1139 Lonsdale Avene
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North Shore News, founded in 1969 an an
. _ independent suburban newspeper and qualified
undet Schedule 111, Paragraph $11 of the ©
Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday,
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© 1996 North Shore
Free Press Ltd,
All rights reserved.

S

Get with the

T’S TIME to get in the game. For
iE North Shore this weekend, it’s
time to get into the Games.

In a big way.

The 18th annual B.C. Winter Games
kicked off in grand style yesterday at the
Lonsdale recreation centre.

Thousands of well-wishers, onlookers
and spectators joined the hardworking
core of local volunteer Games directors
in a 24-hour ceremony that ushered in
action for approximately 3,000 amateur
athletes,

’ The cream of B.C. youth, the real rep-
resentatives of the upcoming generation
-— not the sordid few whose loutish

tng th gs NCEA REE TN GEL EYER REE, LF SILT PEEL

behavior too often gets the public’s
attention — are now putting their abili-
ties to the test in events that range from
badminton and gymnastics to swimming
and weighilifting.

There wil] be winners and losers. On
paper.

In reality any athlete that has trained
hard and focused on a goal beyond the
average will have won by building per-
sonal self-respect and developing disci-
pline and perseverance — characteris-
tics that distinguish winners every-
where,

But apart from the competitors, it's
up to the community to show its appre-

mews viewpoint

ciation and admiration for youthful
enterprise and future promise.

The North Shore, which is hosting the
event for the first time in its history, has
responded admirably to the call for vol-
unteers to help with the countiess
responsibilities that come with hosting
the B.C. Winter Games.

Now it’s up to the rest of the commu-
nity to contribute. Scan the North Shore
News’ Feb. 18 Winter Games pullout
section, pick an event and get out and
watch young B.C. athletes in: action.

Get into the Games. The effort will -
produce winners on both sides of the
bleachers.

DON YOUNGSON isa
clever guy. Thoughtful. And
with an insider-outsider’s
innovative ideas about some
thoray West Vancouver prob-
lems — applicable elsewhere
too.

Youngson's an insider because
he’s a former head of the West
Vanceuver Chamber of Commerce.
He’s an outsider because he’s cur-
rently out of the famous Greater
Tiddlycove power loop, busy doing
business on the other side of the
Pacific Rim as deputy director of
the Russian division of Primex
Forest Products, :

(When we ran into each other a
year ago he left me with this wis-
dom: There are two “‘currencies”
that trade everywhere in the devel-
oping world — Marlboro cigarettes
and Mars bars.)

But that’s an aside. Youngson is
still in touch with his community.

’ And he bristles with the aforemen-
- tioned imaginative ideas.

Of course they won't be accept-
ed. They are too sensible. They
threaten vested interests.

’ Never mind that they would save
a lot of tax dollars. And rationalize
scarce and costly community
resources, And reconcile competing
demands.

It’s ironic, Town hall is energeti-
cally hyping a new arts centre (mar-
ried to a commercial development

on the present post office site at
17th and Bellevue), promising a
new western recreation centre
(promised in the 1992 election tue),
eagerly moving toward a youth cen-
tre by way of evicting its tenants at
the Capilano Sportsmens Club in
Ambleside Park ... and, legitimately,
worrying about the shotgun wed-
ding of the West and North
Vancouver school boards, the trig-
ger being fingered by Big Brother in
Victoria, the New Democratic Party-
controlled ministry of education.

Youngson, in a letter to the edi-
tor with a copy to me, points out the
obvious: West Vancouveritcs already
boast two terrific existing sites that
could be altered to accommodaie ali
the aris, youth and at least some of
the recreation needs that we have
now, and for years to come.

The Hillside and Inglewsod
schools.

These are “surplus” schools.

Youngson puts aside the formes,
which is slated to be sotd to private
developers, and concentrates on |

_ Inglewood. He says that $350,000

must be spent to bring Inglewood's
main building up to code. Then, the
following activities could be accom-
modated: ,

Some classrooms and facilities
for expansion of adjoining West
Vancouver High; galleries, ' ‘studios
and other space for performing and
visuai arts, without having to be tied
to a commercial development,
including space for “the world-
renowned Anna Wyman.dance
troupe”; a youth centre, obviating a

“quarrel in the courts over the
(Capilano Sporismens Club) build
ing’s ownership é and extinction of
West Vancouver's oldest communi-
ty-oriented club"; and additional fit-
ness facilities to relieve pressure on
the main recreational centre: -

Youngson modestly adds: “Such
an idea may seem too grandiose, but

there exists an opportunity to

resolve a number of issues in our
community through the cooperation
and coordination of two government
agencies —- during a time of contin-
ued belt-tightening and forthcoming
elections.”

And there's the mb, The corp _
the municipality — and the school
beard (and beyond that Big |
Brother's education ministry) would

i

tax tales

IF POETS, writers and singers
have enough talent, they, suc~
ceed in the marketplace, the ~
way that many, have.. already
and .the.. way. most of us-do in.
“our jobs:i Nevertheless; ‘politi-
cians and buredtcrats continue |
to pour barrels of. money into:
the “Art Trough” (a taxpayer.
year is the amount of total per-. .
sonal income, tax an‘ average
taxpayer pays in one year: —
about $4,800):
@ $33,000 was allocated to pro-
mote and develop “Music in. alter-
ens spaces: ” (seven _taxpaye

ears).

a Almost. $280,000 was: given’ to.
various professional ‘ensembles ‘to
self-produce, or rehearse for a:spe-
cial event.” (58 taxpayer years).
‘@ The Montreal-based dance com-
pany, La La La-Human : Steps
received: $130,000 (27: taxpaye
iyears).

—— From Zales. from ‘the Tax’.
: Trough Il, a National Citizens’,
, Coalition » publication.

have to work itout.

Even under enlightened and Pro 1
gressive leaders, Ken Haycock of :.
the school board and Mayor Mark:
Sager, their respective bureaucra-
cies, dragging precedent behind
them, have a guarded relationship at
best.

So the waste — the colossal”
under-use of a prime site like® oe
Inglewood, while the corp scratches!
around for expensive new monu
ments — will continue.

A number of readers — ‘includ
ing Mayor Sager, I see — have |
denounced my recent characteriza:
tion of the Youth Outreach program
as designed for “troubled” yorth.
Fair enough. | dish it out. I take it.

But that’s my reading of it.
(Which includes a further look at
fan Noble's story on Youth Outreach
in the Dec. 15 News.) Maybe, more
exactingly, I could have said that its
aim looks to be calculated to head -
off troubles among some teens.

J once looked in on its premises:
at Inglewood. Flatly, it looked to me
like a seedy clubhouse for slightly .
obstreperous, slightly in-your-face;
kids. That, readers, was my candid -
impression. ;

How tough are the times? This
tough: Our family recently adver-
tised in the News and the two
Vancouver dailies for a temporary
housekeeper. We got, conservatively,
225 responses.

—