Municipal

Will someone please get them a Dictionary

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A new notice posted at ARC: Attention Customers, the Parks, Recreation and Culture annual fee increase will take place September 1st 2007.

It is no wonder that with Parks, Recreation and Culture involved Plan A is such a bungled tragedy in progress for the taxpayers of Abbotsford, where the only sure results are that the taxpayers will be saddled with a ruinous burden of debt, the costs will keep rising, and should the City irresponsibly rush headlong into starting the arena construction – they will run out of funds before it is completed.

But then what can you expect from a department where management does not even comprehend a concept as simple as annual – happening once a year.

Or have management already forgotten the fee increases put into effect on July 1 of 2007? Is it that in their focus on squeezing every penny of cash flow possible out of taxpayer’s pockets that what was imposed just two short months ago was a “Plan A surcharge”? Perhaps it is just that city management is so use to misleading the public they “cannot help themselves prevaricating”?

Whatever the pretext, patrons will be forced to pay this second “annual” increase of the year, be left wondering when the next “annual” fee increase will occur or awaiting imposition of another “surcharge” and wistfully yearning for competent management at Parks Recreation and Culture.

Municipal

A Picture is worth a thousand words.

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Explaining to people the differences I have with the manner in which Abbotsford City Hall runs and behaves can be time consuming since the list of behaviours and actions that demonstrate City Hall’s mastery of mishandling the city’s business, finances, service delivery, citizen’s interests etc is mind numbingly long and wordy.

So I always keep an eye out for some way to illustrate, in a short and snappy manner, that Abbotsford City Hall sees a completely different reality from that its citizens live in and just how devoid of common sense Abbotsford City Hall is.

When I came across the city sign in the picture I knew I had found that concise piece of evidence. I did wonder if perhaps City Hall’s cognitive difficulties arise from mind altering substances rather than problems with the oxygen levels within city hall.

This sign, posted on a signpost carefully set in a big cement footing in Mill Lake Park, bears irrefutable testimony to the twisted, confused reality Abbotsford City Hall sees and inhabits. The sign’s existence providing the viewer clear evidence of the absence of common sense.

It also leaves the viewer tp ponder the question: Ice? What Ice??
Municipal

Abbotsford’s Stairway to Nowhere.

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A Stairway to Nowhere; how fitting as a symbol for Abbotsford.

Over the winter, on the corner of George Ferguson Way and the Mission Highway a mysterious structure has slowly been rising. Once it became obvious that it was a stairway people began to wonder: 1) why build the stairs first? 2) when does the foundation and structure get built and what is it to be?

When the dirt was mounded around the stairway and covered with sod and the fence moved tightly around the stairway it became obvious that what it was in fact a Stairway to Nowhere. The addition of the sign giving this monument the appearance of being the entrance to a housing development made clear its association with Abbotsford.

I find it unbelievably ironic just how appropriate this stairway is as a symbol of Abbotsford.

A fence surrounds it to exclude people, to have them pass by to somewhere more friendly and welcoming. A fence lest those in need of rest and respite should choose to stop and seek refuge rather than moving along.

No foundation, no structure just the empty promise of a stairway going nowhere. One could not describe Abbotsford more succinctly.

No structure of thought or planning to provide leadership to effectively and efficiently govern Abbotsford. No foundation of common sense, compassion and the consideration of citizen’s needs and priorities. Just an endless rise built of empty promises.

A Stairway to Nowhere: one would be hard pressed to better sum up the current state of affairs in Abbotsford. This Stairway to Nowhere is truly Irony personified.

Consider, Homeless

Kevin Ellis – one year AD

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Kevin Ellis was one of the unknown and faceless people that are only referred to as “homeless”. But when he died July 18th, he became a figurehead for the way those in his situation are treated. In this case, it seems he was treated poorly and shown the dark side of humanity in his final days. In the end, it seems he had only two allies – a fellow homeless man and a complete stranger.

So began an article published here on SCN (something cool news) July 31, 2006. Kevin Ellis was a homeless man suffering from a respiratory illness but was sent home from the Abbotsford Hospital and died a short time after. Indeed, only two people seemed to really pay attention to his passing – a woman who happened to see him while he was at the hospital and one of his fellow homeless friends, James Breckenridge.

We asked several of Abbottsford’s homeless last week if they feel that the local hospital was treating them better and most said no. One man told us that he had been in a car accident but when he went to the hospital, he was kicked out because he had drugs in his system. Another woman made a similar complaint, claiming a needed operation was never given because of her history of drug abuse.

While these complaints were not independently verified, they do paint a picture of Abbotsford’s streets that looks very similar to one painted a year ago. To get a more in-depth perspective on the issue, we asked James Breckenridge to comment on how things have changed in the year since Kevin Ellis’ death, if indeed they have changed at all.

Remembering Kevin Ellis – By James Breckenridge

In the year since Kevin has passed, things have definitely have not gotten better. They may have gotten somewhat worse due to the increased numbers of homeless, especially new faces, on the streets of Abbotsford.

More people = more visits = more incidents = more strain = less tolerance. I continue to hear about bad treatment from hospital staff and they continue to try to ship people to the shelter who are in an altered state of consciousness.

Kevin was in so much pain those last weeks, days of his life that he wanted to die. I know he spoke of this to me and other of his friends so I have no doubt that he welcomed death as an end to an intolerable level of physical, emotional and spiritual pain.

When I think of Kevin I hope he has found peace.

I am not sure if I am infuriated, incredibly saddened or some combination of both because the system, we as a society, as the human race failed Kevin in so many ways. From the abused child to the homeless addict devalued and treated as less than an animal by society, the medical system and the social welfare system.

Kevin was not a saint; he was a wounded human being who turned to drugs to escape the pain. Unfortunately there is no real escape from that kind of pain until you deal with the wounds and what it was that inflicted the pain. It is why I believe we need to change how we think of and deliver the support needed for the far to many others like Kevin to find peace in life rather than finding peace only in the oblivion of death.

Kevin’s death did not bring great change, was for society at large just the death of another disposable life, an unremarkable death of another drug addict. On the other hand there was the woman who had seen Kevin’s treatment at the hospital and wrote a letter to the local papers on what she had seen. There is no doubt that his treatment and death had an effect on her and we have no way of telling what or who her words in the paper affected.

Like a pebble dropped into a still body of water, sending ripples out, there is an affect but we cannot judge just what or who a given ripple may impinge on

Homeless

Treat animals better than people?

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Being in a risk taking mood (or should that feeling suicidal?) I thought I would hazard commenting on recent letters on the treatment animals. The recent BCSPCA advertising blitz featuring Sara McLaughlin adds impetus to my need to comment.

Having an intimate acquaintance with the realities of poverty, mental illness and homelessness in our province and our country causes me to wince deeply when ever I see letters, ads or campaigns to protect and shelter animals.

Not because I do not believe in applying ethics to the treatment of animals, but because this highlights a profoundly disturbing and troubling reality of our society. It is far easier to raise money, to get the public and “STARS” to support animal care and rights causes than it is to accomplish these task for the care and ethical treatment of human beings.

What does this say about us as people, a society or a race: that with the use of pictures of cute kittens, injured animals and animals that look profoundly sad you can raise far more funds and support than you can with the picture of a mentally ill person in filthy clothing wandering the streets arguing with the voices only they can hear in their heads?

Abbotsford City Council and city hall plead poverty when the issue of helping the homeless is raised. They have been studying, or is that stalling, for over two years while the problem worsens as they sit around talking instead of acting. Yet they quickly decided on and found thousands of dollars for a local animal shelter – while people live without shelter on the city streets.

To those animal lovers who are feeling a little upset at this point I say consider the words of Mr. George F. Evans: “Except for perceived compassionate people …who speak out, many if not most, take an apathetic role; This plays right into the hands of indifferent …”.

When was the last time you spoke out about the treatment of PEOPLE in need of help, shelter and healing? Or do you just sit apathetically by, thereby playing into the hands of the indifferent and permitting them to ignore and do nothing.

Why should this matter to those who pursue animal’s rights and ethical treatment? What is the connection between these two issues?

How can you expect a society to behave ethically towards animals when it does not treat human beings ethically? When you have permitted society to have created a class of disposable human beings; when you permit society to allow this class of disposable humans to continue to exist and grow; how could you possibly expect society not to treat animals in exactly the same disposable manner?

Open your eyes look around and see how unethically people are treated. Why would you expect animals to be treated differently?

In fact with some treating animals far better than they treat fellow humans; with others apparently more concerned about food, shelter and medical treatment for stray animals; with some fighting, advertising, advocating or writing letters for the ethical treatment of animals while sitting by with indifference and apathy to the reprehensible, unethical treatment of people – are they not contributing not only to the mistreatment of their fellow man but to society’s attitudes to and lack of ethics in dealing with animals?

I am not calling for advocates to stop working for the ethical treatment of animals or to not work to provide homes and healing for homeless animals. I am not demanding that stars such as Sara McLaughlin do not support the BCSPCA.

What I would ask is to think about the homeless – the mentally ill, the addicted, the poor – research/ think about these issues and when the opportunity presents its self, help bring about changes in attitude of the public and government so that we can begin to put in place the resources and programs needed to end homelessness. This applies to “stars” as both the person (Sara) and “(Sara) the Star”.

I am saying that these advocates and their supporters cannot sit around apparently indifferent, apathetic and condoning society’s current treatment of homeless people and those in need of help but must help bring about changes in attitude of the public and government so that we can begin to put in place the resources and programs needed to end homelessness

Because until we begin to treat our fellow man ethically, there is no hope we will treat animals ethically either.