by Sean Orr | The front page headline of The Province: Asians Eyeing B.C. farmland Wow. By “Asian” do they mean Han, Yamato, Ainu, Samoyeds, Korean, Tibetan, Uyghur, Kazakh, Manchu, Mongol, Persians, Arabs, Tatars, Russians, Afghans, Sarmatians, Turks, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Uyghurs, Tamil, Urdu, Thai, Malay, Filipino, Sindh, Punjabs, Kurds, Siberians, or…you get the idea. Interestingly enough, they changed the title online to “Foreigners can buy as much B.C. farmland as they want — and they are.” Way to go.
Ceci n’est pas une pipeline: Kinder Morgan pipeline application says oil spills can have both negative and positive effects. “Spill response and clean-up creates business and employment opportunities for affected communities, regions, and clean-up service providers.” Sounds awful, but unfortunately, by the measure of the GDP, it’s actually true.
Flip-flops season: Pro-oil ‘citizens group’ flip flops on its robo-calling of BC voters. They called me and I just answered strongly disagree no matter what the question was. For example: Who will you vote for in the federal election? “Strongly disagree.” Of note, I’m now in the 35-55 year old age group, I’m an adult now.
For some reason, Piketty comes to mind: Things are looking up for the B.C. economy. Which of course translates to “things are looking up for the rich.
Meanwhile, Four minimum wage jobs are needed to support a family in Vancouver. I might as well go ahead with that vasectomy because I will never be able to afford a family.
May Day? More like M’Aidez: Police Attack May Day March Vancouver. As Nicholas Ellan says, “at least someone was getting paid a living wage for their labour.”
Not surprisingly, the only thing in the local media about it was about what went down in a completely different city: Hundreds march in Seattle for immigrant rights, minimum wage boost; police report 9 arrests.
What a bunch of meurons: Vancouver Art Gallery selects Herzog & de Meuron as architect for new facility. Oh great, now we’ll have to hear/read the word “star-chitect” ad nauseum.
Meanwhile, Vision Vancouver pays lip service to struggling artists: Protecting Vancouver’s Cultural Spaces: How we can preserve culture in a growing city. “There are entire communities of artists who do not fall under the purview of organizational funding and aren’t exactly bourgeois gallery-types either…” In other words: STOP SHUTTING DOWN DIY SPACES!
Also, this: Capilano art students shut out of graduation.
When luxury displaces luxury: Hyper-luxury units to replace 1899 mansion. 17 storeys and total 23 units. Thanks to Johnny Bark, however, we saved the tree!
Views on a Vancouver in Decline. “Personal caveat: I believed in the prospect of urban sustainability before it was fashionable…” That sounds like “I was into ___ band before they were cool.” Personal caveat: I did not read the complete article because I’m depressed enough as it is.