Tensions Up During Countdown to Welfare Day

Today people at Carnegie were chatting about the fighting in the computer room at Pathways Employment Center across the street.  Two men had gotten into a fight, one threatening to punch the other out, the second threatening to see him outside and kick his ass, the first retorting that he would see him outside and kill him.  These two men began lunging at one another but the computer technician, Glen, who got less excited than he does when he catches somebody sipping coffee at a computer, stood between them.  Another unemployed guy backed him up.  

"Where's the security guard?," a guy trying to concentrate at a computer asked. 

Then a woman who had been asking computer users if they had a crack pipe she could borrow, told one of the men involved in the fight that he seemed angry today. He instantly responded by kicking a chair at her.  The woman, who is mentally slow -- it was her who had initially gotten the first man angry; he had told her earlier, "This is not a drug center!" -- kicked the chair back. He kicked it back yet again, and she kicked it back at him.  This was all happening, according to sources, while the computer room was packed.  Everybody involved in the threats and kicking was told to leave by the female security guard -- except the angry guy who had started it all.    

"Why was there so much fighting?", I asked.  "It's two days 'til cheque day," a guy who witnessed the fighting said, smiling.  He went on to explain that people get edgy in the last days before welfare cheque day.  

Residential Tax Increase of 11% Predicted by City Manager: Is Penny Wise or Pound Foolish?

Penny Ballem, Vancouver City manager, sent an email to all staff late Friday afternoon announcing that there was now a freeze on hiring for all staff positions.

Ballem explained that City revenues over the past several months have been far lower than predicted due to a decline in development.  If this situation continues, according to Ballem, taxpayers will be hit with at least an 11 % property tax increase.  At least.  

Ballem was instructed by Council a couple of weeks ago -- when residential taxpayers were bracing for a mere 6-8% increase -- to look closely at all City departments and agencies and cut the fat. 

Vision Councilor Raymond Louie expressed concern last week, according to 24 Hr. newspaper, that the residential tax increase could result in less support amongst taxpayers for services. 

Services?  

Too much of what the tax payer is funding are 'disservices', projects that disempower people:  like CUPE members writing security reports about non-violent people at Carnegie, then passing them on to clerical staff paid twenty-something dollars an hour to type them in to the City's "Security" database, and then arranging follow-up meetings between Security boss Skip Everall, Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty and Assistant Director Dan Tetrault -- meetings which sometimes include the targeted individual, sometimes not -- and those meetings breed further follow up meetings.  Multiply this by hundreds of people a year. And then add on the hours staff spend discussing who is suspected of blogging about these security abuses, and then add on the hours it takes to constantly brief staff -- even the librarian in the VPL "reading room" that doesn't need a librarian -- about who is suspected of squealing to Joe taxpayer via blogs.  And factor in that much of this "security" work is overseen by Skip Everall, a man who shows up to work wearing Bermuda shorts through cold snaps and snow falls.  Do you feel secure?

These and other make-work projects for CUPE members at Carnegie continue while the soup bowls in the cafeteria are no longer filled to anywhere near the brim.  And people buying dinners keep asking, "Who shrunk the portions?" 

  

None of this is likely to change. CUPE brought Vision to power and Vision brought Penny Bellam to power, and they, like Mulroney, know that, 'You dance with the lady what brung ya'.  

So the tax increase will be 11%.  At least.

Remember Carnegie's Living Dead in the Women's Memorial March

Since the annual Women's Memorial march to remember missing or murdered women on the Downtown Eastside began today with opening ceremonies inside Carnegie Center, it would be fitting to use it to remember the living dead in Carnegie Center too.  

They are women whose liberties and reputations have been killed off by Big Brother Skip Everall or Big Mother Ethel Whitty at Carnegie Center because they dared speak up about human rights or due process.  They are the women on whose necks the guillotine slammed down.   

 
These women are noticeably missing from Carnegie events.  Driven out.   

Just hours before the Valentine's Day Women's Memorial march began, a male musician from Carnegie was talking about how a female musician who had spoken up about human rights violations at Carnegie, tried walking into the music jam next door at the Health Contact Center. A staffperson who has worked both at Carnegie and the Health Contact Center arranged for her to be ushered out.  No singing, no music, for her.   Banished to the world of the living dead.  

As today's march proceeded down Main St. and then over to Oppenheimer Park, I remembered the women who have spoken up.  And I remembered their attackers, Skip Everall, Ethel Whitty and other povertarians.  They will strike again.

Starbucks: Internet Gouging and Free Oatmeal

This week, residents of the Downtown Eastside and Gastown found cardboard coupons in their mailboxes from Starbucks.  Starbucks is inviting residents to drop in and try their new "Perfect Oatmeal" with nuts and berries --  free.  I read the fine print: they don't require that you buy one of their not-recession-proof coffees.  

I took the coupon in this morning.

Like I said, there's no catch.  A young woman server with auburn hair asked me if I would like berries or nuts or brown sugar, or all three on my oatmeal. I went for everything but the brown sugar.  She went to the back counter to fix it, as I gazed at the sandwiches displayed at the front counter.  A turkey and cheddar sandwich was $5.95, a ham and brie sandwich was $6.25.  They looked tasty but for for me, for a sandwich, "Six bucks sucks."  

The server handed me the quick-fix oatmeal in a round container with a lid that looked like a small ice cream container.  "Let it steam for a couple of minutes," she advised.  On top of the lid, she had piled a plastic spoon wrapped in plastic, and two clear plastic bags.  One of the bags contained nuts: "Almonds, walnuts, pecans".  The other contained berries:  "Dried cranberries (cranberries, sugar, sunflower oil), raisins [contain sulfites], dried blueberries (blueberries, sugar, sunflower oil), dried cherries (cherries, sugar, sunflower oil)."  Berries, especially blueberries, are big with the anti-aging crowd these days because they are loaded with anti-oxidants. Walnuts are big too.  [And lets not forget Edgar Casey who said that a couple of almonds a day can keep cancer away.] 

What surprised me was how generous the portions of nuts and berries were.  

"Shouldn't there be milk with oatmeal?," I wondered.  That's the way my mother always made it. But I didn't ask because I figured the server knew what she was doing.  Besides, I hadn't yet looked under the lid.

The oatmeal tasted good.  Hot enough too.   After I finished though, I was reading the side of the "Perfect Oatmeal" container which made the claim of "a satisfyng sprinkle of nuts, fruits, brown sugar and your choice of milk."  Milk!!  It would have been more perfect with a little milk.

While the oatmeal was free, Starbucks was gouging for internet access.  When I asked the servers if they had internet access, a different server told me they charge $7 an hour for internet access and $50 for the day.  But if you have a Starbucks card, she explained, you can access the internet for 2 hours and the only cost deducted from your card is for your food and beverage.  

A friend told me that he went to Starbucks in Tinseltown last year and was also told that the internet would cost him $7 an hour.  He was annoyed and recalled saying to the server, "So for a coffee and an hour on the internet, it'll cost me ten bucks."  The male server responded, "Yes," as if it was nothing. [That explains why Waves coffee shops are so popular.  You can get a coffee or tea for roughly $2 and use the internet for free, for hours.  Waves recently opened a store on the Downtown Eastside, and is preparing to open a second just two blocks from the first.) 

I turned on my computer on at Starbucks to make some notes and a notice popped up on my screen announcing that I was connected to the internet.  So I ended up with free internet on top of free oatmeal.    

Coming Unhinged

Photo:  Inside the men's washroom at McDonald's at Main & Terminal last night, the door had come off.   My guess is that there had been a fight.

This afternoon the door was lying flat on the floor.

There are often pools of urine on the floor in that washroom.

But that Mcdonald's still has the hottest coffee in town.