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When there is smoke, there is usually fire!

Not to be a cynic, but details surrounding Olympic operations have hardly been what you would call forthcoming. One thing I have learned is that when there is smoke, there is usually fire.

Not to be a cynic, but details surrounding Olympic operations have hardly been what you would call forthcoming. One thing I have learned is that when there is smoke, there is usually fire.

In this case, the smoke might be the discussions surrounding the temporary re-zoning measures to be put in place by the municipality in order to facilitate various operations during the Games. These temporary re-zoning measures will allow the Muni and VANOC for that matter to do what they wish, as they wish for the good of the Games.

One such possibility is the rise of a retail “superstore” and a food and beverage “tent city” on the golf course driving range. For VANOC and the future operators of such a thing imagine the revenue potential. For anyone else in the retail, food, or beverage business, which is most of us, this would be a disaster!

We are all trying to figure out how to just survive through this period without worrying about outside competition moving in with the blessing of our local government, taking what they can, and quickly departing when the Games have ended.

Now there may not be anything to this, and I really hope there is not. There are however, a lot of people in town talking about it, and when there is smoke there is usually fire.

Sandy Black

Whistler

Village idiots!

The three stabbing incidents on the May 17th long weekend mark the further decline of Whistler as a safe place to live or visit. It is clear that the action plans set out by past committees, RMOW staff and the RCMP have failed to correct a problem which does not only present itself on this long weekend, but many weekends throughout the year.

Councillor Lorriman is out of touch in thinking that these idiots come here for pre-grad celebrations. They come here to pick fights with innocent people, insult and intimidate anyone they come across and literally, beat the crap out of people if they can get a word out of them in response to their tactics. This has been happening for many years now and enough is enough.

Forget your statistics showing a declining number of incidents over the past two years. Talk to the people who worked that weekend and every other weekend and you'll hear the real story. Think about the fact that the police station was broken into and radios stolen. Now the idiots have a way of listening to the police and knowing when they're coming. They've got the upper hand.

I'm glad I wasn't there and it seems many others felt the same. The reports failed to indicate the fact that the perpetrators were gangs of young East Indian men from the Vancouver or Surrey area. Obviously omitted so that racial tensions aren't escalated. But let's discuss facts, this is who they are and they are bringing a behaviour to Whistler that is common in the Surrey and Lower Mainland area. The difference so far is that they haven't pulled their guns out and shot a resident yet. Is that what it's going to take to get some real action out of the "leaders" in our community? Do Whistler residents have to arm themselves to protect their own? Is this going to have to escalate into something that is uglier than what's already happened?

Try Googling "Whistler stabbing" and see how many past stories you get. Come on, nobody should have to watch out for themselves while walking in Whistler Village. This is not downtown Vancouver or downtown Surrey, this is a resort with a reputation that can easily be tainted.

If our leaders aren't going to act in the name of public safety, they should act on behalf of the town's business community and economy. This is bad for business and bad for the community, period.

I think anyone who hasn't been in the village between 1 and 3:30 a.m. in the last five-10 years should check it out on a Friday or Saturday night. You will be shocked and appalled to see what happens and what the environment in the village feels like at this time of night. It does not feel safe, and it is downright ugly on many occasions.

The Whistler street scene is more like Granville Street than the Disneyland experience that the Whistler marketing machine portrays to our customers. I can't imagine what unsuspecting families think who rent rooms in the village who experience seeing and hearing what goes on at that time of night. I really don't think they would want to return, at least not to those hotels that are closest to the action.

The individuals who are repeatedly guilty of this type of behaviour are easily identifiable and can be spotted the moment they hit town on Friday night. Contrary to the opinions of Mayor Melamed and the RCMP, the installation of a surveillance system throughout the village is long overdue and a necessity in this environment. A fully staffed monitoring centre is essential to prevent anything like this from occurring again.

There should be more plain clothes police in the village area (not at Rainbow beach) focused on this issue who are ready to be dispatched at a moment’s notice from close proximity. The police and bylaw departments have to be on top of the perpetrators so that they can't move an inch without observation. They simply should not be allowed to play their games and bully guests and residents to the point where they no longer want to be in Whistler.

It is time to take the Whistler Town Centre back from these assholes and run them back to where ever they're coming from. These guys should not be welcome regardless of the sums of money they are bringing to Whistler. Law enforcement has got to take the risk of potentially being accused of "profiling" or "harassing" in order to drive them out.

Listen up leaders of our community, we are already at the point where many who live and work here don't want to be here on a weekend or go near the village. How is this going to work for business? How does this fit with the vision of having guests and residents mingling together? Fix it now and fix it soon... before someone gets killed (again).

Bob Davis

Formerly of Whistler

UFC Whistler...W.T.F?

On the Friday of the long weekend, the same day DJ Rosco was horribly assaulted and three others were stabbed, I had yet another thug-filled experience to really spoil my taste of Whistler and all the “visitors” it gets. It seems to me that this summer is shaping up to be similar to a few summers ago when every weekend was riddled with gangbangers disturbing the balance that makes Whistler (at least on week days) an amazing place to live.

I was at the skatepark late night working on a new piece, having fun with friends... good clean fun, you know... when a group of five Hispanic thugs arrived stinking of booze and smoking marijuana cigarettes. They proceeded to hang around just generally being a nuisance and making way too much noise. Then they just got plain useless and started stealing paint and anything they could grab while we weren't looking for more than a second. Upon trying to get it back they threatened to put the two girls I was with "...in the ground. Bitches!" and calling me on.

As badly as I wanted to, I bit my tongue wisely. After a little while they finally left and we thought we were in the clear. It was getting light so we decided to leave, only to discover, to our horror, that the paint they stole was used to deface a tonne of surfaces around the area, as well as someone’s car!

Filthy f*@%ing thugs! I felt sick to my stomach knowing that, if I was only three feet taller with bullet proof armour, I could've prevented that.

Luckily, as we were leaving, we saw the cops pull up to their car... It's not right that we should live in fear in our own hometown... isn't that why we live here in the first place, to get away from all that bullshit?

I hate to say it but I feel we need to put a gate just outside of Function and start doing some "profiling"on long weekends, turning people around and standing up for our citizens."

Chili Thom

Whistler

The Teddy Bear Arts and Culture Space

I am writing this letter concerning the closing of the incorrectly branded Teddy Bear Daycare. It is actually The Teddy Bear Arts and Culture Space. Spending $30,000 a year to fund the TBACS is a wise investment in the arts.

I think there is a misunderstanding by everyone on council, other than Ralph Forsyth, as to what TBACS actually is. On a daily basis we do paintings, drawings and other visual art and give it away, like Picasso and Dali before us. We never charge for any of the art we create. To us the beauty of art is giving it away to be enjoyed on fridges, walls and other cultural hotspots around town. Perhaps if we did charge for our art we could fund TBACS ourselves. We didn’t realize it was our job to sell the art we create to fund the centre. We thought it was the community’s mandate to support the arts.

Every day we sculpt. We take pieces of clay and turn them into pieces of art. Our motives for sculpting are so pure that once we have finished creating the sculpture we destroy it and return it to its original form. Then we start again. Perhaps if we didn’t practice our “Leave No Trace” form of sculpting and learned what seems to be the foremost lesson of life instead; monetize everything. If we had created the Teddy Bear Business School instead of the Teddy Bear Arts and Culture Space and handed out MBA’s instead of free art, we could fund TBACS ourselves.

Every day we practice singing and dancing in TBACS. We sing and dance for the simple pleasure of creating art from the sounds of our voices and the movements of our bodies. We sing and dance for our own pleasure and personal growth. Like true art, no price tag can ever be put on our performances. Like true artists perhaps we won’t be appreciated till we are gone. Perhaps if we had charged for our performances we could have funded TBACS ourselves.

Now different parties are coming forward to fund TBACS, to try and ensure that the vibrant arts and culture community of TBACS won’t disappear. The best thing about the Teddy Bear Arts and Culture Space is that everyday we grow as people through art. Don’t take away the space where I can create art and at the same time create my vision of the future through art where I can grow up to be anything I want. Maybe even an artist.

Dictated by Kaia and Caprii Achenbach ages 3 and 9 months to their dad, Ken Achenbach

‘MY Place’ or ‘Their Place’?

I have been a Whistler resident for 19 years. I arrived in the spring of 1989 for one season and never left. During my time in Whistler I have seen untold amounts of change; numerous debates on the social, economic and development issues facing Whistler. For the most part I've been able to live with the decisions made by the "powers that be". However, I have "hit the wall" with the announced closure of Teddy Bear Daycare.

When MY Place was originally conceived, some wise and community-minded people saw the need for and thought that having a daycare in the village would help with the needs and wants of Whistler families. Funds were raised through public and corporate donations to facilitate the building of a first class daycare in MY Place to the tune of $500k. This daycare has operated successfully and provided a valuable service in the valley for six years.

Now, all of a sudden, and in a manner that smacks of backroom politics, our Teddy Bear is facing extinction. Thanks to a small group of people serving their own political needs — all the while not being forthright with accurate information or even providing the community with a truthful idea about the real reasons for the daycare closure nor the future usage of the existing daycare space.

At what point when the community makes a good decision (creating Teddy Bear Daycare) do we live and believe in that decision? My parents taught me that if you believe in something you might have to work and fight hard for it. I believe in that very principle, but it is hard to do so when the aspiring politicians of our community do not listen to what they are being told.

Through petitions, public outcry and diligent work from some truly community-minded people, the parents of Teddy Bear are sending the message that the community needs this facility, but is anyone listening?

To those bunch of self serving individuals out to "make their mark" in Whistler at the cost of a great facility and waste such huge capital expenditure, what are you thinking? This is not Egypt and you are not a pharoah. If leaving a cultural legacy is so important then become a painter!

I say to all those involved: get it together and solve this problem for the children. That is whom this facility was intended to service. And let the quest for arts or whatever else that needs a new home in Whistler go elsewhere, because Whistler needs that Teddy Bear!

Scott Holmes

Pemberton

Highway 99 un-bearable

I have never seen a “bear jam” on Highway 99. But on Sunday, May 25 at approximately 3:15 p.m. near the turn off to Garibaldi Provincial Park I had to slow, suddenly to the dangerous scene of 35 vehicles pulled over or slowing down in the southbound lane to watch a healthy young adult black bear feeding on clover about 20-metres from the northbound lane. At least 15 cars were pulled over with people walking out across both lanes to photograph the bear.

“Bear jams” are typical in national parks where traffic slows and congests to watch roadside bears.

The B.C. Ministry of Highways needs to re-evaluate their choice of plant species to re-vegetate improvement sites along Highway 99. Clover (Trifolium spp.) should not be used. Clover is adequate for enhancing bear habitat in ski areas and historic logging areas where the close proximity of people does not exist.

Clover is a concentrated, easily digested, high quality forage for black and grizzly bears that provides rich sources of protein and carbohydrates. Because clover is the most highly valued spring forage in the Sea to Sky corridor, most bears will shift behaviours and tolerate human activity for feeding. Bear studies in the Whistler ski area; found that some sub-adult bears can actually gain significant weight during spring with heavy grazing on clover daily.

This year, I have seen a minimum of nine different bears grazing within 100 metres of Highway 99 during May. This number has tripled since the highway was improved. With higher speeds (more passing lanes) and heavier volume, coupled with increased forage for bears (and bears — especially mothers with cubs — learning to graze each spring) in May and June, and then a second growth (of clover) in fall, the likelihood of bear-vehicle collisions will rise. Not to mention increasing hazards for motorists.

If you see bears along the highway, do not stop. There are plenty of other places to see bears in safer environments.

• • •

I would like to offer a humble thanks to Whistler-Blackcomb and Millennium Place for making possible the special presentation of Jeanie’s Journey on May 24. A nearly full MY Place eagerly listened to the life antics of Jeanie’s and other mother bears’ strategies to co-exist in Whistler’s dynamic landscape. People shared their interest, support, and frustration of garbage issues which lie at the heart of many people-bear problems in Whistler. I appreciate all who attended and continue to support my work and outreach with Whistler’s unique black bear population.

Michael Allen

Bear Researcher

Whistler

Remembering Klara

I guess what they say is true… only the good die young.

I barely knew Klara. We both worked at the same place; she as a yoga teacher, myself as a therapist. We would briefly bump into each other in the common areas between classes and treatments, just for a few seconds. We'd exchange a smile and maybe a little conversation if we had time. She was one of those souls who left you wishing there were more people like her... even though you hardy knew her at all.

RIP Klara.

Jen Dobell

Whistler