It’s fascinating to watch media personnel who are untrained in matters of geography, political science, or what-have-you, make half-hearted efforts to pump out “stories” ( to meet deadlines of their superiors ) on such critical topics like transportation or health care or education or governmental priorities ( example let’s blow $8.4 Billion on a dam that’s not going to ever be needed by British Columbian people…only by prospective foreign investors wanting our natural resources…and destroy massive amounts of land in the process…rather than deal with the pressing issues facing us as people ).
So back to…yes, the media. Example, they toss out rhetorical questions like “will a few bucks “upgrading” this bridge or that road solve congestion?…Yeah right. Even university students taking urban geography know expanding capacity only results in more traffic. With the population increasing in nearby (Vancouver, Richmond, Delta, surrey, New West, Burnaby …not to mention everywhere else in the Metro region) residential buildings by the thousands every week, be serious.
This is purely the stuff of band-aids, when what’s really required is a full-blown physical examination with a dietary and exercise regimen. The Metropolitan area of Vancouver is growing so quickly, partly directly because of the policies of our municipal, provincial and federal governments, that it is absolute folly to think any re-jigging of arterial routes or even snap decisions to build $4 Billlion bridges ( mostly to appease clark’s corporate backers from the fossil fuel industries) will alleviate congestion.
Even a lab rat learns very rapidly which ways to go, in order to get food for example. You’d think more people would realize by now that it’s utter nonsense when they hear politicians say the latest batch of high-rises and condos will help deal with the rental crisis or the housing affordability crisis….simply because we’ve all witnessed them saying the same darned thing constantly for the last 40 years, when of course, the problems only get worse.
Why do they get worse? Partly because these same governments make it public policy to increase population and population density. And they’re all doing it. Delta finally caved in to the developer’s pressure and sacrificed the agricultural lands of the Spetifore Lands. Richmond which once was synonymous with farming, is now almost as covered with construction cranes as Vancouver.
Every city has their snout in the trough…..at some point you have to ignore the blatant falsehoods they keep propagating, and ask why are they so hell-bent on driving these policies forward, it can’t be their ideology, because as stated above, 40 years of crazy-arse development has only exacerbated all of the resulting problems ( social, economic, environmental, etc )…so what’s left?
Could it be corruption? What either answer is there? Why else would our politicians publicly float the notions we should close down schools just because enrolment is down and sell off the schools and land they are on?
The trends are clear. As long as voters continue to be apathetic, uninformed, distracted, oppressed, repressed, and as easily tricked and divided as they are today, as they have been for the last while, what we’re witnessing today will undoubtedly continue. And if you get out of Metro Vancouver and visit it every other week as I do, you are struck by the changes and the growth even more.
Figuring out if this will continue and even worsen is a lot like betting on the horses. When you look at the past performances and study any given race, you will see horses who have repeatedly shown a lack of finish, or a lack of the will to win. Yet fans often bet on them anyway, perhaps thinking a drop in class or an equipment change like “blinkers on” will be enough to put that horse over the top and across the finish line first. Um, no. Just no. If that horse has just 2 wins from 30 something races, you gotta ask yourself why you are looking for it to win today. It’ll just find another excuse to lose.
You need to listen to the chatter, and dissect the arguments and your observations. A little bit of critical thinking goes a long way. If Gregor Robertson wants to go down in history as a “green Mayor” or someone truly interested in modern, green initiatives he should quit the public calls to other levels of government to reject pipelines and take action at home by putting a moratorium on new condo construction.
We should be holding an inquiry into why the city and province sacrificed the Cambie corridor from False Creek to the Fraser River, just a few short years after taxpayers agreed to spend $1 Billion burying the Skytrain line under the corridor, in order to preserve the area’s character. The redevelopment of the neighbourhoods and destruction of heritage buildings and erasure of Vancouver’s green spaces is absolutely shameful.
For those of us able, the quickest resolution to the issues is to leave the area. Move on to better pastures because what’s happened is the people’s will has been usurped by corporate power. They have taken over, and placed people in political office eager to do their bidding, either consciously or unconsciously. My grandmother’s Lower Mainland is dead. And it’s just growing more and more crowded and rude and polluted, and full of crime and social problems by the day.
Thankfully, there are plenty of places beyond Vancouver’s borders which are a lot like the Vancouver of the 70’s and 80’s, where people still have power, are educated and engaged, and where community thrives.
silvercharm 