April 1, 2015 carnegie newsletter

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APRIL 1, 2015 FREE. Do not pay for this paper.

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'~~F1L.---=---==--=--=--==---==--==-~~-=:::....:....-=__ .Index: carnegienewsletter.org 401 Main Street, Vancouver

carnnews@shaw.ca ~rnDews@vcD.bc.ca

V6A 2T7 604-665.2289

Sasquatch StilwelI &

Christie (fhfl ~c#r~fltWItch) Clark "We doan need no flyin' monkeys!

Dis is BeeCee where one-percenters live free!"

Website . email

a bundle. And we can put up big posters in our offices advertising this new service. 'Did you know? Telephone services offer flexible options.'''* People will think we're actually trying to help them. Ha ha."

"This is great," says Christy, "We can offer to call them back on the phone that they don't have so they don't have to wait."

"Puuurfect," says Michelle. "Our poster can say, 'Instead of waiting on the phone leave a call back number and keep your place in line."* "We can say, 'Information at your fingertips, access information and services that matter to you,' * as though we are really trying to help."

I'm imagining a discussion happening in the BC government between Premier Christy Clark and Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell: "How do we keep from spending so much money Ion welfare?" asks Christy. "I know," says Michelle.

"Welfare rates are already so low that people can't afford phones so we'll simply close or reduce the hours in our offices and make people phone when they need help."

"What a great idea," says Christy. "Even if they do have phones, most of them only have a few minutes per month so if we put them on hold for a long time, they'll run out of minutes or give up cause they're using up their minutes."

"Right," says Michelle, "Or if they have to go to a community place and use a free phone, everyone in the lineup will get mad at them if they wait too long, and they'll have to give up again."

"Brilliant," says Christy. "This will make it really hard for people to get crisis grants or disability applications, or find out what happened to their cheque if it doesn't show up." • "Right," says Michelle, "This will save the taxpayers

That little conversation might be funny if it weren't so true. All the quotes with an * beside them are actually on a Ministry of Social Development poste~. The Ministry is now making people phone to deal with lots of issues. Sometimes when people go to the office they are told they can't deal with a worker there; they have to go and phone the 1-866 number. At least 10 people have told me that when they phone this number they have to wait 40 minutes or more and then sometimes they get cut off. They have told me about people at community centers getting mad at them because they are taking so long on the phone, about not having eneugh minutes on their phone, about their phone batteries running down while they wait, about not having a phone so they have to go to a friend's place.

The Ministry cheated one person I know out of hundreds of dollars because it took so long to get a disability application because of having to use the phone. If she had got the application when she ~rst tried, the pension might have come through earlier, and she would have had an extra $300 per month for two months.

The Ministry tries to ignore all the hardship it causes with statements like this one in its latest annual report: "A key focus for the Ministry was to improve services to clients to ensure they had access to the range of services that met their diverse needs."

Right. I thought this was 2015, not 1984.

The new phone system is a poor bashing system that degrades, humiliates and frustrates people. It's past time for the Ministry of Social Development to start treating people with respect.

This article first published in The Volcano.

Raise the Rates - www.raisetherates.org Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories No welfare increase for 8 years. It's no joke.

April lst will mark 8 years since income assistance was increased. It wasn't enough to live on then and it isn't enough to live on now, at $610 a month for a single person and $906 for a single person with a disability.

Raise the Rates plans to mark the week of April 1st with several actions to draw attention to the inadequacy of welfare rates.

Here is Raise the Rate's Welfare Fact for Monday, March 23rd: A single person on regular welfare receives $610 a month for everything. The average rent for a privately-owned SRO in the Downtown Eastside (the cheapest non-social housing rent in Metro Vancouver), is $485. The Dieticians of Canada estimate that an adult male needs to spend about $250 a month for a basic healthy diet. A person on welfare can't afford rent & food, let alone clothing, a phone, transit, laundry, & goods for personal hygiene.

Sources:

*For average SRO rent:see, On the Brink, the Downtown Eastside Housing Crisis, March, 2015. from Carnegie Community Action Project Here is Raise the Rate's Welfare Fact for Tuesday, March 24th:

Next year, 2016, the richest 1% in the world BC has the worst inequality in Canada. This . budget: -Gave $227M in tax breaks to the -Ignored the need for a substantial

will have more wealth than the entire 99% of humanity (Oxfam). is what the BC government did about this rising inequality in its 2015 richest 2% welfare rate increase for BC's poorest 174,000 people

Here is Raise the Rate's Welfare Fact for Wednesday, March 25th: Poverty costs BC over $8 billion a year. A full poverty reduction program would cost around $4 billion and save about $4 billion, an average of about $900 a year for each person in BC.

Here is Raise the Rate's Welfare Fact for Thursday, March 26th: BC is the most unequal province in Canada. only 3% of all wealth.

The richest 10% own 56% of the wealth and the poorest 50% own

Here is Raise the Rate's Welfare Fact for Friday, March 27th: BC's welfare rates were last raised in April 2007, nearly 8 years ago. The BC Premier's $126,638 to $193,532 in the same period, an increase of 53%.

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Why recent announcements

pay has gone up from

about welfare aren't nearly enough

The announcements only apply to parents and their children. While there are 16,000 single parents with 26,000 children on assistance, the changes will help only a small portion as follows: *Ending the clawback of child support payments: helps 5,400 children (about one-fifth of the children on welfare); costs $13M (Although the government is saving a large part of this by cutting $4 million from the Family Maintenance Program.) *Increasing the earnings exemption from $200 to $400 for families with children and increasing the earning exemption for families with a 'severely disabled child' from $300 to $500 and allow 2 parent families also to claim this. This helps less than 600 families; costs $1.4 million *Allowing single parents to stay on welfare while they go to an approved course for "in-demand jobs" for a maximum of one year. The government doesn't say how many single parents will be able to use this program but if it paid $10,000 for tuition, transportation and childcare for one year for one person, only 500 single parents per year would benefit, as the program is supposed to cost less than $5M a year.

So, of the 174,772 people on income assistance in January, 2015, thousands surviving on a mere $610 a month, these government changes will probably help less than 7,000 single parents and children.

In the recent provincial budget, the Government gave $227 million in tax cuts to BC's richest 2%.

Can you live on $610 a month?

Justice not Charity

Agency leaders ask Minister for substantial welfare rate increase Vancouver-Unceded Coast Salish Territories - In an open letter released today, leaders of numerous BC agencies, including the Poverty Reduction Coalition, with over 40 members and almost 400 supporting organizations, the Carnegie Centre, the Aboriginal Front Door, Atira Women's Resources Society, the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association, and Gordon Neighbourhood House, have asked the Minister of Social Development to "raise welfare rates substantially to ensure that the 174,772 people on social assistance and disability can meet their basic needs."

April 1 will mark 8 years since the last increase to welfare rates. Single people on welfare in BC are expected to survive with a mere $610 a month, receiving only $375 for shelter. People with recognized disabilities are ex.pected to survive on only $906 a month with $375 for shelter.

The open letter to Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell is here:

An open letter to the Hon. Michelle Stilwell, Minister of Social Development

and Innovation

This April marks the 8th year in a row that welfare rates have remained frozen despite our provincial government acknowledging the need for an increase. The rate for single people who are expected to work, $610 a month, is literally not enough to pay rent and buy food, let alone meet other necessary expenses. According to the Dietitians of BC the cost of nutritious food for a month for a single man was $290 in 2011. The average rent for a I bedroom apartment in Vancouver is over $1000. Families and people with disabilities are also suffering.

We urge the provincial government to raise welfare rates substantially to ensure that the 174,772 people on social assistance and disability can meet their basic needs.

Endorsed by: Trish Garner on behalf of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, with over 400 member groups throughout BC: "The current income assistance system in BC is fundamentally broken. People in desperate need are being denied assistance, and if lucky enough to navigate all the structural and administrative barriers to welfare and have their application accepted, they are subjected to a life of "survival," struggling to meet the most basic needs of shelter and food. Welfare is only $610 for a single person and $906 for a person with a recognized disability, and has not been raised since 2007. It wasn't enough to live on then and it definitely isn't enough to live on now. We support a significant raise in welfare and disability rates!"

Thelma Jack, Interim Director, and Bill Beauregarde, Community Co-ordinator, Aboriginal Front Door: "With higher rates people could afford better accommodation, other than SRO's, which can be bad for their health. People could have the dignity of choice of buying their own food and not standing in line for free food."

Wes Regan, Executive Director, Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association: "Raising welfare rates will increase the spending power of the residents who live alongside our merchants, better enabling them to shop locally and enjoy tbe range of goods and services available here. This better enables small businesses and social enterprises to create further jobs, including jobs for those with barriers. In short, increasing welfare rates is good for business as it puts money right back into the local economy, where it can do its work to create a healthier community."

Janice Abbott, CEO, Atira Women's Resource Society: "The biggest impact of an increased support allowance will be increased access to more food and better nutrition, resulting in better health, better decision making, better/improved interpersonal relationships including relationships with children, greater independence and increased dignity. For some women it may also allow for increased participation within their neighbourhoods, including greater civic engagement and the opportunity to give back to their communities. Children who are able to stay in their families and be nurtured physically and emotionally are also far less likely to experience the same indignities their parents may have experienced, including homelessness, struggles with substance use and mental and spiritual wellness. This is a long-term investment in all our futures."

Ethel Whitty, Director, Carnegie Community Centre: "With the shelter portion of income assistance at $375 and the average rent for a one bedroom apartment in Vancouver at over $1000, people who need welfare can't afford to rent a place to live in Vancouver unless they get into social housing. Tenants often wait years before a social

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housing unit becomes available. If welfare rates went up substantially people would have options other than homelessness or being forced to live in tiny hotel rooms and share washrooms with strangers."

Paul Taylor, Director, Gordon Neighbourhood House: "Community organizations across the province are seeing an increase in the number of people on welfare accessing community-based charitable meal programs and the like.

The growth is not sustainable for community organizations that struggle to meet the growing demand. People on welfare struggle to meet their food needs each and every day, as they navigate the web of emergency/charitable this is not a solution to poverty."

All of us urge your government to take immediate action and raise welfare rates substantially.

Contact: Thelma JacklBill Beauregarde: 604 697-5662; Paul Taylor: 604683-2554 ext. 202; Janice Abbott: 604 331-1420 Wes Regan: 604805-3591; Bill Hopwood, Raise the Rates: 604738-1653, 778 686-5293 Trish Garner, Poverty Reduction Coalition: 604 417-8885

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Theatre

Workshop

Special Guest Teacher

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- Nathan Slattery -

Bold, Brave, Fearless

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ACTING BASICS Le cei~e: Together Friday April 10, lpm-3pm in the Carnegie

Theatre

Fun approach to acting, games, confidence, voice and improv onstage.

Nathan is an actor, dancer, teacher and director originallyfrom Ireland, living in Vancouver by way of New York, Los Angeles & other places in between.

No experience necessary Free, everyone welcome!

Bring your Voices!

Bring your Instruments!

Bring your Songs!

Theatre classes Fridays 1pm-3pm Ap r i 1 24,

May 1,

8,

15 image by Ravenari

For more info: Teresa 604-255-9401 thirteenofhearts@hotmail.com

·Friday, April 10, 1 - 2:30pm In 3rd Floor Classroom 11

News from Oppenheimer Park

From the Library There are no "April fools" at the Carnegie library!

All questions, inquiries, and research projects are valid as far as we are concerned, and we love to help find the best resources. April is also National Poetry Month, and I know we've got some talented poets in the house. For further inspiration please check out some of our poetry collection: From the Poplars by Cecily Nicholson (821 N624 f) The title refers to Poplar Island, which is the traditional territory of the Qayqayt First Nation and also one of BC's first "Indian Reserves." Nicholson herself is a writer, curator and community worker in the . OTES community, and her writing is described as a , meditation, which honours the river and acts as a witI ness to resilience. , The Ballad of Mrs. Smith by Jancis M. Andrews (821 A565b) - This collection of poems also has ties to the OTES, as it is the story of an abused wife who struggles with alcohol, and escapes from her upsca\e home by finding solace in a rooming house. She establishes friendships with addicts and sex trade workers and finds new hope and light in a seemingly dark . setting.

The Long Landscape by Paul Wilson (821 WIL)Wilson adopts the oriental long poem form and bases this collection on the life of the Japanese landscape painter named Sesshu. There are references to Ojango Reinhardt, Bach, Josephine Baker, art, rhythm and Paris. A beautiful, poetic world.

The Ginkgo Light by Arthur Sze (821 SZE) - Is an elegant depiction of a resilient gingkgo tree that survives the atomic blast at Hiroshima, and it's blossoms become a metaphor for the way the world can transform darkness into beauty. A reviewer states that "Sze fuses elements of Chinese, Japanese, Native American and various Western experimental traditions."

Poetry is a wonderful outlet for expression & meditation. The VPL will be hosting events throughout the month such as "Honey, Hives & Poetry in the City" on Monday April 27th at 7pm at Central Branch.

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Your librarian, Natalie

Oppenheimer

Park Cherry

Blossom Festival

April 2-29 Japanese soup Sushi making workshop Arts and crafts and more!

More details will be announced soon!

Kids & Family Party lO:30am-12:30pm Eggs and cookies decorating Arts and crafts and more!

April 4

Bees in our Community 9:30am - 12:00pm

April17

Meet some of the resident bees who are just waking up. Sarah Common will share her knowledge of the mason bee & the Hives for Humanity local Pollinator Corridor Project. Help Sharon Kallis make Pollinator-Zone Markers that will hang on Hastings Street. ist with waxing line or spool-knitting the mark~ 'ng linen grown in the downtown eastside as a part of the Urban Cloth Project. No experience necessary! Our linen is dyed with plants from Hastings Urban Farm & waxed with beeswax from local hives.

The final hive-shaped markers will be installed along Hastings Street ln late May 2015.

Random Acts of Puppetry for 5 weeks on Tuesdays March 31- April 28, 2:00pm-4:00pm Learn different styles of puppet making while exploring the theme of cultural connection with artist Sharon Bayly, as part of the Strathcona Arts, Health and Seniors project.

Our weekly programs offer diverse activities - e.g.

Karaoke, art workshops and open studios, soup, coffee, bingo, and movies. For more information, please visit the Park to check our schedule.

Join us on Facebook to get the latest updates!

Oppenheimer Park - DTES Communities' Back Yard Oppenheimer Park 1488 Powell Street 1604-253-8830

There's only a little space to announce the Carnegie Alley Health Fair! Tuesday April 21st

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11am-3pm

ADVOCACY; FOOD; FOOT CARE; HAIRCUTS; HEALING & RECOVERY; CARE FOR TEETH, EARS, EYES; PET CARE; LITERACY & STORYTELLING; WHEELCHAIR REPAIR; MUSIC and MORE So come (more next issue)

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Featuring DALANNAH GAlL BOWEN JOANIE BYE WILL SANDERS with SIMON KENDALL on piano Easter Special: Songs of Mahalia

Jackson

Come celebrate Easter with a soul-stirring, uplifting concert of gospel songs made famous by world-famous singer Mahalia Jackson.

Mahalia Jackson, considered the greatest gospel singer of all-time, was known for songs such as "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands", "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" and many more.

This show features recent Blues Hall of Fame inductee Dalannah Gail Bowen, Will Sanders of The Sojoumers, Joanie Bye and Simon Kendall on piano.

Friday, April 3, 2:00 PM Carnegie Theatre

What were you led to believe(1) I What you were led to believe(!)

The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the .abillty to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, "amplif[y]" sanctioned mes'sages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be "extremist." The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old stand by for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.

The tools were created by GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG), and constitute some of the most startling methods of propaganda and internet deception contained within the Snowden archive. Previously disclosed documents have detailed JTRIG's use of "fake victim blog posts," "false flag operations," "honey traps" and psychological manipulation to target online activists, monitor visitors to WikiLeaks, and spy on YouTube and Facebook users.

But as the U.K. Parliament today debates a fast-tracked bill to provide the government with greater surveillance powers, one which Prime Minister David Cameron has justified as an "emergency" to "help keep us safe," a newly released top-secret GCHQ document called "JTRIG Tools and Techniques" provides a comprehensive, birds-eye view of just how underhanded and invasive this unit's operations are. The document-available in full here-is designed to notify other GCHQ units of JTRIG's "weaponised capability" when it comes to the dark internet arts, and serves as a sort of hacker's buffet for wreaking online havoThe "tools" have been assigned boastful code names. They include invasive methods for online surveillance, as well as some of the very techniques that the U.S. and U.K. have harshly prosecuted young online activists for employing, including "distributed denial of service" attacks and "call bombing." But they also describe previously unknown tactics for manipulating and distorting online political discourse and disseminating state propaganda, as well as the apparent ability to actively monitor Skype users in real-time-raising further questions about the extent of Microsoft's cooperation with spy agencies or potential vulnerabilities in its Skype's encryption. Here's a list of how JTRIG describes its capabilities: .• "Change outcome of online polls" (UNDERPASS) • "Mass delivery of email messaging to support an Information Operations campaign" (BADGER) and "mass delivery of SMS messages to support an Information Operations campaign" (WARPARTH) • "Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal."

• "Active skype capability. Provision of real time call records (SkypeOut and SkypetoSkype) and bidirectional instant messaging. Also contact lists." (MINIATURE HERO) • • "Find private photographs of targets on Facebook" (SPRING BISHOP) • "A tool that will permanently disable a target's account on their computer" (ANGRY PIRATE) I. "Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website" (GATEWAY) and "ability to inflate page views on websites" (SLIPSTREAM) • "Amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube)" (GESTATOR) • "Targeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers" (PREDATORS FACE) and "Distributed denial of service using P2P. Built

by ICTR, deployed by JTRIG" (ROLLING THUNDER) I • "A suite of tools for monitoring target use of the UK auction site eBay (www.ebay.co.uk)" (ELATE) I • "Ability to spoof any email address and send email under that identity" (CHANGELlNG) I • "For connecting two target phone together in a call" (IMPERIAL BARGE) While some of the tactics are described as "in development," JTRIG touts "most" of them as "fully operational, tested and reli~able." It adds: "We only advertise tools here that are either ready to fire or very close to being ready."

And JTRIG urges its GCHQ colleagues to think big when it comes to internet deception: "Don't treat this like a catalogue. If you don't see it here, it doesn't mean we can't build it."

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The document appears in a massive Wikipedia-style archive used by GCHQ to internally discuss its surveillance and on line deception activities. The page indicates that it was last modified in July 2012, and had been accessed almost 20,000 times.

GCHQ refused to provide any comment on the record beyond its standard boilerplate, in which it claims that it acts "in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework" and is subject to "rigorous oversight." But both claims are questionable.

British watchdog Privacy International has filed pending legal action against GCHQ over the agency's use of malware to spy on internet and mobile phone users. Several GCHQ memos published last fall by The Guardian revealed that the agency was eager to keep its activities secret not to protect national security, but because "our main concern is that references to agency practices (ie, the scale of interception and deletion) could lead to damaging public debate which might lead to legal challenges

against the current regime." An EU parliamentary inquiry earlier this year concluded that GCHQ activities were likely illeg~1.

As for oversight, serious questions have been raised about whether top national security officials even know what GCHQ IS doing. Chris Huhne, a former cabinet minister and member of the national security council until 2012, insi~ted"tha~ministers. were in "utter ignorance" about even the largest GCHQ spying program, known as Tempora-not to mention their extraordinary capability to hoover up and store personal emails, voice contact, social networking activi~y and even internet searches."

In an October Guardian op-ed, Huhne wrote that "when it comes to the secret world of GCHQ and the [NSA], the depth of my 'privileged information' has been dwarfed by the information provided by Edward Snowden to The Guardian."

Email theauthor:glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com

Gentrification increasing homelessness in Vancouver, report says Privately-owned SRO hotels, the last resort before homelessness for many low income people, are being upscaled and rented for $700 a month and more, even though they still have washrooms shared by many people and no kitchen. As a result, low income people, who depend on welfare and disability cannot find places to rent. The 2014 Carnegie Community Action Project report, On the Brink: the Downtown Eastside Housing Crisis,found over 445 rooms in 9 SRO hotels that are now renting for $700 or more a month.

Other highlights of the report include: . 753 new market units are coming in or near to Chinatown with only 11 welfare rate social housing units . The average rent in-privately owned and run SRO hotels is $485, $110 more than welfare shelter rates. . Of 3004 rooms surveyed, 2444 rent for $425 or more; while welfare and disability shelter rates are .' $375 a month; Wilson Liang, a member of Chinatown Concern Group, said he is "concerned that seniors housing which was agreed upon by major stakeholders still hasn't materialized during the recent Chinatown development fever. As housing affordability gives way to lucrative development projects, the Downtown Eastside is losing its low income housing stock."

"The report highlightSthe ongoing loss of low income housing due to rents rising beyond what people on welfare can afford to pay and many people are being displaced from the community & are at risk of homelessness," said Harold Lavender, Chinatown resident.

"With SRO .rooms getting more and more expensive, the housing that was the last resort before homelessness is no longer available to low income people," said one of the report's authors, Jean Swanson.

."Unless the city slows down gentrification & its im'pact on hotel rents, more and more housing for low income people will be lost."

To solve the housing crisis all 3 levels of government need to take action. "The federal government should fund & build thousands of units of new social housing. The province should also build thousands of units, bring in effective rent control and raise welfare rates, that haven't been increased in 8 years. The city needs a Single Room Accommodation bylaw with teeth," said Lavender; and should purchase land for social housing and enforce it Standards ofMaintenance bylaw."

Contact: Jean Swanson 604 729 2380

RESURRECTION Brighter days as of now, less troubles, fewer worries .. how did _ arrive jit this point; I wonder occasionally, at peculiar times, why fret over past realities that cannot be undone, that are long gone memories both good & bad ... that have withered into the ether of ancient times. I admit I've a few regrets (who doesn't) - I've had heartaches with unrequited love, rejection & despair on both sides of the ledger, so why should I care so much?? What's done is done, etched in eternal stone. Celestial bodies like stars are sparkling forever, they shine & glow deep & wide, brilliantly promising surreal, exciting & definite possibilities - alongside billions of shattered hopes & dreams but keep wishing because hope & faith,are never pointless and certainly not in vain.

Somewhere far off in the high heavens, maybe unreal yet realizing what we will entering this complex yet blissful other world with your search for tranquility finally over .... and yet you should & could know all this way of being in the deepest corner of your soul.

Recreate in yourself an intense, strong feeling of being totally encompassed by the deepest sense of warm beautiful love, and you are a lost soul no more.

By ROBYN L1VINGSTONE.

True Love Again

;No, I would want a strong situation .Where I stand up to my frustrations And give you a lot of the rest of me More than just a smiling face and a boy to fool around Just a stand-up guy So that you would be proud of me

It looks like you like me But I truly can't tell And I don't want to tell you About my living hell I still manage to smile Because I'm still filled with hope And I would never want to show you That I was a man who couldn't cope.

Love songs are only words Unless you feel it These words are only heard : If they come in and make you believe it I wanna make you know I would never let you down Never leave you if some other Tempting offer came around You could say I was the toughest man you have ever met And live your life like the Queen of the world And die without regret Oh my God you're so beautiful It's such a preciou8s sight Your beaming smile & glowing face So bright with so much light You make me feel alive again It let's me know that life Just wouldn't be the same Without a very special wife Love songs are only real If you can feel it True love only exists -lf you're willing to believe it Women are so beautiful If you're open to see Women keep the world up straight There's no doubt that we can be Get rid of all that hate inside And set your spirit free If you take the time to love yourself It shows when you really do Even if it takes some time You'll find a love that's true Love can be real if you believe it A woman can feel your words When you really mean it Love songs are only words Unless they make you feel it True love really can exist If you're willing to believe it.

Darren Morgan

J[Carnegie Centre Cabaret is open to all even Tues, 7-9:45pm. Musician sign-up starts 6:45

Carnegie Newsletter Cyberspace Devolution

Man About Town:

by Blackheart Longfellow

Dear Editor: Once upon a time I could go on the Internet & read the Carnegie Newsletter with ease. Then, for some unfathomable reason, the Newsletter's Internet format was changed. The new format made it almost impossible for myoId eyes to read.

The new format pages were too small, even with my reading glasses. If I enlarged the pages, it was too big for my 14" laptop. If I really tried hard enough I could move the pages up, down, and sideways to read it, but this was irritating and made me feel seasick. The old format worked perfectly well, but now it's gone!

Can you please tell me, like I was a 70-year-old, why the Carnegie Newsletter changed its online format?

Garry Gust Garry, The new format makes the-entire 28Yz year stock of newsletters available, searchable.iemailable and more.

Individual authors, poets and graphic artists can get everything they've ever had printed: it's separable, collatable and reformattable. It also takes about 15 minutes to put the latest issue online for subscribes, researchers, students, fans etc to view, read and whatever else can be done. The previous way took 2YZ-3Y2 hours.

If clicking on a page makes it too big, put the mousemarker on the page, hold down the Control key & roll the wheel between the left & right buttons forward.

This also increases the size of page contents but gradually. The sideways layout in the last issue came about because the original was laid out like that and there was no time planned for or taken to retype the entire piece.

And to be bluntly clear, I'm not going to spend an additional 2-3 hours to upload stuff to the old website so you can read it without getting pissed off.

The kid who designed & built the site from scratch has done a great job. He's bright but not on any kind of superiority trip; he gets that my speed and his speed are quite different because of a generational thing. What's obvious to him is often not even guessed by me ... and so on.

I could go on but the Newsletter is also read by more people. If reading it online is just too much of a pain then scrape together $27 & everyone of the 23 issues a year will be mailed to you.

il.

PaulR Taylor, volunteer editor since 1986.

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It is a lovely spring afternoon in the gritty Downtown Eastside. In the Overpass Cafe next to the Emperor Pub a few volunteer broadcasters from the local community radio station are about to debrief the show they had just aired. Knowledgeable young Aboriginal students .. sounding academic, authoritatively discussing decolonization, prejudice at Simon Fraser University, the new LNG pipeline. An order is placed for three coffee which is served up in tiny institutional ceramic cups salvaged from the old Riverview Psychiatric Institution. Henry, the short order cook, not a chef, serves the coffee and begins to fill an order for an all-day breakfast of bacon and eggs. Henry breaks two eggs on the flat dirty greasy grill. A cockroach crawls up a nearby wall and Henry squashes it with his rusty spatula and he continues flipping the eggs. A wretched looking chap lurches through the front door repeating to himself a string of fearful conjectures ...his mutterings were fearful to himself...for they would only lead him to the past. Henry's mother stands in the kitchen with shrivelled arthritic hands; a woman from a hamlet on the shores of the Huang He River bordering Inner Mongolia, where it is said that a fearsome wizani had turned her foot into a club, for disobeying her mother. She was part of a large immigrant population now, living in a strange city in a foreign land that no one had promised them. A pizza . faced Latino youth from Seattle's Rainier Valley With a backward facing baseball cap wrapped in a flamelaced bandana approached a cafe barstool while answering his cellphone: "Zzzupp?" "Dafuq?" He was trying to sound tough and intimidating but came across as a goof, stupid and ugly. He was thinking ...maybe today I'll hijack a Helijet and crash it into a West Vancouver mansion, or maybe the Hotel Vancouver Fairmont, or maybe the Lonsdale Quay ...but after another rock. Outside the window on the sidewalk a woman is doing the "Hastings Shuffle" ...that strange, awful wrenching contortion of the limbs and face exhibited by so many addicts in withdrawa1...the Dance of Death. Two big fat cops order coffee after taking a booth. Officer Kiyoshk asks Officer Girvan ..."Hey, wanna go watch the soccer game at #5 Orange after our dayshift?" And so the day unfolds in the sordid guts of the poorest postal code in Canada. o happy day.

I'm voting Yes in the Transit and Transportation Referendum

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I'm voting yes because I have grandchildren I'm voting yes because I love living in the city I'm voting yes because I use public transit I'm voting yes because I believe that my extra $50 in taxes can make a difference I'm voting yes because Harper and his Conservatives don't want me to I'm voting yes because I'm optimistic I'm voting yes because always being negative and angry is bad for my health Pm voting yes because I believe.

Are you voting yes too?

Pat McSherry DTES resident and transit user

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Transit vote: Four scenarios if "NO" wins After months of rigorous debate, voters will finally. have a chance to cast their ballots on the transit plebiscite over the next 10 weeks. With polls showing the "NO" side leading two-to-one, it seems everyone has an idea of what will happen to transit - & TransLink - if the plebiscite is voted down.

Based on my own following of this issue for the past I . seven years, here are four possible scenanos, an d t h etr. implications, after a "NO" vote. ..

1. Status quo continues if "NO" to transit WinS With a failure to secure a "YES" vote, the political class is rebuked and oses its legitimacy in the public sphere. TransLink's management and board w~ll recoil even further, with communications to the outside world effectively eliminated. Mayors will continue to play political games with the province, refusing to increase property taxes to pay for new projects.

The Pattullo Bridge will be delayed for three more years, but eventually begin construction under a toiling regime. It will be the first new project TransLink undertakes following the plebiscite's defeat. The Sur.rey LRT plans will be canned, as will any increases to bus service.

Broadway will beco'me the next priority. The mayors will debate regional funding mechanisms for 2 more years, until finally agreeing to fare hikes and a gas tax

increase. Projects will start moving forward in 2020 ', Governance, administration or corporate structure Will not see any major changes. The public will continue to complain of mismanagement and waste. Transit use and customer service ratings will begin a slow and steady decline.

2. Reorganize . .

With the prospect of rising costs and flat or declining revenues, TransLink is faced with a new political reality: this can no longer be a public service, but must become a revenue generating business. Subsidized routes that are losing the most money are cut. Services like B-Lines that have stronger businesses cases will obtain this freed-up funding.

This becomes an opportunity to privatize bus operations. The TransLink-owned and operated subsidiary Coast Mountain Bus company will be dissolved, allowing private companies to bid on operations. This will improve customer service, reduce costs such as wages, add an element of competition to the syste~.

Fares will be increased concurrently with the service reorganization. The U-Pass Program ,:ill be gone .in favour of post-secondary students paying concession rates - this will reduce overcrowding and undue stress on the network.

TransLink will no longer focus on ambitious capital projects to meet mode-share goals, but rather invest solely in smaller projects that produce greater return on investment: signage, cleanliness, technology, and customer service. SkyTrain and road expansions are off the table. TransLink will also move aggressively into development to generate revenues. It will form a self-sufficient development corp partnerships with municipalities, landowners, and other devel.opers, TransLink will make strategic investments In property that produces dividends for the agency.

3. Translink will restructure To address issues of governance and regional equity, TransLink is dissolved. Its operations are absorbed into five divisions within BC Transit's new South Coast department: Vancouver, Burnaby/New Westminster, the Tri-Cities, the North Shore, and the South of Fraser.

BC Transit becomes responsible for operations of SkyTrain and bus services. All bridges become th~ property of the provincial governme~t. Road, cych~g, and walking is no longer funded regionally, becoming the responsibility of individual municip~li~ies. The Crown Corporation works with the municipal govern-

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ments through a new Transportation Committee on the Metro Vancouver Board.

Transit services and funding is reorganized, requiring each division to become self-sufficient. Bus routes in Vancouver will be funded solely by Vancouver, and so on. SkyTrain costs are paid for by all five divisions through the gas tax. If a division wants better service, it must be prepared to pay for it through property tax increases.

Following the completion of the Evergreen Line in 2016, the province will advance the Broadway extension to Arbutus as the next high-priority transit project in the South Coast. Each region will contribute its share through higher fares and an increase in the gas tax, with funding finally approved in 2020.

4. Redo The overwhelming message of the "NO" vote is taken to heart: fix TransLink first!

The province does not change any legislation, but the ...Board makes voluntary procedural changes improving public perception: meetings become more open, executive compensation is re-negotiated and reduced along with car allowances and bonuses. The Board Chair and new CEO coordinate their messaging and become the public face and voice of TransLink. They build a stronger, more .positive relationship with the Mayor's Council.

Customer service becomes priority number one, with all front-line staff going through new training. Service optimization continues to open up funding for smaller investment projects. The new CEO makes strategic investments in signage, technology, cleanliness, and station/exchange infrastructure to show tangible improvements on the ground.

A new communications approach puts TransLink on the offence, leveraging its large customer base to build a team of transit advocates to support the brand.

Staff become more visible, communicating directly about their operations and projects through a new corporate-wide blog. Positive stories are aggressively and proactively provided to the media on a regular basis.

Following the opening of the Evergreen Line in late 2016, the mayors and TransLink agree to modify and re-launch the 10 year funding plan and pursue a new referendum in 2017 in conjunction with the municipal elections.

And then we'll be voting again.

(From Vancouver Observer) By Paul Hillsdon

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