For the print edition of the Courier this Friday, we chose the park board's capital plan and the distribution of crack kits to addicts as our two top stories for readers to consider.
Our page one picture was the demolition of the Ridge Theatre.
The park board's capital plan includes a proposed bike and pedestrian path to connect Jericho Beach and Kits Beach parks. The board takes great pains to say it is not the controversial proposal to extend the seawall in the same area. But as a trial to route cyclists and pedestrians between the parks it might be seen by some, if not by most, as prelude to an expanded seawall. It's also another example of the city's continued focus on bike and pedestrian infrastructure.
The distribution of 65,000 cracking smoke kits between 2011-2012 was another key story we felt readers should consider. The 13 month evaluation of an estimated 4,123 crack smokers who took the kits did not show that drug use declined among those receiving the kits, according to Vancouver Coastal Health's chief medical officer Patricia Daly. But the distribution of sterile kits likely reduced cuts and burns to the mouths of users. Wounds to the mouth, researchers believe, was responsible for a spike in HIV rates among crack users in the last decade. How best to handle the the city's ongoing experiment with harm reduction and improving the health of our fellow Vancouverites using illegal drugs is a debate that continues.
Finally, the demolition of the Ridge Theatre, and the news that its vaunted stained glass windows were not saved, was our page one picture. For many readers, the demise of the Ridge and the fate of some of its key, beloved features are a symbol of the progressive erosion of heritage and history in a city where change is the default mode of living here.
