Every time my niece comes over for a family dinner, she watches in some disbelief as I scrape food scraps into a bucket, peel the labels off tin cans and drop the component parts into the paper recycling bag and the tin/glass/plastics box respectively, and generally act like I’m at a sorting centre.

She thinks I’m a terminal hippie but, of course, I’m just a lapsed Catholic Canadian who can be guilted into some pretty amazing behaviours by someone in authority just telling me the world will be a better place if I do X or Y. In spite of my efforts, I still feel like an environmental failure, especially when I am confronted with the rows of waste containers at super-progressive places (the folk festival, Langara College) and I can’t for the life of me figure what to put in which container. I’ve spent some hours of my life peering through the plastic trying to figure out if I can put the fork made of corn particles and the recycled-cardboard container in the same trash bag.

And now, I and all of you, gentle readers, are about to be tested further as Vancouver, at last, bringing up the rear of the pack, starts rolling out the food-scraps recycling program starting May 1. Over 10 weeks, all neighbourhoods will be inducted into The Plan, which will mean we get our food scraps and yard waste picked up every week, but the other bin with supposedly only the plastics and unsalvageable-in-any-way stuff will only get picked up every two weeks.

My story on this was here with the basic details. What it doesn’t describe is the anguish that is about to amp up in every household as one person, the environmental invigilator of the domicile, harangues the others about banana peels or mouldy cream cheese or ham bones that are chucked by persons lower down on the social-conscience ladder into the regular garbage. It has already started: “If you keep doing that, we’ll run out of room.” “If you don’t learn to put things in the right place, we’re going to have food stuff stinking up the back yard for two weeks.” Etc etc etboringcetera.

Still traumatized, by the way, that there appears to be no place that is the right place to put cat poo-poo, which our two cats produce at amazing volumes.

Other than all that, yay, recycling. Here I come. Yeah.

(Globe story pasted below, as always)

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After much see-sawing back and forth over the last seven years within COPE on co-operating with Vision, the anti group turned out in force last Sunday. They elected many of their like-minded compatriots to the executive and passed a motion that the party should run a mayor candidate and a majority slate of candidate in the 2014 election.

But how to interpret that, in Vancouver’s shifting civic politics sands. A start, in this story.

I couldn’t tell myself how hardline this decision is likely to be and whether it will get modified by the time the election rolls closers. There is definitely a group within COPE that sees Vision Vancouver as just a new face of the power elite, unlikely to do anything for the poor, working class, marginalized, non-developer residents of the city. They’re unlikely to support any kind of compromise position, even if it means an NPA resurgence.

They’re like those in the B.C. Conservative party who say, “Yes, I know we’ll split the centre-right vote if we run against the Liberals, but we’re willing to do that and let the NDP reign for a term and then the province will be ready to back us, the only real alternative, once the Liberals disappear.”

But there are lots of others in COPE, even within the harder-line group, who seem to think that some form of co-operation might be necessary, depending on the circumstances.

In the meantime, NPA types are taking great delight in this friction. I checked with Adriane Carr at the Green Party about whether this might mean a coalition with the Greens and COPE. She said her party’s position is to run independently (at least at the municipal level), since Greens tend to get votes from people voting for all of the other parties.

So, if everyone does go their own way, that could mean a COPE/Vision/NPA/Green four-way race. (I’m assuming the flegling NSV party would join forces with COPE, if it were separate from Vision, though I’m famously wrong at least 50 per cent of the time.)

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Transportation Minister Mary Polak came out with what appears to be the Liberal position for the election campaign on transit Monday. I also included, for comparison purposes, the NDP’s. Story here.

Interesting to see how relatively close they are, at least in the statements. Quite a difference with what’s happening in Ontario, when Premier Kathleen Wynne is talking openly about taxes and tolls while the NDP and Conservatives are opposed.

(My story also pasted in after the turn, as usual.)

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This came in through City Plumber and it seemed like a plea that deserved a little attention. So if someone at engineering/311 could take note?

I have called the 311 number several times to ask that the multi-layered (and years old) grafitti at the bus turnarounds at the south end of the Granville Bridge be cleaned up.  Each time I was told that nothing could be done unless I could provide a street address.  There is obviously no street address – one message taker went so far as to tell me there was no such thing as a pedestrian underpass on Granville.  With tourist season approaching I would like to see the city add clear signage directing people to Granville Island as well as making the areas more approachable.  The giant penises and gang tags on the west tunnel opening are very off-putting.  Any suggestions as to how I can get the attention of whoever is in charge of this.

BTW, for those of you about to go on a rant about city problems and city staff who do nothing about them, I did get this lovely set of notes over the last couple of months. First this one, on March 2.

Parks Board Commissioners – anyone listening ?

Again the busy Kits Beach park footpath is flooded (March 12, 2013) but your staff are working nearby for another week to renovate the Hadden Park Field house into a Artist space.

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That’s just one of the many fascinating facts contained in a 28-page, yes, you read that right, 28-page report about snow clearing, generated by I believe Coun. George Affleck’s concerns that bike routes had been ploughed before major arterials in Vancouver during our annual snowmaggedon.

You can read the whole report right here  (because really, what else do you have to do on a Friday night?), which even includes very cool pictures of the trucks and everything. Plus maps of the brining routes and an exciting hour-by-hour description the “snow and ice event of December 19th.”  Apparently the potential disaster (2-6 centimetres of snow predicted) was anticipated as early as Dec. 17. But let’s get a glimpse of the report, which conveys much better than I can the drama that unrolled.

An updated forecast received at midday on December 18th, 2012, calledfor the potential of snow accumulations from 2 to 6cm between 4am and noon on December 19th, 2012. Accordingly, a Level 3 response was issued, and a total of 10trucks continued salting all major routes,secondary routes, priority bicycle routesalong vehicle travel lanes, and 2 Kubota’s were assigned to salt priority separated bikeways and the Seawall. At a shift change at 7pm, a total of 14 trucks were saltingall major routes, completing one full cycle every 1.5 hours, and ploughing as required.

Wednesday December 19th, 2012

While crews continued salting activities from

the previous day, staff received a special

notification at 8am that indicated a rain

-snow mix at YVR turned to heavy snow.

Warmer air that was forecast to move into Vancouver was later than anticipated by

forecasters and, as a result, a warming-cooling cycle occurred with resulting snow,

freezing rain, back to snow, and so on. The City received an additional 2 cm of a

snow-ice mix that was not expected. The City’s response level was upgrade to a Level

4 following the advisory and 24 trucks were deployed to plough and salt all major and

secondary routes, with 4 additional trucks

assigned to priority bike routes along

vehicle travel lanes. One Kubota was deployed to plough and salt downtown priority 1

separated bicycle routes, and another was deployed to clear and salt the Seawall.

Although it would normally take 1.5 hours

to complete all major routes, staff report

that during the event it was taking crews 3 hours to complete the major routes

because of icy roads and traffic. Secondary routes and priority bicycle routes were

completed within the normal timeframes. In addition, approximately 50 employees

were clearing and salting priority bus stops and high pedestrian areas. During the late

afternoon and evening, temperatures climbed to 5°C, which accelerated the snow

melt process. The snow and ice response

was subsequently downgraded to a Level 3

during the 7pm shift change, at which time 20 trucks were salting the major and secondary routes.

BTW, the first priority for the city’s trucks is indeed the 355 kilometres of key arterials in the city. And we could spend more, like Toronto does, if we want to. Out of Toronto’s $87-million snow-removal budget, $34 million is to have non-city ploughs on standby just in case it snows. Montreal contractors must be weeping as they read that.

Okay, that was a little too much excitement for me. Just wondering, though, how much it cost to produce that 28-page report with the maps, graphics, pictures and everything.

Like most Vancouverites, I don’t usually go to Granville Street at 4 a.m.

But I did a couple of months ago, to find out how things have evolved on this street with such a roller-coaster past — Great White Way, theatre row, heroin users’ hood, sex-shop central, home to some of the city’s best live-music venues, bus route, clubland.

It was a scene, for sure. The two middle-aged women from Penticton who trailed after me for part of the evening were open-mouthed with astonishment at the party, the police wagons, the gang-squad cops, the general alcohol-fuelled mayhem. It’s a testament to how tame the city is, in many ways, that they merrily struck up conversations with various inebriated youngsters in my vicinity.

But they’re a rarity. Most people over 25 simply avoid the area — and that has even club owners’ worried, along with planners, police, and more as I found when I decided to write a story about it. But Granville is a unique Vancouver problem. In other cities, the solution might be to spread out the clubs.

But this city is so crammed with residential that it’s hard to find a place where noisy bars can go without provoking a rash of homeowner complaints. (And it doesn’t seem to matter whether the bar was there first. The Biltmore is going through a fresh round of griping from people who have moved into the new building next door, apparently unaware there was a club next door.)

I’ve heard any number of bureaucrats and politicians express alarm at the state of public dialogue these days, as citizen groups start social-media campaigns at the drop of a hat to oppose casinos, funeral parlours, traffic going by their front windows, and more.

As a result, many are looking for new ways to talk. Surrey is the latest up, working with what I’m told is the “consumer-insight technology company” Vision Critical to create a giant reservoir of residents and business owners who can be tapped into for their opinions on the city.

My story detailing it here.

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I bowed out from April Fool’s efforts this year, but not everyone did. There seems to be something about city planning that inspires creativity in the “plausible but not actually true” genre.

Like — the condo project by Bow-Haus on Cambie that lifted up the former single-family house on the lot and put it on the roof of a six-storey building.

http://www.changingcity.ca/ (check for 587 West King Edward)

Or the discovery through FOI that Vancouver has extended construction hours 24/7 until the end of 2014.

http://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/vancouver-to-amend-bylaws-permit-construction-24-hours-a-day/

Which had to be followed by an explanatory post to let gullible types know that it wasn’t actually true.

Then there was this:

Meanwhile, in other parts of the planet, the Toronto Transit Commission created a “personal subway car” for those who feel the need to complete their toilette while in transit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e8BmBoQv5U&feature=youtu.be

The City of Austin sent out a news release saying Esquire had named its mayor as one of the Best Dressed.

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/Pranksters-hit-Austin-KVUE-for-April-Fools-Day-200893741.html

And someone posted that Toronto was going to build a $500-million bike network.

http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/04/toronto_to_get_500_million_bike_lane_network/

This was a deliberately provocative article, so I’m expecting lots of challenges.

Yes, there are many other futures that can be detailed (built $23 billion in transit and had no money left for anything else, is one I’m sure will turn up here).

I found out a lot more about some of the details as I decided to tackle the Big Transit Question from the point of view I did: What the loan payments are on $23 billion. The fact that a Broadway line is projected to have 250,000 riders the first day. Surrey’s idea of building mid-rise villages around its transit lines, similar to Barcelona or Lyons.

(One thing I didn’t find out, apparently, was the right number for the Surrey light-rail option. It is $2.18 million, according to the TransLink study. I used the $1.8 million number that I was given by the mayor’s office a few weeks ago. A reader alerted me to my mistake, so thanks.)

Have at ‘er.

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I had noticed a few months ago that I was starting to see a different kind of development pop up on the city’s rezoning and development-permit lists: small buildings, slivers almost, carefully shoehorned into the streetscapes of Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside.

Kerry Gold wrote about one of them for the Globe back in February, foreshadowing the public tussle about gentrification that was going to erupt publicly (and finally did this week, as you can see here and here.)

That building is part of a small trend, though, among developers willing to wrestle with the difficult building conditions, the possible anti-gentrification backlash, and the challenge of fitting into the existing social conditions of those areas. My story on that here.