Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.
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Slideshow. Save Kits Beach rally. Photos courtesy of Elvira Lount. Sunday, October 20, 2013
As much as the ne’er-do-wells and naïfs in Vision Vancouver wanted the bike lane controversy on Vancouver’s west side to go away, as much as the rally at Kitsilano Beach — protesting the planned for, done deal, decided upon without consultation, “hell, we’re not going to reverse our decision“, and wholly detestable bike freeway through Hadden and Kits Beach parks, two parks of unsurpassed beauty — was a non-consideration for Vancouver’s Park Board, despite the cynical belief system that informs the arrogant “we know what’s best for you” — and one would have to say corrupt, if one were being truly honest — political machine at City Hall and Park Board, on this overcast Sunday afternoon, up to 800 citizens, tried and true, turned out to do something that one would hazard a guess most of those present on this chilly afternoon had either never done before, nor had done since the halcyon days of their youth: protest.
Kits Point Residents’ Lynne Kent. Save Kits Beach rally. Courtesy, Elvira Lount. Oct. 20, 2013
Concerned parent Maria Coelho, Save Kits Beach rally. Courtesy, Elvira Lount. Oct. 20, 2013
Yes, there we were speechifying, clapping, booing Park Board Commissioner Constance Barnes “off the stage” (we’ve had enough of Constance, who’s not a bad person, but by God, she’s a Visionite), those of us gathered on Sunday at Kitsilano Beach making it perfectly clear that we’ve had enough of the likes of the disingenuous Vision types who keep telling us ad nauseum that they know what’s good for us — because, don’tcha know, we the citizens are too stupid to know what’s good for us … hell, if we had any wit or intelligence, we’d be Park Board Commissioners or City Councillors, but we’re not, and they are, so why don’t we just shut up!
Well, there was no shutting us up on Sunday afternoon.
Ray Tomlin. Excerpt of Save Kits Beach speech. Courtesy, Paul Tolnai. Oct. 20, 2013 That is Park Board Commissioner Constance Barnes whispering to Commissioner Trevor Loke
CBC may be reporting that “the park board says it isn’t backing down,” but clearly whoever wrote their online story wasn’t present on Sunday, because come hell or high water, the 800 folks who’d arrived at Kits Beach at noon Sunday would hear no talk of a bike freeway through their beloved parks.
Sure, there were shills and bike lobbylists — oh say, the likes of Chris Keam — extolling the virtues of the “bike path”, but bought-and-paid-for Vision hacks were not going to carry the day — and will not carry that day — when it comes to the destruction of Hadden and Kits Beach parks.
Note should be made that a goodly number of those present on Sunday were cyclists (as is this writer), that we frequently cycle around and through Hadden and Kits Beach parks — you can watch, again, Colleen Hardwick’s fine video for insight into the quiet residential street that those of us cycling for pleasure, or cycling home from downtown, take each and every day, or at least frequently. Those of us gathered on Sunday very much desire a separated bike path, but for heaven’s sake, not a bike freeway through the middle of the grassy, treed areas of Hadden and Kits Beach parks.
At Monday evening’s Park Board meeting, there were 100 irate folks telling Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioners where to shove it, when quisling Commissioner Aaron Jasper made a last-minute “strike and replace” amendment to Commissioner Melissa De Genova’s motion to advise Vancouver City Council that they must direct future developer community amenity contributions for the purpose of the construction of a long overdue and much-needed seniors centre in the Killarney neighbourhood.
Jasper’s watered down amendment would simply ask Council to, please oh please oh please, ask senior levels of government in Victoria and Ottawa to fund what Vancouver should damn well be requiring Vancouver developers to build. But Vision, of course, is in the pocket of developers (gosh, can we say that … hmmm, I think we just did), and we wouldn’t want to hurt Vision’s developers stream of financial sustenance that allows Vancouver’s greenwashing party to continue to screw us now, would we?
Coverage of Monday night’s Park Board meeting is available @raytomlin, VanRamblings’ twitter feed, that if you’re not following it now, you oughta. And, if you’re not on Twitter, just let me say this, “Get on it”.
CBC TV. Coverage of Sunday’s Save Kits Beach rally. October 20, 2013
Now, we raise the issue of Monday night’s disquieting Park Board meeting because, although there were 100 Killarney seniors, and their friends and family, who turned up to support Melissa De Genova’s entirely ethical motion, if Vision Vancouver’s Park Board attempts to stack the Special Advisory Committee that’s been established by Park Board to provide community input into the final route the — it’s only fair to say, absolutely unnecessary — Hadden / Kits Beach bike path will take, there won’t be 100 irate citizens turning up at the Park Board offices off English Bay, there’ll be hundreds, and hundreds more outside on the manicured lawns.
Civil disobedience, it’s a wonderful thing.
The hundreds of righteous folks who turned up at Kits Beach on Sunday — counterintuitive radicals — made it abundantly clear, they’d had enough.
You take the 100 seniors in Killarney, and the irate neighbours in Grandview Woodlands, the folks over in Langara who were threatened by Mayor Gregor Robertson and Park Board with taking away their beloved green space, the Langara Golf Course, and you add hundreds of other concerned citizens in another dozen neighbourhoods across the city, and you combine their number with the hundreds of folks who came out to protest at Kitsilano Beach, and you’ve got yourself a revolution, a grassroots uprising of folks who say in clear voice and good conscience, Enough is Enough.
And this isn’t going to be any COPE-led movement or revolution (will they ever get it together?), and the genesis of the movement certainly won’t be coming from the NPA — although it could, cuz it’d be a middle-class revolution, and as the NPA is repositioning itself as part of the Naheed Nenshi purple revolution, the New Progressive Association, you just never know, the NPA — if it plays its cards right, could push — no, let’s say throw — the Vision Vancouver scoundrels out of City Hall and Park Board.
We don’t include the Vision Vancouver-led Board of Education here, because Patti Bacchus and company are a gift of our landscape.
Global TV. Coverage of Sunday’s Save Kits Beach rally. October 20, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013.
Mark it on your calendar. There’s a revolution coming to Vancouver politics.
Hell, it might even be a Howard Kelsey-led revolution — you know those basketball types, they’ve got their eye on the ball (so to speak). And VanRamblings, we’d like to offer our name up as a candidate for Park Board. But for which party? Yes, that Tomlin fella introduced himself as the COPE guy, but really, COPE seems to think it has bigger fish to fry than parks — talk about a party that doesn’t understand revolution, I tell ya.
Yep, it’s a whole new ballgame out there.
Let’s see who emerges as a community leader in the coming weeks and months to defeat the most despicable Vancouver municipal party since the days of “freeway, you wanna freeway, well, I got a freeway for you” Tom ‘Terrific’ Campbell. Could be a COPE gal, could be some community-oriented NPA folks. Whoever it is, they’re going to have to be well-funded, strong of character and backbone, and ready to face one of the meanest, most corrupt — and, best organized — municipal parties Canada has ever seen.
Make no mistake, though, a change, it’s a comin’.
A rally to protest the imposition of a 12-foot-wide, paved bike path through Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks will take place at NOON, this Sunday, October 20th, at Kitsilano Beach, in the area between the palm trees, adjacent to the Boathouse restaurant. Please read the post below for background information on the rally, and protest. We’ll see you there.
In July of this year, Vancouver City Council approved a bike-friendly corridor — colloquially titled the Seaside Greenway — stretching from the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge through to Jericho Park, the process achieving a critical component of a much-sought-after Vancouver bike road network.
That the Seaside Greenway plan lacked substantive detail, and was bereft of any suggestion of insight into the possible environmental impacts of the newly-approved, extended, bike route corridor stretching along Vancouver’s pristine west side waterfront, that the approved plan called for a bike route along York Avenue that almost every one of the more than 100 speakers who addressed Council opposed, that details of a proposed bike path through Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks was utterly lacking in transparent disclosure — exorcising a goodly portion of a concerned populace — mattered not, at least for the moment, anyway.
Summer beckoned, the sun shone as it had not before, family vacations were in the offing, and the warming, sandy beaches of the west side made their siren call. The silly season had overtaken us; there was time enough down the line to consider the full implications of the decision taken by Vancouver City Council to introduce their much-desired Seaside Greenway.
Initial construction of Vancouver’s Cornwall Avenue - Point Grey Road Seaside Greenway commenced in early September with engineering changes to the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge, and the implementation of a T-intersection — the full implications of which we’re just going to have to wait to see, in practice — that will serve, all at once, to restrict vehicle access to Cornwall, prioritize and enable easier bike access, and direct most bridge traffic south along Burrard Street to Fourth Avenue, and Broadway. Residents Oppose Paved Bike Route That Will Scar Westside Parks
Global TV. Residents speak out against 12-foot-wide paved Kits Beach bike path
Approximately two weeks ago — on Monday, October 7th — a Vision Vancouver-dominated Park Board approved $2.2 million in new bike paths along Vancouver’s westside waterfront, in support of Vancouver City Council’s Seaside Greenway “Point Grey-Cornwall Active Transportation Corridor”. Included in the approved plan were “improvements” to Hadden & Kitsilano Beach parks — an initiative that would result in the destruction of a portion of Vancouver’s natural environment, in favour of the building of an egregious 12-foot-wide asphalt bike path that would serve to all but destroy the natural beauty of two of Kitsilano’s most beloved parks.
In today’s VanRamblings’ post, we’ll attempt to present a broad cross-section of opinion on the proposed Hadden / Kitsilano Beach park bike route — from concerned neighbours, the media, Vision Vancouver and NPA Park Board Commissioners, and others — and hope to inform you of the very important issues at play in the decision taken by Vancouver Park Board on October 7th that many believe will permanently destroy a tranquil setting of natural beauty along Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet oceanfront.
This coming Sunday, October 20th, at noon, in front of Kitsilano Beach’s Boathouse restaurant — in the area nearest the palm trees — concerned citizens will rally to demand that the Vancouver Park Board reverse their decision approving a plan for Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks that will …
Eliminate much-needed green space, and
Create serious new safety hazards for families, children, pedestrians, and non-cyclists who would seek to enjoy the natural beauty of the two parks
Organizers of the rally suggest that “an improper consultation process — including a lack of public engagement, advisement, consultation, public signage, and public meetings with key stakeholders” invalidates the decision taken by Park Board to approve the new 12-foot-wide, paved bike path through Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks. Organizers further take umbrage with the City’s unparalleled rush to construction, and point out to Park Board Commissioners that the leader of the BC Cycling Association supports an alternative bike route, adjacent to the nearby roadway. Vancouver Courier columnist Sandra Thomas reports that the “Kits Beach bike path is a done deal“, quoting Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner Aaron Jasper thusly …
“To be clear,” said Jasper, “this decision will not be reversed.”
In The Courier article, Thomas reports KitsFest co-founder and two time Olympian Howard Kelsey disagreeing that the public consultation was thorough, noting that many stakeholders affected by the proposed bike path were in attendance at a special ceremony on September 29th for the official Park Board opening of 10 recently-renovated Kitsilano Beach tennis courts, quoting Kelsey as saying …
“We were right there and no one said a word to any of us,” said Kelsey, who chairs Canada One Athletic Foundation and is executive vice-president of Canada Basketball. “We were completely blindsided.”
Commenting on the Save Kits Beach Facebook page, Vancouver resident Anita Sigur writes …
Now they’ve gone too far.
Slicing up the best and most untouched part of the park in order to put in a twelve foot paved bike path is absolute madness. How does cutting out the heart of this beautiful park serve to “green” the city?
The hill at the north end of Kits Beach Park is a paradise for picnickers. In a recent newspaper article (Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner) Constance Barnes called it a “dormant” area. Really?! If she meant a perfect spot to catch a summer nap, then I’d wholeheartedly agree. On my frequent walks there in the spring and summer I am always greeted with the sight of many contented couples and families hanging out there, making a day of it. It is the ideal spot to enjoy breathtaking views, a cool sea breeze, and some much needed shade from the enormous maple trees.
This place that they want to pave over is the destination that rewards those who walk, cycle, or arrive at the park in their cars. If you’re in a hurry to cycle some place else, I suggest you take the road. Parks are for slowing down in and drinking in their beauty. The proposed bike path not only takes away a 12-foot-wide wide swath of valuable park space, but vast amounts of park space around it that will be avoided by dog walkers, people with children, and those who don’t find it at all relaxing sitting next to what will be, in effect, a bike freeway.”
Vancouver resident Colleen Hardwick has prepared the following video …
Meanwhile, Vancouver Sun columnist Pete McMartin attributes elitist motives to those who will rally to protest the imposition of a paved bike route through the middle of two of Vancouver’s most beloved parks. McMartin writes that the west side protest represents …
“… a disturbing trend that might be demographic in nature; or it might be a symptom of the growing gulf between the haves and have-nots in the city. But it’s shrill, and it betrays a panic that has entered the public discourse.”
A very fine, a humane, writer, with all due respect to Mr. McMartin, very rarely does he get it as wrong as he gets it here. When he writes, “And whatever its route, a bike lane running through a park is not an issue.” No? Has he not watched the video above, nor personally tracked the route (someone has clearly marked the proposed bike path with chalk), as VanRamblings did this past Monday? Does he honestly believe that the faux consulting that the Vision Vancouver-dominated City Council and Park Board have engaged in (a bought-and-paid-for-by-Vision online survey — this is ‘big city’ politics of the worst kind we’re talking here) truly represents the opinions of the hundreds and thousands of cyclists who traverse the route around and through Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks? If so, there may be a bridge he’s interested in that we could sell him for cheap.
Vancouver’s ‘rant king’, the blustery Bruce Allen, weighed in Wednesday, in his daily commentary on CKNW, taking a stand against the proposed bike route through the parks — we feel as if we’re falling down the rabbit hole here, perplexed that McMartin is taking the wrong side of the issue, while the generally frenzied Allen finds himself on the side of the angels …
On Monday, October 14th, Vancouver Sun reporter Brian Morton wrote the following story, titled “Kitsilano Beach bike route plan draws fire from critics”, quoting Kitsilano resident James Goodman …
“I don’t object to a separated bike lane,” said local resident James Goodman on Monday. “But to go right through a picnic area is ridiculous when they can easily follow the park boundary around it.”
“There wasn’t enough consultation, but there’s also not enough common sense,” added Goodman. “This is the one area of the park that’s heavily used.”
“We are quite strongly shocked to see this and we knew nothing about this until last Monday,” said Kelsey, who said he represents about 3,000 basketball, tennis and beach volleyball users. “This just came out of the middle of nowhere because it was so stealthily managed. We are just so disappointed.
“We would be remiss to let them pave a 12-foot swath for a bike highway parallel to Arbutus Avenue through a highly-used recreational area beside the basketball courts that we donated and the children’s play area that Rick Hansen donated,” added Kelsey, noting that 23 parking spaces in a parking lot would also be taken away in a crowded area “where those spots are worth gold in the summer.”
Kelsey said he proposed a meeting with the Park Board on Wednesday, but hadn’t heard back. For all that, according to the Vancouver Sun, the opposition to the Hadden/Kits Beach park bike route is gaining momentum.
On Wednesday morning Kelsey, and Kits Point Residents Association’s Lynne Kent, appeared on Bill Good’s CKNW talk show to express concern about the imposition of an unnecessary paved bike path through Hadden and Kits Beach parks. Click this link to hear what they had to say. Update, Saturday morning: Howard Kelsey appeared with Jill Bennett on CKNW. Click on the audio file below to hear their discussion.
Vancouver Courier ‘Central Park’ columnist, Sandra Thomas, in a front page story published in Friday, October 18th’s Courier, has written a well-researched, balanced story, titled, “Vancouver bike path critics ready to fight, Rally against Kits bikeway planned for Sunday,” quoting the concerns of park users on the planned paved bike route. Well worth a read. The Province newspaper has weighed in on the bike path controversy …
“You know what Vancouver needs? A lot less partisan politics at city hall. While some other large B.C. communities have municipal parties, and the ideological debates that can bring, nowhere is local politics more vicious and destructive to social cohesion and sense of community than in Vancouver. And never has that been more true than since Vision Vancouver under Mayor Gregor Robertson laid political siege to the city. It was Robertson himself who set the tone early when he was caught on microphone at a 2010 public meeting dismissing a group of concerned residents as “f—- NPA hacks.
Now Vancouver parks board vice-chairman Aaron Jasper is getting in on the act; he’s arrogantly dismissing legitimate citizen concerns about a bike lane that will cut through the heart of Kits Beach park, endangering other users, as the work of the Non-Partisan Association. He says he’ll listen to them, but it’s a done deal.
That’s the brutal partisan behaviour of Vision that so many Vancouverites have grown sick of and why they feel they have no voice. Vision’s reputation for ramming through its projects without regard to public opinion is well-established. It’s why so many now say, “I voted for Vision, but never again.” It’s also why some residents now tune out Vision proposals, which isn’t good either.
Vancouver could do with a lot more of the municipal politicians you find in smaller towns who are primarily interested in serving the public and finding compromise on issues — not turning every issue into a winner-take-all partisan fight at the expense of the majority. The city would be a much nicer place if that were true.”
Let’s hope the Vision Vancouver folks over at City Hall are listening.
For all that the more progressive forces in town tend to demonize the NPA as “that party of the right” — Vancouver’s oldest (but still thriving) municipal party, the standard-bearer of civic governance for most of the past century — over the past two years, and more, it has proved to be NPA Park Board Commissioners John Coupar and Melissa De Genovawho have emerged as the Park Board Commissioners who, as persons of conscience and integrity, have steadfastly stood up for the interests of Vancouver citizens on a range of important Park Board issues, their commitment to transparency of decision-making, and democratic input from all of us who live in Vancouver, hearteningly (and dare we say, joyously) consistent.
On the NPA website, Commissioners De Genova and Coupar have called formeaningful engagement with the public on “the controversial plan to pave a 12-foot wide swath of blacktop through Kits Beach Park and Hadden Park.” Both NPA Commissioners will attend the Kitsilano Beach protest, De Genova tweeting out that she considers Sunday’s rally a “public consultation.”
Although we had written earlier that we felt it unlikely elected representatives of Vision Vancouver would attend Sunday’s protest rally, sources claim that Vision Park Board Commissioners Trevor Loke and Constance Barnes have agreed to attend. Clearly, they’ll not be in for an easy time of it — let’s try and keep the dialogue respectful, though. The Georgia Straight has published a letter from Kitsilano resident Jason A. Johns …
I am writing to express my complete discontent with the bike lanes that are planned through Kits Beach. I’m a Kits Point resident and I am shocked that we knew nothing about the proposal.
While I approve of bike lanes, I can’t support tearing up of precious green space on a beach where families come to barbecue, and where kids throw footballs, Frisbees, play volleyball, or just run around and play.
The proposed location is dangerous to park users who are mostly pedestrians. The lane goes directly through popular picnic areas.
It is amazing to me that politicians who want Vancouver to be the “greenest city on Earth” would support such a ridiculous plan. My 13-year-old keeps asking how such a plan could be approved when it goes against all the things she has been learning at school. Even she can see the potential new danger for children playing.
Margaret Partridge has created a protest petition at Change.org, which as of Saturday evening has garnered the support of more than five hundred concerned citizens, whose signatures and commentary express concern about an environmentally unsound paved Kitsilano Beach bike path.
On the Keep Kits Beach Wild Facebook page, there’s quite a discussion going on respecting the proposed bike route through Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks. Perhaps the most poignant comment we’ve read in this whole brouhaha was written by Colleen Hardwick, “A tragic, destructive and unnecessary make-work project on the part of the City and the Park Board. Surely the irony of paving a park for a bike lane in the name of the “green” agenda, isn’t lost on the voting public.”
There’s also quite a discussion going on at Voony’s Blog — a blog covering transportation issues in Vancouver, and the notion of urbanism — on the attendant issues involved in the Hadden Park – Kitsilano Beach bike route.
For VanRamblings, the issue is, as always, democracy, respect for the people, the citizenry — the families of every description who make up this expressive world of ours. Most of those who are involved in organizing the protest rally on Sunday, or who have commented on the various Facebook pages, or written letters to the newspapers, or who signed the Change.org petition, are not “political“, or have branded themselves as such, as if politics is a dirty word.
And, you know what?
Politics is a dirty word — when you have municipal parties like Vision Vancouver, the provincial Liberals or the federal Tories, each of which is given over far too often to the engagement of the politics of division, the politics of the big lie, the politics of personal destruction, the disheartening and ugly politics of malevolence and ill will, and most cynically, the politics of self-interest with which we have all become much too familiar, as we go about the daily conduct of our lives, struggle to make a living, put food on our table, care for those who are dear to us, and attempt to find joy, and — from time to time — locate oases of calm and tranquility.
Our parks are those oases of calm and tranquility, those meeting places where we connect, really connect, with our friends and our neighbours, with our families, and with those who live around us — who share our home with us — where we gain perspective on our lives, as we look across the grasses, through the trees, to the open ocean and the mountains beyond, and reflect on what it means to be us, as father, mother, sister, daughter, son and brother, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather, disabled person, working person, retired person, transgendered person, gay, straight, lesbian, whatever our race or colour, whatever our heritage.
Early 20th century novelist Austen Tappan Wright, in his seminal work of fiction, Islandia, called this notion, tanrydoon, which he defined as …
How we are attuned to the environment, and to all those around us, our love of place, but also of family as they are related to that place, the absence of selfishness or purely personal interest, which is supplanted by the long view of one’s place and family across generations, the cultivation of the lands around us that become the project of generations, our parks and our open spaces as home, and the equivalent of great cathedrals, deeply tied to our love of the Earth, as an expression of our love for the natural environment, and for all those with whom we share the natural environment. We will always have the Earth, the rolling grasses and the sky, and the warmth of the sun.
If we lose the green space within Hadden and Kits Beach parks, in favour of an unnecessary and destructive paved bike path, we will lose a bit of ourselves, our history, and our legacy to the generations that are to follow.
At noon, on Sunday, October 21st, a few hundred good people will gather together at Kitsilano Beach to say, “This is our Earth, this is our natural environment, our green space, where we might enjoy the company of our neighbours and friends and family, our park as an oases of tranquility in our otherwise, too often, frenetic lives. We, all of us, do not want nor do we need a ragged, unforgiving asphalt bike path cutting through our park.”
Photos of Hadden & Kitsilano Beach parks, taken by Elvira Lount, Oct. 13, 2013.
Colleen Hardwick takes a walk along Ogden Avenue, from Chestnut to Maple and through Kits park, showing the existing provisions for bicycles, as well as cars, school buses, dog-walkers, roller-bladers, and other park users. Oct. 18, 2013.
Hope to see you at Kits Beach, noon, on Sunday. At some point, we must take a stand. Sunday just may be the starting point of change.
At the 32nd annual edition of the Vancouver International Film Festival, smartphones were more prevalent than had ever been the case, previously, at our Festival, the iPhone seemingly the smartphone of choice.
One could see the occasional Blackberry, a few Android-based Samsung phones were in evidence, but no Windows 8-based Nokia Luminas (actually, a great phone). Yes, it was the Apple iPhone in all of its platinum glory — and version 5, at that — the so-called ‘smartphone for dummies’ (they’re so easy to use, seamless in their operation, VanRamblings employing an iPhone 5 as our means of social communication) that held sway at VIFF.
Social media, and twitter use in particular, was up, way up (how else to discover, in real time, the VIFF winners this past Friday night — a big thank you to the Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman), VIFF patrons plugged into the news online prior to the unspooling of VIFF cinematic splendour, text messaged their friends — and moreso than in previous years, kindly observed the instruction of those VIFF staff introducing films to “shut off your smartphones, so as not to disturb your neighbours”). All to the good.
Just prior to the start of VIFF 2013, Apple introduced a near revolutionary change to the iPhone: the introduction of the iOS 7 operating system, a transformation of functionality and process greater than any that has occurred since Apple first introduced the iPhone into the market, in 2007.
Apple has decided to do away with its skeumorphic app design, the “traditional” look employed in the design of Apple’s mobile apps — a design which mimicked “real world” objects — as it moves away from the three-dimensional candy-coated icons with which iPhone / iPad users had become familiar, in favour of flattened icons and a more minimalist design, the “new” flat design of iOS 7 closer to the new industry stand in the mobile market, a style employed by Google on all its Android-based phones.
In fact, the “new” iOS 7 — featuring uncluttered interfaces, and the deliberate use of white space — ought to make use of the iPhone and iPad faster and more intuitive (and more likely than not, prolong battery life). Apple is getting rid of the bloat attendant in the skeumorphic graphical user interface. Of course, a major change of design such as that undertaken in iOS 7 involves something of a learning curve, and an adjustment for users, and as we noticed at the Festival, many iPhone owners were struggling with their adjustment to iOS 7 (whereas, VanRamblings loves the new, almost poetically slippery, Apple operating system).
During the run of the Festival, VanRamblings had promised to publish an introductory column on iOS 7, directing readers towards a few tips, tricks and innovative changes that are incorporated into iOS 7, replete with links galore, a complete explanation on the nature of iOS 7’s innovation.
Today, we’ll go some way to fulfilling that commitment. 19+ Tips, Tricks & Innovations iPhone/iOS 7 Users Ought to Know
As above, in this post we’ll commence our exploration of iOS 7, with the 19+ new and innovative features that will be of most interest to iPhone users. In addition, here’s a link to an article on iOS 7 battery saving tips, and another link on how to resolve petty iOS 7 annoyances. We intend that this article will help iPhone / iPad users ease their adjustment to iOS 7. 1. Disable the activation lock code on iOS7
A built-in security feature, not necessarily new to iOS 7, but definitely more annoying, is the default setting that insists iPhone / iPad users establish a passcode for entry into the Apple device. Most users employ the passcode lock for their iPhones, but if you pretty much use your iPad as a stay-at-home device, with very little or no sensitive information stored on your tablet, you’ll want to disable iOS 7’s activation lock code. Here’s how:
Settings > General > Passcode Lock - Turn Passcode Off 2. Silence Is Golden: Blocking Calls / Texts in iOS 7
Users can now block calls, which is a great way to avoid unwanted contacts. Just go to a contact’s entry and scroll down to the bottom and select “Block this Caller” to block a certain number or contact. Tapping this “button” will prevent the person from being able to call you, send you text messages, or reach you over FaceTime, as well. A handy new innovation. 3. Undelete e-mails
If you accidentally deleted an email, simply shake your phone to undo it. 4. Settings: make iOS 7 easier on the eye
We like the new interface, but it isn’t for everyone. If you have problems with your sight or just want to make iOS 7 more legible, you’ll find some useful settings in Settings > General > Accessibility. You can make all system text bold, increase the size of text in apps that support Apple’s Dynamic Type, scale down motion effects such as the parallax effect, or invert the colours to make iOS 7 look like a 1980s electro-pop album cover. 5. Disabling the Parallax Effect, and Why
Are you, as an iOS 7 user, experiencing vertigo, headaches or nausea while using the recently-launched iOS 7? Surely, most users won’t have a problem with iOS 7’s latest innovation, but reports are already coming in that the new parallax effect in the homescreen (making the background move as if it’s far behind the icons) is making some people experience a similar feeling to having car-sickness.
Although the effect of the moving background is quite cool, there’s no doubt that if it’s going to cause users some discomfort while using their iPhones and iPads, they’d gladly do away with it. And thankfully, there is a way to disable the iOS 7 parallax effect! You just have to follow these simple steps to disable parallax in iOS 7, simply navigate to …
Settings > General > Accessibility, and turn the “Reduce Motion” option on.
One simple setting and you can use iOS 7 Gravol-free! 6. Apps: Automatic Updates
With iOS 7, users can now update apps automatically, a great new functionality for those with a decent data plan. Control this function either way by going to …
Settings > iTunes > App Store, and slide the Updates option under Automatic Downloads. 7. Swipe Down For Search
Gone are the days of having to swipe or tap your way to iOS’ dedicated search page. You can now access Spotlight search from anywhere on the homescreen. Just swipe down in the middle of the screen to quickly search across your device’s apps, e-mails, and contacts — but curiously, it seems that Apple has removed Spotlight’s ability to search the web. We’re pretty sure we never actually used that now missing functional capability, but this is the Internet so we’re supposed to complain now that it’s gone. 8. Siri: now reads your e-mails, and much, much more
Siri makes light work of not only listing e-mails in your inbox, but also reading them out to you. Hold down the Home button and say, “Read my e-mails” and Siri will give you sender, time and date sent, and the subject of each in turn. When asked if you want Siri to read out your mail, just say “Yes”. Or you could simply say, “Siri, read my last three e-mails”, and voilà, that’s what Siri will do.
And, Siri does even more. If you have your hands really full, you can ask Siri to access apps and features in your iDevice such as Settings.
One of the new changes to Siri that came along with a host of technical upgrades is the chance to switch between a male and female voice for your digital assistant. If you’re interested in trying out a different voice behind the same info, go to the Settings app, and then navigate to General > Siri > Voice Gender, and tap on whichever gender you’d prefer. 9. iOS 7’s Control Center: Swipe Up For Toggles
Fixing what is perhaps one of iOS’ most glaring, long-lasting omissions, iOS 7 puts one-click access to things like Airplane mode and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth toggles just one swipe away, instead of hiding them in Settings.
To get to the new Control Panel, just swipe up from the bottom of the screen anywhere you might be. You’ll get buttons for Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Orientation lock, and sliders for brightness and media control. Oh, and there’s a readily accessible flashlight — much used in recent days by VanRamblings, as we searched for our cap after the end of VIFF films — available to you, as well. The Control Panel is also accessible from the lockscreen. 10. Flashlight as notification
Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > scroll down and tap “LED Flash for Alerts”.
On Saturday morning, October 12th, Vancouver International Film Festival co-founder, and for 26 years the Festival Director, tendered his resignation.
Despite Alan’s statement to the contrary, what will follow will most assuredly be experienced by many as tumult, as upset and — as the Festival attempts to find a new direction sans it’s co-founder and reigning intelligence — a period of irresolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since the period of instability that occurred when Toronto Film Festival maven Hannah Fisher assumed the position of VIFF Festival Director 1985 – 1988, following VIFF co-founder Leonard Schein’s resignation and truncated tenure as the Director of the, then, Toronto Festival of Festivals.
Since 1988, when incoming Chairperson of VIFF’s Board of Directors and political apparatchik extraordinaire, Michael Francis, conducted a coup of VIFF’s Board of Directors, installing Alan Franey as the Festival’s once and forever director, Alan has remained atop the power structure of VIFF, a mature and thoughtful man of zen countenance possessed of an uncommon humanity, and a coherent and incisive administrative management capability that has not seen its equal on the arts scene in Vancouver since his investiture as Festival head, an arts administrator without equal, and in consequence utterly and profoundly irreplaceable.
That Alan wishes to spend more time with his lovely wife Donna — there is no scene which fills our heart with more joy than to see Alan and Donna, arm and arm, after lo these many years of an endearing and enduring companionship of the most tender affection, walking along and through the beachfront area stretching from Jericho Beach to the western end of Spanish Banks, very much in love, very much devoted to one another — is understandable. Does recognition of such circumstance lessen, in any way, the impact of what Alan’s leave-taking will mean for the Festival going forward, the period of tumult that is sure to follow? No, no it does not.
For Vancouver’s International Film Festival, where to from here? Although in his statement of resignation (which you will find at some greater length at the end of this post), for the official record Alan states that …
Our senior staff and board have been working towards this executive transition for a few years, and we are fortunate to have several deeply knowledgeable and dedicated long-term employees who work 60-80 hour weeks on our behalf. We all look forward to building on this year’s success.
Although we would not question Alan’s veracity for one moment, we believe that such simple statement of reassurance does not begin to plumb the depths of circumstance respecting the conditions which have lead up to Alan’s Saturday, October 12th, resignation as VIFF’S Festival Director.
Over the course of this past year, much was made over the loss of the Granville 7 Cinema as the longtime home of the Festival. Much less was made of the challenging economic circumstance that VIFF had to confront when, in 2012, Festival attendance dropped a precipitous 20% — most days on which the Festival occurred last year were warm and sunny, as potential VIFF patrons stayed away from darkened rooms of cinematic splendour, opting instead to enjoy the last vestiges of an unseasonably warm late summer, following upon what had been in 2012 a dreadfully chilly, inhospitable and rain-soaked June, July, August and early September.
In 2012, the Festival experienced a financial loss for the first time in many, many years. In the past, such a loss would have been made up by government grants of economic sustenance, or sponsorship monies from VIFF’s main financial supporters. But these are the days of post-economic collapse and continued economic uncertainty — the monies just weren’t there to ensure that the Vancouver International Film Festival would endure. With VIFF’s movement out into the community this year, Festival administration projected break-even, but more likely another loss.
Over the course of the past year, Alan’s job was very much on the line. The consequence of another financial loss for the Festival in 2013 would mean that Alan’s options would be limited — the Board (Alan was no longer protected by Michael Francis, who had resigned his position as Chair some years back) would demand Alan’s resignation in the face of a Vancouver film festival in which the public had seemingly lost confidence.
Contrary to the most salutary administrative VIFF projection of 2013 box office, with its uncertain move into the community, and early 2013 Festival days of torrential downpour, VIFF patrons flocked to the Festival. On Day 3 of the Festival, in conversation with VanRamblings, Alan turned to us to say, “Weather forecasters are advising Vancouverites to stay at home, warm and safe and away from the winds and torrents of rain. Instead, cinephiles are flocking to our Festival in record numbers, line-ups are long, and — although, perhaps, it is too early to say with authority — the future of our Festival, an important cultural institution, seems quite assured.”
The Board would not be pushing Alan out of his position as Festival Director following what will, in the days to come, come to be reported as a halcyon year in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Alan Franey takes his leave as Festival Director, of his own volition and secure in the knowledge that he leaves our Festival not without challenges that are still to be faced, but in a much more secure position financially than anyone could reasonably have predicted coming into the 32nd edition of our utterly transformative — and world class — film festival by the sea.
In the days to come, we will write of Alan’s legacy — and his peculiar, yet humane and wildly successful style of arts adminstration — but not in this post. You’ll just have to wait.
Where to from here? — yes, we’re finally going to get around to answering the question posed eight paragraphs above.
The transition to a new Festival Director, and a new style of arts administration, will not be an easy one.
Perhaps, as Alan hopes, all will go well, and a salutary succession plan — one in which a senior VIFF programmer will assume benign artistic provenance over the Festival — will occur. That and, of course, herefords will fly, natural fruit jelly bears will cascade from the sky directly into our open hand, and each night forever anon we will, each and every one of us, sleep the sleep of angels, secure in the knowledge that it is today, as it will be tomorrow, a world where social and economic justice will remain, as it has forever, the universal circumstance of our plenary condition.
No, all will not be well. How do we know this? Two words: Vision Vancouver.
Given its penchant for morbid control, we believe Vancouver’s once and future civic administration will most assuredly, and without a shred of doubt, come to exercise an unsavoury control over the selection process of a new Festival Director for the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Somewhere across this vast globe of ours, a Vision Vancouver and Tides Foundation-supported Hollyhock acolyte — currently employed elsewhere in a circumstance of jurisdiction as a senior film festival arts administrator — will make her way to Vancouver to assume the post Alan Franey will vacate in 2013. Perhaps VIFF will install a caretaker Festival Director. But most probably not. If one can be said to “know” Vision Vancouver, at all, Vancouver’s is a municipal administration intent on building a legacy of control far beyond their period of electability. Not a pretty picture, or one that serves the long term interests of the devoted fans of world cinema who live across Metro Vancouver, and across the globe, who each autumn as we have for many many years, find ourselves resident within one of the world’s finest festivals of foreign language, independent, Canadian, and non-fiction cinema.
The behind-the-scenes machinations respecting Alan’s replacement will be of Machiavellian proportion — all out of the public eye, of course, but let us hope that among those inside the smoke-filled rooms will be a person of conscience, someone who is committed to transparency, who will leak information of consequence and import, akin to extemporaneous manner.
VanRamblings is melancholy, dejected, verklempt.
Alan is stepping down. Our Festival will never be the same again, and although Vancouver’s international film festival will endure, the mise en scène of our beloved Festival will be forever changed. Maybe a good thing.
But in the short term, probably not.
VanRamblings wishes Alan and Donna well, and at next year’s Festival very much look forward to viewing the world cinema Alan — in his continuing capacity as a VIFF programmer — will have brought to our shores, for the screenings of his films of choice, deep inside the darkened cinematic coliseums of the 2014 Vancouver International Film Festival. Alan Franey’s Statement of Resignation
This 2013 Vancouver International Film Festival has been my 26th as Festival Director and it will be my last in this role. I hope to remain very much involved with VIFF but to focus on programming. I also hope to live a more balanced life and to have more time for other pursuits. Don’t we all?! For me that day has come.
It has been a privilege for me to lead this organization for so long, and there are many people I will remain grateful to. Our senior staff and board have been working towards this executive transition for a few years, and we are fortunate to have several deeply knowledgeable and dedicated long-term employees who work 60-80 hour weeks on our behalf. We all look forward to building on this year’s success. This work is a pleasure and brings its own rewards.
We live in a digital world in which quality is not always easily gleaned from quantity. Many directions for VIFF may be considered. My hope is that we will keep our eyes focused on our long-standing mandate to value cinema as an art form and as a bridge between peoples. This will surely serve us well in the future.
Gracious, hope-filled, father, husband, arts administrator no more.
