Guess its really no secret that Vancouverites and our suburban neighbours like their booze.
Cant argue with a cool one on the patio.
But despite the anarchy that ensued downtown a year ago last June after some hockey team lost to another hockey team and triggered marauding booze-fuelled young folk to go all hooliganand all the reviews of the mayhem pointed to alcohol as being the problem, and the city called for a municipal liquor policy and medical health officers talked of the dangers of binge drinkingdespite all that, drinking booze in public still seems to be a Vancouver pastime.
The evidence?
The Vancouver Police Department made 628 pour-outs of liquor during Saturday nights fireworks display at English Bay. And that happened despite cops from around the Lower Mainland hanging out at SkyTrain and Canada Line stations in Surrey, Richmond, New Westminster and here, in the city, to intercept booze smugglers.
While getting their booze poured out must have been a real drag, the real penalty for the younger drinkers must have been the phone calls police said they made to parents.
The police action Saturday night comes after the VPD stepped up its summer roadblock campaign and noticed a disturbing trend in the number of young people who continue to drink and drive.
On the weekend of July 13, police issued 12-hour prohibitions to eight new driversthe ones with the green N displayed on their vehicles. That brought the total for this summer to 30 new drivers being penalizedcompared to 36 for the entire 2011 summer campaign that ran from June 30 to Aug. 7 last year.
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In case you missed it last week, theres another poll out there that says people like the governing Vision Vancouver party at city hall.
A survey conducted in July by Justason Market Intelligence discovered support for Vision stands at 47 per cent, which is slightly higher than levels recorded prior to the civic election in November 2011.
The NPA and the Green Party, which are represented by George Affleck, Elizabeth Ball and Adriane Carr respectively, each garnered 21 per cent support from respondents. That percentage puts the NPA at its lowest level since the local polling firm began tracking support two years ago.
COPE, which doesnt have anybody on council, got 13 per cent support.
The same survey found the high cost of living topped Vancouverites concerns, with housing affordability, poverty issues, homelessness and crime filling out the top five. Bike lanes and taxes, by the way, were the least of respondents concerns.
Really?
Remember, the survey only polled 413 people.
A lot more than that show up on voting day, which isnt until the fall of 2014. There also may be a byelection before the civic race, if Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs wins an NDP nomination and gets elected to the B.C. Legislature in May 2013.
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In other NPA news
Forgot to mention in a previous entry that Peter Armstrong, founder of Rocky Mountain Railtours and campaign chair for the NPA in the 2011 election, is the partys new president.
Armstrong replaces John Moonen.
Suzanne Anton, who ran unsuccessfully as the partys mayoral candidate in the last race, is the NPAs newly appointed vice-president and secretary. The partys new board of directors includes Robert MacDonald, who donated almost $1 million to the NPA in the 2011 campaign.
Twitter: @Howellings
