Waterbugs

[BrianWilliams]

Whoops, I lost the 2nd pic -- Temp's flowerbed:

[Ferryman]

That's a pretty neat looking school! I'm sure its class sizes are large, and the halls are a nightmare during the class changes!

My mom is actually a graduate of Van Tech, way back in 71. She also grew up in that area as well......She's always amazed now to go by and see the millenium line going down the streets she used to walk to school on.

[Neil]

When I went back and did a neighbourhood tour a few months back, I noticed dear old Templeton had been painted, and now, my goodness, flower beds.... barely looks like the Oakalla wannabe that I remember so well.
Actually, I was Begbie, then Dr A.R. Lord, then Templeton. '74 grad. Can't say I have a lot of happy memories of Templeton, but there were some good teachers there.
Again, the Templeton area seems nicer than I remember it; Nanaimo Street with a burgeoning number of VietNamese businesses, and closed off streets to mute the traffic. Strangely, as of a few years ago, Templeton had dropped from the 2200 kids it had in the early '70s to about half that number- don't know if it's picked up again.
My final address in the east end was near the Joyce Street Station- we had to move a year or two after it opened, because we were getting broken into all the time, and our house no longer felt like ours. Rapid transit has it's down side. Still, I think I'll always feel some fondness for the east end. It has a soul the suburbs can't match.

[BrianWilliams]

This entire thread will get bounced -correctly- to "Non Ferries" if I carry on much longer about neighbourhoods.

I do appeal to you all, though: our central city is a better place than ever these days, partly because of imaginative use of our waterways to unite us. False Creek's waterbugs are a good example; the venerable SeaBus is another; maybe there will be more entrepreneurial services to come.

As North Vancouver and NE Vancouver's neighbourhoods flourish, a shoreline-hopper from New Brighton Park to downtown might work - even better would be a waterbug system running from Port Moody to Dollarton, calling near Lynnterm and running to downtown. Goodbye, Barnet Highway traffic jams; no worries when a lumber truck stalls on the Second Narrows Bridge.

Here's hoping.

Last Grandview 'hood pics for now:

Tiny one-block Rose Street (Napier to William, just east of Semlin) has some community signs you'd expect in a rural town:



Around the corner, modest Parker Street looks like the best-kept street in the wealthiest Vancouver district ... and the people we met, walking with our dogs in the rain, were smiling, friendly, proud folks. Great neighbourhood!

[BrianWilliams]

" ... our final address in the east end was near the Joyce Street Station- we had to move a year or two after it opened, because we were getting broken into all the time, and our house no longer felt like ours. Rapid transit has its down side ... "

We were at the BC Transit Police inaugural ceremony at the Agrodome a month ago. The ceremony was impressive: pipe bands, a nearly-medieval drumhead altar service, and presentation of badges to the Skytrain cops.

There was a good point - the long overdue Transit Police are not rentacops. They are full peace officers with a mandate to deter crime, pursue offenders and arrest the bad guys.

We should have provided Skytrain with an effective police force 20 years ago - but at last we've recognized the need for armed, trained police to protect not only passengers, but also the neighbourhoods the system runs through. I hope it works.

[Neil]

I agree completely, Brian. Skytrain has proved to be an essential addition to Vancouver's transportation infrastructure, for the most part dependable and very heavily used. It has also, to a lesser extent, proven to be a fulcrum for certain criminal activities, and has provided quick transport for unsavory individuals carrying out their enterprises. I can't fathom the objections some groups have to the presence of armed officers on board- police carrying weapons is not new or radical in any society, and the Skytrain is certainly in need of a professional, properly equipped force. I doubt there's many pensioners travelling at night who will find the new force's presence unwelcome.

[Fenklebaum]

I've never before heard them referred to as "Waterbugs" before. Though the term conjures up images of giant waterborne millipedes, I can't help but find it slightly amusing.

Ironically, I'm working for False Creek Ferries this summer, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

[BrianWilliams]

"Waterbugs" is my own invention, but it must have been thought of before ... compared to the smallest car ferry, the passenger boats skitter across like water-skaters, and they call at tiny landings - butt up to the float; unload and load in a minute.

John commented earlier that they are expensive. Perhaps, at 2 bucks a ride; but that's in line with urban bus fares. Busses go farther, of course, and offer transfers to Skytrain and Seabus.

The waterbugs sell ticket packs for frequent users that cut the cost; and the all-day pass for tourists is a bargain.

Anyway, a ten-minute sea cruise is a cheap treat at 2 dollars.

[BrianWilliams]

A sympathetic growwwwl to HornbyGuy:

Have you seen the King George Highway above the Scott Road Skytrain station?

In spite of aggressive enforcement, the Scott Road parking lot is still the No.1 auto break-in place in Canada. What's on the hill above? A long string of pawn shops.

Hmm. Crack and meth junkies bust out a SUV window, rip out the $1000 stereo, and get 20 bucks from the nearest shop.

The 24/7 dealer lurking nearby swaps the $20 for a hit, and the cycle goes on. Ugghh.

[Mike C]

Well, I'm an often user of Skytrain (I travel on a GoCard) via Scott Road Station and after the installment of the Transit Police, there isn't nearly the amount of broken glass and pot smokers in the station vicinity then there used to be.

I now feel a lot safer travelling on Skytrain, and when I see a Skytrain/Transit cop catch some stupid-teen-who-spent-all-his-money-getting-high-and-can't-afford-a-Transfer (Transit Ticket) get caught, that is somewhat reassuring.

[Neil]

Brian, I parked at Scott Road Station every morning for several years, and was never broken into once. Probably because of the security measures I take, namely, that I only drive beaters. No self-respecting crack addict would be caught dead breaking into a brown '78 Impala. (hmmh... probably 'self-respecting' and '{not}caught dead' don't really fit with crack addicts, but, whatever.)
Don't forget the gun shops on King George, either. Or the plethora of 'money mart' type operations. And the convenience stores who profess innocence when asked what they think people do with the drug paraphernalia they sell. And, of course, the hookers. A regular free market for the drug addled and debauched, seven days a week. Just the inclusive nature of our free enterprise system, I suppose... something for everyone.
Good to read that you've noticed a change for the better, QB Teen. Hope it continues.

[BrianWilliams]

Good news from both of you.

I really am happy that the Transit Police are making a difference, as you have seen, QB Teen. One very bad problem with the old system -local cops- was that creeps pushed off their turf just took their crime a station or two down the line.

My city, New Westminster, did that a couple of years ago. Hah! Metrotown, Edmonds and Patterson in Burnaby became junkie-dealer-thief magnets for a while.

Hornby: your strategy is right. Pretentious cars will attract thieves. Some years ago, a young colleague bought his dream car, a Corvette with T-tops. He lived in North Surrey, but it coulda happened anywhere, I guess.

Gordie's glass tops were stolen three times in 2 years, with a lot of collateral damage. After the third loss, ICBC refused to insure his car without a costly rider for vandalism. Gord was choked *furious* but found no private carrier to take the risk at lesser cost.

[Neil]

New Westminster's re-birth has been a matter of stops and starts over the last twenty years or so. Hopefully, for your sake, Brian, it will end up with the reputation it deserves.

[BrianWilliams]

New Westminster has a couple of shabby neighbourhoods.

There is a fringe of tumbledown rooming houses west of 12th Street; and some badly-kept apartment buildings.

However - big surprise - the nicest neighbourhood in Western Canada is Queen's Park. From Queens Ave to 6th, First to 5th Street, the Queen's Park district is 1-1/2 sq miles of shady streets, with pocket parks, tiny dead-end courts and every style of domestic architecture from frontier rustic to Arthur Erickson.

Perhaps billions of folks have seen Queen's Park; because the neighbourhood is used for movies, TV series and commercials.

Massey Heights is a pleasant area of perfectly-kept 1950's homes east and north of McBride and 6th. Another movie location manager's dream, and filmed a lot.

Drop down to once-shabby Sapperton and you'll see little houses brightly painted, with kids playing in the gardens.

Ratty old New Westminster is an urban success today. I am pleased and proud of my adopted city (jeez, I've been here 24 years, though I count east Vancouver as my real home, and always will).

[Neil]

And then there's poor old Delta, where we escaped to after getting burgled once too often in the east end. What can you say about Delta? Surrey's west end. The farmland you drive through on the way to the ferry. Vancouver's dump.
A while back, when I had a sister visiting from California, I sort of jokingly started musing on the possibility of spending an entire day, just touring within Delta's boundaries. Not possible, I thought at first, in the suburban wasteland.
But then I started adding it up. There's Burns Bog, the 'lungs of the lower mainland', with all it's flora, and a few fauna, including black bears. The forest of Watershed Park. The dike trail, where you can cycle from Surrey to Tsawwassen, where in the winter the tidal flats are teeming with thousands of ducks, and hawks and eagles abound. Reifel Island, and the trails around Ladner harbour and Deas Island Park. The dike at the end of River Road, close to where the Fraser empties into the Strait. Centennial Beach, with the views of the Cascades, and Fred Gingell Park with the ferry terminal in the distance, and the stairs down the cliff, from where you can walk along the beach past the broken down sign into the U.S. (we always feel so subversive when we do that). Ladner itself, which, at it's center, actually still feels like a village and not the suburbs. I was somewhat shocked when I realized that we could indeed be tourists for a day in our 'hometown', even in a place which, to a cursory glance, is just featureless 'burbland.
I suppose no matter where you are on our coast, you can find places and things of value. Not a bad place to live, all in all.