Saturday, June 18, 2011

Although the focus on our hockey riot has shifted to portraiture (via Facebook’s walls of shame), the finger-pointing continues, with CKNW’s junkyard dog Bruce Allen calling out the Premier and, in particular, the Mayor for their hand in Wednesday’s melee.

Allen, who began his career as a night club bouncer before entering band management (Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bryan Adams, etc.), expanded his hate-on for Vision Mayor Gregor Robertson by adding the hockey riot to the City’s bike lane initiative and residential chicken coops and wheat fields. How odd that someone who grew up on something as alternative as 1950s rock ‘n’ roll should find himself attacking equally alternative forays into transportation and agriculture. (Then again, given what happened to rock ‘n’ roll, I am not surprised.)

As a driver, I admit to the occasional frustration with bike lines. At the same time, I support them, just as I support residential agricultural initiatives geared at a sustainable future.

Betting on the future is a big part of our city’s history – from fur, gold, trees and fish to real estate. Sure, Vision has made mistakes, but I would much rather have a community-oriented police presence than the armed-to-the-teats cops common to U.S. sporting events, like the paramilitaries Allen’s ‘NW colleague Dan Russell saw (and praised) outside New York’s Madison Square Gardens during the Canucks’ last Stanley Cup run in 1994. I mean, who wants to live with that in your face?

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