Ah if only they new...

According to the Vancouver Sun, the UN has described Vancouver as a paradise with a dark side..

It describes Vancouver as a "breathtakingly gorgeous" city with a sizzling economy.
"But there is trouble in paradise. And nowhere is it more evident than in the Downtown Eastside-a two-kilometre-square stretch of decaying rooming houses, seedy strip bars and shady pawnshops," states the UN agency.
"Worst of all, it is home to a Hepatitis C (HCV) rate of just below 70 per cent and an HIV prevalence rate of an estimated 30 per cent-the same as Botswana's."

The sizzling economy bit has me a bit puzzled. Vancouver has a sizzling real estate market and hence a HUGE construction boom going on. I have little evidence of anything else.

Vancouver is a tourist city...and not the good kind. It attracts lots of overseas business and wealth. They buy up the pretty glass towers that we can't afford.

They drive the 'densification' and 'ecodensity' ideas that we are constantly hammered with.

Vancouver is the home of illegal goods. Goods coming in and out of the city. Knock-off's of Channel and so on are available everywhere. Everyone has a fake YSL bag. Well, a certain demographic of our population anyway.

Vancouver is the home of fake lottery scams that target little old ladies in the US. Vancouver is the city that couldn't keep a stock exchange due to the volume of shady activity taking place on it.

Money here is not usually made in purely legitimate ways.

There are no big industries here. Not many head offices left.
So what is generating all the income?

Who is paying for this image of paradise?

I love living here for the scenery and climate. However, the cost of living rises more every single day.

Our city and provincial governments have nothing but dollar signs in their eyes and only working towards one goal....selling the city to the world for the 2010 Olympics.

There is no concern for the regular citizens that make up this fair city.
Health care is a problem.
Housing is a problem
Business are falling apart ....the death toll on the Cambie Line increases every month. So much for small business

It has finally come out that all the promises for housing made by VANOC are highly unlikely and in my opinion was always just words on paper.

For the rest of the world Vancouver is a nice place to play. Lax laws and a laid back style help off shore investors make some easy cash....at the expense of the rest of us.

There is nothing viable in the economy of this city...nothing sustaining. Nothing long lasting.

We are being told to get out of our traditional homes. We are told that family life doesn't fit in here. WE are told that condos are the way to go.

According to Patrick Condon in the Vancouver Sun, June 26, 85% of new housing needs will be for non family housing.

I disagree with this. I say this statistic is being forced upon us by inflated real estate prices and marketers pushing their condos.

Families are being driven to the suburbs whether they want to go or not. Guilted out for a dream of a home with a yard and so forth.

I am very sad at how Vancouver has fallen. I hope to be proven wrong.

But I doubt it.

Random Ramblings

Having a hard time focusing on KEY things that are bugging me these days. Things flit into my sleep deprived attention and drift back out again. I have to write everything down.

On our local news I have noticed quite a few reports about schools being closed down due to shrinking enrollment. This seems to be taking place in previously family dense and growing neighbourhoods. I wonder if this trend is connected to the Lower Mainland's INSANE real estate prices. The most recent area to be hit is Coquitlam/Tri Cities. This is a dense family oriented and growing area. We had even looked at living there. It was ( a few years ago) an affordable place for families to move. Especially if you wanted a nice traditional house with yard etc. But on the MLS listings now, the lowest priced single family 3-bedroom home I could find for Coquitlam was a $319,900, 33 year old house...not very attractive and needing updates. Not bad but then after that the price started to climb with the next listing being at $335K and then $385K....so not much choice if you are on a 'NORMAL' income.

Because while real estate prices in the Lower Mainland have gone nuts over the last few years, people's incomes are not. In fact (another ramble) BC and Quebec share the honour of having the highest percentage of seniors below the poverty line. The rest of us are not in great shape either.

On another rambling note....apparently Mr. Al global warming for dummies Gore was in the centre of a rabid Republican smear campaign over his apparently high energy bills at his own residence. HYPOCRITE was being screamed from frothy mouthed pundits. Nobody looked closely at WHO released the report, the background, the agenda...blah blah. So just business as usual for the media and punditry. Now I am not a HUGE Gore fan. I take him with a grain of salt as I do most political types. I was NOT that impressed with 'An Inconvenient Truth' apart from it's ability to explain 'dem hard science words' in friendly easy terms. I also am fed up with the whole environmental message that WE have to change our ways to save the planet with nary a mention of big business changing THEIR practices.

But the constant sniping and stretching of reality by the various factions out there is getting stupid. I found this interesting site called Lying in Ponds that looks at the mess caused by partisanship. Check it out.

And my final ramble for today. Ok, don't laugh but this thought sprung into my mind as I watched X-Play on G4 Tech TV. I don't even play video games, and I like this show. I like the ironic and self deprecating humour and am quite fascinated by all the video games being produced these days. What struck me was that shows like this, CHANNELS like this, was the prime example of the 'kidult' and 'grupster' lifestyle that so many seem to be raging either for or against.

One thing I pointed out to my crunchy husband was that the majority of games come out of Japan and Korea. Video games dominate life there. The market is huge. And there is no derision turned to adults who play video games. It just is. It is accepted. Mostly. Unlike our western world where an adult who plays video games is looked at as...what? Nerd, loser, immature, shut in......the list of labels and jokes is endless.

But why? We adults now are the generation that grew up on the burgeoning world of Atari and Nintendo's. Why would these kids who started out with the first gen of game play and arcade play stop playing as the technology gets better and they age? Did people who grew up watching the first grainy tv's stop watching when they hit adulthood. No. So why would the video game generation stop now either.

I think the concepts like 'kidults' and so on are just what this generation is all about. Maybe there isn't the obvious leap into adulthood nowadays like there was in previous generations. So then yes, the lines blur between child and adult. But it isn't being 'hip,' it is just being us. And fine some folks may be 'cooler' than others...but for the most part we aren't trying to be rebels or hip. We are just who we are and so that is how we parent too!

Ok...enough ramblings. That should hold you guys for a bit.