The Livable Blog

In case anyone is feeling dispirited about stopping the South Fraser Freeway, in an almost unheard of example of protest stopping a project in Russia a series of protests culminating in a banned concert has stopped a freeway project on the outskirts of Moscow. We are not alone, and the tide is turning.

See you on 10/10/10 www.dig4justice.org

MOSCOW (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday ordered the suspension of plans to build a motorway through a forest outside Moscow, in a rare case of the Russian authorities responding to popular protests.

His sudden announcement came after least 2,000 people turned out Sunday for a banned concert in central Moscow protesting plans to build the motorway through the Khimki forest north of the Russian capital.

The protest was much larger than previous opposition protests under the decade-long rule of strongman Prime Minister Vladimir Putin where unsanctioned rallies have been characterised by thin turnouts and police crackdowns.

"Although a decision was taken by the government to build the motorway, people including the ruling party and the opposition, social groups and experts say that additional analysis is needed," Medvedev said.

"I order the government to halt the realisation of the construction and carry out additional discussions," Medvedev added, speaking of the "increased resonance" surrounding the project.

"This decision must be carried out, taking into account the appeals and the worries," he said in a message posted on his video blog.

The numbers at Sunday's protest were undoubtedly boosted by the presence of Yury Shevchuk, a Soviet-era rock star who has become an outspoken Kremlin critic and defiantly sang at the rally.

The order came following an apparently well-choreographed appeal earlier in the day by ruling party United Russia to halt the construction of the road.

It was not immediately clear if Putin -- currently on a highly-publicised trip to the Russian Far East which has seen him chase whales and go bear-watching -- was consulted over the decision.

United Russia, whose overall leader is Putin and which dominates parliament, has become known for consistently rubber-stamping Kremlin policies without quibbles.

"We have different opinions within United Russia about this question. But the situation does not look simple," United Russia's chairman Boris Gryzlov said in a statement.

Activists welcomed the move by United Russia as long overdue but better late than never.

Environmental campaigners have campaigned for months to block the construction of the highway which aims to relieve traffic on the Moscow-Saint Petersburg route but has become a rallying cause for the opposition.

"We are very happy," said Yevgenia Chirikova, the activist who has led the protest movement against the motorway. "But it is hard to explain because until now the authorities were not reacting to the civic protests," she told AFP.

The decision was the latest sign the authorities were keeping a beady eye on the protest movement in Russia after the economic crisis and wildfire catastrophe.
[snip]
Full text at http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100826/wl_afp/russiapoliticsenvironmentpoliticsprotest_20100826164612;_ylt=AlxarnDnq4o_YBIi12Ma5PaQOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTNnNGowN2JvBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDEwMDgyNi9ydXNzaWFwb2xpdGljc2Vudmlyb25tZW50cG9saXRpY3Nwcm90ZXN0BHBvcwMyOARzZWMDeW5

by Eric Doherty

Bus lane in Brooklyn - Photo www.mta.info

About 15 years ago one of the hot topics in the Vancouver papers was the plan for an at-grade light rail line from Coquitlam to UBC that would have taken up two lanes on Broadway and the Lougheed Highway. The plan was that rapid transit would connect Coquitlam and central Broadway within a few years. Shortly thereafter, the provincial government suddenly switched to a much more expensive - and never completed - SkyTrain line: today’s Millennium Line. Both Coquitlam and UBC are still waiting for rapid transit, and they may wait for decades, given the estimated $4.2 billion needed to connect both with SkyTrain on elevated guideways and subway tunnels.

The long-promised Evergreen Line SkyTrain branch to Coquitlam and the Northeast Sector is estimated at $1.4-billion but only $800 million has been committed by senior governments, leaving a $600 million gap. Translink is so strapped for cash that it was forced to mothball one of its three Sea Buses to reduce operating costs. The $2.8 billion estimated cost of extending the Millennium line to UBC is so daunting that it makes this funding gap insignificant.

In New York, the squeeze on the transit system is more intense. As transit ridership is growing rapidly, the aging subway system needs billions in upgrades, and even a modest extension to one line would cost billions they don’t have. But instead of crying about the expense of new subways, New York is putting rapid transit on the street with Bus Rapid Transit.

Full text at http://thecanadian.org/k2/item/226-doherty-bus-rapid-transit

Delta Council candidate Sylvia Bishop has come out swinging against the South Fraser Freeway. This could be a refreshing change, as all of the present Delta council member seem to think their job is to pave over Delta's farm land as quickly as possible.

A recent blog post on her website reads:

Delta, farmland, freeway, Gateway, SFPR, transportation
Stop! Thief! Arrest that freeway!
by Sylvia Bishop on July 13th, 2010

If we personified the South Fraser Perimeter Road and attributed human characteristics to it (in the spirit of Michael Moore’s “The Corporation“) we could charge the following: vandalism, property damage and loss of habitat. The freeway is a scar on the landscape as it carves its way through our precious farmland. In North Delta, is has destroyed family homes where in some cases, generations have lived. In North Surrey it runs a block away from an elementary school. With no regard for people, the freeway threatens wildlife confined to ever shrinking habitats. Endangered species are at further risk and may be lost.

And for what? An antiquated oil reliant transportation mode!

So we have two choices: act like a door mat and let them walk all over us or join forces in a mighty roar letting all levels of government know we want that freeway stopped. Arrest it.

Me? I’m for a loud and extended ROAR!
http://www.electsylviabishop.com/uncategorized/stop-thief-arrest-that-freeway/#respond

She has already gotten some media coverage on the issue:

Council candidate starts new campaign against SFPR

By Sandor Gyarmati, The Delta Optimist July 28, 2010

Delta council candidate Silvia Bishop helped kick off a new campaign against the South Fraser Perimeter Road project.

Attending International Bog Day at the Delta Nature Reserve Sunday, Bishop filled an envelope of sand taken from the pre-load from the South Fraser Perimeter Road, saying she'll mail it to Transportation Minister Shirley Bond as part of the "Sand for Shirley" campaign.

"I have traveled the full length of the 40-kilometre proposed freeway and am disturbed by the loss of farmland, demolition of neighbourhoods and destruction to the environment," said Bishop.

The Bridgeview Community Action Group and Sunbury Neighbourhood Association launched the campaign asking for the pre-load sand dumped along the route to be removed.

People are invited to join by filling out a form or signing an online petition at www.sandforshirley.ca

The SFPR will be a 40-kilometre, four-lane, route along the south side of the Fraser River, extending from Deltaport Way to 176th Street in Surrey, with connections to Highway 1, 91, 99 and the Golden Ears Bridge.

Construction of the new highway has been ongoing since 2008 with the completion date pushed back to 2013.

A community liaison committee was recently established to facilitate discussion between community representatives and the SFPR project team.
© Copyright (c) Delta Optimist

Read more: http://www.delta-optimist.com/Council+candidate+starts+campaign+against+SFPR/3332102/story.html#ixzz0v6tXBGTZ

It should be interesting to see what the other candidates have to say about the issue!

Barred Owl seen from the South Fraser Witness Trail

Activists get gritty in protest over Gateway Program
By Matthew Burrows

Some of the sand put in place to stabilize the ground for the planned $1-billion South Fraser Perimeter Road—part of the Gateway Program—will soon be headed straight for B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond.

Long-time Surrey resident Bernadette Keenan, a founding member of the Bridgeview Community Action Group, told the Georgia Straight that she and other local activists are behind a campaign they’re calling Sand for Shirley. Keenan said she has already collected recycled envelopes, and now she’s getting people who are concerned about the construction of the SFPR to sign a form and scoop sand into an envelope for Bond. The envelopes will be hand-delivered rather than mailed, Keenan added.

“Why sand? It is a symbol,” she said by phone. “They’re dumping it on us. It’s in our faces, and you can’t drive anywhere around our neighbourhood without seeing it. There used to be trees growing there. There were plants and houses, and people that I know and respected are gone now because of that sand. Basically, I hate it.”

[snip]

Full article with video and comments
http://www.straight.com/article-334740/vancouver/activists-get-gritty-protest-over-gateway-program

Photo Timothy Neesam/CBC - Black clad protestors in Toronto.

The G8/G20 farce is starting to unravel, and hopefully it will unravel Harper at the same time. Not only is this clique of the powerful and corrupt meeting as oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, as we wait for the first hurricane of the season. Not only is their main agenda stimulating increased consumption and production of consumer goods like cars, and infrastructure such as freeways, which is only possible with increased rates of oil and coal extraction. But once again, our police forces seem to have engineered incidents to justify imposing a police state to stifle dissent during a major international event.

Photo Timothy Neesam/CBC - Environmental Justice Now banner held by more dangerous protesters.

As John Hillary of the prestigious UK newspaper the Guardian writes in a June 27 article titled May Toronto's G20 be the last:

Many Canadians have become suspicious of police tactics since the Quebec police force admitted that it had disguised three of its own officers as rock-wielding anarchists in an attempt to provoke violence at a peaceful protest in the town of Montebello two years ago. Somewhat farcically, the three were exposed as agents provocateurs when they were found to be wearing official issue police boots identical to those of the uniformed officers "arresting" them.

There are concerns that similar skulduggery may have played a part in Toronto this weekend, where the burning of three police cars quickly became the defining image of Saturday's otherwise peaceful demonstration. Questions are being asked as to why the police chose to drive the vehicles into the middle of a group of protesters and then abandon them, and why there was no attempt to put out the flames until the nation's media had been given time to record the scenes for broadcast around the world. . . .

As an invitation-only club whose membership was literally drawn up on the back of an envelope, the G20 never laid any claim to legitimacy. Now it is also in danger of losing any credibility as a forum for global economic governance. Its failure to address any of the structural problems that caused the financial and economic crises of the past three years has certainly not gone unnoticed in Toronto, let alone its complete refusal to deal with the challenge of climate change.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/27/g20-toronto-policing-charade

Another report states:

A number of police cars which were set on fire. They were abandoned in the middle of intersections beforehand, and stripped of all their equipment by police--the cars were discovered to have been damaged previously, which led to reports that the police had purposefully left the cars there as bait, hoping to tempt protesters into set the cars on fire, in order to justify their own violent acts. Later accounts have led many to believe that the fires themselves were set by undercover police, or agents provocateurs.
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/erosion-rights-quick-descent/3886

The Harper-led G8 / G20 meetings have not just been about avoiding the subject of the climate crisis. They seem to be focused on finding ways to make it worse. What is going on behind the rows of robo cops and millions of dollars of fences is heinous climate crime.

Even if every bit of the photogenic destruction was just the result of justified rage at the crimes being committed inside the fence, a few dozen broken windows and three trashed cars does not justify police attacks on anyone who steps onto the street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaYbq484abs&feature=player_embedded

On the streets police are attacking and arresting anyone and everyone near protests, including journalists, seniors and young women. It does not seem to matter if they are protesting this crime scene, or just committed the crime of walking down the sidewalk in a Canadian city. People are even having police burst into their bedrooms at 4 am. They are raiding university dormitories and hauling away dozens of people of all ages away in buses. And this is what the world is seeing of Canada – climate (and other corporate) crime backed up with brute force.

Photo Toronto Star - Injured protester after police attack.

Today is a day to be proud of the people who are still out on the streets of Toronto expressing their belief that Another World is Possible. It is also a day that makes it very clear that Another Canada is Necessary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heb9BXjYcII