6 — North Shore News — Sunday. September 3, 2000

F your wheels of choice don’t

entail an engine, getting around

on the North Shore without run-
ning afoul of the police and bylaw
control officers can be a daunting
challenge.

Young Sebastien Roche learned
this first-hand in North Vancouver
City recently. An inline skater for five
years, he was stopped by a police offi-
cer on 17th Street and warned that
rolling on the street or sidewalk made
him an cligible candidate for a $50
fine.

' Upon investigating he found the
city has implemented various degrees
of prohibition for legal access to

“ streets ‘and sidewalks by inline
skaters, scooter riders and skate-
boarders.

It’s a more harsh reality in North
Vancouver District

,

“you said it

“It’s a balanced budget, but the debt has risen to $2

and West

—_——-- VIEW

Vancouver. Unless the councils close a
street or highway for the express pur-
pose of skating, skateboarding, scoot-
ing or other activities on “play vehi-
cles,” both municipalities are off-lim-
its for doing so. That includes side-
walks, and in West Vancouver, the
Seawalk.

Just across the bridge in Vancouver
there are public spaces in which
pedestrians, cyclists, scooter riders,
and inline skaters co-exist. The city
has responded to the need for room
to roam in a proactive and planned
fashion.

Some dedicated facilities and rights
of way are in place on the North
Shore for skateboarders and cyclists,
but what is sorely missing is a North
Shore-wide system of dedicated safe

routes for pcople who wish to wheel

their way to health.

PoINT——

TABLE FOR AH IMPERIOUS SNOB:
RFAASQUCRADING AS A COMMON MAN WHOSE
S VISION OF CANADA DOES NOT EXTEND FAST
THE BORDERS OF ONTARIO AND QUEBEC;
WHO 1S GENEROUS foaA FAULT
witet YES-MEN AND CRONIES
REWARDING yTnem wit
PATRONAGE CL ~~ APPOINTMENTS |
2 GOLOEN PENSIONS

FINANCED BY
THE WORKING
STIFF; WHO
‘| CLAIMS Fo
m REPRESENT A.
CANADIONS GUT
IN REAUTY 15 AN
INSUFFERABLE
ELITIST WHO HAS
OVERSTAYED HIS
WELSOME ON THE
POLITICAL STAGE?

™~
(Riau
“—.

aN

ae)

; e
{

The vacant and the daft

Cost comparisons might also interes

billion (in the next year, to a total of $34 billion), and
we're still paying $7.3 million a day in debt to U.S.
banks. They’ve done nothing to address the debt.

Money ‘isn’t going into hospitals or education — it’s :

we going into higher. wages for (the  government’s)

|» friends.”

; North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Daniel Jarvis on the
latest NDP budget. (From an ang. 27 News story.)

_.-. “One has to understand that the totem pole was done
- 30 years ago and. back then no one really cared what the
First Nations thought.” .:
«1s Leah George, self government coordinator of the Burrard
Band’on a totem pole carved by a non-native. (From an Ang.

“30 News story.)
Jaulelapne 000

“Good morning ground squirrel, what’s up? Are you
omy?” ;
'A14-year-old West Vancouver gir) demonstrating her dex-
terity with an Innukeitut phrase. AG an Ang. 30 News story.)
You used to be able to come in from the side, but now
:you have to. come in from the back. And as you come in

“you have to bind onto somebody whereas before you could

IF, like Mother Nature, you abhor

a vacuum, consider this pair of
local space cases.

Space Case. No. Li In
which your West
Vancouver Police appear
set to come out of the
closet.

Yes, sir, the police
force charged with keep-
ing the peace in Canada’s
Fichest per-capita munici-
pality could finally be
moving into a new facili-
ty.

Well, more correctly,
an old facility.

Three years ago, the provincial govern-
ment closed a host of smaller courthouses
and consolidated their operations in larger
ones, The West Vancouver courthouse,
which occupied part of the municipality’s
police building at 13th and Marine Drive,
moved into North Vancouver's larger and

seatesseseeccononrsscccesscvonssesencossccese

just blast in.”

{North Shore Capilano RFC Premier League rugby head
‘coach Tim Murdy on a change to the ruck, or tackle, for the
pcoming season. (From an Ang. 2 News story.) : -:

“The kosher sushi is delicious.”

“West Vancouver's. Har-El ‘synagogue Rabbi. Shmuel
:Birnham arrived at Har-E] a few weeks ago from Asheville,

North Carolina. (From a Sept. | News story.)

BOG YOU HAVE A NEWS TIP?
Business Hours: Michael Backer .
- . News Editor”:
Poche. + GB5-2131, fo
Sendafax: © 985-2104.7..- --.
E-mail:....+..- mbecker@nsnews.cam »

Horth Shore News, tounded in 1969 as an Independent

suburban newspaper. and. qualified under Schedute

1; Paragraph 131 ol the Excise Tax Act. (s published

ich Wednesday, -Friday ‘and Sunday by HCN
P ibiications Company and distributed to every door ,

pn the North Shore, - Canada Post Canadian

catlons. Mail Safes Product Agreement No.

es available on sequest. Entire

ACN Publications Company. All

Average . circulation. for

jay and Lunday is 64,d7t.

more modern courtroom facility.

kets handy for the police.

That freed up 4,000 sq. ft. of space,
. Which you'd think might have come in

But the space was not freed up at all. It

ting vacant — this with the West

sat vacant. Three years on and it's still sit-

Vancouver Police crawling over file boxes

and crying out for more room.

Reasons for that situation are beyond 7.

the brain power that drives this column.

They dou
bureaucratic mind, a

But, after years of police department:

tless reside in some greater -- °

“lobbying, the bright light of reason appears

-to be on the police building horizon...
West Vancouver District council is con-

sidering a plan from the municipality's ;._

police force to fill th:

B Newsroom Editar - >
Rs 965-2131 (116)
@ mbeckergsnens cont

valuable vacant

Terry Peters
Editorial Manager
{| 983-2131 (169) *

space with expanded public safety facilities
and other good community works such as
the West Vancouver Chamber of:
Commerce.
The plan would also turn
the old main courtroom
into a police training and
mecting facility chat
would double as commu-
nity meeting space,
Street-level accessibility
to the municipality's
police and business com-
munities is a key pact of
the plan. And both of
those communities could
stand improvement on
the accessibility front:
The plan still needs council approval,

but it sas already progressed beyond all

icus discussions about the abandoned

“s use. That progress appears to

" scupper for the foreseeable future any plan

to move West Vancouver's police station
from its parkside waterfront location else--
where in the community and combine it
with the municipality’s main firehall....
That’s good news, Te
On the surface, redeveloping the police
station property has a lot of sex appeal:
grand hotel and commercial complex ush-
ering visitors into A Place for Excellence,
for example. os ;
But what are you going to do with the
cops? Which West Vancouver neighbour-
hood is going to embrace the idea of

‘drunks and other miscreants, barking
~~ police dogs, blaring sirens and the other:
“unsavoury traffic of law enforcement * *

- rolling past their windows at all hours of ~

the day and night? : ed,
in a municipality where-residents lock

horns over requests for night lighting on .-

school playing fields, ’'d wager none.

‘LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include your
‘name, full address’ and -telephone number.
Submit via e-mail to: mbecker@nsnews.com
‘Aiter Hours News Tiss::985-2131 (press 3) 2
: Timothy Renshaw ©
Executive Editor s:. ©
985-2131 (756)

tpéterszensnews.com *

@ MarkFancher .

Creabve Services Director
=| $85-2131 (127) F
“| anlanchergasnews.com

:West Vancouver’s moncy-conscious. A
police and fire building would likely be in
the $26 million range; renovating the exist
"ing courthouse would be a fraction of that.
g09 i
Space Case No. 2: In which some good
news could be filling an empty space creat:
ed by vacant government thinking: .:. -
As reported in the News carlier this.
year, a $10-million contact was recently
awarded to Conor Pacific Environmental:
Technologics Inc. by Public Works Canada
to clean up a 22-hectare property at the 7
foot of Capilano Road. 820%: ‘
The contract calls for the. treatment |
contaminated ground water at what is‘offi
cially known/as the Pacific. Environment
Centre site. Unofficzilly the property is!
known hereabouts as another federal gov:
ernment tax money pit. 2°
Since 1974, you, me and every
taxpaying Canadian has been investing
hard-earned dollars in a vacant pr
that was originally supposed to be f me
‘a 400,000 sq. ft: environment Centie
° The feds signed a 71-year lease “with thi
Squamish band for the property: Léas€ pay:
ments are tied to land values. As they ri
_ So rise the federal government ;
‘ments. Those annual ‘payments started 4
$241,000. This year they hit $6.2 mil
Total investment thus far in the
lot: roughly $60 millio Va ee
But the site cleanup contract indi
movement somewhere on the money:

 WWW.nsnews. com

1139 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouv

Barbara Ema: .:
Distribution Manager
988-1337 (124)

bemognsnews.com.°

ih