costing as little as $500.

The Suwa Seiko Co. says
its 1.2-inch black and white
television uses liquid crystal
instead of a picture tube. A
battery-powered receiver fits
into your pocket. Head-
phones pick up the audio.

In addition, the watch will
continue to perform its
multiple digital functions
such as giving the time, the
date, the year, acting as a
stop watch, alarm, time zone
adjustor and appointment
reminder.

I want one! I want one! I

think.

I mean, when the day
comes that“ everybody on
earth has one of these
gadgets on their wrist, you'll
know we've entered a new
age for sure.

Science fiction buffs will
recall E.E. (“Doc”) Smith's
Lensmen series, which
featured the mysterious Lens
of Arisia, worn like a watch

Rental vacancies still ti

FROM PAGE A1

vacancy rate will ever reach
three per cent.

Derek Hayes says: “I
don’t think it is going to get
as high as that as there isn't
that amount on stream.

Though he acknowledges
there now appears to be
many more apartment
vacanies than in April when
his figures were prepared,
the CMHC spokesman says:
“North Vancouver City is
one of the municipalities in
the Lower Mainland which
experiences lower vacancies
than elsewhere in the
metropolitan area because
it is a relatively desirable
area to be in.”

The CMHC figures show
that n April there were 46
apartment vacancies in
North Van City, giving a
vacancy rate of .9 per cent.
There were no bachelor
units available to rent, 28
one-bedroom suites (.8%),
18 two-bedroom apartments

| Strictly personal |

. by Bob Hunter

watcher’s watch

WITHIN A YEAR, according to reports out of
Tokyo, a wristwatch TV set will be on the market,

by the good guys, enhancing
their powers, allowing them
to communicate with the
universe at large.

These new water-resistant
stainless steel TV watches
from Japan begin to look as
though they might come
from Arisia itself .

I hate_to sound like a
pedantic McLuhanite, but
this development certainly
fits in with the theory of a
Global Village. It also turns

_Dick Tracy into one of our
most prophetic figures.

Congratulations, Suwa
Seiko! You have rendered
an invaluable service to
humanity.

At least, maybe you have.

It is hard to tell, with
certainty, whether any given
invention will prove to be
beneficial or whether, in the
long run, it will be the death
of us all.

While I am, of course,
impressed — left quite ga-ga,

(1.1%) and
bedroom units.

Hayes says the figures are
not totally representative of
the picture as they apply
only to apartment buildings
with six or more units and
do not include buildings
which are primarily strata
title but also rent some
units.

Even so, he rules out the
possibility of the vacancy
rate in North Van City
approaching anything like
three per cent, despite the
omissions.

Three applications § to
convert apartments to strata
title — 15 suites at 531!
Lonsdale, 40 at 240 St.
Andrews and a further 40 at
326 West 3rd Street — were
put on hold when = con.
sidered by City council at
the June 28 mecting.

Council wanted = to
consider its own staff report
on the vacancy situation
before issuing a decision
and will be looking at the
applications again
tomorrow (Monday)
cvening

no__three-

actually -- by the technology
involved in the TV watch,
that in itself doesn’t count
for much. I mean, I'm a
sucker for a good gimmick.

As inventions go, I'm still
impressed by the wheel, to
tell the truth. The bow and
arrow leaves me dumb with
awe. By the time you get to
the piston, I'm way out of my
depth.

So when someone says
their gadget uses “liquid
crystal” instead of a picture
tube, what can I do but
mumble hallelujah, brother!
It's all magic to me.

I never understood a
picture tube, either.

It’s the effect of an in-
vention, not the technology
behind it, which ought to be
soberly considered -- but
which almost never is. .

There is such a thing as
“digital consciousness,” you
know. It is already a fact of
life throughout much of the
world. You can see it at
work in the booming
economies of Japan,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and
Singapore.

The report shows that,
based on the CMHC April
figures, there would not
even be enough other
apartments available in the
City to accommodate the
tenants displaced by the
changeover to strata title.

On that vacancy rate,
only 59 of the 95
households affected by the
applications would be able
to relocate locally without
becoming owners.

And considering the
prices of condominiums,
those tenants would have to
pay almost twice as much
in monthly payments as
their present rent, even
though all the rents are at
levels which exclude them
from rent controls, if they
were to pay mortgages on
the same accommodation.

The

report to council
prepared by planning
technician Steve Pomeroy
concludes: ™. at the

lowest level of the market a
houschoid would have to
pay $770.55 » month if they
were to purchase a one
bedroom condominium

HARRISON GALLERIES rine ant veacers

2022 Park Royal, South Mail
Upper Level, West Vancouver

926-2615

Jose Salvador

“Relaxing Moment’
Drawing

Other Gailery Locations.

667 Howe St. Vancouver BC.

681 2817 of 6863 0014

2932 Granville St Vancouver 6 C /32 5217 of 732.0011

It .was caused, more or
less, by the mass marketing
of watches with numbers
that flick across the screen,
rather than a stately little
arm pursuing its inexorable
clockwise orbit.

Last year I picked up a
digital watch in Hong Kong.
Since then, my thoughts, and
thus my behavior, have been
subtly altered. I now have
this fetish about time and
dates and what year it is --
items that never used to
bother me much.

I am actually more ef-
ficient, more productive,
more profitable. I get up
earlier and go to bed earlier.
I am on time for ap
pointments. I never miss a
plane. I am never late for a
party.

Verily, I seem to have
been . zapped by Digital
Consciousness. fg

On the surface, this is all
right, I guess. Just as it will
be all right, I suppose, when
a little window onto the
world and its problems can
be strapped to your wrist.

It will be hard to resist
peeking. And I just know
something will happen to my
poor head as a result. It'll
probably be worse than
anything yet.

Sure, my digital watch
made me efficient. But,
wow, am I ever DULL! I
mean, B-O-R-I-N-G.

, Who doI sue?

ht

unit. The average rent for a
one-bedroom apartment in
North Vancouver is,
however, almost half this
amount, $406.

The report states: “If it is
felt that the exempt and
decontrolled units warrant a
separate strata conversion
criteria it must be
recognized that dislocaton
of cxisting tenants would
constitute an increased
level of demand on an
already constrained rental
stock and there is no in-
dication that the cxisting

tenants would, or even
could, move into the
ownership market.”

And the report adds:

“Conversion to strata title
would be a significant loss
to the rental sector and
would reverse the current
trend towards a_ healthy
vacancy rate.”

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HITCHING A RIDE, yardman travels in front of
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Avenue in North Van. (Eric Eggertson photo)

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