Author: corey.burger

As Luminara fades, ICA hosts Culture of Light Celebration

As Luminara fades to black due to budget issues, the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria is hosting a culture of light celebration. Take a peek:

Please join us to learn about our recent workshop series on traditions of light from around the world. We will be serving delicious Indian food and chai!

This is an opportunity to see some of the work we’re doing to break down barriers between cultures and find the common theme of light that is central to celebrations around the world.

Co-presented by ICA and the Cook Street Village Activity Centre, and funded by Embrace BC, this series of six workshops was designed to provide a fun and open atmosphere for participants to learn about traditions from around the world. Including visual arts, dance, storytelling, puppetry, music and food, these workshops gave participants an opportunity to have a hands-on experience of a world tradition of light, presented by cultural experts from the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Indonesian, Thai and Salish communities.

Join us at:
Cook Street Village Activity Centre
380 Cook Street
Wednesday March 23, 4 – 6pm
Talk and slide show 4:30 – 4:45pm

This project was made possible through funding from the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia.

Read the full press release (PDF) for more details

It is sad to Luminara go the way of FolkFest, victims of of their own success (my brother put it). I was lucky to work on the 2009 and 2010 Luminara and, although the hours were grueling and long, it was probably amongst the best experiences of my life. Maybe that talk of restoring gaming grants might allow something new to flourish.

http://www.coreyburger.ca/wp-content/uploads/ICA-Arts-press-release-March-2011.pdf

Help plan the future of UVic

Come help plan the future of UVic over the next two weeks at two different weeks. First up, on March 17th, is BC Transit’s open house on a new campus plan. It runs in the Michele Pujol room of the SUB between 11am-2pm and 4pm-6pm. See the poster (PDF) for the full details.

On the 21st UVic will be Oak Bay Council meeting for a presentation of the new UVic strategic plan, currently in the planning stages. This is part of a committee of the whole meeting so it will fairly informal as these things go. Join UVic and Oak Bay Council at 7:30pm in the council chambers of the municipal hall. See the ad for the full details.

Wendy Brawer, founder of the Green Map movement, is speaking

Wendy Brawer, the founder of the Green Map movement which has changed the way people view the world, is coming to speak in Victoria on March 16th, from 3pm to 4:30pm at the Bob Wright Centre B150 up at UVic. (See the Oak Bay Events tab in the upper right for a Google Calendar widget, including a feed for Outlook and other calendars)


Timely, given the Oak Bay Green Map, a project led by the Community Association of Oak Bay and supported by the Oak Bay Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, amongst others, is nearing a draft and should be done this fall.

Rotary Polio Plus event in /A\ News

Thanks to the efforts of Joan Peggs, the Rotary Club of Oak Bay’s President-Elect, our Polio Plus lightup, so recently cancelled due to snow, was ran and we managed to get some news coverage. Oak Bay News has covered the event, and better yet, /A\ came out and had Bruce Williams do the weather with the Polio Plus logo in the background. Check it out:

http://www.coreyburger.ca/2011/02/come-help-end-polio-with-rotary-tomorrow/

Update on the Oak Bay High School redevelopment project

Although the project has been flying under the radar these past months, the most recent Oak Bay Parks & Recreation Committee meeting on March 2nd contained this update:

Councillor Braithwaite reported that the presentation of the Oak Bay High Project Definition Report including the NLC [Neighbourhood Learning Centre] submission has been delayed a month. It is expected the project definition report will be presented for approval to the School District Trustees in March an then be presented to the Ministry of Education [for approval].

Councillor Braithwaite also informed Commission that there has been some question around whether there will be a lighted, artificial turf field included within the project. The Ministry of Education will fund regular grass fields as will be shown in the definition report. However, once the project definition report has been approved by the Ministry of Education, the Project Design Team intends [to] embark on a fundraising campaign in the hopes to raise sufficient monies for the installation of a turf field with lights.

FYI, the next SD 61 Board meeting should be the 21st of March at 7:30pm in the Tolmie Boardroom at the 556 Boleskin Road headquarters of the school district, although I can’t find anything on the SD 61 website to confirm that.

Do we need a new chamber of commerce in Victoria?

Three years ago the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce was instrumental in killing one of the best transit projects this city has seen: the Douglas St. busway. They had this to say:

The Greater Victoria Chamber does not support the proposed plan for the bus rapid transit system on the Douglas Street corridor. While in support of bus rapid transit, the chamber is concerned that all the transportation modes included in this plan cannot be accommodated in the available space on Douglas Street. (from the GVCC’s policy page)

Worst of all, it was already paid for. After years of unfunded projects, they had to go and kill one of the few that was. Now, I fear they are going to do it again. The Victoria Regional Rapid Transit project is nearing completion and they have again selected Douglas St. as the corridor, as they should given it is the most logical route. Just like last time, the Douglas St. merchants are complaining

What the Chamber of Commerce should be doing is working on behalf of all their members, not just the blinkered ones on Douglas St. A new transitway will speed people into downtown, people who will spend money at chamber members. They are a business lobby group after all.

But all is not lost. The GVCC’s stubbornness isn’t unique; the US Chamber of Commerce is shedding members because of its opposition to climate change but an alternative has recently appeared: the US Green Chamber. An out-growth of the San Diego Green Chamber, this new group promises to be a forward-thinking business group, exactly what the US (and Canada, given our proximity) needs. Maybe what Victoria needs is something similar, something like the Values-Based Business Network — who are currently rethinking their mandate — but in a wider scope.

Toronto asks Ontario for TTC subsidy

A few days after I pointed that Toronto doesn’t get a cent from Ontario to run the TTC, “fiscal conservative” Mayor Rob Ford has gone cap in hand, like his predecessors, to ask for Ontario to restore the 50% operating subsidy, but by the “fiscal conservative” Premier Mike Harris. Like his predecessors, Ford failed. Ouch.

http://www.coreyburger.ca/2011/02/surviving-public-transportation/

“Surviving” public transportation

Ugh, yet another article on “Surviving Public Transportation“, as if it is something to be endured. One of the books they mention is My Kind of Public Transportation, which Jarrett over at Human Transit elegantly rips apart in his post about the Disneyland Theory of Transit.

However, given we are about to cut a few thousand hours from buses run here in Victoria, the federal NDP’s public transportation strategy cannot come soon enough. Now if only the newspaper could get the story right about BC Transit. The issue isn’t so much that the number of riders fell, it is that this is the first year in a decade that ridership hasn’t risen. That little fact, despite being easily seen in any slide-show from BC Transit, isn’t mentioned in either editorial or the main article about bus lanes.

Also, we are not the only region that got a higher than expected bill for buses. At least one Nelson councillor is publicly ruminating about “sending the buses back to the province” and “what about a Nelson-run transit system?” Lovely ideas, but they fail to realize two key points:

  1. BC Transit has a fairly good (by North American standards) deal with regards to sharing of operating costs on an even basis with the province and local authority. Pity the poor systems in Alberta, which much go cap in hand system-by-system, or the TTC, which gets no help from Ontario.
  2. BC Transit offers local communities centralized planning and purchasing, one of the reasons why BC has some of the best rural and small community transit in North America.

Lastly, the group that killed the last round of transit improvements on Douglas St, the Association of Douglas Street Businesses, is out to do it again, claiming we need to “rethink rapid transit.” Actually, they don’t want any rapid transit. Their spokesman, Bev Highton, said this:

Bev Highton commented that he felt that the committee did not include representation of people who use the roads every day, and there should be discussion on whether there is actually a need for Rapid Transit. He also had concerns about the guiding principles of securing a dedicated right of way.

(from the [download id=”7″ format=”1″] – CLC mandate and other minutes can be seen here). Take anything this group says with a giant grain of salt.

So in sum: The sky is not falling, buses are not horrible, the world will not end if we get a bus-only lane somewhere in the city, and the universe will not end if we get light rail.

Libary to offer new New Access to Art Pass

I noticed this on the main GVPL website, so I thought I would give it some promotion:

The Greater Victoria Public Library, in partnership with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, is pleased to introduce an innovative new program for library users. Beginning February 18th anyone with a valid adult GVPL library card can borrow a free household pass to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

“Our library patrons can now borrow a pass to the Gallery just like they borrow a book or DVD” says Maureen Sawa, CEO of the Greater Victoria Public Library.

The AGGV household access pass can be used by a household of two adults and up to four children for free admission to the Gallery’s exhibitions and programming events. Passes are available at all ten library branches and may be borrowed for a one week loan period.

“The library is delighted to collaborate with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria for such a terrific outreach program” says Sawa. “We are committed to connecting people with ideas and information, and what a great opportunity this provides for so many people to learn about art and all the wonderful programs that the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has to offer!”

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The Art Gallery currently has an exhibition on Emily Carr entitled On the Edge of Nowhere, a historical overview of the artist, who described herself as “isolated little old woman on the edge of nowhere” .