

Enter the boss level of NIMBYism: Letter: Central Lonsdale dog park is a noisy nuisance. Imagine being this person.

This is the only time Not In My Back Yard is the morally just position: US cruise ships using Canada as a ‘toilet bowl’ for polluted waste. Oyster farmers have been saying this for years. Of course, the problem is that capitalism is an omnicidal system hellbent in profiting off the coming ecological collapse.

Meanwhile, Canada is three oligopolies in a trenchcoat: Industry Minister to meet with telecoms after ‘unacceptable’ Rogers outage. The fact that you couldn’t buy food at Canada’s largest grocer because Canada’s largest bank relies on Canada’s largest telecoms company is thoroughly distressing. Not to mention the fact that Rogers received $85 million in federal subsidies during the pandemic but continued to lay off workers while paying out shareholder dividends. It’s time to nationalize telecoms.

Speaking of workers, or lack thereof: ‘We missed the mark’: Vancouver craft beer event organizers apologize after guests report disastrous experiences. ‘There’s no way we could have known that staff would call in sick as BC enters yet another Omicron wave as hospitalizations jump 35% over last week.

‘Everyone is broke’: Popular Vancouver Diner announces it is closing down – the realities of living in one of the most expensive cities on the planet while our leaders bicker over beach logs.

Funny how all the public safety bots on Twitter are silent about this: ‘All cyclists want to do is live’: Vancouver memorial ride highlights bike safety after deadly crash.

Bonus: What Does ‘Affordable’ Housing Even Mean Anymore?

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