A Beautiful, Bright Fall Day in Vancouver

Nobody is more critical of Vancouver than me during the October - April period of the year. But on days like today when the air is crisp & cool and the sun is shining brilliantly, I find my hometown to be a real gem.

Here are some photos I took in the Fairview neighbourhood and down at Granville Island.

These cranes are building the 2010 Olympics Athletes Village on the southeast corner of False Creek.


Photo by me, framing by nature.
There are lots of properties available for sale but from what I hear, few are actually being bought. Owners are refusing to lower their prices and buyers are smartly waiting.








With my Canon G9 I went into manual mode and experimented with the amount of light over several shots. This was the best of the lot!
A bunch of totem poles are being carved these days, about 200m east of the market.
These colourful little structures are part of some project by the students of the Emily Carr School of Art.
This is about as commercialized as Granville Island gets.

Letter to the Seattle Times

I just submitted the following to the Seattle Times:

I'm just finishing up a week long visit to your wonderful city. The food, the sights, the people - everything was superb! Well, except for one little thing. The direction signs to your highways are amongst the worst I've seen in any North America city. For example, imagine you're on Denny Way by the Space Needle. Head west and strictly using the signs, try to find your way onto Hwy 99 South. You'll find it impossible. Is there a thriving trade in Hwy 99 signs I'm not aware of? Similarly, finding one's way out of downtown onto I-5 is pretty much hit and miss. If you're a pedestrian and keep seeing a car with out-of-state plates circling and circling, know that it's yet another lost tourist!
Robert Werner
Vancouver, BC

An Infinite Lack of Wisdom

From the great heights of Jimmy Pattison I now take you down to the pathetically small minds of government bureaucrats. Two years ago I learned that the City of Vancouver Parks Board had decided in its infinite lack of wisdom to rename "Spanish Banks" to "Spanish Bank". For those not local to Vancouver, this is a series of beaches that graces the northwestern edge of the city.

Apparently someone had seen the singular version on an old map and the "great minds" at the Parks Board decided that all signage and literature had to be changed! Woo Hoo, a new way to waste the taxpayers money. What a GREAT idea!!!

Idiots! One has to wonder if the cost of such changes were deducted, even in part, from the salaries of the decision makers, would they be so quick to embark on such waste? Sandra Thomas, in her usual whimsical way, has written an hilarious story about this here.