25923 replies to this topic

[Sparky]

^ I will vote to elect Janice Williams to Victoria Council.

[Victoria Watcher]

Merchants and residents of Seattle's Chinatown-International District are making city and county officials aware they are not happy about the expansion of an enhanced homeless shelter in the neighboring South Downtown area.

 

Back in March, King County announced a $66.5 million plan to expand the 269-unit shelter that has been running since the summer of 2021. The plan will preserve the existing units and add 150 more, along with implementing a behavioral health shelter, a 24-hour sobering center and 40-50 tiny homes. There are already 10 similar shelters in the Chinatown-International District neighborhood.

 

The shelter is being leased by the city and King County for four more years out of its five year lease. The $66.5 million expansion for 150 more units comes to about $444,000 per unit.

 

 

 

https://www.thecente...ef7b0308d2.html

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 September 2022 - 12:05 PM.

[Nparker]

$444,000/unit.😖

[IPH]

$444,000/unit.

$USD!  That's almost $600,000 LOONIES!

[Victoria Watcher]

A man arrested in connection with an incident where a passenger pulled a knife on a bus driver is wanted in Ontario on charges including attempted murder, assault with a weapon and breaking-and-entering, Victoria police say.

 

The arrest was made after police released photos of the suspect in the Sept. 15 incident from surveillance video.

 

An officer recognized the suspect as someone who had had previous interactions with police at a park in the 1400-block of Pandora Avenue. When police identified him, they learned he was wanted in Ontario.

 

 

https://www.timescol...-police-5864627

 

 

 

Stadacona Park.

[Nparker]

Ontario isn't sending us their finest.

[Victoria Watcher]

Vancouver plan to purchase 100-plus SROs stalled as hundreds of residents displaced by fires

 

The most recent fire was on Saturday in a unit at Sereenas Housing for Women on Powell Street in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

 

https://www.timescol...y-fires-5869606

[Victoria Watcher]

Driver ran over, dragged person inside tent at Kelowna homeless encampment

 

Driver arrested; Victim taken to hospital with serious injuries

 

https://www.vicnews....ess-encampment/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 September 2022 - 05:10 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

After eight years of living in tents, a car, and homemade structures in B.C. and Alberta — and over a year on the B.C. Housing waiting list for shelter — Philip Hathaway and his wife took to the sea.

"I said, you know what? They don't want us in the parks, we have nowhere to live ... I'm building a boat," Hathaway, 53, said.

_______

He built the boat, which he named The Blue Dream, in Goldstream Provincial Park near Langford, B.C., a suburb of Victoria. He then floated it down the Goldstream River to the Saanich Inlet and from there piloted the boat up Vancouver Island's east coast to Campbell River — a journey of around 250 kilometres — with a five-horsepower engine.


https://www.cbc.ca/n...using-1.6595947



As usual, no mention of why this guy can’t just get a job. Instead of living in cars, with his wife.

Also, maybe each has chosen a romantic partner poorly.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 September 2022 - 06:59 AM.

[mbjj]

Oh dear, the wife has prenatal appointments. How will they raise a child on that I wonder? 

[Victoria Watcher]

Hard to say. It clearly has no waste water function, other than “overboard”.

Well, one of the issues is that waiting lists for social housing are more than a little bit secret. You cannot log in and and see yourself progressing up the ladder.

This allows for staff working in the sector to satisfy their personal saviour complex at will, with people they personally connect to.

I suspect that with a child they might be moved up the secret list a bit.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 September 2022 - 06:00 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

What does Europe know that we have to learn?

 

With the long and sordid history of the drug addicts, mentally ill and homeless on Pandora Avenue, Vancouver’s east end and virtually every city in Canada, I have questions for the social scientists, poverty “experts” and government politicians and bureaucrats.

 

I am on an extended trip through Europe. The past month, I have visited Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. In four weeks I can count only three people that appeared to need help: Two elderly women asking for a financial handout, and a drunkard slouched on the street with his bottle of wine.

 

One has only to take a short walk on Pandora to see the hundreds of people openly doing drugs, aggressively panhandling and violently attacking citizens on a routine basis.

 

Where are all of the drug addicts, mentally ill and homeless in Europe? Did Europe give them all one-way tickets to Canada? Are Europeans not susceptible to mental illness or addictions?

 

If not, what are Europeans doing that Canada can learn from? Are we so concerned with the civil rights and “freedoms” of the downtrodden that a solution cannot be found?

 

As a layperson, I do not pretend to have solutions to the many social problems facing our society. However, it is clear that the Europeans are doing something right in dealing with the social problems, compared with the costly and obviously failed policies that B.C. and Canada stubbornly continue to promote.

 

Are we as a society too proud to learn and apply the successes of other countries, rather than blindly following the failed policies that have resulted in the blight we see at home on a daily basis?

 

It boggles the mind that our provincial government is suing so that the homeless can set up tent cities in Beacon Hill Park. I have not seen one tent in any of the parks in the European cities I have visited.

 

Peter Davis
James Bay
(Currently in Split, Croatia)

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...ce-hike-5880454

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 September 2022 - 05:35 AM.

[lanforod]

He definitely didn't visit the seedier areas of those countries if he only saw 3.

[aastra]

I've noted before that some locales prohibit these issues and circumstances in high-profile/tourist areas, whereas some locales concentrate these issues and circumstances in high-profile/tourist areas. Back in the day, Victoria tended to pursue the former model (follow the money, follow the politics) but nowadays it tends to pursue the latter model (follow the money, follow the politics).

[Victoria Watcher]

Campbell River RCMP say officers were called to a report that multiple teenagers were trying to start fights with homeless people in the downtown core.

The teenagers, who RCMP say in a Facebook post, were predominantly in pickup trucks and were highly intoxicated.

“It truly was the saddest of situations,” said Const Maury Tyre in the Facebook post. “A group of privileged youth taking on some of our towns [sic] least privileged and hoping to provoke a street war. In recent weeks similar events have occurred where jacked up pickups have chased and egged the homeless and thrown rocks.”

The post says police can see the frustration that is caused by crime issues that accompany homeless and addiction issues, but vigilante justice is not an effective way to handle the situation.


https://www.cheknews...people-1099370/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 October 2022 - 04:12 PM.

[LJ]

The post says police can see the frustration that is caused by crime issues that accompany homeless and addiction issues, but vigilante justice is not an effective way to handle the situation.

 

Can they show us an effective way, then? They haven't up to now.

[JimV]

Can they show us an effective way, then? They haven't up to now.

Exactly the same question I had when I read that.

[Matt R.]

The big yellow school bus on salt spring I mentioned a whole back has been vandalized in town. Front window smashed, mirrors torn off, etc. Pretty stupid. People were obviously mad about where it was parked, but now with no mirrors or windshield it can’t even move.

[spanky123]

I've noted before that some locales prohibit these issues and circumstances in high-profile/tourist areas, whereas some locales concentrate these issues and circumstances in high-profile/tourist areas. Back in the day, Victoria tended to pursue the former model (follow the money, follow the politics) but nowadays it tends to pursue the latter model (follow the money, follow the politics).

 

Visited Sidney on the weekend and it was glorious. Lots of people walking along the boardwalk and shopping in local shops. Didn't see a single person crap on the sidewalk, yell obscenities at strangers, or get assaulted. No sirens to cut the festive atmosphere either.

 

You don't need to go to Europe.

[Matt R.]

And you can get a killer fondue at Farmers Daughter!