Dossier C : Crows

It's been several years since I was struck on the back of my head by a crow. My initial hatred and desire for revenge have subsided, but I am still always aware and wary of The Crows. We have reached some sort of detente, even though I know they are my Enemy, and I will never again trust them.

I think my vigilance and suspicion is justified -- after all, they drew first blood. My experience is not uncommon, as this Langara College-designed map of common crow attack areas in Vancouver indicates. [CrowTrax] In fact, the map is crowd-sourced, so if you are swooped or struck, add your experience to the map! (Thx VanBuzz for the great story about the map!)

As if we needed any reminders as to how insidiously clever and ruthless this Enemy is... here are some interesting random tidbits I've collected:

They use complex tools... even more complex than imagined: they can make tools that only humans have been known to make previously.

They can solve complex problems, involving multiple steps: this crow can solve a problem involving eight steps.



A crow's brain can recognize numbers: and counting crows' neurons work just like humans.

And we already knew: crows recognize faces... and they know where you're hiding.



Though also just like us, sometimes hard work just doesn't pay off: crow versus pizza box.



And they hold funerals. (thx Devour)



Our only defense, other than carrying around a tennis racket (which I have been tempted to do), is education. PSA: from VanCity Buzz, 8 tips to prevent crow attacks.

Vancouver Night Landing by Air Canada 767 | Vancouver

The view from the cockpit of an Air Canada 767 while landing in Vancouver.



Original: JustPlanes. Thanks to VanCityBuzz for the tip.

Crazy Statistician | Andrew Walker "One day of activity..."

Brought to my attention some time ago by the ever-interesting Price Tags... Andrew Walker runs transit information through home-made custom software (based on a program for satellite-tracking software) to create a visualization of the transit activity of one day (4am to 4am) in a city. He started with Vancouver:



And recently came out with New York City.



Both are quite beautiful.

Just Crazy | Oppa Gangnam "Westcoast" Style parody

This was all over the tubes a bunch of weeks back... I'm "future-posting" it because I didn't bother to watch it for a week or so after it first came out... and it's surprisingly really well done. Amazing job, and I honestly didn't expect that. I love being surprised by my community's incredible talent and skill, and can't give the folks that put this together enough props. Nice one!

citiZEN | Vancouver Edition

Collecting items of interest related to Vancouver.

History

Community: Why the Police Museum rocks! [offthecuff]
Structures: 114-year-old Carleton Elementary is largest of five schools marked for closure by VSB. Adrian Dix lists nine reasons why he thinks it should not be closed. [Gstraight]
Agitators: Past Tense posts excellent article on firebrand anarchist Emma Goldman -- the most dangerous woman in the world, of 1911. [PastTense]
Establishment: Hollywood Theatre celebrated 75 years. [kits.ca] [TomHawthorn]
Structures: Terry Fox Plaza to be demolished and rebuilt. [VanSun]
Establishment: Lamplighter Pub celebrated 85 years. [Miss604] [VanSun]
Respect: Community trying to recognize Hogan's Alley area. [cbc]
Mail Room: A collection of old postcards from John Macjie. [VanSun]
Pinko Files: Past Tense has great article on "Vancouver's Red Army." [PastTense]
Structures: Jericho Wharf slated for destruction. [cbc]

Culture

Navel-Gazing: Vancouver Book Award goes to art book. [cbc]
Book it: The VPL has a new head librarian. [VanSun]
Navel Gazing: Vancouver Foundation releases 2010 Vital Signs report. [ViA] [VFvitalsigns] [ViA]
Establishment: Beyond Robson has a nice post about Red Cat Records. [br]
Repurposing: Yaletown sculpture uses wing span from second Cambie Bridge. [ViA]

Government

Finance: City facing $20.6-million budget shortfall for 2011. [VanSun]
Finance: Mayor "promises" to protect some services and limit property tax increase. [Gstraight]
Political Parties: NPA sets first batch of nominations for 2011 election. [straight] [VanSun]
Special Kind of Idiots: Budget cuts to VPL's Special Collections. [straight]
Political Parties: New group forming. [straight]

MUST READ:
Dirty Tricks Studies: Vision-led City Council holds meeting after midnight to ram through decision but cut down on how many pesky residents might show up to voice opposition. Again. [CityCaucus] Starting to worry I was duped out of my vote into an undemocratic process. Hint: It doesn't matter how long it takes, you listen to all the opinions on the table, then make the decision -- yep, you may end up making the same decision had you not listened to everyone else, but you still have to get everybody's opinion... that's called democracy. And saying the mad rush is because "people are dying in the streets" is idiotic rhetoric and insults my intelligence.

Development

Densification Strategy Studies: Laneway housing policy tweaked but moritorium rejected. [VanSun]
Densification Strategy Studies: Some neighbours are unhappy. [ctv]

Residents

Spenders and Savers: Grants and Rebates for Vancouver Properties. [VanReflections: List 1 | List 2]

Navel Gazing

So Cool File: We're tops again on some other list. [GovBC] [ctv]

citiZEN | Vancouver edition

Collecting items related to Vancouver.

Chuck Davis
"For the Love of Vancouver": Article from City Caucus and Mike Klassen. [CityCaucus]
Sad News: Chuck is dying of cancer. [VanSun]
Call to Action: Jeff Lee at VanSun.
Call to Action: Crawford Kilian at Tyee.
Call to Action: at Re:Place Magazine .
Call to Action: Rebecca Bollwitt at Miss604.
Action: Writer found. [ctv]
Call to Action Video: The moving message. [TomHawthorn]
Updates: A Message from Chuck [knowbc]



Canucks

Thor!! Report: Thor sells Vancouver Millionaires trademark to Canucks. [canucks]
Geriatric Division: Brendan Morrison released by Canucks. [VanSun]



Culture

To be or to... well, to be: Bard venue proposed for expansion. [VanSun]
Leaping Tall Buildings File: Comic Shop moves further west along 4th Avenue. [kits] [br]
Roller Coaster: Art Gallery move is wild ride. [VanSun]
Roller Coaster Background: A few words about Larwill Park. [VanSun]
Riot!: Gastown Riots remembered by Stan Douglas. [VanSun] [knowbc]
Celebrations: An idea for a new New Years Party. [pricetags]



Education

Written Word: UBC publishes book to celebrate first 100 years. [ubc]
Written Word: VPL Booklist. [via] [vpl]



Historical Items

Gonzo File: How Hunter S. Thompson applied to write at the Vancouver Sun. [VanSun]
Re-Development and Destructions: Capilano Bridge to be demolished. [straight]
Re-Development and Destructions: 70+ years old Jericho Wharf said to be harmful to fish. [VanSun]
Re-Development and... False Alarm!: Park saved from paving, sort of. [kits.ca]
R-D&D: UBC Prof suggests moving PNE to Seawall area. [straight]
Floating Palaces: McBarge has Facebook friends. [VanSun]
Written Word: A list of books about Vancouver. [pricetags] [VanHist]
R-D&D: Canada Post to stay downtown. [meggs]
Glimpses: Vancouver's first traffic light. [knowbc]
Abodes: Bio on James Johnstone. [pricetags]
Two-Face Moves: Kits Point Maritime Museum move funding revoked. [kits]
Mapper: Heritage Properties on a map. [via]
Mapper: Trees in Kitsilano. On a map. [kits] [treeMap]
History for Sales: A Short History of Kitsilano. [reflections]
Living History: A memoir about Duthie Books. [knowbc]
Lists: 124 oddities about Vancouver history. [VanSun]
Past Mayors: Book about L.D. Taylor. [knowbc]
Honouring Places: Lions Gate Bridge designated National Historical Site. [knowbc]
Worthless Paper: Bank of Vancouver billnote auction. [VanSun]
Dirt Digging: Fraserview Cemetary. [VanSun]

Law and Order

Grand Theft Auto: Brazen Oakridge Mall armed jewelry robbery suspect arrested -- age 15. [VanSun]
Signs of The Tipping Point: Graffiti on the rise. [straight]
Big Brother Watch: Volunteers map downtown surveilance cameras. [VanSun]

Navel Gazing

Market Share: Vancouver Brand in middle of the pack. [tyee]
Outside Job: Clinton says to "get in the future business." [VanSun]
Navel Gazing: Best places to "live the life". [VanSun]



Transportation

Future of Cycle: Envisioning the Granville Loops as "next-gen roads." [straight]
Screaming Matches: Pacific Arbour Speaker Series on Oct 24. [replace]

shiZINE | Good-bye (for now?!) Slickity Jim's Chat and Chew

Fire spread through five businesses this morning at Broadway and Main Streets. One of the businesses heavily damaged was the popular Slickity Jim's Chat and Chew.

citiZEN | Vancouver round-up

Some items about Vancouver that have caught my attention recently...

To start with, the City of Vancouver is moving toward making its data more open and accessible. [cbc] This is a huge move forward. As silly as it sounds, I'm actually excited about being able to watch council meetings on YouTube... right now they are only on the City's web site, and only viewable with the most recent version of Internet Explorer!

Anyhoo.

The long and winding debate seems always to be about Transportation. This will intensify over the next while as the Burrard Street Bridge Bicycle Trial gets under way. Price Tags is all over this, and posted an excellent primer of Burrard Bridge Basics. [PriceTags] Here's an interesting re-thinking of the intersection at Burrard and Pacific. [PriceTags]

With another fantastic map, Erick Villagomez at re:Place Magazine shows us the methods used as transportation by different neighbourhoods. [re:Place] From the "general info" file here's A Brief History of Transportation graph. [good]

And cyclists have a new tool developed at UBC to find the best route in Vancouver, called the Cycling Route Planner. [buzzer] [cbc] And what I think is actually a positive development, for reminding some cyclists they are vehicles on the road, not glorified pedestrians: the police department is ticketing cycling violations. As one may expect, the public comments have been barely short of a flamewar. [VanSun] And I'm not favouring drivers over cyclists here, or even pedestrians... we all need to get along and share.

Translink is going to shorten or reduce certain bus routes in an effort of increasing ridership on the new Canada Line. [VanSun] Just what bus riders need: less service and more frustration. With such a high-tech central nervous system as "T-Comm", the Transit Communications Centre, it's a surprise there seems to be such negativity about our transit system. [Buzzer]

Will there be a car-free Granville Street this summer? [straight] Sorry: will there be "summer spaces" in Vancouver? [straight] Here's a story about a german city that has completely eliminated cars. [nyt] There's always the Personal Rapid Transit option. [good] I love these pods.

Since we're here: here's a list of things to do on Canada Day, at Granville Island [kits.ca] [GI], and at Canada Place [VanBuzz] [CP].

Hand in hand with transportation is the issue of Urban Development.

Vancity Buzz has a good analysis of the plans for North East False Creek. [VancityBuzz] And Paul Hillsdon makes a case for tearing down the Georgia Street Viaducts. [PaulHillsdon] And Chicago is using technology created at UBC to plan their city. [ubc] And after 20 years, Cafe S'il Vous Plait, at the corner of Robson and Richards, has closed because the landlord wanted to double their rent.



At the neighbourhood level: Some interesting thoughts about Laneway Housing. [PriceTags] The Kits Farmer's Market, which re-opens July 1, will offer free home delivery by bicycle. [kits.ca] And the debate about rapid transit options to UBC (the UBC Line) is starting to heat up. Merchants along West Broadway are already getting nervous. [kits.ca] Another dude, as reported at Kits.ca, makes fun of the idea of a European-style tram along Broadway, and asks if Tram-Supporters (such as Mel Lehan) even ride the bus. [kits.ca]

And finally, a quick round-up on some history-themed posts... The Vancouver Museum changed it's name to... The Museum of Vancouver. [straight] Bruno Wall, Vancouver Developer, will put $12 million to restore the 97-year-old York Theatre on Commercial Drive. [cbc] The buzzer blog posted a history of interurbans in the Lower Mainland. [buzzer] And a historic railway car returned to the Lower Mainland. [ctv]

Here's the "ghost sign" on the side of 325 Carrall Street, the old Louvre Saloon. Click on the photo to go to laniwurm's excellent flickr page that describes this further.

citiZEN | Poet Laureate for Vancouver

The deadline for submissions to become the next Poet Laureate of Vancouver has been extended to March 20, 2009. Check out vancouververse.

From the no-shame category, here's a poem I wrote... available for purchase in my book, 51 Poems for a 50-Poem World...

Like Alma, not seen since summertime, with love,

I have loved you since you were a road--
You rebellious outsider edging civilization.
The Captain saluted and bid adieu
To a thin green line charging lightly
Into the pages of History.
(Or at least Elizabeth Walker's.)

And Jerry may have had his cove
While the Chief of Khats his beach
I had unfettered access to all
Grounds that Alderman Almond loved
(For such it is in times of war
Coffee comes with peace.)
With your unrestrained curves
Twisting like a goat's path in the highlands.

It was sad to lose you at your Sweet 16
When you crashed into the 3700 block
And abruptly ended.

citiZEN | Vancouver

There are recommendations in the works to change the on-ramp "loops" of the Granville Street Bridge. This already happened to the south-east... where the original "loop" was restructured into a park with tennis courts. (The photo in the Price Tags post is very revealing, even if you know what I'm referring to!)

Fascinating post. Read it! (PriceTags)

citiZEN | Vancouver

Jackson Murphy over at The Vancouverite has a nice round-up of the Olympic Village debacle that unfolded over the last weekend, along with some insightful insights of his own. (vancouverite)

And for those following along at home, Vancouver recorded the first two homocides of the year on January 8th and the 11th. The first murder last year wasn't until January 19, 2008. (ctv)

Maggie Chandler, on her Vancouver Reflections site, posted the average price graph of Vancouver real estate. Sales decreased by 35%. And while prices are down over the previous year, house prices are up 64% for the Vancouver West Side over the last five years. Maple Ridge comes out on top on "Best Value" for houses, townhomes and condos in Greater Vancouver. (vanreflections)

According to Tourism Vancouver, the number of tourists that are visiting Vancouver has gone down since the Summer of SARS in 2003, for reasons that can be easily guessed: the economy has tanked. But the good news is that more people are choosing to spend their time and money at home, paticularly on local restaurants and attractions. Ticket sales at the Vancouver Aquarium are actually up. (ctv)

Even though I hardly ever leave my warroom, or go out of the bunker, or even step foot off the compound, I'm a huge supporter of local neighbourhood attractions. Even in (supposedly) laid-back Lotus-Land, we seem to forget most of the amazing sights and places that surround us. Sure, Grouse Mountain and the Stanley Park Seawall are all sexy for getting the outdoorsy-types and therefore all the press, but many of us are (particularly the born-and-bred, or close-at-hand born-and-bred) very much like those lifer New Yorkers that have never been to the Statue of Liberty or into the Empire State Building: it's always been there, so we figure we'll get to it eventually. Yet that visit to the Vancouver Police Museum or lunch at the Jericho Sailing Club never seems to come by.

Sean Orr at Beyond Robson has posted an interesting review on the Vancouver Museum's new exhibit called The Unnatural History of Stanley Park. (br) If you have a chance to watch the youTube video and Mr. Orr's Flickr set, please do. The silent video is particularly relaxing.

From the Civic-Duty citiZEN files comes an article via Megaphone, Vancouver's Street Paper, called 50 Ways to Help the Homeless: A Practical Guide to What the Experts Say Can, and Must, Be Done. (megaphone) (tyee)

And more from the General-City-Improvement files, take a look at this bicycle-storage unit that's being used in Japan. It can store up to 144 bicycles at a time. For a view of how it works, here's dannychoo.

citiZEN | Vancouver

The first thing to do is give a tip of the hat to Old Man Winter, who has been knocking these parts around for the better bit of a few weeks now. I think I've heard the word snowmageddon more times than I care to admit. There are a lot of people that went from thinking it was pretty, and lovely to have around during the Traditional Western-Culture Holiday Season that is popularly referred to as "Christmas", to really wishing it would hurry up and melt and allow us to get back to our first love (being driving). Urban Vancouver has some good photos. (UV Pt1) (UV Pt2)

And check this out: during the snowstorm, somebody in Seattle created these snow-sculptures on the windows of parked vehicles. Amazing! (wooster)

Onward. One of the opponents taking on Premier Gordon Campbell in the upcoming Provincial election will be Mel Lehan, punching in for the NDP ticket. (straight)

Lastly, we know you've been waiting all year for this to come back: the 2009 Vancouver Taboo Sex Show will be at the Convention & Exhibition Centre from January 15-18. Tickets are $20 at the door or can be purchased online. (vanBuzz)

Vancouver round-up

Here's an excellent review of Lisa Smedman's new book Vancouver: Stories of a City. (re:place)

And a story about Joe Rimmer and his hand-made limited-edition copies of Tom Sawyer, mostly talking about growing up in a Vancouver that resembles the Mark Twain classic. (VanSun)

Francis Bula writes in Vancouver Magazine about how cities around the world are trying to emulate our city. (VanMag)

The Urban Dweller on VanCity Buzz talks about Vancouverism. (VCBuzz)

Speaking of Vancouver, what about Electoral Area A...? A failed-candidate has asked for a referendum on becoming a municipality. (straight)

Gordon Murray created a parody copy of the Vancouver Sun newspsper in 2007, to highlight his opinion towards the Canwest-owned paper's apparent pro-Israel/anti-Palestine position. He was taken to court, of course. Judge Alan Donaldson, of the B.C. Supreme Court, decided that freedom of expression could not be used as a defense in a copyright infringement case. (straight) [Personally, I see this as setting up for all those "copyright infringers" that use any Olympic icons for parody or satire, or some other unwanted-by-VANOC bad-press.]

Francis Bula talks about her friends' photo blog. (bula) It's called Splinter In Your Eye, and is about Vancouver in transition (mostly). (SiYE)

Another good read is the summary from re:Place magazine about their re:Connect event. (re:place)

Here's a tip for drivers: know where the unregulated parking areas are. (CTV) There's also a great link on the right-hand side that shows the frequency of parking tickets across the city that's fascinating!

Check out this link to Bob_2006's flickr stream with a good write-up about the Vancouver Museum. (flickr)

And there's an even better idea than my "tent city on vacant lot" idea from before. "Stop Gap Housing." (tyee) The problem? Finding land...? Maybe those vacant lots I was mentioning...?

Before I forget, check out the rest of Penny Coupland's awesome paintings of Vancouver scenes, like this one of Kits Beach. My personal favourite is one she did of our favourite watering hole, the Wolf and Hound, but it was unfortunately taken down from her Flickr photostream.

Vancouver round-up

Here's some of what I've glanced at over the last while...

A new ground-penetrating device is assisting UBC researchers in finding the graves of missing First Nations ancestors. (UBC Reports)

Vancouver's obscurest election may get an "historic" 1,000 voters this year... while one of the candidates for Director of Electoral Area A says "you couldn't write a better farce." If you live around UBC, you should find out more. (Tyee)

Gordon Price of Price Tags says tonight's all-candidates debate, Last Candidate Standing, will be like politics and theatre all rolled into one. Isn't it already? That aside, tonight does looks interesting: they're going to have musicians and performance artists between rounds. (Price Tags)

Not another bleeding-heart cry-baby group yapping about minimum wage... and in fact, it certainly doesn't seem so: Business in Vancouver is calling on the municipal candidates to make Vancouver a "living wage city." In Vancouver that means a minimum wage of $16.74 an hour. (BiV) I'm guessing Peter Ladner is no longer intimately involved in BiV...? I only say so because this seems like a good idea and will energize the hourly-wage demographic to support the candidate that supports this measure... so if he's behind it he really should be shouting it from the rooftops. (Except around developers or other biz-owner-type folks, I guess...)

Vancouver has decided to go ahead with a trial of the laneway housing development idea. (CBC) Re:Place Mag has a good breakdown and update on the particulars. (re:place)

Plans for revitalization around the BC Place area have been released. (CBC) It includes a new roof for BC Place, a new Art Gallery, and more residential, retail and office space.

Metro Vancouver board members (see that Electoral Area A item above...?) voted unanimously to send a letter endorsing the position that UBC Farms retain its current 24-hectare footprint. (Georgia Straight)

Local poetico Ben Hart's review of Lee Henderson's The Man Game. (Tyee)

More back-and-forth blah blah about the "bikes on Burrard" issue. (Georgia Straight)

And in honour of honour, please get yourself one of those nice new sticker-poppies. (CBC)

And you may know that Vancouver sold some of our old trolly-buses to Argentina. Here's a video from the Buzzer blog showing one of the trolleys being lifted onto a shipping freighter. The original post has a great write-up, and additional photos and videos. (Buzzer)

re:place Mag examines Vancouver's North-South streets

This examination of Vancouver's north-south running streets is accompanied by an amazing Erick Villagomez map to illustrate just what he's talking about. (re:place)

An interesting tidbit from this article: the stoplights at Oak and 70th are the last set one hits along the west coast until Tijuana, Mexico, since the street turns into Hwy 99 in Richmond and Interstate Hwy 5 after crossing the border.

Vancouver Round-up!

If you haven't done this already, go to the City Reflections website and order a copy of the DVD produced by the Vancouver Historical Society! If you don't know what this is, a great description of the DVD contents is on the re:Place Magazine site, who also did a great article describing the project in depth.

In case you missed the Georgia Straight's annual Best of Vancouver awards, take a wander over to the kitsilano.ca blog for a great post about Kitsilano being voted the Best Neighbourhood... again. Plus lots of great links to businesses in Kits.

And in case you hadn't noticed (and we know you did!), the political mastermind John Turner
failed to jump the electoral hoops to run again as Vancouver Quadra's neorhino candidate. So NOW who do I vote for...? And I have to add, it's really too bad, because I think it was his year... after all, apparently more Canadians believe in the existence of Bigfoot than in promises made by politicians. If that doesn't spell "N-E-O-R-H-I-N-O-V-I-C-T-O-R-Y" then I don't know what will.

Ran across this and thought it might be a great time outdoors, if I ever went outdoors: the UBC Botanical Garden's Greenheart Canopy Walkway. A nice photo and write-up on the Tourism BC flickr stream.

A taste of Politics

If you do one thing today, read and do this. Chuck Ansbacher of Only Magazine delivers an eloquent argument in favour of checking your voter status and registering to vote, with links to both Civic and Federal electoral agencies.

The Tyee gives advice for how to exercise free speech during elections and avoid being fined. (That's right: you can be fined for offering your opinion in public.)

Beyond Robson's Sean Orr has thrown his support behind Carr in Vancouver-Centre.

Michael Byers has been nominated by the NDP to take on Hedy Fry in the upcoming federal election. Andrew Dewberry, the "treehouse dad" in Kerrisdale, is running for city hall. The NPA has a range of candidates, and the final slate was just announced.

A round-up of election blogs from The Tyee.
A round-up of election blogs from The Sun.

The UBC Election Stock Market is open for business. And just as the Kitsilano condo market is down through August.

Take a ride on a (replica) Viking ship!

Today I was reading one of my favourite Vancouver blogs, my local kitsilano.ca blog.

The post was about Erik V. seeing a viking ship plying the waters of English Bay, and looking into it a bit. (For a great synopsis of the ship, sailing times, and how to book, check out his post.)

"The Munin" is located at Vanier Park near the Maritime Museum, and can be booked...

I say we raid White Rock.