ALARMIST? PROPHETIC? IN THE "CLOUDS?"

CHANGES ARE COMING ---- Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part, on how we adapt to them. But, ready or not, here they come 1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills. 2. The Check. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business. 3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply does not read the newspaper. They certainly do not subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services. 4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, cannot wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you are holding a gadget instead of a book. 5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you do not need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they have always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes 6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It is the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies." 7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they are playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It is time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix. 8. The "Things" That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system. Therefore, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider. In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That is the good news. But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert. 9. Privacy. If there ever were a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That is gone. It has been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again. All we will have that cannot be changed are Memories. 19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe. All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is amazing. Americawas at the forefront of the industrial revolution. America showed the world how to mass-produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes. The great American manufacturing base crushed Germany and Japan in World War II. Now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America. Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone. Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period. The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little. Do you know what our biggest export is today? Waste paper. Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us. TheUnited States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was. Once upon a time America could literally out produce the rest of the world combined. Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else does in the world. If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children? Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things... So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself a great nation? We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable. Every single month America goes into more debt and every single month America gets poorer. So what happens when the debt bubble pops? The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country. But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them. For people like that, take this article, print it out, and hand it to them. Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber. The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind... #1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation. #2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade. #3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in November. Approximately 900 jobs will be lost. #4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States. Zero. #5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone. #6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time a year ago. #7 The United States has lost about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000. #8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million. During that exact same time, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million. #9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output. In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent. #10 Ford Motor Companies recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul, Minnesota. Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy. #11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing. The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941. #12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services. #13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000. #14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use. Today it ranks 15th. #15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975. #16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products. Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide. #17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States. #18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040. #19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept. So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it? How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands? How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy? How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide? The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis. It needs to be treated like one.

Delta pilot on approach to Tokyo during earthquake

I'm currently still in one piece, writing from my room in the Narita crew hotel.
It's 8am. This is my inaugural trans-pacific trip as a brand new, recently
checked out, international 767 Captain and it has been interesting, to say the
least, so far. I've crossed the Atlantic three times so far so the ocean
crossing procedures were familiar.

By the way, stunning scenery flying over the Aleutian Islands. Everything was
going fine until 100 miles out from Tokyo and in the descent for arrival. The
first indication of any trouble was that Japan air traffic control started
putting everyone into holding patterns. At first we thought it was usual
congestion on arrival. Then we got a company data link message advising about
the earthquake, followed by another stating Narita airport was temporarily
closed for inspection and expected to open shortly (the company is always so
positive).

From our perspective things were obviously looking a little different. The
Japanese controller's anxiety level seemed quite high and he said expect
"indefinite" holding time. No one would commit to a time frame on that so I got
my copilot and relief pilot busy looking at divert stations and our fuel
situation, which, after an ocean crossing is typically low.

It wasn't long, maybe ten minutes, before the first pilots started requesting
diversions to other airports. Air Canada, American, United, etc. all reporting
minimal fuel situations. I still had enough fuel for 1.5 to 2.0 hours of
holding. Needless to say, the diverts started complicating the situation.

Japan air traffic control then announced Narita was closed indefinitely due to
damage. Planes immediately started requesting arrivals into Haneada, near Tokyo,
a half dozen JAL and western planes got clearance in that direction but then ATC
announced Haenada had just closed. Uh oh! Now instead of just holding, we all
had to start looking at more distant alternatives like Osaka, or Nagoya.

One bad thing about a large airliner is that you can't just be-pop into any
little airport. We generally need lots of runway. With more planes piling in
from both east and west, all needing a place to land and several now fuel
critical ATC was getting over-whelmed. In the scramble, and without waiting for
my fuel to get critical, I got my flight a clearance to head for Nagoya, fuel
situation still okay. So far so good. A few minutes into heading that way, I was
"ordered" by ATC to reverse course. Nagoya was saturated with traffic and unable
to handle more planes (read- airport full). Ditto for Osaka.

With that statement, my situation went instantly from fuel okay, to fuel minimal
considering we might have to divert a much farther distance. Multiply my
situation by a dozen other aircraft all in the same boat, all making demands
requests and threats to ATC for clearances somewhere. Air Canada and then
someone else went to "emergency" fuel situation. Planes started to heading for
air force bases. The nearest to Tokyo was Yokoda AFB. I threw my hat in the ring
for that initially. The answer - Yokoda closed! no more space.

By now it was a three ring circus in the cockpit, my copilot on the radios, me
flying and making decisions and the relief copilot buried in the air charts
trying to figure out where to go that was within range while data link messages
were flying back and forth between us and company dispatch in Atlanta. I picked
Misawa AFB at the north end of Honshu island. We could get there with minimal
fuel remaining. ATC was happy to get rid of us so we cleared out of the
maelstrom of the Tokyo region. We heard ATC try to send planes toward Sendai, a
small regional airport on the coast which was later the one I think that got
flooded by a tsunami.

Atlanta dispatch then sent us a message asking if we could continue to Chitose
airport on the Island of Hokkaido, north of Honshu. Other Delta planes were
heading that way. More scrambling in the cockpit - check weather, check charts,
check fuel, okay. We could still make it and not be going into a fuel critical
situation ... if we had no other fuel delays. As we approached Misawa we got
clearance to continue to Chitose. Critical decision thought process. Let's see -
trying to help company - plane overflies perfectly good divert airport for one
farther away...wonder how that will look in the safety report, if anything goes
wrong.

Suddenly ATC comes up and gives us a vector to a fix well short of Chitose and
tells us to standby for holding instructions. Nightmare realized. Situation
rapidly deteriorating. After initially holding near Tokyo, starting a divert to
Nagoya, reversing course back to Tokyo then to re-diverting north toward Misawa,
all that happy fuel reserve that I had was vaporizing fast. My subsequent
conversation, paraphrased of course...., went something like this:

"Sapparo Control - Delta XX requesting immediate clearance direct to Chitose,
minimum fuel, unable hold."

"Negative Ghost-Rider, the Pattern is full" <<<>

"Sapparo Control - make that - Delta XX declaring emergency, low fuel,
proceeding direct Chitose"

"Roger Delta XX, understood, you are cleared direct to Chitose, contact Chitose
approach....etc...."

Enough was enough, I had decided to preempt actually running critically low on
fuel while in another indefinite holding pattern, especially after bypassing
Misawa, and played my last ace...declaring an emergency. The problem with that
is now I have a bit of company paperwork to do but what the heck.

As it was - landed Chitose, safe, with at least 30 minutes of fuel remaining
before reaching a "true" fuel emergency situation. That's always a good feeling,
being safe. They taxied us off to some remote parking area where we shut down
and watched a half dozen or more other airplanes come streaming in. In the end,
Delta had two 747s, my 767 and another 767 and a 777 all on the ramp at Chitose.
We saw to American airlines planes, a United and two Air Canada as well. Not to
mention several extra Al Nippon and Japan Air Lines planes.

Post-script - 9 hours later, Japan air lines finally got around to getting a
boarding ladder to the plane where we were able to get off and clear customs. -
that however, is another interesting story.

By the way - while writing this - I have felt four additional tremors that shook
the hotel slightly - all in 45 minutes.

Cheers,

J.D.

A DEATH AMONG THE SHOW BIZ GREATS

March 14, 2011

Hugh Martin, 96, Songwriter of Judy Garland Standards

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Hugh Martin, the composer, lyricist, arranger and pianist best known for creating the Judy Garland standards “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “The Boy Next Door” and “The Trolley Song,” died on Friday at his home in Encinitas, Calif. He was 96.

His death was confirmed by his niece Suzanne Hanners.

The three songs with which he is most identified all belonged to the score of the 1944 MGM musical “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Although Mr. Martin shared songwriting credit with his longtime collaborator, Ralph Blane, who died in 1995, Mr. Martin insisted in his autobiography, “Hugh Martin: The Boy Next Door” (2010), that he had written all three songs by himself. Mr. Martin and Mr. Blane, who met as cast members in the 1937 Broadway revue ”Hooray for What?,” both wrote words and music, usually independently of each other, before combining their efforts, having agreed to share credit on everything.

Garland initially refused to sing the holiday ballad, which began, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas/It may be your last,” until that second line was softened to “Let your heart be light.” “They’ll think I’m a monster to that little Margaret O’Brien,” he recalled her protesting.

“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is one of a triumvirate of achingly wistful seasonal ballads from World War II (the others are “White Christmas” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”) to have transcended their era. In his book “American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950” the composer Alec Wilder described it as “the most honest and genuine of all the attempts to wish one well musically in a season which otherwise has come to be symbolized by guilt and the dollar sign.”

Mr. Martin wrote the music and lyrics for five Broadway musicals: “Best Foot Forward” (1941, with Mr. Blane), “Look Ma, I’m Dancin’!” (1948), “Make a Wish” (1951). “High Spirits” (1964, on which he collaborated with Timothy Gray on book, music and lyrics) and the 1989 stage version of “Meet Me in St. Louis,” for which he wrote new songs.

Besides “Meet Me in St. Louis” his film credits include the movie version of “Best Foot Forward” (1943), “Abbott and Costello in Hollywood” (1945), “Athena” (1954), “The Girl Rush” (1955) and “The Girl Most Likely” (1958), all with Mr. Blane. On his own he wrote the songs for a 1958 television musical, “Hans Brinker.”

Born in Birmingham, Ala., on Aug. 11, 1914, Hugh Martin studied music at Birmingham Southern College. He intended to be a classical musician until he discovered George Gershwin.

“ ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ changed my life,” he recalled in a conversation with the singer and pianist Michael Feinstein in the liner notes for their 1995 album, “The Hugh Martin Songbook.”

“It was Gershwin and Kern and Arlen,” he said. Those three were my top-echelon people.”

A letter he wrote to Richard Rodgers about vocal arrangements on Broadway earned him an invitation to arrange “Sing for Your Supper” for the Rodgers and Hart show “The Boys From Syracuse” in the style of the Boswell Sisters, and he began a distinguished career as a Broadway and nightclub arranger.

While working with Garland on “A Star Is Born,” he left the picture after a dispute about how to sing “The Man That Got Away,” which he didn’t want her to belt. As the musical director of “Sugar Babies” years later, he faced a similar conflict about interpretation with Ann Miller.

His score for a movie short about the primitive artist Grandma Moses, orchestrated by Mr. Wilder, became the semiclassical “New England Suite.”

In his autobiography Mr. Martin wrote of his onetime amphetamine addiction, from which he recovered. In his later years he became a Seventh-Day Adventist and an accompanist for the gospel singer Del Delker, who recorded a religiously slanted version of his holiday standard: “Have Yourself a Blessed Little Christmas.”

Mr. Martin is survived by a brother, Gordon, of Birmingham.

A WORD OF EXPLANATION FOR THE VIDEO BELOW

Judy began work on 'Meet Me in St. Louis' when she was 21 years old. It was during the filming of this movie that she became romantically involved with Vincente Minnelli.
The movie was completed in April 1944, and released in St. Louis on November 22, 1944. It broke box-office records all over the country as not only Judy's greatest hit to date, but MGM's top money maker, second only to Gone with the Wind. Margaret O'Brien won an Oscar for her portrayal of Tootie, and 'The Trolley Song' was nominated for Best Song Academy Award. 'Meet Me in St. Louis' is one of the most beloved musicals ever made, and considered to be one of the best.
Judy initially wanted nothing to do with 'Meet Me in St. Louis' because she was finally being given some adult roles, and she was concerned about being cast as a seventeen-year-old. Mayer was insistent, and Minnelli eventually convinced her to play the part. After she began working on the project, she became enchanted with the story and came to love it.
Courtesy of: http://www.jgdb.com/stlouis.htm
The original lyrics for 'Have Yourself A Merry little Christmas' ,written by Hugh Martin, were considered by many, including Judy, to be too depressing. Although Martin resisted at first, he made the changes to the song ... & it is what we have today as a great American classic Christmas song.
Original lyrics:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last,
Next year we may all be living in the past
Have yourself a merry little Christmas, pop that champagne cork,
Next year we will all be living in New York.
No good times like the olden days, happy golden days of yore,
Faithful friends who were dear to us, will be near to us no more.
But at least we all will be together, if the Fates allow,
From now on we'll have to muddle through somehow.
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

I think we all understand why Judy wanted it changed:
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be
out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the yule-tide gay
Next year all our troubles will be
miles away
Once again as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more
Someday soon, we all will be together
If the Fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

CLASSIC

CHILD POVERTY - PART ONE

CHILD POVERTY - PART TWO

WORD OF EXPLANATION

My deepest apologies to my wonderful show sponsors KCM Wealth Management, The Goodman Report, DuMoulin Boskovich and the Vancouver Courier Newspaper.
Please all be assured that your commercials will be seen in their entirety on Television.

But...because I prattled on a bit too long in the first half of the program, YouTube could not upload that first half within its 15-minute window.

So, to get the piece on the net and on this blog and our Facebook account, we had to snip the first minute off the top.

Lesson learned and not to be repeated.

The conversation with Susan Heyes follows in two parts below.

SUSAN HEYES & THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM - PART ONE

SUSAN HEYES & THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM - PART TWO

SUGAR-COATED TRAUMA

Last week, BC Stealth Minister, Colin Hansen, was found at one of our major hospitals explaining away the old man who had spent days in the hall. It was either New Westminster's Royal Columbian or some similar bunker in the Interior.

Hansen, was as always, smooth and re-assuring. "These things happen and we are working very hard to make sure they don't happen again."

Or homilies to that effect.

A few days later, he was hurrying $1 Million over to St. Paul's Hospital to keep the lights on!

The second largest hospital in the province is crumbling. It is a huff and a puff away from becoming a pile of dust on Burrard Street.

Then, yesterday, the icing on the donut.

Royal Columbian, having run out of room to serve their clients - whom we quaintly like to call medical patients - were being warehoused at the nearby Tim Hortons.

All of which speaks to a major and as yet unaddressed issue.

Has anyone in government or the snivel service given any passing thought to health care planning?

Have they asked themselves a few cogent questions, like, for instance...

How many hospital beds do we have How many do we need? How many will we need next year and five years from now? And where are these beds and these needs? And how much might all of this cost us? And from which magic fountain will we get the gold?

I am sure that, if pressed, the good Minister and his adoring minions will insist that they are indeed all over these concerns. That they are planning up the yin yang.

But we know that is not the case.

Or how else to explain cardio and ostio care in the line that used to serve double doubles?

MOVING ART - PART ONE

MOVING ART - PART TWO

THE BLAME GAME

Hands down, the worst possible tragedy that can befall an adult human being is to lose a child.

Unbearable.

No one wants to outlive his or her own children.

Thus, I write this piece not wanting in any way to add to the pain and grief experienced by a father who is at the centre of this dreadful story.

Nor do I wish to deny that the police are having their credibility eroded by repeated examples of highly questionable behaviour.

When case after case appears before our eyes of people dying in custody or being brutalized by rogue officers, it is impossible to turn away and pretend that something isn't wrong.

So much so that I will devote an episode of our SHAW TV show to this generic problem in the coming weeks.

But this particular story of a young man drowning in the very cold waters right off the downtown SeaBus terminal is missing a key ingredient, both in the telling and in understanding.

The article in the Sun chronicles the murky details of what may have actually happened on the night of December 12th. Read it and draw whatever conclusions you may. I have no solid idea what actually transpired that night.

The police may or may not have fudged their reports.

The writer has, over the too many years he has been given a platform at the paper, shown a consistent dislike for and distrust of the police. His problem.

The elephant on the dock that is mentioned, barely skimmed over and not in any serious way considered is that the young man who drowned that night was a drug addict.

He had been using heroin for many years, and on the fateful night, he had walked away from a treatment house.

He was found to have crystal meth and cocaine in his system when he died.

I am not blaming this fellow for dying or for dying while being a drug addict.

But please understand something.

Bad things happen to good people.

And bad things happen to bad people.

Shit happens.

Life is an endless challenge.

Adding drug addiction to your coping mechanisms is not the swiftest move in life.

If you spend a lot of time shooting heroin and all the attendant fun and games that go with that, and add meth and coke to the mix and half-way houses and cops...well, oops, there's a much better chance that you'll end up in a bad place than if you drive to work every day and go home to the wife and kids.

So it's fine to blame the cops, and they may have much to answer for by the time the whole and real story emerges.

But what responsibility did this poor fellow have in his own life and death?

A lot.

Even though we are loathe to look at it.

Zukerman & VSO LAST NIGHT FANTASTIC...This Is the NY Philharmonic

Susan Heyes and the Appeals Court Ruling, Part One See SUSAN and GOLIATH, below

Mr. Robertson,

Obviously, you have heard about the BC Appeals Court ruling against Ms. Hayes. Curiously, I have not heard anything from you or your colleagues at city hall, yet. I certainly hope to hear from you all very soon.

I remember standing on the corner of Cambie and 18th Ave, outside what was then Tomato Cafe, and listening to you speak about how terrible it was that the merchants along that stretch of Cambie had been mislead and were having their businesses destroyed by the cut and cover method of construction. How you shook my hand and told me that you would be fighting the Liberals to get some kind of help for the business people of Cambie St. I signed the same petition you signed in an effort to have our voices heard.

I, too, remember how passionately you spoke about trying to find some way to give those merchants some kind of relieve. I, also, remember you writing in the Vancouver Sun about how you were fighting for the small businesses by attempting to bring in some kind of legislation that would provide them with some economic relief.

I'd like to know where you are, now? Where is you comment, criticism on the the ruling? Do you even care, now that your the mayor? Here is where you can find just a small amount of the press about it. http://thebernermonologues.blogspot.com/

I wonder, is this what people and businesses should be expecting when the next line goes through? Down Broadway or out to the Coquitlam? Will you continue to ruin people's lives and businesses?

I am bcc'ing a number of my friends on this because I believe we need to know what kinds of people we are voting for. What kind of morals and values our elected officials have.

This is a huge issue! Think about that when you think forward to election time. So far, you have been a huge disappointment to me as mayor. Too bad, I think many of us thought you would be a breath of fresh air. Instead, it seems like business as usual at Cambie St. and 12th Avenue.

A deeply concerned and disappointed, tax paying citizen,

D. Neil Mark

SUSAN and GOLIATH

The saga of shop owner Susan Heyes vs. Canada Line is sorry and shocking.

I have devoted the following very lengthy space to this story because I think it is important.

First, you will find Susan's Press Release of the other day, after the appeal favored Canada Line.

Then, an article by Gregor Robertson, before he was the mayor, supporting Susan's claims.

Followed by a similar piece by Christy Clark, also seeking redress on Susan's behalf.

Finally, a letter to the editor in the Globe contradicting the questionable science of the judges.

Please read this material thoroughly and do whatever you can to help and support a courageous local woman.

We have a Legal System here in BC – but do we have Justice?

On May 27^th, 2009, after four years of litigation, BC Supreme Court Justice, Ian Pitfield, awarded $600,000 in damages to my company Susan Heyes Inc. as compensation for business losses caused by the construction of the Canada Line. The appeal of this ruling in my favour was heard April 15^th, 2010.

Today, the decision was finally announced contradicting the findings of the lower court.

In upholding this appeal, the legal system has supported the confiscation of individual citizen’s livelihoods by government funded private, for profit ventures. This shocking ruling has failed to protect the rights of citizens, and has failed to uphold justice and fairness in a democratic society.

The Canada Line project was built on the backs of hundreds of blindsided small business people along the Cambie corridor.

The project chose the most disruptive of several methods of construction. This discretionary and confidential decision alone should have negated the defence of Statutory Authority which the Appeal Court Justices used today as the basis for their ruling.

Under the law, the defence of Statutory Authority can only be used when it is proven in court that no other less disruptive method of construction was available. Instead of the devastating cut-and-cover construction, a bored tunnel method was not only available, but it was the basis of all public consultations and years of engineering reports and studies.

This project was enabled by the strategic use of confidentiality agreements at every stage, leaving citizens and even municipal officials misinformed and out of meaningful consultation. The last minute secret switch from underground bored tunnel to cut-and-cover, was never approved by Vancouver City Council, as a decision making body. They had authorized the City’s Engineering Department to negotiate the agreement that provided access to Vancouver’s streets for the project in a vacuum. The engineers were forced to sign confidentiality agreements that prohibited them from informing their bosses – City Council – of this critical switch.

I question the validity of any contract or agreement that allowed this project to proceed, that was obtained in the absence of the whole truth about the project and its impacts on citizens and small businesses. Compensation should have been factored into the business plan.

I am appalled that our legal system has failed to support the rights of citizens, and has attempted to provide a legal justification for the excessive harm caused by this P3 project. I further wonder how many tens of millions of dollars have been spent to legally defend the project, instead of fairly compensating the victims.

The May 27^th 2009 ruling from Justice Pitfield must be upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada. The outcome of this litigation will set a precedent for all small businesses across Canada. The precedent that it sets should be just and fair, and reasonable. When governments use their powers to confiscate value for the common good – individuals must be compensated.

Susan Heyes

HAZEL&CO

4255 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

Ravaged businesses on Cambie need our support

Last Friday I visited ground zero on Cambie Street. Toyo Sushi sits at the south end of the Cambie bridge, with a gaping canyon at its doorstep.

By: Gregor Robertson - June 13, 2007

Last Friday I visited ground zero on Cambie Street. Toyo Sushi sits at the south end of the Cambie bridge, with a gaping canyon at its doorstep.

Across the canyon, cars crawl by. Access is almost impossible, unless you know how to navigate the alleys.

Owner Yang Lee poured me a cup of green tea and shared her gut-wrenching story. The 160-seat restaurant, until recently a fixture for tour buses and the downtown lunch crowd, was empty. This was typical for afternoons since the digging started in February.

Her business has dropped almost 70 per cent, and she and her brother work day and night to minimize expenses. She has no idea how long it will be before the canyon is filled back in and customers can get to her door again. So the restaurant's survival is uncertain, despite her tenacity and tasty sushi.

A stone's throw away is the tunnel-boring machine, drilling north under False Creek while the digging proceeds to the south. Merchants on Cambie expected that machine to drill right up Cambie, leaving the street intact. The switch to cut-and-cover construction has turned Cambie into a war zone.

The Campbell government forced the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver project forward as a privatized contract, and TransLink chose SNC-Lavalin's bid, which included cut-and-cover to save more than $200 million in construction cost.

But it's now clear that some of these savings are direct costs to the small businesses along the Canada Line. Estimates are that merchants have lost more than $100 million in sales to date, and there's at least a year to go with major disruption.

These losses have taken their toll. Dozens of businesses have closed since construction began. Ten of these merchants averaged more than 20 years in business, so even the most stable and successful are vulnerable.

The average revenue drop is now about 50 per cent. Icons like the Tomato Cafe and Afghan Horseman can't withstand the loss of sales; both are moving west. Many more will be forced to shut down unless something is done soon.

Last month I introduced a bill in the legislature calling for property tax relief direct to these business owners, and emergency interest-free loans. The bill has broad support, both locally and from the 10,000-strong B.C. membership of Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

The Liberals chose to ignore this bill, repeatedly denying in the house that there's a serious problem here. Meanwhile they had no problem fast-tracking their fat pay raise before adjournment.

Neither the Small Business Minister Rick Thorpe nor Finance Minister Carole Taylor would stand up in the house and acknowledge the impact or support fair compensation. Half of these businesses are in Taylor's riding. But it was Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon's job to deny reality.

The Liberal rationale for refusing to consider compensation is that it will set a precedent. All the more reason to do the right thing! Doesn't it make sense to set a precedent that small businesses won't be wiped out by major public projects?

Seattle set up a program for businesses affected by the construction of its new rapid transit project. The city has approved $7.5 million in support for a project that affects about half the number of businesses as the Canada line. But the Liberals to date aren't willing to even consider a comparable "precedent."

Given the Canada Line's $1.9-billion budget, the initial cost of a tax relief and emergency loan program is less than one per cent of the total spending. Remember that we the taxpayers saved more than 10 per cent by going with the cut-and-cover method.

Word on the street is that if compensation doesn't happen soon, a class action law suit will result. Taxpayers could be on the hook for damages and legal costs, given the business owners had this massive disruption thrust on them without consultation or their approval.

Do the Liberals want to go to court against small businesses? How can you demonstrate support? Go have a meal and do some shopping on Cambie Street. Thank the merchants for their sacrifice. Ask to sign the petition to support the Small Business Fairness and Protection Act that I've tabled in Victoria. And spread the word -- it will be a tough summer for our Cambie merchants unless we all take action to support them.

Gregor Robertson is the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview and Opposition critic for small business and revenue.

© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

Vancouver Province news – June 10, 2007

By: Christy Clark

The BC Government must support shattered Canada Line storeowners

Back in the 1990s, I used to travel the province pointing to empty shop windows. Those were the days when you could walk down the main street of almost any town in B.C. and see empty shops with “for rent” signs plastered on the windows.

While the rest of North America experienced what was perhaps the biggest economic expansion in history, B.C.’s economy tanked.

And when the economy dips, it’s the little guys who struggle. Hundreds of small businesses drowned in red ink. It was fertile ground for politicians hoping to convince voters that it was time for a change in government.

The B.C. Liberals pitched themselves as the small-business party, and voters gave them a chance to prove it.

The economy isn’t in the stinker anymore. But if you want to remember what those bad old days were like, take a walk down Vancouver’s Cambie Street. It looks a lot like Campbell River’s battered main drag in 1995.

The Canada Line construction through Cambie Village has made it next to impossible to get to those businesses, much less find a parking spot. And if you can find one within walking distance, good luck figuring out how to get around all the fencing!

If you do manage to get inside, you’ll find a shop owner who greets you with a look of both desperation and gratitude. You’ll quickly realize that’s because you’re the only customer they have.

The government says that’s the price of progress. It’s impossible to build a mammoth infrastructure project right through the middle of the urban core without disrupting local businesses. They say it’s too bad if some businesses go broke, but that’s the breaks.

Hold on a second here. That’s not the way it was supposed to work, at least not under the B.C. Liberals. They were supposed to be the people who understood the trials of keeping a small business open on slim margins.

The government is right that once construction is done, business will be brisk along Cambie. Unfortunately, most of the existing business owners won’t be there to reap the benefits. Rents will go up and new tenants will move in. But most of today’s operators will have moved or gone broke.

For anyone who owns one, a small business isn’t just a job, it’s a life’s dream. They risk their life savings, sometimes their homes, on the hope that, if they work hard enough, they’ll make a decent income.

Surely none of them thought that, despite their hard work, it would be a B.C. Liberal government that drove them out of business.

The NDP are championing some relief, and local MLA Gregor Robertson is proposing a tax holiday. It’s a start.

The government should go further. They should offer no- interest loans to bridge the businesses through the many months of construction.

Change always means disruption; you can’t build the biggest infrastructure project in B.C. history without it. But what is disruption for us is the death of a life’s dream for many of those business owners along the line.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-court-overturns-canada-line-compensation-award/article19137

former nuclear person

9:13 PM on February 20, 2011

The quotations from the ruling by the BC Court of Appeals regrettably show that, not only did the Honourable Judges not know anything about engineering, but did not take the time to seek expert engineering advice either....a very sad day for Canadian engineers indeed.

Both methods of construction would have been disruptive, but the level of disruption and destruction of the open-cut method was infinitely greater than that of bored tunnels. The proof was right in front of the Honourable Judges (no kidding!!!). The downtown portion of the tunnel (North of False Creek up to Dunsmuir and Granville) was done by bored tunnels with minimal disturbance except in the areas of stations shafts. Between Dunsmuir and Waterfront, where Granville Street was gutted open as in South Cambie the disruption was monumental and lasted for a long time.

If my memory of the geography of Vancouver is correct the tunnel and open-cut portions along Granville were not too far from the Honourable Judges Chambers.....maybe they had blinds in their windows......?

The one, and only reason why South Cambie was brutally ripped open with the loss of livelihood to scores of small business and business losses in the millions (as accurately estimated at the time by the Canadian Federation of Small Business) was the Olympic deadline. Translink goofed around and wasted valuable time during the pre-tendering process that took years. When they finally got their act together with the P3 scheme it was too late to bore tunnels along Cambie, so at the instigation of their P3 partner they went for the only option that got the line finished in time for the Olympics, to rip the living guts out of South Cambie and its merchants.

The deadline was politically imposed, very likely directly from the highest level of authority in BC. A more fundamental issue in this judgement is whether, or not governments have the right to destroy people's lives for the purpose of meeting artificial political completion deadlines.

The Canada Line was not an Olympic commitment, nor would it have meant anything whether the line was completed in November 2009 or a year later if tunnels had been used.

Any socially-conscious engineer knows that project timetables should be set by engineering and construction requirements and constraints, not by artificial political deadlines. When such deadlines are imposed harm occurs. Curiously the representatives of BC engineers remained conveniently silent in this case.