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mikehowell 3 days ago
Bill Smith and his ongoing battle with the city to clean up the garbage in the West End have gotten the attention of the city’s solid waste management branch. Smith, a prolific emailer, sent me another round of dispatches over the weekend after I featured him in this space last week. One of his emissiles included a response from street use inspector Ann Cooper. Here, in part, is what she said: “With regard to the garbage in the lanes, the city has a truck and crew that goes through the lanes about once a week to pick up garbage that has been illegally dumped on city property.” Then this: “The city currently spends about 20 per cent of its annual illegal dumping budget to clean up the West End and does not have the resources to do this on a daily basis. There is no other area in the city where this amount of resources are used.” And this: “While very frustrating, the mess in the West End is made by its residents and it would be desirable for the community to come together ...
mikehowell 4 days ago
Here's a couple of stories that will be published in Friday's edition. They relate to mental health and homelessness. Mike Howell Staff writer The Vancouver Police Department is on track this year to answer a similar number of calls involving mentally ill people compared to 2008. Last year, police were dispatched to 1,845 calls involving the mentally ill and apprehended 1,249 people under the Mental Health Act. As of Oct. 31, 2009, police answered 1,445 calls and apprehended 981 people under the Act, according to Insp. Scott Thompson, who oversees the department’s policies related to mentally ill people. The apprehensions were made because the person was either a danger to themselves or the public. They were then transported to hospital. But Thompson pointed out the apprehensions this year cannot properly be compared to last year’s statistics because of recent policy changes at the department. One of the changes focused on an officer’s decision whether to apprehend a ...
mikehowell 6 days ago
That likeable, irascible quote machine Tim Louis is celebrating an anniversary at the Fraserview Hall Nov. 19. Sadly, it’s not to remember some of the quotable remarks Louis uttered as a COPE councillor between 1999 and 2005. Louis, a lawyer, is marking Tim Louis and Co.’s 25th anniversary. But it just ain’t any old celebration. The keynote speaker is Cuban consul general Senor Jorge Soberon and Louis hopes attendees will buck up for a good cause—the campaign to free the so-called Cuban Five held in U.S. jails. Google Cuban Five for their stories. Louis’s Cuban connection is not new, as city hall watchers know. Who can forget the flap in August 2005 when Louis, who is disabled, attended a VJ Day memorial at Victory Square with a portrait of Che Guevera on the back of his wheelchair. Louis returned home that day to read an email from North Vancouver resident Paul Brooke, a member of the B.C. Regiment Band, who was incensed. Brooke didn’t believe the portrait was ...mikehowell 11 days ago
It’s about time I gave Bill Smith of the West End some space to spout off on what he believes is a growing problem in his neighbourhood— garbage and plenty of it. For as long as I can remember, Smith has sent me an email once a week on his favourite topic. He always includes photographs. Here’s some of his latest dispatch. “I was behind Kam’s Singaporean restaurant [Nov.7] and saw two homeless guys pooing and peeing,” he wrote. “Not far away, a homeless guy was rifling through a trash bin throwing garbage everywhere. This is normal in the West End now.” He went on to say the back alleys in the West End have turned into garbage heaps, which include broken television sets and old mattresses. “It appears that the city is incapable of identifying and cleaning up garbage,” he said. “An old man in a scooter like me can find the garbage, but the city can’t. Seniors are being forced to live in garbage while the city funds their pet projects.” Smith acknowledged he receives a reply ...mikehowell 14 days ago
The city’s former drug policy coordinator is winning praise from Americans lobbying for policy alternatives to the United States’ so-called war on drugs. Donald MacPherson, who resigned from the city in September, will receive the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform this Friday. MacPherson will be in Albuquerque, N.M. to pick it up when he, former NPA mayor Philip Owen and former Vancouver Police Board member Gillian Maxwell attend the International Drug Policy Reform Conference. The Drug Policy Alliance, the United States’ leading thinktank on drug policy, will present the award. According to an email dispatch from the organization’s headquarters in New York City, the award recognizes an individual who epitomizes “loyal opposition to drug war extremism.” Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Alliance had this to say about MacPherson, whom he met when Nadelmann gave a speech in Vancouver some years ago. “What ...
