Vancouver Courier April 8 2015

WEDNESDAY

April 8 2015

Vol. 106 No. 27

OPINION 10

Geller gets neighbourly CITY LIVING 12

Beer league bash THEATRE 18

From prison to performing There’s more online at

vancourier.com MIDWEEK EDITION

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

‘A poor man’s modern house’ Vancouver Specials become cultural icons Naoibh O’Connor

noconnor@vancourier.com

The glossy white front door and sleek grey and cedar exterior of a Vancouver Special on East 22nd Avenue located not far off of Main Street reflect the modern renovations completed on the interior. But before entering the home, which was built in 1975, visitors will find a nod to its history — two small lion figures that originally guarded the home from atop brick pillars on either side of a gate. They’ve been “chromed” and are now nestled into the ivy to the right of the doorway.

This house is among those featured on Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s April 18 self-guided Vancouver Special tour, which reveals how five homeowners mixed the old and new to reinvent their houses. It’s the organization’s sixth tour of Vancouver Specials whose popularity has soared over the past decade.

“There are a lot of people who just really like the fact that they’re a blank canvas. You take a Vancouver Special and it has a big footprint and kind of a basic layout and from that you can either stick with the Vancouver Special style and embrace it or you can completely change it, make it entirely your own and

very modern. So, there’s a lot of possibilities there,” said VHF spokeswoman Kathryn Morrow.

The possibilities are what convinced Scott Massey and Laura Quilici to buy their 2,278 square-foot Vancouver Special on East 22nd in 2007. They live in it with their daughter Lola, 10, and have spent eight years painstakingly renovating it.

“I would call myself a fairly strict modernist in a lot of ways and especially architecturally speaking. I’m very drawn to modernist architecture and I can envision a diamondin-the-rough situation. When we saw this house, it was all original and I knew we could make something cool,” Massey said.

“Some people have called the Vancouver Special a poor man’s modern house because the task is stripping a lot of the ornament away. Once you’ve done that, you’re left with a pretty clean shell — a square cornered, square-roomed shell. It really does lend itself to a modernist aesthetic.”

Massey has lived in the city since 1992, while Quilici was born in Vancouver to Italian parents.

The couple was determined to buy a Vancouver Special, but Quilici’s parents, as well as other friends and family, weren’t initially convinced it was a good idea.

Continued on page 13

FULL HOUSE Laura Quilici, Lola and Scott Massey enjoy life in their renovated Vancouver Special. The East Side home is included in Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s self-guided Vancouver Special tour April 18. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Passionate millennials just won’t vote

Generation writes off politics OPINION Jessica Barrett

jessica.barrett@gmail.com

Nothing is served by resorting to generational stereotypes. Although it’s easy to toss around labels like entitled (millennials) or selfish (boomers), most of the time, behavioural trends among these groups make a lot of sense when viewed

in context of the events that have shaped their life experience.

But some stereotypes are hard to argue with — like the one about young people being politically apathetic.

Now, I know that’s not entirely true. A recent study from the Broadbent Institute showed the under-35 set have very strong feelings on issues like the environment, education and health care that are so distinct from older generations they could profoundly shift the political landscape of this country — if only they bothered to vote.

And herein lies the rub.

In B.C. less than half of 18 to 24-yearolds cast ballots in the 2013 provincial election, and 25 to 34-year-olds were even worse, less than 40 per cent voted.

In contrast, nearly three quarters of voters aged 55 to 75 showed up at the polls.

This does not bode well for the prospect of a Yes victory in the transit plebiscite, where a stark generational divide means those who rely on transit the most, people under 40, are the least likely to be counted in deciding its future.

The Yes campaign has done an admirable job to court to this group — Mayor Gregor Robertson even showed off his DJ

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chops at a recent warehouse party in East Van to celebrate the cause. But considering the stats, I’m not optimistic it’s enough.

I called up Paul Kershaw to discuss my fears. As founder of Generation Squeeze, a non-partisan lobbying group aimed at standing up for the interests of younger Canadians, and a professor at UBC’s school of population and public health, Kershaw has been mulling over the problem of young voter apathy for some time. In his assessment, attempts to make voting seem sexy or hip are often too little, too late.

Continued on page 9

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News

Stanley Cup rioter avoids jail

Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

A 22-year-old man who pleaded guilty to participating in the Stanley Cup riot will not have to spend any time behind bars after the B.C. Court of Appeal decided to substitute a jail term for a four-month conditional sentence.

Andrew Patrick Lynch, who was 18 during the June 2011 riot downtown Vancouver and had no criminal record, was originally sentenced to 45 days in prison — to be served on weekends — followed by 12 months of probation.

A three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal released its decision April 1 and ruled the sentencing judge erred in principle by imposing a jail term without seriously considering if Lynch should serve a conditional sentence.

“Having due regard to the circumstances of the case, and particularly Lynch’s involvement in the riots, his post-offence

conduct and the principle of parity, I would vary the sentence imposed on Lynch and substitute a conditional sentence order,” wrote Madam Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick, whose decision was agreed to by Madam Justice Nicole Garson and Justice David Harris.

Lynch’s four-month conditional sentence includes 150 hours of community work, a curfew seven days a week from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. and he must refrain from consuming alcohol and drugs and keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

The ruling came after the provincial court heard last fall that Lynch committed “multiple acts of criminal activity that night [of the riot] over a one-and-a-halfhour period,” including entering the Bay, Mego Luggage and Swimwear, kicking a window and being in possession of stolen property.

The sentencing judge also pointed out Lynch was “drunk and combative” with police at house parties

The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled that a 22-year-old man will not go to prison for his role in the Stanley Cup riot in June 2011. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

in June and August 2013 at a time that he was warned he was under investigation.

“I cannot put too much weight on this, except if it does show something in terms of the character and rehabilitative,” the judge said at the time. “Although your references all express tremendous surprise in your actions that evening,

these actions afterwards are indicative that you may not have been as clear, clean and as good a law-abiding citizen, as they believe or your counsel would have me believe.”

In appealing the sentence, Lynch’s lawyer Bradley Hickford argued the jail term didn’t fit with those given to his co-accused,

Parmjot Singh Bains and Michael David Stewart, both of whom also pleaded guilty to participating in the riot. Bains received a six-month conditional sentence, including 200 hours of community work service.

Stewart received a conditional discharge in which he was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service

work and write a three-page letter of apology to the City of Vancouver.

Hickford also pointed out Lynch did not enter Swimwear but did reach through a window to steal a pair of flip-flops, which the Appeal Court said was a “harmless” misstatement by the provincial court judge given that Lynch admitted to stealing the sandals.

The summary of Lynch’s pre-sentencing report said Lynch was enrolled at Camosun College in Victoria and planned to transfer to a bachelor of commerce program at the University of Victoria.

“Mr. Lynch has been described by many as a quiet person who tends to keep to himself and except for one day has led a very pro-social life,” the report said. “The indication from the people who have come forward to support him is that his participation in the Vancouver riot is something that is very out of his character and came as a surprise.” twitter.com/Howellings

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News

Independent grocers gain ground Stong’s North Shore location first in 26 years

Glen Korstrom

gkorstrom@biv.com

Independent grocers and small grocery chains are expanding across Metro Vancouver even as consolidation makes national competitors ever larger.

The expansion comes not only from longtime independent grocer Stong’s Market, but also from the small chain Choices Markets and newcomer Pomme Natural Market.

Stong’s Market owner Cori Bonina helped turn sod at a March 31 groundbreaking along with politicians, developers and others involved in Northwoods Village on Dollarton Highway in North Vancouver.

Bonina plans to open her second Stong’s store in the development when the project is complete early in 2016. The 20,000-squarefoot grocery store would be the first new Stong’s location in 26 years.

“We were on the North Shore 20 years ago when we had four stores,” Bonina said after the ceremony. “We always wanted to come back.”

Stong’s Market owner Cori Bonina believes the demand for independent grocery stores is strong. PHOTO CHUNG CHOW

Bonina has lived in North Vancouver for decades and believes that demand for an independent grocer is strong.

She is a fourth-generation owner of the com-

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pany and is also preparing to move her longtime grocery store on Dunbar Street into larger premises. Her family has operated a 14,000-square-foot grocery store at 4560 Dunbar St. for decades, but the location is slated for redevelopment.

Bonina secured a lease until Feb. 28, 2016, and intends to move up the street a few blocks to between West 26th and West 27th avenues on March 31, 2016.

Her future Dunbar Street store would be larger, at around 20,000

square feet, she said.

Other grocers are similarly expanding.

Upstart Pomme Natural Market, for example, has four owners who aim to open 10 stores in 10 years and are already ahead of schedule.

The Victoria-based foursome of Rasool Rayani, Ed Low, Dave Arnsdorf and Craig Hermanson opened a 16,000-square-foot location in Port Coquitlam in January 2014, and then added a 5,000-square-foot second store on Davie Street in Vancouver earlier this year.

Both of those stores involved buying an existing grocer and then renovating and rebranding.

A third Pomme Natural Market is slated to open this summer in Nanaimo.

The ownership team earlier this year bought Nanaimo’s 5,000-squarefoot Island Natural Markets, which they intend to rebrand.

“There are no more openings in the immediate future,” Hermanson said.

“It’s been a lot with three in the last year and two in the past two months, so we’re in a bit of a con-

solidation phase. But 10 stores in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island is our goal.”

Choices Markets has also been expanding by buying existing grocers and then rebranding them.

For example, the Vancouver-based company bought the Drive Organics on Commercial Drive earlier this year.

When Drive Organics rebrands, it will raise Choices Markets’ store count to eight locations — seven in Metro Vancouver and one in Kelowna.

All of these small and independent operations compete against grocery monoliths such as Empire Co. Ltd., which bought more than 200 Safeway stores for $5.8 billion in 2013 and added them to its Sobeys division.

Sobeys previously had bought the Vancouver Island-founded Thrifty Foods for $260 million in 2007.

When those mega-deals happen, other grocers also get bigger.

That’s because the Competition Bureau usually requires the acquiring grocer to sell some of its stores to maintain a competitive landscape.

That independent law enforcement agency, for example, required Sobeys to sell 29 of its stores in order for the Safeway transaction to complete.

Sobeys then sold 15 stores to Overwaitea Foods and 14 others to Federated Co-op. twitter.com/GlenKorstrom

W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

TURNING POINT RECOVERY SOCIETY PRESENTS:

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Environmentalist Terry Slack will be speaking at a walking tour during Earth Week about how rehabilitating land on the Fraser River near Cambie Street will help restore oolichan runs.

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Restoring the oolichan Deanna Cheng

dmwcheng7@gmail.com

At this time of year, the oolichan would be plentiful in the Fraser River.

But not now, according to environmentalist and fisherman Terry Slack, who said you could once see them passing by at the foot of Cambie Street.

“Stocks are so low now.

There’s a risk of them disappearing forever.”

Slack will be speaking at a walking tour during Earth Week about how rehabilitating the area by the river will help restore oolichan runs.

Held April 18 from 11 a.m. to noon, it will start at the lower level of Marine Gateway station by Cambie and Southwest Marine Drive.

Slack said the biggest contributor to their demise is habitat loss, something he has witnessed over the last 65 years.

Slack, who is also the director of the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society, said ooligan is part of a complex food chain. “There used to be hundreds and hundreds,

thousands and thousands of fish. They’d feed the marshes. They’d feed the birds. There’s over 24 difference species by the river that benefits from this fish.”

White sturgeons would swim down the Fraser River to meet the oolichan in a feeding frenzy clash but now the sturgeons are disappointed. “It’s a huge situation where this species depend on this fish. They swim all the way from Hope, down to the Fraser River bridge,” said Slack.

He called the area the “Serengeti of the river.”

Or it used to be.

“Now I see starving eagles. I see starving ducks.

I see starving waterfowls,” he said.

Having the area expanded and recovered would make a great difference to oolichan, said Slack.

“This piece of land looks abandoned, broken down with concrete. It’s a huge mess, really, but it has three streams and we want to daylight the area.”

Daylighting means the redirection of a stream into an above-ground

channel with the goal of restoring riverbanks.

Slack said another way to help the oolichan recover is to get control over the shrimp fishing off the west coast of Vancouver Island where the fish is bycatch.

Oolichan is the Chinook term for a type of ocean fish, a smelt, which gets fat during spawning. It is commonly known as “candlefish” because, when the fish is caught, dried and hung on a wick, it can be burned as a candle.

It is also known as the “saviour fish,” said Slack, because it would be the first fresh food after winter the indigenous people would have.

A Royal B.C. Museum report said oolichan were preserved in many ways because they were highly coveted as a food source and as a trade item. They were boiled, baked or fried to be eaten right away or they were preserved to be eaten throughout the year.

Rendered oolichan grease was used for medicinal purposes. twitter.com/writerly_dee

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News

Deadpool tests life without viaducts City believes roadways should come down

12TH&CAMBIE Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

The Georgia viaduct will be shut down for several days this month to accommodate the filming of a movie starring Vancouver-born actor Ryan Reynolds. Fan Ryan Sullivan (in costume) watched some of the action Monday from the Dunsmuir viaduct. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

I went for a stroll Monday to see what all the fuss was about regarding some movie star hunk/ heartthrob and the shutting down of the Georgia viaduct for a 20th Century Fox production.

You’ve probably heard that Vancouver-born actor Ryan Reynolds is back in town to run around in a red-and-black action hero outfit and make a pile of money while he stars in comic book film Deadpool.

Kind of exciting, if you’re into that kind of thing.

But it may not be terribly exciting for motorists who depend on the viaduct, which will shut down on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. until April 16 to accommodate filming. This Saturday, the span out of downtown will close from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. and may carry over to Sunday. The film company has options to shoot April 17 and 18, too.

Who agreed to this?

The City of Vancouver because, as its communications people pointed out in a news release, the production intends to spend more than $37.5 million and hire 1,100 workers.

Good for the economy, people.

At least that’s what Mayor Gregor Robertson said when the city announced the closures of the viaduct, which runs parallel to the Dunsmuir viaduct, which

remains open for vehicles, bikes and pedestrians during filming.

What the mayor didn’t say was the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts will likely be demolished at some point in the future.

To make that happen though, the city will need some evidence that Vancouver can survive without the 1970s-era hulking structures and successfully reroute the 43,000 vehicles per day that use the viaducts.

I’ve already heard Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs say how the closure of the viaducts during the 2010 Winter Olympics didn’t have a dramatic effect on traffic.

I’ve also read the city reports that say the viaducts would cost up to $120 million to retain, if rehabilitation, maintenance and eventual replacement costs are factored in over 40 years.

I’ve also heard city staff say they’re confident they can design a new street system to replace the viaducts that will ensure traffic continues to flow in and out of downtown.

Here’s a telling quote from one report: “In every city’s evolution, there are rare opportunities to take bold city-building steps to advance the city’s goals and livability, or correct a past planning wrong.

The potential removal of the viaducts provides an opportunity for the City of Vancouver to do both.”

So, yep, it’s pretty clear city staff wants the viaducts down.

Which brings me to this:

How much do you want to wager that this movie shoot will also factor into the city’s decision to demolish the viaducts?

I’m confident that when the city does an analysis of what effect the closure of the Georgia viaduct had on traffic, it will be minimal. I’m also confident we’ll hear how it was good for the economy.

As for my stroll to the set Monday, I never did see Reynolds, although he tweeted later in the day to thank motorists for putting up with the closure.

What I did see was an overturned SUV, heard the rat-tat-tat of automatic weapons and saw lots of people running around with portable radios.

While taking it in, I had a come-by-chance brief conversation with a cyclist who was rolling by on the Dunsmuir viaduct bike lane. It was Sadhu Johnston, Vancouver’s deputy city manager.

“I guess it hasn’t shut down the city, so that’s good,” he said, before pedalling downtown.

See what I mean, confident.

Note: I realize Monday was a holiday for some and the rest of the week will be busier for motorists.

But no busier than it was in 1965. Huh? The city’s director of transportation, Jerry Dobrovolny, told me a couple of years ago there were fewer vehicles travelling into downtown now than in 1965. And, he too, was confident when he said that. twitter.com/Howellings

Ryan Reynolds tweeted his thanks to Vancouverites for their patience. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Cityframe

POLE POSITION Artist Marcus Bowcott’s Trans Am Totem, a 10-metre-high sculpture curated by the Vancouver Biennale, has been installed at Quebec Street and Milross Avenue and is composed of five real scrap cars stacked upon an old growth cedar tree.

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Wind arrives in tunnel

It’s taken three years, but dropped calls and unsent text message are now a thing of the past for Wind Mobile customers travelling on the Canada Line.

Beginning April 6, the wireless carrier can now offer uninterrupted service throughout all the underground portions of the SkyTrain system linking Richmond to downtown Vancouver.

The Canada Line opened in the summer of 2009 and Telus spent $2 million building the infrastructure to support underground

wireless service throughout the tunnels.

While other carriers such as Rogers and Bell paid Telus to use the infrastructure, Wind complained the cost was too high.

The company filed a petition with the Canada Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in 2012, requesting access to the tunnels to build its own infrastructure.

But InTransitBC and the City of Vancouver asked the CRTC to dismiss the petition, saying Wind was underestimating the technical challenges of installing its own infrastructure.

Instead, it said the company should go back to negotiate with Telus.

Wind has now joined the Telus infrastructure instead of building its own underground wireless system.

Newly appointed Wind CEO Alek Kstrajic said in a statement that offering uninterrupted coverage is “the next step” toward expanding its network.

In March, the Ministry of Industry announced Wind paid the minimum bid amount of $56 million in a wireless spectrum auction for AWS-3 spectrum in B.C., Alberta and southern Ontario.

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LOOKING FOR WORK?

We can help. Our services are free.

Do young voters consider politics irrelevant to their otherwise busy and distracted lives? PHOTO JASON LANG

Young Canadians have clout

Continued from page 1 “Part of the answer rests, ironically, with not focusing so much of our attention on voting per se, but actually stepping back many months and years before one’s asked to vote and talk about what happens then,” he says.

In appealing to younger demographics only when they want something from them, political machines of all stripes feed into a “broader cultural malaise of discontent” that has shaped the political views of young people.

“We’ve actually reared a bunch of people in their 40s and younger to think politics is irrelevant to their lives,” Kershaw said. “We don’t motivate people to pay attention to the details of decisions that are taking place in politics.”

If younger people had a better understanding of the political back story that brought us to the referendum in the first place, Kershaw believes, they would realize how their own inaction has played a role.

“I think it’s critical for younger people to ask: ‘why the heck do we even need a referendum to raise $250 million to invest in transit when the provincial budget that was just tabled found more than double that for medical care?’ We didn’t need a referendum on that,” he said.

“I would say the answer is largely, well, 50 cents of every medical care dollar goes to the 15 per cent of the population over 65, and older British Columbians are more likely to vote.”

And so goes the circular logic of the young voter

issue: political parties and governments don’t try to appeal to us because we don’t vote, and we don’t vote for precisely that reason.

But Kershaw contends we can break the cycle.

His Generation Squeeze aims to redirect the narrative on politics away from distrust and disgust and toward the considerable political clout we could gain if we were educated, organized and active.

“We need to learn from the wisdom of our elders,” he said, citing the lobbying efforts of the Canadian Association for Retired Persons, which, at 300,000 members, is bigger than many political parties and has successfully demanded action on issues affecting Canadians over 50.

“However, we haven’t been doing the same thing

as younger Canadians, and until we do, we will have so much less influence on the platforms that the left, the centre and the right campaign on.”

Kershaw hasn’t completely written off a Yes victory yet, and neither have I. But we both agree that younger people will shoulder a substantial part of not just the burden, but also the blame, in the event of a defeat.

“I’m hopeful we can turn it around, but if it doesn’t we’ll all have to look in the mirror as younger Vancouverites and say: it could have been different.”

No matter the outcome, we also need to answer the call of Generation Squeeze and start proving this stereotype wrong. For more info, visit gensqueeze.ca.

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Opinion

Meet two of the real wives of hockey

Some suggestions for a friendlier city

Megan Stewart Columnist mstewart@vancourier.com

Michael Geller Columnist

How complex is your identity when it ends with wife and begins with what your husband does for a living? This is the question behind Hockey Wives, a surprisingly sympathetic, grounded and real (not “real” à la Real Housewives) reality TV show about the WAGS of NHLers. It airs Wednesday nights on the W Network.

These Wives and Girlfriends of sports stars are varying degrees of self-important, independent and industrious. In some cases, the women are very independent and the relationship suffers. Or, you can almost hear some of the wives wondering… “What’s independence? How would he get out the door with pants on if I didn’t pull them up for him.”

One sensitive, doe-eyed woman whose husband is bouncing around below the NHL and its six or even seven-figure salary, puts words to her deepest doubts.

“Every time [he] gets sent down, I start to wonder what did [he] do wrong, what am I doing wrong as his wife? Did I not take away enough of his burdens and he could only focus on hockey?”

Another, a down-to-earth but oblivious homemaker who is married to the captain of the L.A. Kings and his eight-year contract worth $48 million, says she is “counting down the days” until he retires. “I don’t really have a choice though, do I?” Says one likeable, entrepreneurial woman whose husband made his career with his fists, “The girls who think everyone wants to be their friend because of their husband, that’s because they’re obsessed with their husband and have nothing else going on.”

I watch the show and will keep watching. But I realized I already knew a few “hockey wives.” One organizes drop-in ice time at the West End rink on Friday nights. Another runs during her lunch break to stay in shape for playoffs.

Maybe you know a few women like this or have seen them at the Kitsilano arena, on the ice at Hillcrest or at Burnaby 8 Rinks. It’s not like professional hockey is an option.

Let me introduce you to two Vancouver hockey wives, neither of whom is married to a Canuck.

A graduate of Western Washington University where she was a varsity field hockey player, Teresa Schwartz is a high school teacher living in South Cambie who plays on three ice hockey teams, one full-time as an all-position skater, two more as a spare.

“The reason I play on so many teams is I know I can’t make all the games,” said the recreational mountain biker and former ultimate player with hall-of-fame Prime. If she misses a hockey game, it’s likely because she’s making sure her 12-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter get to their ice times. “I can still make it for one team so don’t feel like I’ve lost out on a game for that week,” she said.

Does Schwartz identify as a hockey wife?

“No, I identify myself as a hockey player.

I would, if anything, say I feel more like a hockey mom because, first and foremost, my children’s hockey and ringette is priority and then I’m second as a hockey player. It’s been a while since I’ve actually gone to see my husband play hockey.”

Mandy Hillier, a right-handed, left-handed shooter, rarely misses a game with her Ice Queens. “I’m guaranteed, once a week, both exercise and time to chat with the girls and have a beer afterwards,” she said.

Hillier likes that her teammates range in age from their late teens through to their 40s, are single, attached, have multiple kids or are child-free, and work in diverse professions. “You can’t cancel on the team,” she said. “One of the best ways to make a social life work is to commit to a team.”

Does she identify as a hockey wife?

“No. Hockey wife implies that the woman just sits around while her husband plays, which is not a bad thing. I used to watch my husband play as well. I would say we’re more a hockey family,” said Hillier.

“We both play 12 months a year.”

In eight years, 13 babies were born amongst Hillier’s teammates. “Our goalie has had two — that was hard to get a goalie, and then another goalie was pregnant. There are not a lot of women goalies,” she said.

Hillier was back on the ice six weeks after having her children. “It’s a good sport for that because it looks high-impact but it’s not. When they’re that young, that’s when the husband brings the baby to the rink so you can nurse before you go on.”

With so many kids on the team and two kids of her own under the age of five, Hillier’s games are often boosted by a small cheering section.

“A few of us, our husbands play together and we will take the kids to their games. Some days, the husbands will bring them to watch us, so watching our games will be six kids and three dads.”

Husband cheering from the stands?

That’s my definition of a hockey wife. twitter.com/MHStewart

The week in num6ers...

10

In metres, the height of a new sculpture involving five scrap cars stacked on top of an old growth cedar stump located near Quebec Street and Milross Avenue.

4

The number of months in a new conditional sentence handed to Stanley Cup rioter Andrew Lynch, reduced on appeal from an original 45-day jail sentence.

26

The number of years since a new Stong’s grocery store has opened. The local chain is expanding to North Vancouver in 2016.

michaelarthurgeller@gmail.com

Do you know your neighbours?

In last week’s column, I wrote about a talk I was giving that evening at SFU called “Twelve Great Ideas for Vancouver from Around the World.”

I was gratified by the turnout, but even more pleased with the discussion that followed.

Of the 12 ideas presented, one that generated considerable interest was the need to make Vancouver a friendlier city. Many in attendance commented on how difficult it can be for newcomers to make friends.

Suggestions were offered on how to design friendlier apartment buildings, including putting a residents’ lounge near the entrance, rather than in some leftover hidden space.

One speaker suggested that instead of having Family Day in British Columbia, we should have Neighbour Day, when neighbours could meet in one another’s home or at a block party. Far too many of us do not greet neighbours when they move in, and after a while there does not seem to be a good justification to introduce ourselves.

I facetiously responded we’ll all get to know one another when the earthquake hits us, and we’re dependent on each other for survival.

I also suggested, since I doubt the premier will replace Family Day with Neighbour Day, that we might designate an arbitrary date, say the third Saturday in May, as Neighbour Day. On this day we would introduce ourselves to new and old neighbours and organize a block party, spring clean-up or other community activities.

One of the attendees noted that some streets in Kitsilano are now organizing regular block parties, and this is also happening in other parts of the city.

Whenever I think about the friendliness of a neighbourhood, I am reminded of one of my late father’s stories. A man was thinking about buying a new house, but wondered what the neighbourhood was like. The realtor pointed out a man cutting his lawn across the street. “Why don’t you go and ask him.”

The lawn-cutter responded by asking his potential neighbour what it was like where he was currently living.

“Oh we all get along very nicely,” he replied.

11

The number of craft breweries who entered teams in the inaugural Beer League BASH tournament held Saturday at Britannia Rink.

“Then I think you will find the same thing here!”

Other ideas also resonated with attendees, both during the Q&A and in subsequent discussions. For example, I noted that in Freiburg, Germany, which I consider one of the most sustainable cities in the world, many new apartment buildings have stairwells with large windows and colourful finishes to encourage residents to use stairs rather than elevators.

After all, it is healthier.

Compare that with most Vancouver apartment buildings where stairwells rarely have windows and are often not even finished other than some yellow stripes on the stairs. Moreover, security provisions often prevent neighbours going from one floor to another, either by stairs or elevator.

As a result, these buildings are terrible places to go trick or treating at Halloween, something I have often considered a measure of a building or neighbourhood’s friendliness.

Other ideas that appealed to the audience included the need to create pedestrian-only streets in Vancouver and safer crosswalks.

Some wanted us to bring back the “scramble intersections” we once had, which allow pedestrians to take over an intersection in all directions, even on the diagonal.

One speaker responded he liked all the ideas presented, but feared municipal authorities would not be willing to make the necessary changes. While I appreciated his concern, I did point out that if enough people ask for changes, they may eventually happen. Laneway housing is just one example.

This prompted a traffic engineer in attendance to suggest we need to do a better job of improving the appearance of our lanes and in the future use them not just for laneway houses, but other forms of infill housing and neighbourhood uses.

In his concluding remarks, SFU City Program director Gordon Price noted it was evident that a lot of people care about the city and have many good ideas to improve it. We just need more opportunities to have such discussions, preferably with city officials and politicians in attendance, to increase the likelihood that good ideas are eventually implemented. twitter.com/michaelgeller

1

The number of military invasions of the United States foiled by Chuck Norris in the 1985 film Invasion USA, screening tonight at the Rio Theatre.

14

The number of trees that will be cut down in order to widen the cycling and pedestrian path along the Stanley Park Causeway.

W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Inbox LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Yes vote can help offset boomers’ bungled legacy

Re: “Plebiscite participation difficult to predict,” March 27.

If enough of us selfish, self-centred “no more of my money” boomers do vote No for the tiny 0.5 per cent sales tax, perhaps we can leave the following generations even more of a mess to clean up after us — on top of the $614 plus billion national debt and estimated billions in toxic messes like the Giant gold mine fiasco, as well as the catastrophic costs of climate change issues coming at them.

On top of all of this, the boomerecho generation has been warned to prepare to pay for an exponential increase in health care costs to warehouse a tsunami of Alzheimered boomers.

Gee! I wonder if they’ll eventually find a far less expensive final solution to relieve that problem to help them pay for all the other inherited challenges we’re leaving them?

Just to be fair, I voted a resounding Yes to better transit and bike access.

Lance Read, Langley

Some suggestions for building better communities

CO U R I E R A R C H I V E S T H I S W E E K I N H I S T O R Y

Vancouver incorporated as a city

April 6, 1886: Vancouver is incorporated as a city by British Columbia’s legislature with a name suggested by Canadian Pacific Railway veep William Van Horne to honour explorer George Vancouver, who first sailed into town 94 years earlier. Malcolm Alexander MacLean, a realtor, was voted in as the new city’s mayor one month later, beating sawmill manager Richard H. Alexander by 17 votes in an election many believed was rigged. However, any possibility of a recount went up in smoke shortly afterward in the Great Vancouver Fire that burned nearly the entire city to the ground.

MacLean was re-elected in the city’s second election on Dec. 13, 1886, defeating new opponent Thomas Dunn by a more respectable 34 votes.

Cops deploy against DTES dealers

April 7, 2003: Vancouver police chief Jamie Graham launches a controversial three-month crackdown on drug dealers operating near the corner of Main and Hastings streets. Sixty officers of the City-Wide Enforcement Team (CET) kept a heavy presence in the neighbourhood that required diverting 40 officers away from other duties. New York-based Human Rights Watch monitored the campaign and later released a report alleging instances of police “beating and otherwise mistreating drug users in custody, conducting public strip searches and using petty allegations such as jaywalking to justify stops and searches.”

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Re: “Foolish not to learn from other major cities,” April 1.

Last Wednesday, Michael [Geller] gave a talk at SFU to illustrate the points he raised in the Courier. Kudos to Michael for sharing his idea-provoking photos and the lessons learned from other major cities. Here are two more ideas based on his statement, at the talk, that the Vancouver Foundation’s survey of residents had revealed a concern over loneliness and lack of community.

First idea on community building: Build community infrastructure within high density buildings. Common rooms or amenity rooms should be on the ground floor and open to residents passing from the front door, basement parkade or mail box to the elevator.

Adjacent outdoor green space for summer evening gatherings and for children to play in sight of their parents from the amenity room would be an excellent design feature and will further encourage interaction between building residents.

Amenity rooms hidden in the basement on upper floors overlooking the back lane should be considered as poor design.

Second idea on community building: Build street boulevard infrastructure to encourage neighbourhood interaction. Mid-block curb bulges (I call them boulevard bulges to emphasize the non-vehicular space) designed with

Barry Link

ddhaliwal@vancourier.com

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ONLINE COMMENTS Blame it on the rain measurements and Yes ads

Re: “Foolish not to learn from other major cities,” April 1.

Why is Vancouver city hall spending millions of taxpayer dollars on trying to get people in the region to fund their Broadway subway to Arbutus when they can’t be bothered to clean up the public planted areas all over the city?

Is the wild and overgrown look all trendy again, as it was in the 1970s? Is the overgrown and untended look going to extend to the parks? Are they broke after spending everything on trying to convince voters with this massive ad campaign and that crazy rain-measuring and 200-year rain forecasting study?

Lysenko’s Nemesis, via Comments section

Computer upgrade fiasco yet another B.C. Libs failure

Re: “ICM upgrade mess deemed a success,” April 3.

Sounds like a lot of gaffe guard and political speak for a cover up of government mismanagement and inept supposed IT professionals. Deeming it a success proves once again it is government it doesn’t have to make sense. Meanwhile more taxpayers dollars down the drain and delivery of services riddled with problems.

Preop, via Comments section

•••

The incompetence of this government never seems to rile up the general populace enough to have a revolt. They act like spoiled kids who never get in trouble no matter how badly they behave. It’s getting to the point now that we, the taxpayers, are so disgusted with all this bad news that we are disengaging at an alarming rate. We don’t want to read it anymore but I guess that is the goal of these doorknobs.

Rick Clarke, via Comments section

have your say online...

FLYER SALES

Dee Dhaliwal

a tree swing, a bench or two, free book exchange box or perhaps a community volunteer flower garden would provide great opportunities for impromptu street conversation and play.

If the boulevard bulge was complimented by another bulge opposite, leaving space for one vehicle lane between, the proposed Canada Post community mail boxes could also be accommodated and thereby increase the chance of impromptu interaction.

By default they would become the location of choice for annual neighbourhood block parties.

A few guidelines would be necessary such as agreement by residents within the block on location and the facilities to be incorporated. And, of course, a permit would likely be necessary.

David Grigg, Vancouver

604.738.1412

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Send to: 303 West Fifth Ave., Vancouver V5Y-1J6 or email letters@vancourier.com

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5

Community 1

Beer and hockey go great together

Brewery tournament raises money for Britannia program CITY LIVING

Rebecca Blissett

rvblissett@gmail.com

2

3

If another Slap Shot movie were to ever to be made, the casting scouts would have missed a wonderful opportunity to fill the roles of hockey fans Saturday night at Britannia Rink.

Men, many of them with bushy beards that wouldn’t have been out of place behind the counter of a turn-of-the-century hardware store, bellowed and guffawed with equally raucous women about 100 strong all in the stands of the East Vancouver rink. The racket, which either spurred or rattled their friends on the ice below, was a novelty in itself for most of the players who would be lucky to have a girlfriend come out to one regular league game. Even then she’d probably be playing Candy Crush on her iPhone.

It was the first-ever Beer League BASH tournament, hosted by Bomber Brewing which set up shop a block from the rink just over a year ago. As any grown amateur hockey player will tell you, beer and hockey have equal footing on a healthy day, which is how Bomber Brewing was born. It grew from post-game, homebrew beers in the parking lot of a North Vancouver rink into a bonafide business. Player and Bomber Brewing creative director Cam Andrews wasted no time in planning a fundraiser involving fellow craft beer breweries and hockey with money raised going towards the Britannia After School Hockey program that gives underprivileged

teenagers an opportunity to learn and play the game.

“The people around here support our brewery like crazy so it’s a way to give back which sounds totally cliché without even trying, but it’s true,” said Andrews before jumping on the ice with the Bombers to face the eventual tournament champs Red Truck Beer Company.

“We go to all these beer festivals and you stand around. You’re just drinking beer, talking about beer and there’s nothing happening at them really. So I thought it would be fun to have a beer festival with hockey games going on at the same time. It brings us as a community together. We’re all hanging out with our friends, they’re all in breweries. Beer and hockey — they go together.”

The tournament came together so smoothly that Andrews is already planning next year’s version. Britannia welcomed the idea and donated six hours of ice time, referees, timekeepers and other staff. Even the story behind the tournament’s gleaming championship cup is one meant for an East Van hockey tournament.

“I found a big trophy in the back alley of my condo during Grey Cup week.

Somebody had brought it as a prop I guess and left it there,” Andrews said.

“I ran down four flights of stairs and grabbed it.

When I took it in to get engraved the guy was like, ‘This is a $400 trophy!’”

Britannia Rink was built during a time when people were hardier and thought nothing of showing up with a blanket to watch the local game. Without the separation of the glass of overhead pubs and flat-screen televi-

sions in every corner present in many newer commercial rinks, the building’s oldfashioned design lent itself well to a beer festival.

Eleven local breweries sold tasters in the concourse just feet above the stands, making it convenient for both beer fans as well as players who were stripped down to weathered hockey pants, Tshirts and flip flops to have a beer between games.

BASH head instructor Jay Aikenhead was thrilled with the tournament turnout as most of the 200 beer tickets were sold along with donations for hockey gear the Bombers arranged through their hockey connections.

“Already we’ve gotten, and we’re two hours in, 30 sticks. It’s just great,” he said. The tournament raised $2,500 to go towards more gear, staffing costs, snacks for kids, and program expansion. BASH started in 2010 with just one camp and donations have provided the means for three camps, one during spring break and two in the summer.

It’s not just through Britannia’s programs such as BASH and the women’s learn-to-play where players step on the ice for the first time. Even the tournament had one first-timer on the Craft Beer All-Stars in Stefan Lillos, a hops distributor when he’s not wearing ICBC’s Learner sticker on the back of his helmet while on the ice.

“I bought all my hockey stuff two weeks ago so I could play,” he said. “I can’t stop out there, I don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s just fun.

It’s a great group of guys.” twitter.com/rebeccablissett

4

1. Red Truck Beer Company faced off with Bomber Brewing during Saturday’s Beer League BASH tournament at Britannia Rink. Red Truck went on to take home the championship trophy with a 5-1 win over Parallel 49 Brewing Co. The fundraiser featured four teams and 11 local craft breweries and money raised went towards the Britannia After School Hockey program that gives underprivileged teenagers an opportunity to learn and play the game 2. Supporting No. 73, Craft Beer All-Stars’ Stefan Lillos, were friends Lindsay Mclaughlin and Chelsea Pellerin. 3. Amy Scott, left, and Amanda Barry-Butchart of Bridge Brewing were one of 11 local breweries serving tasters on the concourse.

4. Lillos played his first-ever hockey game during Saturday’s Beer League BASH tournament at Britannia Rink. See photo gallery online at vancourier.com. PHOTOS REBECCA BLISSETT

W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Feature

Scott Massey and Laura Quilici spent eight years turning their Vancouver Special, which was built in 1975, into a bright, modern, open-plan home.

The couple, who favour a modern aesthetic, retained some elements, including the white oak floor, popcorn ceiling and original fireplaces.

PHOTOS SCOTT MASSEY

Renovated home flooded with light Continued from page 1 “[Her parents] worked so hard to get away from the aesthetic and cultural definitions that come with the Vancouver Special as a housing style,” Massey said.

“So when we were looking for a Vancouver Special, there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm for sure, but they’ve come around now.”

The renovation was completed in two phases.

Massey did much of the work to cut costs and when necessary called in favours from tradespeople friends and family. The couple rented out the ground floor for the first seven years, only taking it back for their own use recently.

During the years-long project, the house was gutted down to the studs, electrical and plumbing systems were replaced, and new insulation added.

There was no budget for major structural changes, but some non-structural walls were taken down

to create open-plan living on the second floor, which features a spacious L-shaped kitchen, dining and living area.

Some original elements were retained, including white oak floors upstairs, which were refinished, the popcorn ceiling and two brick fireplaces that were cleaned up and painted pure white.

“The big factors were there were these two functioning fireplaces that we could keep. They’re existing non-conforming and to have an open fireplace in the city nowadays is really rare. And they were beautiful. They were horrendous to look at until we cleaned them up and painted them, but they’re these beautiful elements of the ’60s/’70s architecture that we were happy to retain,” explained Massey, who’s more than satisfied with the home’s final look.

“It’s very open-plan.

It’s very clean. It’s very white… It’s very bright.

There’s so much light that floods into the house, it’s amazing. There were difficulties and changes and unexpected things along the way, but overall I’m thrilled with the house. I love it. We love it. And it is very much what I originally thought we would accomplish. [But] I didn’t think it would take this long.”

Quilici is equally happy, but acknowledges the style is not necessarily for everyone. “But if you appreciate a modernist aesthetic, it works.”

She said they learned “a ton” from the project and she’s pleased they realized the potential they first envisioned.

So what does Quilici love best about the house?

“That it’s done,” she said.

For more information and tickets for the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Vancouver Special self-guided tour, go to vancouverheritagefoundation.org.

Preserving historic homes

Vancouver Specials may be bland — neither beautiful nor ugly, according to former city councillor Gordon Price, but he’d still like one of them, or even a streetscape, preserved.

“The definition of [heritage] has broadened out to what is culturally significant to a community as it is expressed in how they build,” he said, adding that the Vancouver Special has profound cultural significance and is an example of how builders and buyers during that time tried to achieve housing affordability.

“In so many ways it’s a remarkable testament to the energy and strategy of people who have shaped this city and this region. Really, they were looking for a way to maximize the density with a simple form of construction that would be affordable, particularly for immigrants’ extended families who were putting down roots in Vancouver and becoming Canadians.”

While there is no shortage of Vancouver Specials in the city today, Price, who writes a blog called Price Tags and is director of the city program at Simon Fraser

University, said that might not always be true, especially ones that haven’t been renovated by subsequent generations.

“It would be expensive to do. Probably the way it would be done today, if it was so decided that it was a serious idea worthy of merit, and a developer had acquired, say, a row of Vancouver Specials, maybe you could save one of them and allow increased density of the rest of the site,” he said.

Price would like the house to be furnished in the style of the time and for it to include the story of its inhabitants.

“I think it would be important, for whatever Vancouver Special that was retained, that it should keep its context.

It shouldn’t be moved and indeed a streetscape of Vancouver Specials would even be better — so that you could actually see what the impact was of that form of building. You don’t have any problem finding it at the moment, but in the future absolutely. Maybe not in our lifetime, but certainly in the next century it will be hard to find a remaining Vancouver Special as it was originally built,” he said.

twitter.com/naoibh

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5

Whatcom so much more SANDRA THOMAS sthomas@vancourier.com

BELLINGHAM While Portland, Ore., has gained what can almost be considered a cult following, its closer cousin Bellingham, Wash. is enjoying a resurgence of its own thanks to a growing craft beer, food and culture scene.

And while it’s certainly not all Portland-style hipsters flocking to this waterfront city, located an hour from Vancouver, we certainly saw enough plaid shirts and beards to be sure they’re paying attention. This was the first time my partner and I had ventured past the Bellingham Airport on our way to Vegas or Hawaii or Bellis Fair Mall in search of bargains to check out the city’s downtown core. And to say we were pleased is an understatement.

For our weekend of exploration we set up base camp at the Best Western Plus Lakeway Inn, which was not only central to everything we had planned, but also takes Canadian money at par for its rooms and throws in breakfast for good measure. The hotel also offers seniors discounts.

An antique phone booth outside Skylark’s in Fairhaven.

PHOTO: SANDRA THOMAS

“I need help while I recover.”

The lobby of the Best Western Plus Lakeway Inn in Bellingham.

PHOTO: SANDRA THOMAS

were made from flour hand-milled that morning on site.

The café has an emphasis on local ingredients and enough vegetarian and vegan options to accommodate a crowd, despite anyone’s dietary restrictions.

Ken Ryan opened the Bagelry in downtown Bellingham 30 years ago.

We also checked out the Bagelry, a Bellingham institution opened 30 years ago by transplanted New Yorker Ken Ryan and wife Marguerite. Despite the impromptu visit, Ryan immediately invited me for a tour of the back of house where hundreds of bagels are made fresh all day, every day. We took a bag to go, the contents of which made my previously non-bagel eating partner an enthusiastic covert. (We froze some and he’s actually eaten a couple every weekend since that visit.)

This Best Western is home to Poppes360, PHOTO: SANDRA THOMAS which, as we discovered upon arrival Thursday night, is famous for its handcrafted cocktails The fact we visited Bellingham just days before St. created by award-winning mixologists. The lounge is so Patrick’s Day added a real sense of celebration to the city, popular, it placed first in the “cocktails” and “bar and and we enthusiastically joined the green-clad throngs lined lounge” categories in the 2014 Best of the Northwest up to take in the annual parade, a sign that for all its growth Awards. It’s also indicative of just how sophisticated the the city still maintains and clearly enjoys some small town food and drink scene is becoming in Bellingham. Even traditions. And in keeping with tradition worldwide, St. after a weekend spent largely eating and drinking, it was Patrick’s Day also meant the local brewpubs and watering clear we had barely scratched the surface when it comes holes were packed with partiers. Boundary Bay Brewery is to the city’s food scene. Be sure to check out Old Town a popular spot with locals and visitors due to its tap room Café for breakfast and brunch, which was packed the day and family-friendly bistro. The fact it’s housed in a restored we visited. The buckwheat pancakes I tried, and loved, 1922 warehouse only adds to the brewery’s charm.

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W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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County than malls

Bellingham is also home to the Mount Baker Theatre, housed in another refurbished, vintage building and adjacent to a popular eatery we checked out, The Table, which specializes in home-style Italian food and a select wine list, which after a long day of exploration was more than welcome. Kids and adults will definitely want to check out the Spark Museum, which my partner, a retired engineer, was enthralled with.

Personally, I was more interested in checking out the many independent retailers that call the downtown core home.

And, despite our weakened Canadian dollar, I still found enough bargains to justify some serious shopping.

So while Bellingham may not yet be considered as “weird” as all things Portlandia, its growing arts, culture and food scene make it ideal for a great weekend getaway or longer holiday, whether you’re a plaid-clad hipster or baby boomer from Vancouver.

FAIRHAVEN

Walking tours of Fairhaven visit many historical buildings.

“Just turn right.”

That was the phrase we heard over again from Fairhaven locals in response to our admission we’d only previously driven past the town on our way to Chuckanut Drive.

It didn’t take long for us to realize the error of our ways, particularly during a tour of the town led by local historian

PHOTO: SANDRA THOMAS

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Rich also took us to Fairhaven Rug Gallery, a hole in the wall with an absolutely jaw-dropping collection of Persian and exotic rugs. While these masterpieces are pricey, a visit to the store is like stepping back in time and well worth a visit. We also enjoyed a great lunch of fish and chips at Skylark’s Hidden Café where Rich continued to share stories of his home.

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Another highlight of our visit was the hour we spent at Village Books, a block-long homage to everything that is wonderful about print. My partner, who honestly only reads factual books about the Second World War, was surprised to find several hardcover volumes he’d never seen before. The price for all three? — $25, a bargain when you consider he typically pays that for one here at home.

The town boasts only one hotel, the Fairhaven Village Inn, but has a thriving bed and breakfast industry.

Dirty Dan, a.k.a. Jim Rich, leads walking tours of historical Fairhaven.

PHOTO: SANDRA THOMAS

“Dirty Dan,” a.k.a. Jim Rich. Who knew Fairhaven had such an interesting and scandalous past? Visitors can also enjoy a self-guided tour of the town using readily available maps and pamphlets, but I highly recommend teaming up with Rich, who supplied us with anecdotes, gossip, ghost stories and tales likely not found in any guide book.

Points of interest are marked by paving stones offering snippets of history, including these gems, “Site of Sam Low’s Opium Den, 1904,” “Policeman Phil DeFries shot at 23 times 1899 — 1905,” or “Site of Fairhaven Pharmacy 1890.” The reason there’s no end date on the stone dedicated to the pharmacy is that it’s still open. And while the pharmacy has changed hands several times over the decades, one of the early owners has set up a quirky museum in the basement. We were lucky enough to visit on a day when retired pharmacist and historian Gordy Tweit was holding court to a group of enthralled baby boomers home for a class reunion. Tweit’s collection is extensive and

So don’t forget when you’re cruising south along the I5 past Bellingham, “just turn right” at Fairhaven. You won’t be disappointed.

SEMIAHMOO It seemed fitting that on our first visit to the picturesque Semiahmoo Resort we were driving a brand new Land Rover LR4 on loan for an extended road test.

As we travelled the winding road to the remote resort, the skies opened, the wind picked up and the waves began crashing onto the rocks lining the shore along our drive.

Throw in the eagles circling overhead and we could have easily been shooting a commercial for the luxury vehicle.

Luxury aside, it was also reassuring to know we not only had four wheel drive to depend on in case of emergency, but that we were so much better protected than we would have been driving my 1986 Nissan Pulsar.

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It was also nice to arrive in style to the resort where we enjoyed brunch at Pierside Kitchen. The floor-toceiling windows of the restaurant offer breathtaking views of the ocean, Drayton Harbour and the shores of White Rock. On this day, a seal played in the waves just metres from where we enjoyed fresh oysters and shrimp and shared a burger.

We were also given a tour of the resort, which is near completion of a massive renovation project. And while the project means the resort is enjoying a face lift, attention to detail means the nautical and Pacific Northwest look and feel remain entrenched in the fabric of the property. twitter.com/sthomas10

W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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GOT ARTS? 604.738.1411 or events@vancourier.com

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April 8 to 10, 2015 1. Indie pop act Belle and Sebastian discover their groove on their latest and appropriately titled album Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance. Expect a love-filled show when the Scottish lads and lass make their long-awaited return April 8 at the Vogue Theatre. Perfume Genius opens. Tickets are sold out, but a few may be released at the door on the day of the show.

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2. The Gentlemen Hecklers, a.k.a. comedians Eric Fell, Patrick Maliha and Shaun Stewart, provide live commentary to one of the most Chuck Norris-y of Chuck Norris films, 1985’s Invasion U.S.A., starring the denim warrior as a heavily armed, asskicking one-man army who must protect his liberty-lovin’ country from — what else? — a communist invasion. Taste the freedom April 8, 7 p.m. at the Rio Theatre.

Details at 7 p.m.

3. Rumble Theatre presents the world premiere of Indian Arm by Hiro Kanagawa (The Patron Saint of Stanley Park) April 9 to 19 at Studio 16. Directed by Stephen Drover and based on Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, Indian Arm transports Ibsen’s tense, 19th-century family drama to present-day Vancouver as a family deals with an unspeakable tragedy. Tickets at universe.com.

Details at rumble.org.

4. Aaron Bushkowsky adapts Raymond Chandler’s 1940, Los Angeles-set, hardboiled detective novel Farewell, My Lovely, complete with crooks, dames, smoking guns, crystal balls and private dick Philip Marlowe. Check it out at the Arts Club’s Granville Island Stage until May 2.

Details at artsclub.com.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5

Arts&Entertainment Inside/Out examines actor’s life in and out of jail Autobiographical one-man play proves intimate, wry and insightful THEATRE REVIEW Jo Ledingham joled@telus.net

Patrick Keating may be the only ex-con who refused to leave when he was due for release. Why? He’d been cast in Ubu Roi inside Matsqui Correctional Institution where he was serving time for the armed robbery of a TD bank and he didn’t want to let the rest of the cast down.

When pressed by the prison officials, he replied that one of the things he’d learned in jail was to take responsibility.

“This,” he told them, “is me bein’ responsible.”

He stayed, the show went on, and he left Matsqui Correctional when he was ready.

Bitten by the theatre bug, he enrolled in SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts.

Keating has gone on to become an actor with a long list of credentials including TV (Stargate, Smallville and The X-Files) and stage (A Lie of the Mind, Cold Comfort, Glengarry Glen Ross and Penelope, amongst a long list of other critically acclaimed shows).

Presented by Neworld Theatre, Main Street Theatre and Urban Crawl, Inside/Out is a very candid memoir of a little more than a decade in Keating’s life. A “shy little boy,” according to his teachers, by the age

In the autobiographical Inside/Out, Patrick Keating tells of his life behind bars and eventually on the stage.

of 12 he had used “grass, hash and acid” and was soon addicted to heroin. By 16, he was picked up by the cops for possession of stolen property — taking the rap for a friend who would have been tried as an adult. That was the beginning of Keating’s period of on-again/offagain imprisonment. Inside/ Out is not a “poor me” piece of theatre nor does it glamourize prison life.

Everything that happened to him, Keating tells us, was a result of choices he made, some really regrettable, including a remark he made to the judge who was about to sentence him. The offer on the table was incarceration or rehabilitation.

“I don’t need rehab,” said Keating too quickly. Slam.

Keating has come out of this particular closet, supported by friends, fellow

theatre artists and UBC’s Stephen Malloy, who dramaturged and directed Inside/Out. In his program notes, Keating particularly acknowledges “the Main Street boys” (Main Street Theatre company) who said if he wrote it, they’d fundraise and produce it.

That was the deal and they kept it.

A solo show on a simple set by Barbara Clayden

with minimal but effective lighting by Itai Erdal, Inside/Out has an inclusive, friendly, “between us” feel about it; we could be sitting in a pub with him. Despite how open he makes himself on stage in this tiny, funky venue, he remains, at 60, a somewhat shy man with a wry sense of humour.

Raised in Quebec, he retains the speech rhythms of an anglophone raised in

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La Belle Province; the final “g” is consistently dropped and there’s something akin to an Irish lilt there as well.

He’s very listenable over the 80-minute, uninterrupted running time.

Peppering his work with self-deprecating humour, Keating makes completely comprehensible the lure of being “inside.” There is “a simplicity,” he says, in prison. Emotions — with the exception of anger — are kept completely under wraps. Of the outside, he says, “F***, it wears you down when people treat you like a regular person.”

And ironically, when he was released several times over the years, no one remembered him or was waiting for him. When he got picked up again, he was royally welcomed back by all the cons.

These were his people and they were his community.

Keating has another community now and he’s made a new life in the theatre.

If there’s a message here — and it’s not hammered home, quite the contrary — it’s that we are responsible for the choices we make.

Writing and performing Inside/Out is one of the best choices Keating ever made.

For more reviews, go to joledingham.ca.

Inside/Out runs until April 12 at Little Mountain Gallery. Tickets at the door (cash only), brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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But because Deadpool is a mega-watt film production starring People’s 2012 “Sexiest Man Alive,” i.e. Ryan Reynolds, in a superhero costume, all is forgiven. Or at least tolerated. Take over our bridges, our viaducts, our bike lanes. Need to borrow a bridge for a few hours?

No problem, Mr. Reynolds.

How bout this complimentary pass to turn Vij’s into your own private sex den at the snap of a finger — here you go, Ryan. But politely requesting half an hour at the Roxy to shoot a crucial scene where Bernie’s corpse slow dances with a drunk woman in Weekend at Bernie’s 3 is somehow too much to ask for? For shame, Vancouver.

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Or imagine if the beloved Seawall or Grouse Grind were cordoned off for a few weeks because Atom Egoyan decided to film some brooding, atmospheric drama about unhappy people in unusual occupations navigating separate but interlinked personal tragedies. There would be riots. Albeit well-organized riots where the participants were extremely healthy and wearing some form of breathable fleece active wear. You get the point.

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In case you didn’t know, the likely not-long-for-thisworld Georgia Viaduct was closed to traffic this week.

The reason? Pretty boy movie star Ryan Reynolds is shooting scenes for the upcoming Deadpool. In fact, the $37.5-million film, based on the popular Marvel Comics character, will keep the viaduct closed during key hours until April 18. But so far there hasn’t been too much of an uproar.

Either the inconvenience to commuters has been minimal or, as we’re inclined to believe, a handsome movie star playing a super hero in a blockbuster movie does not ruffle people’s feathers as much as other films would.

Think about it. Imagine if the block-long lineup outside Stepho’s Souvlaki Greek Taverna in the West End was turned away on a nightly basis for a week because a film crew was shooting a sequel to My Dinner with Andre. There would be blood and tzatziki in the streets. Incidentally, Blood and Tzatziki in the Streets would be a great name for either an album or a food truck. Just sayin’.

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VAMS SESSION: The Strong Sessions LIVE is billed as an uplifting, cabaret-style event where acclaimed Vancouver-area professional performers join musicians with disabilities to celebrate the musical abilities of both. Performers include Richard Quan (left), David Symington (right), Jim Byrnes and Chin Injeti, among others. Presented by Vancouver Adapted Music Society (VAMS), the concert takes place April 9, at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 West Hastings). Tickets at eventbrite.ca.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5

Sports&Recreation

GOT SPORTS? 604.630.3549 or mstewart@vancourier.com

This handout from the park board shows what changes will be made to the Stanley Park Causeway.

Applause for swift action in Stanley Park Shared, unprotected sidewalks are unsafe

WHEEL WORLD Kay Cahill

kay@sidecut.ca

Cyclists who regularly cycle through Stanley Park along the causeway and over the Lions Gate Bridge know how bad this route is to ride.

Along the causeway, which also accommodates three lanes of traffic, cyclists are not only permitted but required to use the sidewalks, which are shared with pedestrians.

Foot traffic can proceed

in either direction while people on bikes must go northbound on the east sidewalk and southbound on the west, meaning cyclists often find themselves approaching pedestrians who are walking in the same direction and not able to see them coming from behind.

Traffic noise makes it hard for anyone to hear voices or bells. The sidewalks are narrow and there are no barriers to protect cyclists or pedestrians from falling into the roadway.

In 2013, this irresponsible design led to tragedy when a cyclist died for this very

reason. She was heading downtown to work from North Vancouver, clipped a pedestrian, fell from the sidewalk and into the path of an oncoming bus.

Her death highlighted the significant safety problems with the current infrastructure and led to immediate calls for improvements.

The Ministry of Transportation, which has jurisdiction for the causeway, hired an engineering firm to review cycling and pedestrian safety on the route.

As a result, a plan was put forward in December.

On March 23, the news

came as a huge relief to both cyclists and pedestrians: the park board unanimously approved the plan.

The new causeway sidewalks are almost unrecognizable from the current version.

The eastern sidewalk will be widened to 3.6 metres, which will allow room for two cycle lanes — both dedicated to northbound traffic — and one lane for pedestrians that can be used by people going in either direction. The western sidewalk will be widened to 2.1 metres and will be reserved for southbound

cyclists with wider passing lanes at regular intervals.

Most importantly, both sidewalks will have a metal railing installed that will protect both cyclists and pedestrians from vehicle traffic in the roadway.

One of the biggest challenges in putting together the recommendations was the need to balance the safety considerations with the ecology of the park. The recommendations mean roughly 14 trees will be cut down. But with the focus for widening on the east sidewalk, which has a grassy area adjacent to it and fewer

bordering trees, efforts have clearly been made to minimize the ecological impact of these improvements.

The plan also includes improved access routes to the causeway from the park itself and better signage both on the causeway and as way-finding aids from downtown. No exact timeline is available, but these improvements are expected by the end of the year.

It’s great to see these much-needed changes to such a popular route.

Kay Cahill is a cyclist and librarian who believes bikes are for life, not just for commuting.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, A P R I L 8 , 2 0 1 5