Rebranding Lotusland?

I read this article today about how the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) wants to re-brand the area name to "Metro Vancouver". While I understand and agree with their point of view (after all, I've gotten blank looks before from people when I've mentioned the GVRD to them), I still think Vancouver and the entire GVRD should become a "mega-city". A Mega-city in my definition is a city that incorporates their suburbs into one main city. Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary are all mega-cities under my definition. After all, the entire region share a lot of resources already, why not just go all the way and incorporate everything properly into one city? It certainly would cut out a lot of inefficiencies.

I did some poking around on Wikipedia. According to this list, Vancouver is actually eighth on the list of the 100 largest cities in Canada. (I think there are way more than 578,041 in the city of Vancouver itself, but let's just say it's true for argument's sake). I've been to Ottawa and Calgary, and trust me, these places are not at densely populated as Vancouver is.

However, when you look at this list, Vancouver comes in third in terms of population size. And this is what everyone, including the media, quotes. But then they would be incorrect. The city of Vancouver is actually smaller than the city of Winnipeg.

Are you starting to see my point of view? Okay, maybe not, cause I have very "unique" ways of seeing thing and don't always articulate myself very well. Or maybe it's a pride thing. Whatever.

For me, it makes sense economically and demographically to do so. However, I don't think this will ever happen. I feel that the natives here like their borders too much and trying to get buy-in for a mega-city will be near impossible with a hurtle like that. Plus, the unions will not like having their members' jobs obliterated, because, well, we don't need job duplicates in one big city like we already have with a bunch of smaller regions. I love the fact that BC has such a stupidly strong unionized mentality. My tax dollar being used more efficiently apparent means squat in the eyes of the unions.

So Vancouver will remain Vancouver, and the areas around Vancouver will remain their own entities, unless they share Metro Vancouver resources. Same, same, but different. Not unlike the place where I work at. Gotta love it.

The nice man who is pictured in this blog is Robert Burnaby, the man whom the City of Burnaby (where I live) is named after. In my elementary school, they used to have his picture up on the wall and I would stare at it all the time. I know, I was a strange kid.

I'm sorry, but this thing is hideous

Apparently it's exactly 3 years to the day when the Olympics start in Vancouver. They'd unveiled the countdown clock today, and it's suppose to remain where it is as a landmark after the Olympics

The thing is hideous. And frankly, boring looking.

I seriously was thinking about leaving town during the Olympics, one of the venues (I think figure skating) is being held at UBC, where I work. Parking will be hell, and the entire university will probably stop functioning, using the Olympics as an excuse for not doing any work. Never mind that, the whole city will shut down. But it looks like we may end up staying in town after all. We'll see, 3 years is still a long ways off.

Wet Snow

One of the things that people who live outside of Vancouver think is that it hardly ever snows in the wintertime in Vancouver. On the whole, this is true. I remember winters where it never snowed. I also remember winters where we got two feet of snow.

This picture was taken while I was driving to work. It's the south-west corner of Queen Elizabeth Park. I'm sitting on 29th and Cambie, waiting for the light to change when I took the picture. It's about 7.45 am (and if I've gotten to this corner at this time of the day, I'm already running late!) You can't really tell, but it's snowing. And it's snowing my favourite snow: wet snow.

Wet snow is the worse because it ends up being a sloshy mess as soon as it hits the ground, but it's still cohesive enough to accumulate. And it's bloody heavy to shovel. Dry snow is much easer to shovel, and it makes for nice powdery snow. More often than not, we get wet snow.

The worse part is that it will dip just below zero tonight, so the wet snow now becomes ice. I will be driving on ice tomorrow. Hopefully they will salt. Then it will warm up to just above zero and everything will melt slightly. Then it will freeze again.

Thaw and freeze. Thaw and freeze. It's a vicious cycle. Thank goodness it's going to rain the rest of the week, and get rid of all this snow. This is typical Vancouver winter weather.

Usually by the end of January/beginning of February, it starts warming up slightly, and yes, I do see some daffodils poking up. I can't wait for this stupid weather to be over.

Lotusland Special

Growing up in Lotusland, there is one thing that is unique to it that no other city has: Vancouver Specials.

When hubby first moved here I pointed out to him all sorts of different houses, all of them that I labelled as Vancouver Specials. He had no idea what the heck I was talking about until someone else defined it for him.

What is a Vancouver Special? The house in the picture is a shining example. According to Wikipedia,

They are characterized by their “box-like” structure, low-pitched roofs, balconies across the front of the house, and brick or stone finishes on the ground floor level of the facade with stucco elsewhere. Vancouver Specials have similar floor plans with the main living quarters on the upper floor and secondary bedrooms on the bottom, making them ideal for secondary suites.

If you spent any amount of time in the Lower Mainland, these houses are littered all over the place.

In the future, if you need to define to someone who isn't from the Lower Mainland what a Vancouver Special is, point them to vancouverspecial.com, this guy's found a lot of great examples.

Happy Halloween!

I figured since it's Halloween, I thought I'd talk about ghost and death.

One of the most well known ghosts is the Lady in Red that haunts Fairmont Vancouver Hotel. It has been said that she haunts the 14th floor (which is really the 13th floor) of the hotel, and has known to approach people in the dining room, demanding her seat back at the table where the patron is sitting in.

Ghosts have been sighted at the older movie theatres around Vancouver. (Sorry, the link won't work, just copy and paste into a new browser window. http://www.where.ca/vancouver/article_feature~listing_id~119.htm)

This link lists a few haunted places around the Lower Mainland. James Cowan Theatre and Ceperley House are about a 5 minute walk from each other, and about a 5 minute drive from my house. I've known about these ghosts forever as I've lived in this area most of my life. Ceperley House is now an art gallery. I remember going there as a child and I was consciously aware of the building was haunted, but never seen the ghost. Still I was scared. What can I say, I'm chicken shite (still am!).

Errol Flynn actually died in Vancouver. What he died from was pretty gross in itself.

One of the most famous murders in Vancouver history, the death of Scottish nanny, Janet Smith. It is rumoured that she haunts Hycroft Manor, along with some other ghosts.

Another well-known murder, which involved the well known Bow Mac sign on Broadway. (Janet Smith's murder is further down on the page).

This morning, one of the radio morning shows that I listen to on my way to work was broadcasting live from Balthazar. Where Balthazar stands now used to be a brothel back in the 1920s. Apparently the owner, a Madam Maxine, was murdered in the basement, and even today, many of the staff, especially those who have been there a long while, have had encounters with her. Fun stuff.

Man, I'm going to give myself nightmares tonight. I told you I was chicken shite.