Did media coverage embarrass park rangers over winter decampment?

Good morning, 

As a person from Saskatchewan, I like to think I’m brave in the face of cold, but let’s be honest. I’ve lived in BC for more than 12 years now, including a couple years in the Okanagan in the beginning of my journalism career, and I am no longer brave. I tend to be warm in general, anyway, so I probably deal with the cold better than most, but when the polar vortex swirls, let me tell you, I am a full BabyInfantChild about it. It’s relatively humid in Vancouver, and I say that makes it colder!

The Montreal Science Centre says humidity doesn’t really make much of a difference in how cold it actually feels, but are we really going to let those Central Canadians tell us how to feel about winter? I say no!

— Dustin Godfrey

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WEATHER

Friday: -8 🌡️ -11 | 🌤️

Saturday: -5 🌡️ -9 | ☀️

Sunday: -2 🌡️ -6 | ☀️

Monday: 0 🌡️ -4 | 🌦️

DECAMPMENT

After media coverage, park clearances seem to take gentler tone

What happened: Vancouver park rangers descended on the encampment in Oppenheimer Park on Wednesday morning, removing four people’s tents as a polar vortex edged closer to the city. With reporters onsite at the time of the decampment effort, Stop the Sweeps organizer Ryan Sudds told Vancity Lookout that the media got a firsthand look at the impacts of the policy.

• “And when they were there for a while and actually able to see it and hear it, we got some of the most accurate reporting that we’ve seen, because that’s a big problem with street sweeps, is they go unnoticed by media and unnoticed by the larger community, and so, people don’t get a sense of how vicious and how awful they are,” Sudds said.

The backlash: The move Tuesday was met with plenty of backlash in the media and on social media, including CHEK’s Vancolour host Mo Amir calling it “‘#IGMFY Swagger’ at its most shameful,” a reference to his segment calling the City of Vancouver’s new motto “I’ve Got Mine, F*** You.” 

• “This is performative, no one who needs shelter is reading a city councillor’s social media — they’re too busy trying to survive in a city that doesn’t care about them,” said former CTV host Tamara Taggart in response to Coun. Peter Meiszner posting a link on where to find shelter space on Twitter during Tuesday’s decampment.

Why Tuesday? It’s not entirely clear why park rangers chose Tuesday to dismantle some of the encampment, but Sudds said it’s part of an ongoing pattern: authorities offer some leniency — perhaps, this time due to the holidays, but at other times due, for example, to heat waves. And when the tent city grows, the clampdown that follows is especially harsh.

Still, Sudds noted the effect in this particular case is that it came as Vancouver’s coldest weather this winter is expected, including a high of -8 C forecast by Environment Canada for today.

How ‘vicious’ are they? Tuesday’s decampment was particularly rough, Sudds noted — one man had his tent taken from him even after he had taken it down to comply with the park board’s bylaws. And while rangers have usually only taken unattended tents they didn’t already recognize as an existing tent city resident, the efforts expanded to known residents, Sudds said.

But part of the issue is how constant dismantlements are, particularly in the Downtown Eastside since the big Hastings decampment in April last year. Just a few days after that decampment, a study published in JAMA Network outlined the deadly impacts of displacement.

• The study modelled overdose and injection-related infection deaths among unhoused people in 23 US cities and estimated continual involuntary displacement could contribute to nearly a quarter of all deaths of unsheltered drug users.

It’s not clear how that would translate to the situation in Vancouver, where there tends to be a greater availability of drug-user services, such as overdose prevention sites (though, as a judge recently noted, still nowhere near enough), but the point remains that displacing unhoused people has deadly impacts.

Heart medication thrown out: One man, Charles, whose tent Sudds said was taken even after he’d complied with the bylaw and taken it down, lost along with his other belongings his heart medications. And while the park board is supposed to hold onto people’s items, Sudds said efforts to retrieve them after were denied, as they had already been thrown out.

• According to an email statement by the park board, “Items that are damaged or soiled or any drug paraphernalia will be disposed of.” Since his items were lost, Charles had to go refill his prescription at cost to him, Sudds said.

The park board said the city is working with the province to build more social housing to address the housing crisis, adding it “recognize[s] that a thoughtful approach to people’s belongings is important.”

‘Radicalized’: Charles was a resident of the tent city who was particularly keen on working with park rangers and police, insisting on taking his tent down each morning to comply with the bylaw, Sudds said. But this incident, Sudds added, has effectively “radicalized” the man against the policy.

• “He’s trying to figure out what’s the legal apparatus with the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms] and the bylaw? He’s talking to lawyers now, and it’s like they've created their own monster now, someone who’s now far more resistant to the park rangers than he was before,” Sudds said.

Damage control: Park rangers returned on Wednesday to continue the decampment, and Sudds said they were more diplomatic that second day. For instance, when Stop the Sweeps organizers offered to hold onto people’s belongings for them, park rangers seemed more sympathetic.

A park ranger filmed pushing a resident of the tent city over — Andrew Dawn, whose resignation Stop the Sweeps is calling for — was onsite Wednesday, but with a sidelined role, Sudds said. At the same time, nonprofits like First United and Atira were on hand to offer services this time around, Sudds said.

• “There was a major shift from yesterday to today,” Sudds said Wednesday. “The whole thing felt like they got eviscerated in the media, and it did feel like there was a change today and they brought in their nicer rangers to do the work today. Yeah, it would be hard for me not to call it damage control in some sense.”

VANCOUVER NUMBERS

🏘️ 1,902: That many short-term rental business licences were issued this year, a drop from 1,963 the same time last year, as some owners try to sell their properties due to new provincial legislation. [Vancouver Sun]

🫠 $800: That’s how much you could pay for a corner of a living room separated by room dividers. Per month. [Vancouver is Awesome]

TRANSIT

Metro mayors want $21B to expand transit

What’s up? The Mayors’ Council that guides some aspects of TransLink operations and planning says $21 billion is needed over the next decade to cover the expansions to service they want, and they’re asking for the public to support the bid.

• “Over the past year, the Mayors’ Council has been very clear that the system is becoming overcrowded and not delivering the service that we need to keep up with our growing population over the past decade,” said Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, chair of the Mayors’ Council at a press conference, according to CityNews. 

What’s the ask? The Mayors’ Council is seeking signatures from residents on a petition for its campaign, titled Access for Everyone, with the intention of getting the funding by April 2024. The petition says TransLink’s system is “full today” and “already more overcrowded than it was before the pandemic,” estimating it will be “four to five times worse by 2025” without help.

The petition seems to appeal to the two levels of governments’ new commitment to housing: “If we don’t act now, thousands of people will be left behind by full buses every day and new housing will be left unserved.”

What’s the money for? The Access for Everyone campaign is seeking to more than double bus service levels over 2022, add nine new traffic-separated rapid bus lines, improve the major road network, increase HandyDART services by 60 percent and provide 24-hour service, expand cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, and increase SeaBus service.

• It also names specific major projects, including the Burnaby Mountain gondola to SFU, a rapid-transit project from Metrotown in Burnaby to Park Royal in West Vancouver, and extending the Broadway Subway to UBC.

What’s with the timing? Budget season is almost upon us! Both the BC and federal governments should be presenting their budgets in the next couple of months, and TransLink likely wants to make itself heard in both of those processes, where governments will be hearing funding requests from all directions. 

It also comes after a year of lobbying by Metro Vancouver mayors for transit funding. In May last year, 11 mayors and a city councillor travelled to Ottawa to lobby for the $21-billion ask, according to Business in Vancouver, and the Union of BC Municipalities conference in September also heard calls for more funding from higher levels of government, according to CBC.

The first phase: In November, the Mayors’ Council approved the first phase of the Access for Everyone plan, according to Daily Hive reporting at the time. The $2-billion price tag for the phase includes:

• $375 million to expand the bus fleet, including to launch the first new rapid bus transit routes;

• $1.4 billion for bus depot expansions;

• $70 million for cycling and pedestrian infrastructure;

• $120 million specifically the Golden Ears Way rapid bus route.

Funding trouble: In October, a staff report to the Mayors’ Council cited a $4.7-billion structural deficit, which, according to CityNews, “appeared” at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, when ridership dropped off a cliff, resulting in less revenue from tickets.

THE AGENDA

🚌 A full walkout by 180 bus operation supervisors isn’t off the table, according to the union representing them, which said it “regret[s] the service disruptions,” but that members “are running out of options. [Daily Hive]

❤️‍🩹 Two sisters separated by the ’60s Scoop found each other on Facebook after their mother’s death and finally had their first meeting in more than 30 years at a SkyTrain station in Vancouver last week. [Global]

🔥 A fire in a Downtown Eastside SRO that sent a firefighter and a resident to hospital on Wednesday was determined by fire investigators to have been caused by a candle spreading to nearby combustibles inside a unit. [Vancouver Fire Rescue Services]

🔫 A man was arrested after a pedestrian pulled out a gun and shot at a driver following a near crash with a driver on Commercial Drive near East 12th Avenue on Saturday. [The Canadian Press]

💸 Two rental housing projects being developed by the Metro Vancouver Regional District are running at nearly double the previously estimated cost before construction has even begun on them. [CBC]

➖ Most sexual assault cases “really are based on problems with consent,” a VPD officer says as the department campaigns to reduce the number of sexual assaults by educating people about consent. [Vancouver is Awesome]

🦠 More than 10,400 people are in hospital due to respiratory illnesses, more than ever recorded in BC history — topping the previous record set a year ago by about 200. [CityNews]

EVENT GUIDE

Marathong | Rio Theatre | Tonight, 7 pm | Ariel Helvetica (a font-based stage name? 😍) headlines this burlesque show at the Rio | Advance tickets $30

And the Party Goes On | VIFF Centre, Vancity Theatre | Friday-Sunday | A party that doesn’t shy away from politics, this French film celebrates humanity with a working-class lens | Tickets $15

4x4: Four Bands for Four Bucks | Fox Cabaret | Jan. 17, 7 pm | A buck a band? Count us in! Music includes Floating Faces, Walter Margin, Lonesome Town Painters and Ramen Fog | Cover $4

40 Over 40 Masquerade Gala | Great Canadian Casino Vancouver | Feb. 17, 5 pm | Get $25 off until Jan. 15 for this night of fun and fundraising | Tickets $55 during presale

Funny Falafels Stand up Comedy Show | The Pleasant | Jan. 21, 7 pm | Have a laugh with some of the best comedians in Vancouver | Tickets $15

FOOD

💰 BC’s food industry is facing a rough year, with 10 to 14 percent of the 15,000 restaurants in the province threatened with closure if the federal government doesn’t extend its deadline for repaying the pandemic-era Canada Emergency Business Account loans. [Vancouver is Awesome]

💃 Who doesn’t want a bit of disco with their brunch? Enjoy a Bloody Mary or mimosa with your French toast and try not to party too hard with the bumpin’ disco tunes every third Sunday of the month at The Victor.

🍪 A GIANT COOKIE, YOU SAY? Why yes, please! At $2.50, the Costco cookie is getting a lot of attention online, and why shouldn’t it? [Daily Hive]

COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS

• The Heat: An International Improv Comedy Showcase is coming to blow the lid off The Improv Centre on Granville Island, from January 23 - 27!*

• You can get a better look at some of our lesser-known community neighbours as Metro Vancouver expands its wildlife camera programs in local watersheds. [Vancouver Sun]

• In a Very Vancouver Move, a one-year-old Commercial Drive bagelry, Pizza Bagel Cafe, is rebranding to the Vegan Bagel Cafe, as they move to a fully vegan and vegetarian menu. [Straight]

• If you love Korean grilled food, you only have to wait till summer for the new Stone Korean BBQ to open in the Lougheed area. [Daily Hive]

• A Georgia Street venue, Bar Haifa, whose owners have Palestinian and Israeli roots, is being described by the Vancouver Sun as “a love letter to Canada.” [Vancouver Sun]

• Want to have your announcement featured? Learn how here.

*Sponsored ad

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Posted by u/KootenayPE yesterday afternoon with the title “Snowmageddon 2024 Has Begun!” Oof.

GAME TIME

Maybe you can solve this Wordle while on transit? It may even have Links to one of our stories today.

As for our Monday and Wednesday puzzles, we had no correct guesses on either!