Almost four years auto-free and a new relationship as a plus

Some months ago I wrote about trying to get a relationship started in a car free environment - well the relationship did not work, not due to the lack of a car though.

For the last month I have once again tried the relationship thing, this time things seem to be working out much, much better. Yes, she does have a car and yes she does commute to work in it every day - but that is ok ! One of the things I did learn from the relationship that failed is that I was too preoccupied with how other people lived their lives. I have come to the conclusion I can only be responsible for myself; as a result I do what I can do, I advise others but I don't get too fanatic about it or freak out too much.

My new relationship is full of positive energy, full of vim and vigor and did I mention the energy ?

No longer am I trying to change people, my life is that much better for it. In January I made the decision not to run for the Green Party in the May election. It is somewhat ironic that I was asked to not run for the party at about the same time. So I have left the political arena behind, supposedly to concentrate on my band, well also to get my social life back in order.

I am involved with a beautiful, energetic woman who lives about five blocks away. We have known of each other for many years yet never formally met. It was during our second date we know what had something going on, the second date was at the Old Admiral Pub in Burnaby. In the last few weeks we have seen some great bands there, highly recommended for those 40 plus or anyone in to good old soul tunes.

The band is coming back together, looks like this time we will have some pedigree in our new singer, who's name I cannot announce as yet, but he comes from a well known family of Vancouver soul singers - things are looking good band wise as a result.

My only major beef with anyone at the moment is with the Vancouver Auto Co-Op. Little did I know when my x-wife split a year ago she would leave me hanging with her bill with the auto co-op. Because I am the major share holder I got lumbered with her portion of the bill. something I did not read in the small print when I signed up in 2006. I have not used a co-op car in over a month, yet I ended up with a $500 plus bill this month thanks to this little clause in the agreement - so watch out for this people.

So with the summer on us and nothing but blue skies and flat smooth roads ahead I enter my fourth year living the car free lifestyle. So much water has passed under the bridge in the last four years I could probably qualify as a private hydro development with the provincial government - enough to power Adanac Village at least ! I have a feeling a smoother path approaches - I have never so proud of myself as I continue my life without an automobile.

$10 billion to save GM - the Titanic has set sail yet again

As many of you know the government of Canada has decided to bail out GM Canada to the tune of approx. $10 billion.

Whilst I recognise the largest corporate bankruptcy for what it is, there is no way on this Earth, the gov't of Canada should be parting with our tax dollars to the amount of $10 billion !

And today Prime Minister Harpers announces

"Clearly taxpayers will get some money back when the day comes that we begin to sell our equity share, but to be frank we are not counting on that,"

Harper said. Google News

If there was ever a time an international corporate megasoar was to bring down a government, surely that time is now. The numbers are mind-bogglingly large, the concept of so many dollars being thrown at essentially is a dead duck company is so bizarre and freak-ish, it does all but confirm the end of the world is just around the corner.

Why not just give the employees a simple pay out ? Why not create a new company that creates a decent product, not vehicles that are gutless and prone to break down ?

The Calgary Herald's Mark Milke concludes the cost of the bailout, if added to the average cost of a GM vehicle would be $14,705; Calgary Herald Now I'm not a great business leader by any stretch, but even to me this makes no economic sense. Even if sales remain constant, there is no way Canadian taxpayers will ever recover from this.

If anything this gives Canadians an excellent opportunity to look in to the corporate world and see how it directly influences government policy. I wonder how many phone calls and back room meetings it took for Stephen Harper to bend to the wishes of his buddies at GM Canada ? I wish I could have that kind of influence on the prime ministers office !

The loss of 10,000 jobs in Canada would eventually be dealt with, especially if that $10 billion was invested in retraining and some entreprenurial programs. You can bet some of the 10,000 have some excellent ideas on how build a better wheel or how to build a better vehicle.

For the record my last vehicle I ever owned was a GM vehicle. It was a leased vehicle and it had a really bad habit of not running at all on hot days, I finally gave it back to GM with a curse attached.



The taxpayers of Canada should not be shouldering the largest ever corporate bankruptcy. If Harper believes it necessary, his reasons must be related to avoiding a complete and utter economic meltdown. If this is the case, then bailing out GM is not going to stop such a meltdown, in fact it is going to perpetrate such a disaster even more. Harper is so entrenched in the corporate world he simply cannot see this reality. This bailout could have been stopped by the NDP, Liberals, Bloc and Greens, had they all joined together to stop Harper at some point in the last six months. Instead, we the tax paying citizens of Canada have been pushed to the brink that much more by an ineffective gov't and mutually beneficial sad and pathetic opposition.

If there is any true opposition left in Canada, surely they must call for a vote of non-confidence in Harper's gov't and take us to yet another election - do it quick before the ink dries please !

As a society we have to recognise this a positive sign the days of car ownership are starting to run short. The symbolic place the automobile has in our society is changing; the personal freedoms we associate with car ownership are changing. Stephen Harper recognises this and by investing such a grand amount of tax payers dollars in to the sinking ship of the automobile industry, he too has announced the day in the life of the automobile has reached its sunset.

VANOC has Parking issues....

You know some days having a bike is 100% pure benefit - like yesterday.

Yesterday I had to visit Active electronics on the corner of East 1st and Boundary Rd, turns out I had to go back to the store three times to get the right parts.

On trip #1 I notice some of my neighbours had put out these signs on their front lawns


VANOC is located on Gravely Street in the old Glenayre building, they have a lot of cars at their immediate disposal, apparently with inadequate parking, so the VANOC staff have been parking in front of residences and then walking through Charles Park to the office.

On trip # 2 I took my camera and snapped some pics of the signs and the cars parked there. Some obviously from out of province with Quebec licence plates. I talked to a couple of my neighbours having the parking issue with VANOC. No change in the situation even after a few complaints had been made to VANOC. Being the helpful sorta guy I am, I would see what I could do to help.



On trip # 3 who do I run in to ? None other than John Furlong CEO of the 2010 Olympic Games, strolling through Charles Park. Well opportunity strikes more than once - I go do my thing at the store. On my way back I run in to Mr Furlong again - this time I stop and have a conversation, which went something like this:

Ian: Excuse me Mr Furlong, I live in the neighbourhood and some of my neighbours are having problems with your employees parking in front of their homes. Can you do something about it ?
John Furlong: confers with person he is walking with - er yes we shall look in to it and have it sorted [or words to that affect]
Ian: Thank you Mr Furlong, your neighbours would appreciate it.

Obviously many of the VANOC employees have not heard of the bus service we have in Vancouver. Judging by the Audi's and BMW's and assorted larger SUV's floating around my neighbourhood, I think taking the bus for VANOC employees is a bit too green for their tastes. Their location is serviced by the 28 route that runs from Kootenay loop to Joyce Station and their location is only a 10 minute walk from Kootenay bus loop. If the 2010 Games are supposed to be the greenest ever Mr Furlong might want to remind his employees of it from time to time.


Now I don't know if Mr Furlong would even remember talking to me by the time he got back to his office; do you think we will see some positive results ?

I'll be back in a week to let you know....

Ah when Spring calls = the wheels are set in motion

Today has been the best biking day of the year so far, so much so I felt the real need to get out and make the most of it, the rest of the week does not look so promising :-)

Recognising it has been four months since my last entry - it has been a really crappy winter with endless rain, no job, no woman to speak of... winter blah's all around - NO MORE.

Winter's like this are not good for bike riding morale, but days like today make the long winter of discontent worth it. I am still car free and that is a good measure, although I almost caved and bought a small truck at one point. I ended up spending the money on a quick trip over to the UK - only to land in the heaviest UK snow fall in twenty years. I was contemplating some London bike riding, once the snow was down though pretty well ended that plan.



These last four months have seen me bow out of politics completely. I am no longer involved with the Green Party; around January I was asked not to run in the May election and whilst I am still puzzled as to why, I know where I am not wanted. I also bowed out of the STV campaign, also scheduled for May 19th. I reckon being around the Work Less Party showed me the GPBC had become too much part of the political process and less of the activist process - too much for my liking at least. I gave Green politics eight years of my time, attended 7 or 8 annual general meetings; saw a lot of changes, especially in the last 8-10 months that questioned my support.

Since losing my job at SFU in June 08 I have been ambling along courtesy of the federal gov't and I even qualified for the Stephen Harper five week extension. Inevitably, this has come to an end and with no real job prospects in sight things are looking somewhat lean. It is ironic I don't qualify for the job I did at Rogers 20 years ago [I applied at Shaw as tech support]. I get the feeling I am on some sort of journey, no idea where it will take me or the source of its energy - but certainly feel the push. I do have an interview at the Vancouver Auto Co-Op this week maybe that will be fruitful at least; I have been a member since 2006.

Today, I took a three hour break from all of the above and I never left East Vancouver. I took the partially completed Central Valley Bikeway from Boundary Rd to Clarke Dr where it kinda disappeared, headed up Commercial and Victoria over to Powell; then over to the Seaside route in to New Brighton then on the Trans-Canada trail to the Burnaby/Vancouver border and back along the Cassiar route back to my house. At one point at Cassiar and Hastings as I waited to cross the street, three single occupancy SUV's pulled up to the light and it occurred to me the battle for the streets is ongoing; competing with single-occupancy SUV's is an ongoing thing. Maybe it is time to make a switch in that respect.


What a beautiful day - the first of many I am sure. The bikeway along the Millenium route is a much needed route of access for cyclists. It is relatively flat since it follows the Still Creek/CN railway for the most part. I'm not exactly sure what happens to it at Clarke Drive, it seemed to fizzle out with no signage present to tell you otherwise. The trek out to Burnaby and beyond would be well worth it; I have seen the work going on around Burnaby Lake and that will be a really nice stretch of the route.
as you can see from my photos I made a circular route over to the Seaside/Trans Canada trail path and snapped a few pics under the Second Narrows bridge, followed by a nice little hike back up to the base of Boundary Rd North. Here is the map of the route and I thoroughly recommend it for all skill levels.

Civic Election Analysis - not unlike my big toe

With the Vancouver Civic election now put to bed, time for some analysis and afterthought.

My decision to run in the election was a good one, no regrets at all. In fact it opened me up to a whole other world of "true" activism; something that seems to be currently missing in the Green Party of BC as it becomes more and more like the other two political parties in BC.

Hanging around people like Conrad, Betty K and Chris Shaw [the three people who inspired me to run] has taught me a few things. No longer can we pretend everything is business as usual. We have evidence of the 2010 Olympics affecting the direction of governments at ALL levels. The $100,000,000 in-camera bail out that pretty well caused the downfall of the NPA and Peter Ladner [and somehow left VISION unscathed] tells us the obligated parties will even sacrifice their political careers in order to maintain olympic level secrecy. The IOC indirectly has power over government policy, there is no better example of this than what recently happened in the Vancouver elections. Do you think VISION will do business differently ? We shall see !



The city of Vancouver has some hard realities to deal with. The issues rising from the downtown eastside need to be addressed from the ground up and not from the top down. The solutions to the major problems there are within the community already, the city needs to support those solutions and help make them happen and NOT get in the way. We can put a halt to crime by providing the drugs for people to use. If we reduce crime we no longer need an increased police force and can replace those numbers with mental health workers that deal with addictions and its related issues. However, my guess is the majority of people are not ready to accept the connection between drug addiction and crime, Drug addicts break in to cars and property in order to provide an income in order to financially fulfill their addiction needs. We simply break the cycle by refocussing our attention on prevention rather than crime. Too long have we used prohibition in order to further legitimise the need for more police.

For the rest of us who do not live on the downtown eastside we have to come to terms with the issues of the area. We have to recognise the problems in the downtown eastside have to be addressed in a constructive manner, simply throwing people in jail and telling them they are bad people is not going to work.



At the recent Green Party of BC AGM in White Rock, one of our guest speakers was Dr Gabor Matte. Dr Matte spoke on the root causes of addiction, mainly childhood sexual abuse and how this manifests itself in to drug addiction in later life. Too long have we failed to connect the these two blights on our society. If we dedicate more resources to eradicating sexual abuse of children, we simply reduce the number of drug addicts later on in life. However, I'm not about to suggest any course of action, other than we have to be more aware of the connection between the two. No longer can we afford as a society to blissfully push childhood sexual abuse aside without recognising the consequences of it years later; too often we treat the symptom with little or no attention given to the root cause.

In many ways the results of the Vancouver civic election came as no surprise. A very low voter turnout supported a VISION sweep of the school and parks board and city council with the precentages being split thus. Why voters gave Raymond Louie so much support baffles me, he was one of the main perpetrators behind Olympic-Gate, for some reason the voters neglected to connect him in the same way they connected Peter Ladner.



On a final note, it was with much regret I missed the last three days of the campaign, including the election night party for the WLP. Sadly the Thursday before I broke my big toe helping my friend Gretchen Elsner move from Gambier Island. I got my foot caught under the ramp roller that allows that ramp leading to the dock to move with the tides and waves whilst lifting something on to the ramp. It pretty well put me out of action for about 5 days. Not a pretty sight... but it does remind me of the civic election and many of the issues we now face in Vancouver.

So onward with the STV campaign, no bigger issue is facing the whole province of British Columbia right now. We have to change the way we vote in order to effect change in this province. We have to elect more opinions and more voices to Victoria, no longer can we rely on the voices of the NDP and Liberals to echo the diversity of opinions in British Columbia. Please support the STV vote on May 12th and get involved with the campaign.

Finding New Love in the Autofree World

There are many benefits of being car-free, a lot of them revolve around $$$ savings from not having a hunk of metal in my driveway, I have a clear conscience around pollution, I generally feel I'm making a difference. However, in the last few months it has come clear that there is one major downturn of not having a car and that is impulse.

Recently I met a new woman in my life, like me she is car free, rides a bike, takes transit and often walks to work - what a catch ! However, since she does lives some distance away the logistics of the car free relationship have become apparent. In the past I have always had a vehicle when starting a new relationship; it was easy just to jump in the car and be there in a matter of minutes. Without the car, like most other things without the car, our social lives need more planning; this has not been an issue until recently.

My new partner has not been without her car for very long, in fact she is contemplating buying a car in the spring. On closer inspection her reasons for being without the car are not the same as mine, less environmental impact, more financial. However, the impact on our relationship is more than apparent. Like many people from Vancouver's more westerly locations, we over here on the eastern border may as well be in Coquitlam or Mission. Needless to say the logistics are compounded during the week when it is back to work in the AM of the next day; the growth of our relationship seems to be hampered by our car free lifestyles.

I have had more time to adjust to the car free life, my partner, because it was a financial choice more than philosophical, seems to be fighting the change more aggressively. She misses the ability to simply jump in the car and go some place on impulse, I have pretty well dealt with that issue, up until now.

So how do we deal with this ? One of us has to relent, either I have to buy a car or she has to buy a car OR she has to become accustomed to riding the 135 bus or grabbing a $10 taxi ride to my house. Had I lived around Commercial Drive this might be only half the issue, since that area is about halfway between us. Out here on the Burnaby/Vancouver border maybe quieter than the downtown eastside. Right now it looks like I am the one trekking regularly in to Vancouver, which I don't mind at all, after all that is why we have Ipod's and cell phones [both recently purchased].

Early stages of relationships are often dubious and it is where insecurity comes to light, add a dose of logistical car free lifestyle and could be just one more thing to dampen ones enthusiasm. Yet we are highly resilient individuals, we are full of ideas to circumvent inconvenience and general bad weather, surely two mature, intelligent, hot for each other individuals can overcome this.

Running for the Work Less Party

At the end of August I was cornered at a social event by some of my heroes, Betty Krawczyk, Chris Shaw and Conrad Schmidt. Since it was Betty's 80th birthday party how could I refuse their invite to run for the Work Less Party in the upcoming Vancouver civic elections ? It was at this same party I saw Rafe Mair [radio host former Socred] informally bantering with Charles Boylan [radio host and Marxist-Leninist]. Well I thought if those two political worlds can meet in appreciation of Betty K, I certainly would be amenable to running civically.

I have run in elections before, notably the 2001 and 2005 BC provincial elections. I did reasonably well, the first time I ran I got scores of media attention, the second time I ran I hardly got any. This time around I am unlikely to get much in the way of media, although Betty [who is running for Mayor] and Chris [who is running for council will probably garner the most media scores.

The WLP are an interesting bunch of people. Started by Conrad Schmidt, the party has run civically and provincially, 2008 marks their first run federally. Conrad is a great philosopher and his book "Workers of the World Relax" is a great read and highly recommended. This civic election see's the party with a stunningly "green" platform. Written by Chris Shaw [who wrote the Green Party platform in 2005] and Geri Tramutola; the platform runs the gamut of practical advice for downward spiraling economies, natural disasters whilst at the same time how to put the "fun" back in to Vancouver.

There are numerous issues within the WLP platform that other parties simply will not touch; such as moving towards a self sustaining city that relies heavily on community gardens that pushes out big box stores. The platform identifies five areas of importance: waste management, arts and culture, transit, crime and housing. Each area receives detailed analysis with specific suggestions on how to deal with the various issues that have arisen in regard to them.

One of my favourite sections is the "community gardens" section. The WLP emphasis on community oriented gardening and the removal of red tape opens the doors for increased food safety via locally grown, organic food production across the city. The more community gardens we have the safer we will be.

So it is my pleasure to run for the WLP. I would be great if some of the recently rejected candidates from VISION and COPE would take a look at the WLP, the WLP is far more green than any other political entity on the Vancouver civic scene and for this BC Green Party candidate that is a whole lot more green for all of us.