Hall Street or It's All Downhill From Here

Sustainable Waterfront and Downtown Master Plan actually is a misnomer. While Plan ought to mean a reasoned - yes, sustainable - attempt towards a goal - these 198 pages are part brick-by-brick inventory of Nelson-as-is (bits of possible use as reference down the line - inessential now) and part vague visions of Nelson-as-could-possibly-be in misguided attempts at significance. The latter mistaken for plan(s).
For instance: Waterfront. If you want to - finally! - find building-height limits locked-in (see Kutenai Landing): not here! If you're concerned with how much lake the City can sell to the highest bidder (see Kutenai Landing): not here! The
confusion at City Hall originates with out-of-town experts having got Nelson hooked by causing temporarily disorienting euphoria with injecting generic big-city concepts. Nelson's drug of choice always for a smallish-town mind. Manipulating Nelson reality. 
Justifying their price with the level of euphoria reachable - according to them. Of course this drug is expensive. But the buyer - City Hall - got that handled: tax-payered. Upping rates: always a good one!

To be able to look at this Hall-connector-with-the lake concept realistically - we need to back away a bit from this "vision". 

Bad Trip Down #1
Pages 46 and 47 of the Master Piece show a computer-generated full/double-page of small children spilling out onto the sidewalk - directly at Ward/Front - from a playground in front of City Hall. And a young couple - with stroller! - stepping off the same sidewalk to cross the street - here the notoriously most dangerous in Nelson - on a diagonal yet! Not on the crosswalk a bit farther up. But in front of City Hall! 
Page 47 is the opening-page of the Master Plan as such, announcing itself there.
With everybody at City Hall swallowing it all in a swoon - accepting this as kingdom come. How much plainer could weirdness be than as a picture like this. Still - nobody is saying: Eh, wait a minute, where's the reality of Nelson here, and how much time did you M&Ms actually spend with us!

Also see:
Nelson: Waterfront and Downtown Plan, Pages 46 - 47
7 March 2012

Bad Trip Down # 2
Specifics of the Hall-redo devised by a group of experts from Kelowna - land of malls and car-dealers.
This fantasy: sort-of like a cable-car ride in San Francisco leading to the Bay - here a drive along Hall leading from Baker to the lake. No difference. Attempting to entice locals/tourists to walk/drive along Hall to the water: with an unobstructed view: once some old trees are cut down, and the very pleasant gazebo at the dock is removed. The latter already promised! Going on about sight-lines. Even though one doesn't see this particular bit of lake until dipping downhill from Vernon - where drivers had better pay attention to the steep aspect.

There now is talk of green spaces, artsy diversions, traffic-upgrades - all along pokey Hall to the lake -  where promptly inaccessible to the general public!
Oops!

Between Vernon and Front: Hall has to be one of the most boring streets in Nelson. There is absolutely nothing of interest - except for the commemorative Chinatown rock at Vernon, with its green space stretching downhill somewhat. Past that it's all a back-alley/wrong-side-of-the-tracks feel.
Prisoners of given architecture no amount of sidewalk upgrading, greenery, benches and sculptures will liberate!
The other side has just as little to recommend it - even less once the Visitor Centre moves. Walking along either side is strictly according to need only. And the highway from hell declaring a stop to any voluntary walking past it.

Bad Trip Down #3
The intersection - by configuration and volume of traffic-plus-noise - can't be denied as the end of Hall Street. Considering that Front is a provincial highway, cutting through at 40km per instead of the general local 30.
Regardless - when those at leisure drive towards the water as far as they can - they have 3 choices.
All equally tempting:
1.
Turn left into light-industrial.
2.
Turn right towards the mall parking-lot.
3.
Cross Lakeside and park - if there's space  - where dog-owners park.

Walking-choices from there:
1.
Follow dogs along dusty-smelly Dog-Dump Lane.
2.
Walk out on the short dock with a nice view and then what.
3.
Hang-out at the hotel with the embarrassingly pretentious name.
4.
Then - finally! - take a short stroll along the lake to - the mall. 

Aah nature!

Bad Trip Down #4
This masterly Hall Street plan offers no improvements over the given reality. A few more trees at the dock parking-lot, a few benches at the very busy, noisy, dusty Hall-Lakeside artery - and that's it. Little space for anything else. The consultants ask for public input: This may mean they haven't a clue (no wonder - nothing to work with!), or - with decisions made already - they toss a telegenic bone to the public to make them feel included!

 
 

You need some pipes fixed at the bottom - so fix them, but don't use that as an opportunity to slip in a half-cocked vanity-project such as this only and direct Nelson gateway to nowhere.






Images: 
Stephen St. John 
Thomas Winz 
Richard Cummins 
Pierre et Gilles

Park Kevin Cormack!

Slow Road To Nowhere!

The stretch of road between the soccer-field and tram-tracks used to be dotted with several large clusters of various bushes - giving not only the road itself but the whole area bright-changing color and texture. Breaking-up the flat uniformity of field and road.

Late last fall, all bushes were dug-up unceremoniously; wounds were left open, seeping and dark during winter - to more recently be tended: closed as in paved over. Without these bushes the area now is monochromatically and spatially dull.

Reason given for the removal - not volunteered! - was that people are speeding along there (to where?), and children could get hurt when suddenly running across the road from behind these bushes.

Which would - if accepting this scenario - raise the basic question why nobody had been concerned with their safety all these years. Not even their soccer-moms!

Definitely NOT accepting it: following is a dismantling of this story, and therein another example emerging of how City Hall - here specifically Kevin Cormack, City Manager - is only superficially interested in the Nelson public - as individuals or a whole - but very much so in catering to special-interest groups.

Follow me - safely!

Deconstructing City Reasoning!

1. Signage
1a.
Coming from the mall-access road there is a 20km/h (way fast here!) sign - much hidden by trees and eventually visible only from a distance of about 10 meters.
1b.
Why wasn't the sign placed - say just on the far side of the sand-pit - a long time ago: there clearly visible to drivers at any time of the year and from greater distance? 
1c.
Why wasn't the speed-limit lowered to 5km/h - a long time ago?
1d.
Why hasn't there been an elsewhere commonly used high-contrast black-on-yellow sign, alerting drivers to children at play - since a long time ago - together with the 5km/h sign? A current low-contrast (smallish light blue lettering on white) Kiwanis - NOT City! - sign is easily ignored.

2. Speeding And View-Obstruction
I am on that road twice a day, including on weekends, really the only time there MAY BE any kind of traffic to speak of: the OCCASIONAL soccer-crowd. Over years - I have never observed any speeding, and I have never heard of any accidents because of it along there.
Also, walkers - in the absence of a side-walk and this not being a through-artery - usually walk along the center of the open road-space - instead of meandering along the soccer-side around cars. How stupid would that be! So drivers - by force (and on the look-out for the most convenient place to park) - drive slowly, as not to run-down walkers: clearly visible and slow and in cars' way!

 
2a.
Seeing that parking until moments ago was perpendicular to the soccer-side of the road, and many vehicles - particularly campers, vans, pick-ups - are just as high and stick out just as far as those bushes: there was no difference between children possibly impulsively darting out from behind bushes and between motor-vehicles. ANY motor-vehicles along the whole stretch!
So - following Mr. Cormack's reasoning: there shouldn't be any parking here at all!
2b.
Law of averages - an accident probably would be caused by a local or out-of-town soccer-mom/dad. Why then haven't traffic-behavior regulations - ages ago - been clearly and forcefully built into permission-to-use of the facility? Like eh soccer-mom you could run over another soccer-mom's child or another soccer-mom could run over yours! I mean: is that cool?
2c.
Now individual spaces have been marked-off all along - but on an angle AWAY from the direction of cars about to park. And when it's busy.... You want accidents? Yeah! Perpendicular was the most hassle-free - coming or going - but NO MORE! 
2d.
Why haven't regulations stipulated - a long time ago - that teams must have an adult present along the road-side, solely responsible for keeping team-members off the road? 
(Maybe helping with new parking-weirdness, too - when not busy saving lives!)

The REAL Kicker! 

Very clearly - if children's safety REALLY were the issue - many/all of these steps should/could/would have been taken eons ago to ensure it. Using the vulnerable-children thing (how about puppies?) as pretext for cutting down greenery - previously enjoyed by all - to make room for more parking to convenience an occasional, totally self-serving, lazy special-interest group - is tacky!

And exactly what happened. Local soccer-moms - in whatever Nelson-Sports affiliation - are a well-entrenched force to be reckoned with for who-knows-what reason by some at City Hall: and they insisted on more parking-spaces right here, right now! Coming from the same mindscape as - when shopping - having to park as close as possible to the Walmart entrance. So between them and the obliging city manager this story - a flabby assault on anyone's intelligence - was cooked-up. What's next here: personalized parking-slots? Courtesy of?

There are no parking-spaces designated to the handicapped. And rightly so: don't soccer - don't figure!

Same soccer-moms vigorously objected to the skate-park in the turn-about! With bottle-neck-traffic talk. Horse-puckie! Less parking for us right here?     
NO WAY! NO SKATE-PARK HERE YOU DON'T!

Costs: Goodwill And Dollars!

Those who just may be wondering where frivolous decisions such as this and money for them - more and more frequently unapproved by Council - are generated. In the city manager's office, with his generous funding through ever increasing taxes/water-rates/etc.
   
All - as ever - exuding the unmistakable unbearable stench of baby-vomit!








Some images: Daniel Bombardier, Hart Kim   

The Art of Being Chinese

Xia Ming Yuan
When I arrive in Xia Ming Yuan on a sunny day friends there say thank you for bringing the sun with you - it had been raining and raining. That's how the villagers think - give me face. I categorically deny responsibility - give them face in return. Our dance! They shake their heads indulgently, glad for me because they know I want to swim often - they never would! - in the mountain-creek noisily throwing itself down the deep fault - sometimes catching its breath in calm-clear pools - and green waves of bamboo with flecks of white azalea splashing on either side and up. Scraggly pines holding on for life. Reaching.
Old as the hills.

I unpack, change into my very basic and comfortable village-drag, settle-in - the usual. Are you ready to eat she says. So when will you be ready to eat! I must eat soon, because eating Grandmother's food is the gate. So I eat, and she hovers, nods, watches every bite I take - smoking fiercely. Again and again wanting to know how I like her dishes - always at least four. Hao chi ma she asks. Hen hao chi I say - it's delicious. Smiling much at the food, pointing at and listing the names of vegetables I recognize. And ask which of the ones I don't she picked on mountain-walks. Knowing that there are many wild tasty just-weedish-looking plants - often also used as traditional medicine. There is wild ginger.
We hadn't seen each other in a year, but there's no need to talk about that. Of importance is: I am hungry - Grandmother feeds me. I am happy - she is happy. We communicate!

This larger area of several peaks, craggy ridges, sheer-drop ravines is Jiu Hua Shan, named about 1500 years ago by Li Bai - the most famous poet of the Tang Dynasty and one of the most beloved of all-time China. Jiu Hua Shan is one of the five holy mountains.
Tea grown here - totally organic: meaning left to grow without prodding interference - is prized for its mountain-mist aroma as green tea.

I am home!

And with polite formalities out of the way: everything returns to normal - it starts to rain again!

Continues for days. I object: impatiently insisting on my swimming-routine! Busy with being restless! Going for walks to my favorite places - even with an umbrella - doesn't work either: clothes inevitably get wet and just as inevitably won't dry. I brought little to wear.
Village life almost comes to a full stop - everything here is directly connected to the weather.
But - no matter what - the younger villagers are off selling Buddhist/Taoist trinkets or acting as guides to ever-coming tourists on mountain tops, around temples and monasteries, along many thousand granite-steps way up, way across and way down, connecting all and everything. Few roads only in the center, on the other side of the ridge separating the quiet life of Xia Ming Yuan from the tourist-hustle - parallel realities.
Older villagers now hang-out in MY house: slapping cards, clacking ma jiang tiles. Either accusing or bragging - always loudly - always smoking, expertly cracking melon- or sunflower-seeds with their teeth. The floor a mat of shells and butts.
I brought 1700 pages of War and Peace just in case - and this is one! But with its perceptive and funny society-bits being few and philosophical ramblings on war and peace being many - this clearly is not beach-reading.

 

I begin to see that my only choice is not having a choice - I begin to slow down and pay attention to what is. There are different kinds of rain: from fine mist, soaking-in and through gently but quickly and thoroughly - to rain-bullets, hitting and exploding with a crack. And in between basic rainy rain, curtains of it billowing in the wind. And always the bamboo. Up close single trees(?) - to about 20 meters tall and with leaves on deceptively delicate-looking branches often only close to the top - dip and sway gracefully. From farther away they all are churning green liquid. Bamboo wind. Bamboo rain.

I sit and watch. And as I watch outward I watch myself in relation to it. Then I begin to watch inward: Jingzuo - breath/ Dazuo - meditation/ Jijing - silence.
And my days become full: I pay attention. And not.

Sometimes the rain stops for a while - and I walk. Sometimes the sun comes through - and I don't like it. Too bright, too hot - demanding, taking-over. And I crave the comfort of rain. Sun doesn't automatically mean swimming either. Because for a couple of days after much rain there's the danger of sudden flash-floods slamming down the creek - already much higher, faster and devastatingly powerful. With a flash-flood: deadly!

Before I came to China this year I had thought I may get a piece of calligraphy. While in Xia Ming Yuan I decide I want it from Shi Er - the man who carved my crow seal - wu ya yin zhang - in Beijing just before I came here. I have never seen calligraphy done by him; we have not talked about it - but I feel we have connected deeply while going through the process of the crow seal's evolution this year and that of another one he carved for me a year ago.

Beiing
So back in Beijing I tell him. He says he isn't really into doing calligraphy for its own sake and doesn't do any of the commonly expected/accepted calligraphy of elegant swoosh. Just writes one way - his own! Has nothing to show me but could possibly write something I give him: like a poem or whatever. This doesn't feel right: I tell him it needs to come from him - in the moment. He gets a small piece of paper, a brush, prepares some ink - about 5 minutes. Then writes without hesitation 2 vertical lines of characters - top-right to bottom-left. The old way. Shows it to me - no explanation. Without getting into meaning I just look at the characters to find connection.
Creative calligraphy does not rely on content - form usually is more important, with content being the vehicle.
The 3 top characters in the left vertical bother me, and I tell him so. Asking for scissors I cut them out, leaving the rest as is. Shi Er says nothing. Then I ask him for a possible explanation of what's left of his original intention - before my intuitive amputation.

Much of the meaning of a whole - because of stringing together picture-snippets as opposed to individual letters to form words - is open to an individual's imaginative visualization, unless it is an exact copy of a given  text. Like Chinese poetry: particularly difficult to translate into a foreign language. Exact translation will be choppy-bumpy: the translator's sensitivity and integrity are needed to give it flow - while staying on course.

 

I tell him I now feel comfortable with the characters and their placement as is. He doesn't explain what is gone - I don't ask. He says it now is something like

I sit
and look -
rain

And I start to cry. Telling him that this is what/where I have just cone from. I had not told him - he had not asked - how I spent the previous month - between leaving Beijing and coming back. 
I feel rattled. Explain to him that I see the piece written in a somewhat blotchy, rained-on way. He says: tomorrow. I say: now. Knowing the Chinese way of not making impromptu decisions gladly. But - more specifically - also knowing that he feels rattled, too!

A while later I look through silk samples for the backing of it as a scroll. The kind I feel drawn to promptly is out-of-stock, so the man at the framing-shop - where Shi Er is also writing my piece - tells me. When Shi Er is finished - I cry some more. And when I'm done with that show him the only appropriate silk choice for me and not in stock and everything. Says he to the man, pointing, didn't I see a scrap of it under there somewhere a while ago? Aah you may be right says the man, starts to dig - and there it is: enough for the backing of a framed piece!

The first character - top-right - means sitting; the last character - very bottom-left - means rain. Except here Shi Er added 1 rain-drop to each set of 2.







Calligraphy, crow seal: Shi Er
Bamboo-rain, rocks: Lao Xun Ke   

Premier Clark, By-Product

 






                                                    

During the last provincial election Christina Clark lost her seat in Vancouver-Point Grey. Lost as in: out! not wanted!
One might think that this would/should have finished her as premier as well. Not so. Based on parliamentary precedent(?) she is allowed to keep that job but must win a seat in a by-election - if she wants to be an active member of the BC Legislature. Seen as helpful in premiering.
So party-hacks looked around for the safest possible riding anywhere in BC: with a doable airport (quick in-and-out!) and held by a Liberal seat-warmer willing to give up perks and glory for the boss. To allow for a by-election. Thus her win of the seat.

Never mind whether she lives in the riding, knows anything about the riding, is interested in the riding-as-such, will give up time to spend time in the riding.

And they found this construct of convenience in Westside-Kelowna and a Ben Stewart. He - surely backroomed thoroughly - said yeah, anything for the Party. Left unceremoniously. And a by-election was called just like that! Stewart candidly admitting that he gave up his seat to make room for Clark. What a guy! What constituency?

For the few who may care: this calls the BC Liberals' ethos into question in the biggest possible way. As it must make same few once again marvel at the bog of Canadian politics.
I say a few: because in all the recent reporting on this by-election - principally by the CBC - not once have I heard anyone - reporter, host, caller-in - question the woman's willingness to truly represent the riding. No voices even from inside Kelowna! After all, at least Stewart was sort-of there there.

Her handlers decided to have her take part in only one candidates' debate. No wonder: she's busy elsewhere and - though surely well-prepped with campaign-promises by a Party-machine other candidates don't have! - knows no more about the vagaries of life in Westlake/Kelowna than I do from listening to bits of Daybreak South and passing through on a Greyhound.

 
But there's a slew of other candidates who - one hopes - will unite instead of split the vote, will very vocally look at/for the machinations behind Clark's intentions.
And while they're at it check into her attendance records at Simon Fraser University, the Sorbonne and the University of Edinburgh, all of these she supposedly attended and from none of these she supposedly graduated.
Our premier!

        What if she loses this one too wink-wink!

.

The Emperor's New Clothes

A cautionary tale by Hans Christian Andersen - adapted by and for local circumstance.

There lives an emperor - Nelson by name - who is so fond of new clothes that he spends all his gold upon the most amazing fashionable apparel and finery. Fashionable - as in other, larger empires.
He cares not a straw for the good, simple folk of his smallish realm. All he really cares about is showing-off his clothes - believing that clothes make the man.

His empire - called Smallish - is a pleasant place, and a fair number of strangers pass through. One day a committee of fashionistas - claiming they could come up with the most amazing cloth imaginable - ingratiate themselves to Emperor Nelson by telling him: clothes made from this amazing cloth will be world-class-artistic and wearing them will bring ever more strangers to Smallish - thus all the lands will be amazed by him, too. Saying that not only are the hues and patterns altogether out of the ordinary - but clothes made from such magic cloth will have the amazing property of being invisible to every man who is either unfit to be a good citizen or just plain stupid.

"They would indeed be valuable clothes," thinks Emperor Nelson. "By wearing them, I could find out which of my subjects are unfit for the posts they occupy, and I could tell the wise from the stupid. Yes, some of that cloth must be woven for me at once!"
And he gives the committee a great deal of gold - gold he only has in theory. So he simply raises taxes. Because he is Emperor, and - let's face it - the Emperor knows best!

And folk nod and smile in agreement, because in Smallish politics and trade are very personal matters, so nobody wants to make the Emperor, his counselors and the fashionistas unhappy. Because you just never know! 
And the town-crier shushes - he is rightly worried about losing advertising revenue.

So the committee set-up looms and get to work - but there is absolutely nothing upon them. Very soon - feeling smug and artsy - the committee demand more of the finest gold-thread - while they work on the empty looms till late in the night.

"I should really like to know how the manufacture of this amazing cloth is getting on," thinks the Emperor; but really and truly his heart is a little uncertain when he remembers that the stupid or the incompetent will not be able to see this amazing cloth. He believes that he himself, indeed, has no need to be anxious on his own account. But - being seriously into appearances - he thinks it will be safer to send someone else first to see how things are. "I will send my wise court-jester to the weavers. He can see what the cloth looks like, for he is a man of artistic sensitivity, and none is fitter for this office than he. Also - he owes me."

Every person throughout Smallish has by now heard of the amazing properties of the new cloth, and all - predictably - are eager to see how foolish, even stupid their friends and relatives are.

So the old fool walks into the room where the fashionistas sit working at the empty looms. "Mercy on us!" thinks he and opens his eyes very wide. "I can't see anything!" But he takes very great care not to say something foolish. A tad confused, because although he doesn't know what art means - he knows it when he sees it. The fashionistas beg him to stand nearer, and they ask him if the pattern is not an artistic one and the dyes simply amazing. Then they point at the empty looms, and the poor old fool opens his eyes wider and wider, but he can see nothing.
"Good gracious!" thinks he. "I may be foolish, but I am not stupid, surely? I never thought so before, and I'll take good care that nobody shall think so now. Oh no, it will never do for me to go and say that I can't see the amazing cloth!"
"Well, have you nothing to say about it?" asks one of the cognoscenti. "Oh, it is amazing - absolutely the most amazing thing in the world!" says the old fool. "Yes, I'll tell the Emperor that it simply blows me away!" "Well, we are pleased with it, too," say the committee primly, and they knowledgeably name the shades in detail and describe the pattern. The old fool carefully listens to all they say, so he will be able to repeat the same things to the Emperor.

And the fashionistas - in a swoon over their own hyperbole - demand still more gold. And get it. Mind, with the Imperial Purse not being bottomless and taxes only raisable so far - cuts have to be made elsewhere.

Now Emperor Nelson has a mind - and what a mind it is! - to see the cloth himself while it is still on the looms. And he goes with a host of the great of his realm. "Why, what is this?" thinks he. "I don't see anything! How horrible! Am I stupid then? Am I unfit to be the Emperor? That would be the most frightful thing that could happen to me!" But aloud he says, "Oh, it is very fine. It has my most gracious approbation!" And he nods his head approvingly and gazes at the empty looms. His whole suite stare and stare; but they repeat after the Emperor, "Oh, it is seriously amazing!" And they counsel him to wear artistically made clothes of this amazing cloth for the first time on the occasion of the Grand Artistic Walk which is about to take place.
"It is magnificent, elegant, excellent!" goes from mouth to mouth. All seem so mightily pleased with the prospect of new horizons opening up that the Emperor gives each of the fashionistas a cross to wear on a ribbon, anointing their leader as his successor to the throne. Because he has been getting weary of it all for some time.

   

On the eve before the Grand Artistic Walk, the committee sit up all night and have more than 16 candles lit. People can see that they are busy getting the Emperor's new artistic clothes ready. The committee pretend to take the cloth from the looms; they clip-snip the air loudly with scissors and sew without thread to at last declare, "There, the clothes are now quite ready!"

Emperor Nelson then comes himself with his sycophants-in-waiting, and the fashionistas raise their arms as if holding up something and say, "Look, here are the artistic hose, and here is the artistic shirt, and here is the artistic mantle. They are light as gossamer, and you would fancy you had nothing on at all. But that is just the amazing beauty of art." "Of course," say all the sycophants - but they can see nothing.
"And now, if Your Imperial Worship would most graciously deign to take your clothes off," say the committee, "we will put on the new artistic ones for Your Worship. In front of the large mirror please! Thank you!"

"What a capital outfit it is! How amazingly well it fits!" the people cry with one voice. "What major work of international art!"

"The canopy which is to be borne over Your Worship on the Grand Artistic Walk is waiting outside," the Mastress of Cultural Ceremonies announces. "All right," says Emperor Nelson," I am quite ready. Do my artistic clothes really fit amazingly well?" He turns himself once more before the mirror - this way and that - taking a survey of his elegance. The sycophants-in-waiting fumble with their hands along the floor as if picking-up his train, and as they venture forward they hold their hands in the air - playing the game for all it's worth. Which is considerable!

And thus Emperor Nelson marches on the Grand Artistic Walk beneath the beautiful canopy, and everyone in the streets and in the windows marvels," Gracious! How artistic the Emperor's new clothes are!" No-one would dare suppose that the Emperor sees nothing, for then he certainly would seem too stupid for his job and the committee seen as pretentious parochials.

"Why, he's got nothing on!!!" suddenly cries a little child.

"Listen to the voice of innocence!" says the father, for everyone is whispering to the person nearest them what the child has shouted. "He has nothing on!" at length cries the whole crowd.

Emperor Nelson shrinks within himself as he hears, for it seems to him that they are right. But he thinks, "At any rate, I must go through with this Walk to the end - the show must go on!" So he puts on an even haughtier, above-them-and-it-all air, and the sycophants march behind, carefully holding up the train that isn't there. 





End of that amazing story - but not of this.



 



Images: Emi Kusano, Kjeld Duits
 

City Hall - Zap! Gone!

Below find material I presented to the Committee Of the Whole (COW), Jun. 24 - now/here expanded - based on Police Chief Holland's appearance at the COW, May 27, together with Vice-Chief/Inspector Burkart. To ostensibly give a very long-overdue explanation as to the whys of sudden Tasers in Nelson.
The Chief's invitation by Council was prompted by my presentation arguing against the Tasers' re-introduction, COW, Apr. 22.

 

COW, May 27

Although to-the-point sample questions and reasons for them had been available to all councilors - in a nudge from me - questions actually asked Chief Holland didn't go beyond "How about using Tasers on dogs?" There was deliberate avoidance of core-questions asked and information volunteered. Making this appearance of the Chief and his remarkably look-alike/sound-alike Vice totally pointless Taser-wise - but one does get an idea of who they are and how they're handling stuff.

So pointless that the Nelson Star didn't run this COW until weeks later - a lukewarm space-filler. And the Nelson Daily - although mentioning it sooner - only referred readers to a previous article. Neither one addressing the lack of key-points made by anyone and the general soft-pedaling by the cops for us idiots!

I had also urged Council several times to invite a representative of the Nelson Police Board (NPB) together with the Chief, because this Board is nominally in charge of police-policies and oversight. Thus it was deeply involved in the re-introduction of Tasers to Nelson. Behind very closed and very secretive doors! It's usual modus operandi!

Yet (because of that?) the NPB was not directly/actively represented at this COW. According to the agenda - published several days prior to the meeting - it was not invited. If it had been - before the agenda was set - it must have declined.

And here's the kicker: The Board's chair - the mayor! - was present as mayor. Or something - sitting among Council-members at the Round Table! Not making a move or sound! But certainly there there! What with the stupidity of provincial politics mandating centralization of the mayor-and-chair jobs in one person - in Nelson anyway this seems to have led to an ambiguous solo-act. And - be still poor heart - there's more! Vice-Chief Burkart is also in charge of the Nelson Bylaw Enforcement Department - while bylaws in themselves are the domain of Council. So, even with bylaw-enforcement - like snow-shoveling - being what it is: Council won't move on any of it because the relationship between tops of City Hall and the cop-shop is rather umbilical. And quiet about it - so you (and Council!) just never know!

A sackful of politically very hot potatoes! Thus councilors - as often in City Hall survival-mode - despite supposedly being THE decision-makers in Nelson - once again and predictably cave at this COW! No questions, Your Honor!

Round and round we goes;

Where that lands us

No-one knows!

The Police Chief

Allowing the Chief's scarily simplistic assertions all along to remain unchallenged - when he voiced oddities like:

The Taser is not lethal force, it's high-intermediate

Yet Robert Dziekanski's death was declared a homicide, and - including his - 17 non-lethal, high-intermediate Taser-deaths were admitted to in Canada, between 2002 and 2007. Between 2001 and 2005 70 people died by Taser in the United States. Promising that in Canada Tasers will now be used safely only - all kinds of when/how - is ignoring the cops' well-documented fallibility-factor (putting it nicely!) on the ground and the physical condition of those Tasered - before they get zapped to the ground!

Council has no problem with any of this.

Another one from the Chief: There is less risk of injury to a person hit with a Taser than if officers use their fists or a baton to restrain them. My question: How many Canadians have been beaten to death by a cop with fists or batons - in comparison to those killed with Tasers - between 2002 and 2007?

 

Police Chief Holland seems to be aware of only 2 options - when attempting to take down those stepping out-of-line: either beating them senseless with fists and/or batons or zapping them senseless with a Taser.

Over to you, councilors!

The Vice-Chief

Then Vice-Chief Burkart with: while he arrested thousands within his 18 years on the streets, he applied his Taser less than a handful of times.

It seems, actually Inspector Burkart has been a police-officer for 18 years. Had he spent all of them on the streets - he certainly would not be in the position he is in today. Leaping from walking a beat to inspector seems a stretch. So there's a credibility-issue with arresting thousands during 18 years on the streets. Anything else?

The facts, Inspector, just the facts!

NPD Position

Throughout the Chief's several inconsistent media-appearances since the beginning of April - also this performance for Council - he has not once addressed an actual need for Tasers in Nelson. Only emphasizing repeatedly: they are very rarely used and then only under the strictest conditions.

So what's the point?

Which takes me to my 2 basic arguments - again:

1

With the extremely low crime-rate in Nelson, 2 recently added police-officers and the purportedly extremely infrequent use of Tasers to begin with - why have them? Chief Holland previously called them an additional tool in the police-officers' - tool-belt. And carrying them is voluntary. How fun!

There seemed to be no particular problems in Nelson's struggle against crime with the previous number of cops - overtime-pay for days! - and no expensive toys to blast stuff away with!

Why does Council not probe this?

2

How much did Nelson's Tasers and Taser-training cost? Surely at least $30.000. And where did these funds come from: approved unquestioned by Council? Or out of the same treasure-trove City Manager Cormack pulled the money for the Baker Grand Avenue redo?

Regardless: it's all tax-payered money, Council!

2a

Do those certified in Taser-use receive a pay-raise because of this certification?

Do you know about this and if not - why, Councilors?

 

Tasers - The Movie

Wouldn't you know it - a week ago a Taser was used in Nelson! AWRIGHT!!! With Chief Holland oozing: Obviously the officer was distressed he had to use force at all, but later commented thank goodness he had the Taser on him because who knows what would have happened if the person continued to fight. Quoting the Star, Jun. 21, verbatim.

Well, without a Taser the officer - why was he alone in such a life-and-death situation? - could have beaten some bloody sense into the man with his fists or baton!

Surely, we will read about Tasers being used here more often: it will justify having them, and it must be fun to be Iron Man for a bit!

Accountable Who?
Councilor Kozak asked the officers for quarterly updates on new cop-shop goings-on, which Chief Holland promised to supply - gladly. Whether he will - without having to be prompted AGAIN - is another matter. Particularly as to do that regularly really is the NPB's job. Again I wonder when the Nelson Police Board will become accountable to the Nelson public - as its mission states - and when - according to its Strategic Plan, 2011-2015 - it will begin to increase community awareness, without having to be nudged in blog-posts and the occasional 5 minutes in COWs.
Mayor-Chair Dooley?

While councilors are embarrassingly unwilling to step up! More concerned with burning their fingers on said hot City-Hall potatoes than doing the job they were elected for! With Council this has become an internal integrity-issue.




And the public loses!

It is time to separate a mayor's job from that of a police-board's chair. And it is time for concern with public safety in Nelson. Not because of crime - but those protecting us from it! Tourists, too!

Images: Marrott, Nakayama, Roberts, Warhol  

The Body Politic

 

Politics is a means of preventing people from taking part in what properly concerns them.

                                               Paul Valery

                                                     1871 - 1945