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| Harry Rankin |
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| Joe Keithley aka Joey Shithead - Burnaby City Councillor |
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| Art Phillips - the best mayor this city ever had |
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| Jean Swanson - former Vancouver City Councillor |
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| Gordon Price - Former Vancouver City Councillor |
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| Mike Harcourt - Good at everything |
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| Ray Spaxman - the best city planner Vancouver ever had |
My first open letter : An Open Letter to the Honourable David Eby, Premier of British Columbia
When my wife Rosemary and two daughters moved from Mexico City to Vancouver in 1975 we found a booming city that became more so by Expo 86. Since then I have noticed that the city projects could be performed more quickly if we brought the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids. Consider the following:
1. King Edward Boulevard from Larch to the West has been blocked now for a year.
2. The last two blocks going East on Lougheed Highway It is a major highway!)
before Willingdon has had all kinds of blockages for a year because on the
other side of Willingdon, equipment is being stored and somehow a Skytrain
addition has not been finished. Who is at fault? Burnaby, the Province, Skytrain/Translink/Vancouver?
3. For almost a year turning East on Pacific on leaving the Burrard Bridge was blocked for a year. It seems to be free now.
4. For anybody living in Kitsilano, navigating on West Broadway and crossing Arbutus has been a nightmare for a year with no relief in sight.
Having recently been to Mexico City and Buenos Aires I can attest that Vancouver is becoming the pothole-and-uneven-street capital of this continent. Possibly because when concrete streets (the smooth ones) have to be cut up for new sewer systems for houses, the holes are filled with asphalt that is either higher than the road or it sinks.
A major route in Kits to go to Kerrisdale is the part of Macdonald that becomes Puget at King Edward. From there to 33d Ave it is one collection of bad asphalt and potholes.
Twelfth Avenue for a long time was the route to take to avoid the Broadway disaster. Now the stretch from Clark Drive to Commercial is continually blocked. No left or right turns are allowed on Commercial coming from any direction. Anybody going East on 12th cannot turn left on Victoria Drive for most of the day.
In short, navigating in Vancouver is a disaster.
Now to slightly change the subject I have noticed that our Vancouver City Counsellors post lots of photographs (including selfies) on social media where they smile while holding their hands by their midriff. What do these people do for our city? The one Counsellor I respect is Joe Keithley (AKA Joey Shithead) who does a good job in Burnaby. What happened to our Tim Louis, Gordon Price, Jean Swanson types and Harry Rankin types?
All I see on Twitter/X in relation to City Hall is that somebody is awfully busy using different colour lights at night to celebrate all kinds of people and situations. Perhaps, no lights, might celebrate our potholes.
As I keep writing in many of my blogs, without newspapers
we have no way of knowing of the fine cultural events of our city. The CBC, not
having to sell ad space could have a couple of hours of culture announcements
on CBC Radio and a bit on CBC TV. If Pierre Poilievre becomes Prime Minister he will not have to defund the CBC. The CBC is doing a fine job all by itself.
In a previous open letter to our Honourable, MLA, Premier David Eby I posted these questions which few I know can answer correctly. If they cannot it has nothing to do with ignorance but the fault of the institutions mentioned:
Name the heads of the VAG, Maritime Museum, Museum of Anthropology, the MOV (few know what it is or where it is), Ballet BC, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera, none can name or know of the existence of the Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery at UBC. If you ask anybody when it was that they last went to the Maritime Museum or the Freddy Wood Theatre at UBC they answer in years.
Few know of the Orpheum Annex and Pyatt Hall. When I ask people if they have ever gone to the Telus Theatre (part of the Chan Centre) they have never heard of its existence.
A stellar musical orchestra (20 years of existence) is the Turning Point Ensemble. Few know it exists or that it performs at the basement hall of the Simon Fraser University Downtown Campus.
I used to go to many fabulous lectures at the Judge White Hall inside Robson Square. Many times I sat with Arthur Erickson. Since UBC took Robson Square over the only activity there is the skating rink. Shame on UBC!
Our city is what it is now. What is City Hall and its smiling Counsellors going to do to change that? Should I invest on a car with a beefed up suspension and shock absorbers?
Or should we call on the ancient Egyptians?
