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THE VANCOUVER COURIER T H U R SDAY, A P R I L 2 1 , 2 0 1 6
Opinion Northeast False Creek Stewardship Group and Park Design Advisory Group Submit Your Application The City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board are planning the future of Northeast False Creek and you could be part of it. We’re looking for committee members for a Stewardship Group and a Park Design Advisory Group to help us create a vibrant, sustainable new neighbourhood for everyone in the city. Committee members are selected through the City of Vancouver’s and Vancouver Park Board’s public selection process, and will be chosen to provide advice and insight. Submit your application online at: vancouver.ca/NEFC-committees
10th Avenue Health Precinct: Design Options
The City is planning to improve the 10th Avenue Corridor to better accommodate people walking and cycling for all ages and abilities. Building on what we heard from you at public open houses held last fall, we have focused our initial efforts on developing options for the Health Precinct, the portion of the 10th Avenue Corridor between Oak and Yukon Streets.
We want to hear from you! Join us at an open house.
Applications are due Friday, May 20, 2016 by 4 pm.
About the Stewardship Group The Northeast False Creek Stewardship Group will bring a broad variety of perspectives to the planning process and advise City staff in securing and maintaining the vision set out in the Northeast False Creek Conceptual Plan and approved in the Removal of Viaducts Report (2015) for a new neighbourhood and major waterfront park. The committee will have up to 15 appointed community members.
About the Park Design Advisory Group The Northeast False Creek Park Design Advisory Group will provide input on the design of the new park and open spaces in NEFC. The group will help to ensure a balanced approach to park uses, as part of a thoughtful and comprehensive design process; provide feedback to the project team (Park Board staff, City staff and consultant team) on the approach and progress of community engagement; and encourage public education and contribution in the design of the park and open spaces. The committee will have 10 to 12 appointed community members. FOR DETAILS AND TERMS OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS: vancouver.ca/NEFC-committees The City of Vancouver reserves the right to suspend or terminate its call for applications at any time without further explanation or notification; however, if the process is suspended or terminated the City will attempt to notify all applicants directly and will issue a public update. The City assumes no legal duty or obligation to any applicant and does not owe any duty of care, fairness or impartiality in the selection process. The City may accept or reject any or all applications without providing reasons. Subject to the applicable provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (British Columbia) and other applicable legal requirements, the City will treat the information provided by each applicant in confidence. Each applicant consents to the City contacting any references named by the applicant.
These meetings will be drop-in open house format. City staff will be available to discuss the project, answer questions and gather your feedback. Saturday, April 23, 2016 11 am – 3 pm and Tuesday, April 26, 2016 12 noon – 8 pm Both open houses at: Park Inn and Suites 898 West Broadway (at Laurel Street) You can also learn more, view the display boards and complete a feedback form online at vancouver.ca/10th-avenue FOR MORE INFORMATION: Phone: 3-1-1 or 10thavenue@vancouver.ca
RAIN BARREL SALE! Quench the thirst of your plants with free water from a rain barrel. Water collected in rain barrels provides a source of chlorine-free, ambient temperature water which is a great drink for a happy garden.
$51 – Pre-order today at vancouver.ca/rainbarrel Drop-ins welcome, pre-ordering advised but not required.
Four special sales dates: Saturday, April 30, 10 am - 3 pm City of Vancouver, VanDusen Garden (driveway off of Oak Street) Sunday, May 1, 10 am - 3 pm City of Coquitlam, Mariner Service Centre 500 Mariner Way
Saturday, May 7, 10 am - 3 pm North Shore, Ambleside Park Sunday, May 8, 9 am - 3 pm City of Langley, Willowbrook Shopping Centre (intersection of Fraser Highway and No. 10 Highway)
Cut a fully grown white carnation stem (at an angle is best) and put it in a glass of rain barrel water. Put a few drops of food colouring into the water. Over the next few days the carnation will change colour!
Visit: vancouver.ca Phone: 3-1-1 TTY: 7-1-1
Politicians known for company they keep Geoff Olson
geoffolson.com
“You are known by the company you keep.” That adage sure holds true in politics. In 2008, Barack Obama was swept into the Oval Office on a mass wave of “hope and change.” Over the next two terms he spent down his political capital through serial concessions to the GOP, the deportation of more than two million undocumented immigrants, the failure to close Guantanamo Bay as promised, and a major expansion of both the U.S. surveillance state and Bush’s legacy of undeclared wars through special ops and drone strikes. Oh, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner also presided over the prosecution of more whistleblowers than all previous U.S. presidents in total. Yet, Obummer failed to jail a single principal behind the 2008 subprime mortgage bubble and financial collapse. This is no surprise considering those who rode his coattails into the White House, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, previously president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and former Freddie Mac board member Rahm Emanuel, who served as White House Chief of Staff. Former hedge fund manager Lawrence Summers was a key advisor on handling the post-2008 recession. Other Wall Street-friendly staffers seamlessly made the transition from the Bush to Obama administration. Whether or not his declared intention to take on the “fat cats” of Wall Street was disingenuous from the get go, Obama and his circle ensured a few big banks would face billions in fines but no serious regulatory actions, much less individual prosecution. On to Donald Trump. Whether or not he remains the GOP’s in-house incendiary device and/or Hillary-abetting sideshow, millions of Americans persist in believing that a self-promoting businessman will upend business as usual in Washington. All they have to support this peculiar notion is Trump’s narcissism, which appears to preclude any talent for Beltway team-playing. Based on Drumpf’s evermutating remarks on foreign policy, many of his supporters believe he will pull the U.S. out of foreign entanglements, or at least make allies shell out for the courtesy. Yet the reality TV star’s thuggish intentions may be signalled in his selection of former
Pentagon Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz as a key foreign policy advisor. Schmitz was forced out of the Pentagon over accusations he was blocking investigations of corruption by Bush administration officials involving defence contracts. This is not the sort of guy who is going to petition against endless wartime profiteering and get a “you’re fired” from Drumpf in response. As for the chickenhawk Democratic contender and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it would be naïve to believe her circle won’t be thick with banksterenablers, corporate lobbyists, and warriors for Empire. Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright recently stated that there is “a special place in hell” for women who don’t electorally support the former First Lady. This was the same Albright who once offered a jaw-dropping response to reporter Lesley Stahl about U.S. sanctions against Iraq. “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” Stahl asked Albright in a 1996 60 Minutes segment. “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price — we think the price is worth it,” she responded. Meanwhile in B.C., our Premier has made some interesting new friends. “Dozens of frightened refugees have been given political asylum by B.C. Premier Christy Clark, after losing all they held dear in their homelands,” comments Bill Tieleman in The Tyee, based on a story that first broke in Pacific Political Report. Tieleman isn’t talking about Syrians, but rather former members of defeated governments in Ottawa and Alberta. Trailing accusations of wrongdoing behind them, a number of former Harperites have found high-paid jobs in Clark’s government. Perversely, much of their work will be helping guide the B.C. Liberals into victory in 2017. That’s Brutish Columbian politics for you: members of a neocon government flushed down the Rideau Canal wash up on the shores of Victoria, where they do their Walking Dead routine up the legislature steps. Remember, you are known by the company you keep, Christy. On second thought, forget about it for now. Leave it to voters to remind you in 2017.
J