VancouverIAM Daily Blog Report: Ladner Decries "Sloganeering" at Meeting, Canucks Come up Short Again

This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from VancouverIAM where you will find the best blogs from Vancouver, British Columbia as well as video uploads, social networking, rumors, and blog authoring.

“Angry Sloganeering” De-rails Norquay Village Meeting

Vancouver City Councilor Peter Ladner's blog revealed that an extremely politically-charged atmosphere dominated last night's meeting at Collingwood Neighborhood House. Supposedly, the purpose of the meeting was to “challenge the city’s process in working with the neighborhood to find some creative density options.” However, Ladner noted that the evening seemed to be more comparable to “an election campaign rally for COPE and Vision.” Area residents are critical of the city's attempts to add density to the neighborhood, which could include re-zoning. Conveniently, several of COPE's candidates for 2008 Council were in attendance along with some sitting councilors.

Ladner stated that certain “community activists” made several misleading statements. Among them, the meeting was told that there had been no community consultation on the matter. Ladner countered by insisting that there had been “almost two years of direct mail surveys, open houses and productive work by a group of community volunteers.” Additionally, the meeting was also told that the concept of re-zoning “was devised to surrender the neighbourhood to rapacious developers and drive up property taxes by 70 per cent.” The post asserted that “No one in the audience could name anyone whose taxes in the Knight and Kingsway area had gone up by 70 per cent just because of their RT-10 zoning.”

Two volunteer members of the community working group that had been in attendance stood up in an attempt to defend the work they had been doing. Ladner also revealed that organizer Alicia Barsello abruptly shut down the meeting “to prevent the city’s planning director, Brent Toderian, from answering community questions and explaining the city’s process revealed a decidedly political agenda. Her own supporters were yelling at her as the meeting broke up.”

Not Panic Time Yet for Canucks, but Getting There

Waiting for Stanley, a blog following the Vancouver Canucks, has declared that despite a relatively close scoreline in last nights 3-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the Canucks were thoroughly outplayed. “This is not how we were supposed to start off the season.” According to the post, the statistics tell the real story about the Canucks performance. “The Wings outshot the Canucks 39-15, including 10-4 in the 3rd when they were up 3-1.” Roberto Luongo was supposedly the only thing that kept the Wings from adding to their tally in the third period. “Praise be to Luongo, who kept it close. The score could have been 10-2.”

The Canucks reluctance to shoot the puck lately has been one of their main issues. “I don't quite understand the Canucks' refusal to shoot the puck more tonight. The Wings fired pucks from all over the place... It is not the way to win games.” Unfortunately, last nights loss leaves the Canucks tied for 11th overall in the Western Conference, “5 points out of a playoff spot. Only 5 points up on the Coilers.” The post also noted that Rick Rypien left the game with a hand injury in the 2nd and did not return.

NDP Must Sort Itself Out Over Port Mann Controversy

Sean Holman, editor of Public Eye Online has posted a report revealing that the Port Mann bridge twinning controversy is likely to surface at next months NDP Convention. At issue is a comment made by Carol James while speaking at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention: "Let's put in transit now. Will we need a bridge across the river? Yes, I'm certain we'll need a bridge across the river. But not now." According to Holman, James’ ambiguous remarks seemed to be at odds with members of her own caucus. Vancouver-Kensington New Democratic leader and former transportation critic David Chudnovsky has stepped in, along with the constituency association, to deliver a resolution which “publicly opposes the proposed plans to widen the #1 Highway and build a second Port Mann Bridge.”

The post also quoted provincial Liberal executive member and Langley township councilor Jordan Bateman questioning both the party’s cohesiveness on the issue and Ms. James’ long term goals. Bateman urged her to “…take a stand. If you're going to oppose it, oppose it and let the people of the South Fraser region in particular know exactly where your party stands and exactly what a Carole James in the premier's office is going to mean to the interests of the South Fraser.” The post outlined the NDP's opinions on the Port Mann situation and certain aspects are in sharp contrast with previous statements from various party members. Seemingly, the NDP needs to sort out this internal strife before the situation gets any worse.

Tyee Announces “New Architectural Flagship” of Vancouver

The latest post from The Tyee has revealed that the 48th floor unit of the new Private Residences at Hotel Georgia will cost a whopping $18 million. This condo joins the penthouse at the Living Shangri-La complex and Unit #2601 at 1000 Beach Avenue as the “new architectural flagship of 21st-century Vancouver.” One of the reasons these properties are so distinctly different from past Vancouver architecture, 1000 Beach Avenue in particular, is that “it defies the British Columbia ethos of woodsy naturalness. It rubs our noses in the fact the cedar, hemlock and fir have been pretty much used up, or at least are no longer cheap and plentiful regional materials.” These buildings allude to the “slick cosmopolitana” infiltrating our local culture.

The post notes that there has been many critical comments made about this new trend in Vancouver's architecture, specifically directed towards the price tags. The Tyee openly questions whether “radical new architecture (is) turning into a lap dance for itinerant billionaires.” However, the post does point out that the “outrageous-sounding price tag isn't as comical as it first seems when $30 million faux villas are cropping up near Jericho Beach and Whytecliff Park.” The post quotes the Omar Arbel, the architect who designed #2601 at 1000 Beach Avenue, stating that “eighteen million dollars is not exactly unheard of anymore for a Vancouver property. For better or worse, some of the most innovative projects in architecture have come at the highest end.”

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