Photo Credit: kk+

God, we’re just tryin’ to have a little advisory committee, for fuck sakes… Mayor Gregor Robertson

How many times has a politician embarrassed himself by saying something with the mike still on? But I honestly was shocked when I first saw the headline that Mayor Gregor Robertson had dropped an f-bomb. He is normally so scripted and on message. He seemingly has an unending tolerance for the matters of municipal politics. He always comes across as unflappable even when under attack. To his credit, Robertson did the right thing and issued an apology. It will take some time for the Mayor to recover, but I doubt this incident will be fatal. It’s great to see he is human, but next time use your inside voice.

Dealing with issues that impact peoples’ homes is never easy. Especially when you feel you are doing the right thing. Vision Vancouver is going to have to show they are listening to the concerns of the tens of thousands of West End residents, not just WEN, who have been much more agressive than the other groups in the neighbourhood.

One thing is for certain, Vancouver needs more rental units to deal with it’s growing population. The city only has one way to grow and that is up. Literally and figuratively.

Photo Credit: Rob McMahon

I’m not totally hardcore when it comes to cycling, if it’s raining hard or cold I’ll probably take public transit. But when the weather is like it is right now, getting around Vancouver on a bike is probably one of the best ways to go.

I sold my car almost a year and a half ago. Since then public transit and biking have been my main forms of transportation. Honestly there have only been a few days where I have wished that I still had it but the feeling soon passes.

I managed to ride my bike to work a couple of times during the Olympics, but honestly, it was cold, wet and not much fun. I’m not totally hardcore when it comes to cycling, if it’s raining hard or cold I’ll probably take public transit. But when the weather is like it is right now, getting around Vancouver on a bike is probably one of the best ways to go.

Vancouver has an awesome bike network. Except for the first five or six blocks, my entire ride to work is on designate bikeways. I’ll be honest, the ride to work isn’t an easy one. Even though there is only one hill, it is pretty much a steady climb the entire way. I’m not complaining, in a few weeks it won’t be a challenge any more. Not to mention it’s a pretty fun ride home.

One of the great things the city did last year was to trial some changes to the Burrard Bridge. Mayor Gregor Robertson took some heat over it. The weekend they were making the changes there was some gridlock but that quickly subsided. There were some merchant protests and where it made sense the city made changes. The apocalypse that was predicted never came to pass. My only complaint has been about pedestrians still using the east side of the bridge, even though it is clearly marked in the signs above they should use the west side. But that’s Vancouver for you, lots of people feel the rules don’t apply to them.

To the City’s credit they aren’t stopping there. They are undertaking a 10-year cycling master plan and they are exploring was to create separated bike lanes to help keep cyclists safe.

Bike to Work Week this year is May 31 to June 6. I know not every company is set up to make it easy for their employees to ride to work. I’m fortunate in that I have access to shower facilities and a bike rack to lock my bike up to. If you have the chance to join in give it a try. If you aren’t sure on what route to take, UBC has created an amazing route planner. It gives you lots of options including shortest path, restricted slope and even least amount of traffic pollution.

Vancouver is a great place to ride. Give it a try, you might like it.

Vancouver needs a change. I’ve thought for a long time that Vancouver has to get over itself and realize that its not a small town any more. That lesson wasn’t learned post Expo 86 but after the 2010 Olympics there will be no choice. Sam Sullivan has performed dreadfully as mayor – especially during the civic strike that lasted much longer than any of the other ones Metro Vancouver was hit with this past year. (And I’m not bitter just because it interfered with my volleyball. Well, maybe a little.)

I think Robertson is going to inject some much needed vitality and charisma into the race. He’s been an effective MLA and has an impressive record in business as a co-founder of Happy Planet. I hope that he does well.

For the first time ever I am starting to find myself interested in civic politics.

The trip to Manchester was mostly smooth. My Air Canada flight left about half an hour late because one of the pilots wasn’t legally allowed to fly for that time. Like he was more away after sitting in the cockpit for another half hour? I know its not the airlines fault, but it really is easy to dislike them. Even before the Celine Dion song. My connection in Toronto was pretty tight as it was and it took forever to get my bag to go through US Customs. Fortunately for me, the flight was delayed and the Air Georgian Beech 1900 just arrived as I got to the gate. I was pretty sure that my luggage wasn’t going to make it but surprises of all surprises it was on the carousel waiting for me.

The training was taking place in Hancock, NH about 45 miles west of Manchester. The drive there was pleasant enough until I had to pull off the main road. It was a few miles down this road that was basically sheet ice. Honestly I have no experience driving in these kinds of conditions. I live in Vancouver and won’t drive if there is more than a couple of flakes on the road because people don’t know how to drive in it. I count myself in that statement.

I only made one wrong turn along the way and figured it out quickly so I got to the training about half an hour late but was proud of myself for not killing or embarrassing myself horribly. We headed out to the ice mid-morning and as you can see I managed to keep a smile on my face. I did manage to embarrass myself after lunch trying to back out of a snow covered parking lot by forgetting to take the parking break off. Not something you want to do in front of about 25 firefighters and the instructors. Oh well, no one including me has died of embarrassment.

The day went really well. I am looking forward to checking out the footage when I get back to Vancouver. I did get a little lost on the way back to the hotel but some really nice people gave me perfect directions back. My 36 hours in New Hampshire went by really fast and I lived to tell the tale.

Name the TV show: Miami is nice, so I’ll say it thrice. I’ll give you a hint. It was sung by Rose Nylund and if you know what it is you are as old and possibly as gay as me.

Now here I am in Miami. I got in Saturday night and immediately felt at home. Even at the airport. The baggage carousel was broken and it took more than half an hour for our bags to come out. I’m sensing a theme.

The Miami Boat Show was pretty cool. There were some very beautiful boats at both the Convention Center and Strictly Sail. I’d love to have one but would need to win the lottery to afford one and someone to drive it for me. I had some very productive meetings and have some things to follow up on.

Today was my first of two vacation day in Miami. I would have taken more but I want to be back home in time for Northern Voice. It rained a little bit this morning but cleared up to be a beautiful day. After doing a walk about in South Beach I headed for the beach and spent a couple of hours basking in the sun. Now that I have had some dinner and a couple of beers it feels good to relax for a bit in the cool hotel room.

Its going to be hard to go back to go home after being in paradise. But I have to admit, it was really easy to get over the cold after being in 80+ temperatures today.

One of the big events that happens every year is the Celebration of Lights fireworks. I’m fortunate enough to be able to watch from my apartment so I don’t have to join the half million or so people who head down to the beach to see it. The fireworks are always great but it’s always disappointing to see the trash left all over the place after.

Thursday morning a group of volunteers was criticized by striking city workers for cleaning up the garbage left on the beach after the fireworks. I really think this was out of line. One company’s employees volunteered their own time and other civic minded people went down rolled up their sleeves and pitched in.

I don’t know enough about the issues involved in the strike to a side in the dispute. The one thing I think is in poor taste is criticizing citizens for taking pride in their city and going out and picking up garbage.

Not that I want to go to work today when the view from the dining room table looks like this.

I finally got an opportunity to see An Inconvenient Truth on my way back from Sydney, Australia last month. It was my second 14 hour flight in less than a week and thankfully Qantas has a great selection of films in their in-flight entertainment system.

I’ve been thinking about it the last couple of days. In Vancouver we have had record breaking rains, boil water advisories and record breaking snow.

If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet I highly recommend it. Its a wake up call for the entire world.

I left work at 2 to make the drive home. It wasn’t too bad except my windshield washer fluid probably isn’t winter grade and it doesn’t help the blades had been frozen for 3 days.

But it wasn’t that bad getting home. I took it nice and slow, let anyone who wanted in front of me and was thankful that the great driver behind me left lots of space between us.

Home safe and sound tonight and I’ll have to book mark this entry to remember the day I really wished that we had rain.

A picture I took on the way home from work today. I’m happy my friend drove!

This is going to be painful to dig out.