Locally there are people in the City angry about the giant waterslide; in the District one council member is leading the revolt against the new "bear-proof" garbage bins, and we're heading towards the first possible approval of Beers and Haircuts in Lynn Valley. And of course in both municipalities the big issue is, as always, traffic, bridges, construction, and the unholy combination of all three.
Or the lack of bike lanes, transit, and continuous sidewalks, if you're not vehicularly inclined.
It almost seems that after expending all too much energy on battling (or at least complaining about) the various "town center" and other major developments in recent years the activists in our cities have just run out of steam, and can't find it in themselves to raise a respectable ruckus these days.
Then again, it is summer, it is sunny, the PNE is on, and all of our North Shore concerns look pretty petty compared to what Trump is delivering south of the border. Perhaps instead of looking for things to complain about, the nay-sayers are counting their blessings.
But September approaches, so if you've got a bee in your bonnet about local politics now is the time to sit down and write your version of "What I Did on My Summer Vacation." Be sure to include some links and background information, and refrain from name calling, and email it to me. If it's half ways interesting yours could be the first topic of the new school year.
14 comments:
An election is a little over a year away, how about checking in with the past unsuccessfuls to see if they are going to run again. I am sure Kerry Morris, George Pringle, Wendy Qureshi, and Margie Goodman would have a lot of feedback for you.
Thanks for the reminder anon.
Time to start working on sending Walton of the 'mobility pricing' cadre off to the sidelines.
I guess when you remove the back-biting, ad-hominem attacks there isn't much of a desire to talk local politics.
So I have been inundated on social media today about the Dad who has five kids and wants to send them on public transit to a North Vancouver school. The Dad is coming across as a media darling against the big bad government. He is actively feeding the media clips of his kids, perfectly lighted videos of them fighting the fight, and he is doing this all under the pretense that teaching our children how to use public transit early on is good for them and good for the environment. And people are buying this crap.
My two cents is this... everyone in the media is glossing over the fact that this snowflake dad doesn't like the Vancouver school his kids would go to, so instead of going and making it a better place for everyone he has his kids commuting 20km to a school that is more to his liking (for whatever reason) in North Vancouver. They are taking up spaces on public transit in the morning rush because their dad doesn't like the public school that we (royal we) have already provided for them locally.
How come this guy gets a free pass? He has concocted a narrative that makes him look like a victim even though this is entirely self-inflicted to the detriment of the public and arguably his kids. Bottom line, Yes teach your kids to use transit and have them use it for local trips when it is needed, but don't take up a rush hour seat on a bus because you don't like your local school. That's nuts.
Well.. 'mobility pricing', aka road pricing , has been Mr. Walton's favoured hobby horse for some years. His involvement and assignment to the Mayors' Council is, in my opinion, local politics by any definition. His election by 'acclamation' is a travesty, though not of his own making, and I would hope to stir up some interest in having it not happen again.
Maybe our first Anon was right and some of the previously-run politicos can be tweaked to make a comment.
In the mean time, talk away.
I can think of a number of reasons that a dad might want to send his kids to a 'no-local' school.
1. Religious reasons, wanting a better blend of religious community and school life.
2. Language immersion.
3. Alternate educational philosophy in one school vs another.
4. Private schooling for whatever reasons.
5. Future plans to move (back) to North Vancouver and wanting to maintain social continuity for his children.
Now I don't know what the man's reasons actually are, and neither it seems does Anon 1:22, but demanding the door be shut to his childrens' educational options simply because they have some kind of school nearby, or because the bus is croweded in the morning, does seem a tad heavy handed and regressive to me.
It really doesn't seem heavy handed to me. There should be pressure applied to go the local school and then the next most local if need be, but having thousands of kids crisscrossing the community to shop for a better school deal somewhere else is nuts.
In response to your list...
1) 3) & 4) If it is to attend a private religious or alternative school, then say so. If this is the reason then I suspect he is being mum because he knows the public will not be on his side. Again he is being manipulative and the press is letting him.
2) Language immersion - There are 15 French immersion schools in Vancouver, way more than North Van and ours are on a waiting list so... locals first.
5) Perfectly reasonable, but he has done this for several years so I suspect that is not the case here.
"demanding the door be shut to his childrens' educational options" I am doing no such thing, I am demanding that the press stop accepting a spoon fed story, dig a little deeper and you will find the grey areas that he doesn't want to be the narrative. This isn't really a question of education, the kids could just as easily be going to a rec centre. I am just pointing out that he is manipulating the media to make it seem like the big bad government is the one creating the hardship here, and it is not.
Its like moving to an island and complaining that the ferry service isn't good enough, or moving to a rural community and complaining that the hospital is too far, he has just found a more manipulative way to complain by managing the narrative.
Plus they are needlessly taking up five seats in the morning commute.
Thursday, September 07, 2017 1:22:00 pm, what you don't get is that the dad has his kids 50% of the time. The rest of the time they are with their mother who is actually a North Vancouver resident. So the kids are going to the school where they do actually live.
Anon 1:51 wrote:
"Plus they are needlessly taking up five seats in the morning commute."
So this is how mobility pricing will play out?
Yes, only acceptable people with acceptable jobs should be occupying public transit seats. *sarcasm font on*
I have no problem with kids riding the bus, but when the kids have to get off to switch busses at an unsupervised stop a couple blocks from the postal code with the highest number of registered sex offenders in the country, I get a bit twitchy.
I am not a helicopter parent, but I recognize that it is completely unfair to make an 11 year old responsible for their even younger siblings in such a dynamic environment.
I suspect the anonymous complaint was from the mom.
I live in the Inter River/Lynnmour area. I've been asking the District and Province for a map of all the changes they plan for the area for over a month. We are currently being impacted by the realigning and widening of Keith Road. the building of 13 lanes of bridge deck at the bottom of the cut (no where else in the lower mainland has this expanse of bridge in a residential area), the closing of access to St. Dennis Ave., the creating of a new road connecting St. Dennis to Orwell St. behind Lynnmour School, the building of two new turf fields at Inter-River park, the realigning of Premier St. to create a cul-de-sac not to mention our proximity to the new Selynn Town Centre and Maplewood Town Centre (not to mention all the proposed townhouse developments). I am having a hard time envisioning what the final outcome will look like. To date they have not been able to produce one which leads me to believe that they really have no plan. How about we ask the District to actually produce something tangible that can be updated (by them) as they 'plan' new projects.
"the closing of access to St. Denis Ave." How do you mean?
As far as the fields go, I understand why they want to cram two AT fields in, but doesn't it make more sense to have them at the top of the site where the road access is better, the impact from lighting would be less, and there is enough space for a proper field house?
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