Vancouver's NIMBYs In Play

This morning on CKNW's Bill Good show I heard Vancouver Park Board Commissioner, Marty Zlotnick, exemplify a typical elitist Vancouver NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) attitude. The subject at hand was the possible transference of the UBC Golf Club to the Musqueum Native Band.

He was totally against it, of course. And his overarching reason why? Because he & his friends like to go out there and play golf on a regular basis. Isn't that nice. Zlotnick admitted that as a golf course, the land is only worth $11 Million. But if developed into housing, it would be worth $600 Million.

At $40 - $70 per round of golf, only a small percentage of the population can afford to play there on a regular basis. So this valuable land is, in practice, only available to the precious elite like Zlotnick to use. He was very quick to assert that instead of turning over the golf course to the natives, instead the government should just pay them $600 Million outright. In other words, he was very willing to have your tax money and mine be used but we better not dare touch his personal playground.

This whole issue is indicative of the widespread hypocrisy amongst so many Vancouverites. They're perfectly okay with the government giving away endless amounts of land "out there" but when it comes to Native land claims in their neighbourhood then hands off. One day I do wonder if they'll realize how truly pathetic they are.


P.S. Such hypocrisy isn't limited to my city or even my country. Case in point is Robert Kennedy Jr. et al in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Mr. Kennedy is a staunch environmental activist. Until, it seems, someone wanted to activate some green energy windmills in his playground. Then all of a sudden it was a no go. You can read about it here.