REALLY BAD POLICY IGNORED
On Wednesday, I wrote about the truly mistaken and greedy plan for "revitalizing" the Little Mountain Housing properties at 33d and Main.
In yesterday's Courier, Tom Sandborn delivered a terrific piece spelling out even further the text and texture of this bad planning.
I had no idea until I read Tom's editorial that over 700 Little Mountain residents were forced out of their homes by this deeply uncaring government.
Where have they gone?
How much have their rents in their new digs gone up?
Who is paying for this disruption?
One sits by in horror and watches a democratically elected government in 2009 in Canada heave poor people from their homes and then say that the new development, which of course will involve corporate profits in the "new mix," will take years and years to appear.
As Sandborn so aptly closes his article, "A solution that put affordable housing ahead of a developer's convenience and politicians' expediency would be the real win/win."
Why is this public atrocity getting so little attention?
Can the mainstream media get any more complacent?
3 comments:
The mainstream media is too busy giving us "reports" about people's dogs and other inane bullshit. The six o clock news is a joke in fact cbc has a better newscast than ctv and globlow. Bill boring was wondering a few weeks ago why mainstream media has such a bad rap, perhaps Mr. Boring should look in the mirror!
The late MLA for Vancouver-Langara, Val Anderson told me proudly several years ago now that the Little Mountain Housing Project was the first public housing project in Vancouver. I think he would be turning in his grave if he knew what was going on now. I suspect that someone has realized that this housing project located just in the first block of eastside of Vancouver, in the shadow of Queen Elizabeth Park, is now very desirable real estate and has $$ in his/her/their eyes about "better uses" for the property.
Strikes me that before the federal government bailed out of providing public housing we didn't have scores of homeless people living and dying on our streets. Even the most conservative folks must appreciate that there is value in preventing misery, poverty, addiction, etc.
One and a half years ago I decided that I could no longer afford to live in Vancouver. I compared the cost of living in Toronto to the cost in Vancouver. Food was about the same, BUT that was it. There's no monthly charge for medical in T.O. (it was $56 per month for me in Vanc), gas is cheaper by as much as 10 cents per litre in T.O, rent is slightly cheaper in T.O., transit is way cheaper in T.O., so far, the Gov'ts here don't seem to be cutting programs every month the the lower and middle classes, the minimum wage in T.O. $9.50 and going up to $10.25 in March. It's $8.00 in B.C. where the cost of living is through the roof.
Sure I miss the natural beauty of Vancouver / B.C. BUT I don't miss my standard of living going into the toilet year after year.
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