6 — Sunday, September 26, 1999 — North Shore News T is not just sports fans who were saddened Thursday by the news that the Vancouver Grizzlies have been bought by 2 U.S. owner who, not uncoincidentally, has his own arena in St. Louis, Missouri. Those of us who had believed Vancouver belonged on the world stage of cities with the big boys got an instant dose of financial reality when Seattle tycoon John McCaw pulled the plug on his basketball franchise. West Vanconver’s Arthur Griffiths worked hard for two years to secure a National Basketball Association team to play in the new stadium being built downtown. The league asked for a guarantee of 12,500 season-ticket subscribers and by the end of 1994 Vancouver had exceeded the target. The Grizz were an instant family success. Ticket prices were more north shore news VIEWPOINT ague loss affordable than Canucks’ tickets and basketball, unlike ice hockey, was available in every high school — to girls as well as boys. Sure, the team lost regularly but we were used to that. So did the Canucks. We were prepared to reward effort. When McCaw assumed control of Northwest Entertainment Group in 1995, nobedy worried. Seattle had its own team after all. But losing seasons on ice and on court translated to financial losses that McCaw didn’t like. Unlike the Griffiths family, McCaw has no local ties. No reasons to fose money based on sentiment. Dispassionately, you can’t blame him. Vancouver stopped being a fami- ly franchise and went to play in the international arena of finance. It turned out, that without government suppert, we couldn’t afford the ticket. | you said it ’ “I wanted to bring her up in the public system, to ‘make her like everyone else: a real Canadian. ... They can ' do daycare, not education.” North Vancouver parent Alice Siu, disappointed at con- ditions in her daughter's kindergarten class (From a Sept. 19 News story.) - ae ° “O00 : “She kept the (log ing) option alive when it could have been'dead as Marley’s Ghost.” North Vancouver: District. councillor Trevor Carolan, . bemoaning. West Vancouver mayor Pat Boame’s vote against removing an agreement allowing selective logging, in ie watershed from the Greater Vancouver Regional District lease agreement with the province. (From a Sept. 19 News story.) oe. — (800 ° 4] stole it to drive around and break into cars so I could get money to feed my cat.” Lo ~~ What a sian told North Vancouver RCMP after alleged- ly stealing a car and then crashing it. (From a Sept. 24 News Ambulance paramedic Jan Macmillan, after he was low- cred ‘down from the Capilano Suspension Bridge to an 18- month-old baby giel who survived a 70-metre (230 fect) fall ‘om the bridge. (From a sept a News story.) ; - It’s impossible to have a decent, intelligent conver-. = sation with the GVRD. It’s scary the way they operate.” -“Grouse Woods resident Francois Du Preez, on dealings .. with the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the pos- sibility of court action to halt planned Cleveland dam works. (From a Sept..24 News sory) : » @This page depends on everybody doing a little bit: .. * you don’t have to build a whole pyramid yourself — just “oie brick. I think that’s. what che Internet is supposed ‘ta be about.” So . *-Mancouver Island resident Raiph Innes, writing on his ane Prices Web site. (From a Sept. 26 News Open Road ro) ee we Morth Shore News, founded in 1969 25 30 independent suburban rewspaper and qualified ander Schedule 111, Paragraph 111 of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wedaes tay, Friday and Sunday by HCN Publications. - Company and distrtvuted to every door on the BAN Saies Product Agreement No. 0087238. Fancher Creative Services Gitector $85-2131 (127) 61,582 (average curculalion, Wednesday Fritay & Sundry) Distribution Manager 986-1337 (124) The hard road to a free market | NO question, there’s plenty of private misery nowadays in Moscow and other Russian cities. But it’s far from obvious, strolling around downtown on a sunny late summer day. The busy street scene is indistinguishable from that of any European metropolis. The crowds going sbout their busi- hess at stores and restau- rants are neatly dressed, the younger women quite often with distinct chic. Cars throng the wide roadways, with rush-hour traffic jams rivalfing those back hume. Beggars and panhandlers are less visible than at Granville and Georgia. Western newspaps:s along with Russia’s now completely uncensored press are on sate at newsstands cverywhere. Around Red Square and the Kremlin _ tourists and tour buses abound. Inside the 30-acre Kremlin itself dozens of sightseer groups dutifully follow the iden- tifying flags on sticks held up by their guides, When darkness falls they return to admire the Red Square’s dramatic illumi- nations and sample a ride on Moscow’s ornately palatial metre. The famed Moscow Circus is packed solid, at least 90% by Muscovites themselves. Older buildings could often use a ° facelift, but otherwise the urban cleanli- ness is impressive. Street sweepers are everywhere at all hours — garbage PETER SPECK Publisher © 995-2131 (101 a R eX Torry Petars : Photography Manager 985-2131 (160) ete eeevesenneeya ances eon sssvessscosscesecoae nowhere. Nor is graffiti casy to find. And as in St. Petersburg and other cities visit- ed en route, the Russians’ love of spa- cious tree-shaded parks does much to make more livable the suburbs dominated by the huge, feature- less, barrack-like apart- ment blocks inhented from the Soviet cra. Behind this orderly facade, however, the economic picture . remains grim. The 1998 crash of the ruble wiped out savings and reduced at least 40% of -- Russians to the poverty level. The currency has now stabilized to ~ around 25 rubles to the US dollaz, but further inflation continues to threaten. An “average” monthly wage today is around 1,250 rubles (US$50). . Unemployment runz.ct cver 12%, State salarics (c.g., for teachers, government — employces, the armed forces) regularly fail to be paid on time — thanks largely to tax evasion on a massive scale, led by ...: the Mafia but also practised by “legiti- .:-° mate” businesses and individuals. It’s esti- mated that today’s underground econo- - my amounts to between 40% and 60% of the nation’s total economic activity. Call it the had road to a free marker economy! wee One effect of the wipe-out of individ-’ ual savings during last year’s currency cri- sis has been to create a widespread dis- trust by ordinary Russians of ali banks and other financial institutions. People, _-Wwe were told, now tend to hoard any spare cash (including hard currencies) they can get their hands on under their mattresses. As a result, Russia, with a= national debt 140% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is presently starved of urgently needed investment by its own people. Instead, individual Russians — they. and thcir parents cossetted for decades by Communism’s rigid cradle-to-grave “equality in deprivation” — aie finally learning to do their own thing, unfet- tered by Nanny State. How else, for now, to survive in today’s Russia where basic food can cost over half your income and. where, if hospitalized, you bring your: own drugs, bandages and even ligh bulbs? . : _ Nevertheless, one glimpses light at the |. .- end of the tunnel. Taiking with 20- to 35-year-old Russians, one finds no in est — however tough the going righ now — in returning to their parents’ Comraunist past. ore ; Thanks to perestroika and uncerso media they’ve tasted the west and like i Stalin’s and Brezhnev’s world is.no longer for them: Upcoming, a look'a ‘what that transition may entail. - WRIGHT OR WRONG: Never p to tomorrow what you can do the d: after (right, Mark Twain!) °°." — npright@n LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. - Letters must include your name, -- tuil address & telephone number. - VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ direct.ca Valerie Stgheeton Classified Manager : 986-6222 (202) Entite conlenis © 1999 HCN Publications Company. Alt rights reserved. _ 985-2131 (105) internet- bttp://www.nssews.com wary eae 5 he OLDS Oe EOE EL OY or nay Fea Se aco ah SALE a REI OL aE SOL STAT SL ar Ae Peter rer aly