Thursday, December 4, 2008

Canadians' blood should be running a little cold today. Economic consideration trumped democracy. I suppose this should not be too surprising, given our collective disengagement with our political process, and given that notions of citizenship, and the attendant rights and responsibilities, seem to have been reduced to residing and consuming in Canada.

There's this dude who was homeless, and has been living inside for a couple years now.

He's a hard working binner, and a few of us in my condo periodically let him in to empty our recycling bins.

He's very pleasant and courteous.

It's looking good for Obama. And some serious congressional change -> Democrats.

That will be water on dry -very dry - ground for me, and I imagine for many of us who want to "change everything".

And it's a good reminder that in history, sometimes good and right things happen:
Slavery is outlawed.
Women get the vote.
Wars stop.

I had planned/hoped to sleep outside City Hall tonight with several other middle-class Vancouverites who hope for better than a city with people who have little choice *but* to sleep outside.

I arranged the sleeping bag, the foamy, a tarp .... and then found out City Hall has forbidden the use of tarps.

Fellow Citizens, you should know about this:

Many of you know of the infamous Oppenheimer Park in my 'hood, the Downtown Eastside. It's a pretty grim park, frankly. I only go there rarely and I don't let my dogs walk there because of the needles. And other stuff. See image below. But this next part is insane:

overheard a guy living outside asking another one: do all those people who drive right through here (he was talking about powell street) even Notice us?

I thought that was an excellent question.

Hello, Readers --If you are a Vancouver resident who chafes at the lack of affordable housing, you can imagine the hopelessness of my dtes neighbours as nearly half of the barely-affordable housing for low-income people has been wiped out in the past short while, in favour of development.

I live and love in gastown/dtes - in a little loft/condo.   I have a problem that a social enterprise could solve.

I want to compost but have no garden, and not much room in my home.  So, I'm going to try Bokashi (small buckets, no smell).  But here's the thing:  I have nowhere to put the compost once it's ready.

Hey, kudos. 

And of course I voted for it (and then lost a couple hours surfing through all the other nominees). 

I voted for the olympics. I wanted them to come. I liked the idea of 'inviting the world to Vancouver' and I also figured it was a good motivator to get different levels of government to commit funding to infrastructure.

Now, I'm not so sure.