Yard Waste!

Hello all - I'm back a after relaxing week of detached retina reattachment. Note - if you've got a topic that you think is worth pursuing we can give you posting privileges on the blog. Yard waste would have been a good one. Just email me.
New Topic? New DNV Garbage collection Program

The New program eliminates any yard trimmings that do not fit into the two carts. That's right, when you do your spring cleanup their suggestion is that you keep the green waste at your house and use it as filler in your organics cart when every you have free space. Or you can haul it to the depot for a fee. Or you can dump it** in the forest where it will become forest fire ladder fuel. (**hefty dumping fine may apply)

When did this cease to be a public service? You should be able to put your yard waste out for free or a reasonable fee curbside rather than having thousands of households driving to the depot.

DNV Contractors as "Good Neighbours"

One of the things that District staff have struggled with in recent years are the number of residential construction projects happening within our town.  It's one thing to plan and orchestrate a big project like Seylynn, but keeping an eye on the dozens of single family homes being built or renovated is another thing altogether.

Monday evening at 7:30 District planning staff will present a report to Council called "Single Family Home Renewal Initiatives Update," which is a good indication of the ways that the District is trying to balance the desires of builders with the needs and concerns of the people living in the surrounding neighbourhoods.  Read it here before commenting please.

The District did an on-line survey, with a special focus on Upper Capilano.  The top six themes identified by local residents were:

• New house size and impact. This category includes concerns about height, placement, building coverage, and setbacks.
• Loss of trees and vegetation. Comments include loss of green space, gardens, and mature plants.
• Transportation. Examples of comments include truck traffic, parking (during construction and overall supply), road closures, and delays.
• Garbage, debris and piles. For example, dust, materials stored on streets, debris, and garbage on or near construction sites.
• Noise. This includes comments on hours when construction noise is permitted, and general complaints about construction-related noise.
• Change in neighbourhood character. Comments reflected unease about changes to the look, feel, and loss of older houses. 

As far as solutions, there will be a revision of the existing Good Neighbour package for builders, but more interesting suggestions include adding a maximum principal building size to RS-1 zoning, and examining whether there is a need for a look at "impacts of basements construction including tree and vegetation loss, potential slope stability, and groundwater impacts."

I'd be happy if they could just get construction crews to listen to something other than "Classic Rock" on their DeWalt radios.

CNV Coachhouses and Suites

At the top of the City of North Vancouver's newsletter this week was news that:

This week the North Vancouver City Council unanimously supported allowing both a secondary suite and a coach house on single family properties. Positive feedback from the community was immediate.

“It's extremely important that the City continues to address housing affordability through a variety of options such as allowing single family homes to potentially have two rental units," says Mayor Darrell Mussatto.

It's interesting that at a time when lots of people are worried about development and increased density, the CNV has decided to support a plan which could double or triple the number of occupants on a specific property.  One has to wonder about parking, and the increased demand for municipal services like water, sewer, and waste disposal.

Learn more about Council's Housing Action Plan.

Discussion topic: Why should we vote NDP?

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the Clark regime, and as seems to be the case with every election in recent years, I'm struggling to figure out who I will mark my ballot for.  I suspect that I'm not alone.

Liberal fans at least have the government's track record (alleged or otherwise) to point to when making their case, but what can the NDP do to sell their brand?  Can a member of the party faithful step up and make the case for voting NDP? Jim Hanson? You out there?

All that I ask is that we avoid rehashing events of twenty or thirty years ago - the fast ferries are ancient history, as is Vanderzalm.  Even Gordon Campbell is arguably now irrelevant. And let's agree that "Well, we're not the Liberals" is not really a valid argument either.  Let's try to keep the discussion to what's happening now, and to concrete policies.

I'm ignoring the Greens right now. Although they actually have had excellent candidates in recent elections, and I've even voted for some of them, they don't have a realistic chance of forming a government.

Then again, you can argue that neither does the NDP.

VCH Office for Youth with Addictions

It's election time, and once again the Liberals are just brimming with money to help people that they've ignored for the last four years. This week Christy (and her local North Shore contingent) really, really care about kids with substance abuse problems, and really, really really want to help them.
If you follow such things you'll know that the provincial government has grossly underfunded services for at-risk youth, and that treatment for addictions in particular has been lacking to a frightening degree. (see also below)

(Moved from the previous topic)

Anonymous said...

A North Shore resident, and journalist Bob Mackin has a new topic for discussion:

".... January 9th in North Vancouver with the four North Shore BC Liberal MLAs Jane Thornthwaite, Naomi Yamamoto, Jordan Sturdy and Ralph Sultan - to announce a new Vancouver Coastal Health office for youth with addictions will be opening in May.

The 9,000 square foot Foundry North Shore is described on a VCH website as a "one-stop shop for youth needing easy access to mental health, drug, and alcohol services and social services on the North Shore."

Sounds like a step forward. Except the building next door is a liquor store. ...."

Wednesday, February 08, 2017 11:07:00 pm

Anonymous said...

The real objection to the location is from the owner of the liquor store: Riedlinger said. “It’s not going to help our business in any way. It’s going to make it more difficult to operate there.” First it's wine sales in grocery stores, then liquor sales in hair salons. Now he wants to opposes services to at risk youth. Maybe its time for him to move out of the neighbourhood if he feels he can't be a good neighbour. It's a bit late for him to be sounding so concerned now that the building is constructed.

Thursday, February 09, 2017 9:28:00 am 

Anonymous said...

One can buy smoking cessation aides at the prescription desk of the pharmacy and, at one time, pay for them at the front cash while buying cigarettes. The liquor store and the office for addictions story is simply the private sector model of revenue and profit maximization applied to the public sector as promoted by the Alt-Right.

Thursday, February 09, 2017 10:59:00 am

The Tyee today looks at the case of Alex Gervais, who committed suicide while in the care of the Province.

There is no guarantee bad things won’t happen to children and teens, in or out of care. Mistakes will be made, warnings missed.

But Alex didn’t end up in that motel, desperate and a mess, because a mistake was made. The government had set up an underfunded, dysfunctional system that failed him repeatedly, even when the need for help was obvious. ... 

Minister Stephanie Cadieux reacted in the usual way, with sympathy, claims work is already under way, promises of action and some misdirection. 

The problem was not a lack of resources, she said. But that’s not true,  ... If the ministry was adequately funded, ...  Alex would not have been shuffled from placement to placement. He would have had an effective care plan, regularly updated. ... His life could have turned out very differently. ... 

In 2009, when 12-year-old Alex was moving into his fifteenth placement, the ministry budget was $1.4 billion. This year, it’s $1.45 billion. If funding had simply kept up with inflation, the ministry budget would be $51 million higher.