Blood on the tracks
CP is doing what it said it would do; complete the necessary work, which includes the safe removal of vegetation and obstructions, to begin to get the track and infrastructure in the area up to federal operating standards.
— An emailed statement from Breanne Feigel, Canadian Pacific’s spokesperson on the Arbutus Corridor file about CP’s move, in mid-August, to start clearing the disused rail line of “encroachments.”
"We planted vegetables and some ornamental plants we were very fond of, and we loved it. They say it’s all for the good of the economy, but the plants can’t speak."
— Amy Wexler, a longtime Marpole resident as she watched CP crews pull up vegetables and garden fencing along the rail line west of William Mackie Park by West 71th Avenue in mid-August.
Election selection
"I want to start with a message to voters directly and that’s that I have heard you. While we have done a lot of good things very well in the past six years, there’s also some things we haven’t done particularly well. And for those, in particular, when I haven’t met your expectations, I am sorry and I know that if I’m re-elected again … that I can do better."
— Mayor Gregor Robertson at a CBC mayoral debate a few days before the civic election.
"You can hear it in the coffee shops, the pub, the offices, the soccer fields, the shop floors, the community centres — you can feel the desire for change in every corner of the city because the people know there is something that does not smell right at city hall. As my father would have said, ‘Aye Robbie, they’re trying to sell us beef stew with black bean sauce. But it’s really just a bucket of shit.’"
— NPA vice-president Robert Macdonald on the smell emanating from city hall.
"Frankly, I see this motion as very naïve at best — but not only naïve, but potentially very dangerous."
— Vision Vancouver Coun.Tim Stevenson on Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr’s attempt to have council voluntarily adopt a set of guidelines to get the big money out of civic politics.
"Vision is a tight group, they’re testy. We do have a professional relationship. But is there any warmth from Vision? Zip. They are very cold to me, except for Tony Tang. He’s a very friendly person."
— Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr on her relationship with the ruling Vision Vancouver council.
"My credo in this election is anyone but Vision. I no longer believe in slates. I don’t think it’s working any longer. I’d like to see parties work with other parties. I’m not looking for ideologues of any stripe. I’m looking for people who can work with other people.”
— Stewart Brinton, at a Hastings Community Centre election forum in November, on who he planned to vote for in the civic race.
Housing divided
"It’s a home where they don’t go outside to play and they sit in front of the television all day. And this breaks my heart when I see what is happening here. It’s ironic, isn’t it? The place is named after me and my own family can’t afford to have their kids here."
— 68-year-old grandmother Terry Tayler on her family not being able to afford to send their children to a daycare named after her.
"It’s becoming increasingly impossible for many, many people — perhaps, even the majority — to contemplate living in Vancouver, never mind owning a place to live. It’s something that I’m very worried about because it seems to me that housing is a right and it’s important in a city that’s going to function properly."
— Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs at a meeting on affordable housing at the WISE Hall in May.
"Institutions should be relics of history. The City of Vancouver should use all powers granted to it to reject institutionalization. Remember, we are all temporarily able-bodied. We could all find ourselves in one of those beds."
— A speaker who was concerned about “institutionalizing” people with disabilities at a city council meeting in late January regarding the draft Pearson Dogwood Policy Statement, which was designed to guide redevelopment of the property.
"What’s neat about this phase is it’s just so tangible now. The work that we’ve been doing this far has all been on paper, whereas with this you can go to the site and watch these big machines work and you can watch the dirt move and it all feels very real now.”
— Erika Stephens-Rennie before the groundbreaking ceremony in July for Vancouver’s first co-housing complex, which is being built in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhood.
School spirit
"I know lots of kids that felt like giving up, got in trouble, skipped school, were doing drugs and didn’t care about anything. Many, like me, got involved in sports and it changed them. Now we have dreams of going to university and further to play sports."
— Grade 9 student Colton Liu, whose mother helped him with sports to recover from a brain injury, on the aborted proposal to eliminate the athletic coordinator position in the Vancouver School Board’s 2014-2015 budget.
"Last year I had a special needs boy that had a [support] worker, but then, on top of that, I had two students with fetal alcohol syndrome, a child with post-traumatic stress syndrome, a child that was LD [learning disabled] that wasn’t designated yet... so it was overwhelming. You start relying on some kids to help you with the slower kids, and that’s not fair."
— Elementary school teacher of 19 years, Patricia Kenon, who taught grades 3 and 4 at Mount Pleasant elementary last year.
"It was a tough series of negotiations but there were meaningful achievements in this field for teachers and students."
— BCTF president Jim Iker, urging teachers to vote in favour of a new six-year deal and end a lengthy strike. Eighty-six per cent of them voted in favour of the new contract.
Crime and prevention
"The honest truth is, we got behind there. That got away on us and we’ve done a lot of work to bring it back."
— City manager Penny Ballem on why police answered 729 calls in 16 months to the Marguerite Ford social housing building on West Second Avenue.
"So this isn’t just a case of crime and punishment, this is about police officers taking the role of the justice system into their own hands and using dogs — not as tools — but as weapons against individuals. So, in addition to record keeping, we want to see changes into how police dogs are deployed."
— Pivot Legal Society lawyer Douglas King on the need for clear guidelines on police using dogs on the job.
"We give them something else so they can go out and have the same kind of feeling with it, but it’s not going to destroy them as much. For me, really, it’s harm reduction."
— Tyler Bigchild, who oversees the Drug Users Resource Centre’s brew co-op on Cordova Street.
Is anyone listening?
"It is outrageous in a democracy but not surprising that a political party in power tries to cut off direct access to both elected representatives and public servants by journalists who are a citizen’s frontline resource for finding out what’s going on, for presenting views and opinions for debate and for watchdogging those politicians’ integrity, including the handling of citizens’ taxes. While politicians may say it is more efficient to communicate this way, what they really mean is it is easier to manipulate public knowledge and debate"
– Former Langara College journalism instructor and Globe and Mail reporter Ross Howard, responding to City of Vancouver’s media policy.
"Where is the transparency from city hall? You have started this project on the wrong foot by not involving the community... it did not get started on the right foot at all."
– Michelle Sturino, a Residents Association Mount Pleasant (RAMP) director, criticizing the city at a January 2014 public meeting for not having the meeting about transforming the former Biltmore Hotel into temporary housing for the homeless and those at risk of homelessness months earlier.
"We’re just completely disenfranchised, completely ignored. And I know we’re not the only community in the city by far that feels that way, but certainly that’s how we feel about it at this point. There’s just no consultation process."
– Joe McDermid, a spokesperson for Southlands Community Association, on dealing with the City of Vancouver on the redevelopment proposal for the Casa Mia property and the future of other heritage estates along Southwest Marine Drive, which are vulnerable to development.
"It’s the largest development in the history of the city, I think, and they refused to approve it until it came back appropriately changed.”
– Jill Weiss, chair of the city’s Persons with Disabilities Advocacy Group, lauds council in early February on revisions to the Pearson Dogwood policy statement.
Parks and pools
"But we need to look at all of our options and the best option is to work with the aquarium to find a solution. But in the end we are elected to speak for the people."
– Outgoing Vision Vancouver commissioner Sarah Blyth on her public stand against keeping whales and dolphins at the Vancouver Aquarium.
"I’m very supportive of Sarah, and it’s not news I don’t support keeping whales in captivity. But I also know the aquarium does really great work on the rescue and rehabilitation side as well as saving endangered species like the Panamanian golden frogs in the news last week."
– Outgoing Vision Vancouver park board vice-chair Constance Barnes on her decision to speak publically against keeping whales and dolphins at the Vancouver Aquarium.
"But, we’ll very likely be bringing back the ones we already own that have been on loan to other accredited institutions. Not wild whales."
– Aquarium president John Nightingale regarding the ongoing expansion of the Vancouver Aquarium and increasing the number of whales at the facility.
"We had to sort out the budget. And that meant some really tough decisions. Staff asked us did we want to close the farmyard and the petting zoo or the farmyard and the Bloedel Conservatory? Those were the kinds of decisions we were forced to make."
– Outgoing Vision Vancouver park board chair Aaron Jasper on some of the challenges his two terms on park board presented.
Sports shorts
"I’m working on being a good Vancouverite and getting to the yoga studio."
– Rob Watson, a marathon runner who logs up to 200 kilometres over 13 training runs each week in addition to strength training and the occasional visit to a yoga studio.
"It’s been there since Grade 8."
– Mindy Minhas, the AAAA senior boys basketball B.C. champion with the Churchill Bulldogs and 2014 MVP, on the goals he added to a list five years ago to win the provincial title and be named tournament MVP.
"In order to succeed and meet your goals, it’s not about working on most things until you get it. It’s about working on that thing so you don’t get it wrong."
– Noemie Thomas, named the 2013 Canadian female junior swimmer of the year.
"The baseball gods are seriously mean, is all I can say, and that’s what I tell the kids. Competitive sport is about learning how to live. You’ve got to battle out there."
– Wildcats softball coach Gary Kingman, two years after he survived cancer.
City living
"West End residents have been holding it since 2006 and they’ll be greatly relieved that this washroom is finally being built."
Spencer Chandra Herbert, NDP MLA for Vancouver-West End on the installation of a washroom in Nelson Park years after the original washrooms were removed.
"It’s a wonderful way to meet people. I’ve gotten a couple dates out of her."
– Marpole dog owner Charlene Fitzpatrick on the true love of her life Roo, a Chihuahua Pomeranian cross.
"It’s a double-edged sword. [Catnip] either gets them really excited and amped or it knocks them out and makes them comatose. But we think that cats should have the freedom to choose how they live their lives."
– Matt O’Brien, one of the creators of the reality competition show Battle Cats, discussing the use of performance enhancing drugs.
History lessons
"At the same time of some of the major civilizations around the world — Egyptian, Roman — we were here occupying this land and had an extremely wide, diverse network of technology that is extraordinary."
– Musqueam tour leader Terry Point.
"I tried eating a Reese’s peanut butter cup the other day, because I remembered really liking them. It tasted like a crayon."
– Courier’s Sweet Spot columnist and author of The Chocolate Tasting Book, Eagranie Yuh, on the last chocolate bar she had a difficult time eating.
"There’s no way I was going to put my arms around his waist. I’m 65 and he’s, like, 30. I’ve got a 31-year-old son. That would be creepy."
– Sixty-five-year-old cancer survivor Gerey Parker, who also has rheumatoid arthritis, on her birthday gift ride on a Harley Davidson behind motorcycle apparel company co-owner and former model Nik Markovina.
Art as life
"Our society is very awkward or resistant to acknowledging grieving and the need for rituals and ceremonies. We’re generally told in our society you can have a little grieving period and then you have to move on and people don’t really want to hear about it, you know?"
– Poet Catherine Owen on the need to support a multitude of expressions of grief.
"It was very hard, to say the least."
– Something Fierce author and 2012 winner of the CBC Canada Reads contest Carmen Aguirre, on finding out she wouldn’t receive $60,000 in owed royalties after her publisher, Douglas & McIntyre, declared bankruptcy.
"Because I was so poor when I lived in Canada, every time I come up there I feel like I cheated everything. I still can’t believe a Calgary kid has made it this far."
– Stoner comedy icon Tommy Chong, who first got his start in show biz performing at a Chinatown strip joint in the late ‘60s.
"So it became this really exciting opportunity to think about that space in a really different way. So it was fun to create that, but then there was also a massive amount of fire… Fire and water and a lot of blood and four guys in Speedos."
– Production designer Drew Facey on the Jessie Award-winning work he did for Rumble Theatre’s Penelope.
"It’s a little gem that too many people have forgotten about that takes us out of our day-to-day routine. It’s like going somewhere [else] without leaving the city."
– Noize Records owner Dale Wiese on the charms of Chinatown, where he opened his record store.
"The people are just great. It’s really the thing I like best about the band is that suddenly I’ve got 15 friends."
– Steve Vickery on playing clarinet in the Carnegie Community Centre jazz band.
"I don’t want it to be slick. I want it to be campy. It’s just the way I am."
– Michael Willmore, creator and host of the no-budget Shaw cable program Rockinitis.
