Quite a busy few days in the civic news cycle.
But before I get to that, apparently I missed a twitter spat between NPA Coun. George Affleck and Kevin Quinlan, who is one of the mayor’s handlers and Vision Vancouver operatives.
This went down over the weekend.
Sadly, I wasn’t on the 140 — otherwise known as Twitter to the less hip crowd — to take in the back and forth. The spat had to do with the closure of Point Grey Road to prepare for bike and pedestrian improvements.
Let me give you a taste:
Quinlan: @KQ_VanCity, NPA think traffic calming pt grey road "takes it" from citizens? then move a motion to rip out every local access diverter in city.
Affleck: Hey @KQ_VanCity are u announcing your candidacy for Vision soon? B/C Taxpayers should not be paying for your political tweets.
Quinlan: @george_affleck as we don't have a seven day workweek in BC, they're not. #saturdaynight.
Affleck: @KQ_VanCity true. But perhaps u should find a different hobby that does not include attacking duly elected officials for whom you work for.
Whoa!
Let the 2014 election campaign begin!
Apparently Affleck was just getting warmed up to lead a protest early Monday morning on Point Grey Road with his NPA colleagues.
I was unable to make the gathering — note to NPA: 6:15 a.m. press advisories don’t do it for me — but my colleague over at Metro, Emily “Action” Jackson, managed to record a few words from Affleck.
Get this: Affleck told Jackson the NPA will re-open Point Grey Road to through car traffic if the party manages to knock off Mayor Gregor Robertson and his ruling Vision team in the November election.
Sounds expensive.
Interestingly, that bit of news got some play around the same time Vision was looking to take the air out of the NPA’s tires with an announcement related to building a seniors’ centre in Killarney.
The mayor wants the city to take $1.2 million of “surplus funds” from the operating budget to close the funding gap on the centre. With the feds in for $2.5 million, the province in for $1.3 million and the city already giving up the land, Robertson wants to get the centre built sooner than later.
Then just when the NPA thought it made some gains with the car lobby and Vision likewise with all those seniors, news out of Montreal Monday took the air out of Vision’s tires.
Bixi, the company working with Alta Bicycle Share to launch a public bike share program in Vancouver, announced it was in financial trouble and seeking protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.
Now it appears Vancouver’s planned rollout of the system won’t occur until sometime in 2015, according to the city’s transportation director Jerry Dobrovolny.
Which means, of course, after the November election.
A decision on whether to knock down the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts will also occur after the election.
But as the past few days have shown, regardless of how controversial the issue, campaign 2014 is expected to include some fact, some fiction and a whole lot of rhetoric.
And remember … it’s only January.
twitter.com/Howellings
