by Sean Orr | City Caucus fails in simple logic again. Making streets safer for cyclists automatically makes it more dangerous to pedestrians? No. They also fail to take into account the number of deaths related to the DTES, as well as the 1.8 million budgeted for new sidewalks. Post hoc! 1+1 is not 3! Also, there’s this, but then that would be flogging a dead pedestrian horse.
Vancouver school district libraries ‘cut to the bone’. But it’s ok because we’re the cultural capital of Canada, right?
North-Van mayor wants people to convert their lawns to vegetable gardens. Oh god, I can just see the “Leave Our Lawns Alone” coalition now. Oddly enough, it looks exactly like the anti-cycling lobby…
From Don’t Touch My Junk to Don’t Touch my Turban in the span of a single day.
“Taxpayer cost of Pickton investigation and trial: $100 million. The cost to taxpayers isn’t what concerns me. It’s that – to this day – women are being thrown out of hotel windows, and this is wrong.
Can Carol win? “Her standing is better than Campbell’s abysmal 12 per cent current approval rating but falls below former U.S. president George W. Bush’s 28 per cent personal approval level at the end of his term, and just above former U.S. president Richard Nixon’s 23 per cent during the Watergate crisis”. Ouch. Just had to rub it in a little, eh Bill?
Bucky Awards. Vote for the same people as last year! Vote for the same people as the Polaris awards! No offense to Caribou, Brasstronaut, Dan Mangan, Sarah Harmer, The Pack A.D., Arcade Fire, Shad, or The Sadies but it just gets a little repetetive.
What’s the Real Story Behind Edgewater? Sorry, but one Las Vegas-style casino is a tautology. In order for a city or casino to resemble Las Vegas you would need close to the number of Las Vegas-style casinos that Las Vegas has. And now my brain hurts. Thanks a lot. Anyway, if this gets us more housing via some sort of ‘you scratch my back’ bribe that you are proposing, then I’m actually all for it.
There are 6 comments
Popular
Maria Celeste Brings Portuguese Tasca Cooking to Fraser Street
Roll Up Your Sleeves and Reconnect with Food, Land, and Community at UBC Farm This Summer
Gotham Steakhouse & Bar Announces New Summer Features
Amber: A Gastown Listening Lounge Built Around Sound
June Introduces ‘Lala’, a New Vinyl Listening Bar
Hi Sean,
Re: Edgewater–
The problem isn’t the deal, it’s the coercion. Maybe you don’t mind your solicitor-general threatening Vancouver–in a thinly veiled way–to open up casinos or who knows? There just might be a bad accident and somebody could get hurt.
Like maybe somethin’ bad could happen to some old homeless lady–not get a roof over her head next winter.
But a nice big-ass casino could help make sure nothing bad will happen and that money for the homeless will come through, just like the province said.
Nice.
Sorry just got hung up on semantics. I agree with you.
I read “Las Vegas-style” as a phrase thrown around just as lackadaisically as “world-class city” was around the Olympics.
Canadian Reader beat us to it: The BC Liberals can’t bully the City of Vancouver into accepting a mega-casino in its downtown core, and right next to the DES, by threatening to renege on its assistance with social housing. What the hell? Not to mention that no other cities but Vegas, whether small or large, put casinos in their downtown cores. Edmonton won’t do it, nor will Toronto, Montreal, Sydney Australia, London or Singapore. They plant them out in the middle of nowhere, plus they usually have huge fees for local residents to enter. Edgewater will have neither of these deterrents. It will over 1000 slots and will be free to enter. Meanwhile, like all our current gaming revenues in BC, hardly any of its gambling revenues are going to the whole spectrum of charities to which they were legally promised, from arts to help for autistic kids. The Vancouver police department hasn’t even been consulted about the organized crime hub the expanded Edgewater will invariably be (ask the police), and Mr. Casino Minister himself, Rich Coleman, shut down the integrated police force that was meant to deal with these things. Because he’s the police minister too!
The whole thing is one giant ill-conceived botch from start to finish and is going to be a very expensive mess the City of Vancouver will never be able to clean up.
So maybe the word “Vegas” is a bit of an exaggeration. Whatever. We’re trying to make a point here. And the point is – Vancouverites are being pushed into something incredibly stupid by the BC Liberals. Painful as it is, City Council is going to have to stand up to a government that doesn’t know what it’s doing. Gambling is not a viable future industry for this province.
But it’s ok if I still play poker in my basement, right?
Ha ha. Yes!