HaloscanKilled
TheCommentStarVille
Social media pretty much ended it.
Social media pretty much ended it.
But.
On the little blogs, where the posters actually pay attention and where there are no algorithms to be found, the comments are still the best thing about the whole deal.
To wit - Jodi Patterson recently posted about her efforts, engaged in on the OpEd pages of the Victoria TimesColonist, to discredit the notion that the best way to deal with the social crisis of the unhoused is to ditch all this 'compassion first' business and instead inject a little 'order first' into the deal.
The post itself is very much worth the read.
However, what I would like to do here, specifically, is draw your attention to the comment of some fellow named 'Danneau' who got right to the heart of the matter:
A proposal: Think in terms of all the time, money, thought and effort expended over the last half-century in destroying social safety nets, in disenfranchising and dispossessing a large part of the population, in misinforming and distracting anyone subject to swallowing the narrative and in building a whole infrastructure in both physical and legal structures to prevent effective resistance to the above, and you will have an idea of the resources necessary to address these questions, the time, the funds, the re-education, the legal re-jigging, the attitude adjustment, the patience, the tolerance, the intelligence and the fortitude to mend our whole civilization. As long as politicians are left to govern without consequence and independently of the informed consent of the population, we will flounder with mere attempts to look good for the next election cycle, and the results will be dire.
14 comments:
And the taxpayer said what can be done and I do not wish to participate!!
TB
More shouting into the void, I fear.
The same is true for transit, where transit planning has more to do with winning elections than actually moving people.
The answer for our housing crisis is simple, scalable social housing in 2 to 3 story style maisonette apartments.
Ah yes, my trigger happy lil pinky and I posted it without saying; "what is not so simple is the political will to do it."
Nope.
Does anyone actually read a newspaper on real newsprint anymore? I know exactly one person who does, and it's the Grey Lady. As for the Victoria TC, my phone thinks I'm interested in letters to the ed bitching about bike lanes. I turned that off.
We've met, here, and now you will be able to say 'I know' two people. The Vancouver Sun has been delivered to our home for ..... since 1975. My math isn't as good as it used to be ... I keep on thinking the answer is two years short of of marriage .... yep
I do enjoy Jodi Patterson's blog.
haven't heard that song in some time but its still as much fun as it used to be.
The Vancouver Sun. twenty five years ago, when I lived in Vancouver had the Sun and Province delivered each day and sometimes purchased a third. for the past 20 yrs or so might purchase a Sun once of twice a year at the grocery store. Our local paper, Nanimo Bulletin reports on things of interest to me in this area. The other papers not so much. Used to buy a New York Times occassionally but even that isn't what it used to be.
the commentor who you quote, I've see his comments from time to time and he is good. I've come to the conclusion if governments and their friends actually wanted to improve things they would do it and do it correctly. When you read some people are going to have to wait decades to acquire citizenship I just shake my head. Its a nasty way of saying yes when you mean no and then go with no and its digusting. Its not that hard to get through that list in a timely manner but hey now they can still kick these people out of the country
Lack of housing or affordable housing, which ever dim wit decided to use some of the most valuable land in the country, if not the world to "renovate" and I use the term loosely to house the unhoused and addicted. You sell those dumps to the highest bidder, make a profit and then build new homes elsewhere. Now it may be the tennants don't want to live in other areas, but they need to get real. A lot of us would like to live some where else but the reality of it is, not possible. There are single moms with children living in one bedroom apartments. building towers and filling them with people with serious problems is not an answer to the problems nor does it give people an opportunity to change.
Whenever I see a debate regarding the solution to homelessness, I invariably think of the theory of flight, which in its basic form provides that four forces must be in equilibrium to enable an aircraft to fly. Lift, weight, thrust, and drag. If any fails to work with the others within strict parameters, the aircraft will either fail to get airborne, or crash if the failure occurs during flight. No debate. No equivocating. The four pillars work together or the aircraft either stays down, or goes down. That’s reality.
Much debate has ensued regarding the “four pillars” concept copied from Europe and introduced by the city of Vancouver to deal with addiction, mental health, and homelessness 25 years ago. Prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement. The idea was that if each these four elements was effectively addressed, together they would solve or greatly alleviate the problem of illicit drug use on the streets. The aircraft would fly. Except that any objective observer can see it didn’t and doesn’t. Why?
Because in terms of the open illicit drug use on the street, it should be very apparent that the four pillars approach is failing because even if they were the correct elements that would have solved the problem, for a myriad of reasons they were not addressed adequately nor equally. Not even close. That’s reality.
In any case, drug abuse (illicit or otherwise) is but one of the factors, and for some individuals only, contributing to homelessness. Even if the drug piece was removed from the equation, there would still be a massive shortfall in housing availability and affordability. And a massive gap between mental health support and those in need. That’s reality.
Four levels of government (Federal, First Nations, Provincial, and Municipal), scores of NGOs, a very long list of caring and dedicated individuals, and hundreds of millions (conservative estimate) of public and private dollars have been expended on getting this aircraft airborne. But it sits on the ground, with members of the aforementioned groups arguing about pet solutions and pointing fingers. That’s reality.
Want the promise of a solution? Just wait until the next election to come around for any of the levels of governance. You’ll be able to pick from many on offer. That’s reality.
Will any work? Just as there’s no point building an aircraft engine that is very powerful but weighs too much for the wings to lift or won’t fit into the engine nacelles, building housing that is unaffordable is of no use to someone without a job. Designing an aircraft with no room for fuel tanks is about as effective as counselling a person to the point of readiness for treatment without first building and staffing a treatment facility. Letting the mentally ill wander the streets or incarcerating and then releasing them without the treatment they obviously need and deserve is akin to building an aircraft with no flight controls. Any of these actions would be a symptom of an uncoordinated, disjointed project with no one effectively accountable for its overall success or even capable of recognizing and then ensuring the individual pieces that must fit. We currently have employed no system that will effectively coordinate the constituent elements necessary to solve homelessness, nor the person capable or accountable for running it. That’s reality.
I used to have a subscription to the VS, dumped it in the aughts when the paper started it's inexorable march to the right wing. pushed by private equity
Lew, as to why things don't work, you do make very good points. Having watched this from about the time I was 9 or 10 to 76, its only gotten worse. Some times I think so many people are making so much money off of this, nothing is going to change in B.C. when it comes to drugs and the homeless.
"Why do things don't work" and i think the answer is simple, politcans will not admit to making mistakes.
I have been around the local transit scene of almost 50 years and I can tell you first hand that one politcans start drinking their own bathwater, the public is done.
SkyTrain here, SkyTrain there, SkyTrain everywhere; SkyTrain is world class, echoes the politicos and their bureaucratic retinue, yet it is the only world class transit system in the world, that no one wants to buy. With only 7 sold and only 6 still in operation, this system has been a dud for 50 years, yet in Vancouver it is hailed as a "gift from god".
Behind the 7 Skytrain (which is a local name picked in a radio contest in 1985) system sold is a trail of corruption, bribery, success fees and government interference.
Not one SkyTrain type system has been sold in 25 years, except for Vancouver which keeps building with it.
After $30 billion spent on our rapid transit system, the politcans are afraid to say it has been a mistake.
The Fast Ferries were another blunder as the the FastCats were designed for a 40 minute car/passenger only Iona island to Gabriola island route. Island protest against the plan and the government did not cancel the ferries and they were redesigned to operate on a routes they were not designed to do. The result an expensive failure.
The DTES is again a fiasco of incompetence and the government again will not admit to failure.
Then we have the housing crisis, which has now turned into a fiasco because the government would not admit that densification would be a cure all for it, and now with an estimated 30K condos in metro Vancouver unsold, we can see that what is being built is unsalable, too small for families, too expensive for the average worker.
The government just doubles down and does the same thing over and over again, ever expecting different results.
The list goes on and on, failed drug policy, healthcare in crisis, rampant elder abuse by all levels of government "have a good day" in BC means F*** Off we don't give a damn.
Our system of governance is broken and government will not fix it because a fix means it will be easier for government to loose power.
The downside is the rise of whack-a-doodle politics and politicians as we see in the USA. The system is broken and the fear of a fix is leading us down a dark path and as Trump or the Wee P would say, it is all Biden's and/or Trudeau's fault.
And in away they are correct.
Apologies for having been away folks - it's been a busy week at the day job...
Thanks very much for the excellent discussion.
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