city in progress

+ last saturday, we attended a public workshop at trout lake community centre to discuss the future of the park. see, capital plan question #4 in november asked the city to commit funding towards a new rink and community centre. the question passed, and now the parks board gets to decide how, when, and where to build the rink and community centre. about 50-60 people were there. each table of approx 5-7 people got an aerial photo of the park, divided into sections a-through-h. our task was to discuss how we used the park and recommend the three best sections in which to place the new rink and community centre. we went to defend the status quo. the buildings are now in the far southwest corner, well back from the lake where we walk the dog. i like the isolation, and the relative wilderness of the lake path.

at first i felt somewhat guilty for having a preconceived concept for the park. i should be open; here is an unprecedented opportunity to shape my corner of vancouver for the next 40 years. the park can be anything that i want it to be! then again, when has change for the sake of change ever worked in urban planning? furthermore, i really like the park as it is. the current set up suits my needs perfectly. interestingly, most of the people that came out agreed. the two most popular choices were sections 'a' and 'b', where the current buildings are located. a distant third was 'e', in the under-utilized northeast corner beside grandview highway.

next saturday there will be another meeting, at which the initial plans, based on our feedback last week will be unveiled. there are two important and contradictory considerations that will have to be taken into account. the first is program delivery during construction. if the current site is chosen for the new buildings, as it seems it will, the task will be to effectively rebuild the existing buildings. for 2-3 years, there would be a significant negative impact on the programs currently run out of trout lake, and the clientele base would likely diminish. the second consideration is soil type. most of the park is bog. flat, spongy land, prone to flooding and sinking. very bad for construction. most of the surrounding houses are also built on bog, and many are having severe problems with settling, apparently. the only part of the park that is not bog is the southwest corner, which, like most of the city, is glacial till. so, the only stable land to build on is already occupied.

+ the last 10 songs on my iTunes

1. the lilac time, the darkness of her eyes
   
2. the tragically hip, the completists
   
3. michaelangelo, this bird
   
4. belle and sebastian, i'm a cuckoo
   
5. joni mitchell, the sire of sorrow (job's sad song)
   
6. the sandpipers, never can say goodbye
   
7. kate bush, pull out the pin
   
8. broadcast, papercuts
   
9. stina nordenstam, love hurts
   
10. dire straits, brothers in arms
    

+ i have a new computer now. i have been pumping records into my iTunes all weekend. it is a g5 mac; one of the flat screens with a pedestal. it is a very sexy piece of design. it came with an optical mouse, as well. i've got 1424 songs in now, just over 4 days of continuous music. my last library was of a roughly equal size, but most of it was crappy stuff off of the internet. all of these 1400+ songs are from my own collection. it is absolute bliss to sit back and hear song after song that i really really like. i'm rediscovering a lot of records that i don't listen to often, because they're popping up on shuffle. with my old computer, i'd spend more time listening to albums off of the internet than from my collection, because it was easier. i'm happy now!

+ we have seven different sorts of mustard in the fridge. i will try to go to polonia sausage house this week so that we have something to eat the mustard with.