Archive for June 18th, 2008
Car Free Vancouver: YES or NO
A message from Carmen Mills – the lovely lady who organised the wildly succesful car fee days last weekend
<<<please forward this important message>>>Hey all, so…did Car Free Vancouver Day go off OR WHAT?!
We had 125,000 people out partying in the streets…with 400+ volunteers…and a few cut-rate traffic cops…zero “security”…and NO incidents to speak of. The media coverage was fantastic, and it looks like the experiment results are in…Vancouver is ready and begging for car-free festivals, car-free days, and car-free streets. Other cities all over Canada, the US and the world already have it happening…let’s kick it up!BUT…to make this happen…City Hall needs to hear from YOU!The event organizers will soon be meeting with folks at City Hall to do a debrief, iron out the bugs, and talk about taking the experiment to the next level. So far, the only people who have contacted the City are the complainers…and they are few, but they are loud! Car Free Vancouver Day needs your support, and our allies at the City need to hear your voice.Please take a moment to write a BRIEF note to City Hall, telling them why you loved Car Free Vancouver Day, and what you want to see happen next. These folks are here to help us, and they have been hugely helpful to us all along the way, so please be positive, grateful, and encouraging.Oh, and…don’t forget…with the City elections coming down in November…do grab every opportunity to ask candidates where they stand on Burrard Bridge lane re-allocation, transit, pedestrian and bicycle priority, opposing Gateway, car-free days, and car-free streets.We have so much power, let’s use it NOW.Huge thanks to all of you for making this dream real!-the Car-Free Vancouver Crew**************************************Send your BRIEF letters to:The Mayor and City Council at: mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca
cc to:The Film & Special Events Office: film.office@vancouver.ca
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Opposition to the Carbon Tax
Following up on that piece about Carol James, she seems to be reacting to polling data. The Province this morning has the figures from the latest Ipsos Reid poll which shows that while people hate the gas tax that has yet to be translated into hating the Liberals. Which is very strange indeed.
By the way, when I started looking for the link (the story was posted to a mailing list without one) my new Firefox 3 browser helpfully reminded me that I was going to pass along this opinion piece which – even more oddly – came out of the Montreal Gazette reecently. It is fairly typical of Alan Ferguson
The trouble with the tunnel-visioned eco-idealists advising the premier is that they can’t see outside the narrow confines of their own obsession.
There is nothing much narrow about the concern that, at the present rate of progress, humanity seems likely to be massively reduced on this planet, if not wiped out altogether. For the other species we have been decimating this may actually be a bit of a relief. Like I have said before, the planet will still be here a thousand years from now. The future for us seems a great deal worse. The new ecology will work as well or better. We won’t be here to see it. This is obviously a new defintion of “eco-idealism” that had not previously occurred to me.
Stephen Rees's blog 