Surviving the Snowpocalypse!

It's winter on the North Shore, and once again the people who live here are spending a weekend asking "When does MY street get plowed?"

It's a fair question, given that we see snow at least a few times every year, and given that the first snow of the season seems to always leave side streets clogged with frozen slush for at least a day or two.  More if you live high enough up.

Both the City and the District can tell you how they plan for plowing and salting - but a nice colour coded chart doesn't help you to get out of your driveway and off to work.

As if to rub our noses in it, West Van seems to get streets cleared by mid-morning, even at the top of the British Properties.  Is it just money, or do they know some secret that North Van doesn't?

Oh well, if it makes drivers feel a little bit better, it's worth noting that bike lanes don't get much attention either, and sidewalks are pretty much entirely ignored.

Maybe because the District doesn't even have a bylaw requiring people to shovel their walks?

Really, none of this is intended to complain about the people at the City and District who have been working so hard this week to keep us all moving.  They work hard this time of year, and deserve all of the thanks that they get, but are there things we could do to help them do the job better, and make the people who rely on them happier?

Livin' La Vida Loca in LoLo

The ever interesting Price Tags blog had a short post last week titled "North Van City Waterfront: Persistence Pays."  It offers a very upbeat assessment of all of the changes down around Lonsdale Quay.

The City of North Vancouver has been working on the transformation of the Lower Lonsdale properties at the waterfront for … well, it seems like decades.  After all, Lonsdale Quay and the Seabus Terminal opened in the late 1970s – but the lands to the east retained their industrial purpose, with little change to the property at the very foot of Lonsdale.  There was no there there.

Now, with the development of the Versatile lands and the arrival of the Polygon Gallery, it’s coming together. 

Reading that got me thinking that the City has done a pretty good job of building a successful "town centre" in Lower Lonsdale, with the requisite density, restaurants, shopping, and the upcoming move of the Presentation House Gallery. (Which I gather will sadly be renamed after the developer, Polygon.)

The District has "town centers" in the works at Lynn Valley, the bottom of Mountain Highway, and the foot of Capilano Road.   I wonder what lessons can be learned from the City.

At a minimum I'd argue that density alone isn't enough.  You need varied shopping options, entertainment or cultural options, easy transit connections, and hopefully some sense of the history of the neighborhood.

More details on the Lower Lonsdale developments here.

North Van Politics: Under New Management

Hello passionate people!  This a very short notice to tell you that  John Sharpe, our hard-working Admin of the last few years, is taking a well-deserved break from overseeing the North Vancouver Politics site.

I'll be stepping in, and hope to do a respectable job of filling his shoes.

You're absolutely invited to email me directly with any ideas or suggestions. I'm all ears.

In the meantime, I was intrigued to discover that, according to Google, more than half of the pageviews for the blog are coming from Japan.  Who knew?

Barry Rueger

Entry...............................  Pageviews
Japan................................  611
Canada.............................  275
United States.................... 107
Germany............................  56
China................................   28
Portugal............................   26
Moldova...........................   21
France..............................   15
Russia..............................   15
Ukraine..............................  6

There Will be Oil!

In celebration of one year as Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has gone ahead and approved the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain oil pipeline that runs into our fair ecosystem.

Once completed, the $.6.8 billion Trans Mountain expansion pipeline project will increase the capacity of existing infrastructure to 890,000 barrels per day, up from 300,000 bpd.  The 1,150 kilometre pipeline expansion would run from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C., where it would pump Alberta-mined bitumen and synthetic product onto tankers which would sail through (local) waters for Asian markets.

There is no shortage of opinion out in the wilds of the Internet, and no doubt there are several court challenges to come, but at the end of the day our new eco-friendly PM has thrown in his lot with the petro producers of Alberta.

Several Lower Mainland municipal governments opposed this pipeline, as does our own local Tsleil-Waututh Nation, but it appears we're stuck with it anyhow.

At least the Premiers of Alberta and BC seem happy.

Local MP Jonathan Wilkinson, the parliamentary secretary to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, was quoted by CBC as saying,

"Within my riding there is a group that is opposed, and opposed and opposed, and will always been opposed," he said. "And then there's a group who's in favour, and in favour and will always be in favour. And then there's the vast majority, in the middle, who have legitimate questions and concerns that they want to ensure are addressed."

I guess that I fall into the first group, and would have been happier if a our shiny happy new Federal government had decided to work to eliminate fossil fuels and global warming.

Oh well, as they might say in Westmount, "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."

Too good not to add.

One Year Since Trudeau Elected

Wow how time flies! Recently the North Vancouver Liberal Constituency Association sent out reminders of a volunteer appreciation event in Lynn Valley to celebrate "one of the greatest victories in Canadian political history".

So how is our North Vancouver MP Jonathan Wilkinson doing for us anyway?