Today's Run Route and Time

Today's run route
In Pacific Spirit Park, start at Sasamat Reservoir, down Sasamat, right at Imperial, right at Salish, left at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Long, left at Salish, right at Council, left at Sasamat, end at Sasamat Reservoir. A dangling figure-eight.
Today's run time
36 minutes 23 seconds

Save jPod

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Bikes on Burrard Bridge

Right now, on both sides of the Burrard Bridge, cyclists and pedestrians share a narrow sidewalk that has no barrier to the adjacent high-speed motor traffic. This has been the situation for many many years. For a long time, the city has wondered how to improve the situation. In the March 6-13 2008 issue of The Georgia Straight an article by Matthew Burrows, Urban cyclists still face unfriendly terrain in Vancouver, discussed this topic..

On July 19, 2005, [Fred] Bass, then the chair of the city’s transportation and traffic committee, sought closure on the 15-year-old Burrard Bridge issue. He proposed that staff look into the lane widening, but that a six-month trial be started in April 2006, in which two lanes of car traffic would be given over to cyclists and in-line skaters, creating a much-needed segregation that would guarantee the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, who still have to share the narrow sidewalks. Bass convinced all COPE councillors to vote in favour, along with then–NPA councillor Peter Ladner. Mayor Sam Sullivan is the sole dissenting vote, though Ladner—now seeking the NPA mayoral nomination—announced later on that he had changed his position. He was derided at the WERA [West End Residents Association] event for doing this.

“I can’t win that one,” Ladner said by phone. “Will I repent? No. If you are a cycling advocate, nothing I did should make you concerned. We are widening the sidewalks. There will be better issues for cyclists. So what’s the issue? It is the anticar advocates who are pissed off at me.”

The Straight asked Ladner how he would react to being called a cycling flip-flopper at election time. “I have always been consistent that cyclists need more space,” he said. “It is just a question of where to put it.”

What's the issue? The issue is that widening the sidewalks will be very costly, both financially and in terms of heritage. I don't think two lanes are needed for cyclists and pedestrians; giving just one lane would suffice. Lane allocation instead of sidewalk widening would be much cheaper and wouldn't damage the bridge's heritage. The people against lane allocation argue that whenever they drive across the bridge they rarely see enough people using the sidewalks to warrant such a move. That's because it's dangerous! I believe there is a large number of people who may be considering cycling as transportation, and who would cross Burrard Bridge, but they don't do it because they either know how dangerous it is, or they keep hearing how dangerous it is.

As mentioned, there was going to be a trial of two lanes given to cyclists. As soon as Sam Sullivan and the NPA gained power, it got scrapped before it even began.

Lane allocation: if you do it, they will come.

Carts of Darkness

Carts of Darkness is about a couple guys from Vancouver who turn bottle-picking, their primary source of income, into the extreme sport of shopping cart racing. The film takes a look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face, and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk. Source.

Today's Run Route and Time

Today's run route
In Pacific Spirit Park, start at Sasamat Reservoir, down Sasamat, right at Council, left at Salish, left at Imperial, left at Sasamat, left at Council, left at Salish, left at Imperial, left at Sasamat, end at Sasamat Reservoir.
Today's run time
36 minutes 50 seconds

Wave Swinger short-listed

Wave Swinger
Originally uploaded by jblueafterglow

I received an email last week via flickr. According to Emma Williams, Managing Editor of Schmap Guides, this picture of mine "has been short-listed for inclusion in the second edition of [the] Schmap Canada Guide, to be published at the end of this month". They say they will send me a message when the guide is released to let me know whether or not it has been included. When I know, I'll let you know.

Best Actress on 9/11

Actress Marion Cotillard won the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Oscars last month; she portrays Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. In the days following the ceremony, some things she said in an interview in France one year ago started to spread like wildfire.

"I think we’re lied to about a number of things," she said, singling out September 11. Referring to the two passenger jets flown into the World Trade Centre, Miss Cotillard said: "We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned? There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed." Miss Cotillard suggested that the towers, planned in the early 1960s, were an outdated "money sucker" which would have cost so much to modernise that it was easier to destroy them.
-- Source: Marion Cotillard's 9/11 conspiracy theory

Today's run route
In Pacific Spirit Park, start at Sasamat Reservoir, down Sasamat, right at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Long, left at Salish, left at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Long, left at Sasamat, left at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Long, left at Salish, left at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Long, left at Sasamat, end at Sasamat Reservoir.
Today's run time
1 hour 15 minutes 58 seconds

Today's Run Route and Time

Today's run route
In Pacific Spirit Park, start at Sasamat Reservoir, down Sasamat, right at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Long, left at Salish, left at Council, left at Sword Fern, left at Long, left at Sasamat, end at Sasamat Reservoir.
Today's run time
44 minutes 10 seconds

New Contest

Go ahead, spark the glow with your entries to try to win this contest. What are you waiting for? Spark! Spark! Spark away Sparky McSparkerpants!

B.C.'s Minimum Wage

In the most recent Georgia Straight, there is an article titled, Gov't ignores wage protests. Next to the article, four individuals who work in relevant fields answer the question,
What is an appropriate minimum wage for B.C.?

Emily Ottewell, Cochair, B.C. Federation of Labour young workers' committee
“I know a few people living on $15 or $16 an hour. They can’t afford a mortgage, but they can pay their bills. That’s double-income. I don’t know how anyone on their own can live on that wage. So the minimum should be at least $15 or $16 an hour; $10 is not a living wage, but the problem [with organizing] is, you gotta start somewhere.”

John Barker, Union activist, NoMoreTiers.org
“It should be at least $23. If one is working for a living, one should be able to afford a decent life. Everybody who works should afford a place to live. Everybody should have the ability to raise a family. I make just over $30 [at the Molson plant on Burrard], and sometimes between the cost of housing and transportation, I still struggle with that.”

Laurie Sing, Immigrant Services Society of B.C.
“Ten dollars for now, with increases for cost of living—although that still isn’t much, given the cost of rent and food. One client worked at three part-time jobs at minimum wage to support his wife and two kids.…When I met him on the bus coming off a night shift, he was so exhausted he could hardly stay awake.”

Olga Ilich, B.C. minister of labour
“What it is right now [$8 an hour, with a $6 ‘training wage’]. I don’t have the luxury of deciding that on my own. I have to abide by government policy. I do believe strongly in our government policies of job creation.…400,000 more people are working in B.C. today than they were six years ago, and there’s less people on welfare.”

I like the minister's answer on its own (ask me about minimum wage and I'll tell you about how many jobs there are), but also in relation to the previous answers which all - gasp - stick to the topic of minimum wage. As well, compare her answer to the following, supplied by the Straight in conjunction with the above article..

What if the minimum wage weren’t arbitrary?

> If the standard were that a person who works full-time should be able to rent a one-bedroom at the average rate—$846—at a third of his or her income, the minimum wage would be $14.42 per hour.
> To afford a four-year applied-sciences degree’s tuition at UBC, plus $100 a week for living costs (living-at-home rent-free model, not including books or other education costs), while working four years at 20 hours per week, the minimum wage should be $9.91 per hour.
> For a full-time working couple to afford to buy Vancouver’s cheapest two-bedroom condo (25-year mortgage), the minimum wage should be $11.58 per hour.
> For a single parent to rent the average two-bedroom apartment in Metro Vancouver—$1,084—at one-third of gross income, the minimum wage should be $18.48 per hour.
Sources: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation; mls.ca/ ; UBC; and Vancity’s mortgage calculator

Government: out of touch much?