Sustainable Vancouver: A Guide to Eating Local in the City

This article is the first in a series on living sustainably in Vancouver. Stay tuned for more instalments. Photo by Natalie Maynor.

Eating Local

For the first instalment of sustainable Vancouver I decided to take a look at local food. Here in Vancouver, we are blessed with a wide assortment of local food options which can help make a sustainable lifestyle a reality. From seafood to local produce, much of our diets can be supplemented with local options.

When opting for local choices, consumers will often find that many of the things they enjoy are simply not available. Tropical fruit, olive oils, coffee – many of the staples we enjoy regularly come from abroad and are subject to many unseen costs. When picking up ingredients at the local grocery store, very rarely does one consider the hidden costs affecting our sustainability.

For example, bananas can be had on the cheap quite regularly, but the cost of transporting those bananas is one that remains hidden. While eating local can some times weigh heavier on the budget, the impact on our global carbon footprint is much lower. In no small way, eating local is much less costly for the environment as a whole.

“For food purists, “local” is the new “organic,” the new ideal that promises healthier bodies and a healthier planet,” said Time reporter John Cloud in an article which is now almost four years old.

Produce which is sold locally generally circumvents the need for harsh chemicals like pesticides, as the products are not expected to stay unnaturally fresh while they’re shipped around the globe. When buying organic, local products are usually of higher quality as well, lending more credence to the superiority of local food.

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Homelessness in Vancouver still a bleeding wound, council reports

Mayor Gregor Robertson begins the Feb. 1 council session adorned in traditional East Asian attires. The mayor welcomed members of the Asian community by wishing them a happy new year in Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Korean.

This month’s city staff report on the progress to shelter the Vancouver’s street homeless by 2015 expressed a mixture of positive and negative sentiments.

City manager Penny Ballem said that while 450 spaces were still needed to meet the goal, a worthy commitment from the community could make this a reality.

The dollar figure of such a commitment has been estimated to be $20 million per 100 spaces, in addition to an annual maintenance fee of $1 million.

“We have a lot of momentum,” Ballem said during last Tuesday’s council meeting. “Let’s see what we can do this year.”

Ballem estimated that by 2020 the demand for spaces will increase by another 750 people, leading to a potential bill of $240 million should the city provide needed real estate.

With such a high financial commitment needed to provide for the city’s growing homeless population, there could be worry that a long-term solution is being avoided.

Councillor Ellen Woodsworth echoed concerns that the city is plagued by an underlying racism, which sees groups like aboriginal women left behind.

The report also stressed that 80 per cent of the homeless in Vancouver suffer from one or more health concerns, a significant underlying factor pushing many into destitution.

Despite this, advocacy groups in the city that are largely responsible for providing for the homeless are careful to avoid speculation that the city’s plan is anything but correct.

“Union Gospel Mission is encouraged by the way city council is going. We hope to be part of that solution,” spokesman Derek Weiss said.

“To the point of full-disclosure, the city of Vancouver has provided us with $1.4 million for the building of a new building,” Weiss added.

While UGM is pleased to be receiving a significant portion of the money allotted to tackling homelessness in the city, Weiss did admit that concerns like those put forward by Woodsworth have some weight.

“All women and particularly aboriginal women do represent a higher percentage of people that go through extreme struggles on the Downtown Eastside. That’s something that needs to be looked at.”

Weiss said that groups like UGM are not capable of dealing with the more extreme health issues faced by many of the city’s homeless. While this is a contributing factor to their suffering, the most a group like UGM can do is refer them to a doctor.

“We try not to be discouraged, we live on hope. You don’t spend very long in the Downtown Eastside before you start to cling to hope,” Weiss said.

While the city continues to spend millions to meet its goal, one thing remains clear. The growth of homelessness in Vancouver is expected to continue towards 2015 and beyond.

Police using creative methods to catch cell phone use while driving

Driving while operating your cell is not only dangerous, it can lead to some pretty harsh fines. Photo by Lord-Jim

This February, police in B.C. are working to step up their efforts to combat distracted driving.

Last year on Feb. 1, a new law prohibiting the use of cell phones and other devices while driving was passed. On this, the one-year anniversary of the new legislation, police are feeling that the public has failed to receive their message.

This comes after an estimated 32,000 tickets were issued under the new legislation.

Police concerns have also been bolstered by statistics. The BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation estimated that distracted driving was a contributing factor in as many as 48 per cent of the fatalities on our roads in the Lower Mainland last year.

Penalties for distracted driving in the province do not currently exceed a ticket of $169 combined with three Driver Penalty Points or DPP. With the public paying so little attention to the new law, could harsher penalties be coming?

In the following podcast, I speak with officers Sgt. Peter Thiessen and Cpl. Jamie Chung of the RCMP about the legislation and distracted driving month.

The officers detail their concerns about distracted driving, as well as providing some insight into the creative methods police will be using to catch violators.

For anybody who drives on B.C. roads, it’s worth a listen.

 

Click here for the podcast

Newly discovered antibody could lead to ALS vaccine

Photo by Daniel Paquet

Researchers from University of British Columbia’s brain research centre believe they have created an antibody that successfully targets cellular mutations caused by Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The illness, also known as ALS, has been difficult to treat since its discovery in 1869 due to a lack of understanding surrounding its causes.

Biomedical researcher Leslie Grad says the antibodies his team has developed target only the disease-causing proteins, which become mis-folded and spread their mutations throughout the body.

“In our lab we look at ways to stop the protein mis-folding,” Grad said.

“One way to do this is to create molecules called antibodies that specifically recognize diseased forms of the protein.”

The disease affects approximately one in 1000 people, with 80 per cent dying from the disease within two to five years. A disease of the nervous system, ALS alters motor neurons causing paralysis of the limbs, speech, and ultimately respiratory systems.

The guilty protein is known as SOD1 and is found in every cell of the human body. This protein can be affected by over 150 unique mutations, all of which can lead to the disease.

These mutations cause the protein to mis-fold. The researchers believe this disorder can then be transmitted to healthy proteins across cells and neurons.

The actual chemical structure of the protein itself remains unaffected. The disease is instead caused by the way the proteins are folded. The antibodies created by Grad’s team target only these specific mis-folded proteins, while ignoring healthy ones.

“The disease form can be secreted from the cell. Experiments have shown how diseased proteins impose their will on healthy ones,” Grad said.

According to him, SOD1 mutations are responsible for roughly two per cent of ALS cases. The team is also working to explore a general SOD1 connection in all instances of the disease, a topic he describes as “highly controversial” at this time.

Should Grad’s suspicions that SOD1 be linked to other forms of the disease prove valid, a treatment for most forms of the disease could be a possibility.

“We are in the process of humanizing the antibodies,” Grad said.

The researchers hope to make an antibody that the human body will not reject as a foreign agent, leading to possible preventative treatments for the disease.

“A human version of the antibody could essentially be taken as a vaccine,” added Grad.

The first thing researchers need to do, before they can offer their visions of a possible cure or vaccine, is demonstrate how the disease works.

The team is currently working on two studies. Their first aim is to show how the mutated proteins spread throughout a cell by influencing other healthy proteins to mis-fold.

Grad said the second study aims to show how these mutations can be transmitted outside the cell to healthy parts of the body, ultimately affecting our motor neurons and causing the disease.

It is the hope of the researchers that their antibody will block the transmission of these mutations, leading to a vaccine that could be administered in order to prevent ALS from developing.

For the immediate future, however, ALS will remain a vicious and uncontrollable killer.

“Unfortunately, ALS is a death-sentence,” said Grad. “A quick death-sentence.”

The life of a Vancouver mall Santa is both lucrative and exhausting

Norm Pettersson, a former United Church minister, sits upon his throne at the Oakridge shopping centre.

 

The life of Santa Claus can be quite stressful at times, just ask Norm Pettersson.

A former United Church minister, Pettersson has been donning the bells and fur of Saint Nick for eight seasons now.

“It’s hard for Santa,” said Pettersson, who spoke of trials including visits from the elderly, rambunctious teenagers, crying babies and even sick children.

“The difficult parts are when you get children who are in the middle of chemotherapy and they’re coming as part of the family to do special things at Christmas.”

Pettersson said that while it can be emotionally challenging to make worried families smile, the best thing to do is just “Treat them normally. That’s what they want, to just be treated normally.”

The key to being a good Santa is enthusiasm and a knack for dealing with people from all walks of life, Pettersson said.

“The older kids and adults sometimes are just doing silly things. But it’s alright, you just play the game…Santa has the job of helping them have fun.”

His authentic look and enthusiasm of spirit caught the attention of Jack Scott, owner of Senior Quality Personnel. The company provides Santa services to events and shopping centres across metro Vancouver.

“The criteria is very strict,” said the 74-year-old Scott, a retired executive of a multi billion-dollar developing firm. “They have to like what they’re doing. Santa is a lot of work, and if you don’t like what you’re doing you just get exhausted.”

Scott said that his 35 Santas undergo thorough background checks and have full, natural white beards.

“The people who work for us are genuinely nice people…They’re just the type of people you like to be around.”

Spreading six weeks of holiday cheer across the city can be a stressful business, but the rewards are lucrative. According to Scott, the company expects to make up to $200,000 this year.

“A good Santa will make five to six thousand dollars over Christmas,” Scott said.

John Geissinger is the weekend Santa at the Metropolis shopping centre. He said the extra cash comes in useful during the Christmas season.

“I just got a new car, so it’s paying for that.”

John Geissinger waves from Santa’s workshop in the Metropolis shopping centre

 

“A good Santa is pretty much somebody who can take a crying child and stop them from crying,” Geissinger said, admitting his favourite part has been the great people he has met along the way.

“Things like that to me are absolutely priceless, the memories I’ll keep forever.”

Vancouver laneway houses not proving an affordable option

Jason Oliver is the millwork shop leader for Smallworks, one of the biggest manufacturers of laneway houses in Vancouver.

City council’s decision to support laneway houses in Vancouver gives students more options when searching for accommodation, but prices still remain high in college neighbourhoods.

An October administrative report showed that as part of their affordable housing strategy, Vancouver City Council recognized laneway houses in 2009 as an “opportunity for adding to rental housing supply across the city.”

While affordability has been offered as one of the primary benefits of laneway houses, rental advertisements tell a different story. In the Langara College area, the cost per bedroom of these units currently averages over $1,060.

“My next door neighbours have a laneway house that’s on 21^st,” said Tracey Greer, a 23-year-old history student at Langara. “They’re charging $1,200.”

Greer said she thinks many landlords feel they can get away with charging high rents in Vancouver due to the heavy demand for housing in the city.

“People will always pay, so [landlords] are going to charge a lot.”

Arts student Kylie Schlotter also said rental prices for the units are too high.

“They’re over-charging. It’s supposed to be more affordable,” she said.

The city council report detailing the first 100 laneway houses in the city estimated that the rental rates range between $1,000 and $2,100 for one and two bedroom units.

Laneway houses typically take the place of an alleyway garage on most average-sized properties.

Of the first 100 laneway houses built in the city, only five were the more affordable studio size units.

One of the biggest manufacturers of laneway houses in Vancouver is Smallworks, which has been pre-fabricating the houses for over five years.

Smallworks owner Jake Fry said that despite the novelty and high rental rates of laneway houses in Vancouver, the structures still have the potential to improve on the availability of low-income housing in the city.

“I think it will help out students and lots of people in making the city an affordable place,” he said. “[But] people coming to us are already going [for] a slightly higher-end unit, it’s not like they’re looking at affordable housing.”

Smallworks employees fabricate the door frame of a new laneway house

While companies like Smallworks tend to focus on building structures for families, Fry said the real potential for student housing rests with units being constructed alongside a new property.

“Those laneway homes that are going in with the principle structure, they actually don’t need the same cost recovery,” said Fry, who estimated that building a laneway rental property alongside a new home could reduce the overall cost by as much as 30 per cent.