6 ~ North Skore News — Sunday, April 2, 200C VIEW POINT=— District sell-off ORTH Vencouver District’s new council appears bent on proving its “business-like” nature by green-lighting development — a worrying trend. Last week council rubber-stamped development permit applications that approved variances so large that the finished isome will likely be bigger than local zoning allows. Apparently, build- ing regulations are too complicated and restrictive for some councillors. This week, a majority of council has asked for a staff report on the potential for future land development in the dis- trict. Proposed by Coun. Bill Denault ._and supported by the new councillors and Mayor Don Bell, the request for a report is less worrying than the reason offered for making it. Denault is _ Feported aii lobbying for using land “assets “in a ‘more productive an and bene- you said it ficial manner” and suggesting that the current land-sale freeze is not business- friendly. Whether the freeze is resident- friendly was not addressed. Most worrying of all is a move to scrap the district’s neighbourhood zon- ing process. This unique and award- winning program prevents bigger homes from being built in any neigh- bourhood until focal zoning plans are created by residents that sct out what the local preferences are for height and mass. Creating neighbourhood plans is a slow process and creates extra work in the short term when council is forced to adjudicate exemptions in areas that don’t yet have their local zoning. But in the long term, the process is truly democratic, allowing residents to con- trol the look of their neighbourhood. Was this council elected with a devel- opment mandate? ihe believed it was only a matter of time before the new..council: showed their true colours and started talking’ about: more development.” ‘North Vancouver District councillor Lisa Muri o pos- Hers idea of selling district land for development. (Fram a March 31 News story.) ; ° O00 at’s four trips to ‘Starbucks, guys.” North. Vancoiver Ci councillor year. rth: Vancouver’ r ident Doug Onlick ‘questioning I¢ i aising tax rates at all. (From the same ight ! idérneath.” arbara Perrault | but as soon as you scratch the you, know : that” it’s a pretty ugly creature ilano beral MLA Jeremy Dalton. DP finance minister Paul Ramsey’s ‘and Accountability Act — four years what he must do to ‘restore law, order and prosperity to his vast country? The evidence to date is scant. He won last week- end’s election with a first-ballot victory ; almost entirely by . promising, nothing spe- cific, by winning the - bloody war in Chechnya the Stone Age and, _ being Boris Yeltsin.” M07 me NTE SDA HN HR SETI OA LE INGLE) Sag IBM DOES Vladimir Putin, Russia’s new president-elect, have a clue while bombing its capital, , Grom into ve all by," not That was the casy part. Bur the still _ unsolved problems are daunting. Not _ least, the sheer size of the Russian federa- tion, stretching to the east coast of Asia -with 89 different administrative units rul- inder. then-premierGlen Clark, balanced budget’ which concealed a huge 9. News story.) 990: ghbourhood Association vice-president . posal that would transform the illion: development that: would to! hotel with a Chapters bookstore,-a restaurant, old beer and wine store. ‘From a March believe yo can’t — you ‘won't. If you you just might.” Sclerosis Society major gift, and’ pl ing, manager: ‘Derek Lunden is in control of lanned giv- is life again being diagnosed with MS. ( From, @ Mavch 29 News ing its assorted regions, republics and federal cities. Add to that the excessive power wield- ed by the business mafia, the “oligarchs,” . responsible for rampant corruption and ‘tax. evasion. Plus widespread poverty among working Russians following the 1998 collapse of the ruble. : «Just how does a tough, inscrutable former KGB g spymaster set about trans- forming this gloomy picture into a pros- pering; democratic market economy acked by strong law-and-order enforce- “ment — these being the twin goals Putin ~. "has indicated in broad ; gene ; terms? . But all his career experience with the ~ KGB pointed in quite.a different direc- ‘tion. Espionage bosses do not-work in. othe. glare ¢ of publicity. Their jobi is to get " KGB techniques. * "Wort hore Men, ound i 166525 an “| jadependent subsrban newspaper and qualified under Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the things done i in most effective and feast obtrusive way possible, rather than - on the front page of newspapers. : And if this occasionally ’ entails a little mendacity ' or obfuscation, so be it. ... In Putin’s former pro- fession the end justifies - the means. When I was in ‘Moscow last fall, two of the mass bombings took place — _a shopping mall and a big apartment block, Gusing several hundred deaths. The Chechens, highly hither and yon , unpopular with European Russians, were immediately pinpointed as the terrorists: the attack on Chechnya was © inched. It has now been strongly rumoured that Putin’s men actually planted the the war which, if successful, could only pep him win the presidency. As, indeed, -We may’! never know the truth; But at.” _ ter and summ: leass it ties in completely with known: - t may also explain |: Putin’s continuing vagueness about... GIDDYAP! * order to clean up the Russia's $ poli ical and economic mess. ©“ ws Or he may lack either plans or visio: * But whether the saviour of his country or ‘.a leadership dud, Putin-watching will one of the, western world’s most Fabs ing hobbies in ‘the months ahéad. ’ Q90° OVERSLEPT and late for golf church — today? Why suffer this al time-change folly? Daylight is no matter at which end of the day. In winter we like to glimpse it by breakfast time, In summer we want: tio evening daylight to the max Bat ing this logic; why no’ change th by two — even h } one? Meaning summer stinse night or, if you eanrnine > S am..We can \... time, can’t we?. P: bombs in order to give An an excuse for* ">. changing the clock: -manent best-of-both- giving a bonus HOW he'll achieve his stated goais—as- .*, in his emphasis on “law and order,” . which may well be code words for a new brand of authoritarianism. Moreover, when publicly criticized, he has already. - moved towards censorship of the media. © ‘At least there seems little fear of a! return to conimunism. In the election - Putin beat his Communist rival by | 52% to" 29%. hat may be inevitable fora while in But he certainly has the potential to a oe ¢ as-a dictator in his own right: ‘North-Van’s Lorne Manin’ (Straith) ‘And more ‘birthday sre rings tomiorr April 3, to North