SeanBickerton.com

Town Hall Meeting For False Creek Residents

July 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment

IMG_0212Please join the False Creek Residents Association tonight, July 8 at 7pm at Science World to meet with members of Vancouver City Council and share your concerns with neighbours.

On the agenda tonight are concerns raised by the Northeast False Creek High Level Review, the Downtown Capacity and View Corridors study, the Historic Area Height review, and I’m certain questions will also arise about the neighbourhood impact of the HEAT no-barrier shelter under the Granville Street Bridge.

This is a unique opportunity to discuss area development with your elected representatives and meet some of your civically-minded neighbours in the area. Please join us.

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Putting People First, Politics Second

July 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Excerpted from Heat Shelters: Let’s Put People Before Politics published today on CityCaucus.com:

IMG_7091_2When Tom and I moved back to Vancouver from New York two and half years ago, we landed in a studio apartment at the foot of Howe next to the Granville Street Bridge. It was tiny, but we loved the neighbourhood and walked the seawall every day of the week, come rain, hail or snow.

It’s a quiet corner of the city, with one of the best bakeries in town – Tartine; a pre-school; and a social housing complex for the elderly that maintains one of the most beautiful garden beds on the seawall.

The owner of Tartine’s, Jo-Ann, is a vibrant, big-spirited woman who bakes the best bread, pies and butter tarts in the city. She lived in our building and always laughed at my cheek, because I could never resist stealing a few luscious, red strawberries out of the heaping bowls she sometimes carried up to her apartment in the elevator. Our neighbour on the right, Maria, an inveterate traveler, was a retired stewardess who worked part time for the cruise lines during the summer months to stretch a fixed income.

Real people, in other words, living real lives and dealing with all of the challenges and puzzles modern life presents. They are literally the salt of this Canadian earth we are lucky enough to live upon – hard-working, kind, reliable, good neighbours.

And so, when I hear Councillor Kerry Jang denouncing my former neighbours and friends in The Georgia Straight as “irresponsible” because “they don’t care” about the homeless; when he implies they are reckless and troublesome, I take issue with his remarks – Dr. Jang owes these Vancouverites an apology.

… continue reading

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The 100 Mile Challenge

April 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment

ep2_back-to-basics-header2If you haven’t yet had a chance to catch the new Canadian reality series on the Food Network – The 100 Mile Challenge – I encourage you to check it out.

Families in the town of Mission have committed to eating only food and products produced within a 100-mile radius for 100 days, giving up coffee, tea, sugar, rice, yeast and most condiments and spices for the duration … 

The series follows the struggles of six families for one hundred days as they desperately try to find local ingredients to replace their bare larders, meet local farmers and artisans, forage, and learn to prepare meals from fresh local ingredients. It may not sound scintillating, but it is a fascinating modern social experiment, and it’s being filmed just up the valley in Mission.

What I find most interesting about the show is how the process transforms the lives of the families – many only know how to shop at supermarkets and cook the prepared foods they find there, like boxes of mac and cheese. The process not only changes their relationship to their food but to their environment as well, (not to mention their entire way of life.)

ep6-final-stretch-headerAnother great aspect of the project is the community-building that takes place, the building of new ties and strengthening of existing neighbourhood connections. As with any collaborative social exercise, however, conflicts inevitably develop. My favourite couple is the politician and his wife that keep finding ways around the rules … it must be an endemic problem.

In an age when global trading patterns are being disrupted, increasing local trade is not only a virtue but a necessity.

Another result is an increase in local trade. All three levels of government spend millions promoting international trade ties, but very little promoting local trade. In an age when global trading patterns are being disrupted, increasing local trade is not only a virtue but a necessity.

Our policies should not focus any longer exclusively on foreign trade but also foster local trade, and in the process help residents of Vancouver source local products and food. It would be good for the economy, good for the environment, and good for our public health.

I’m not yet prepared to give up tea, rice or the many spices and condiments that are the natural best products of other countries. But where any food or product is produced locally – dairy, produce,fish,  meat, preserves, grains, wines and oils, Tom and I are making an extra effort now to find and buy local.

For the epicurious, the 100 Mile Challenge appears on the Food Network, Sundays at 8pm. They also have a great website that helps locate local sources of food and identifies which local foods are in season.

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The Resignation of Ray Lam …

April 21, 2009 · 1 Comment

 1tempest_200311According to Xtra West, Ray Lam, the gay politician running for the NDP in False Creek was forced to resign over a controversy to do with two racy photos on his Facebook page.

None of the images displayed nudity or sex and the whole controversy was blown way out of proportion by a media pack that seemed to take a little too much pleasure in embarrassing a serious young gay candidate.

To me, the most revealing aspect of the tempest over his tightie whities says a great deal more about the out-of-touch mores of the media criticizing Ray than it does about his character. As best I can tell, his offense was being young and alive.

If the city’s reporters spent half as much time discussing the new, permanent $2,000,000 camera surveillance system put in by Mayor Robertson with no public discussion, or the recent charter revisions that restrict civil liberties in Vancouver (again without any public discussion) – as just two recent and notable examples – they might not spend as much time sniffing the briefs of young candidates trying to improve their communities.

I wouldn’t have voted for Ray Lam – I like Mary McNeil and Damian Kettlewell better – but voters deserved to hear his ideas debated on the merits. Every politician is improved by good debate, and it’s often in debate where good policies emerge.

I think the entire process is flawed when a gay candidate in his early twenties is disqualified for a party pic on Facebook, when actual elected officials erode long-standing rights without a peep from the same self-appointed keepers of the community’s conscience. 

It’s no wonder young people get turned off politics – the unpleasant reek of hypocrisy is too much for them  …

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Surprise Concert!

April 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment

surprisegraphicPlease join me on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 3pm at the Chan Centre for a special, Surprise fundraising Concert and reception sponsored by the Vancouver Recital Society.

The Recital Society brings the world’s greatest artists to Vancouver and those joining us on Saturday are in for a big treat!

Tickets are just $50 including reception, help a great cause, and are available at the door or by calling the VRS at 604-602-0363.

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A Good Friday

April 11, 2009 · Leave a Comment

1557554107_bd2f241a29What else is a lapsed Buddhist to do on an Easter Friday but spend the afternoon over at Union Gospel Mission serving Easter dinners?

Usually I’ve worked on the steam line in the kitchen at these things, but today I was out front – one of the setup crew doing place settings, stacking out cups, serving pie a la mode and handing out buns. Tom was a juice server, and our friend Steve who joined us helped serve the roast turkey dinners.

We were shift number two. It was a frantic three hours, then another shift of twenty or so volunteers arrived and took over in mid-service. Matthew, my replacement, looked a little dazed as I handed him my tray and shouted instructions over the din, but then he was off to set six places at  a newly cleaned table and the pace continued smoothly behind us as we left the dining room.

There is an urgency to the entire process that is driven by a line of people that extends all the way around the building, sometimes for blocks, even in a freezing rain. Today it was sunny though, so everyone was in a good mood and spirits were boisterous and friendly and very appreciative.

It’s an extremely rewarding experience, reinforcing the fact that it’s impossible to overestimate the need or their success in mobilizing the community to meet it. Some of my highest admiration goes to Randy, head chef, who manages to turn out an amazing holiday meal with all the trimmings for several thousand in a crowded kitchen with limited storage space. But he has a crackerjack staff and they cook for ten days to make it happen.

If you ever want to watch teamwork in action, head down to UGM to see how their staff run the logistics of these holiday meals and the volunteers that serve them.

To round out what’s been a very Good Friday, we’re watching Bill Maher’s documentary on world religions tonight - Religulous. Tomorrow I’ll be at the Vaisakhi Parade near Main and 50th from noon onwards.

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Is It Spring?

April 8, 2009 · 2 Comments

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I must confess that I was feeling a little overwhelmed by things of late. By the sorry drumbeat of each day’s news, certainly. It’s hard to conceive of the scale or baseness of the criminality that has brought the world to such a sorry state.

And I despair at the recent loss of one of Vancouver’s most kind and devoted, while I think back to the Vancouver of my youth, free of guns and gangland slayings …

I must also confess to feeling the weight of the responsibilities I’ve taken on since the election. I care very deeply about the causes and organizations I support, and want to ensure I do a good job and contribute real value.

And, of course, Life itself presses in while we are making all our grand plans – the normal wear and tear of age, and the sudden illness that reminds us of our own mortality and just how truly precious and rare are those around us that we love.

I suspect many of us are feeling the same way right now, after our long, somewhat hard winter. And this brooding forms the background for my story today, much as the dark, foreboding clouds in the background of the photograph above nonetheless frame the cherry blossoms of spring’s promise.

It was last Friday evening that I found myself, weighted down with all of these cares, settling down onto a hard wooden pew at the back of West Point Grey United Church to hear a concert presented by the Vetta Chamber Music Series.

The very first piece on the program was Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, performed by VSO Associate Concertmaster Joan Blackman and pianist Kenneth Broadway.

Do you remember how many times you’ve heard the Spring Sonata performed live? After a lifetime spent immersed in music, I’ve heard this piece performed maybe eight times in all.

The truly remarkable thing about Beethoven is that, just as Shakespeare invented our concept of the modern, self-questioning and self-referential human, Beethoven was the first composer to make common man the central actor in his own drama. To do this, he invented a new language of emotional expressivity capable of conveying all of the mixed emotions and very human conflicts and complexities with which we are, as modern humans, all too familiar.

After a century of music that praised the Gods and Kings and Nobles – simple morality plays with predictable sentiment and nice neat endings – Beethoven started telling the story of messy humanity itself, with all of its variations – sometimes raucous, sometimes transcendent, as in the exquisitely beautiful adagio of the Spring Sonata.

I don’t know how he first conceived of something that had never existed before, but somehow Beethoven, writing back in the 19th century, encompassed me in his thoughts, with all of my 21st century concerns …

The performance that night was one of the most perfect renditions of that sonata I’ve heard. Joan Blackman has a gorgeous sound (and violin to match), and brought so much nuance and innate musicality to the piece that it was a perfect performance. As to Ken Broadway, this was Beethoven that only a musician steeped in years living in Germany could produce, and music-making of the highest order. Seamless, conversational, free, musical in every sense of that word and seemingly effortless …

As a violin student at UVic, I struggled with this sonata for many years. I know how hard every phrase is, how awkward Beethoven’s writing for the violin, how fragmented and difficult to find the long phrasing necessary to its success, and I marvel at the ability to go so far with emotional content that the work is capable of enfolding an entire audience’s thoughts, worries and dreams in its contours …

That was the performance I went to on Friday, weighted down with my own particular concerns. I left restored, renewed, reconnected with something greater than my own parochial world, reminded yet again why music is my religion and concert halls my cathedrals. This is where I touch something true and eternal and pure and where I draw the sustenance that makes everything else possible.

Beethoven was a genius of a Shakespearean order. Right here in Vancouver, Joan Blackman and Kenneth Broadway are two of the very few artists in the world capable of capturing and expressing that genius in a way that makes us thrill to be alive in the hearing.

Thanks to them, it’s Spring!

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Winter Is Always Coldest Before The Spring … …

March 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Sun and Snow (March 9, 2009)

Sun and Snow (March 9, 2009)

But it’s just ten days until the vernal equinox …

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Crocii @ UBC last weekend

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Spring's promise outside Tinseltown Mall

 

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Radio Silence

February 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

building3aOne of the best things about running for council was meeting so many extraordinary people along the way. A number have become friends, and one of these kindred spirits - I’ll call him Steve - invited me on a tour of the Justice Institute of BC recently.

The Justice Institute is an accredited, degree-granting institution offering classes to 32,000 first responders and public safety professionals annually. In addition to a state-of-the-art campus in New Westminster, they also offer courses in more than 160 communities across BC; graduate 150 well-trained police recruits and 250 paramedics every year; and offer Canada’s only Baccalaureate in Fire and Safety Studies.

The Peace Arch: "May These Gates Never Be Closed"

The Peace Arch: "May These Gates Never Be Closed"

In the course of organizing our visit, Steve and I discovered that we had a lot in common, including the fact we had almost met fourty years earlier at a pivotal event in the formation of the environmental movement - Don’t Make A Wave. Don’t Make A Wave was a massive 1969 demonstration in Peace Arch Park protesting an upcoming nuclear test in Alaska. Based on the success of that event, the organizing committee went on to found Greenpeace a year later.

After discovering that we had both been there, Steve dug up an old Ubyssey newspaper article about the demonstration. In one of those curious twists of fate, the Associate Editor at the time was the man on whose mayoral campaign we had just met – Peter Ladner.

How is it, you might well ask, that two ex-hippies found ourselves on a tour of the Justice Institute of BC, responsible for the professional training and certification of the Vancouver Police force and other first responders?

vancouver_police1The simple answer is that times have changed. Unlike the bad days of the 1970s, today’s Vancouver Police force is a well-educated, professional force well-supported and populated by the minority communities it once troubled.

In addition to great leaders like Chief Jim Chiu, a part of the success of that turnaround can be attributed to the Justice Institute of BC, which conducts state-of the-art training of first responders using the latest in hi-tech simulation technology and a physical campus designed to facilitate real-world drills and training.

They are also training police forces from more than a dozen countries, imparting Canadian values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Women and men are not segregated, for instance, regardless of home-country sensitivities.

Most important to me, this is where our first responders are trained – the extraordinary individuals that rush into burning buildings when everyone else is running out.

Tom and I were living in Manhattan on 9/11. Even though we lived uptown and out of any danger ourselves, those events nonetheless forever changed our relationship to first responders, especially after so many died so heroically trying to rescue those still trapped inside the burning towers.

manThe real tragedy is that many died needlessly, using outmoded radios too weak to receive the evacuation call before the North Tower collapsed.

Every small neighbourhood firehall in Manhattan lost firefighters that day – ours lost half their force. For weeks, people in our neighbourhood lined up around the block to speak to the firemen and drop off food, donations, clothing, anything at all for the families left behind. Our firehall on East 85th was covered, all three stories, with cards from schoolchildren who wrote to them, flowers piled up in huge stacks against the sides of the building. It was the same all over the city – Firehalls became shrines.

AADK001051If you spend five minutes inside the JIBC training centre, you learn very quickly that what matters most in an emergency is the ability to successfully coordinate available resources, manpower and information in real time. This is what makes their state-of-the-art situation centre so valuable. They are constantly putting emergency personnel through real-life drills and gaming out emergency scenarios with a constantly changing mix of personnel from different departments and disciplines. 

We have an obligation to ensure that emergency responders have the necessary training and equipment they need to do their job without unnecessary risk to life and limb. And that includes radios that work inside cement stairwells and are interoperable between police and firefighters, so that personnel and resources can always be safely coordinated when necessary. We should lay out a five year plan now to get this done.

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