^ bang on, if there was a solution to the problem that was feasible, it would have already been solved. Unfortuneately, building housing and having it maintained to house these people requires $$$$. The government isn't going to invest $$ into something with no return.

People who live in Vancouver (or whatever city you live in) pays for the construction/maintenance of bridges within our city and thats fair. But when it comes to bridges that connect two municipalities then I think they should all be tolled. You use what you pay for.. I don't like subsidizing idiots who choose to commute 1+hr to work each way to work.

thank god i avoid most of the traffic of people on the way to school and back.

I don't know where to begin, so what your saying is that since most of the jobs are in Vancouver, that we should all somehow move into vancouver. where housing prices is ridiculously high. So if you can't afford $500,000 for a small POS home, then you don't deserve to live in the city?

What if you live in richmond or north van, and you want to go into vancouver (since most of the jobs/entertainment is revolved around vancouver).

Western countries are based on rights and freedom, and that government entities should support the civilians.

If this was the case, then the fortunate rich people that pay 90% of the taxes can say, "Well, im making all the money, why should I subsidize idiots that can't pay for their own health care and education"

It's ironic that you call these people idiots.

this is a fucken dangerous bridge

IMO, we'd have a new bridge already if ppl were willing to pay a toll. Since everyone wants something for free, no money = no bridge until it's too late

^ it also takes years for them to "analyze" the impact on the environment, plan out street and traffic maps and plan/schedule the construction timeline.

the new port mann bridge they are building will be tolled. and yet it still takes them forever to get started, and last I heard, they are behind on construction.

You and johny should hangout.

:werd:

LOL, so I guess you must have been lobbying against the BC Government to not spend that 80 million on seismic work to the Lions Gate, Second Narrows and Iron Workers bridges? I mean you wouldn't want the Provincial Government taking money from everyone's kitty when you strongly believe it's the sole responsibility of Vancouverites being their bridges and all? I'm not even going to try and find it since they were all built before I was born but I'm sure if I dug most if not all those bridges your talking about in Vancouver were built at least in part with Provincial monies and not paid for in full solely by the citizens of Vancouver.

Tell me again how does the skytrain and the RAV line benefit me in Langley? Sometimes we all have to foot the bill for the better of the whole lower mainland. I know it's a bitch but that's just the way it goes.

Your argument is bunk sir stop being a hypocrite.

Edit: For the record I don't commute over any bridges to get to my office but I do use the bridges quite a bit including "your" bridges in Vancouver. I'm a tax payer to. :)

Were you at all up to date to the homeless situation as of the last freak winter storms? They put millions of dollors into opening shelters all around the cities for the homeless. Then do you know what actually happened? 95% of them refused to go to the shelters and fought the cops to stay on the streets in the minus weather. They refused because most of them are mentally ill, like extreme paranoia, paranoid about people stealing their shit in the shelters, trapping them in the shelters etc. It IS a damn shame, but the cities did try to help, are still trying to help. But what do you do when the help is refused?

I was so poor I had to sleep in my car like Ricky from the Trailer Park Boys for a couple of weeks when I was younger...


Shit, being poor sucks. First off, I am completely self-educated, so for a time when I was younger all I knew about making money was labour = $. So I worked SHIT jobs and rented a room at a crack house while I was trying to figure out how to get out of that shit situation. I drove an 86 Daytona Turbo then and I thought it was fast!

( ha )

When you're poor you have no clue that money can work for you, shit, I'm 30 and I'm still learning the basics that 17 year old chinese kids are taught by their rich uncles/parents. Truth is that your family is the #1 advantage in life that you start with. ( Or don't start with... ) It goes a long way to explain why there are people out there who cannot understand how someone could be so poor and uneducated, while the other side of the fence can't grasp how someone could be so rich...


I could guess that we have poor people because we live in a capitalist system, where there has to be people on top, in the middle, and HAS to be people on the bottom. Someone has to lose. Also, with uncontrolled breeding of human beings, you will have unfit parents who produce children who are not looked after and raised without even the basics to survive. I probably am only alive today because I grew up around computers, which gave me an escape from all the shitty things I had happen while growing up, and something to sink my time and brainpower into. If I didn't have that I'd probably be on the downtown eastside, busting into SG!'s car at Metro to sell his stereo, schoolbooks, and Air Spence for crack money.


If we want to fix the problem of the homeless, from my personal experiences, and talking with many youth workers, I would say that putting some sort of controls on reproduction, improving education, and giving actual classes on Real World Survival would be a great start. High School essentially teaches you nothing on how to survive in the real world other than how to respect your teachers, and to show up at X time, take X break at lunch, and leave at X time. Nothing you learn in school applies to real world labour jobs, starting a business, taking care of yourself, budgeting, or wealth generation.


There is that old saying that it takes a village to raise a child, which does not make any sense today. We don't have a village in the white secular communities, we know it's dog-eat-dog and we will step on each other and spit on the poor every chance we get. I don't think it's like that in the tight-knit sikh communities or some of the other groups, but I do know that it accounts for some of the reason why we have so many white trash on the downtown east side. I certainly feel 0 connection between myself and any white trash shitheads down there, even though I could have been one...


To avoid much more of a long, rambling brain dump, I'll finish by saying we encourage single motherhood too much, and the breakdown of the family certainly destroys lives. I know I am the product of a horrible divorce that completely severed all ties between both halves of my family, and now I pretty much only have a father who I'm not close with, and a brother I don't speak to. I know I had a hard time as a kid, but I was never sexually abused or anything. I'm sure if you added in an uncle that raped someone, or getting drunk at 11 or smoking joints at 12(Which happens all the time in North Surrey), you're going to produce an adult that has almost 0 chance of becoming a benefit to society.


The worst part about sleeping in a car is if you don't crack the window open, it fogs up and you sweat like a goddamn pig. If you do crack the window open, it gets cold as fuck and you shiver all night long.

Fucking bang on.

I always wondered why a course like "Basic Finances 101" wasn't offered in high school, but History and English are REQUIRED courses.

Seriously, since high school I have never had to so much as read a poem never mind analyze and write a report about one. The war of 1812, interesting maybe, relevant to life today? Nope.

crazy people..

Word

I am in favour of a toll bridge! Everyone who use it will get free 3 month subscription and then they can charge it like the U-pass, unlimited usage until you renew it.

I can see how those 2 should remain a required course to graduate.

1. How many people here criticizes Japan for ignoring the study of their history due to having a checkered past. By having this sentiment, we are just becoming the type of people we make fun off. In addition, short of writing an essay, history does have much to serve your average individual. Hell, I wished people would have had a stronger grasp of history before they go off on any the topical, local or international current events and its progress.

2. Yes English should still be a REQUIRED course. Yes, its troublesome reading poems, writing essays. But I'm an even more stronger advocate of the proper usage of the English language, sspecially with the advent of FB, MSN & the MTV genre. Does anyone remember "Wonder & Wander" and still wander if English should still be necessary at school?

Though I do agree with you that HS should be teaching more to better equip a person for the "real world" upon graduation. Times have modernized. We should be requiring more from our graduates, not maintaining the same standards or less.

+1

According to this chick I know, she says half the older school staff don't know much about the internet still...

i see what you're saying but it's not always just about you. HS is about throwing paint on the wall and hope you cover everybody, esp public school. You got rich kids, poor kids still growing up and who have no idea what they want. That's what after HS is for.

yah, reading stuff you don't care about is no fun, but what good job doesn't need you to read some sort of boring document to do your job? That's just the world we live in.

We live in a world where most dreams just don't come true.

+1:)

<sarcasm>
Not a bad idea,
but i think the government should just force people into labor camps where they will work for next to nothing. These camps will provide homes and some food for people. This should create job security, will force workers to be punctual, and it will minimize traffic. Also, they will be controlled by men wearing protective suits and gas masks... for no reason at all.
</sarcasm>

I pray you are not serious, and I'm not religious. There ARE reasons people commute outside the city to work.

http://www.news1130.com/more.jsp?con...1_171723_43544

TransLink: Pattullo Bridge expected to be reopened in 2 weeks

maybe the bridge closed means a good thing

TransLink also says crews will take advantage of the bridge closure to do major repairs of potholes and repaving on the bridge deck.