Vancouver Courier June 6 2014 by Vancouver Courier

FRIDAY

June 6 2014

Vol. 105 No. 46

NEWS 7

Teachers vote to strike ENTERTAINMENT 17

Fierce fundraiser SPORTS 21

Our prospects There’s more online at

vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

THE WHOLE NINE YARNS Sola Fiedler reused yarn from old sweaters to weave her Tapestry of Vancouver, which will be on display this weekend at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire. See related story on page 9. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

City might slow down wrecking ball Staff proposals increase difﬁculty in knocking down older homes

Naoibh O’Connor

noconnor@vancourier.com

Knocking downVancouver’s older homes might become more difficult if staff recommendations in two reports going before city council June 10 are adopted. Recommendations in the first report propose a one-year prohibition on demolishing pre-1940 homes in the First Shaughnessy District, which stretches between 16th and 25th between Oak and East Boulevard, so the city can complete a review of the area’s official development plan. The one-year “heritage control period”

would enable the city to determine what steps can be taken to conserve heritage property in the district. There are 595 properties in First Shaughnessy, according to the report, of which 329 were constructed before 1940. Eighty of the properties are listed on theVancouver Heritage Register. Of the 80, only 11 are protected from demolition through heritage designation and/or a heritage revitalization agreement. A city review of demolitions over the past ﬁve years revealed that of all the single-family homes demolished, 40 per cent were houses built before 1940. Such houses are typically smaller than the

size permitted in the existing zoning and some don’t have amenities buyers expect. A second report going for council proposes that anyone knocking down a pre-1940 home would have to divert 75 per cent of waste from the landfill, while anyone knocking down a pre-1940 home identified as a character building would have to divert 90 per cent of the waste from the landfill. “Last December, mayor and council approved our heritage action plan and in that these tasks were identified as things we needed to explore,” deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston told the Courier. Pre-1940 homes are considered to have

“character” because they have surviving architectural features and the wood is generally old-growth, which is now hard to find and can be valuable for reuse. “If you are going to take down a home, we want to keep these materials out of the landfill, so we want to make it more difficult to take down these homes, but if you are going to do it, we want to keep these materials from the landfill and hopefully keep them in productive use.The wood, the windows, the doors — it’s just amazing materials in these structures and we don’t want to lose them to the landfill,” Johnston said. Continued on page 8

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

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F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

Instagram star shares tales of the city ‘We’re all in this together,’ says former addict Wanyee Li

li.wanyee@gmail.com

For Donovan Mahoney, a picture can overcome differences between people. Mahoney is a frequent contributor to the healthycity4all hashtag, a social media initiative the city started in April as part of its “healthy city” plan. Mahoney’s Instagram pictures of various places and residents in the Downtown Eastside spurred conversations about the city’s problems of homelessness and affordability. He shared what he knew as an exDowntown Eastside resident and an ex-drug addict.That attracted the city’s attention and it commissioned nine photos from Mahoney. He wants to helpVancouverites relate to each other more. “We’re all in this together,” he said. Mahoney added that a lot of people he knows are “a paycheque away from being homeless.” Many would be on

the verge of homelessness if they lost their job, he said. The city approached Mahoney about a month ago and asked if he would take more photos and continue contributing to the #healthycity4all conversation on social media. Mahoney has continued posting photos and short stories to go with them, going far beyond the nine he was originally asked to do. His Instagram posts are ﬁlled with comments supporting his work. “I’m just trying to take photos, and connect it with myself and others — but not be preachy about it,” said Mahoney. “Somehow people have connected with that.” Mahoney appreciates the love he has received. “Since I got clean and sober, the Internet and the community of Vancouver has embraced me, and supported and appreciated what I’m sharing,” he said. He hopes to inspire others to speak up and act on what

Donovan Mahoney’s photos reveal the people and places he knows from the years he lived in the Downtown Eastside as a drug addict. His goal is to provoke conversation on social media. PHOTO DONOVAN MAHONEY

they think the city needs. He gave the example of Vancouver’s high rental prices. “If everybody says I’m not paying this rent anymore, then what happens?” The conversation about

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Mahoney’s pictures did not go unnoticed.The city saw the parallels in his message and its own. “If you want to be a healthy city for all, what we’re trying to achieve is wellness

for everybody,” said Mary Clare Zak, managing social director for the city. “And in lots of ways it’s an equity strategy. I think a lot of what Donovan’s work has done is identify areas where there are

gaps in equity in the city.” The city has gained about 6,000Twitter followers since Mahoney started posting photos using the healthycity4all hashtag, according to Zak. It is impossible to tell how much of this increase in followers was due to Mahoney’s involvement, but the city is happy with the project so far. The city is open to setting up other similar collaborations, thanks to the success of the project with Mahoney. “We would be welcome to others who are interested in procreating something with us,” said Zak. The city’s healthy city for all strategy is set for a 10year timeline and falls under a long-term 30-year social sustainability plan. Mahoney’s pictures portray some of the city’s issues vividly. His message for social justice has a sense of urgency to it. “We’ve trusted other people to make those decisions, but they’ve let us down,” he said. twitter.com/wanyeelii

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

News New CEO for Tourism Vancouver

23. His role with the games was to line up about $180 million in private ﬁnancing through corporate sponsorships, ticket and merchandise sales and broadcast rights. Antonson announced last August that he would leave Vancouver’s tourism marketing organization to spend more time on what has been a sideline job of writing travel books.

A longtime corporate fundraiser and sporting event organizer will replace longtime Tourism Vancouver CEO Rick Antonson in July.Ty Speer, who is currently the deputy CEO of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, will move to Vancouver before those games start on July

Speer ﬁrst visited Vancouver in the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics when he was working with the organizing committee for the London 2012 Olympics. This will be his ﬁrst job as CEO of an organization although he was the top executive in Australia for global sports marketing giant Octagon. Speer will formally begin his new job July 14.

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F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

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The future redevelopment of the TransLinkowned Oakridge Transit Centre (OTC) site at 949 West 41st is the subject of two upcoming open houses. The property is zoned for single-family use but has been used as a transit centre since 1948. Prior to the opening of the transit centre, it was used as an army barracks.Today, the site is an operations and maintenance facility, primarily for vehicle maintenance, commissioning and decommissioning, as well as for storage of retired buses, according to Derrick Cheung, TransLink’sVP, Strategic Sourcing and Real Estate. “We expect these services to be redistributed among the newer facilities in the winter of 2016,” he said in an email to the Courier. The open houses are part of a City ofVancouver planning process leading to a policy statement, which will guide redevelopment of the 13.8-acre property. The OTC is located not far from Oakridge Centre mall, which is slated for massive redevelopment. Brian Jackson, the city’s

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noconnor@vancourier.com

The city expects to bring forward concepts for redevelopment in early 2015. “I don’t see this as being a complicated site just because of its location. It’s really going to come down to the type and density of the residential that’s being proposed here and then the types of community amenities that can be delivered as part of the development application becauseTransLink isn’t going to develop it. Once they get the policy statement in place, they will likely turn around and either sell or lease the property,” Jackson said. When asked what the land is worth and whatTransLink plans to do with the property once the policy statement is approved, Cheung stated: “The Policy Statement is a vision or framework for land use, density and character of not only this property, but the larger community and it will be informed by public consultation led by the City ofVancouver.We believe the property will have more value if a vision for the community is more certain, but the last assessed value of the property in 2013 was for $72 million.” The ﬁrst open house is June 8 from 12-4 atVanDusen GardenVisitor Centre at 5251 Oak St. A second one June 12 is set for 5:30 to 8 p.m. atVanDusen Garden Floral Hall.

HUDSON ST

Naoibh O’Connor

manager of planning and development, said the policy statement is necessary because it’s a large site. “We think it will be predominantly residential, but beyond that, in terms of heights or densities and whether there will be any commercial uses, that’s the purpose of these ﬁrst open houses — to determine the comments from the public and what they would like to see on the property,” he said. “We’ve never signaled to the applicant that we were supportive of towers in this location. Certainly, we could see mid-rise buildings in this area.” Jackson said the city wants to see open space as part of the redevelopment and it won’t be nearly as dense as what’s planned for Oakridge Centre. “We are looking for a signiﬁcantly less dense type of development on the bus barn site than we ever saw on Oakridge.” Since nearby residents have for decades been dealing with noxious uses of the property, in terms of buses, Jackson suspects they may be looking forward to a change. “But, of course, the scale of change will be of concern to them and the interface between what is being proposed on the site and development to the north, west and east,” he said.

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Trees are a signiﬁcant cause of power interruptions. Contact between trees and power lines can also create a severe danger. Over the next few months we will be pruning and removing trees in Vancouver. Boundaries: West of Blanca Street and North of 16th Ave to UBC South of SW Marine Drive and West 33rd Avenue West of Larch Street from 33rd Avenue to 49th Avenue West of Macdonald Street from 49th Avenue south to the Fraser River Trees are pruned using the best arboriculture (tree care) practices. Skilled workers employed by BC Hydro are trained in both electrical safety and tree care. Only correct and proper techniques are used to eliminate any safety hazards. For more information about this work, please call Joe Taaffe at 604 528 3297. For more information on our vegetation management practices, please visit bchydro.com /trees.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

News

ESL cuts translate into layoffs Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

More than 100 faculty members are to receive layoff notices and 3,000 English language learners will be left in the lurch in 2015, says Karen Shortt, president of Vancouver Community College’s Faculty Association. VCC says it can only afford to offer one set of settlement English language classes beyond mid December. The federally funded Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada program, or LINC, which serves the equivalent of 800 full-time students per year, apart from other English as a second language programming, will be the only stream to continue. VCC has long been the largest provider of ESL training inWestern Canada, typically training 46 per cent of all immigrants who take English language training in B.C. But Shortt says the Ministry of Advanced Education recently conﬁrmed it would provide VCC no additional funding for ESL courses. “Under the College and Institute Act, it is the provin-

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Students and faculty rallied in support of English language training at Vancouver Community College Tuesday afternoon. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

cial government’s responsibility to train adults,” Shortt said. “And you listen to [Premier] Christy Clark go on about the jobs plan and families, well what’s more basic than being able to speak English and get a job.” Shortt spoke at a rally organized by the ESL Matters campaign that was launched by faculty and students at VCC on East Broadway Tuesday afternoon. The federal government announced two years ago that it would no longer transfer money to B.C. to

fund ESL courses at postsecondary institutions. The provincial government announced $10.5 million in “one-time funding” for public post-secondary institutions in B.C. in February and announced an additional $6.7 million for these institutions in April. Altogether, Shortt says VCC received roughly $8 million, $3 million less than the previous year, while other institutions received their previous year’s amount. Advanced Education Minister AmrikVirk wasn’t

available to speak to the Courier Wednesday, so the ministry emailed a statement that said, “The transition funding was to facilitate planning for the coming year so the school could make the necessary program changes.” The statement also says: • “The federal government’s decision to cancel after more than 15 years a key portion of the Canada-BC Immigration Agreement, unfortunately, prompted a major change to the delivery of ESL programs at many public secondary institutions. • “We made it very clear that B.C. preferred the existing model for the delivery of ESL training.” Citizenship and Immigration Canada is to provide VCC with $9.4 million to fund six levels of courses through LINC for 2014 to 2016. A representative of CIC told the Courier in an email that the federal government continues to fund an array of English language courses that are delivered by nonproﬁts, public and private educational institutions. twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

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F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

Teachers vote on full-scale strike CLASS NOTES

Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

Schools could be closed starting June 16 if teachers vote in favour of a full-scale strike. B.C.Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker announced Wednesday that a vote on escalating job action will be held June 9 and 10. Rotating strikes are set to continue across the province next week.The schedule for closures in Vancouver was to be released after the Courier’s print deadline. Vancouver School Board chairperson Patti Bacchus wasn’t sure what a full-scale strike would mean for exams and report cards. She said classes for high school students end June 13 and were to be followed by exams. A strike could also hurt summer school, which typically sees 15,000 students

enrolled inVancouver, some of them international students. The Labour Relations Board ruledWednesday afternoon that the government’s 10 per cent pay cut for teachers was legal.The government cut hours, duties and pay for teachers starting May 26 in response to teachers’ initial job action. Iker said the BCTF decidedTuesday night to take a vote on escalating job action. The teachers’ union reduced its salary proposal Tuesday from 13.7 to 15 per cent over four years to 12.5 to 14 per cent, depending on cost of living increases.The BCTF says the B.C. Public School Employer’s Association has yet to respond in kind. The Ministry of Education and BCPSEA maintain teachers deserve a raise but their demands are remain approximately four times higher than what other public sector workers have negotiated.

Iker said BCPSEA’s chief negotiator said the government won’t respond to a full-scale strike by legislating teachers back to work. Up to 40 of Vancouver Technical secondary’s 1,540 students walked out of the East Broadway school Wednesday morning as part of the B.C. Student Walkout for Students. “We, the students, are tired of being stuck in the middle of their labour disputes and would like to see both sides come together and reach an agreement sooner rather than later,” co-organizer Victoria Baker wrote on the Facebook page about the walkout. The student action appears to have been in vain. “It’s a terrible way to end the school year,” Bacchus said. The BCPSEA stated it’s prepared to negotiate all summer if an agreement can’t be reached by the end of June. twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

J OYC E M U R R AY, MP FOR VA NCOU V ER Q UA D R A , P R E S E N T S :

MP Town Hall: Have your say

Saturday, June 14 | 10:00 a.m. – noon

100th Anniversary of World War I: Lessons Learned Slide show with Joyce Murray MP, on her recent trip to First World War sites in France and a general discussion on Canada’s role in the world today. Light refreshments provided.

Ryerson United Church, Memorial Hall (2195 45th Ave at Yew) RSVP to 604.664.9220 or joyce.murray.c1b@parl.gc.ca | WWW.JOYCEMURRAY.CA

News City to track results Continued from page 1 It would take extra time to salvage materials and add about 15 per cent to demolition costs. Johnston estimates the cost to demo a typical single-family home at about $15,000 to $16,000. “This is a bit of a test for us. We’re trying to align our heritage preservation efforts with our obligations under Metro’s requirements for keeping clean wood waste out of the landfill and our desire for the greenest city action plan to keep the material out of the landfill,” he added. “So we’re trying to align council’s priorities and hope we can achieve both of these with this effort and maybe even create green jobs in the process.” The city will track the results to see if they prevent demolition of older homes and how much material is saved from the landfill. Elizabeth Murphy, a spokesperson from the Vancouver Character House Network, says while the recommendations are a step in the right direction, she still has several concerns. She said many areas of the city were built in the

A city review of demolitions over five years revealed of all single family homes demolished, 40 per cent were houses built before 1940. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

1940s and those houses should also be protected. Johnston said the city may look at a phased approach “where we try this for a year and we’ll report back to council and say, this is great, now let’s do the ’40s as well. We also looked into the numbers of buildings being taken down and the pre1940s were a large segment of these. So it’s a starting place. It may not be perfect.” Murphy also noted that there’s nothing in the proposals that deal with the building code, which she said is biased towards new construction. “For instance, rain-screening the existing exterior walls of the character houses should

not be required. Also, when a house is moved it should not be required to be brought up to full current code compliance,” she told the Courier. Johnston said staff will look at some of these issues in the next update to the building code. “We are responding to the concerns that our mayor and council have expressed to us as staff and we’re going to be tracking to see if this does stem the tide of the loss of these types of homes in our communities, so we deﬁnitely see this as one step in many that need to be taken to address this area of concern,” he said. twitter.com/naoibh

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F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

SEMINARS & EVENTS AT CHOICES:

Saturday night weaver Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

It all started at her dentist’s office on the 19th floor in 1983.While reclining for a root canal, Sola Fiedler gazed at the city from on high on West Broadway and recognized that with the approach of Expo 86,Vancouver was on the brink of change. She couldn’t draw and she couldn’t paint but she could knit, so Fiedler decided to fashion a panorama of the city with yarn. More than 30 years later, the 78-year-old Fiedler is “99.9 per cent” finished her Vancouver Tapestry that she started in 2009 in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Games, and she’s “very, very excited” to be unveiling her roughly 12-foot by fivefoot creation at the fourth annual Vancouver Mini Maker Faire, June 7 and 8 at the PNE Forum. “Full circle,” Fiedler said. “It’s the same size tapestry. It’s the same viewpoint.” The self-trained artist works not from a painting or a photo but from the 3D images in her head. Fiedler

Sola Fiedler shows off her Tapestry of Vancouver at the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire this weekend. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

builds her cityscapes buildingby-building, street-by-street. “I put in every tree, every gravestone in the graveyard, every trailer in the trailer park,” she said. Fiedler weaves high-rises, waterways and mountains with yarn from sweaters or bundles she has purchased at thrift stores. “I’m really concerned about how much goes into the landﬁll,” she said. “And I’m certainly not rich.” Fiedler has lived in multiple cities that have hosted Olympics andWorld’s Fairs for two or three years to reﬂect them in a tapestry, deriving great satisfaction not only from

documenting a moment in history but also from working with her hands. Chenille from the same dark green sweater she used to shape evergreen trees in Salt Lake City forms trees in Stanley Park. Fiedler may bring a loom with partially woven buildings to the faire to demonstrate how she achieves her detailed depictions. It’s those kind of interactions that get Vancouver Maker Foundation board member and creative director Emily Smith so excited about the event. “For me, the most exciting thing about going to the

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maker faire is just the conversations you have with people because everybody’s there to create and to learn,” she said. Smith noted makers love what they do and often want to make a difference, say by boosting awareness about energy and other waste. Smith says visitors to the faire will hear from a broader range of makers than in previous years. MakerBrarians from the B.C. Libraries Cooperative will highlight the future of maker spaces in libraries, representatives of a variety of creative hubs will share their know-how in 3D printing, metal fabrication and welding, and the faire will host an attempt to set the new Guinness World Record for the most people crocheting simultaneously on June 7 from 1 to 2 p.m. Wannabe makers can get hands on at the faire’s ﬁrst workshop series with sessions on making puppets, knotwork bracelets, robots and more. Attendees must register in advance. The faire runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Details at makerfaire.ca. twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

Thursday, June 12th 7:00-8:30pm. South Surrey location, 3248 King George Blvd. Phone 604-541-3902. Eating for Energy with Sarah Skalsub, RHN, Vega. Cost $5. Register online or by phone. Wednesday, June 18, 4:00-6:00pm Burnaby Crest location, 8683 10th Ave. Phone 604-522-0936. Complimentary Naturopathic Doctor Consults with Dr. Natalie Waller, ND, Ray Clinic. Free sessions but registration by phone or in person is required.

The Pacific Railroad Preservation Association is pleased to announce a 3 day Main Line Excursion behind the Spokane Portland & Seattle steam locomotive #700. Four classes of service, including coach and dome cars. Pricing and Details: www.SPS700.org Tickets: www.ticketswest.com

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

Opinion Sidewalk cyclists deserve zero tolerance

The naked truth from our closest neighbours

Allen Garr Columnist agarr@vancourier.com

Geoff Olson Columnist mwiseguise@yahoo.com

Sidewalk cyclists are a menace — to say nothing of the fact they are breaking the law. And no one at the city is in a hurry to do a heck of a lot about it. “Harrumph,” I have heard forgiving bureaucrats exclaim. “Cyclists will stop using sidewalks once the roadways are safer.” The city’s propaganda puts pedestrians at the head of the “active transportation” priority list — being walkers, then cyclists and then public transit users. But it is cyclists who are the apex animals in this particular kingdom. And none, it seems, are cut more slack than that relative minority: the sidewalks scofflaws. They are the ones who find it more convenient to peddle down pedestrian pathways rather than using the millions of dollars worth of bike routes the city has created during the Vision administration. I encounter these two-wheeled twits every day I choose to walk around my neighbourhood. I’ve found the most dangerous routes for pedestrians to travel are along main streets. There they are ubiquitous in their disdain for the safety hazard they cause. I spotted one guy peddling down the sidewalk taking up the whole space with three dogs on leashes trailing behind him. Dog walkers and their small pack may give you pause. This was just nuts. The other morning I headed down the sidewalk on the north side of Point Grey Road, a cyclist’s nirvana. I noted some construction ahead at Alma. Large signs blocked the separated bike lane on either side of a backhoe digging into the street. “Cyclists dismount and walk on the sidewalk” they declared. But it may as well have been written in Urdu for all the attention any cyclists paid to it. Up on to the sidewalk they went under pedal power all the way. I was about to cross to the south side when I saw a couple more cyclists peddling down that sidewalk. On Fourth Avenue I encountered a middle-aged fellow peddling through the crowd towards me. As I tried to figure out whether I should flatten myself against a storefront or hop off the curb, I asked: “Why are you riding on the sidewalk?” “Excuse me?” he said. Then I noticed he had two ear buds, one jammed in

each ear and likely attached to some audio source. He may not have heard me. “Why” I asked turning up my own volume as he came even closer, “are you riding on the sidewalk?”

I encounter these two-wheeled twits every day I choose to walk around my neighbourhood. “Excuse me?” he said once more as if was still unable to hear. Maybe he’s deaf as well as dumb, I thought because when he passed me he used what may have been some esoteric sign language to respond. He extended his right arm and raised his middle ﬁnger. What cracked me up, because I was well out of harm’s way at the time, was a lovely young woman that same lovely afternoon. She, too, was riding on the sidewalk. And the sidewalk was right next to a designated bike lane which, as far as I could see, all the cars were carefully avoiding. Of course she had a helmet. It was carefully strapped to the handlebars of her bike. I’m sure she thought that, if she suffered some mishap, slipping over the curb onto the road for example, that while she was sailing through the air she could undo the helmet and put it on her head before she hit the pavement. Which brings me to another point: If the penalty reﬂects the seriousness of the violation, please note the ticket from having no helmet on is $29. For riding on the sidewalk it is more than triple that at $109. It would be unfair to say the cops are doing nothing in dealing with all this lawlessness. But facing an apparent wall of indifference — even excusing sidewalk cycling — from the city while there is much concern about riding without helmets, it is no wonder there are 10 times the tickets for helmet violations. Yes, the number of tickets issued for both violations has come down year over year. But when it comes to cycling on the sidewalk, the goal should be zero tolerance. twitter.com/allengarr

To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, when the times get weird, the weird go pantless. On May 23, a man approached a White House security checkpoint and told Secret Service agents he had “a 3 p.m. meeting with Mr. Obama.”The rejected visitor walked away and began stripping down, yelling that he had an appointment with the president “as he shook his naked body,” according to The Daily Caller. Agents wrestled the man to the ground, and fire trucks and police cars arrived as a blockade was set up outside the White House and down Pennsylvania Avenue. On May 27, a naked man went streaking past police headquarters in downtown Seattle. “Officers found the man running downhill toward Elliott Bay and ran off after him,” according KOMO news. The flatfoots chased the rogue flash of pink down to Seattle’s waterfront, losing him briefly in the Elliot Bay blue. The soaked streaker was then taken to a hospital for medical evaluation. In a discomfiting May 24 item, an unidentified man carrying an urn and roses stripped naked at a park in the Bronx and jumped into the Harlem river, with a single flower in hand.Witnesses “dashed to the water’s edge, where they saw the victim begin to shake uncontrollably before sinking,” reports the NewYork Daily News. On May 20, a naked man was caught on videocamera at a Dallas intersection, as he jumped onto a moving car and slid through the open sunroof, head first.

Are crimes and misdemeanors by “naked man” on the upswing south of the border? The offender clawed at the woman driver, who screamed and crashed her car. Police arrested 23-year-old Nicholas Dyll and charged him with assault and felony criminal mischief. According to ABC news afﬁliate WFAA, he was released on bond. Other recent headlines from across the U.S. include: “Naked man punches ofﬁcer, tries to steal patrol car,” “Naked man

accused of attacking subway commuters faces felonies,” “Naked man referenced Sasquatch before attacking hunter.” Are crimes and misdemeanours by “naked man” on the upswing south of the border? Stories involving the dude seem to be going from police blotters to news pages with peculiar frequency. Remember Cops? In the first reality television series from the ’80s, it was de rigeur for self-medicating, male domestic offenders to appear on camera shirtless, waving a golf club or bottle of JD. But with the passage of time and the devaluation of the currency of “losing it,” it seems more layers have to come off, with gender neutrality observed. I’m referring to Naked and Afraid, an American reality television series that first aired on the Discovery Channel last year. According to a Wikipedia entry, “each episode chronicles the lives of two survivalists — a man and a woman — who meet for the first time and are given the task of surviving a stay in the wilderness naked for 21 days. After they meet in the assigned locale, the partners must find and/or produce water, food, shelter, and clothing within the environment.” This must be close to the bottom for the American schadenfreude-entertainment complex: supplying an opportunity for celebrity-starved participants to humiliate themselves before millions, in what sounds like a dry run for an unzipped zombie apocalypse. I can’t wait for The Bachelor: Naked and Afraid. The U.S. may have cornered the market on pre-collapse primitivism, but don’t count out other nations. “Naked Man Acting Like A Dog Run OverWhile Chasing Cars” is an item from Brno, Czechoslovakia, while “Naked man danced, sang, and hurled rocks at cars causing 13 to crash” hails from the aptly-named town of Darwin, Australia. Even the harsh theocracy of Saudi Arabia is joining in on the crazed nude male meme. “A man roaming the streets of Makkah half naked is said to be mentally ill and terrorizing residents,” the Saudi Gazette reported May 24. “Mohammad Ali keeps the upper part of his body stark naked while wearing a transparent loincloth that barely covers his manhood. He talks while holding a cigarette between his teeth and always seems to be angry. “My name is Mohammad Ali. I am coming from here and going there,” he answered when asked about his name and where he was heading.” geoffolson.com

The week in num6ers...

7 426 13.8 15 60 119

In feet, the height of a sculpture of Douglas Coupland’s head located outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Passersbys are invited to cover the public art piece in chewing gum.

The Guinness World record for most people crocheting simultaneously — a feat organizers of the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire hope to break June 7 from 1 to 2 p.m. at the PNE forum.

In acres, the size of the Oakridge Transit Centre at 949 West 41st Ave. The city is hosting two open houses this week seeking public feedback on future plans for the land. .

In thousands, the approximate number of Vancouver summer school students who would be impacted if the BCTF vote for a full-scale strike next week.

In thousands of dollars, the amount of unpaid royalties owed to Something Fierce author Carmen Aguirre after her publisher Douglas & McIntyre went broke in 2012.

Number of points (69 goals and 50 assists) by box lacrosse forward Tyler Vogrig when he set a scoring record with the Intermediate ‘A’ Richmond Roadrunners in 2013.

F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Mailbox Chang you can believe in

VA N C O U V E R T H I S W E E K I N H I S TO RY

Whitecaps begin epic unbeaten streak

June 8, 1988: The Vancouver Whitecaps FC, then known as the 86ers, defeat the Montreal Supra 4-2 in an away game. The victory was the beginning of what became a 46-game undefeated streak (37 wins and nine ties) and the team, coached by Bob Lenarduzzi, went on to win the Canadian Soccer League championship for three straight seasons. It remains the longest undefeated streak in North American professional sports history, beating the Canadian record set by the Montreal Canadiens (28), the overall record set by the Philadelphia Flyers (35), as well as the English football record set by Nottingham Forest (42).

Music legend injures music legend

June 9, 1992: B.C. music producer David Foster severely injures fellow entertainer Ben Vereen after hitting him with his SUV as the Broadway star walked along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. Vereen was reportedly thrown nearly 30 metres by the collision but no charges are filed against the multiple Grammy-winning composer. Six hours earlier, Vereen had crashed his own car into a tree, but police said he nonetheless successfully passed a sobriety test.

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To the editor: Re: “Chang defeated by Byng parent backlash,” May 30. Cheryl Rossi and especially Allen Garr’s heavily biased and twisted reporting of a planned “parent’s only” meeting hijacked by a few angry students at Lord Byng high school last week only served to increase the polarity between the two sides over what is in the best interests of our children’s mental and physical health and their safety and protection in school. However, gender choice and social experimentation is not what a majority of parents want for their children from their public education system.These prescribed changes will not stop unwanted bullying in our schools and sadly may even feed it. It would appear that this highly controversial policy put together by the VSB Pride Advisory Committee was simply expecting a stamp of approval from our elected trustees. How many parents were informed of this life-changing plan for their children? Is a freely elected PAC chair along with many anxious and concerned parents not to be given the opportunity to express their heart-felt concerns in a democratic and free society without being publicly and personally maligned for their volunteer efforts? Sandra Harmel, Vancouver ••• Allen Garr’s digression on sexual matters is puzzling. Is it his reasoned opinion that opposition to same-sex marriage is to be equated with “homophobia?” That phobia, like others, refers to irrational fear, but this clearly does not apply to an opposition that has been at pains to present a rational case against same-sex marriage. Ed Derksen, Vancouver

Invest in more busses, not subway To the editor: Re: “TransLink reports $36.8 million surplus for 2013,” May 30. Congratulations toTransLink for running a $36.8 million surplus. I commuted to UBC over the past two years. During peak hours from September to April, full busses sometimes bypassed passengers who were usually picked up by the next bus. Why not invest in some new busses and run extra busses along the Broadway, 41st, King Edward and Fourth Avenue corridors? Isn’t this a better solution than investing billions of dollars on a Broadway subway line that would run half empty during the four summer months when UBC students are on hiatus? ElmerWiens, Vancouver

Bravo for beautiful badminton pics

To the editor: Re: “Club players serve school teams major hits,” May 28. Sports news with good photography has been long neglected in local press, but Dan Toulgoet is doing a superb job, especially in the junior badminton field. His knowledgeable shots are commendable, raising the profile of a greatly neglected sport. From past experience of my own volunteering time to expose local junior badminton, it was very difficult to expose this superb lifetime sport. Audrey Ostrom, Vancouver Sports editor’s note:This recognition extends to internWanyee Li for her extensive coverage of the badminton season, which ended May 31.

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COURIER STORY: “STIR suit no longer in the mix,” June 4. Leona Rothney: The mayor and his merry little band of Visionites must be insane to think that over $1,400 for a studio is affordable. My pension isn’t even that much. So affordable to who? COURIERVIDEO: “Vancouver searches for hidden cash,” June 3. Dalton Eugine McElroy: I think Gregor needs to get out there and pick them all up, maybe get us a good NewYear’s show. Sharyle Lyndon: Sharing, even if I’m not even in Vancouver lately. COURIER STORY: “Hobbit house fate to be decided at hearing ,” May 28. Dimitrios Otis: Hey, let’s destroy the real Vancouver in the name of crass development and faceless money-making! Christopher Porter: Who ever heard of a hobbit house without a round door? Tolkien should be rolling over in his grave. Jason Sokolowski: Is development really development if it destroys our past? COURIER COLUMN: “Childcare spaces inVancouver remain a luxury,” May 28. Dylen Durret: If you can’t afford them, don’t have ’em.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

Community

Jews and Christians go 50-50

Key observances of Pentecost and Shavuot fall in same week PACIFIC SPIRIT Pat Johnson

paciﬁcspiritpj@gmail.com

This week Vancouver’s Christians celebrate Pentecost while the city’s Jews celebrate Shavuot, and it’s no coincidence that the two holidays parallel each other. If Jews and Christians didn’t follow different liturgical calendars, these celebrations would fall on the same day. It’s one of those historical and religious peculiarities of which most faithful may not even be aware, but which remind us of the connections between two of humankind’s oldest traditions. Shavuot began at sundown Tuesday and ended sundown Thursday. Pentecost takes place Sunday. In neither tradition are these holy days the huge draw of the calendar’s big events.The seats of Vancouver’s synagogues and churches will not be packed to overﬂowing.Yet these days are absolutely central to the self-identity of Christians and Jews and to the traditions that have been passed down for millennia. Shavuot marks the 50th day since Passover. Pentecost marks 50 days since Easter. (Those are big holidays.) Passover marks the beginning of the Hebrew people’s freedom from

Rev. Dr. Richard Leggett, parish priest at St. Faith’s Anglican Church, is part of a clerical and lay Jewish-Christian dialogue group. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

bondage in Egypt and the beginning of the Exodus, which ultimately led to the Promised Land – with a crucial stop at Mount Sinai, where Moses is said to have ascended to receive the word of God in the form of

the Torah — the Hebrew Bible; the ﬁrst ﬁve books of the Old Testament, including the Commandments. This is accepted as the moment when the ragtag group of freed slaves became a nation, the Jewish people.

According to Torah, this occurred after seven weeks of seven days — on the 50th day after departure from Egypt. Rabbi Stephen Berger, head of Judaic studies at King David High School,

shared the story of Shavuot with a group of Jewish young people Monday night, in an “everything you wanted to know about Shavuot but were afraid to ask” Q&A session. From the day they gained

freedom, tradition says, the Hebrew people began counting. “We spent the 49 days preparing ourselves for this meeting with God,” says Berger. Seven has a huge meaning in many traditions, viewed as a perfect number, and so seven cycles of seven days has a particularly auspicious ring. With the revelation at Sinai, the Hebrew people, freed from the Pharaoh’s lash and aided in their escape by the divine, became the Jewish nation. And with the revelation Moses received from God came a daunting list of proscriptions — not Ten Commandments, but 613. Among these were rules around food preparations, including the humane slaughter of animals that many Jews still follow today. Because the people at Sinai had no appropriately prepared meat, this holiday has become associated with dairy. And who will argue against cheesecake for a celebratory meal? More to the point, aside from eating cheesecake and cheese blintzes, Shavuot is the only Jewish holiday that does not have proscribed observances. Why? Berger says it’s because Shavuot, which literally means “weeks” in Hebrew, is less about the day itself than the seven weeks of preparation that precede it.

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Community Parallel holy days reflect heritage “The rabbis came up with customs later, but there’s no really biblically mandated customs for it,” he says. “The whole idea is during these 49 days to prepare yourself. So the real main aspect of the holiday is the preparation. If you just show up on Shavuot, you kind of missed the point.” Shavuot, for Berger, is “not just reminiscent of us receiving the Torah in the past. It’s about really us receiving the Torah in the present.” In addition to eating dairy products, it is traditional to study Torah all night on Shavuot. In the Talmud, Judaism’s encyclopedic Hansard of debates among rabbis across centuries, it is posited that the Hebrew people had prepared so diligently for three days before the momentous events at Sinai that they overslept on the morning that God was to hand down the Word. “When you’re going to Hawaii, you wake up even if your alarm doesn’t go off because of so much anticipation,” says Berger. The Hebrew people’s failure to set the alarm for what was arguably history’s most important meeting is why Jews today often stay awake all night on Shavuot studying. For Christians, Pentecost has a parallel signiﬁcance. Pentecost comes 50 days after Easter, just as Shavuot comes 50 days after Passover. (As Shavuot simply means “weeks” in Hebrew, Pentecost is simply Greek for “50.”) Since the ﬁrst Easter happened at Passover — the Last Supper was a seder, a ceremonial Passover meal — the dates would be the same had the calendars not diverged. Rev. Dr. Richard Leggett,

parish priest at St. Faith’s Anglican Church at West 57th and Cypress, says the parallel holy days reflect the “ongoing heritage of Christianity’s origin within Judaism affecting this key sequence in our liturgical calendar.” Leggett, who has been involved for years in a clerical and lay Jewish-Christian dialogue group, says that, according to the Acts of the Apostles, a momentous event happened 50 days after Easter. “The apostles, the Christian community, are gathered in Jerusalem and all of a sudden there is some sort of manifestation, a divine presence which Christians interpret to be the manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit,” says Leggett. “Peter, as leader of the apostles, is described as giving a lengthy speech to this scattered group of people, which is in some ways the first Christian sermon, in which he links the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth with the promise of a Messiah and begins the proclamation of the Gospel.” While the context differs, the parallels are striking. Jews and Christians both experienced a defining experience with the divine 50 days after another transformative event. While there is plenty of theological debate over the significance of the number, Leggett guesses the EasterPentecost 50-day stretch has a simple explanation. “There are probably eight to 10 different views on what ‘50’ is about,” he says, “but I think the most significant thing is that Christians celebrate Pentecost 50 days after Easter because, for the first group of Christians, they were celebrating Shavuot.”

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

Community

SCOTCH TASTE: Vancouver Writers Fest presented their always popular A Dram Come True beneﬁt. The 12th edition fronted by Alison Hart and Ann McDonell was another lively celebration of spirits from Scotland and beyond. While lightweights like yours truly cozied up to the wine bar, enthusiasts ponied up to the seven tasting bars offering 36 varieties of whisky. More than 250 guests gathered at Hycroft in support of the Oct. 21-26 festival. Exceeding expectations, more than $33,000 was generated for the 27th annual literary luau. SUPERIOR HOOCH: If scotch wasn’t your fancy, much tequila was on tap at the third annual Vancouver International Tequila Expo, presented by ProMexico, Mexico Tourism Board and the Consulate General of Mexico. Western Canada’s largest festival dedicated to Mexico’s number one export spirit — British Columbia tequila sales in 2012 reached $24 million — the event offered some 40 premium brands of the hooch, retailing up to $1,000 a bottle, for sipping (not shooting). A crowd of nearly 1,000 assembled to cap the agave week of seminars, master classes, pairing dinners and tastings. Proceeds supported the B.C. Hospitality Foundation, helping fellow industry members in times of need.

VAG director Kathleen Bartels and Mayor Gregor Robertson were the ﬁrst to stick it to Douglas Coupland’s Gumhead. The public installation is part of the ﬁrst major survey of his work.

For his tireless support of ovarian cancer research, Patrick Boyer received the Virginia Greene Leadership Award from Justine Greene, right, and her son, Parker.

Tequila Expo co-founder Manuel Otero, centre, and Mexico trade commissioner Luis Brasdefer, right, raise awareness of Mexico’s top export, tequila, at Agave Week. The premium tequila tasting at the Hyatt Regency beneﬁtted Alan Sacks’ B.C. Hospitality Foundation.

Bob Burrows and Elizabeth Kerklaan fronted First United Church’s Golf for the Homeless tournament and fundraising dinner at the University Golf Course.

Executive producers Mary Kellough and Chad Brealey and Telus director of programming Prem Gill (centre) celebrated the launch of Salt, Fresh & Field, a new gourmet adventure series, at Rainier Provisions. The food series will be aired on Telus Optik TV.

COUPLAND EVERYWHERE: It was a fabulous week for Douglas Coupland. The Vancouver-based writer and artist’s new exhibition “everywhere is anywhere is anything” — the ﬁrst major survey of his work — at the Vancouver Art Gallery made its debut with much fanfare and creativity. A capacity crowd gathered for the opening festivities, which included the unveiling of Gumhead, a seven-foot tall sculpture of Coupland’s head. The public is invited to cover the public art piece with chewing gum. A ﬂock of hovering seagulls at the unveiling had intentions of changing the name to something else. Following day, the Generation X author was among 25 recipients, including condo king Bob Rennie and philanthropist Lorne Segal, named to the Order of B.C.

email yvrflee@hotmail.com twitter @FredAboutTown

From left, A Dram Come True committee member Kim Thorne, Writers Fest board chair Sandy Jakab and donor Bob Lesperance saw more than $33,000 generated from their scotch tasting in support of the Oct. 21-26 Writers Festival.

Golﬁng for the Homeless participant Carolyn Tuckwell, president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of South Coast B.C., was in ﬁne putting form at the annual golf tournament.

Community leaders Sean and Saeedeh Salem helped stage the Persian community’s annual fundraiser at the Roundhouse Community Centre. The Neekoo Philanthropic Society dance party and auction generated $80,000 for student scholarships.

F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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GOT ARTS? 604.738.1411 or events@vancourier.com

1 June 6 to 10, 2014 1. The latest instalment of Touchstone’s Flying Start program, which showcases the work of new professional playwrights, Briana Brown’s The Concessions runs June 6 to 14 at the Firehall Arts Centre. Part mystery, part psychological drama, The Concessions is billed as a “haunting piece of Canadian gothic centred around an inexplicable act of violence in a rural community.”Tickets and details at firehallartscentre.ca. 2. Members of Apollo Ghosts and Shawn Mrazek Lives! explore their more rhythmic and groovier side under the difficultto-google band name Cool. Catch them June 7 at the Remington Gallery (108 East Hastings) as part of Music Waste, along with Village and Fake Tears. More info at musicwaste.ca. 3. Sun Belt is a dusty, solar-powered roots outfit birthed from the twangy haze of The Beige. The group spent some time in Tucson recording tunes at the famed WaveLab Studio (Calexio, Neko Case, M Ward). Hear what time spent in the Arizona desert does to a band when Sun Belt plays a show at The China Cloud (524 Main St.) June 6, 9:30 p.m. with singer-songwriter Jenn Bojm. 4. The backyards and living rooms of the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood fill with musicians, acrobats, dancers, puppeteers, comedians and an Elvis impersonator or two for the 10th annual In the House Festival June 6 to 8 at various venues. Details and tickets at inthehousefestival.com.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

“I would love to see you in the audience” —Red Robinson

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Alice doesn’t live here anymore

The recent death of actress Ann B. Davis hit K&K pretty hard. And not just because we thought The Brady Bunch’s unﬂappable housekeeper, part-time lover of Sam the butcher and Minute Rice spokeswoman had died years ago. Not so. Davis was 88 when she passed away earlier this week.The real shocker however came after we did some quick math and realized Davis was just 43 when The Brady Bunch ﬁrst aired in 1969 and 48 when the show was cancelled in 1974. In other words, despite the fact we’ve always viewed Davis’s Brady Bunch character of Alice as a wisecracking grandmotherly type, she wasn’t that much older than we are now.Which also probably means Mike and Carol Brady (played by Robert Reed and Florence Henderson) were younger than we are today, though we haven’t done the calculations since we prefer to live in denial about the passage of time. In fact, we’re now at the age where we’re likely older than the stars were in our favourite TV shows when we were kids —Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I., John Ritter in Three’s Company, gulp, Cagney and Lacey. It’s all very sobering. But if there’s one bright spot to coming face-to-face with our own mortality via the death of a television actress whose character we thought was much older than us, it’s that we learned that the “B” in Ann B.

The death of Ann B. Davis and the emergence of “Trivago Guy” have disturbed K&K this week.

Davis stands for Bradford. How cool is that?

Ad nauseam

If you’ve been watching any of the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, chances are you’ve encountered a particularly strange and creepy commercial over and over again. No, we’re not talking aboutTim Horton’s onslaught of emotional treacle or even the acting-challenged “We won?We won!” lottery ads.We’re talking about the 30-second promotional spots for something calledTrivago. Honestly, the ads are so distracting we don’t even know what they’re selling. A trivia game about diseases? We have no idea. Anyway, the cornerstone of these Trivago ads is a middle-aged spokesman who looks like he sleeps in his car and has about two days sobriety under his belt, except he doesn’t even wear a belt — and he tucks in his shirt, which is unbuttoned a little too low for any authoritative ﬁgure.We’re also pretty sure he hasn’t shaved or washed his hair for a few days, and his tired eyes have this resigned expression as if to say, “I’ve been through some sh**.” And we’re not the only ones disturbed and con-

fused by this dude. Sean Ramsey writes on his blog: “It may be just me, but theTrivago guy looks like he’s been on a three-day non-stop party binge, or at least been sitting at a bar with a glass of whiskey two weeks after his wife left him.” Mommy blogger Karen Hug-Nagy writes: “My daughter and I googled the Trivago Guy last night because he gets on our nerves every time he’s on.Turns out there’s a ton of stuff out there and we are not the only ones who are mortiﬁed by the mere sight of this guy. This is the kind of dude you want to keep your daughter far away from…What middle-aged guy has a 20” waistline? And why is his torso so long? I don’t get it.” Not surprisingly, someone has already set up a parody Twitter account @ TrivagoGuy. “Hi,Trivago Guy here. I’m on your TV, could be in your closet, backyard creeping in your window, I don’t know.” No word yet on who the real Trivago Guy is or why such a dishevelled dude was chosen as its spokesperson. But as soon as we ﬁnd out, we’ll let you know. Unless he murders us in our sleep, which is entirely possible. twitter.com/KudosKvetches

F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Arts&Entertainment

Fierce fundraiser planned

Winner of the 2012 Canada Reads contest owed $60,000 Andrew Fleming

aﬂeming@vancourier.com

Imagine you wrote a bestselling autobiography but barely earned a penny from it.While this may seem like it would be limited to deceased or possibly incarcerated authors, it is a grim reality for Vancouver-based theatre artist and writer Carmen Aguirre. In 2012, her debut book Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter won the popular CBC’s Canada Reads contest where ﬁve prominent Canadians champion ﬁve different books. It consequently received a considerable bump in sales, perhaps even more than winners typically do after Quebec panelist Anne-France Goldwater made the bizarre accusation the Chilean-born author was “a bloody terrorist” for having been part of the resistance movement against the genocidal regime of General Augusto Pinochet as a teenager. Unfortunately, Aguirre’s publisher Douglas & McIntyre went bankrupt shortly afterward with more than $6 million still owing to authors and other creditors. “I did get a small sum up front to write the book, but then after it won Canada Reads it was on the bestseller list all across the

Vancouver’s artistic community hosts a “Gran Malón in Solidarity” for Carmen Aguirre who’s still owed $60,000 in royalties from her best-selling book Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter.

country,” said Aguirre, a 40-something single mother of a young son. “Basically I was owed $60,000 in royalties that I never saw and the bulk of it is from that year, from 2012. It was very hard to say the least.” Although Random House is republishing the book, it’s unlikely to earn anything close to the buzz-generated royalties of two years ago. Which is why a diverse mix of people fromVancouver’s artistic community is hoping to raise the missing 60 grand themselves at a special “Gran Malón in Solidarity” fundraiser June 9 at Heritage Hall. Gran Malón is a Chilean term that originally referred to raids by indigenous people on their Spanish conquerors but has since come to simply mean a big party that takes over someone’s house.The night will feature readings and performances by Aguirre

as well as Lucia Frangione, Leanna Brodie, Carmen Rodriguez and Jovanni Sy. As with any large gathering with a high number of Latinos present, there will also be music and dancing. Aguirre’s high-proﬁle advocate during CBC’s 2012 battle of the books, hip hop artist Shad, is one of many local artists who plans on attending. “It was very tough to hear when Carmen gave me the news,” he told the Courier. “I hope the community can come together and ﬁgure something out. It’s a cool concept and I like the spirit behind it.” Shad knows a thing or two about what it’s like to have a sudden surge in public interest in your work — and what it might be like to not see the related pay cheque — after winning a Juno for best rap album

over more heavily favoured fellow artist Drake in 2011. “There was just more of a general interest in what I was doing,” said Shad. “That’s what these kinds of things are there for, to increase your profile and get your [stuff] out there more. Hopefully there are enough people who have been moved by the book to help out. Certainly enough people have read it.” Despite being burned by the book business on her first attempt, Aguirre is nonetheless working on a follow-up. “The new book is called Mexican Hooker Number One,” she said. “It’s a memoir that takes off where Something Fierce left off and that’ll be published by Random House in the next couple of years.” Tickets to the event can be purchased or donations made at eventbrite.ca. twitter.com/flematic

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

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Seemingly on the plus side, Jupiter, planet of great good fortune, enters Leo July 16. Leo stands for gamblers and speculators, so they should normally be lucky. But “16” is the number of destruction….

Just in time for Father’s Day, we’re giving away two Samsung Galaxy Tablets (total value, $700) as well as an R&B Brewing Co. keg of beer and swag (value, $150). Plus, watch our exclusive how-to hair video, read about one Vancouver blogger’s top city spots and more.

Start nothing major, new. Reprise the past. It’s another busy week of errands, travel, communications. Recheck plans, examine details (addresses on envelopes, money ﬁgures on cheques, etc.). Make a “To Do” list before leaving the house, or you’re sure to forget something you wanted to accomplish.

Start nothing new before July 1, Libra. That includes relationships, travel, career, and, especially, law suits, educational courses, written material and creative work. Neither make nor accept promises. Your charisma shines Sunday; a “destined” ﬁnancial or sexual doorway might sit open. Remember, only the past, or something already begun; otherwise, it will not pass an ethical or legal test down the road.)

Remember, start no big new ventures or projects before July 1 and buy nothing signiﬁcant, unless it’s something you wanted and examined in past months/years. (The time for this will be June 17 to 30, rather than this week.) Meanwhile, protect ongoing projects from confusion, delays, misunderstood communications, etc.

Start nothing new before July 1, Scorpio, especially in legal, travel, publishing, educational, cultural, or ﬁnancial, sexual zones. Sign NOTHING. You’re weary Sunday — rest, dream and contemplate — you might discover that you do, after all, love that person. Your energy and charisma roar back Monday/Tuesday. Tackle matters that seemed too big or daunting before.

Your charisma, energy, upbeat mood and conﬁdence are at a yearly high, Gemini. But June is a month for the past and if you clear away past matters, you’ll make room for the future (which starts in July). I’m a Gemini, and I have many past matters to complete: two tax returns, a building application, selling a property on the east coast, etc. You, too, probably have a pile of “long ago to-do’s.” Now’s the perfect time to tackle them.

Avoid new projects, relationships and purchases before July 1. Instead, protect ongoing ventures from delays, missed appointments, supply shortages, etc. You might proﬁtably reprise an investment you wanted in the past, or re-arrange debt (careful here: frying pan into the ﬁre might apply) or resume a former relationship (more likely after June 16). Sunday’s friendly, optimistic and happy.

Start nothing big, new, important before July 1. Meanwhile, reprise projects from the past and protect ongoing ventures. Have a “Plan B” ready in case you encounter supply shortages, missed meetings, delays, second thoughts, etc. Stick with old, faithful friends. Most of all, rest, contemplate, meditate, answer government queries, or deal with institutions.

Avoid new relationships and starting new projects in June, Cap. Instead, protect ongoing ventures from delays, indecisions, second-guessing, supply shortages, etc. Have a “Plan B” ready. This “going backwards” period (all June) will affect you most obviously at work, and with machinery, tools, service people and dependents, especially during the second half. This week, it might affect relationships and agreements.

Start no new projects or relationships before July 1. They would expire in knots of indecision, delay and adverse circumstance. Almost in contradiction to this advice, your hopes and optimism sail high right now. Let this be optimism about life in general (because it will grow very fortunate after July) and about a possible former project or relationship that you are tempted to resurrect.

June’s romantic, beautiful nature charms, kids please, and your creative and speculative sides rise to sweet heights. But don’t start a new relationship, nor a new “creation” of any kind before July. Instead, protect ongoing links and projects. An old ﬂame might revive (more likely after June 16). Not the best time to take up an unﬁnished creative work, even if it is from the past: you’d likely grow even more confused with it.

Start nothing before July 1, especially in career, business, prestige areas, and in working with groups. Instead, protect ongoing projects from delays, missed meetings, supply shortages, second thoughts, etc. In some cases, seizing a past venture can be a good idea. In fact, you might be “forced” to do so. (E.g., the boss might ask you to temporarily assume a former job role or you might revive a formerly proﬁtable business.

Avoid new projects and relationships before July 1, Pisces. Meanwhile, protect ongoing projects from delays, supply shortages, missed appointments, etc. Have a “Plan B” ready. The general accent is on home, security, real estate, and foundational issues. It’s a good time to study/revise your retirement plans, examine your children’s progress, etc. A “prodigal kid” might return home or call. Though the chance is rare, an old ﬂame might reappear.

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TRAVEL & LEISURE

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F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Today’shomes YoungVancouver families plan to ﬁnance kids’ mortgages in the future Emma Crawford Hampel ecrawford@biv.com

ManyVancouver children can look forward getting a leg up from their parents when it comes time to buy their first homes, according to a BlueShore Financial report released June 3. A survey of families around the Lower Mainland found that 76 per cent of parents intend to help their children with their mortgages.The most common method of doing so is providing them with a loan for a down payment.The most common amount that survey respondents said they would spend was between $100,000 and $199,000. “This survey confirmed what we are seeing: an increasing number of our clients want to assist their children with home financing,” said BlueShore Financial president and CEO Chris Catliff.

This trend will place an increasing burden on the parents’ finances.The survey found that in the past, helping kids with buying homes did not have a negative impact on parents’ financial situations but the most common amount spent was less than $25,000 — only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of dollars young families expect to spend — and those with children today expect that it will cause some form of hardship. “This points to a need for financial planning. Both parents and children who are looking to buy a home need a strategy to achieve this goal without sacrificing their long-term financial wellness.” More than half of all respondents (58 per cent) said that if they don’t help their kids this way, home-buying will be delayed. twitter.com/EmmaHampelBIV

Metro Vancouver home prices rise 4.3 per cent in past year Glen Korstrom

gkorstrom@biv.com

Strong sales and demand for properties pushed the benchmark Metro Vancouver home price up to $624,000 in May – 4.3 per cent more than a year ago, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) announced June 3. Detached homes led the way, rising to $966,500, or 5.4 per cent more than a year ago. Other home classes also rose but to a lesser degree. Apartment prices, for example, were up 3.2 per cent year-over-year to $377,500 whereas other attached properties had an average price increase of 3.1 per cent, putting the benchmark home price for those homes at $469,100, according to the REBGV. “There’s more home buyer demand today than at any point over the last three years,” said REBGV president Ray Harris. Indeed, the fuel that ignited the price hikes was sales

There’s more home buyer demand today than at any point over the last three years. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

that outpaced new listings. Buyers snapped up 3,286 homes in May, or 14 per cent more than a year ago. New listings, in contrast, rose ﬁve per cent year-overyear to 5,656. This meant that a key indicator of market strength, known as the sales-to-active-listings ratio, rose 0.7 percentage points to 20.4 per cent.This is the ﬁrst time that this ratio has been

Kitsilano Neighbourhood House

above 20% since June 2011. Conventional real estate wisdom is that a market is considered to be a buyers’ market when the sales-to-active-listings ratio is below 13 per cent. A balanced market exists when the ratio is between 13% and about 21 per cent, Harris explained. It is then considered a sellers’ market when the ratio is above 21 per cent for at least a few months, he added.

To get a sense of how much of an upward trajectory the trend-line has been for the sales-to-active-listings ratio, the indicator was as low as eight per cent in September 2012. There remains room for sales to accelerate given that last month’s sales were still 6.5 per cent below the 10-year sales average for the month of May. twitter.com/GlenKorstrom

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

SALES BEGIN EARLY JUNE

TRANQUIL SUITES ABOVE ENERGETIC STREETS Rising high over the shopping, dining and entertainment of Downtown Metrotown, the homes at Station Square are a private retreat from the energy of the street. Smart ﬂoor plans, stunning views, up to 9-foot ceilings, European kitchens and spa-like bathrooms foster a sense of calm satisfaction. Five storeys above the street, almost an acre of green space, ﬁtness, wellness and entertainment options await. Downtime or Downtown? You can have both — no decision required.

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F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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The Courier presentsVancouver’s Elite Graduating Athletes of 2014

TylerVogrig PAST

RICHMOND ROADRUNNERS / BURNABY LAKERS

PRESENT

VANCOUVER TECHNICAL TURF FIELD

FUTURE

NCAA DIV. 1 HIGH POINT UNIVERSITY PANTHERS

e may have an innate ability to find the open man or the back of the net, but Tyler Vogrig doesn’t play on instinct alone. He thinks before he acts. “I try to use my brain more than my size,” said Vogrig, 18, who set a scoring record for B.C. Intermediate Lacrosse in his final year with the “A” Richmond Roadrunners. He scored 69 goals and added 50 assists for 119 points in 18 games with the box lacrosse team. Never the biggest competitor in the game, the five-footnine lacrosse forward has learned where to target the weakest defenders and when to strike. “He scores in just about every fashion possible,” said Roadrunners coach Greg Rennie, who has reviewed hours of game footage withVogrig. “He’s small, so you don’t expect him to be as gritty as he is or go inside as often.Tyler really feeds off success.” Vogrig followed his older brother Ryan into lacrosse.Together they play at parks near their home and every few days after school Vogrig visits the turf field at Van Tech to shoot on an empty net. He plays on the right and knows his brother will be on the other side of the crease. “I always tell him to put his stick up and I’ll put the ball right there, wherever he wants it,” said the younger forward. “I just know where he’s going to be.” At 16,Vogrig was selected first overall by the Junior “A” Burnaby Lakers in the midget entry draft for a league generally reserved for players aged 18 to 21. The Lakers made moves to sign Vogrig’s older brother before the draft, said Burnaby general manager Brad Hera. “It’s like trading to get the Sedins together,” he said. In eight games so far,Vogrig has 12 goals and 18 assists. In August,Vogrig will move to North Carolina to play field lacrosse in the NCAA Division 1 with the High Point University Panthers in the Atlantic Sun Conference. “He plays the game at another speed,” Coach Jon Torpey said. “If you look at his stats, they speak for themselves.” On top of his record number of points,Vogrig has a hard, accurate shot, hands as fast as his feet and the confidence to fend off aggressors in a violent sport. “Everyone says he’s too small to take it to the next level,” said Rennie, the Roadrunners coach. “But he keeps going to the next level. — MEGAN STEWART

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

Sports&Recreation

Paddling centre nearly afloat Join us for Relay For Life Vancouver 2014! Relay is an inspirational, noncompetitive, 12-hour overnight fundraising event that brings you and your community together to celebrate life and fight back against cancer. Saturday, June 21 • 6pm-6am Killarney Park,Vancouver relayforlife.ca/vancouver

CELEBRATE

REMEMBER

FIGHT BACK

For 25 years, dragon boating has ﬂourished despite limited facilities

Christopher Cheung

chrischcheung@hotmail.com

Dragon boating and False Creek have gone hand in hand since Expo 86 when the first boats were launched in front of a world audience. Despite the popularity of water sports like dragon boating, kayaking and rowing on False Creek, there is still no designated, permanent paddling facility. Gary Tang was first introduced to dragon boating in 2006 as a member of Eternal Dragon, a team formed at Eric Hamber secondary.Today, he coaches the school program and is a member of One West, a competitive adult team. Teams like Tang’s make use of False Creek and Creekside community centres, but the facilities aren’t expansive enough or specifically designed to accommodate a high number of paddlers. Lockers, parking, showers and meeting space are limited. Larger equipment is kept outside in storage bins. “Once we stuffed seven backpacks in one locker,” said Tang. The Dragon Zone Paddling Club, operated by the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society, is run out of a single office at Creekside.The

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Give your budding soccer star a chance to kick it with the ‘Caps this summer. Work with Whitecaps FC coaching staff, meet ’Caps players, get a camp t-shirt and club poster. For boys and girls U-6 to U-13 July 7 – 11, 1-3 p.m., Trafalgar July 28 – Aug. 1, 1-3 p.m., Trafalgar August 11 – 15, 9-11 a.m., Clinton August 25 – 29, 9-11 a.m., Trafalgar

Eternal Dragon, a dragon boat team from Hamber secondary, prepares for practice at the False Creek Community Centre on June 4. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

club functions separately from the community centre and manages groups who paddle on the water. The Festival Society hosts hundreds of international competitors and an estimated 90,000 spectators for the annual three-day Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival. The festival began in 1989 and happens June 20 to 22 this year. The busiest evening practices see 10 to 15 teams on the water at once.That’s more than 300 people using the cramped storage. Gear such as life jackets and extra paddles are stashed in steel

storage containers near the docks. Portions of the north end of False Creek remain the largest undeveloped land in the downtown peninsula. The False Creek North Ofﬁcial Development Plan was underway nearly 25 years ago when, in 1990, discussion began about land use. Concord Paciﬁc submitted a rezoning application in December 2007 to develop the north shore of False Creek and promised a $4.2 million paddling centre. That promise is close to being realized. An open house for the proposed permanent

paddling centre was held yesterday (after the Courier’s print deadline).The centre is intended to accommodate all paddlers. But not all groups — notably rowers — believe there is space to include them. Ann Phelps, general manager of the Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Society, said discussion about a paddling centre has persisted for the past 20 years. Her sport stands to beneﬁt. “We’re lucky that civic leaders recognize this need by all the users of the creek,” said Phelps. City council has yet to decide when they will debate rezoning the north side of False Creek, the large empty lot owned by Concord Paciﬁc across from the proposed paddling centre, but the paddling community is already circulating a petition to sway councilors to vote in favour. Tang, the Hamber alum and coach, loves the unique sense of community dragon boating offers. “You make a lot of friends and everybody says hi to each other because, unlike other sports, you’re forced to be close and sit beside someone in a boat,” he said. “Friends invite friends onto teams and it’s the networking aspect that has helped the sport grow a lot in recent years.” twitter.com/chrischeungtogo

F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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today’sdrive

Nissan won drivers over with weird designs Brendan McAleer

brendanmcaleer@gmail.com

In the 1980s, Nissan had something of a problem. Japanese consumers of the ’80s were ﬂush with cash and looking for something with a bit more zip.This was especially true of younger buyers, who took one look at the efﬁcient Nissan March, and promptly headed for the nearest Honda dealership. Nissan needed something interesting.The result was four of the weirdest cars the world has ever seen. In the 1960s, Japanese culture was as buttoned-down as America’s was in the ’50s. Conservatism was the order of the day, and anyone with a wild spark in their eyes tended to head for California. One such young man was Nakao Sakai, an art school graduate who had become fascinated by the underground world of Japanese tattooing.The subject was taboo in rigorous Japanese society, and there was also little place for it in mainstream American society.

The two-seater Figaro was the third car Sakai designed for Nissan.

However, in the wild, freespirited San Francisco of the 1960s, Sakai found his own California gold rush. He began printingT-shirts with his tattoo-based designs, and the public couldn’t get enough of them — at one point, he claims to have been making $300,000 a month. It didn’t last, of course, but you wonder if some of that California spirit seeped into Sakai’s consciousness to eventually inform the cars he would go on to design. Decades later, Sakai was working out of his

own studio when he was approached by Nissan to develop a car. It was to be a concept, one of three shown at the 1987 Tokyo Motor Show.The ﬁrst was called Prototype A and it was designed by Nissan’s in-house department.The third was called Prototype B2, styled by an Italian group. Sakai’s car was called Prototype B1, and it was an instant hit. It was so popular Nissan elected to put it into production under the name Be-1.They arranged for a subcontractor, the Aichi

Machine Industry plant, to hand-assemble the bodies and based the car on the humble March.They called the project “Pike Factory.” The Be-1 was probably the ﬁrst retro-styled car. Compact and cute, it had round headlights like an old British car, a cartoon-sized white speedometer and colour-matched interior panelling. Power, to use the term in its loosest possible sense, came from a 987cc single-overhead-cam, eightvalve four-cylinder engine. It made 52hp and came with either a ﬁve-speed manual transmission or a three-speed automatic. Happily, the Be-1 also weighed less than 1500lbs, which meant it was actually sort of interesting to drive. If you’ve ever zipped around in an original Micra, then you already know the feeling: feeble but fun. The quirky looks, low price, inexpensive operating costs, and cheap insurance all combined to make the Be-1 the hottest car to have in the late 1980s.The Pike Factory

would only build 10,000 of them, but they received orders for at least 100,000. A lottery had to be set in place — you couldn’t just buy a Be-1, you had to win the chance to pay for one. Given the success of their experiment, Nissan decided to go ahead and have Sakai design two more vehicles for them, both still based off the Micra platform.The first was the Pao. Most common of all the Pike Factory cars, the Pao is weird in the best way possible. Supposed to look a bit like a Renault 4, it has stamped-looking sheetmetal like a VW Thing, a clamshell rear hatchback, external door hinges and rear side windows that flip up. Like the Be-1, the Pao was immensely popular and sold out in three months. The one to have was probably the five-speed manual, and the press materials of the time show this plucky little car venturing among dinosaurs in a Lost World setting or fording through deep snow drifts.Wishful

thinking, I’m afraid, what with the 12” wheels and miniscule ground clearance. Still, it’s absolutely adorable — a puggish, puckish car that’s as cheap to run as its moreconservative Micra cousin. The third car Sakai would design for Nissan was the Figaro, a compact two-seater with a retractable roof in the style of a modern Fiat 500 convertible. Svelte and stylish, the Figaro is more polished than its stablemates, but is also hilariously small. Twenty thousand Figaros were built, and again a lottery was required to get into one. However, it was the car’s second life that became really interesting, as greymarket examples made their way to the UK, where a cult following sprang up. All four Pike Factory cars were built between 1987 and 1991, and thus they’re all importable into Canada under grey-market rules. If you’ve got a sense of humour, it’s all too easy to ﬁnd a little extra garage space for one.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 6 , 2 0 1 4

WEEKLY SPECIALS Prices Effective June 5 to June 11, 2014.

While quantities last. Not all items available at all stores. We reserve the right to correct printing errors.

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2.98

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354ml product of USA

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13.99

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20% off regular retail price

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