CaddyshackVille
Well, well, well........
The NPA has decided that the very fine fellow who, based on his own words, appears to place more value on private golf courses than Vancouver's public parks, will indeed once again be running for Parks Board on what, rumours suggest, some members of the 'Friends of Pacific Spirit Park' may calling the Ted Baxter ticket.
Ms. Bula has the details:
NPA park candidates: DeGenova, Shukla, Zlotnik
September 13th, 2008 · 3 Comments
It took a lot longer to count the votes than anyone expected, but finally the results came in at 2:24: Wai Sin was the candidate dropped from the four, losing to Marty Zlotnik by only eight votes. The results: Melissa DeGenova, 214; Naresh Shukla, 189; Marty Zlotnik, 15(6?)1; Wai Sin, 153......
What the heckfire am I babbling on about?
Well, it all comes back to an astroturf group set up by Mr. Zlotnik and friends that ran a nice bit of deflector spin that made the unthinkable first possible, then probable, and finally, a lock.
Or, to be more specific, made it possible for Gordon Campbell (for whom Mr. Zlotnik has also acted as a bag man/political fundraiser for in the past) to act unilaterally to solve a totally manufactured crisis by passing legislation in which the heart will be carved out of the very public Pacific Spirit Park so that it can ultimately be offered up to developers rather than a sliver of land along the edges of the very private University Golf Course.
Here, in his own words, is what Mr. Zlotnik had to say when the public finally started to cotton on to the scheme:
"The government doesn't want to offend the greater community. It's easier for them to offend the rich golfers who play out at the university golf course."
I don't know about you, but as a member of the 'greater community' who uses and loves Vancouver's public parks I feel very strongly that a person with such a stated bias against the 'greater community' and its desire to keep its urban parks intact in perpetuity should never, ever be allowed to make decisions regarding that community's public parks.
But, then again, what do I know - the voters will have to make that decision come election day later this fall. I just hope the media in this town links Mr. Zlotnik to the denuding of Pacific Spirit Park in every story they write and every segment they broadcast that involves any discussion of important Parks Board issues from now until then.
Because if they don't, in my opinion, they are not doing their job.
OK?
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In the beginning the Astroturfin' by the Ted Baxter Bund seemed laughable in the extreme, but in the end, I guess, one should never underestimate the power of a potential billion dollar windfall. As for the original webturf website? Well, it no longer exists and has been sucked up by an 'online meds consortium (ha!). But it can still be lassoed and hauled back in from the farflung fringes of the google cache.
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Now, for those who would say.....ya, but this is the only way to make everybody happy....given the land claims issue and everything, please read the following that I wrote a while back....
...Remember, this not a fight against First Nations land claims because there are alternatives that were fully in play before former Vancouver Point Grey fundraiser Marty Zlotnik and his band of Merry Pranksters started a deflector spin campaign last summer that made the previously unthinkable (ie. the loss of urban parkland to even more condos) a fait accompli. And what is the best alternative? Well in my opinion, they would include limited development along the edges of the golf course (ie. reshaping it without destroying it) right here, right now. The result?........ The Musqueam would get their money, UBC would get it's money, and the Public would get to keep it's Park. As for the Developers? Well, they'd likely make oodles of money too - just not quite as much. And why, given that they have absolutely no stake in this whatsoever, should the Developers be the big winners here? Huh?
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