Vancouver Courier January 30 2020

12TH & CAMBIE THE MAYOR SAYS HE’S READY FOR A BREAKOUT YEAR 4 NEWS WHY MORE DRUG USERS ARE SEEKING OUT FENTANYL 5 SHAKEDOWN THE BLACK HALOS ARE BACK FROM THE GRAVE 18 PASS IT TO BULIS SPORTS IT’S CRUNCH TIME FOR THE CANUCKS 19

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

THURSDAY

January 30 2020 Established 1908

There’s more online at vancourier.com

Up and coming

Everyone’s an expert when it comes to critiquing Vancouver architecture and the buildings that will be dotting the city’s skyline in the years to come. SEE PAGE 14

Local News, Local Matters I

18

2655 Main Street, Vancouver | 604-879-8930 | info@planetbingo.ca | www.planetbingo.ca

38

N

B

13

9

HAVE FUN! WIN BIG!

B

Friday, January 31ST | 7-9PM

67

30,000 Super Session

G

54

0

5

ES GAMTING R STA T $5 A

$

72 0 G

I

23

59

THE VA NCOU VE R COUR IER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

MOVE IN NOW

EXTRAORDINARY PARKSIDE HOMES HOMES FROM $1,919,900 GST INCLUDED 2 BED + DEN & 3 BED HOMES FROM 1,594 SQFT

langara golf course langara trail w 59 th ave winona park

Open House Saturday & Sunday 2:00-4:00 PM 375 West 59th Avenue Info@BelparkLiving.com · 604.358.8208

BelparkLiving.com The Developer reserves the right to make changes, modifications or substitutions to the building design, specifications and floorplans should they be necessary. Renderings, views and layout are for illustrative purposes only. Prices subject to change without notice. E.&O.E. Sales and Marketing by Intracorp Realty Ltd. Intracorp Belpark Limited Partnership.

columbia st

BELPARK OFFERS SOPHISTICATED LIVING NEXT TO WINONA PARK ON TREE-LINED 59TH AVENUE, STEPS FROM MARINE GATEWAY AND ALL OF THE AMENITIES OF SOUTH CAMBIE. THESE SPACIOUS HOMES FIT FULL-SIZED FURNITURE INSIDE AND OUT, AND FEATURE GOURMET KITCHENS WITH GAGGENAU APPLIANCE PACKAGES. THIS IS YOUR PERFECT VANCOUVER WESTSIDE ADDRESS.

cambie st

A2

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

WEEKLY SPECIALS! Prices Effective January 30 to February 5, 2020.

100% BC OWNED AND OPERATED

Wild Sockeye Salmon Fillets

All Packaged Herbs

Fair Trade Organic Large Hass Avocados

Value Pack

15% off

1399/lb

14-28g

30.84/kg

2 for 400 each

Kerrisdale’s 20th Anniversary Organic California Grown Red and Gold Bunch Beets

2/400

Saturday, February 1st 1888 W 57th Ave.

Come and join us in celebrating our 20th Anniversary. We will be serving cake and coffee and offering many in-store specials.

10% OFF

Entire store including sale items.

February 1st only!

New Roots Vitamins & Supplements

Farmcrest Roasted Chickens

Assorted Varieties Regular Price 1.43-103.99

1399

25% off

each

assorted sizes

Silver Hills Organic Sprouted Power Tortillas

Olympic Yogurt Assorted Varieties

255g

2/600 2/800 Krema & Natural 500 & 650g

Organic, Greek & Krema 650g

Kitsilano | Cambie | Kerrisdale | Yaletown Commercial Drive | Burnaby Crest

choicesmarkets.com

/ChoicesMarkets

Select Varieties Regular Price 4.99 - 33.49

40% off assorted sizes

Nuts to You Organic Almond Butter Select Varieties

Assorted Varieties

399

Andalou Naturals Face, Body and Hair Care Products

@ChoicesMarkets

/Choices_Markets

1199 365g

SEE IN-STORE FOR HUNDREDS OF GREAT DEALS THIS WEEK!

A3

A4

THE VA NCOU VE R COUR IER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

News 12TH & CAMBIE

Mayor looking for breakthrough year in 2020 Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

Vancouver city council’s first public meetings of 2020 occurred last week.

That meant your mayor — Kennedy Stewart — and his agenda were back in the council chamber for all to see and hear.

So what’s his plan, you ask, for these next 12 months? Well, if you’ve heard him speak this month — as I did at city hall and in an alley in South Vancouver after a news conference — he’s hoping for a breakthrough year for Vancouver.

Aren’t we all.

A breakthrough for the mayor would mean substantial investments from the province and the feds for housing.

It would mean a financial commitment from the feds to extend the yet-to-be-built Broadway subway from Arbutus to the University of B.C. He’s also looking to the feds to allow a widespread “safe supply” drug program for chronic drug users, a move that Stewart believes would reduce users’ reliance

on dangerous street drugs laced with fentanyl.

He also wants a pony for every man, woman and child in the city.

I joke.

But the mayor’s oft-repeated agenda of housing, transit and opioids appears to be catching some fire with the feds, according to Stewart, who boasted of the access he’s getting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet ministers.

“I have to say the access that both the prime minister and deputy prime minister [Chrystia Freeland] are affording me is a bit overwhelming,” he said. “I mean if I send a text, I get a response that day.”

Same goes for access to Premier John Horgan and his cabinet ministers, including Housing Minister Selina Robinson, whom he joined two weeks ago at a news conference to announce a 102-unit affordable housing project.

The mayor has said previously he believes the agendas of the NDP-led provincial government and Liberal-led federal government align

Kennedy Stewart looks forward to new year. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

closely with his priorities.

He’s talked — as he did this month — about how there is a window open right now to get investments from senior levels of government, knowing full well that Trudeau and Horgan won’t be in power forever.

Readers well know what the mayor thinks about the Conservatives after he publicly stated during the recent federal election campaign that Tory leader Andrew Scheer would be “a disaster for the city” if elected prime minister.

“It’s the first window, I would say, we’ve had in a long time,” Stewart said of his relationships with province and the feds. “I guess we have some benefit that both federal and provincial elections are

Notice of Development Permit Board Meeting

Permit Board Meeting DP 19036: The Conservatory

Join us on Tuesday, February 4th for a meeting of the UBC Development Permit Board to review The Conservatory, a proposed market residential 20-storey tower and 3-storey townhouse development in Wesbrook Place at the corner of Binning Road and Berton Avenue.

Date: Tuesday,February4th,2020 Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Place: Social Room, Wesbrook Community Centre, 3335 Webber Lane

Members of the community are invited to attend.

imminent — provincially perhaps sooner than the federal.

But [the NDP and federal Liberals] are going to have to show they delivered, and this is the period where money has to land.”

With Trudeau and Freeland a text away, Stewart also pointed out that federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu visited the Insite supervised injection site with him this month.

The mayor met with all of the city’s MPs last week, too.

In the fall, he was in Ottawa after Trudeau’s re-election to meet with the prime minister and several of his ministers, including Catherine McKenna, the federal minister responsible for transit funding.

As you’ve probably heard, Stewart wants the feds to hand over $4 billion to extend the yet-to-be-built Broadway subway/SkyTrain from Arbutus to the University of B.C. That is correct — $4 billion.

Stewart took to Twitter after his meeting with McKenna, saying he was grateful to the minister for meeting with him on the first morning of her new role. “Totally agree that transit investment is one of best ways to combat climate change,” he tweeted, complete with a photo of him and McKenna smiling.

“Looking forward to building more transit together.”

The Liberals are on record of supporting a permanent transit fund for Metro Vancouver. What that translates to in dollars is not a number I’ve seen since the re-election of the Trudeau government.

With all that goodwill between Stewart and governments, the assumption would be that Vancouver will be in a better place on housing, transit and the opioid crisis by year’s end.

But that’s an assumption

BUYING GLASSES IS A RIP OFF As a consumer, you don’t stand a chance. Don’t be ripped off.

LEARN MORE

Project Information: To learn more about the development permitting process or view project documentation, please visit Projects + Consultations page on the the Campus + Community Planning website.

For Further Information: Please direct questions to Karen Russell, Manager, Development Services karen.russell@ubc.ca 604-822-1586

based solely on the political warmth the mayor says he’s receiving from Victoria and Ottawa.

Or maybe he’s receiving more than that and not saying.

In the meantime, the facts: • The city is behind in its targets to build housing for lower to middle income earners.

• Homelessness is at an all-time high, with 2,223 people counted last March.

• More than 900 people died of drug overdoses in Vancouver since 2017.

• The $4-billion ask for a SkyTrain extension from Arbutus to UBC remains just that — a very expensive ask that competes with other cities across Canada looking to build out their transit systems.

The mayor laughed at my understatement of a statement that he had a lot of work to do this year to go beyond the handshakes and smiles with the provincial and federal big hitters.

I’ve marked my calendar to follow up with Stewart in December. Perhaps we could do the interview on a couple of ponies.

Get 3 pairs of glasses for $199

Now you have a choice!

glassesripoff.ca

Come to Great Glasses for a fantastic selection of eyewear at reasonable prices.

VANCOUVER MAPLE RIDGE LANGLEY CHILLIWACK

1754 West Broadway 778-379-5747 18–20691 Lougheed Hwy 604-457-1184 C101–20159 88th Ave 778-298-0341 1–45695 Hocking Ave 604-392-2237

GREATGLASSES3FOR1.COM

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A5

News

Drug users say fentanyl gives better high than heroin Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

New research from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control that suggests people are knowingly using fentanyl in B.C. is not surprising news for the president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

Lorna Bird, who is in recovery from a heroin addiction, said the reason behind drug users’ preference for the potent synthetic opioid is simple: the high is better than heroin.

“A lot of people don’t even want the heroin anymore, they’d rather have the fentanyl — they get higher,” Bird told the Courier by telephone Monday from the VANDU office on East Hastings.

Bird then passed the phone to a 39-year-old woman named Delilah, a heroin user for 16 years, who said she continues to buy heroin but knows it can be laced with fentanyl.

“It’s stronger, and it helps,” she said, adding that she’s overdosed a couple of times, but believes she’s developed a tolerance for the drugs.

“It’s dangerous, but [the dealers] usually let us know.

We just do a little amount of it, that’s all.”

Delilah’s experience and the findings of the new research is in contrast to government, health agency and police campaigns that say fentanyl the size of a grain of salt can kill a person.

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control study, which was released Jan. 24 and published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, concluded researchers don’t fully understand the factors that contribute to people knowingly taking fentanyl.

However, Delilah’s insight about tolerance and Bird’s assessment about preference are in line with some of the study’s findings, with another factor being the drug’s widespread availability in the street drug supply.

The study’s lead author, Mohammad Karamouzian, a PhD student at the University of B.C.’s School of Population and Public Health, said he was shocked by the number of users saying they knowingly used fentanyl.

“Before we got the results,

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control study says drug users are knowingly using fentanyl. PHOTO COURTESY OF VPD

we honestly didn’t expect this,” Karamouzian said.

“The general narrative is that most exposure to fentanyl is unintentional, people don’t know what’s in their drugs.

All of our public education campaigns and messaging has been ‘be careful, there’s fentanyl out there.’”

The study drew on data collected from 303 drug users recruited from 27 harm reduction sites in B.C., including Vancouver. Each participant completed a brief survey and provided a urine sample that researchers tested for fentanyl and

other substances.

Sixty per cent of users had fentanyl detected in their urine. Of those people, 64 per cent knew they had taken fentanyl. A similar study in 2015 found 29 per cent of participants tested positive for fentanyl, with only 27 per cent aware they’d use the drug.

The overdose death crisis in B.C., which has claimed more than 4,800 lives since the beginning of 2016, has been linked largely to fentanyl, which doctors say is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

The B.C. Coroners Service’s most recent data indicated 85 per cent of deaths between January and October 2019 involved fentanyl alone, or in combination with other substances.

Sgt. Aaron Roed, a Vancouver police media relations officer, said he hadn’t read the study from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. But Roed noted the department will continue its campaign to warn users about the dangers of fentanyl.

“Someone who is not using it and does come into contact with it and ingests, touches, absorbs fentanyl in some way, it could have lifethreatening consequences for that person,” Roed said.

A Vancouver police report on the opioid crisis posted to the department’s website in December 2019 said seven officers were exposed to opioids and four required the overdosereversing drug, naloxone, be administered.

For drug users, Roed encouraged them to fully understand the make-up of the drugs they are using, and to use with another

person present, preferably in an injection site to lessen the risk of overdose.

Police Chief Adam Palmer, doctors, politicians and firefighters have warned the public in various campaigns since 2014 about the dangers of fentanyl use.

Police first detected fentanyl at the Insite injection site in the fall of 2014, when an unusually high number of people overdosed. Overdose deaths increased from 368 that year to 1,542 in 2018, the last year for most recent data.

Dr. Jane Buxton, an epidemiologist and harm reduction lead at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, said in a news release last week that making users aware of the presence of fentanyl in the drug supply “isn’t enough.”

“We need harm reduction services, substance use treatment, overdose prevention resources and pharmaceutical alternatives to the toxic drug supply to reduce the devastating impact of fentanyl and its analogues on our communities,” she said. @Howellings

February Events at Legacy February 11th, 2:30 to 3:30 pm Learning Session: Heart Health Presented by Home Instead Senior Care. Pre-registration required by February 9th.

Valentine’s Day Dinnerr

F m Friday, February 14th - One Seating 5:00 pm Adult Guests: $50.00

Join us for an elegant evening of exquisite dining with a Chef inspired four course dinner. Following dinner, relax to the soothing vocal talents of Baritone Brandon Thornhill accompanied by Glen Stevenson on the piano.

Reservations are required by February 12th.

February 13th, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm Health Arts Society Music Concert. featuring classical guitarist Louise Southwood. Please call to reserve your seat.

February 25th, 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm Learning Session: Neuropathy & Exercise Presented by My Home Rehab Inc. Pre-registration is required by February 23rd.

For more information, please visit our website.

611 West 41st Avenue

604.240.8550

www.legacyseniorliving.com

Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/legacyseniorlivingvancouver

THE VA NCOU VE R COUR IER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

Renew Your Smile

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

KERRISDALE DENTURE CLINIC

Giao Le, Denturist 201 - 2152 W 41st Avenue, Vancouver

604-263-7478

kerrisdaledentureclinic.com

COME IN A FOR A COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION

Complete Dentures | Partial Dentures | Relines I Repairs I Cleaning & Polishing

JANUARY CLEARANCE SALE Selected Rugs

$

6x9

499

8x10

$

799

9x12

$

899

Now’s the perfect time to take advantage of exceptional savings on select contemporary carpets from our main showroom collection. All at 50 to 70% off our regular price.

Limited quantities.

News

Park board breaks ground on Yaletown resident interrupts press conference with jeers and complaints from his highrise apartment John Kurucz

jkurucz@vancourier.com

Five years and $14 million later, Yaletown’s newest park is a go.

Park board commissioners and staff convened on the intersection of Smithe and Richards streets Jan. 17 to break ground on the asyet-unnamed greenspace, which will be the first new park built in the southern portion of downtown since Emery Barnes Park’s completion in 2012.

Slated to open early next year, the park is intended to serve the ever-growing mass of humanity in Yaletown and southern downtown — an estimated 30,000 people live within a fiveminute walk of the park, though that number swells to 100,000 people within a 10-minute walk.

“We expect this distinctive, multi-layered park will

City’s second homicide of the year was a targeted hit

East India Carpets DISTINCTIVE DESIGNS SINCE 1948

1606 West 2nd at Fir Armoury District Vancouver beside Provide Home and Ann Sacks Mon-Sat 10-5:30 Sun 12-5:00 604 736 5681 eastindiacarpets.com

A 31-year-old Richmond native who appears to be the victim of a targeted hit in South Vancouver over the weekend has been identified by Vancouver police.

Mathieu Flynn was found dead in a vehicle in the parking lot of Marine Gateway Cineplex near Southwest Marine Drive just before 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 18.

No arrests have been made, though Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin confirmed Saturday’s incident involved foul play.

become a haven for nearby workers at lunchtime and an oasis of green for residents living nearby,” said Shauna Wilton, the park board’s deputy general manager.

The park’s price tag comes in at $13.8 million, funds that will be covered entirely by community amenity contributions via Westbank and other development cost levies.

Planning for the park began in 2015 and the five-year gap in those intervening years has pushed construction costs up, according to a city staff report.

That delay didn’t sit well with at least one nearby resident, who rained profanities down on the press conference from across the street in his Richards Street highrise.

“Come on, you lazy bureaucrats,” was by far the tamest comment from the resident.

The park will be divided

across three terraces and is slated to include a myriad of features seldom seen in other Vancouver parks, including “overhead sky frames” — translation: elevated walkways that will provide some relief from the elements, along with two suspended hammocks.

Other elements include: • a public plaza with a water feature that will reuse potable water for irrigation and toilets • a community table, seating terraces • a rainwater infiltration channel • paintings and trees to provide buffer and shade from nearby buildings and traffic • a playground area and fully accessible trails • overhead lighting and art installations or banners • public toilets A small café will be built to serve as the park’s anchor near Smithe and Richards streets, which, according to a park board press release, will serve to “activate the public space and provide passive oversight.”

Rarely a week goes by without the Courier receiving

“We just want to put the public at ease,” Visintin told reporters. “Investigators do believe this was a targeted incident. We believe there’s no risk to the public.”

Visintin said Flynn was known to police.

No arrests have been made in Flynn’s case, and investigators haven’t released the cause of death. “As you can imagine the parkade was heavily populated with vehicles and people,” Visintin said. “We believe that there are people that have information that could help detectives solve this homicide.”

Police are asking anyone with dash cam footage or

those who have vehicles equipped with factory video surveillance (specifically from a Tesla) who were inside the parking garage at 452 Southwest Marine Dr. between 6 and 8:30 p.m. on Saturday to contact homicide detectives at 604-717-2500.

A day after Flynn’s death, a 45-year-old woman was found dead inside her home at 112 Water St., just after 1:30 a.m. Sunday.

The first murder of 2020, meanwhile, is still unsolved as investigators search for the person responsible for killing 62-year-old Jesus Cristobal-Esteban in Oppenheimer Park.

R

A

LI

M

IT

ED

TI

M

E

PHOTOGRAPHY: BARRY CALHOUN PHOTOGRAPHY ACCESSORIES: PROVIDE HOME

FO

A6

FEBRUARY 3RD — FEBRUARY 8TH, 2020

SELL YOUR GOLD WITH TRUST

Sell your gold and platinum with a competitive same day cash payout.

Monday to Saturday: 10AM - 6PM

MAISON BIRKS PA R K ROYA L 1 0 1 5 PA R K ROYA L S , W E ST VA N CO U V E R , B C , V 7 T 1 A 1 For further details, contact us at 1 (855) 873-7373

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

A7

WEEKLY SPECIALS

$14-million park in Yaletown

MEATS

Prices valid from Thursday, January 30 to Wednesday, February 5

DAYS 3 ONLY $ 98 /LB 2.88/LB Chicken Ch hickken Drumsticks Bonelless

¢

FRI, SAT & SUN

ing director of planning and park development, how, if at all, those issues can be mitigated in the new park.

It’s Hutch’s hope that the café’s presence and role as park’s anchor, along with the expected crowds, will dissuade some of that activity. The park’s washrooms, as is the case with all park board facilities, will have

containers for syringes. A $500,000 annual maintenance budget has been earmarked.

“It’s not like we’re trying to push anybody out, but by and large, the large percentage of the use of the park we will be very positive, social, fun and interactive,” he said. @JohnKurucz

IFYOU

COULD HEARBETTER

E N V I S ION W H AT 2020CANSOUNDLIKE NexGen Hearing can help you resolve to hear better in 2020.

Hearing Loss shouldn’t stop you from reaching your goals.

DOWNTOWN 604.688.5999 404–1200 Burrard Street

W. BROADWAY 604.734.4327

1239 West Broadway

KERRISDALE 604.620.7295

2268 West 41st Ave.

KITSILANO 604.221.4688

301–2083 Alma St.

www.nexgenhearing.com nexgenhearing.com

WorkSafeBC and other Provincial WCB Networks, VAC, BCEA and NIHB accepted Registered under the College of Speech and Hearing Health Professionals of BC

2.28/EAA

$

Pork Loin Chops

ONLY 3 DAYS

FRI, SAT & SUN

l Cantaloupe Melon, Guatemala

68¢/LB

K Kaboch Squash, Mexico

2 DAYS $ 3 ONLY $ 9.98 /EA 5.88/EA Grand Harvest Emma

Rib Eye Steak

2.98/LB

$

Red Seedless Grapes, Peru

BAGS PER FAMILY

GROCERY

reader complaints about the condition of Emery Barnes Park, Yaletown Park, or other open spaces in Yaletown and downtown. Those emails speak exclusively to needles being left where children play, an abundance of garbage and open drug use.

The Courier asked Dave Hutch, the park board’s act-

KILLARNEY LOCATION ONLY (E 49TH AVE)

This artist rendering shows what the new park at Smithe and Richards streets will resemble when finished early next year. RENDERING COURTESY VANCOUVER PARK BOARD

PRODUCE

in a Bag

4.88/LB

$

FRI, SAT & SUN

Jasmine Rice, 15Lb

Grapeseed Oil, 1L

5.00

3/$

Holiday Luncheon Meat, 340g

2/$

3.00

$

$

Balocco Wafers, 175g

2.88/EA

Heiwa Frozen Udon Noodles, 1.25Kg

Fiora Bath Tissue, Double Roll, 12s

3.98/EA

$

3.98/EA

$

$

3.48/EA

$

El Sabroso Guacachip Tortilla Chips, 340g

9.98/EA

Cion Honey Castella Cake, Box, 8s

98¢/100G

$

General Mills Cheerios or Fontaine Sante Roasted Kids Cereal, 300-430g Garlic Hummus, 565g

5.88/EA

3.98/EA

Bar Italia Espresso Gusto or Crema Coffee, 250g

Sapore Prociutto Cotto

2611 E 49th Ave, Vancouver • 604-438-0869 4801 Victoria Dr, Vancouver • 604-876-2128

OPEN 8:30AM–10:00PM EVERYDAY www.88supermarket.ca

While quantities last. We reserve the right to correct pricing errors.

A8

THE VA NCOU VE R COUR IER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

Private suites

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

News

FROM

1750 Differences emerge as Uber and Lyft launch INCLUDES

$

HOUSEKEEPING ANDMEALS!

Supportive Housing for Independent Seniors at Blenheim Manor on Vancouver’s West Side.

You can feel confident about your choice to live at Blenheim Manor. Our new ground floor suites are secure, accessible and affordable. Everything you need is here. Call today to arrange a tour.

604-803-2493

www.callingministries.org BLENHEIM MANOR IS OPERATED BY CALLING MINISTRIES

Join our

growing network!

TheVancouverCourierNewspaper

Tyler Orton

torton@biv.com

Ride-hailing services have officially gone live in Vancouver as of Friday, Jan. 24, but commuters looking to get from point A to point B will find some distinct differences between the only two competitors allowed to operate.

Lyft Canada Inc. revealed early in the day it’s initially offering services only within a “core area.”

That includes Vancouver International Airport (YVR) in Richmond, the Pacific National Exhibition grounds near Burnaby and what it describes as the “core” of the City of Vancouver.

Lyft B.C. general manager Peter Lukomskyj told reporters in downtown Vancouver that the core is bounded by Dunbar Street in the west, Victoria Drive in the east and 41st Avenue in the south.

“Really what we’re doing today is matching our operating region with the number of drivers that we have on the platform,” he said. “What we want to do

is expand that region as quickly as possible as soon as we have enough drivers on the platform.”

Uber Canada Inc., meanwhile, announced a day earlier that it would initially be offering services throughout the entirety of the city of Vancouver without any exclusions.

Unlike Lyft, it will not be offering rides from YVR at the outset. Instead, Michael van Hemmen, Uber’s head of Western Canada, said Uber has worked to secure a business licence from the City of Vancouver and would be awaiting local mayors to finish developing a regional business licence that would allow pick-ups in other municipalities across the region.

He declined to reveal how many drivers it has tapped so far to offer services.

Early tests of both the Uber and Lyft app show different results when a user attempts to get picked up in Vancouver and dropped off in a different municipality.

The Uber app estimated it would cost $18.43 for a ride from Business in Vancouver’s newsroom in Mount Pleasant to the Metropolis at Metrotown mall in Burnaby.

The Lyft app, meanwhile, would not provide an estimate and instead offered a notification that Lyft is not available at the requested location.

Commuters should also

be prepared for different prices from the competitors.

Lyft, which revealed its pricing scheme in December, charges a $2.50 base and a $2.50 service fee as well as additional charges of $0.65 per kilometre and $0.33 per minute.

Uber unveiled its pricing scheme the same day it launched services.

Costs include a $2.50 base fare and a $2 booking fee as well as additional charges of $0.70 per km and $0.33 per min.

So while Uber’s booking fee is $0.50 less than Lyft’s comparable service fee, the latter charges $0.05 less per kilometre travelled.

The two apps offered comparable estimates when asked to provide rides from downtown Vancouver — across the street from Canada Place — to BIV’s newsroom in Mount Pleasant at about 8 a.m.

Uber’s quote came in at $11.98, while Lyft quoted $11.74.

It should also be noted that the City of Vancouver requires the companies to collect a $0.30 pick-up/ drop-off fee between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. for what it describes as its metro core.

Costs won’t be static, however, as the provincial regulator will permit surge pricing, allowing Uber and Lyft to boost rates as demand swells.

Taxis based in Vancouver, meanwhile, have a different pricing structure

where they must charge standard rates.

That includes a $3.25 flag rate, a $1.88 charge per kilometre and a $33.55 charge per hour (or what would amount to about $0.56 per minute).

A 22-minute ride from Mount Pleasant to Metrotown that would cost $18.44 with Uber would cost an estimated $36.25 with a Vancouver taxi.

Lukomskyj said Lyft has no immediate plans to adjust its prices.

“We’ll be re-evaluating whether that’s the appropriate pricing target for Vancouver over time,” he said.

Uber and Lyft remain the only ride-hailing services permitted to operate in Vancouver.

On Jan. 23, the day the provincial Passenger Transportation Board (PTB) approved the multinational giants’ applications, the regulator also declined applications from two B.C.based companies.

The PTB argued that Kater Technologies Inc.’s projected revenue in its application was “overly optimistic,” and the company did not appear to take market competition into account.

The regulator also determined that ReRyde Technologies Inc. did not provide a business plan that offered sufficient information on how it would actively manage its vehicles and drivers.

VICTORIA DRIVE DENTURE CLINIC

5477 VICTORIA DRIVE AT 39TH | MYDENTURES.CA

Ever wondered where your water comes from?

WE ARE COMMITTED TO KEEP YOU SMILING! Are you a denture wearer who:

Join us for Winter Watershed Snowshoe Tours at Mount Seymour

n Has loose dentures? n Cannot enjoy a meal? n Has a sore mouth? n Has stopped smiling? n All of the above Need dentures for the first time?

Explore the connection between snow and drinking water. Join Metro Vancouver staff on a guided tour to the peaks overlooking the Seymour Valley, one of three places where water for over 2.5 million Metro Vancouver residents is collected and stored.

Learn about water supply in a fun and active way while discovering alpine plants and animals. After a moderately strenuous snowshoe, warm up with a cup of hot cocoa.

Tours take place, 10 am – 1:30 pm Saturdays, Feb 1, 8, 15, 22 | Sundays, March 1, 8, 15, 22, 2020 Cost: $18 with your own snowshoes; $25 with snowshoe rental For ages 16+.

Must be physically capable of hiking up and down steep sections with snowshoes.

Info: metrovancouver.org (search ‘winter watershed tours’) for a complete schedule.

Registration required, book online or call 604-432-6359.

Cecilia Guglielmetti, RD Denturist

WE CAN HELP YOU! CALL FOR A FREE CONSULTATION

EUROPEAN QUALITY AT CANADIAN PRICES TELEPHONE: 604-325-1914 NOW ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS | NO REFERRAL NEEDED

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A9

News

Kickstarter for high-end kitty litterbox cruises past $100,000 mark John Kurucz

jkurucz@vancourier.com

Jackson Cunningham’s newest product is the s*** That’s the gospel according to crowdfunding website Kickstarter, and it’s not an altogether stretch of the truth.

Cunningham’s high-end litterbox, dubbed “The Cove,” is trending among the top crowdsourcing campaigns in Canada.

As of Jan. 28, close to 900 people had placed pre-orders for The Cove, each of them shelling out between $89 and $99 USD for a 20inch piece of plastic for cats to do their business in.

Round one of “super early bird” sales completely sold out inside of a week, while Cunningham’s initial target of $10,000 was reached in four hours. Cunningham is now well into selling round two and early bird sales are humming along at $99 a pop.

Cunningham broke the six-figure mark in just nine days. He’s got buyers in San Francisco, New York, Australia and all across Metro Vancouver.

If this clip keeps up, the 33-year-old Vancouverite could conceivably make half a million dollars in one month.

All off the backs, or backsides, of cats.

The mind boggles.

“It feels like if you were at a casino, you have 100 bucks and you put in on black and you win. And then you put in on black again and you’re all in,” Cunningham tells the Courier.

Cat furniture seller Tuft + Paw is the parent company behind The Cove. Cunningham’s brainchild was launched full time in 2017, after a year of kicking the idea around with coworkers at his previous job.

“It started off as a joke almost,” Cunningham recalled. “When I would tell my coworkers about making cat furniture, they would always laugh. Everyone was interested, and they’d say, ‘That’s a really good idea, but come on, like cat furniture?’ I got that reaction enough that I knew something was there.”

Tuft + Paw started off more akin to a middleman operation, hocking wares from Europe and Asia to North American customers. Cunningham has warehouse space in Michigan where he stores items bought in bulk — cat tables,

cat carriers and whatever else you can think of — to eventually sell to domestic markets minus massive overseas shipping costs.

The Cove, however, is Cunningham’s first inhouse baby.

Settling on the name was a process of elimination that saw close to 30 monikers bandied about. The Cove was chosen to suit its West Coast origins.

“For me, the name emulates something cozy or closed, or something that’s really inviting,” said Tuft + Paw brand manager Grace Partridge. “But also in architectural terms, cove ceilings are not square edges they’re rounded. This product has that rounded attention to detail which is what makes it ergonomic and gives it that nice hand feel as well.”

Cunningham’s office is a five-minute walk away from the homeless camp at Oppenheimer Park in what’s widely regarded as the second-least affordable city on the planet. He and Partridge are asked how they reconcile a world in which hundreds of people willingly pay big bucks for a stylized toilet for pets.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

“The cheapest option will always be available but for people that care about function, where it’s coming from or aesthetic value, there’s a hole in that market,” Partridge said. “And $100 for an object that you love in your home that is functional, that provides its role, that is originally designed is pretty great value.”

None of this is to say The Cove was created without considerable forethought.

A couple of engineers specializing in plastic moulds helped with the design, which is slightly longer, more contoured and sleeker than your standard $20 litterbox.

The Cove also comes with a pooper scooper and dustpan that fit cozily into the cove’s design. The shovel is based on a model Cunningham found on Amazon that’s the highestrated pooper scooper in the land.

Cunningham also uses recycled ocean plastic bought from outside of Canada, a point that adds substantial cost on his end.

Cunningham leads the Courier on a quick Google search for comparables, and sure enough, nothing

comes up.

For now, Cunningham waits to see what his month-long crowdfunding nets. About 95 per cent of his customer base in the U.S., and he wants a similar market share in Canada and other points further afield in the future.

More in-house product is

also in the offing.

In the meantime, he’s helping cats and the internet give Meghan and Harry a run for their money in the local powercouple sweepstakes.

“It’s the one product that every single cat owner needs,” Cunningham said.

“It feels like the clear fit.”

Tuft + Paw founder Jackson Cunningham alongside his company’s new litter box, “The Cove.” PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Natural

Your Origina al

Organic Whole Chickens

B.C. Grown Organic Ambrosia Apples

$ 98

$ 84

4

1

/lb 10.98 kg

Food Store

Organic Ground Beef Sirloin

5

$ 99

/lb 4.17 kg

/lb 13.21 kg

We carry a Huge Selection of Organic Products!

FRESH

NON-MEDICATED

ORGANIC

FRESH

Boneless Pork Side Ribs Frozen Pork Sirloin Chops Sweet & Sour Style Split Chicken Wings

2

2

Pork Back Ribs

4

$ 99

$ 99

$ 99

$ 98

FRESH

GRASS FED

PRODUCT OF CALIFORNIA

PRODUCT OF CALIFORNIA

Striploin Steaks

Organic Cauliflower

Organic Italian Parsley

CLUB PACK

/lb 6.59 kg

Angus Beef Maui Ribs

7

$ 99

6

3

/lb 6.59 kg

/lb 8.80 kg

1

1

/lb 10.98 kg

$ 99

$ 99

PRODUCT OF CALIFORNIA

PRODUCT OF MEXICO

FROM THE DELI

MADE GOOD

Organic Navel Oranges

Organic Grape Tomatoes

Emperor Ham

Granola Bars

1

/lb 17.62 kg

$ 79

CLUB PACK

2

/lb 15.41 kg

$ 59

/lb 4.39 kg

2

bunch

Assorted

4

$ 69

$ 59

$ 49

NAVITAS

NEW WORLD

BRAGG’S

ORGANIC

Gelatinized or Raw Maca Powder

Organic Granola

Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

Pitted Prunes

/lb 3.95 kg

1 pint

Assorted

25% off! $799 1 lb *while quantities last

2lb

100 grams

6

$ 99 946ml

9

5 x 24 grams

$ 99

455 grams

1595 Kingsway • 604-872-3019 • www.famousfoods.ca OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

8 am-9 pm

Sale Dates:

Thursday, January 30 – Wednesday, February 5

* While quantities last. Pricing guaranteed during sale dates only.

A10

THE VAN CO U VE R C OU RI E R T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VANC OUR IER .CO M

Opinion

It’s time we celebrated city’s hard-rocking, platinum past

Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, AC/DC recorded chart-topping albums in Vancouver studios Mike Klassen

mike@mikeklassen.net

There are numerous cities in North America that are synonymous with a form of popular music. Neighbouring Seattle is associated with ’90s grunge music.

San Francisco is known for psychedelic rock’s ’60s heyday. Detroit is the city of Motown.

Minneapolis–Saint Paul is the home of Prince and indie rockers such as the Replacements and Hüsker Dü. Memphis is known for great R&B and, of course, Elvis — just like Chicago is known for the blues, New Orleans for jazz and Nashville for bluegrass.

The music of the Beach Boys, the Doors, Black Flag and Guns N’ Roses each form part of Los Angeles’s identity. Take your pick for NYC — Gershwin, the folk movement, Broadway musicals, the Velvet Underground or the Ramones.

Many, if not all, of these American cities proudly promote the artists and charttopping melodies they helped make famous. But if we asked which city in Canada has left its indelible mark on popular music, how many would answer “Vancouver”?

I’m guessing not a lot.

There was a time about

30 years ago, however, when Vancouver’s streets seemed to be paved with platinum, the precious metal that signifies a million-selling record.

Many major artists would come here to make some of the most memorable music of our time, yet decades later the connection to Vancouver is rarely made.

After watching a riveting 65-minute interview with multi-platinum record producer Bob Rock, conducted on behalf of the Gibson guitar company, I was left wondering why we seem to have hardly recognized both the talent in our midst and our city’s tremendous cultural influence.

Rock, for the first time in interviews I’ve seen with him, looks awkward and shy in the Gibson video. He hugs a guitar almost like a security blanket. Yet he tells his amazing journey as a child of the prairies who moved to sleepy Victoria, then eventually landed in Vancouver in the late 1970s just in time for the punk music scene to break out here.

His first fame resulted from being a founding member of the Payolas.

But it was his eventual role behind the mixing board at the legendary Little Mountain Sound studio on West

In 1987, Mike Klassen drove past Little Mountain Studio on West Seventh where he spotted the bedraggled members of Aerosmith rehearsing on the sidewalk. He pulled over and asked to take this photo. PHOTO MIKE KLASSEN

Seventh Avenue where his talent truly shone.

It was at that all-but-forgotten recording studio in the industrial Mount Pleasant neighbourhood (which I first wrote about back in 1990) where Rock and the late producer Bruce Fairbairn recorded and mixed a long line of smash hits.

Many of the musicians themselves practically used Vancouver as a getaway from drug habits and bad

relationships. Working with the Vancouver producers allowed them to focus on their music.

I once spotted the bedraggled members of Aerosmith rehearsing on the sidewalk while driving along West Seventh Avenue in April 1987. I pulled over and shyly asked to take a photo, which they obliged.

You can now see that image at the 32-minute mark of the Gibson video.

The record Aerosmith was recording then — Permanent Vacation — would sell more than five million copies. Mötley Crüe’s breakout album Dr. Feelgood would sell six million copies. AC/DC’s Razor’s Edge featuring “Thunderstruck” would sell seven million.

Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet moved more than 15 million units.

Metallica’s self-titled masterpiece (“the black

album”), produced by Rock, has gone on to sell more than 31 million copies worldwide.

Our city’s reputation as a rock music epicentre was not only earned from talented people such as Bob Rock, but local artists such as Bryan Adams and Loverboy, in-demand songwriters such as Jim Vallance and powerhouse management companies run by Bruce Allen, Sam Feldman and Steve Macklam.

While recording studios such as Little Mountain Sound and Mushroom Studios (where Heart recorded its double platinum debut LP) are a faded memory, Vancouver’s place as a music capital should not be.

Adams has carried on some of that legacy by building the Warehouse Studio in Gastown, where many more recordings by major artists have been made. Local talent Nick Gilder — who sang the slinky, sexy seventies rock classic “Roxy Roller” — recently tweeted a photo of himself and Rock at that studio.

So how about it, Vancouver. Will we ever have a shrine built to recognize our hard rocking history as a music capital? @MikeKlassen

With so many empty rooms, why isn’t there more home sharing?

Michael Geller geller@sfu.ca

Earlier this month, I received a phone call from Stephanie, a Montreal flight attendant for Air Canada Express who’s relocating to Vancouver in March. She has been searching on Craigslist for accommodations close to the Canada Line so she can easily get to the airport.

However, like many Vancouverites, she has found homehunting a very challenging and distressing experience.

One of the most disturbing things is the number of scammers and swindlers out there attempting to trap unsuspecting people desperately seeking rental accommodations. This was addressed in a Courier story in 2018 by John Kurucz and numerous other online articles.

A Vancity blogpost reported that an estimated 51 per cent of renters in Vancouver and Victoria have encountered a scam.

Given the high price of rental housing in Vancou-

ver, especially compared to Montreal, Stephanie contacted me because she was hoping to find an affordable room in a house owned by another person.

During her internet searches, she came across a Courier column I wrote about the number of empty bedrooms in Vancouver, and benefits of home-sharing, both for those seeking housing and those owning homes with empty rooms.

According to Paul Smetanin of the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis (CANCEA), the number of spare bedrooms in Vancouver is equivalent to 15 years of construction at the current rate of building.

The challenge is to match those owning empty bedrooms or basement suites, and willing to share, with those seeking affordable accommodation.

Think of it as a VRBO or Airbnb but offering more permanent housing.

While organizations and private companies have

Given the number of empty bedrooms and people seeking accommodations, home sharing seems like a practical idea whose time has come, says Michael Geller. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

sprung up in the United States to meet this demand, including Boston’s Nesterly, founded by a young lady from Cortes Island, only limited options are available in Vancouver.

Last August, CBC’s Early Edition broadcast a five-part radio series looking at various aspects of home sharing, including multi-generational sharing. It examined both the economic and emotional benefits that can arise, along with the challenges.

The series featured on-the-

ground examples of shared living, as well as one matchmaker service called Happipad. It was started in the Okanagan in 2017 by a UBC student looking to match those with empty bedrooms and student renters, and describes itself as a cross between Airbnb and a dating site.

Happipad now serves all of B.C. through its homesharing web app. It currently has more than 30 live listings in Vancouver, and more are popping up every week.

Happipad connects anyone

with a spare room with those looking for affordable accommodation options. It is not limited to intergenerational connections between seniors and students, although these connections do happen.

Happipad’s newest initiative is #ConnectAMillion, through which it hopes to connect a million seniors with compatible housemates by 2025 to tackle social isolation.

The CBC series included examples of relationships that worked, and some that did not work, and explored the legal considerations of entering what is essentially a landlord-tenant relationship.

The series concluded with an interview with a community psychology consultant who has enjoyed intergenerational home sharing relationships for over 30 years. He pointed out that while Vancouver’s zoning bylaws do not prevent home sharing, they limit the number of unrelated people who can legally share a dwelling.

Home sharing is not a new idea. In the 1980s, for-

mer alderperson Marguerite Ford created HomeSharers that successfully matched seniors until its CMHC funding dried up. Sadly, it did not continue.

On the North Shore, Joy Hayden of Hollyburn Family Services has been working on a seniors’ home sharing registry to match senior homeowners with seniors and others seeking accommodation.

Over the phone, Stephanie sounded like a bright, intelligent young lady. I referred her to Happipad but also offered to try and find her a suitable place to live.

If any Courier reader has a home near the Canada Line, and would consider renting to a flight attendant moving to our city, please write to me and I will put you in touch.

I would also like to hear about other home sharing experiences, since given the number of empty bedrooms and people seeking accommodations, home sharing seems like a practical idea whose time should come.

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VA NCOUVER COURIER

A11

Inbox letters@vancourier.com LETTERS

Time to press reset

Jeff Garrad via comments section

Re: “Vancouver hampered by city hall’s status quo mindset,” Jan. 16.

This council is just letting the Gregor-appointed staff run the show. No new initiatives that accomplish anything aside from nice looking press releases. Our mayor is focused on his personal political future rather on actually accomplishing anything real for residents.

There has been no real progress on the socalled big initiatives for years, but we somehow keep paying more and more for basically no results. The city keeps hiring more staff while basic services continue to flounder while taxes increase at record levels that end up reducing affordability for residents. Time to press reset on this lame group of followers and elect some people who will actually make decisions that actually result in some positive outcomes rather continued virtuesignalling this group seems to focus on.

Flaky logic

Re: “Surviving Snowmaggedon (without snow tires),” Jan. 16.

I can’t help but question why Grant Lawrence would drive his family around the Lower Mainland without snow tires, and then actually write about it.

The lesson here is not “keep the car rolling” — it’s don’t go out in the first place if you don’t have snow tires.

Having his unequipped car on the road, not only endangered the lives of his family, but other people out on the road as well. I only hope that Mr. Lawrence is not someone who is complaining about our skyrocketing insurance costs, as his reckless behaviour is only adding to the problem.

Matthew Littledale, Vancouver

Michelle Bhatti

Michael Kissinger

mbhatti@vancourier.com

mkissinger@vancourier.com

PUBLISHER

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

LOCATION

Aberthau Mansion, 4397 West 2nd Ave, Vancouver, BC AGENDA

CLASSIFIED

SPECIAL GUEST

DELIVERY

604.398.2901

Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40025215. All material in the Vancouver Courier is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without permission of the publisher. This newspaper reserves the right to reject any advertising which it considers to contain false or misleading information or involves unfair or unethical practices. The advertiser agrees the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of error in any advertisement beyond the amount paid for such advertisement. We collect, use and disclose your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Statement which is available at vancourier.com.

Urban designer, planner, UBC professor and author of several books on planning, sustainability and public engagement

7PM – Annual reports and election of the Board of Directors of the West Point Grey Community Centre Association

604.630.3300

The Vancouver Courier is a division of LMP Publication Limited Partnership.

PATRICK CONDON

ADVERTISING

604.738.1411

CITY EDITOR

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2020 at 7:00 PM at ABERTHAU MANSION

EDITORIAL NEWSROOM

604.738.1411

Patrick Condon will present: “The Broadway Subway: What to Expect and What to Do About It.” The Broadway subway and associated Broadway Corridor Planning will extend the definition of “the regional metro core” to include Kits and Point Grey out to UBC, and with it will come change.

FLYER SALES

604.738.1411

The Vancouver Courier is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an independent organization established to deal with acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please contact editor@vancourier.com by email or phone 604-738-1411.

City of Vancouver and Vancouver Park Board representatives will be present to answer questions from the audience.

Light refreshments will be served.

4397 West 2nd Ave, Vancouver, BC, V6R 1K4 | 604-257-8140 facebook.com/westpointgreycc | twitter.com/WestPointGreyCC www.westpointgrey.org

If you are not satisfied with the response and wish to file a formal complaint, visit the web site at mediacouncil.ca or call toll-free 1-844-877-1163 for additional information.

A Caring and Sharing Community for Our Residents Active Supportive Housing for Seniors Healthy home-cooked lunch & dinner served daily Morning coffee club Weekly housekeeping Activities and recreation programs Bus trips On-site hair salon Community centre one block away To learn more about Chelsea Park: VISIT: www.chelseaparkbc.ca CALL: 604-789-7132 EMAIL: chelseapark@newchelsea.ca 1968 E. 19th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V5N 5K3

1-BEDROOM SUITES AVAILABLE NOW! STARTING AT

VIEW OUR VIDEO ON OUR WEBSITE

INCLUDING CABLE AND HYDRO

2600

$

/MTH

A12

THE VAN COU VER CO URIER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

us

FOLLOW TWE TW WEET. E REPLY. SHA HAR ARE. R

@VanCourierNews

Say hello to financial security

Moving can be an uncertain time.

It’s comforting to know that one thing is certain: your rent.

SECUR E FUTUR E ® The PARC Retirement Living SECURE FUTURE® promise means your rent can only increase at a maximum of 2.5% annually for three consecutive years. That’s financial peace of mind, guaranteed!

For more details call or visit: 604.526.2248 parcliving.ca/secure-future parcliving.ca/mulberry

Opinion KUDOS & KVETCHES

The problem with how media has cheered on Uber and Lyft’s arrival

Journalists need to put down their pompoms and do their job

Have you heard? Uber and Lyft have arrived at Vancouver’s traffic-clogged gates. They’ve been here for a while actually, shoring up support and greasing the wheels of bureaucracy. But now they’re up and running.

Whether it brings relief to the noisy hordes on social media who long-lamented ride-hailing’s local absence is up for debate. What is less debatable is how so many journalists have become de facto cheerleaders for these corporations and the generally low-paying gig economy jobs they’ll be bringing to one of the most expensive cities in the world.

“IT’S OFFICIAL!! WE DID IT!!” tweeted one of the city’s more popular online publications. We also saw “FINALLY” in the sub-headline of a news story

from another publication and more online posts with exclamation marks than a stack of cards at an 11-yearold’s birthday party.

Hardly neutral stances for supposed “news” stories.

As we’ve noted before, it’s been equally disconcerting that so many people in the media have had no qualms taking to Twitter and Instagram to cast aspersions on the city and province for denying them the convenience of cheap and plentiful Uber and Lyft options at their twitchy fingertips.

“We need this now!” was a common refrain, often in all caps, accompanied with photos of long taxi queues, and the tone of a petulant child who doesn’t understand the difference between wants and needs.

And what to make of the recent PR party that Lyft Canada threw a couple weeks back. By all accounts it was a real wingding. At least it looked that way judging by all the Instagram photos we ogled from fellow media

types who attended the party, which included free booze, food, a surprise performance from Tegan and Sara and credit for free rides.

Don’t get us wrong. We will probably use Uber or Lyft — we have in other cities, and we enjoyed the convenience of it. And criticism of the cozy relationship between government and the taxi industry is valid. But that’s a whole other story.

What troubles us is the continued blurring of traditional lines between journalism and PR. It’s not the job of journalists to cheer on corporations and promote their business interests — it’s journalists’ job to cover them fairly and with a critical and objective eye.

Banging the drum for them and gushing over their arrival is tantamount to providing free advertising. And considering the amount these companies will shell out for PR stunts, lavish parties and Tegan and Sara performances, they’ve got enough money to buy their own ads. @KudosKvetches

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VA NCOUVER COURIER

H E A R T H E A LT H A N D C H E F D E M O N S T R AT I O N

THIS IS AN OPEN HOUSE AT A M I C A

We’re opening our doors to five Vancouver area residences for a special culinary event. Since February is heart month, we invite you to join us for an open house at the residence nearest you for a chef demonstration and tasting of fresh, heart-healthy cuisine prepared by our Red Seal Chefs.

Plus, take a tour, enjoy live musical entertainment, and enter for the chance to win a door prize.

J O I N U S AT T H E E V E N T

Saturday, February 8 ~ 1- 4pm

Amica Arbutus Manor 2125 Eddington Dr 604-736-8936

Amica Edgemont Village 3225 Highland Blvd 604-929-6361

Amica Lions Gate 701 Keith Rd 778-280-8540

Amica West Vancouver 659 Clyde Ave 604-921-9181

Amica White Rock 15333 16 th Avenue 778-545-8800

A13

A14

THE VAN CO U VE R C OU RI E R T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VANC OUR IER .CO M

Feature

Vancouver buildings’ beauty in the eye of the beholder Love ’em or hate ’em: Some projects viewed as ‘architecturally adventurous,’ others as ‘craptastic’

Naoibh O’Connor

noconnor@vancourier.com

Whether you’re a developer, architect, designer or layperson, everyone’s an expert when it comes to what makes for a good-looking building.

Brent Toderian, who runs Toderian UrbanWorks, pushed for “architecturally adventurous” ones in key locations during his six-year stint as the City of Vancouver’s chief planner.

But how the average person will perceive some of the increasingly creative designs coming to the streetscape and skyline is another matter.

While some new or proposed buildings are viewed as welcome additions, others are judged more critically.

Consider Lululemon’s new 13-storey global headquarters proposed for Foley Street near Great Northern Way. One city councillor described its design as “elegant” during a recent public hearing, while a planning consultant wrote on social media she hoped “this bulky overstuffed, dubiously designed building” wouldn’t be approved.

As of this writing, the fate of the building wasn’t known.

Council was expected to wrap up a public hearing Jan. 30 on Lululemon’s application for a text amendment for additional height and uses on the Foley Street site. The company wasn’t seeking additional density.

But a recent piece about the building in the Courier elicited this take from a reader: “Honestly what is up with craptastic architecture in this city. The same wavy weird features with some nature thrown in. What I would do for some brick and right angles...”

Westbank’s Vancouver House, the luxury residential tower designed by “starchitect” Bjarke Ingels of the firm BIG, is perhaps one of the most debated new buildings to emerge — fans see it as iconic and creative, critics see it as a monument to the excess of the city’s outrageously priced real estate market.

Vancouver House is not alone. Numerous architecturally interesting projects, both residential and office, are on Vancouver’s horizon. Some are towers in high-profile locations, others are modestly sized buildings — among them, Nature’s Path’s office building with its distinct honeycomb-like exterior.

Westbank is in the midst of constructing a 24-storey office building called Deloitte Summit on West Georgia featuring clusters of fourstorey steel-framed cubes with

The city’s former head planner Brent Toderian says even social housing projects, such as Jubilee House at Richards and Helmcken, can be well designed. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

“vertical gardens” on portions of the exterior, while Henson Developments has proposed a 60-storey curvy building for Nelson Street, with a column of greenery down its centre, inspired by the peninsula, the inlet and green forests.

For Toderian, aesthetics are important but so are context and fit.

“It doesn’t bother me at all that there’s going to be debates and discussion about architecture,” he said.

“But, fundamentally, I want the buildings to work, I want the buildings to work for their context, work for their place. So whether you like them or not, they work.

And then it can just be a conversation about taste and taste can’t be regulated.”

A critical view

Vancouverite Andrew Longhurst is the author of the “craptastic” comment.

He acknowledges being an armchair critic, having never studied architecture or design, but says he appreciates and loves cities — he’s completed a Master of Arts in Geography, with a focus on urban geography, from SFU where he’s currently a PhD student in geography.

He’s not thrilled with what he’s seeing on the architectural front.

“There are most certainly fads that go through design, but I feel like, in Vancouver, the development industry has done a good job of really branding itself with glass and nature as a motif and I think that carries through,” he said. “We’re at the point now where you look at our skyline, you look at what’s being built, and it is so monotonous.

It is all largely the same or variations on a theme. It just seems lazy to me at the end of the day. From a design

perspective, I just think, let’s be a little more creative, and let’s add some colour and life to our buildings.”

Longhurst is most weary of what he sees as the obsession with glass and towers; he prefers the warmth of brick, wood. He’s also not a fan of how some towers integrate with the landscape.

While he appreciates the look of old buildings such as the Lee Building, the Art Deco Marine building and the Dominion Building, he considers the futurist-looking towers that will be going up in the Oakridge Centre redevelopment “a disaster.”

“It’s this massive, massive complex of towers. Yet we know from a lot of urban theories, you need relatable landscapes where people can engage with the street.”

Despite his architectural and design preferences, Longhurst is prepared to put them aside if a development produces more rental or affordable housing.

“Increasingly, for me, design is nice but I could care less. For me, it’s increasingly dependent on what’s the public benefit and what are we getting from development?

Is it delivering any affordable housing or not? In many cases, it’s not, so it’s just a building I don’t find aesthetically appealing and then on top of it, nothing affordable.”

Seeking diversity

Criticism of the city’s architecture was on Toderian’s mind when he took on Vancouver’s chief planner role in 2006, which he held until 2012.

“One of the narratives I heard a lot when I arrived, and even before I arrived, when I would discuss Vancouver, was that the urbanism is great. The city

building, the street design, the city planning is great, but why do all the buildings have to look the same?” said Toderian who, back in 2008, published a piece in a planning-related news website called Planetizen entitled “Does Vancouver need (or want) Iconic Architecture?”

He recalls some critics using “ugly” to describe the city’s architecture, which he considered a very powerful word.

“After some conversation, what I would come to understand is what they really meant was monotonous, not ugly, but it just all looked the same. It was boring. The conversation I wanted to spark, and that article was part of it, was we should have a conversation about more architectural diversity, more architectural variety, less monotonousness, less predictability, in the right places and the special places.”

Toderian talked about issues such as pattern and punctuation and special buildings versus background buildings, but he didn’t want the takeaway to be that the chief planner “wants us to design crazy buildings everywhere,” just in specific locations such as terminating views or framing a key street or high buildings that pop up above the skyline.

While the city already had a higher buildings policy, it was amended and strengthened around 2010.

The planning department identified about six sites where particularly tall buildings could be constructed, one of which is at the north end of Granville Bridge where Vancouver House is now situated, while another site is opposite to Vancouver House where Pinnacle International hopes to build a tower, creating a “Granville Gateway” into and out of

downtown.

Such buildings face more stringent expectations in terms of architecture and green design.

The theory, according to Toderian, was to create “architecturally adventurous” buildings where it would do the most good in terms of changing the perspective about architectural monotony while not sacrificing the urbanism Vancouver was known for.

“The problem is often some architecturally adventurous buildings by famous architects are downright shitty buildings from the perspective of the street, the block and the neighbourhood. They are all object, no context,” he said.

“They land badly at the street, they have blank walls everywhere. They’re very unurban. They’re all about architectural ego and not about supporting and contributing to their street, their block and their neighbourhood. My narrative was, yes, we want architectural adventurism in the right place, but never at the expense of those core values of [creating] urban buildings that strengthen the street and the block and the neighbourhood and [which] are green.”

The city started to see international architects teamed up with local architects — rare in the past — according to Toderian, which he maintains has created some of the most interesting buildings.

“Here’s the problem,” he added. “The architectural conversation too often is in the context of the high-market buildings, the boutique buildings, the expensive buildings for rich people.

Whereas I always wanted the architectural conversation to be about buildings of every size, and scale and cost.”

Toderian noted some of the best architectural proposals he saw while chief planner were for the 12 social housing sites funded during the Olympics and built in the years after.

“We saw BC Housing building not only green buildings, LEED gold buildings, but also very architecturally interesting buildings without having to make them shaped like Marilyn Monroe.

Just interesting material and interesting colours, which is something we seem almost allergic to architecturally in this city.”

He cites Jubilee House, a social housing building at Richards and Helmcken, which features splashes of green and articulation of the façade, as a good example.

“There’s a false narrative

out there that to get great architecture, it has to be expensive and it has to be bigger and taller than everything else. That’s not true. And this building illustrates that.”

Form and function

Design can serve many purposes. Toderian points to Westbank’s Deloitte Summit building at 400 Georgia St., which is under construction.

He was a consultant on the project during the rezoning process. Not only does he think it will be a landmark building on Georgia Street, which he calls an important street in the economic health of the province, he said it’s designed to compete with buildings in other cities and attract market attention to Vancouver. Toderian calls it “architecture with a purpose.”

“That building is designed to have a major user say, ‘Well, if I can go into that building, I’ll go to Vancouver instead of Seattle.’ That’s what that architecture can do,” he said.

While function is important, form is what catches attention and Vancouver House has done just that.

Toderian is more familiar with it than most. He’s friends with Ingels and was involved with the development at the city level and a little bit afterwards as an advisor. While most of the focus has been on its shape, Toderian says the landing of the building and creation of the neighbourhood under the bridge is probably more important from an urban design point of view. He also likes the “skin” of the building.

“Even before you think about the shape, the modular nature of the skin is just remarkable and beautiful.”

As for its shape, Toderian said it isn’t just interesting and unusual, it’s “completely practical” in the context of what the building had to do to relate to the bridgehead.

“It’s a building entirely driven by its context and its constraints. To me, that’s perfect. It’s a perfect example of what we’re talking about — architecture that is pragmatic, that seeks to be adventurous, but not at the expense of its urbanism and its urban performance.

“The biggest challenge, of course, is it’s all done at a very high price point and it’s very important that this architectural conversation we have be applicable to every price point, including social and affordable housing, because you shouldn’t have to be an expensive building to be a great building.”

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A15

Feature

Ten architecturally interesting developments coming to city skyline Naoibh O’Connor

noconnor@vancourier.com

Vancouver House, Westbank’s 52-storey luxury residential tower, designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels of the firm BIG, is largely finished at the north end of Granville Bridge. The first phase of residential occupancy is complete.

Aside from this high-profile building, numerous other architecturally interesting developments are proposed or coming to Vancouver.

This isn’t an exhaustive look at upcoming projects but provides a peek at some of the buildings that will help shape the look and feel of the city in the future.

THE BUTTERFLY

will replace the company’s existing head office in Richmond. The new building will feature a honeycomb-like exterior. It remains to be seen what happens to East Van cross, officially known as the Monument for East Vancouver.

It may stay in its current location or be moved elsewhere. City staff told the Courier late last year that the city is consulting with those involved and working toward a decision about its future.

Status: The City of Vancouver’s Development Permit Board voted in favour of the development application for the building on Jan. 21, 2019. The project is in the permitting phase, so it’s unclear when construction will start.

Developer/Architect: Architectural firm Dialog is behind the design.

DELOITTE SUMMIT

Type: 57-storey, 331-unit luxury condo tower (556 feet).

Location: 969 Burrard St. The building: It’s being built behind First Baptist Church.

The sculpted facade features high-performance curved double glazing with high-quality insulated precast white panels. The building includes “sky gardens” in open-air breezeways on each level, and tree planters on every third floor.

Status: City council approved the tower in July of 2017. Construction started in December 2018 with an anticipated completion date of 2023.

Developer/Architect: Westbank is the developer. Venelin Kokalov, the design principal of Revery Architecture (formerly Bing Thom Architects), is the lead on The Butterfly. It’s one of the last projects Bing Thom of Bing Thom Architects was involved in before he died in 2016. Kokalov worked closely with Thom for 16 years.

Type: 24-storey office tower with commercial space on the ground floor.

Location: 400 West Georgia.

The building: The tower itself features “several clusters of fourstorey steel-framed cubes arranged around a central concrete core.”

The project is envisioned as a “living sculpture.”

Status: Council approved the rezoning application in February of 2018. Currently under construction, it’s being built with a fast-tracked construction process where the steel components are fabricated at a manufacturing plant and then delivered to the site for installation. The project’s core is currently furthest along at level 24, with the steel structure at levels nine to 13 and the parkade is 70 per cent complete.

Developer/Architect: Westbank, Japanese architectural firm OSO and local architect Merrick Architecture.

ALBERNI BY KUMA

NATURE’S PATH NEW HEAD OFFICE

Type: 10-storey office building.

Location: 2102 Keith Dr. The building: Nature’s Path, an organic food company, is building its new headquarters on a site near the East Van cross. It

Type: 43-storey residential tower.

Location: 1550 Alberni St. The building: The developer describes it as “shaped by two emphatic scoops that form deep balconies furnished in wood.”

Status: Under construction.

Workers are pouring slab for the lower levels of the tower.

Developer/Architect: Westbank, Kengo Kuma Architects and Associates and local architect Merrick Architecture.

bank and Danish “starchitect” Bjarke Ingels of the firm BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group). Dialog is the local architect.

THE STACK

NELSON STREET TOWER

Type: Proposal for a 60-storey Passive House residential tower with a building height of 555.5 feet.

Location: 1059 to 1075 Nelson St. The building: The proposal is to build the tower to Passive House standards — an international standard for energy efficiency. The project would be among the city’s highest buildings if it’s approved and it also promises to be the tallest Passive House tower in the world. It features a wavy shape with a curvy column of greenery down its centre, inspired by the peninsula, the inlet and green forests.

Status: The project is in the rezoning stage. City staff are reviewing the application and are in discussions with the applicant.

Developer/Architect: Henson Developments. Tom Wright of U.K.-based WKK Architecture designed the tower, while Vancouver-based IBI Group is the executive architect.

Type: 36-storey office tower.

Location: 1133 Melville St. The building: Once completed, The Stack, will be the tallest office building in downtown Vancouver. The building features four stacked and rotated boxes with six outdoor decks and a roof-top patio for office tenants.

Status: City council approved the project at an April 2017 public hearing. Construction started in 2018. The building is expected to be completed by 2022.

Developer/Architect: It’s an Oxford Properties Group project.

James KM Cheng Architects designed the building in collaboration with Adamson Associates Architects.

OAKRIDGE CENTRE

LULULEMON’S NEW HEADQUARTERS

VANCOUVER HOUSE

Type 52-storey tower with 407 residential units and a 10-storey podium with retail and 95 residential market units.

Location: North end of Granville Bridge The building: Likely one of the most photographed buildings in Vancouver during construction.

Status: The first phase of residential occupancy is complete and the second phase of residents are expected to move in in the coming months. Fresh Market and London Drugs will open in February, while “House Concepts,” a 15,000-square-foot collective concept of four fitness studios under one roof, will open in the spring of 2020. University Canada West and Momofuku are expected to open in the summer.

Developer/Architect: West-

foot of Burrard Bridge near Vanier Park.

The project: Initially, Squamish Nation was considering a 3,000-unit development, but news broke last November revealing the new plan for 6,000 units. Squamish Nation Coun. Khelsilem told Frances Bula of the Globe and Mail that the towers were designed “to echo elements of totem poles and reflect the mountains and sky of the North Shore.”

Status: Squamish Nation members voted 87 per cent in favour of designating the land use for development in a Dec. 10 referendum, while 81 per cent voted in favour of the business terms for the development that will see Squamish Nation partner with developer Westbank. Construction for phase one could start in 2021.

Developer/Architect: Squamish Nation, Westbank and Revery Architecture.

Type: Office with retail and restaurant uses at street level.

Location: 1980 Foley St. at Great Northern Way. The building: Carved-out sections, greenery on the exterior, and the “brise soleil” shading system make the design of Lululemon’s new 13-storey head office stand out.

Status: Lululemon is seeking a rezoning text amendment to allow additional height on the site, as well as retail and restaurant uses. No additional density is being sought. A public hearing started Jan. 23 and is expected to wrap up Jan. 30.

Developer/Architect: Morphosis Architects, led by Thom Mayne and based in Culver City, Calif., is the design architect for the project, while Francl Architecture is the local architect.

SQUAMISH NATION DEVELOPMENT

Type: The project will feature about 6,000 units of mostly rentals in 11 towers.

Location: An 11.7-acre Squamish Nation-owned site at the

Type: Redevelopment of a shopping centre, which will include 10 towers of varying heights up to 44 storeys, midrise buildings with commercial, office and residential uses, a community centre, library, seniors’ centre, performance spaces, a daycare and a nine-acre public park.

Location: 650 West 41st Ave. The building: Architect Gregory Henriquez has called the redevelopment a “mini-city” and “the biggest and most complex project I’ll ever work on in my life.” Futuristic buildings will transform the site and neighbourhood. Housing being built includes 2,000 market condos, 290 market rental units, and 290 below-market rental apartments.

Status: Construction work has started on the project, which is being completed in phases. Some retail and office space could be completed in early 2022, while the first residences are expected in late 2022.

Developer/Architect: QuadReal and Westbank are developing partners in the project. Henriquez Partners Architects is the design lead and Wonderwall out of Tokyo is designing the interior of the mall.

A longer list of upcoming developments is at vancourier.com.

A16

THE VAN COU VER CO URIER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

LOOKING FOR A NEW CAREER IN EDUCATION? Full Time REAP 2020

Do you enjoy supporting children and youth with special needs?

Are you compassionate? Are you a life-long learner? Are you a team player? Are you passionate about inclusive learning communities?

Richmond Continuing Education will be offering a full-time program for REAP (Richmond Education Assistant Program) from July 2020 to November 2020.You will learn how to work with Kindergarten to Grade 12 students with physical, behavioral, sensory and learning needs in schools.

There is a Free information session on Saturday, February 8, 2020.

Please register online: www.RichmondCE.ca. or phone 604.668.6123 for more information.

Kerrisdale’s 20TH Anniversary Saturday, February 1ST 1888 W 57TH Ave.

10% OFF ENTIRE STORE

including sale items, Saturday, February 1ST Come and join us in celebrating our 20TH Anniversary.

We will be serving cake and coffee and offering many in-store specials. /Choices_Markets

‘THE GIFT OF CARING’ Your family will be forever grateful!

Join the Society Today $35.00 one time fee Members please update your contact info Transfer to our Society at no cost

PEOPLE’S MEMORIAL SOCIETY OF BC (1993)

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

Arts & Entertainment THE SHOWBIZ

Author writes honest and funny memoir about suicide and death Sabrina Furminger

sabrina@yvrscreenscene.com

This article deals with suicide. If you’re thinking about suicide or are worried about a friend or a loved one, the Canada Suicide Prevention Service is available 24/7 at 1-833-456-4566. *** Liz Levine titled her book Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End because, after her sister Tamara died by suicide in 2016, that’s all anybody wanted to talk about.

People wanted to talk about the circumstances of her sister’s death — how Tamara jumped to her death from the balcony of her Toronto condo, and how tragic and sad it was — but they didn’t want to talk about the years of mental illness that led to that end, or the ways in which the system failed Tamara, or how hard it was to love someone who didn’t always possess the tools required to accept and return that love.

But Levine — a Vancouver-based film producer (Story of a Girl) and writerdirector (Turning the Tables) — wanted to talk about the events leading up to her sister’s tragic end. She wanted to talk about mental illness, how she didn’t get along with her sister in life and how the loss of her sister

Liz Levine’s new book, Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End, is out now.

was different than that of the loss of her best friend from cancer more than a decade before. And she wanted to talk about it all with a hefty dose of humour, because, to quote Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life:” “Life’s a piece of s***/when you look at it/ life’s a laugh and death’s a joke/it’s true.”

Levine mines the tragedy and comedy of life in Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End (Simon & Schuster), which hit bookstores and online retailers Jan. 28. Using the alphabet as a guide, Levine moves readers through an array of complicated emotions and nuanced topics related to death, mental illness, rela-

tionships, grieving and life.

“I think an acceptance of [death] leaves a lot of space in our lives for living, as opposed to being focused on dying,” says Levine. “I think my mother said it best: the pain never lessens, it just happens less often. Grief is a non-linear experience to me, and if you can let it be that, and not think of it as something you have to get through and come out on the other side, it circles back to that idea that there’s a lot of space for life and laughter in between those moments.”

That’s not to say the Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End is a barrel of unseemly laughs. Levine’s sorrow at the loss of her sister is present throughout the book, as is her anger.

She’s angry that her sister died by suicide. She’s angry that cancer claimed her best friend Judson in the early 2000s.

And she’s curious about

the ways in which people in the west shy away from even thinking about death, despite its inevitability — and the impact that not thinking about it and talking it through has on how we cope with death when it claims the people we love.

“We see customs all over the world that are more connected to death than us, where they sing and cry and weep in a different, public way,” says Levine. “We’re a generation that has been excused from loss. We’re too young for war. We’re too young for the AIDS crisis. We’re too young to have really seen our brothers and sisters die by the hundreds of thousands, so the shared conversation around loss, especially in a sanitized cultural space that we have in North America, is really limited.”

Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End is structured like a dictionary. A is for Ashes, B is for Brothers, L is for Laughter, T is for Trump.

“It’s not self-help, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not helpful,” says Levine. “I hope that there are stories in there that either allow people to feel less alone, that they can see themselves reflected, or helps them understand someone else in their life and what they’re dealing with.”

She adds, “For me, in the hardest moments of writing this, I also recognized that somewhere I was hopefully giving permission to other people to have these conversations.”

“Look to the people who care” www.pmsoc.org • 1-800-661-3358 Limited time offer • Memberships 2 for 1

UBC Faculty of Dentistry UBC Dentistry is screening patients 12 years of age and older who require

Braces

(Full orthodontic treatment cost: $4,200) For information, visit www.dentistry.ubc.ca/gradortho Graduate Orthodontics Program

To arrange a screening appointment: Call between 8:30 am – 4 pm (Monday to Friday)

604-827-4991 or email gradorthoclinic@dentistry.ubc.ca THE UNIVERSITY OR BRITISH COLUMBIA

PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER.

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VA NCOUVER COURIER

BONELESS PORK LOIN CENTER MEAT OR CHOPS

FARMER’S MARKET MINI CUCUMBER 6’S

BEEF SHORT RIBS CLUB PACK

PRODUCT OF CANADA

OR MINI CARROTS PRODUCT OF USA 2 LB OR AVOCADOS 6’S PRODUCT OF MEXICO

CLUB PACK

2

6

$ 99

$ 99

lb

$6.59/KG

ROMAINE HEARTS PRODUCT OF USA OR MEXICO 3’S

2

2

$ 99

lb

$1 15.41/KG

300-350G SELECTED VARIETIES

PRODUCT OF USA OR MEXICO

2

2

$ 49

$ 99 ea

$ 99

ea

255G

CAMPBELL’S CHILI 425ML OR

340/454G

SELECTED VARIETIES

540ML SELECTED VARIETIES

5

$ 99

$ 69 ea

PRICES IN EFFECT JANUARY 31ST 2020 – FEBRUARY 6TH 2020

ea

Super Valu

1645 East First Avenue at Commercial • Il Mercato Mall • 604-254-1214 • SUPERVALUONCOMMERCIAL.COM OPEN 24 HRS, 365 DAYS A YEAR • FREE 45 MINUTE PARKING 580854_supervalu_VCN_D_UD12_V1

O W N E D

ea

YUCATAN GUACAMOLE DIP

CHUNKY SOUP

L O C A L LY

ea

QUE PASA CHIPS

FARMER’S MARKET GRAPE TOMATO

1

A17

10.33 x 14

A N D

26th Jan 2019

O P E R A T E D

A18

THE VAN CO U VE R C OU RI E R T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VANC OUR IER .CO M

Arts & Entertainment VANCOUVER SHAKEDOWN

Black Halos vowed to die young, stay pretty — now they’re back

Vancouver rock ‘n’ roll band reunite for two shows at the Rickshaw Grant Lawrence

grantlawrence12@gmail.com

“I thought I had made it!”

That’s the memory of Jay Millette, guitarist of the Vancouver punk rock ‘n’ roll band the Black Halos, when he found himself standing in Jack Endino’s legendary Seattle studio, recording the Halos’ 1999 debut album, Die Young Stay Pretty.

Growing up in small town Ontario, one of Millette’s all-time favourite records was Mudhoney’s debut EP Superfuzz Bigmuff on Sub Pop Records, recorded by Endino, who also recorded Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach.

A couple of years after that first Halos recording session, Millette completed his teenage dream when the Black Halos released their second album, The Violent Years, on Sub Pop. The Black Halos’ three original members are reuniting to play their first hometown shows together in nearly 20 years Feb. 7 and 8 at the Rickshaw Theatre.

Millette arrived in Vancouver 1995 when he followed his then-girlfriend Jennifer Kiel out here, both of them relocating from London, Ont. “Vancouver was a lot more exciting than London,” remembers Millette, “with a lot better bands.”

Millette was immediately taken by Vancouver’s roar-

ing mid-’90s music scene, showcased live in clubs such as the Starfish Room, Richard’s on Richards and the Railway.

One night, Millette and his girlfriend caught a band called the Black Market Babies at a show at PD’s Hot Shop, when the legendary skateboard store had a downtown location on West Pender Street.

Black Market Babies featured notorious lead singer Billy Hopeless, considered by many to be Vancouver’s answer to New York Dolls’ lead singer David Johansen.

Also in the band was a tall, lanky lead guitarist named Rich Jones, who had grown up in England but had recently arrived in town and immersed himself in the scene, having spent time in Vancouver sleaze-punk band Flash Bastard.

“I thought the Black Market Babies were pretty cool, and it turns out that my girlfriend Jenn knew Billy’s roommate,” says Millette. “That’s how I found out that they needed another guitarist, so I stepped in.”

Soon, the classic Halos lineup of Hopeless, Jones and Millette, along with bassist Matt Camirand (Black Mountain) and drummer Rob Zgalijic (Sparkmarker) came together. Everything clicked. They were a force. The name change happened around 1998, when the seminal Washington, D.C. hardcore

The Black Halos promise to play “all the old stuff” when they perform at the Rickshaw Feb. 7 and 8.

band Black Market Baby got in touch. Just before the release of their first album, they became the Black Halos.

I first saw the Halos shortly after Die Young Stay Pretty came out. It was another drunken night at the Starfish Room on Homer Street, but what I can remember clearly is being blown away by the band: huge energy, high quality songs and locked-in harmonies. I also remember how tight the entire band was, both musically and visually, all them with black hair and black clothes from head to toe. I thought they were the best Vancouver band I had seen or heard in years.

The Black Halos’ secret seemed to be the chemistry of the Hopeless/Jones songwriting team. Together they crafted what were es-

sentially catchy pop songs churned up by punk guitars and spat out through the snarling vocals of Hopeless, one of Vancouver’s all-time maniacal front persons.

The Halos reached their height both artistically and commercially with the release of their 2001 sophomore release, The Violent Years, punched up by the solid singles “No Tomorrow Girls” and “Some Things Never Fall.”

The video for the latter song featured cameos by Joey Shithead from DOA, “Metal Queen” Lee Aaron and yours truly, but breakthrough success eluded the band.

A few years later, Jones shocked his bandmates, and the scene, when he announced he was leaving the Black Halos to join L.A. punk-metal band

Amen. For Jones it seems like a potential dream gig: after endless van touring in the Halos, here was a punk band under palm trees signed to a major label and playing massive shows around the world. But Jones’ turn in Amen ended in a music industry nightmare a few years later.

“Yeah, Rich leaving the Halos definitely took the wind out of our sails,” says Millette, who also left the Black Halos after Jones to join Vancouver rockers the Spitfires. Billy Hopeless went through several more member changes until hanging up the halo in 2009.

Cut ahead to 2016, and Millette was living in Toronto, playing with a rock ‘n’ roll band called Midnight Towers. Jones was living just down the road in Hamilton.

“Rich contacted me, saying he was writing with Billy again, that they had patched things up. They were putting out a Halos single and touring Spain, and did I want in on it,” says Millette.

“But I said no, over and over, every time they called.

I had my own thing going on with Midnight Towers.

Then, last year, they called again about more shows and recording. I didn’t have anything on my plate, so I said yes.”

Hopeless and Jones also contacted Camirand, who now lives in Summerland, and Zgalijic, who’s still in

Vancouver and working for Live Nation, but both of them passed. Filling out the band for the Vancouver reunion shows are bassist John Kerns from Age of Electric and drummer Danny Action from Midnight Towers.

When the three original Halos were finally all in a practice space together for the first time in almost two decades, it didn’t take long for things to fall in place.

“Rich and Billy truly work well together, they are great team,” Millette extolls. “When Billy showed up for practice he just stepped right in and didn’t miss a beat, it was kind of amazing.”

And even though the Black Halos have reportedly written enough new material for a new album, Millette knows what the Vancouver shows are all about.

“It’s all the old stuff,” Millette says. “It’s completely nostalgic. I’m just really excited to be returning to Vancouver to play for a bunch of old friends and to see some of these amazing new Vancouver bands that will be playing with us.”

Judging by ticket sales, hopelessly devoted Black Halos fans are thrilled for another chance to see one of Vancouver’s most notorious rock ‘n’ roll bands back in action. And now that the violent years are over, I’ll see you in the front row. I hope. @grantlawrence

New York’s all-male ballet troupe puts its best, size-11 foot forward And four other reasons Vancouver is awesome this week Lindsay William-Ross vancouverisawesome.com

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

NYC’s all-male ballet troupe will be hitting the stage for one night only in Vancouver. This sensational performance will showcase the Trocks’ wickedly absurd antics and serious dancing chops — featuring sly sendups of beloved ballet classics and contemporary works.

Infused with a heavy dose of highbrow hilarity, this anticladen evening will offer audiences a chance to experience high-powered diva energy as the men strut their stuff in size 11 pointe shoes.

When: Feb. 1, 8 p.m.

Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St.

showoneproductions.ca

’60s liquor raids of the club and undercover gangster surveillance in the ’70s.

When: Feb. 4, 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Where: The Penthouse Nightclub, 1019 Seymour St. forbiddenvancouver.ca

Street Food City 9

One of the many exciting events offered during Dine Out Vancouver, Street Food City turns the Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza into a popup food truck pod. Participating street food vendors, in trucks and carts, will rotate throughout the week.

Altogether, 25 food trucks will be rolling in for this fun annual event that is now in its ninth year. Free entry.

When: Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza dineoutvancouver.com

Secrets of the Penthouse

Get a first-hand look at

The Wellness Show

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo perform at Queen Elizabeth Theatre Feb. 1.

where Sinatra crooned, bootleggers stashed their hooch and many a mobster raised a glass. Enjoy an evening of backstage history, live music and Italian cuisine at Vancouver’s most notorious venue. Owner Danny Filippone and au-

thor and Courier contributor Aaron Chapman will lead you on a daring jaunt through the Penthouse nightclub’s back rooms, secret bars and former dressing rooms. Joining them will be retired VPD cop Grant McDonald, a veteran of

For more than 25 years, the Wellness Show has been bringing new approaches to nutrition, fitness, physical and emotional well-being to help Vancouverites achieve their most holistic, healthiest selves. Meet and talk with experts and vendors, watch live demos, hear speakers and engage in hands-on activities — all in the name of wellness.

When: Feb. 1, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Feb. 2, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Where: Vancouver Conven-

tion Centre, West Building thewellnessshow.com

Black History Month

Celebrate Black History Month with an afternoon of dance, performance, music and art. “Enjoy a multi-disciplinary interactive performance about the struggles, courage and challenges of being Dressed in Black.”

Listen to a special classical piano and voice performance

by Rashaan Rori Allwood and Nadine Anyan shining a spotlight on works by eight superb but under-recognized black composers.

When: Feb. 1, 3 to 5 p.m.

Where: Central Library (Alice MacKay room), 350 West Georgia St. facebook.com

VANCOURIER.COM

T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0 THE VA NCOUVER COURIER

Pass It to Bulis

A19

The hockey blog that knows who needs the puck

In pole position in the Pacific, Canucks will need to get even better down the stretch ‘Everything’s magnified as the season progresses’

Backhand Sauce Daniel Wagner

The Canucks are on a roll. Heading into Wednesday’s game against the San Jose Sharks, the Canucks are one of the hottest teams in the league, winning 12 of their last 15 games. It’s a hot streak that has seen the Canucks speed into first place in the Pacific Division, with an eye towards creating some separation between themselves and the rest of the pack.

It’s still January and the Canucks have 28 wins; last season, they didn’t pick up their 28th win until March.

Now, however, we come to the crunch.

These final 30 or so games will determine not only whether the Canucks are a playoff team, but also how optimistic fans should be heading into the playoffs. How will the Canucks perform as the stakes get higher and the games get tougher?

“Mistakes are less frequent, guys are mentally more dialed in from shift to shift, and there’s more on the line,” said head coach Travis Green about the rising difficulty of the games. “So naturally, you’re going to see the temperature rise in the games... everything’s magnified as the season progresses.”

The Canucks, at least, have plenty of experience with hard-fought games, as many of their wins have come by thin margins, with the help of some empty net prowess by the so-called “Insurance Line” of Tanner Pearson, Bo Horvat and Loui Eriksson.

That’s a positive in one sense — it means the team can draw on that experience as the season progresses — but it also means they’re on a razor’s edge in a lot of games, relying on excellent goaltending and timely scoring to pull out victories.

What would make things a lot more comfortable for the Canucks — and their fans, for that matter — is if they could step up their game in these final 30-odd games and prove that they truly belong among the best teams in the league and aren’t just in pole position in the Pacific because of the shoddy quality of the division.

There are some positive signs in this direction. This is a team that experienced a lot of turnover in their roster over the past year, which can affect team chemistry. It takes time for players to figure out the tendencies of their teammates and know where to put the puck and when to get the most out of each shift.

It takes time for a coaching staff to figure out the best arrangement of their roster. In recent games, Green made the bold choice

Stick-taps & Glove-drops • A tap of the stick to Elias Pettersson for

his mind-blowing 102.4 mph slap shot in the All-Star Skills Competition’s Hardest Shot event. That is the second-hardest shot ever by a forward in the event.

• An even bigger stick-tap to Pettersson for what he did with the $10,000 donation to charity he earned from the NHL for his two shots over 100 mph. He donated it to the Parkinson’s Societies of B.C. and Minnesota, in honour of Brock Boeser’s dad, who lives with the disease.

Big Numbers It’s crunch time for the Canucks and Quinn Hughes has already played more games this season than he played in college, the World Juniors and World Championships combined last season.

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

to break up one of the best lines in the NHL, bumping Brock Boeser from the top line with Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller in favour of Jake Virtanen. The move has paid dividends, with Virtanen thriving in the role, giving the coaching staff a new card to play.

It also improves the Canucks’ depth, as Boeser has moved to the third line with Antoine Roussel and Adam Gaudette, which could provide more depth scoring.

We can see how the team has improved by looking at their underlying statistics.

Specifically, we can use the metric Expected Goals, which is a combination of shot quantity and quality: above 50 per cent means the Canucks are producing more and better chances than their opponents.

By looking at the Canucks’ five-game rolling average for Expected Goals, we can see their early excellence against a weaker schedule in October, the crash as they struggled in November and December,

and their climb back to above 50 per cent in January. If they can avoid that dip at the end of January turning into another crash, they should be in good shape.

There are questions, of course: Quinn Hughes has already played more games this season than he played in college, the World Juniors and World Championships combined last season. Will fatigue set in?

With the tighter, more hard-fought games at the end of the schedule, will the Canucks be able to dodge key injuries to top-six forwards and top-four defencemen that they have thus far avoided? If those injuries do come, will the Canucks’ as-yet untested depth be able to step up and deliver?

And finally, will the goaltending tandem of Jacob Markstrom and Thatcher Demko still steal games down the stretch or will they falter? Fortunately for the Canucks, there’s little reason to doubt either goaltender at this point.

• 4 After being held off the scoresheet

for 17 KHL games, Canucks top prospect Vasili Podkolzin has broken through with points in four straight games, setting a franchise record for SKA St. Petersburg for points from an 18 year old.

• 48 Just 50 games into the season, J.T.

Miller surpassed his point total of 47 from last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

With 48 points in 50 games, Miller is well on his way to shattering his career high of 56 points.

A20

THE VANCOUVER COURIER THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020

VANCOURIER.COM

Your Community

MARKETPLACE Book your ad ONLINE:

Or call to place your ad at

Visit the online MARKETPLACE:

or 604-444-3000 Email: classifieds@van.net

vancourier.adperfect.com

604-630-3300

classifieds.vancourier.com COMMUNITY

BUSINESS SERVICES

ANNOUNCEMENTS

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

RENTALS

APARTMENTS/ CONDOS FOR RENT

Lynda at West Coast Wigs will provide you with her expertise and her knowledge of wigs and hair pieces.

When Experience Counts!

604-980-3211

www.westcoastwigs.com

EMPLOYMENT

GENERAL EMPLOYMENT HO OUS SEKEEPER//hellper urgently needed for elderly person. Reliable. Must have a vacuum cleaner. Refs req. $16/hour. 604.263.5376 or 604-500-0151

TRUTH IN EMPLOYMENT ADVERTISING Glacier Media Group makes every effort to ensure you are responding to a reputable and legitimate job opportunity. If you suspect that an ad to which you have responded is misleading, here are some hints to remember.

Legitimate employers do not ask for money as part of the application process; do not send money; do not give any credit card information; or call a 900 number in order to respond to an employment ad.

Job opportunity ads are salary based and do not require an investment.

If you have responded to an ad which you believe to be misleading please call the: Better Business Bureau at 604-682-2711 Monday to Friday, 9am - 3pm or email: inquiries@bbbvan.org and they will investigate.

To advertise in the Classifeds call

604.630.3300

FREE VARIOUS cookbooks and used stamps. Kerrisdale area. Email Dianemcleod1 @telus.net

WANTED Old Books Wanted. also: Photos Postcards, Letters, Paintings. no text books or encyclopedias. I pay cash.

604-737-0530

INVENTORS! Ideas wanted!

Call Davison today!

1.800.218.2909 or visit us at inventing.davison.com/BC Free inventor’s guide!

LEGAL SERVICES CRIMINAL RECORD? Why suffer Employment/Licensing loss?

Travel/Business opportunities? Be embarrassed? Think: Criminal Pardon. US Entry Waiver. Record Purge. File Destruction. Free Consultation 1-800-3472540. accesslegalmjf.com

PERSONALS GENTLEMEN! Attractive, discreet European lady offers companionship. 604-451-0175

ADVERTISING POLICIES

All advertising published in this newspaper is accepted on the premise that the merchandise and services offered are accurately described and willingly sold to buyers at the advertised prices. Advertisers are aware of these conditions. Advertising that does not conform to these standards or that is deceptive or misleading, is never knowingly accepted. If any reader encounters non-compliance with these standards we ask that you inform the Publisher of this newspaper and The Advertising Standards Council of B.C. OMISSION AND ERROR: The publishers do not guarantee the insertion of a particular advertisement on a specified date, or at all, although every effort will be made to meet the wishes of the advertisers.

Further, the publishers do not accept liability for any loss of damage caused by an error or inaccuracy in the printing of an advertisement beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by the portion of the advertisement in which the error occurred. Any corrections of changes wil be made in the next available issue.

The Vancouver Courier will be responsible for only one incorrect insertion with liability limited to that portion of the advertisement affected by the error. Request for adjustments or corrections on charges must be made within 30 days of the ad’s expiration.

For best results please check your ad for accuracy the first day it appears. Refunds made only after 7 business days notice!

SPROTTSHAW.COM

HOME SERVICES CONCRETE • Polished Concrete Floors • Pumping • Placing • Sealing • Acid Staining • Decorative Concrete • Forming • Demolition • Foundation Pouring

ATTENTION

MARKETPLACE

FREE

HEALTH CARE ASSISTANT

EXCAVATING

HANDYPERSON

AGGRECON SPECIALTIES

WIGS, WIGS, WIGS & MORE No One Knows What It’s Like to be a Women With Hair Loss W

Phone Hours: Mon to Fri 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Office Hours: 9 am to 5 pm

**SWEDISH MASSAGE**

604-739-3998 West Broadway at Oak St.

REAL ESTATE SERVICES

Professional Work

LANGARA GARDENS

#101 - 621 W. 57th Ave, Van Spacious 1, 2 & 3 BR Rental Apartments & Townhouses.

Heat, hot water included.

Many units have in-suite laundry and lrg patios/balconies with gorgeous views. Tasteful gardens, swim pools, hot tub, gym, laundry, gated parking, plus shops & services. Near Oakridge Ctrl, Canada Line stations, Langara College, Churchill High School & more.

Sorry no pets. www.petersonrentals.com

778-919-7707

#1 Backhoes & Excavators Trenchless Waterlines Bobcats & Dump Truck & All Material Deliveries Drainage; Video Inspection, Landscaping, Stump/Rock/Cement/Oil Tank & Demos, Paving, Pool/Dirt Removal, Paver Stones, Jackhammer, Water/Sewer, Line/Sumps, Slinger Avail, Concrete Cutting, Hand Excavating.

Basements Made Dry Claudio’s Backhoe Service

.

CONCRETE SPECIALIST Sidewalk, Driveway, Patio Exposed Aggregate, Remove & Replacing Reasonable Rates.

35 yrs experience For free est.

Call Mario 604-253-0049 604-764-2726

604-341-4446

classifieds.vancourier.com • classifieds.vancourier.com

West Coast Cedar Installations New, Repaired, Rebuilt since 1991. Fences & Decks.

604-788-6458 cedarinstall@hotmail.com

Call 604-327-1178

info@langaragardens.com Managed by Peterson Commercial Property Management Inc.

REAL ESTATE

REAL ESTATE WANTED

WE BUY HOUSES Townhomes & Condos Any Situation, Condition or Price Range.

604-812-3718

GVCPS INC. / gvcps.ca

Drainage & Excavation SERVICES • We make Basements Dry • 604-341-4446

ELECTRICAL All Electrical, Low Cost.

Licensed. Res/Com. Small job expert. Renos, Panel changes.

(604)374-0062 Simply Electric

LIC. ELECTRICIAN bf#37309 Commercial &

FLOORING Hardwood Floor Refinishing Repairs & Staining InstalIation Free Estimates Century Hardwood Floors 604-376-7224 www.centuryhardwood.com

778-322-0934

We Buy Homes since 2003.

Call Today! 604-626-9647 www.webuyhomesbc.com A BBB Accredited Business

Call 604-630-3300 to place your ad

LEGAL

TRAVEL

LEGAL/PUBLIC NOTICES Cruise Desolation Sound & Toba Inlet ge Stay Homfray Lodg Limited Time Offer FREE R/T AIRFARE Vancouver-Powell River coastalcruises.ca Call us • 604-566-8027 .

. .

Have you been denied Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefits? The Disability Claims Advocacy Clinic can help. Call 1-877793-3222, visit our website www.dcac.ca, or email dcac@sasktel.net.

TODAY'S PUZZLE ANSWERS

A LIC’D. Electrician #30582 Rewiring & reno, appliance/ plumbing, rotor rooter 778998-9026, 604-255-9026

604-878-5232 HandymanConnection.com

REPAIRS ~ TO ~

- ALL TRADES FRIENDLY SERVICE SATISFACTION GUARANTEED OVER 34 YEARS IN VANCOUVER

GREG

604-644-4554

Celebrating 30 Years!

Since 1989

RENOS • REPAIRS

Gutter Cleaning, Power washing, Window Cleaning, Roof Cleaning Call Simon for prompt & professional service 30 yrs exp. 604-230-0627

YOUR ELECTRICIAN Lic#89402. Insured. Guar’d.

Fast same day service.

We love BIG & small jobs!

604-568-1899 goldenleafelectrical.com

Done Quick. Licensed.

Done Right. Bonded.

Guaranteed. Insured.

www.mrbuild.com

GUTTERS

residential reno’s & small jobs.

CARPENTRY • ELECTRICAL PLUMBING • PAINTING FLOORING • TO-DO LIST

EVERYTHING

FENCING

DRAINAGE

HOME REPAIRS RENOVATIONS INSTALLATIONS

Ken’s Power Washing Plus WINTER SPECIALS Pressure washing Gutter & window cleaning ! Work Safe, Free est.

9129 Shaughnessy St., Van.

604-732-8453 AAA All types repairs, renos, kitchens, baths, tiling, painting, plumbing, electrical and more.

David: 604-862-7537

! !

Call Ken 604-716-7468

Place ads online @

@

classifieds.vancourier.com m

Thinking of Renovating?

Be sure to check the classifieds It’s full of local listings that can save you money

c lassifieds.vancourier.com classifieds.vancourier.com

HANDYMAN • RENOVATIONS •Kitchen •Bath • Plumbing •Countertop •Floors •Paint & more. Call MIC for quote:

604-725-3127

VANCOURIER.COM

THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2020 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

SUDOKU

HOME SERVICES MASONRY

PLUMBING

RENOS & HOME IMPROVEMENT

A21

RUBBISH REMOVAL

ALL HOME

MASONRY AND REPAIRS •Stone Walls •Bricks •Chimneys & Fireplaces •Pavers •Asphalt •& More •ALL CONCRETE WORK •20+ years experience.

George • 778-998-3689

• Hot Water Tanks • Plumbing • Heating • Furnaces • Boilers • Drainage • Res. & Comm.

• 24/7 /77 Service

MOVING

604-437-7272

ABE MOVING & Delivery &

Licensed plumber, fire sprinklers, gas-fitter.

Camera drain cleaning inspection & Back flow testing.

Rubbish Removal $30/hr per Person.24/7 • 604-999-6020

Call: 778.522.0007

EAST WEST MOVERS 24/7. Reasonable. Reliable.

James • 604-786-7977

RENOS & HOME IMPROVEMENT

Celebrating 30 Years!

PAINTING/ WALLPAPER

Since 1989

RENOVATIONS. Kitchen & Bath Specialist.

Licensed Builder. WCB. developmentbrick@gmail.com

Dima • 604-908-3800 For all your renovation needs.

Specialise in kitchen & bathrooms, over 25 years in business. ref’s available.

Please call Greg 604-767-0277

Kitchen & Bathrooms, all Tile, all Flooring, Drywall, Paint. ALL REPAIRS +More!

INT & EXT • 778-836-0436 D & M Renovations.

Flooring, tiling, finishing.

Fully Insured. Top quality, quick work, 604-724-3832

ROOFING

RUBBISH REMOVAL

Reasonable rates Free estimates.

Pat 604-224-2112 anytime

BRADS JUNK REMOVAL.com

• FULL SERVICE JUNK REMOVAL & Clean-Up at Affordable Rates • Pianos & Hot Tubs No Problem • Booked Appointments • Same-Day Service • Residential & Commercial 20 YARD BIN RENTALS $

249 for a week + dump fees

604.220.JUNK (5865) TREE SERVICES

Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a Sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes.

TREE SERVICES

PUZZLE ANSWERS ON SEPARATE PAGE

Pruning, Hedge Trimming Tree & Stump Removal 75 ft Bucket Trucks .

604 - 787-5915 604 - 291-7778

www.mrbuild.com

BC’s Best Painters in Town!

PAINTING (25+ yrs exp) BBB Top Quality Paint & Workmanship. Interior: 3 Coats & Repairs for $250ea room.

778-545-0098 604-377-5423

 ALL RENOS  BATHROOM RENOS  KITCHEN RENOS  WATER DAMAGE REPAIRS  ALL DOORS AND WINDOWS  DECKS AND FENCES  ALL ELECTRICAL AND PLUMBING  ROOFING AND DRAINAGE

D&M PAINTING

Need anything done or repaired?

.

Interior / Exterior Specialist Many Years Experience Fully Insured Top Quality, Quick Work Free estimate

A-1 Contracting & Roofing New & Re-Roofing • All Types All Maintenance & Repairs GUTTER CLEANING Gutter Guard Installations • RENOVATION WORK • WCB. 25% Discount • Emergency Repairs •

Call Jag at:

.

778-892-1530

www.treeworksonline.ca 10% discount with this ad

AUTOMOTIVE

SPORTS & IMPORTS

604-732-8453

mrbuild@mrbuild.com

Bros. Roofing Ltd.

604-724-3832

PAINTSPECIAL.COM

HOME REPAIRS RENOVATIONS INSTALLATIONS

3 rooms for $375, 2 coats any colour (Ceiling & Trim extra) Price incls Cloverdale Premium quality paint.

NO PAYMENT until Job is completed.

Ask us about our Laminate Flooring & Maid Services.

CARPENTRY • ELECTRICAL PLUMBING • PAINTING FLOORING • TO-DO LIST

778-895-3503

Done Quick. Licensed.

Done Right. Bonded.

Guaranteed. Insured.

L.robertspainting Walls: $120/room Ceilings: $80−$100/room, including paint and prep; 30 years of experience 604−961−4391

604-878-5232 HandymanConnection.com

PATIOS .

Patio Covers, Sunrooms, Vinyl, Railings

Over 40 Years in Business SPECIALIZING IN CEDAR, FIBERGLASS LAMINATES AND TORCH ON.

1993 BMW 325i Convertible, Collectors, auto, 138k. $8500. 604-875-6833

Liability Insurance, WCB, BBB, Free Estimates

604-946-4333 BC ROOFING LTD

Roofing & Re−Roofing BCROOFER.CA Mike: 604−240−1850

GROOVY

GL Roofing & Repairs. New Roof, Clean Gutters $80. info@ glroofing.ca • 604-240-5362 MCR Mastercraft Roofing Right the 1st time! Repairs, reroofing, garage, decks.

Hart 604-322-5517

ACROSS

Free Estimate 604-821-8088 • 604-518-6395

BOWEN ALUMINUM

patiocoversunroomvancouver.com

BC AWNING & RAILING

•Aluminum/Glass Patio Cover •Sunrooms & Windows •Aluminum Railings Vinyl Deck Free Est • 604-521-2688 PatioCoverVancouver.com

Reduce Reuse Recycle The classifieds can help!

604.630.3300

Your Clunker is someone’s Classic.

classifieds.vancourier.com

classifieds.vancourier.com

1. Fall down 5. American TV company (abbr.)

8. Exclamation that denotes disgust 11. Gallantry 13. Chinese word signifying “doctrine” 1/9 ,&6>: )6=(2(4 +<6%276* 15. Act of imitating 16. Tall, rounded vase 17. Sixth month of Jewish civil calendar 18. Rural Iranian village 20. Time zone

DOWN

1. Surgical procedure of the heart (abbr.)

2. Northern Scandinavia indigenous person 3. Evergreen trees and shrubs 4. Meat from a domestic hog 5. State of insensibility 6. Herb 7.Annuity 8. San Diego-based ballplayer 9. Members of a Semitic people 10.Any physical damage 12. Woolen rug 14.Alsos Mission leader

21. Military weapon (abbr.)

22. Gets rid of 25. Aggressive 30. Addressed one’s appearance 019 !5>&)=$2"6 32. Denoting Indo-European languages 33. French noble family 38. Shock therapy 41. Having characteristics of both sexes 43. Large suitcase /.9 -(6 ;3' 276($2>6% 8'7 with the universe

48. Swiss river 49. Frequently 50. Wipe out 55. Invests in little enterprises 56. Waste 57. Resembles a large shrimp 59. Derogatory name for rural resident 60. Menswear accessory 61. Tropical American tree 62. Pitching statistic 63. Camera type 64. Cardinal number that is $36 %#) '5 >"6 =(7 '(6

19.Aromatic plant used as culinary herb 23. Where you sleep 24. Ruled Russia 25. Indicates density of data (abbr.)

26. Sea eagle 27. Type of light bulb 28. Wreath 29. Graduate with a degree 34. What thespians do 35. “Orange is the New Black” character 36. Comedienne Gasteyer 37. Romanian monetary unit

39. People treated as a group 40. Small European plant 41. First responder group 42.Aperson’s head 44. Giggle 45. Bura-__: Chadic language 46. Snout moth genus 47. Body part 48. Inspirational Wimbledon champ 51. Revolutions per minute 52.American software developer 53.Ancient Greek city 54. Female sheep 58. “The Science Guy”

A22

THE VAN COU VER CO URIER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

FEBRUARY M I D W E E K M AY H E M FEB RUA RY 1 - 2 9

START FRESH EACH DAY WITH AN EMPTY BALLOT DRUM. BEGINNING AT 7AM, EARN BALLOTS INTO THE 4 DAILY DRAWS FOR $1,000 IN FREE PLAY AT 12PM, 3PM, 6PM AND 9PM. AFTER EACH DAY, ALL EARNED BALLOTS WILL BE ADDED TO THE WEEKEND DRAWS! ACTIVATE BALLOTS BEGINNING 2 HOURS PRIOR TO EACH DRAW. EARN BALLOTS BY PLAYING SLOTS & TABLE GAMES. MUST PRESENT VALID GOVERNMENT ISSUED PHOTO I.D. TO PARTICIPATE. RULES APPLY. VISIT PLAYERS CLUB FOR DETAILS.

L I V E E NTE RTA I N M E NT EV E RY F RI DAY & SATU RDAY F E ATU RI N G

THE DUELING PIANOS 3 RD FLOOR

9 :3 0 P M - 1:3 0 A M

39 SMITHE STREET, VANCOUVER, BC V6B 0R3 | TEL 604.683.7277 | PARQVANCOUVER.COM

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re here for business hours and happy hours Your ride around Vancouver

Local News, Local Matters

F2

THE VA NCO UVER COUR IER T H U R SDAY, JA N UA RY 3 0 , 2 0 2 0

VAN CO UR I E R. CO M

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re here when your night starts and ends Your ride around Vancouver

Apple, the Apple logo, and the app store logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. registered in the U.S. and other countries App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.