Comments on: As the year draws to a close, opinions and debates flourish

By: Pie-in-the-sky

Pie-in-the-sky — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:02:04 +0000

The lower mainland would rather have pine beetles than a shovelful of snow.

By: LP

LP — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:12:53 +0000

Great comment George!

“And whatever we do, let’s not shovel the snow ourselves.”

Other than the elderly and disabled, who are understandably excused, it has amazed me that so many cars remain covered in snow, unmoved now since the 23rd at least.

Yet people complain. Perhaps more should get off their ass, pick up a shovel and do something other than complain, eh!

By: Jane Bouey

Jane Bouey — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:48:41 +0000

I just got back from Calgary where their sidestreets are not plowed either. The big difference between there and here, is that the vast majority of their citizens have snow tires and know how to drive in the snow.

By: George T Baker

George T Baker — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:42:32 +0000

We used to have similar problems in Ottawa. Everyone would freak out and start blaming the city/capitalism/god for our predicament. In Vancouver we’ll throw global warming in for good measure. Society would crumble to the ground until someone got on the CBC and stated “It’s just snow folks.” Luckily for us the CBC has no credibility now.

Either way, whatever we do, let’s get on the Internet and blame something. And whatever we do, let’s not shovel the snow ourselves.

By: RossK

RossK — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:42:42 +0000

Mr Phillips–

I, for one, sure hope you let us know what the Ceeb has to say if and when they ‘respond’ .

Thanks.

By: Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:49:24 +0000

Thanks Frances for drawing attention to my post. Happy new year to you and to all who are reading this!

By: Raul

Raul — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:38:37 +0000

I’m late to the discussion, but to those who DON’T understand the rationale for actually having better tools to adapt to climatic changes, I’d recommend (without tooting much my own horn) to read some stuff on adaptation to climate change (I just published a post on the topic). We focus too much on mitigation, too little on adaptation (this response is in response to the text you included in the post, Frances).

And yes, having an emergency preparedness response toolkit to deal with snow IS part of the job of the municipal government.

By: A. G. Tsakumis

A. G. Tsakumis — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:25:47 +0000

Ouch:

If you ever worked with Klassen, like I have, you’d understand why his blog is affectionately referred to in knowing circles as “Dumb and Dumber”.

You want embarrassment? You should have heard him speak in such partisan terms at the NPA AGM that I couldn’t laugh hard enough after I went for a smoke break (I had a half of a Partagas Series D left from earlier, that I was afraid would dry out and I already knew that both Leung and Ransford would speak well)

How this charlatan and his cohort expect anyone to take them seriously is beyond me. The writing isn’t even that good. And next to zero comments.

He was on with Bill???

I guess they were short on real guests.

By: Snowbound with 20 cans

Snowbound with 20 cans — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:09:42 +0000

And Toronto debates their sidewalks
Linkname: TheStar.com | GTA | Icy sidewalks: Some pay, others don’t
URL: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/559991

I’m surprised that those so ready to declaim the closure of two lanes
on the six-lane Burrard bridge are silent on their privilege
to make far west 41st a 2-lane street as they park their SUVs
on on the street rather than put their delicate tires upon
ice next to the pile pushing cars from the sidewalk.
What was a 6-lane street quickly becomes 2 lanes as third cars
are left embedded in the parking lane freezer.

And Larch north of 41st is now truly one lane and no turn
taking with the lane of parked cars now a metre from the snow
encrusted curb.

Peasants take buses, and only animals walk according to
Kerrisdale attitudes.

By: Ouch

Ouch — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:37:46 +0000

For a good laugh, I highly recommend listening to the archive of citycaucus maestro Mike Klassen on the Bill Good show today getting slapped around. Possibly the most pathetic attempt to score political points in a long time. My favorite part was when he said that the city could get a lot of value out of high-priced, state of the art snow plows being used once or twice a year for many years.

And that the city should go around dumping massive piles of salt on roads for citizens to go scavenge and scatter themselves.

At first it didn’t make any sense, and then I repeated the citycaucus mantra: “these guys thought Sam Sullivan did a good job.”