As a French-Canadian living in Vancouver, I almost feel it is my duty to share my opinion about this non-issue: French at the Olympics.

VANOC: Oppressing Olympic fans in both official languages

While I think that there are more pressing issues, such as the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, and the horrendous response from VANOC and the International Luge Federation, basically blaming the now-silenced victim for his own death.  Or the fact that the Olympic Cauldron is behind a fence that makes the whole site look like it’s in jail, which symbolizes perfectly VANOC mismanagement of the whole Olympic fiasco.  I’ll briefly write about the place of French-language at the Olympics.

I personally think that… it’s generally OK.  The overwhelm majority of Olympic-related signs in Vancouver are bilingual.  The Opening ceremony was in both official languages.  What many do not understand is that Vancouver, while being in Canada, is not a very francophone city.  And it is Vancouver who host the Olympics, not bilingual Canada.

Since John Furlong doesn’t speak French, VANOC could have a second person speaking in Molière’s language at the opening ceremony.  Other than minor elements such as the one previously mentioned, the 2010 games are fairly bilingual.  Or at least, as bilingual as Vancouver can get.

Of all the things that are badly managed by VANOC, the place of French at the opening ceremony, is a relatively minor mishap in my opinion.

Frédéric Van Caenegem

I have decided to throw my hat in the ring and have applied to the Board of Directors of Vancouver’s Co-operative Auto Network.  The Board of Directors is elected by members of the Co-op on the General Annual Meeting which this year will be on January 27th, 2010.  Five of the eight members are to be elected during this years AGM.  If you are a member you should have received an email indicating where the AGM is held.  If not, please contact the Co-operative Auto Network directly.

Please find below my Statement of interest.  Good luck to all candidates, and to me too.

________________________________________

By providing a middle ground to owning a vehicle and relying on transit and cycling, the Co-operative Auto Network contributes to improving the lives of its members, our communities and the environment. It is with this vision in mind that I offer my abilities to CAN and submit my candidacy to the Board of Directors.

My priority, as a member of the board, would be to expand the Car co-op network into the suburbs (Surrey, Richmond, etc.). This would benefit not only potential members currently living in the suburbs, but also those who occasionally require a vehicle in suburbia. Other projects are to provide documentation in other languages, keeping sound financial management, providing better access to the Board of Directors and a review of the complain process.

Living in South Vancouver (Marpole) since 2001, I joined CAN before there was a vehicle in my neighbourhood. Since then, my involvement has included volunteered for a few presentation shows and working in the main office as a Call Centre Manager and a Member Care Co-ordinator, first on a full time basis, then on-call, from 2007 to 2009. Fluent in French and English, I also speak decent Spanish and basic Cantonese. I am currently completing on a part time basis a certificate in Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University. I also comment on social and environmental issues in a monthly column in L’Express du Pacifique newspaper and on the web: www.vancf.net.

Thank you,

Frédéric Van Caenegem

Congratulation to Translink’s unelected board to have schedule they Annual Meeting on Election day (May 12). This decision ensures there will be as little as possible media coverage regarding decisions taken on that day. A day that has been scheduled and made public just a few years ago by the provincial legislature!

Frédéric Van Caenegem

I have seen quite a lot of spelling mistake before.  I make quite a lot myself too.  But this one comes from a simple one page advertising from the City!

Good luck recieving this tax free money for those eligible!

Frédéric Van Caenegem

A few days ago, I sent an email to the City of Vancouver Engineering Department to advise them that the “pedestrian detector” (not sure how to call it) at an intersection near my workplace was not working.  My hopes that this would be looked at were very slim.  I was, firstly, quite surprised to receive an email the following day saying they will look into the issue.  I was even more surprised three days later when, coming at this intersection as I usually do, the detector was actually fixed and working properly!

Someone has established good internal communications inside the Engineering  Department of the City of Vancouver.  Bravo!  Please find below the email exchange.

Frédéric Van Caenegem

________________________________________

From : Frédéric Van Caenegem
Send : November 22 12:36:33
To : Engineering Records Management

Hello Darren
Thank you for looking into this fixing the problem.  Great internal communications!
Sincerely,
Frédéric.

Subject: RE: Pedestrian crossing on 4th under Granville Bridge
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:32:13 -0800
From: Engineering Records Management
To: Frédéric Van Caenegem

Hello,
The following message was sent from the electrical office:
Thank you for advising us of this pedestrian crossing problem. We will look into the matter.
Thank you,
Darren

From: Frédéric Van Caenegem
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 9:45 AM
To: Engineering Records Management
Subject: Pedestrian crossing on 4th under Granville Bridge

Hi!
Just wanted to advise that the pedestrian crossing on 4th avenue, under Granville Bridge, is not working properly.  The detector on the North side is not functioning, therefore it never gives enough time to cross the street.
It should be fix rapidly, at this crossing is a blind spot for drivers who can’t easily see pedestrians.
Frédéric

In 2003, I voted for the Olympics.  Even though most (if not all) Olympics games organized since WWII have been to the benefit of the rich and privileged in any society, I hoped these games would not be too much for the well-being but would also be for the average people.  My hopes were not too high, but just enough to vote yes.  Five years later, I bitterly regret it.

Probably because the city had a good mayor then, I hope he and the city council (controlled by the left-wing COPE) would be a good counter-balance to the right-wing liberal provincial government.  However, as you know, mayor Larry Campbell didn’t seek a second mandate, and despite coming close, his protégé wasn’t elected.  The new mayor had no vision for the city and turned out to be blindly pro-business.

Olympics games require a lot of projects and infrastructures development, and the key decisions regarding these investments are done between 5 to 3 years before the actual Olympics games. That, for Vancouver, is between 2005 to 2007.  Just the right time to have pro-business right-wing administrations controlling the city, the province and even the federal government (from 2006)!

Consequences: almost all developments in infrastructures in the greater Vancouver benefited private enterprises: new bridges, more roads, new convention centre, etc. The only project that would be useful to everyone was the rapid transit RAV line.  But even that was done in private partnership and with overflowing costs.

Thinking about it, five years later, my hope for balanced Olympics where roads are expanded in conjunction with public transport projects, where real estate development includes good quality affordable housing projects are quite dead. It is too late now for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics: they will benefit only the rich and powerful.  But hope is not all lost, now is time to prepare the after Olympics!

Frédéric Van Caenegem

Mayor Sullivan’s so called online survey on UBC transit line was a farce.  The survey never asks if you support or not the UBC line, it just asks “Why do you support UBC Transit line?”  I answered, “I don’t”.  The survey also asks: “if the UBC line was built, would you use it?” To such a general question, I answered, “Yes”, meaning I would probably use it at least once in my life-time.  87% of the respondent answered yes (like me!).  So, according to Sam Sullivan, just about anyone supports the UBC line!

This is my reply to a post I found here (http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2007/10/why_vancouver_sucks.html).  While the title is shocking, the post is about high housing in Vancouver and not about the Canucks!  It’s from someone in San Francisco saying that Vancouver is no model for his own city.

________________________________________

I live in Vancouver and absolutely love the city. It’s nice, the weather is wonderful (by Canadian standards), and the people friendly. That being said, it’s no paradise.

I’m a renter and prices are absolutely soaring in this city. Right now I live in a decent apartment a bit far from downtown, but look to move closer. Although, rent is extremely low ($725), this is exceptional for here! There is virtually nothing decent under $1000/month (Check Craigslist to see for yourself: http://vancouver.craigslist.org/apa/).

While, as I mentioned, my unit is OK, smells and noises from my neighbours keep encroaching my apartment and the building is extremely badly managed. One example, one tenant sells drugs (marijuana, crack, probably crystal meth, etc.) on the first floor and the owner/manager doesn’t do anything about that. Another reason I want to move out is that I don’t think the building would survive a strong earthquake (like SF, “The big one” might strike anytime here too)

This bad management partly explains the “low rent” but the main reason there is bad management is that the owner has no interest in taking care of the building because I’m pretty sure he wants to sell the land to, you guess, one of those developers who want to build condos. The land is worth much more then structures here, probably about 4 times the value in Vancouver.

I’m not sure where “new urbanism” fits in here, but nice walkable neighborhoods, bike paths and getting the cars out of city centres doesn’t have to mean building pricey condos that will be bought by people not living there themselves. The main reason, I feel, Vancouver housing situation is in such deplorable situation is lack of political leadership.

Our mayor, Sam Sullivan, and Premier of BC, Gordon Campbell, are only interested in money and not people. While, obviously, economic factors must be looked at, the fact is that provincial, municipal and even federal governments are doing absolutely everything in their powers to satisfy the needs of developers and established land-owning corporations. Social and affordable housing projects are completely set aside to make place for market-priced condos.

I am no expert, but I don’t think “new urbanism” has to be automatically associated to pricey condos. If it includes norms that impose under-market value units, then the benefits of “new urbanism” could be share by everyone, not just people who can afford the nice condos.

A good neighbourhood should have diversity of people and not specialize to a certain socio-economic group. It should be a balance of rich, poor, old, young, big families, no children families. North America has too much of those neighbourhoods that have only one-type residents. Pluralism is not just ethnic diversity but also socio-economic diversity.

Frédéric Van Caenegem

Here is an email I sent to Translink and the remarkable answer I got!
Frédéric.
__________

From: “TransLink Customer Relations”
Objet: RE: New Trolley buses
Date : Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:59:59 -0700
De : “TransLink Customer Relations”

Frederic,
I have processed your concern to Translink, who purchased these buses.
Customer Relations
Coast Mountain Bus Company
Tel: 604-953-3040

—–Original Message—–
From: Frédéric Van Caenegem [mailto:vancf@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 7:13 AM
To: TransLink Customer Relations
Subject: New Trolley buses

Hello!

I writing you regarding a problem that often arise in the new Trolley buses: I get dizzy. At the beginning I tough it was due to some personal reason. But after a while, I noticed that this happens only while riding the new trolley buses. And talking to other people, I realised I’m not the only one.

I noticed that the new trolley buses have higher acceleration and deceleration. That might be great for a sports car, but I don’t think it should be a positive feature in a public transportation vehicle. This abrupt movement makes, I am sure, a lot more people uncomfortable in the buses (dizziness, lack of balance, falling down). Which brings me to other problems with the new Trolley buses.

They have less seats, which is an unusual move considering they generally serve the already most crowded bus lines. They also seem a little bit smaller, but I’m not sure of that. Also, they seem to concentrate even more people by the back door.

I think perhaps, Translink should have signs to tell people not to stand by the exit door, like there is already signs to tell riders to let seats for the elderly or to remove backpacks. There should be more signs though, and multilingual too.

Also, what is the point of the “buzzer” pamphlet if it’s always about 6 weeks late in the buses??? I started to see in the last few days the August 2, edition???

Oh, one positive point, I like the windows in the new trolley buses! They are both secure (I think) and let fresh air in. Contrary to the ridiculously small windows in the packed of people exhaling CO2 in the B-lines. Unless you can change the fact that people breathe (which I hope you can’t), the B-lines needs bigger windows.

Thank you,
Frédéric.