Increase the number of pedestrian only areas in Vancouver
I lived for a few years in Ottawa and I remember how much of a success Sparks Street is in that city. For those who don't know Sparks Street it is a pedestrian only street about two blocks from the Parliament Buildings and running for about 10 blocks. In the summer it is packed with people and a very enjoyable place to hang out. I think we should have more streets like this in downtown Vancouver. I don't think that businesses on these streets would suffer, it's a pain to drive downtown anyway, so why not just leave your car at home?
The Granville corridor has hardly any traffic on it right now anyway, especially with the RAV line construction. Why not just leave this cooridor pedestrian only? Cars would still be allowed at the crossings; Dunsmuir, Georgia, Robson, etc. but between - only pedestrians.
Pedestrians are losing to
Pedestrians are losing to SUV's .. apparently you can drive an SUV and still cause less climate destruction than a steak-eating customer. Heard about the 200 mile diet?
How a 200-Mile Consumer May Save Disappearing Glaciers
Some seven winters ago, in a very small town in cold,
cold, northern Michigan, where furnaces run 11- ½
months a year, I huddled by a fireplace in a public
library reading a stack of magazines. It was amazing to
see nearly 75 different magazines available in a
library of an American town, population 1,500 souls,
according to its welcome sign.
The main story in one obscure magazine's back issue was
about how the magazine contracted one of this planet's
super-geniuses to devise an action plan by which any
person (not just governments or corporations) could
make a really big impact on global warming, and save
the environment.
One result of his research, oddly enough, was recipes
for novel dishes, mainly vegetarian. The magazine
article told of a very simple way to save the planet:
'Eat nothing grown outside of a 200-mile radius of your
home, and you will help put an end to increasing
greenhouse gasses, wars, and even pollution-caused
cancers.' Wow.
The 200-mile diet advocated by this magazine claimed
the power put an end to many of mankind's ills. For
example, it would make nuclear power plants, wind
turbines, and protests over coal-burning and highway
expansion, largely unnecessary. Environmental groups
could be disbanded, as would secret police and death
squads, in countries with resource conflicts.
The magazine's author/genius lived in a desert area.
Therefore, he had to prove that he could live with a
200-mile diet, himself, eating cactus and succulents.
Hence, he had to publish his recipes of desert dishes,
as proof.
However, to myself, the 'pill' prescribed by the
research seemed to hard to swallow: I imagined being in
a dietary jail, committed to a diet of plum ginger
chicken salad, poached pears, honey-sweetened apple
tarts, and salmon on a bed of wild rice pilaf. Who
could possibly live on that?
However, there would be some benefits, too. With so
much energy saved by the 200-mile diet, I'd be able to
trade in my electric bikes for a fire-breathing Tesla
electric car. Cities would change, too, as the need for
wind turbines are eliminated. No longer economically
viable, Toronto would have to chop down its downtown
wind turbine and have to live with its only other
tourist attraction, the CN Tower. With no more
environmental problems to protest about, the David
Suzukis of their communities would have to work normal
jobs, like say, prepping sushi. With fewer cancer
patients, many cancer research organizations would have
to close their doors, or find even better cacti recipes
than the magazine's researcher/genius did.
Why, the world would be so different that we'd hardly
recognize it: Our soldiers would be repairing leaky
condos instead of doing battle with the Taliban; the
Trout Lake farmers' market would be bigger than
Oakridge Mall and Metrotown combined; Granville
Island's brewery would need Annacis Island just for
itself; oil refineries around the Fraser's riverbanks
would be replaced by hemp fields; gas prices would
collapse to 20 cents a litre; Greenpeace activists
would be protesting about bottled water instead of
climate change. For that, and more, all I'd have to do
is to buy nothing grown outside of my 200-mile feeding
zone.
Gadzooks, the little magazine's researcher/genius
managed to figure out a world citizen's action plan to
Save The Earth, nothing less. Suddenly, I started
imagining this planet on the tip of my fork, little ice
caps shrinking, and polar bears drowning for lack of an
ice floe to sit on.
That was some seven years ago. Now, even more dire
forecasts and predictions from scientists,
climatetologists, glaciertologists, and Santa Claus (he
lives on the North Pole) compel us to go even further:
We must activate a 200-mile consumption plan as well as
a 200-mile diet, if we are to save this planet for
future generations. Yes, it will be very hard on you
and me to survive on just BC wine, BC seafood, and BC
beer. But what about really essential, everyday stuff
that they can't possibly make in BC? Like great-looking
cowboy boots, skunk-blinding flashlights, and
super-long-range WiFi adapters? Oops, I recently
learned I was misinformed-- yes, apparently we do make
those products locally, too.
Encouraged by this new information, and strengthened by
the diet of local seaweed, fire mushrooms, and
free-range salmon, I eagerly agreed to help Silbury
School (www.silbury.ca) students take the 200-mile
consumption plan one step further: To revive single-use
batteries that the battery manufacturers say "should
not be recharged." But why pick on these little
harmless batteries, you ask? Well, according to a
Mountain Equipment Coop blurb, these little harmless
household batteries allegedly comprise up to 70% of all
heavy metals in landfills. And landfills will
eventually leach their contents to the water supply.
You can trust the lawyers from "A Civil Action" on
that! (Yes, you can trust lawyers to do something.) The
alternate route for dead batteries is a battery
cemetery: BC's dead single-use household batteries are
usually trucked to a state, like Texas, where they are
buried, at a cost of up to six loonies per kilo just
for the burial privilege. And you thought that pet
cemeteries were ridiculous, eh? The co-op's members are
paying for this battery-burial privilege, along with
several other greater Vancouver municipalities, happily
subsidised, by unhappy taxpayers, like you.
Now that we know the cost, and where, our little
alkaline batteries end up, let's just hope Silbury
School's students succeed where we grown ups have
miserably failed to act more responsibly. The obscure
magazine's article pointed out, nearly a decade ago,
how we could put an end to climate change, reduce
cancer, end the arms race, and stop the killing over
oil - by simply switching from Chilean bass to Coho
salmon. It was that easy! Basically, us grownups had
the knowledge for a decade or more, but had neither the
will, nor did we collectively take action. So, today,
we are starting to pay the price. And, there will be an
even higher price, tomorrow!
So, you're asking, just where are the great boots made
here? At Rino's, almost right across from Mountain
Equipment Coop, on Broadway in Vancouver. I got a great
pair of boots for just over a hundred bucks, too.
Rob Matthies
robert04mat@yahoo.com
Rob Matthies is a presenter with
Solar Power Roadshow, an NGO educating kids from ages 5
to 75 in a fun way; and, dedicated to the proposition
that "Anybody Can Make Energy." He travels on an
electric bike that will soon be charged with solar
panels.
MORE INFORMATION & PHOTOS OF THE WRITER:
http://tinyurl.com/pd8pt