The Density Debate

It was a marvelous thing that on a late summer’s evening we could get almost 100 local residents to come out to a meeting on density, but that’s what we did last night at Astorino’s.

The always erudite and arcticulate presentations from academic Patrick Condon and industrial-scale developer Richard Wozny were fascinating in and of themselves, but they led on to a series of interesting and well-thought-out questions from the floor about all aspects of density and zoning decisions, the role of CAC’s, DCLs, and property tax, and the potential cost to the city taxpayers of inappropriate high-density towers.

We also had a fine gathering of muncipal candidates from COPE, Greens, and Cedar Party, along with at least one rep from One City.  Some dove right into the debate, and all of them saw how these issues are still at play here in the city. We were also able to welcome Rachel Magnusson and Charles Campbell from the Citizens’ Assembly.

Candidates and officials from Vision Vancouver and the NPA were noticeably absent, which was probably more their loss than ours, to be honest. They would have heard some valuable ideas and felt the pulse of folks who are very likely voters come November.

9/11: 41st Anniversary of Chilean Coup

Today, the innocent victims of September 11th, 2001 deserve to be remembered. And they will be, all over the place. Here I choose to remember the victims of September 11th, 1973, the date on which a US-financed and sponsored military coup overthrew the democratically elected government in Chile.

Salvador Allende and the 3-4,000 Chilean victims who died as a result of the US coup deserve to be remembered as much as any in the Twin Towers. Perhaps even more, because the US claims to support democracy and yet they encouraged and assisted the overthrow of democracy in Chile; and perhaps even more, because the US claims to support human rights and yet for decades they supported and assisted the suppression of human rights in Chile by the dictatorship of the fascist General Pinochet.

But how much of this will the American mainstream media choose to remember? Virtually none I bet. So it is up to individuals to make it clear that 3-4,000 Chilean dead are just as abhorrent as 3,000 American dead. And the hypocrisy of the United States is as bad as the terrorism of Al Qaeda — and a lot more powerful.