...And Sometimes It Depresses The Heck Right Out Of You.
I have to admit that sometimes my outrage meter begins to flag.
But I do have a memory or, more to the point, archives that I still try to use occasionally.
So I went back and read what I wrote about this 'deal' back the year of Our Gord Plus Eight (i.e. 2009):
...One place we're pretty sure the Premier of British Columbia won't be (campaigning in the run-up to this spring's election) is the now boarded-up Little Mountain Public Housing complex located smack-dab in the heart of Vancouver (ie. not Detroit City or Flint Michigan).
Why are we pretty sure about that?
Well, because Mr. Campbell, together with his 'new' Solicitor General/Top Cop Rich Coleman, has so far kicked out more than 200 families and boarded up their homes for no good reason at all.
Unless, of course you consider being bamboozled by a Condo King whose plan was to take the area from 100% down to 11% affordable (ie. by cranking up the million dollar 'market' units to 89% from zero) a "good reason".
But even if you do, it doesn't matter now.
Why?
Because the sweet-heart deal for the CondoKing has fallen through, or at the very least is 'on hold', and nobody, not even the members of the Premier's inner circle, knows seems to know anything about anything.
Except that the children don't live there anymore...
Jeebuz.
I think my blood pressure just went through the roof again.
.
So I went back and read what I wrote about this 'deal' back the year of Our Gord Plus Eight (i.e. 2009):
...One place we're pretty sure the Premier of British Columbia won't be (campaigning in the run-up to this spring's election) is the now boarded-up Little Mountain Public Housing complex located smack-dab in the heart of Vancouver (ie. not Detroit City or Flint Michigan).
Why are we pretty sure about that?
Well, because Mr. Campbell, together with his 'new' Solicitor General/Top Cop Rich Coleman, has so far kicked out more than 200 families and boarded up their homes for no good reason at all.
Unless, of course you consider being bamboozled by a Condo King whose plan was to take the area from 100% down to 11% affordable (ie. by cranking up the million dollar 'market' units to 89% from zero) a "good reason".
But even if you do, it doesn't matter now.
Why?
Because the sweet-heart deal for the CondoKing has fallen through, or at the very least is 'on hold', and nobody, not even the members of the Premier's inner circle, knows seems to know anything about anything.
Except that the children don't live there anymore...
Jeebuz.
I think my blood pressure just went through the roof again.
.
3 comments:
Your link to Campaign 15 ....
1> Here's the link to the (now former) Little Mountain tenants' site... http://www.my-calm.info/page2.html ... is Forbidden
2> The photostream linked to directly above is from our friend Blackbird.
...... is 404
However, the Wayback Machine has it covered from 2008 to 2016 and counting
http://web.archive.org/web/20091201000000*/http://www.my-calm.info/page2.html
The original post is here:
http://www.my-calm.info/page2.html
C.A.L.M.: Community Advocates for Little Mountain
SAVE SOCIAL HOUSING AT LITTLE MOUNTAIN
As of October 2008, over 200 homes sit empty at Little Mountain. Vancouver’s oldest social housing complex - 224 homes on 15 acres beside Queen Elizabeth Park - is slated for redevelopment. The publicly owned site is being sold to the highest bidder, who will want expensive market housing. Tenants are being pressured to leave so the developer gets ‘vacant possession’, even though construction won’t start before 2010.
1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartments are vacant while thousands in Vancouver are homeless and dying in our streets, parks, and alleys. A well-functioning community where people have supported each other for decades is being destroyed. Their former homes could be temporary housing for hundreds of adults and children in desperate need. Instead, our governments have decided to demolish habitable buildings as they become vacant!
It is a scandal to leave homes empty while thousands of people sleep on our streets.
Tell our governments:
Several never-ending themes here. Lots of political talk with little action to improve housing. Developers having their way with politicians of all stripes. Government dealing in the dark on many fronts and making a mockery of the public right to know. Courts backlogged past the point of injustice. And the name Rich Coleman lurking in more than a normal share of odious files.
All these recurring themes (among others) appear in some form in Sam Cooper’s book Wilful Blindness. Which is currently playing havoc with my blood pressure.
that was a great deal of land, most likely one of the last large sections of land which was "under developed". Developers wanted it and the B.C. Lieberals "gave" it to them. the land could have been developed for social and affordable housing, simply by building up and keeping the green space, but when you have friends in high places or the provincial government you can get what you want or so they say. In my opinion, the sale of the land was a crime.
While driving through the city these past few weeks, I've noticed a number of apartment buildings being built as rentals, but who can afford to live in them. Certainly not the majority of families looking for accomodation.
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