The Livable Blog

Get involved in the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice!
Mass Direct Action against Climate Crime

Council of Canadians 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice information meeting

Wednesday Sept. 15, 7.30pm sharp

Holy Trinity Church, 1440 West 12th Ave. (main floor)

Global warming related disasters, such as the floods in Pakistan, are a growing threat particularly to low income people. Now transportation is Canada’s largest and fastest growing source of the greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating this crisis, making freeway building a climate crime.

Come and get involved in making the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice a success.

About the 10/10/10 Dig in for Climate Justice:

On Sunday October 10, 2010 as part of the 350.org 10/10/10 Global Work Party people around the world will be doing hands-on projects to shift humanity off the path towards runaway global warming. In greater Vancouver, we are organizing a mass direct action against a deliberate climate crime – the South Fraser Freeway.

The South Fraser Freeway is an est. $2 billion freeway to be paved through BC's best farmland and the delicate banks of the Fraser River.

We will remove ‘preload’ sand from the proposed freeway route and fill sand bags to raise nearby flood control dikes around a diverse Surrey neighbourhood, to protect it from flooding caused by global warming.

Organized by the Council of Canadians and GatewaySucks.org

For more info visit www.dig4justice.org

email edoherty at uniserve.com or call 604-877-1223

See the Sept 7, 2010 call for mass direct action from Bill McKibben of 350.org at http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-05-call-for-direct-action-in-climate-movement-we-need-your-ideas

Note:
Our Chapter is joining with two other COC chapters and Gateway Sucks to help organize this event. Our meeting will give you some background about the South Fraser Freeway Project and then let you know how you can participate in and support this day of action on October 10th. The more people who take part, the more effective this action will be. Come and help us get our message through to the politicians and the public.

For any of you who like the line "building freeways to solve congestion is like buying a longer belt to cure obesity", you will not be surprised with the following:

No relief for commuters under Fraser mouth
New ring road won't ease congestion
Brian Lewis, The Province
Published: Tuesday, August 24, 2010

If you commute daily through the George Massey Tunnel and think that the $1.2-billion South Fraser Perimeter Road will ease the 51-year-old crossing's congestion when it opens in 2013, you'd better think again.

A significant portion of the tunnel's daily gridlock is caused by an ever-increasing number of trucks, running to and from Deltaport and B.C. Ferries' nearby Tsawwassen terminal, that merge with commuter traffic from South Delta, White Rock and south Surrey into the tunnel's inadequate four lanes under the Fraser River.

Figures obtained last week by our sister weekly newspaper, the Delta Optimist, show that the B.C. government estimates truck traffic through the Massey Tunnel will hardly decline once the 40-kilometre SFPR is completed sometime in 2013.

[snip]
blewis@theprovince.com
http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=4e36d95f-74d1-40ff-b640-a06937541be8

But really, the quote should be something like "building freeways to solve congestion is like spending a billion dollars on a longer belt to cure obesity"

This is what Metro Vancouver chief administrative officer Johnny Carline said recently:

"We don't think we'll be able to afford full-scale investments in the Evergreen Line, south of the Fraser and UBC all in the life of this plan . . . We can't afford to have investments going out to UBC that take away from investment in the major growth areas."

Read the quote carefully - "full-scale investments" really means Skytrain type light metro, or the kind of light rail highway engineers love, with lots of underground stations and underpasses so road space for cars is not reduced.

The fact is that if the province shifted all the billions they plan to spend on urban freeways and other roadway expansions we could have even this kind of gold plated transit well before 30 years is up (noting that most of the gold goes to serve the automobile rather than the transit rider).

Photo: The consequences of climate crime - floods in Pakistan

But we don't have 30 years. Just think about what global warming is doing already in Pakistan and in Russia.

As I wrote earlier, we don't have to wait as long if the transit is on the surface using existing road space. We need a full network of rapid transit within the next five years, and we can afford it if we put the priority on transit not freeways.

Mark your calendar for 10/10/10 www.dig4justice.org

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!