behaviour, Consider, Homeless, Issues, Municipal, Politics

End Nigh for Gladys Camp?

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It was not a sign post……

 

 

 

 

 

 

….or a complicated system of divination………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

………that leads me to predict the end is near for the homeless camp on Gladys Avenue across from the Salvation Army.

It was the appearance of the radar trailer unit that shows drivers their speed….

……..on Gladys Avenue in front of the house adjacent to the Salvation Army on Saturday [September 7, 2013] that foreshadows the intention of the mayor and city council to remove the homeless and their camp from Gladys.

 

 

From the moment the media descended on Abbotsford in response to the City’s crazed decision to weaponize and deploy chicken feces against the homeless, the mantra of those who wanted the camp in anyone else’s neighbourhood has been concern for the safety of the homeless vis-à-vis traffic.

A concern manifested when the city turned gun shy [chicken?] about dealing with such a public, media exposed camp.

As if prior to the camp the homeless were not crossing from one side of Gladys to the other.

Indeed, one could argue that the presence of the camp and the public awareness of the camp’s existence makes crossing the road in that section of Gladys safer than it has ever been or will be after the camp is gone.

What would you care to wager that once the camp is gone the expressions of concern about the homeless getting struck by traffic will be gone as well?

The most dangerous aspect of crossing Gladys is that it is a road in Abbotsford: poor or no lighting, meandering and/or invisible lane markings, pavement that threatens to toss your vehicle off the road and vehicle swallowing puddles; which makes mayor and council the leading threat to the homeless from traffic.

Whether on Monday, or a day shortly thereafter, the health department should be appearing at the camp, with the camp being declared a health hazard and the city ‘forced’ to close it for health reasons.

Other than all the dithering, the use of the wringing of hands over the safety of the homeless in traffic, the involvement of health inspectors and not using chicken feces what has changed since Abbotsford’s Day of International Infamy?

Admittedly, we now know the worth of an apology from Mayor Banman and council, giving us the measure of mayor and council.

I am not saying or in any way advocating that the homeless camp on Gladys should be left there.

While the use of chicken feces is unacceptable……

 

 

 

 

 

 

……the camp on Gladys is not much more acceptable, on a number of levels and for numerous reasons, than the use of chicken feces was.

 

The issue with what will occur with the camp on Gladys lies in the question of: what has changed?

 

 

When asked at the time of Mayor Banman’s [as of this point in time] non-apology what form I wanted the apology to take, I stated the city needed a changes in behaviour, attitudes, knowledge and understanding to achieve positive outcomes rather than continuing untold more years of negative consequences and harm to the homeless.

The city can have and use all the nice protocols it wants; have ‘concern for the risk posed to the homeless by traffic’; the use of health inspectors and health concerns; use all the politically correct language and buzzwords it wants; the bottom line remains: were are the homeless suppose to go? The Twilight zone? Down the rabbit hole to Wonderland?

Stripped down to its reality the city is back, however gently and slowly at this point, engaged once more in the futility of pointlessly chasing the homeless around Abbotsford from camp to camp.

It is not just that mayor and council have no ideas or strategies to address homelessness, but that mayor and council are actively refusing strategies demonstrated effective in reducing homelessness.

Given the wilful ignorance and callus disregard for the homeless in the mayor and council’s return to business as usual in its behaviours and actions towards the homeless and the atrocious behaviour of the mayor and council’s in evading the rezoning to permit Abbotsford Community Services to provide twenty units of first stage housing to the homeless……

……the use of chicken feces by city staff against the homeless is looking less and less offensive……

……while the behaviour of mayor and council is looking more and more offensive.

Consider, Life, Thoughts

Celebrate Literacy

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Whether in the Zone……

……or at Home.

 

 

 

 

At James W. Breckenridge.ca on a daily basis we practice, hone and strive to improve and enrich our language skills. Taking joy journeying to wondrous lands born of words and imagination. 

Parent’s actions, what parents give, have a profound effect on who their children become. Yet seldom do parents or their children consider this important reality.

I know that I never appreciated what a magnificent gift my parents gave to me when they gifted me with a love of reading.

Reading, all that flows from the ability to read and a love of reading (a love of words) may be both the most useful and most joyful gift parents can give to future generations of their offspring.

Raise a reader.

 

behaviour, Issues, Municipal, Politics

No Apology Intended

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A citizen of Abbotsford who had some ideas and questions about dealing with homelessness tracked me to converse. Included in the conversing was Mayor Banman’s apology to the homeless.

I pointed out that saying “Sorry” did nothing but acknowledge the City had harmed the homeless; that a true apology required the mayor and council to change the behaviours and attitudes that led the city to weaponize and deploy chicken feces against the homeless.

Noting that mayors and councils of Abbotsford have a well established history of saying “Oops, Sorry”, tossing around some politically correct statements – then returning to the same behaviours and attitudes that led to the City being forced by media scrutiny to say “Sorry”.

If Mayor Banman and council had any real intent to apologize, the property Abbotsford Community Services wants to use for first stage housing would already be rezoned and construction begun.

Instead we have Mayor Banman’s stated opposition to the ACS proposal and the silence of council on the housing project; a project that would be a positive step in changing behaviour from pointless, to behaviours proven to lead to sobriety, housing and wellness for homeless.

“I think Abbotsford Community Services and the ADBA and residents need to get together in one room and talk about their positions and come to a compromise,” said Banman.

Exactly where does Mayor Banman see room for compromise?

ACS either complies with the terms of their agreement with BC Housing and Abbotsford City Council rezones the property OR Abbotsford does not get needed first stage housing AND loses $millions$ of dollars of funding from the provincial government.

Given mayor and council’s demonstrated lack of backbone on matters that do not involve development or the waste of million’s of taxpayer dollars, why would those among the ADBA and residents who support a mythical and unspecified ‘Right Location’ somewhere, anywhere, Not In Their Back Yard compromise?

The mayor said “smart” developers work with neighbours to address concerns.

Such as happened with the 26 story Mahogany at Mill Lake?

Where the rezoning was voted down, but then snuck back before council (while one of the councillors opposed to the development was out of town) and approved. Interesting definitions Mayor Banman has for “smart” and “working with neighbours”.

“It would make council’s decision a lot easier.”

I see. It is not about reality (there are homeless in Abbotsford) or facts (first stage housing has proven to be a first step to sobriety, housing and wellness) or the needs of the City and its citizens (we need to use what has proven effective elsewhere in addressing homelessness and associated health issues) or ending council’s policy of worsening the problem.

It is about the easy way out. How very………nice for the mayor and council.

Abbotsford Mayor Bruce Banman said the community division and polarized nature of the debate over the project is counterproductive.

NIMBYism is always divisive, polarizing and counterproductive.

Or at least it is in leadership vacuums such as the one created by the mayor and council’s choice of the path of least resistance, a path abundant with missed opportunities.

If we want outcomes other than the pointless and often negative consequences that flow from council’s wilful denial of reality, we have to get out of our comfortable mental ruts, stop doing what we are doing and blaze a trail going where there is no path.

We need to choose the path that leads us where we need to go. Not to where we want to go, but to where we need to go.

Citizens need to instruct Mayor Banman and city council – email, phone call, letter or face to face – that enough is enough that it is far past time to put an effective strategy in place and as a first step to rezone the Abbotsford Community Services property – Now.

Citizens also need to instruct mayor and council to adopt a rational strategy for managing  the challenges and problems of homelessness until resources are in place and beginning to offset the consequences of years of counterproductive behaviour by mayors and councils.

Consider, I Spied With My Little Eye...

Library Illiteracies

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Stand in the vestibule of Abbotsford’s Clearbrook Library, look above the inner doors to the Library’s inner sanctum and one finds this quotation from Henry Ward Beecher:

“A library is not a luxury; it is one of the necessities of life.”

Illiteracy: a mistake in writing or speaking.

 

 

Hours of Operation requires one to be in the state of being operative.

If you are closed (in a state of non-operation) on Labour Day, you do not have Hours of Operation but Hours of Non-operation.

  

 

In order to ‘grab & go’, isn’t it necessary to have something to grab?

Internet social media made making a ‘Christmas Tree” using books a HOT thing to do for Christmas 2012 which led to the Teen Advisory Group at Clearbrook Library creating this ‘Tree’.

And topping the tree with…….

 

………..A GERMAN DICTIONARY???????

Using books to build a icon of a Christmas tree makes sense on many different conceptual levels, presenting numerous opportunities for interesting, even ingenious, use of symbolism.

Which is what makes topping the tree with the German Dictionary (whose only recommendation as the tree topper seems to be its thickness) so jarring and out of sync with what would be a appropriate symbol to top off a Christmas Tree.

It is sitting in the entrance foyer to the library. A building whose shelves are filled with books, videos and music rife with iconic representational symbols. A building whose back wall contains a fantastic tableau consisting of carved tiles.

Setting aside the assault on one’s artistic soul, a great disservice was done to the members of the Teen Advisory Group by a seeming ‘good enuf’ attitude where a big fat German dictionary was close enough (hey, a dictionaries a book – right) even if it is not  in anyway befitting as the topping of their Christmas Tree.

Astronomy, astrophysics, physics, star maps, mathematics, collections of Hubble photos……….metaphysics, spirituality, philosophy, mythology, Faerie………even fiction. So many possibilities to consider and stretch the mind, the imagination; so many opportunities to examine how ‘the devil is in the details’ and just how important the details can be in creating the effect you want OR accepting ‘good enuf’ and going wityh an icon as disturbing to the mind as the wailing of a banshee.

A library should embody excellence, not ‘good enough’.

 

 

With all the reference books in the library you think someone would have thought to determine that Summer 2013 arrived on Thursday June 20 for places west of the Central Time Zone (10:04 pm in Vancouver); and Friday June 21 for the Central time zone eastward (1:04 am in Toronto).

 

 

Say What? Is Clearbrook Library is holding a going out of business sale?

Yes a library needs to manage the materials on its shelves. And yes, it is a good thing that the books are sold to good homes where they will be read and appreciated.

But a screaming, in your face BOOK SALE sign at a library? I say, it is just not on.

 

Next thing you know the Library will be hosting a …………

All those books trapped on the shelves of the Library, forced to listen as page after page is fed into the voracious maw of the shredder and chopped into tiny pieces.

Page after page of paper made from trees, just as the library’s books are made from trees. Library books that could, (shudder) easily be converted to confetti by the insatiable monster in the east parking lot.

OH, the inhumanity of the psychological torture as the library books can only huddle together on the shelves, praying some kind patron checks them out and takes them away from the carnage taking place in the east parking lot.

We end this edition of Library Illiteracies with this pièce de résistance:

 

Perhaps, had this been the Stupid Persons Corner they might have gotten away with it. No, I am not referring to the failure to use the possessive form of the noun person as required in The Thinking Person’s Corner.

You do need to use the possessive form with nouns referring to people, groups of people, countries and animals. You form the possessive by adding apostrophe + s (‘s) to the noun; thus Thinking Person’s (apostrophe + s) Corner is the proper form.

In a library, with its foundation of language, the ‘good enuf’ attitude reflected in the lack of an apostrophe + s (‘s) appended to the work person in the sign pictured above is disconcerting and discombobulating.

But that is not what makes this the pièce de résistance.

 

 

No, what makes this such an entertaining Pièce de Résistance is the fact that they have located the “Thinking Person’s Corner” in the middle of the library, far from any corner.

A spatial positioning, the absurd whimsical drollness of which, thinking persons have an appreciation of.

Homeless, Issues, Life, Municipal, This is so Stupid

‘Right Location’

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There is no ‘Right location’; I would even be leery of suggesting that a ‘best location’ exists.

There are good locations and bad locations; locations that have good points and bad points, strengths and weaknesses, advantages and drawbacks.

But a ‘Right location’ for Abbotsford Community Services proposed first stage housing does not exist, and to pursue the ‘Right location’ is to chase a mirage.

The only actual existence the ‘Right location’ has is in the context of the ‘Right location’ being a location anywhere Not In My Back Yard.

“I am not against [insert name of project under discussion] it is just this is not the ‘Right location’ for __________, sounds so much more politically correct and so much less egocentric than NIMBY.

It has been repeatedly stated that Abbotsford has a critical need for the proposed housing and that those who oppose the ACS proposal are not against this type of housing in the ‘Right location’ – said  ‘Right location’ being in somebody else’s back yard.

Which is why no doubt it has not been stated where this mythical ‘Right location’ is. Given the people in the stated ‘Right location’ would find (and support) that the proposed location behind ACS was the ‘Right location’

The truth is that if you choose any location in Abbotsford for the proposed housing, I can give you ten solid reasons that the location is not the ‘Right location’.

Abbotsford has a critical need for first stage housing – assuming the city and citizens want to pursue an approach to reducing the number of homeless on the streets that has been demonstrated to be effective.

An assumption I freely admit has a high probability of being wrong given the reaction by city council and citizens to the ACS proposal.

A reaction which provides no evidence of any desire to stop chasing the homeless around Abbotsford until……………what??….the homeless fall down a rabbit hole and join Alice in Wonderland?

An outcome which, sadly, is no more insane than council’s chasing of the homeless around Abbotsford year after year after year after year…………in the hope that this time something different will occur and the homeless will……….disappear?.