tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15565398134506908112009-11-27T00:11:10.715-08:00News and Opinions from Vancouver's Downtown Eastsidereliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.comBlogger444125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-22326289118787848622009-11-26T20:21:00.000-08:002009-11-26T22:58:21.032-08:00

The reputation of the SPCA has improved in my eyes because of what people have told me about their free veterinary clinic on the Downtown Eastside. It's held at the Mission Possible drop-in center on Powell St. near Oppenheimer Park about once a month. Some of the workers are volunteers. They have a pet food bank there too, although that's more regular than the vet clinic.I remember years ago,

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-52310851550854496732009-11-24T10:50:00.000-08:002009-11-24T11:46:28.879-08:00

The Vancouver Police have announced they will avoid filling 35 positions due to the City's budget shortfall. That will mean 35 fewer constables on the street and longer response times.David Eby of the BC Civil Liberties Association says there is no need for cuts to result in fewer constables on the street. Eby told CBC Radio last week that the Vancouver Police Department could first look at

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-42459555415009790372009-11-24T10:33:00.000-08:002009-11-24T10:45:02.315-08:00

Teenage blogger and newspaper writer, Walker Morrow, has become something of a balloon boy for older bloggers in Canada who have been crticizing erosion of free speech and other constitutional rights by Human Rights Commissions. They watched in amazement as media giant Canwest abandoned Morrow when legal action was threatened over his article, “Questionable Conduct of CHRC”. The article was

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-81664073366952451382009-11-16T20:32:00.000-08:002009-11-17T15:30:23.367-08:00

For years, CUPE and Vancouver City managers at Carnegie Centre have functioned in synch, like one giant Leona Helmsley inflicting cruelty on "the little people". Now it looks as though Leona's got an auto-immune disorder.Paul Faoro, head of CUPE Local 15 which represents inside City workers, was on CKNW radio yesterday accusing the City of being "over-managed". He wants to see the City cut the

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-22469565580434705522009-11-16T20:30:00.000-08:002009-11-17T13:41:12.633-08:00

Save On Foods owned by Jimmy Pattison has amazing customer service. I was at Metrotown on Saturday doing some shopping, and I bought some grapes on sale for $1.78 a pound at Save on Foods. When I got home, and looked through my shopping bags, I didn't have that bag. So the next day, I phoned Customer Service at Save On and asked if they'd found my bag. I said I was going out that way again so

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-71640977792806247252009-11-11T01:55:00.000-08:002009-11-11T01:56:47.773-08:00

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-47826732244458010982009-11-10T19:09:00.000-08:002009-11-10T19:17:37.565-08:00

Last night at about 12:30 am., I came across this car accident on Main St. at Prior, just across from the Georgia Viaduct. A young woman was talking to police, so I assume she had been the driver. It was raining.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-78754094320737442982009-11-09T17:35:00.000-08:002009-11-10T19:04:04.313-08:00

I think it was a turning point. The Fort Hood massacre allegedly perpetrated by a Muslim who got promoted inside the U.S. Army, while advocating the death of "infidels". I think we're going to see more people and organizations in Canada and the U.S. becoming less tolerant of intolerant Islam. This full page ad appeared in today's (Nov. 9/09) National Post. I saw it when Vancouver blogger

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-16761024546747529012009-11-08T19:14:00.001-08:002009-11-08T19:38:55.722-08:00

This photo was snapped by a Downtown Eastsider as a man showed his decorated car to onlookers in Gastown on Oct. 31, 2009, Halloween.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-71347623088305020792009-11-08T19:00:00.000-08:002009-11-08T19:11:29.821-08:00

A man who regularly drops into Waves internet coffee shop at Main St. & Pender, has been giving the same advice for months: don't buy your coffee until you find out whether the internet is working. Too often people buy a coffee and sit down to use the internet, only to discover that it's down. On Saturday, a customer asked for a refund, after buying a coffee and then discovering that the

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-25626577555183708542009-11-08T18:09:00.000-08:002009-11-10T23:54:47.316-08:00

A Downtown Eastsider told me yesterday that he hadn't been getting the Coast to Coast radio show at it's usual spot on the dial for a couple of nights. So he found it on another station which he could hear faintly from the U.S., but reception was poor. I too had been frustrated when Coast to Coast wasn't on for two nights in a row; I just assumed it was a reception problem.I phoned CFUN radio

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-15745935732770383092009-11-01T13:46:00.001-08:002009-11-02T14:50:23.443-08:00

On Halloween, a homeless man was sitting in Burger King on Main at 1st Ave. with his full-to-the-brim shopping cart. A man about 40 years old with dark hair, well dressed, wearing a Yankees cap, arrived with his wife. On the way out, he walked up behind the homeless man and said, "Can I give you this?" He handed him a twenty dollar bill and said, "You enjoy your Halloween."The homeless man

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-11659405893491100002009-10-28T18:54:00.000-07:002009-10-31T16:33:57.922-07:00

U2 is in Vancouver, playing GM Place tonight.U2's lead singer, Bono, is probably as well known for trotting around the globe pushing a 'Make Poverty History" agendaRex Murphy, a CBC commentator and author, was being interviewed on CFUN radio earlier this week and mentioned Bono coming to Vancouver. Bono likes to go to gatherings of world leaders, Murphy said, and he likes to get his photo taken

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-19936430919356026172009-10-20T15:17:00.000-07:002009-10-25T15:18:00.550-07:00

BC is in the second stage of the H1N1 flu epidemic but staff at the Downtown Clinic near Oppenheimer Park don't seem serious about curbing it. That's the impression a Downtown Eastside resident got when she went to that clinic today with flu symptoms. "I walked out without even being diagnosed", she told me later from Canada Place where she was having tea at the Food Floor.Yes, she was having

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-22018401246761363012009-10-11T15:45:00.001-07:002009-11-03T17:29:08.887-08:00

Photo: This photo was taken when a swarm of police officers on motorbikes stopped on Main St. What was the incident? They had to pick up their order from the SUBmarine sandwich shop. Two officers put the boxes of food in the trunk of a police car travelling with the motorcycles.Vancouver Police have decided not to fund raise for United Way this year.Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-46747126233328448332009-10-01T17:45:00.000-07:002009-10-01T17:48:29.459-07:00

Thornton Park, Sept. 30, 2009

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-17515797055297637312009-10-01T17:01:00.000-07:002009-10-11T16:07:58.009-07:00

Don Jackson's galpal Linda came in on the skytrain from the group home where she now lives in Langley, and had one last coffee at the Main & Terminal Mcdonalds as they know it.The next morning, Monday, Mcdonalds restaurant and outdoor patio were ripped apart for three months of renovations. It will have a new look for the Olympics.The customers will look the same.A construction site security

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-84965228721882856112009-09-29T23:03:00.000-07:002009-09-30T15:35:06.849-07:00

I stopped by the Farmers' Market on the lawn of Pacific Central Station, a magnet for people making an effort to follow the Hundred Mile Diet. I bought an organic Macintosh apple to snack on as I walked home. It was $1.09, an expensive apple it seemed to me. I bit into it, expecting it to taste especially delicious. It tasted like a perfectly ordinary Macintosh apple.This wasn’t the first time

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-64342070322310722342009-09-19T17:32:00.000-07:002009-09-20T16:56:48.799-07:00

You would think Bill Vander Zalm was a movie star, the way people reacted to him at this afternoon’s Anti-HST rally at Canada Place in Vancouver, crowding around him afterwards to take his photo or get theirs taken with him. Now in his seventies, the former premier of British Columbia who’s leading-man-looks have faded a little but his charisma not at all, took to the stage three times to

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-60445192308067415432009-09-15T19:50:00.000-07:002009-09-16T15:49:27.110-07:00

Have you noticed the new expression that is as popular with twenty-somethings as a new tattoo?"No worries." It's Australian slang, meaning "no problem", but it has caught on in Canada. Sometimes it doesn't quite ring right. Like when the host of Good Morning America thanked twenty year old Alena Jenkins of Vancouver for agreeing to appear on the show to discuss her brother Ryan Jenkins, who

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-89122130697151329552009-09-09T02:20:00.000-07:002009-09-10T16:12:49.589-07:00

Photo: Aramic store on Main St., 2009 (Ignore the date on the photo; the date stamp on my camera wasn't working.) What do you do if you have a store with no customers? You expand.That's what happened at Aramic, a men's wear store that opened on Main St. near National about three years ago. I walked by there everyday and only once saw a customer. I saw a man standing at the cash register.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-35536733605525254592009-08-30T22:10:00.000-07:002009-08-31T00:13:02.979-07:00

At roughly 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, there was a collision involving three vehicles -- two red and one blue in the photo above -- on Main St. at 1st Avenue just past Burger King. (The date stamp on my camera wasn't set so the date on the photos is wrong.)There did not appear to be life-threatening injuries.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-44868895769068736652009-08-30T22:08:00.000-07:002009-09-28T16:21:11.047-07:00

Tonight Art Bell guest hosted the late night radio show Coast to Coast, a show which has a loyal following amongst the unemployed on the Downtown Eastside who don't have to get up in the morning. The retired Bell, who has a bit of a cult following, hosted from his home radio studio in the Philippines. [He is fascinated, he said on a previous show, that technology actually allows him to broadcast

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-35147886333044296192009-08-19T11:38:00.000-07:002009-08-23T19:00:12.569-07:00

Above photo: a homeless man sleeps in the sun this morning in front of Mcdonald's restaurant at Main & Terminal.Mcdonald's restaurant deserves a humanitarian award for the tolerance they have shown for the homeless. At one point an older manager, a Chinese guy with his head shaved bald, did start insisting that the homeless move their shopping carts away from the front door. "We can't have

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1556539813450690811.post-88659297278706507552009-08-18T21:24:00.000-07:002009-08-22T20:18:45.545-07:00

Kingsway at BroadwayAfter the heat wave, it was cool for a few days. I thought summer was over.

reliable sourcesnoreply@blogger.com2