Kate and I had a fun day this Saturday going around Vancouver and checking out a couple of different neighbourhoods. I'm sharing our adventure here with some pictures and links, inspired by Cathy's comment for more info about the East Van Farmer's Market.
Best hot dogs in Vancouver
Originally uploaded by bmann.
This little cart outside the Future Shop on Broadway just east of Burrard proclaims "Best hot dogs in Vancouver or your money back". I guess it's a safe bet: you would have to visit every other hot dog vendor in the city first.
Hot dogs (plus European sausages of various types, and the "Cold War" arms race of extravagant condiments) and 99¢ pizza seem to me to be the two main Vancouver "street food". In Ottawa, where I spent 4 years, middle eastern "shwarma" -- either chicken or beef -- was cooked on huge rotating spits both winter (-40) and summer (+36) and is THE street food.
I finally found a little shwarma shop here in Vancouver that makes its own pickled turnips. Check out the Babylon Cafe just west of Granville at Robson.
BTW -- the link to Babylon Cafe is from a great website called 43 Places -- you can track where in the world you've been, and where you would like to go back to. We're thinking of integrating it directly into Urban Vancouver so we can catalogue all the great restuarants, stores, or just plain hide aways around Vancouver. Check it out and tell us what you think.
I met Chopper Murman in Torino, where we shared our own trials and tribulations amongst the craziness that was going on there.
He started a blog while he was there, and it's been great reading. He just posted about the ferry sinking, and has some interesting things to say about the crews scrambling to "get the story", and also the adrenaline rush of getting the story.
have to begin this post with recognition to my colleagues that had been
assigned to the Ferry Sinking yesterday. They have done a fantastic job
considering we had to mount the mission from Vancouver.
It is hard
to believe that I live in a province that is so big. It is actually
shorter to drive to San Francisco then it is to drive to Prince Rupert.
That said, our SNG team of Gary Tapp and Dave Alexander were able to
tag team and drive our SNG Truck to Prince Rupert and enabled CTV BC to
provide the only live broadcasting into the 6 PM show. Of course Camera
Operators Gary Barndt and Jazz Sangahra (sorry Jazz I can't spell worth
shit) and reporters Lisa Rossington and Bob Brown did an amazing job of
collecting tape, getting interviews and just getting it done. And I
should not forget my national colleagues, Cameraman John Jackson and
Reporter and fellow Maritimer, Todd Battis. I look forward to their war
stories when they return. I also have to mention the team back in
Vancouver that have been recognized by inter office email for their
ability to work the logistics of such big story.
Actually we do this
every day, but with big stories the adrenalin makes us all hyper aware,
and pushes us to approach our respective jobs with enthusiam.
When the game is on we all want to play. We want to win. It is the competitive nature in all of us in the news business.
It's great to get such behind-the-scenes info about local media and I look forward to every post by the Murman -- keep up the good work.
Kris, Robert, and I are here in Torino, Italy, doing lots of "Streets of Torino" coverage. Here's a post I made on the 2010.dailyvancouver.com site about where to find a bunch of the media that's being created:
We're putting videos on YouTube as well -- not just from my little
cameraphone, but from Kris and Robert's Samsung SportCam. Check out the
Torino group on YouTube to catch up with all the latest videos. If anyone else is in Torino, stick your videos there -- it's open to everyone.Flickr also has lots of coverage. We've been tagging everything with Torino, so check the torino tag for ours and others. As well, someone created a Torino 2006 group.
What kind of coverage is showing up in the media back home?
I was tempted to extend the label of this entry to include the month and year, since it seems almost certain that it won't be more than a year before we have to do it all over again.
In any case, please do go out and vote. Need to find out where to vote? Elections Canada has a pretty decent Voter Information Service where you can search by postal code or browse down to your provincial area. Search for where to vote here »
I'm voting for whoever I feel like, strategic voting or other such considerations aside. I would love to see wider/more proportional representation, so more votes for the Greens is probably a better message than a vote given to another party out of fear.
In any case, when all the serious bits of voting are done, I hope to help reform the political system by drowning my sorrows at Library Square Pub with Darren et al. Hope to see you there.
P.S. the election tag on Flickr is the one to watch today.
Lots of people have been coming to the site looking at the Who will you vote for? poll, but also asking questions about where to vote tomorrow.
The City of Vancouver website actually has quite good information about this. The voting information page is an overview of all the civic voting information. More importantly, people will probably want to check out the where do I vote page -- or you can simply check the Voting Place Search Tool, which will even generate a map for you.
See you at the polls tomorrow!
Very cool -- check out David Pritchard's Google Maps-powered Vancouver Transit Map -- here's a screenshot if you're not going to click through the link :P
My teachers are teaching me...
Originally uploaded by bmann.
I think this sign pretty much sums up the two sides of the dispute.
The BC Supreme Court ruled today that the BC Teacher's Federation will not be fined, but that they can no longer financially support the strike in any way, including paying strike pay. Read the full story on the CBC website.
The teachers were never striking for the strike pay in any case, so it's going to be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.
The rally starts tomorrow at 3pm, according to the sign.
Anyone know what this is from? The haze is spreading over the city, but it was hard to make out where it was coming from. We saw it driving back along the 99 from Langley and the Feast of Fields 2005 event.
Update: as Richard says in the comments, apparently it's Burns Bog burning.
Roland and I met Chuq and Laurie for lunch the other day at The Boss in Chinatown. They obviously enjoyed their stay, since here's Chuq singing the praises of Vancouver's urban planning.
You'll also want to head over to the Seattle Pi article that got Chuq going.
To me, there's no comparison. Vancouver made tough choices, and stuck to them against developers who wanted easier projects -- and came out of it with a city that you want to live in and be in. Compare that to San Francisco, or San Jose, especially the latter as a city that seems to bow to developer demands rather than long-term needs of the city. All three cities have really strong and positive neighborhoods. All have their challenges (although to be honest, we've walked some of the seedier areas of Vancouver -- without feeling uncomfortable. Definitely NOT true in San Jose, San Francisco or Portland). But which is the city that has created an environment most positive and successful for its population?
Teal Sunglasses: Vancouver planners say taller buildings just a start
