Brentwood retailers in the dark about new development

Photo by DennisTsang

A massive new development is slated to replace the current Brentwood Town Centre but retailers in the mall say they have been given no information about what will happen to them.

Shape Properties bought the mall in 2010 and quickly proposed a huge development that will eventually include a new open-area shopping district and up to 11 condo towers.

Burnaby city council gave approval for the Brentwood master plan back in October, but retailers Wednesday were still confused about what was happening.

Owner of clothing store Match, Kevin Wang, said he had no idea when the development was set to start and what would become of his store.

“It is hard to get information. The bosses, owners of this mall, keep changing their minds I think. Now that it is passed, they don’t have to rush I guess,” said Wang.

Several other owners echoed Wang’s confusion. Owner of Gam Shoe Repair, Habibi Jamshidian, whose store has been in Brentwood 36 years, said he “hadn’t been told anything.” Jamshidian said he wasn’t opposed to the development.

“The project is exciting,” said Jamshidian, but he would like to know more specific details from his landlord.

The Shape Properties webpage says the new development is “expected to start unfolding in the spring.”

Shape spokesman Brian Nosko said Thursday representatives had recently been out of town. Regarding informing the retailers about the progress of the development Nosko said,

“They do know. We had tenant meetings in the fall.”

Nosko said it would actually be a year before any ground would be broken for the first phase of the development and that drawings for that phase are currently being prepared.

thuncher@shaw.ca

Burnaby Crows

For residents of Burnaby these crows are a common site, but they still amaze and perhaps frighten newcomers.

The large group of crows, called a murder of crows, is a topic Derek Matthews

of the Vancouver Avian Research Centre knows a lot about. He said he often gets calls from people curious about what is going on in Burnaby. 

"I try to get people to understand that it is not a "gang" of crows in their backyard but a family and that crows are not the villains they’re always made out to be but fascinating animals in their own right. No other bird has such a human-like personality and social system as the crow. They’re also really smart," said Mathews.

According to Mathews it isn't known why crows congregate in large numbers to roost but there are lots of hypotheses:

1. the birds simply are congregating in the most favorable spot (protection from predators, protection from the elements, the only trees suitable for roosting, etc.), and they don't mind doing it with a bunch of other birds.
2. the birds get some protection from predators by being in a large group - safety in numbers.
3. the area is an information center where information about profitable foraging areas is transmitted.
4. roosts congregate around large, non-defendable, reliable food sources – so first thing and last thing in the day, food is available.

This video shows how smart crows can be: 

A common location in Burnaby to see the crows. 

Enbridge Hearings in Vancouver

(Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Emotions ran high inside and outside Enbridge’s Northern Gateway hearings in Vancouver Monday night as protesters and speakers expressed their opposition to the proposed pipeline.

Outside the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, where the federal review panel hearings are being held, hundreds of protestors chanted and beat drums that could be heard inside the hearing.

Protestor Maryam Adrangi, of the Council of Canadians, said the snow and cold wouldn’t deter those opposed to the expansion of pipeline. She said she wanted “to get out the message. No consent, no project.”

 Adrangi said many communities have opposed the project on environmental grounds, but “Harper’s agenda is clear.” She said Prime Minister Stephen Harper would veto the decision of the Joint Review Panel if it recommended not going ahead. 

Inside the hearing, each presenter took to the microphone for ten minutes to speak about the planned 1,173-kilometre pipeline from central Alberta to Kitimat B.C. 

SFU professor Rosemary Cornell said she was “a scholar lamenting the future my grandchildren will inherit. “What will I tell my grandchildren?” asked Cornell as her voice cracked.

Activist Kathy Froncisz, whose name can be found on various petitions including Defend the Amazon and Stand up for BC, brought her seven-year-old daughter to the hearing. “Not one group of seven-year-olds would agree to a project like this,” said Froncisz. She said the pipeline could jeopardize the beaches and trees her daughter loves.

The emotion of the speakers and protesters was in stark contrast to the quiet reserve of the hearing’s public viewing venue at the Westin Bayshore where a group of approximately 28 people, mostly journalists, sat in the half-empty hall watching the proceedings on a giant video screen.

The Joint Review Panel Hearings continue in Vancouver for the rest of the week with public viewings at the Westin Bayshore.   thuncher@shaw.ca

Looking for reasons for the Sandy Hook tragedy

Whenever a tragedy like the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary happen, and there have been far too many such tragedies, people look for a reason for the killer's behaviour.
In the news, reporters scour the family history looking for clues. It is human nature. We want to find something, anything, that gives us the formula for how a killer like this is created. By finding the formula, we think we can prevent such a thing from happening in our family. Did his father reject him? Was he bullied?  Did he take drugs? If we find the thing that sets him apart, we can feel safe knowing without that, we are ok.
In this case at Sandy Hook, it may turn out the shooter was hopped up on anti-depressants or had been molested or bullied or neglected. Then we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Knowing what was wrong, we think we can make things right in the future.
The truth though is far more complicated. The truth is no matter what is uncovered about the young man who shot twenty children, no matter what hardship or dysfunction he endured, others have had the same thing happen to them, with a far different result.
There are millions of people who live hard lives every day and yet the vast majority become productive citizens or at worst passive nonproductive citizens.  They don't become killers.
The truth is, life is complicated. There may be one hundred different factors which led that young man, on that day, to do the horrible things he did. We will never know for sure.
Life is random. We don't like this. We want order. We want to feel safe and we should feel safe.
I don't mean to say that we should sit back and do nothing to prevent such things. Of course government policy, dealing with gun control and mental health services, can help prevent these horrors. Public movement around our gun culture would be a step forward as well. Something must be done. These things don't have to happen at all.
My point is we must be wary of passing judgement in hindsight on a town and a family and a young man, who may be more like us than we care to admit.
If, God forbid, one of my sons did something as heinous as what happened at Sandy Hook,  or your son or daughter did such a thing, it would be easy to find something in our family to blame. For my family, I am sure, people would say I was divorced, I went back to school, my husband lost his job, we were too liberal, their father too strict.
Look closely at any family anywhere and you can find things not ideal. Luckily for most of us, our children turn out great in spite what they experience. Instead of scorn and hate, we face praise, "Must have done something right," people say. Well, what if that isn't the case? What if much of the time we are just lucky the stars aligned and our kids turned out fine?
When things go unfathomably wrong, let us not jump to judgements that make us feel more comfortable. Instead let us say "there but for the grace...go we" and instead look at making the world safer for us all ... just in case. 

Video soundslide project

My news report on the new Canadian $20

Sports betting still hot during hockey freeze

By JENNIFER THUNCHER

Despite the hockey drought, the odds have been in the BC Lottery Corporations’ favour this year, with sports betting up by 5 per cent compared to the same time last year.



“During the stoppage last time [2004 – 2005 NHL lockout] there was a decline, but people had nothing else to go to,” said BCLC spokesman Chris Fairclough.



Fairclough said that comparing the two lockouts is not “apples to apples” because with this year’s lockout the company offers an online option, which allows customers to bet on anything from ping pong to skiing.



He said that betting on hockey accounted for 30 per cent of revenue last fiscal year, but the new online options have more than made up for the losses in hockey bets.



Charles, who couldn’t give his last name because of company rules, works at a Lotto 6/49 kiosk at Oakridge Centre. He says Sports Action tickets for basketball, football and soccer are big sellers. He hasn’t seen a decline in sales at all without hockey.

“There are so many games to bet on, “ said Charles.

He says he sometimes sees big sports betters, but mostly he sells to regulars like customer Adrian Michelle.

Michelle, looking through a stack of sports tickets he had just bought from Charles, said he never bet on hockey in the first place.

“Hockey is difficult to bet on. Never know who is going to win,” said Michelle.

He often wagers on NFL’s New England Patriots.

Michelle said he enjoys the routine of betting. He bets during the week and said, “Sunday I sit down to watch football, give my legs a break. Get fat on Monday.”

Not everyone likes to gamble.  Having coffee at City Square mall Doug Frankson doesn’t buy any lottery tickets.

“No, because you never win. It is just a form of taxes,” said Frankson.

thuncher@shaw.ca