Made it to Köln. I am very tired and it’s not even 5pm.

Remember that by killing the Villages Plan, Sean, ABC, & "Green" Pete Fry scuttled Complete Communities, an essential Big Move of the Climate Emergency Action Plan. 1000s will commute in cars from exurbs & fossil gas will heat more homes, regardless of what CoV rules say.

It’s pretty funny how whenever Nintendo has the most successful console, everyone just kinda pretends it doesn’t count as a real video game system.

IGN@ign.com · 4w ago

The $500 console is dead. Even after the RAM crisis ends, the era of affordable gaming hardware is gone for good. https://bit.ly/3ROAvpc

ABC told planners what to do, the planners did it well, and they changed their mind and used them for political bait. The Villages plan is in the approved Vancouver plan ffs! I hope Josh White and other senior leadership quit. This is why good planners no longer work in the City of Vancouver.

Justin McElroy 🇨🇦@jmcelroy.bsky.social · 4w ago

ABC Vancouver told reporters that the Villages plan was “disrespectful”, that city staff went too far, and that they were protecting residents from the sins of bureaucracy. But who told city staff to come up with a transformative plan? Here’s the receipts.

If the plan that Ken Sim personally promoted for years "disrespected Vancouverites and the process itself" then I wonder who Ken Sim is going to hold accountable for such a disrespectful action

The Vancouver Villages plan was defeated. This is a huge blow to housing policy in the city. This was the easiest part of the Vancouver Plan to implement; Ken Sim directed staff to prioritize it. If we can't pass this, what's the point of any of it? All housing policy work here is in limbo.

Peter Waldkirch 華彼德@pwaldkirch.bsky.social · 4w ago

Ok, they severed the SES part, so this is the vote on the main part of it: A-J. And, the Villages Plan is dead. This hurts. ABC, COPE, and the Greens are all unwilling to take even quite modest action on expanding low-rise apartment areas.

For as long as I’ve been a reporter in this city the complaint has been that we build too many giant luxury condos in a few places and not enough medium density housing across neighbourhoods. But this week reaffirmed why that approach is so baked into the DNA and political culture of Vancouver.

ABC deserves more blame for this outcome than anyone; it was their policy and they dropped it like a potato at the first opportunity. Also it was very, very dumb to have this vote so close to the election. Not sure who's most to blame for that.

Grab bag of thoughts re: the Villages I think the last few years have shown us that the wave of support for more housing was... not illusionary exactly, but people don't feel strongly enough about it to counteract very concrete+organized NIMBY opposition. Grim.

I hate seeing another bad local day in my industry every six months and feeling the need to write down my thoughts about it. I am so lucky that a lot of people really appreciate what I do. But I am continually sad about what's happened around me.

One employee was driving to work when the station went off air. He heard the recorded message saying it was over. That’s how he was informed he lost his job. Some found out when other media began reporting it. These employees deserved dignity and respect & Rogers chose not to provide that.

Tarnjit Parmar@tarnjitparmar.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Still seething. When I say some of the people at NEWS 1130 worked their fucking asses off I mean it. Years of inadequate pay. Working holidays, early mornings, evenings, overnight, weekends. 24/7 through the pandemic. Fire seasons, snowstorms & floods. Internal politics. For this? Disgraceful.

So...VPD posted an AI slop photo of a drug bust, deleted the post, and reposted a 'corrected' version of the photo. Thankfully the Tums turned into coins and the bills look more like legal tender. Cops using AI to generate politically-motivated content seems like a pretty big deal.

ABC just voted to gut the Vision Zero Safe Mobility Plan. This was a critical, evidence-based package of reforms that would have saved lives and had virtually unanimous public support...but they voted to kill the most important part. And they used shameless spin to justify it. Unacceptable!

Peter Waldkirch 華彼德@pwaldkirch.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Dominato literally just said: "I will be whole heartedly supporting the report in its entirety." SHE JUST VOTED TO GUT THE MOST IMPORTANT, CENTRAL PART. Utterly shameless. Just straight up gas lighting the public. Gross.

BREAKING: Mayor Ken Sim's ABC majority voted not to reduce speed limits on major roads, despite 93% of all road fatalities in Vancouver happening on arterials. This was one of the most important Near-Term Actions in the entire plan, because roads will never be safe until people drive at safe speeds.

This is absolutely unacceptable - for Canada or any country Contact your MP! dontsurveil.me/c22.html

Canada is about to end private digital conversation — Bill C-22

Bill C-22 would force every messaging app in Canada to build a backdoor — and track all your activity for one year. Apple says no. Signal says they'll leave.

dontsurveil.me

reference.mp4

Visited senakw today - omg. It’s pretty epic, and cheap for the location.

Okay but the Carney government also awarded American-owned Ford $464M to make trucks in Oakville and The Canadian Press never reported on those funds as a “handout” to keep it “afloat”.

Feds greenlight $673M to keep Canada Post afloat this year | CBC News

The federal government is handing hundreds of millions of dollars to Canada Post to keep the money-bleeding mail service afloat for the current fiscal year.

cbc.ca

East Vancouver is the best neighbourhood in Canada I will fight you

stupid people close all the bus services, consumption sites, warming shelters, community shelters, and then they're all like "ewwww why are there visible homeless people and visible drug users", even as said stupid people loudly drink booze in homes and bars before hopping behind the wheel

Today, Ken Sim and ABC killed an overdose prevention site that Vancouver Coastal Health has been working towards for years. (1/6)

Wes gets it. I don't think MLS has known where to go for a few years now, or how to even define success. The World Cup has developed into something grotesque rather than "rocket fuel," Messi hasn't been the breakthrough, and dumping a team like the Whitecaps give away the game.

Wes Burdine@wesburdine.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I wrote about how MLS killing the Vancouver Whitecaps would be the beginning of MLS' decline. They turned away from the things that made the league great and embraced wealth creation. And this will break the remaining spell that makes MLS games a unique experience open.substack.com/pub/wburdine...

The FN Leadership Council is calling on all MLAs in BC to vote against Premier Eby's bill to suspend the Declaration Act. They've offered alternatives. Every one was rejected. Eby declared suspension "non-negotiable" & then accused FN of refusing to compromise: khelsilem.substack.com/p/first-nati...

First Nations Leadership Council Urges BC MLAs to Vote Down Declaration Act Suspension Bill

BC's Premier facing growing backlash for his attacks on Indigenous Rights

khelsilem.substack.com

It’s profoundly ignorant to suggest that the Pope should be fighting crime on behalf of the Catholic Church. Anyone who was remotely familiar with Roman Catholicism would know that that’s what Daredevil is for

my daughter and her stuffed raccoon have been reunited thanks to the miracle power of the us postal service. thank you to grandpa and everyone who was praying for reccy’s safe return

ceej@ceej.online · 5mo ago

parenthood will have you seriously considering driving 200 miles at bedtime to retrieve a single stuffed raccoon your daughter forgot at grandma’s house

people will scold you for joking around when things seem really scary and fucked up. brother, those are the times what we invented joking around for

V8s. Let me tell you how much I've come to love V8s since I began to shop Chevy. There are 387.44 million miles of road that fill this country. If the word 'V8' were written on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the appreciation I feel fo

Retro Commercial Screens@retrocommercials.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Today, MSF is going public with something we've been fighting behind closed doors for months: Gilead will not sell us their new HIV drug, lenacapavir. The sticking point isn't even price, they just refuse to sell. Open letter linked + explainer 🧵1/ www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/gilea...

Gilead refuses to sell groundbreaking HIV prevention drug to MSF

Blocking humanitarian organizations from accessing a medical breakthrough puts vulnerable people across the world in danger.

doctorswithoutborders.org