Sunshine…..you must be higher up than I.

There is still much fog around here, although I’m still unsure if that fog is just in my head from much imbibing last night.

Please do tell us more on these urban chickens though, they sound interesting.

Nanaimo eh? I like it. How about someting like the Bridges of Madison County, except adapted for the unique charms of the Nanaimo – The Strip Malls of the Harbour City. It could explore the planning differences between the 1960’s strip malls (located on a collector road, enough parking for the Saturday before Christmas and a bunch of useless-ish stores) and a 1990’s strip mall (all the same, except 18 trees in the parking lot)

Gordo will be sitting with a smug look on his face knowing that no matter what is said, most folks won’t bother listening or reading the arguments.

He has a majority so can’t lose. But as MLA Ralston mentions the Auditor Genral alludes to the idea that all BC Taxpayers can be on the hook, for those large Olympic overuns that will result no matter how ofthe the Liberals claim the cost ‘s are on budget and wont go past 600 millions. All the while, the so called non Olympic overrun for the Convention Center must be getting up that way all on it’s own. Hold on to your hats BC Tax payers King Gordo is still in the drivers seat, and we will all pay big time

But if you were to travel to Nanaimo to write that ‘Strip Malls Below Green Mountain’ thing, as Chris B suggested above, and then if you were to wander around downtown looking for a decent coffee afterward wouldn’t you likely stumble across (insert ‘Psycho’ shower scene slasher sounds here!)….this?

.

You’re most welcome FABula.

(me, I always go looking for the latest in Uke covers when the need arises….they can take you anywhere in the world…this week it’s Glasgow and Japan….all in search of the perfect ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’….)

.

Word.

Although I do admire the tenacity with which the scarred remnants of the NPA try to smear this debacle on Gregor and Co, the fact is potshots over messaging and spokespeople overlooks the crucial point that the Olympic Village story should have been dealt with in June 2007.

And I have a hard time believing that Mayor Ladner would ever have given us a public meeting on the finances. Although Suzanne Anton seems to think that all this information would have magically surfaced for the public had the NPA remained in power. Me thinks not.

A mention for Frances on Global this am.

Sophie Louie on the morning News (Sunday) had Meggs mugging about this whole mess, and she brought up Frances’s web site, and mentioned the email from she wrote about where Meggs was called a pitbull and being too political, with just 4 months to the provincial election.

His response was toned down so it looks like someone neutered this pit bull – at least for now. Meggs neutered, how sweet.

Albeit in a subdued tone, I believe his response was (out of context), that there are a lot of questions to be answered for what’s been going on.

My impression was that he was alluding to Olympic overages in general, and not just the OV, plugging for his girl Carole (nobody knows me yet) James.

Anyway it appears in typical fashion, Global is getting their news and views from real people like Francis who are actually out there talking to people.

Here’s a great post from over at The Tyee. I think the author, Fan of Reality, does a Fabulous job of pointing out that what Frances seems to be doing is not so much providing “real news” but rather a self serving little exercise. I’m sure the reasons for this will become more evident at a later date.

I will give you this though, between the author of this website and the former backroom NPA gang over at citycocs.com you are doing a hell of a job manufacturing the spin.

Never count out the angry conservative. Ruthless.
——————————————————–
tyee post

Actually, you don’t speak for everyone
Fan of reality
2 days ago

It’s not a murder mystery, and you don’t speak for the many of us in the city who understand exactly what’s going on at city hall. A new administration is bringing in people it trusts. It’s political. That’s life. Maybe they’re making good choices, maybe not. Time will tell. Meantime, we look to informed commentary to guide us as we watch and wait.
Too bad someone with your experience (which we’re aware of largely because of your constant references to it) can’t put some of it to use for readers.
Ok, you didn’t get the big leak. You aren’t getting ongoing leaks. You aren’t getting the big ‘heads up’ every time someone quits.
Get over it.
Stop making light of an issue that some of us without the endless insider connections (again, thanks for the frequent reminders) are pretty concerned about.
Stop suggesting people calm down, and start helping the people who are increasingly alarmed at the signs of how badly the NPA and some of our senior managers confused our interests with those of VANOC, developers and the business community in general.
Next time you’re getting a personal tour of the site by one of the Millennium brothers, why not take a second or two to ask them what the fudge monkey they were thinking offering that much cash, what part of the overruns were “the overheated economy” and which were their own failure to manage a project that was beyond their experience. Questions like that might actually make your ever-so-girly, sit-on-the-riverbank navel-gazing easier to swallow.
Better still, go back to being the poor woman’s Maureen Dowd. Map it all out as a highschool sorority plot.
To quote you: Sheesh.

Living in Nanaimo, the birthplace of the Millennium PONZI fiasco, I am amazed no one is even looking at the deal the brothers got from former mayor Koruption and his (still working) city manager, Jerry Berry(honest that is his name!) As we only have Asper Co news coverage here can someone take a ferry (while they are still reduced fares) and have a sniff around? Please? Soon? Help?

LP, dude, I guess it all comes down to what you consider classy.

Over here in “lefty land”, we consider it classy to hand out information to the public that belongs to the public. We’re funny about that kind of stuff. That’s what Robertson promised to do this election. That’s what Ladner and Anton refused to do. So the public voted loudly on whose position was classier.

I guess you also missed the point of that Tyee post that I mentioned.

I’m sure there’s some Vancouverites who consider it classy to weigh an argument on its merits, not on how much we like the source. That’s why we read that new NPA site the citycocs set up. Maybe we should refer to that mob as the “loyal opposition” on the merits of their numbers on Council. Even they might have a point from time to time, and bloody good for them if they do. It would be classy if they offered us some useful facts and perspectives, given their obvious access to material that the unwashed leftwing masses can’t get our hands on. (The unwashed rightwingers deserve information too, and there are a couple that I’ve met who, trust me, never washed. But I digress.) I think the point is not to be snotty and partisan, it’s to respect the people of this city who get up every day and go to their job and look after their family and build their community. They deserve information, and if the knobs at citycaucus.com think it’s classier to withhold what they know, and dribble it out drop by partisan and misleading drop, well, maybe the public will once against cast its vote on that.

And finally, I guess you missed the point about Frances. She used to be a real journalist. Now, given what she’s done with her blog here and her work at Van magazine, I don’t think so. She seems to be too fond of her new role as an “insider” to keep her eyes focused. She wrote a profile of Judy Rogers (nice move, first column, suck up the the most powerful woman at city hall) without ever mentioning the civic strike that Rogers engineered. Not one word of it. And now she has the developers on the other end of the phone 24 hours a day. Cool. Maybe she could ask them some real questions, that’s all I’m saying. What the hell are we supposed to make of a “journalist” who gets a personal tour of the village given to her by the developer – a week or so before the shit hits the fan – and comes back with nothing to report but a glowing description of the lovely European feel of the “space”? Gimme a break. It was a sales job. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you don’t have to be to the left to see that and call it for what it is: shilling. Either that, or publicly pouting because she’s no gets the brown envelopes and someone else is.

I’m still waiting for someone classy enough to report on all this on behalf of the citizens of this city.

I’ll just keep waiting. Meantime, pour yourself a lovely cocktail made from that koolaid served here. Besides, hasn’t Frances told you not to worry your pretty little heads over all of this Villagegate stuff.?

Peter,

I doubt very much that (the) reasonable and level-headed citizens of Vancouver that do read citycaucus don’t realize what it is with respect to its partisan nature.

I also doubt that regardless of what they write over there that it’s going to do much good. The NPA was taken apart in November and with Anton the current defacto leader, it has little chance of being resurrected by 2011.

If you folks on the left want to follow them to keep an eye on the nonsense they seem to think is valid, go right ahead. Personally I think you’ll miss out on some people who do have rational and thoughtful debate over here.

My vote doesn’t belong to the NPA or VV for that matter – my preference would be to have no party politics at city hall at all. Perhaps I’m delusional, but I believe most of us Vancouverites would like that as well.

Unfortunately it always seems to be the left that feels the need to bring those politics to city hall, which is perhaps one reason they can’t seem to get a second term in this town.

Suzie,

City Caucus doesn’t post half of my posts either. Yesterday, they touted the Georgia Strait’s “discovery” of a guarantee made by the City to the 2010 bid Corporation in 2002 to build the Olympic village as a “smoking gun” (hilarious) that proved that there had been a standing completion guarantee long before Vision voted against the guarantee in 2007. I simply posted that of course the City guarantees the completion of the Olympic Village to the Bid Committee, they’re not just going to say “You wait and we’ll see what we’ll build for you”. But they then naturally passed building responsibilities on to Millenium and thus passed on the liability, and the question is whether they should have guaranteed completion to Fortress on the financing side which is infact abnormal.

Denied.

I’ll repeat what I said on Public Eye Radio this morning for whatever it is worth. “If it takes a village to raise a child, would some smart child please take charge of this village because right now the adults are having a hard time playing nicely together.”

And I’ll second (again) the comments made by Councillor Andrea Reimer at last Monday’s council meeting: “My hope is that we stop the blaming, get on with financing the project in whatever way that we can find to finance it and get it done.”

A whole lot of folks have a lot of explaining to do. And that reckoning must take place, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that we’re committed to the Games.

Wow, the NDP/Vision minions are out in force all over the local blogs. Looks like they’ve decided to continue the Blame the NPA Game and attack the press who aren’t toeing the Vision/NDP Message line. I guess some people didn’t get the memo? See: http://francesbula.com/?p=981

What Francis writes about has ticked people off on all sides on occasion because sometimes the truth is hard to hear. I’m guilty of making a snarky retort myself. But over time, it became evident that Francis just calls it like it is, and that’s not always convenient or popular for certain people at certain times.

I take exception to the comments “Peter” (is that you, Geoff?) made about Francis, especially: “She used to be a real journalist, ” and “call it for what it is: shilling.” That’s just plain rude. This kind of viciousness is reminiscent of what I heard coming from the Vision/COPE candidates during the election, which verged on character assassination. Meggs, Jang, Cadman and Woodsworth were particularly adept at it.

Francis, as long as you’re pissing off all the political communications types, you know you’re doing your job. You don’t need to apologize, regret or be sad about any of it. After all, it wasn’t you that signed any of those Olympics contracts or made any of those votes in Council over the past 6+ years.

Seriously Frances, grab your bikini we can take these guys – no problem.