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A pic that I forgot about from February 28th. This guy stood out in the crowd, that night :P
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/...27c14031_b.jpg http://www.flickr.com/photos/syume/4412150892/ |
i agree most journalists recognize that the protesters are just what they are - they (journaslists) were given access to and tour the DTES themselves and were informed of all the programs etc - probably why the protesters didn't garner the coverage they expected the protesters were easily dismissed
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Olympics boost retail spending by almost 50% in Vancouver and Whistler
Friday, 05 March 2010 Canadians were in a spending mood during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, according to Moneris Solutions, Canada's largest payment card processor. Retail spending rose 48% in Vancouver and Whistler for the 17-day period of the Games, compared with the value of transactions in the same period last year. Souvenir sales rose 373% during the Games, while bars and pubs saw a 130% increase in transactions. The number of clothing-related transactions nearly doubled during the games with consumers. Canadians accounted for 78.4% of total spending, while U.S. visitors accounted for more than 9%. Chinese visitors spent on average $423 per transaction, while Russians spent $236 per transaction. ... http://www.bivinteractive.com/index....2276&Itemid=32 |
Olympic experiment tested our city's urbanism
The 17-day event represented 'the largest traffic trial in North American history,' notes Vancouver planner By Bob Ransford, Special to the SunMarch 6, 2010 Vancouver's Olympic experience was a huge experiment on a number of fronts, not the least of which involved putting the city's urbanism under a microscope. A whole bunch of new theories and big leaps were put to the test in how this city is designed and how people function within it. The results proved that some long-held assumptions were little more than myths, and the experience also revealed some obvious -- and not-so-obvious -- ideas and innovations. Many of those ideas and innovations will help further shape and refine what has come to be known as "Vancouverism" -- a brand of urbanism that combines livability and sustain-ability to produce an exceptionally high quality of life for our people and a unique urban experience for visitors to Vancouver. The City of Vancouver's director of planning, Brent Toderian, has already begun sifting through the findings produced by this massive living laboratory. He singles out the Olympic Athletes' Village as having "fundamentally changed business as usual when it comes to community-building in Vancouver." Only a few days into the Olympics, the U.S. Green Building Council bestowed its "Platinum LEED-ND" rating on the Olympic village development, proclaiming it the greenest community in North America by virtue of its highest rating under the green-neighbourhood rating system. But Toderian says that the recognition of the village for its exceptional performance in sustainable planning and green design is only one indicator of its success. He points to the quality of life and livability in the village as a key indicator of success, as well. The Olympic village's settlement pattern and physical form, with medium-rise buildings, certainly creates a promising environment for a new kind of livability and a new model for development in Vancouver. However, the economics of combining ultra-green with a whole range of social and community objectives all in one development have yet to be fully tested. As I have said before, the Olympic village project will end up either being a great showcase for the full range of green technologies, new urban principles and community-building social objectives, or a model for a truly sustainable community, one that can be replicated without a huge public subsidy. Toderian also points to the way in which Vancouverites temporarily changed the way they move about the city during the Olympics as "the largest traffic trial in North American history." He cited the "massive pedestrianization of countless streets" and a 30-per-cent drop in car trips into the downtown in a city already used to walking, cycling and transit for mobility, and the running of the Olympic Line streetcar pilot project as huge experiments that have shaped how Vancouverites will forever perceive traffic and movement in the city. When asked whether the 20,000 to 25,000 daily boardings on Bombardier's Olympic Line streetcar proved that Vancouver needs to turn the pilot into a permanent project, Toderian says any investment in the project "needs to be considered in the context of a regional transit system", but pointed out that most good regional transit systems are comprised of multiple technologies. Toderian says the Olympic-period closure of the Dunsmuir and Georgia viaducts certainly spurred on consideration of their permanent removal and what that might do for urban renewal in the area. But it is the way Vancouver transformed its public spaces, especially its streets, that got Toderian most excited about the future potential for improving Vancouver's urbanism. "Perhaps the best example of great urbanism on display was the way the streets, squares and former parking lots were all transformed into LiveCity sites, international houses, and constant street celebrations," Toderian explains. He says the experiment in using streets like Robson, Granville and others as part-time spaces for public gatherings and activities -- both planned and spontaneous -- may permanently transform our mindset as a city and citizenry about those streets. "We need to think about a whole system of public spaces in the downtown, including places like Robson Square, as completing our downtown," Toderian says. "Also, spaces that can only do one thing will be less successful than some spaces that are more nimble and flexible." Toderian sums up this huge Olympic experiment: "Like Expo 86, the city will never be the same again because of this amazing laboratory of urbanism." ... http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/O...608/story.html |
What Can Vancouver Learn from the Olympics?
The Games should spark a great discussion about making the city better. Here are three ideas to kick things off. By Frances Bula, 4 Mar 2010, TheTyee.ca There's a lot of post-op Olympics delirium floating in the air these days, with everyone drunk on the successes and the street parties and the sight of people choosing to come downtown every day dressed in Canadian flag capes. And now, like summer-camp attendees who've had a really great week, we're promising all kinds of things. Instead of promising that we're going to stay friends forever and we'll all get together every year and we'll all go to each other's towns for visits, we in Vancouver have gone wild with ideas for how to keep the Olympics spirit going. Let's shut down Granville Street every weekend! Let's have a streetcar line! Let's keep the zipline going at Robson Square! Let's ditch our cars and take transit forever! Let's never go back to work and just walk around downtown with our red mitts and Canadian flags painted on our faces forever! Whoo-hoooo!!! Well, sad but true, we are going to go back to the old Vancouver and then we'll have to figure out what is really a good idea that can be embedded in the future and what, unfortunately, depends for success on having an international party in the city with 200,000 people a night. As well, one of the things we need to think about is what the Games showed us we're weak in, what we should have had but didn't. I'm sure all of you have great ideas and some more profound than mine, but here are a few thoughts to get the ball rolling. 1. An aboriginal museum downtown. The Four Nations centre at Queen Elizabeth plaza was one of the most successful of the free activities, and the carving centre at the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza was a lovely thing. We don't have anything like this permanently. I'm just stealing this idea from something I heard Rick Antonson at Tourism Vancouver a long time ago, but the province's native population -- so much more populous and with rich traditions than found elsewhere -- should have a home somewhere in our downtown. And keep the food coming. 2. More street food and more sidewalk cafes. I said it at the beginning and I'll say it again at the end. The emergence of New York or Hong Kong-like crowds made our lack of this kind of thing very apparent. Although some media produced cute stories about the Japadogs business, is it not pathetic that all we have for street food is hot dogs? And that the height of creativity is someone putting Japanese condiments on hot dogs? We have one of the world's most polyglot cities, filled with people making Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches, Chinese pork and shrimp dumplings, inventive Japanese ramen soups, South Asian curries and dozens more. Can we really not figure out a way for them to serve some of that in stalls on the street that won't bring out the health inspectors? (And I just got bonged with this excellent article on same from Andrew Pask at Public Spaces.) And, although it's a different regulatory issue -- sidewalk cafes! Where were those places people could pause from time to time, sit at a table with a beer or coffee and watch the show go by? The only place I saw that seemed to have those two elements was Mainland Street in Yaletown. There were all kinds of people at the numerous cafe tables on the loading docks, and then booths (including one selling Sanjay's Indian curries, yay!) on the street below. It wins the award for best small urban space, in my books. 3. More innovations to get people taking transit to events. Much as I'd love to think we'll all keep piling onto those buses and rapid-transit lines, I fear that we'll snap back like a rubber band to previous patterns without the Olympics incentives to keep us going. (Though I do think that a couple of places in particular will benefit from the transit boom -- Richmond, which thousands of people discovered was easy to get to from downtown, and Yaletown, which turned into a social hanging-out spot for many visitors and which people from Richmond and south Vancouver now know is only ten minutes away.) What were the incentives? A million dollars a day from VANOC to run the system at top capacity, so that you could walk out your door knowing that a bus or SkyTrain car would appear momentarily. Free transit attached to every ticket. And warnings that there was no parking at event sites. Is there any way to replicate some of that? Free transit for the day that is incorporated into the price of various kinds of event tickets -- a kind of temporary U-Pass? A well-advertised promise of that level of service to the kinds of events that typically draw car-drivers? Removal of parking outside of large venues? http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/03/04...ancouverLearn/ |
A USA TODAY video piece on the busker scene in Vancouver during the Olympics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RznaNeJYtZ0&feature=fvw
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Some "highlights" of NHK's Olympic coverage. Mainly just Domo-kun. You can't have a Japanese TV program without a mascot.
Their set looks pretty cool! They did a good job incorporating "the look of the games". They do a weather report, and have giant stuffed Olympic mascots! Which were obviously targeted at a Japanese audience in their design. |
*edit*
bah x2 |
Does anybody think it is kind of funny that since the end of the Winter Olympics, Cypress Mountain has been inundated by more than two feet of fresh powder snow? Apparently, it won't stop snowing there.
Vancouver to Olympic tourists back home: "But it really does snow here! Really guys, it does!" Olympic tourists to Vancouver: "Sure Vancouver, sure it does. We believe you." |
I thought it was hilariously poetic.
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This might cause some heads to explode..
VANOC CEO John Furlong receiving UBC honorary degree Quote:
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Well, I can think of a few who might, and we would be better off for :P
So, does this mean UBC isn't an ultra-left anti-everything University? :runaway: |
no its just ultra west ;)
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State of the world 12 days after the Vancouver Winter Olympics conclude:
1) Three feet of fresh snow on Cypress. 2) Canadian alpine skier Eric Guay (shut out of a podium finish in every event at Whistler) becomes World Cup Champion. The Fates toy with us. |
haha
I didn't know the opening ceremonies of the paralympics was going to be on TV and i missed it :( was it any good? |
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The mild weather caused havoc to the Winter Olympics game. Now the "extreme weather" may threatens Paralympic competitions. Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Ext...176/story.html |
cypress says the new snow is unstable and there is an "extreme" avalanche alert
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Are any Paralympic events slated for Cypress? I thought all of the Paralympic outdoor events were to be held at Whistler Creekside or in Whistler Olympic Park (Callaghan Valley).
Granted Whistler has also received tons of snow, so the new snowpack there may also be hazardous at the moment. If so, I imagine that situation can be managed rather in the next few days. It is the Winter Olympics, after all. I still don't understand from where this idea came that Winter Olympic events must never be rescheduled or affected by the weather. I can't recall ever seeing a winter Olympics where some events weren't rescheduled due to weather conditions. Also, while Cypress provided plenty of angst for the Games last month, the reality is all events scheduled there were completed. It seems that would qualify as a success rather than a failing ;). Frankly the snowboard events there were some of the most exciting of the Games. Cypress looked great on camera, especially during sunny day events in that second week. I imagine the visuals were everything the planners had hoped. |
there are no paralympic events at cypress. there's only two events in vancouver and they are both indoors. sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.
i believe there are 4 alpine events at Whistler. it's a pretty small affair - just 6 events in total. SpongeG- they are replaying the opening ceremonies today (11am i think). i watched some it last night. it was ok. seemed more geared towards youth. i lost interest after half an hour to be honest... but great crowd at BC place! |
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I joked about the snow only because of the fact that there was so much angst and such a big media-generated kerfuffle about it. It's kind of funny that after all of the flutter and tumult about lack of snow during the Games, Cypress now has so much snow that it is under avalanche warning. |
Right now NBC is devoting an hour's coverage to the opening ceremony.
They just showed the best ever aerial skyline shot of downtown Vancouver. It looked incredible. |
CTV Ontario is replaying it in its entirety now. If you have satellite / digital cable :P
The aerial shots are amazing~ |
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If you want to see one of the rooms in the Athlete's village "in use," Canadian figure skater Patrick Chan, (5th place) did a video tour.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiAeea25Now |
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For those who hadn't heard, the cauldron at the Convention Centre is burning again. I jogged by today around 1pm and there was a ~3 minute line to view the cauldron from the elevated viewing area. It's amazing how close you can get and how much more awesome it looks when it's not behind chain link. Great for photos too (though for once I didn't have my camera).
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Might be a dumb question... but is it staying there as a legacy of the games?
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Yes - the cauldron is permanent, and will be lit occasionally for special events, celebrations etc.
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Assuming it's not scrap metal the day after the fence is removed.
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I wonder if the crazy protestor/terrorist squad will attempt to deface it after the Olympics are over.
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*if*? More like how many hours after will they.
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i was downtown last night and it was so dead around 8-9 pm
there was a band playing at robson square and the zip line was going still but no crowds just a typical saturday night, granville was also pretty quiet and lifeless, probably less than a typical saturday night I heard the Royal Canadian Mint lineup was 3 hours instead of 6 |
Apologies for the Olympics and Paralympics
While the 2010 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremonies was an embarrassing mess, the 2010 Paralympics Opening Ceremonies on Friday night was a tasteful affair that tugged at heartstrings. Robyn Ludwig Posted: Mar 14th, 2010 In the two weeks since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics ended, city crews have picked up the garbage, and rain has washed the alleys clean. But one strong stench lingers: the Closing Ceremonies. What should have been an inspiring final impression of Vancouver to the world was an embarrassing mess, unbefitting the newfound patriotism of our country. The lone bright spot of the night came early, with Neil Young warbling “Long May You Run.” From there, the ceremonies devolved into clichés: William Shatner rehashed his tired routine from the Molson beer ads, the always-milquetoast Michael Bublé sang before a cadre of inflatable beavers, and SCTV-alumni Catherine O’Hara gave an inexcusably unfunny monologue on the Canadian tendency to over-apologize. Equally uncomfortable were John Furlong butchering the French language for over ten minutes, Avril Lavigne singing the wildly inappropriate “Girlfriend,” and the blatantly lip-synched performances by Alanis Morissette and K-os. (No surprise, NBC aired a mercifully truncated version of the ceremonies, knowing American audiences would be frantically clicking over to Desperate Housewives.) On the flip side, the 2010 Winter Paralympics Opening Ceremonies on Friday night was a tasteful affair that tugged at heartstrings. The cauldron was lit by 15-year old snowboarder (and amputee) Zach Beaumont, there were video tributes to Terry Fox and Rick Hansen, and disabled break-dancer Luca "Lazylegz" Patuelli brought the capacity-crowd at BC Place to its feet. The national anthem was sung by former paralympic athlete Terry Kelly and performed in sign language by White Rock's Mari Klassen. Still, CTV chose to broadcast live the Opening Ceremonies only in B.C., leaving the rest of the country to watch a rebroadcast on Saturday afternoon. Televised coverage of the Games themselves will also be limited: CTV and its affiliates had more than 2,200 hours of coverage during the Olympics, but the Paralympics has been allotted a mere 27 hours in English. And the only live broadcasts will be of sledge hockey games involving Canada. ... http://www.vancouverobserver.com/cul...nd-paralympics |
Heres an interesting article discussing the problems Sochi faces for their games. This author states that Sochi may end up having the worst games ever, and he actually has some pretty good and valid reasons, unlike the British and their empty claims:hell: ;)
The Olympic Test 09 March 2010 By Alexei Bayer The Olympic flame in Vancouver has barely gone out and four years remain until the opening day of the next Winter Olympics in Sochi. But the first, most important race is already under way. From now until the closing ceremony on Feb. 23, 2014, the world will be on the edge of its seat, wondering whether Russia can pull it off. The stakes for the Kremlin are huge. The Sochi Olympics are already different from most previous Winter Games, which were largely organized by local or regional authorities with only limited input from federal governments. Sochi, on the other hand, has always been a federal undertaking, driven by Vladimir Putin and controlled directly from Moscow. It is a national priority meant to showcase Russia’s accomplishments. In this respect, it is part of a long line of “propaganda Olympics,” which began in 1936 in Berlin and continued in Moscow in 1980, Seoul in 1988 and, most recently, Beijing two years ago. If everything goes as planned, by 2014 Putin would already have reclaimed the presidency for a new, six-year term, which would mark his 15th year in power. Just like China’s authorities introduced “New China” to the world in 2008, Putin’s Olympics will put on display the system he has built — which is why I have so many doubts about the outcome. Putin surely couldn’t have chosen a more challenging test for his system. Not only will all the athletic and tourist facilities and communications and transportation infrastructure be built from scratch, but it will be a winter event on a summer beach. There are many things that could go wrong — and knowing Russia’s history, most of them will. It is also a major global event that will be held in direct proximity to a restive, lawless region where terrorism is a near-daily occurrence. Even though Canada is one of the world’s safest countries, the security tab in Vancouver still ran at more than one-third of the games’ initial budget. Finally, it took a lot of chutzpah for the International Olympic Committee to pick Sochi. Heretofore, it had been an exclusive preserve of rich nations. Russia will be the poorest Winter Olympic host — even coming in below Yugoslavia, which hosted the 1984 games in Sarajevo. Questions might arise about the structural soundness of a roof here and there, but the main facilities in Sochi are likely to be finished on time. Building large on an unlimited budget in an over-the-top, Dubai style has been a particular forte of the Putin system. Politically connected oligarchs working in Sochi, including Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin, have proven organizational skills. The money is also there, provided by Russian Railways, Sberbank, Rosneft and other state conglomerates. Even though Gazprom has reportedly balked at paying its $2 billion sponsorship, the budget is already estimated to be about $14 billion. Putin and other top officials make regular personal visits to Sochi to make sure that everything is on schedule. But a successful Olympics is so much more than facilities and equipment. For many visitors the fun is not only attending the events but also seeing the host city, straying from the beaten path, discovering quaint local restaurants and driving around the countryside. That is where problems will arise. Putin’s Russia functions relatively well for the wealthy who inhabit gated communities along Moscow’s elite Rublyovskoye Shosse, get chauffeured around pot holes and traffic jams in luxury limousines, eat at expensive restaurants and vacation abroad. For everyone else, the infrastructure of daily life is a lot sparser and tougher — and exponentially worse outside Moscow. It will be interesting to see where the organizers find the kind of cheerful, multilingual volunteers who steered crowds to Olympic venues in Turin and Vancouver. They are probably not going to find them in Sochi. Sochi authorities already complained to Putin last year that locals don’t speak much English. But this is only part of the problem. More to the point, the Olympics have already disrupted and dismayed Sochi residents. Many have been displaced to make room for Olympic sites. The rest will have to live for the next four years on a construction site. In most countries, Winter Olympics are staged to boost tourism and provide revenues for local businesses and services. But because there are so few small businesses, local restaurants, nice boutiques selling regional products and private hotels, Sochi residents will benefit very little from the Olympics. The lion’s share of visitors’ money will end up at large hotel and restaurant chains. The Olympics is also about organization, and this could become the ultimate undoing of the Sochi games. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the bureaucratic infrastructure in Russia has disintegrated. Or rather, it has been privatized. Officials at every level have stopped doing their jobs and have become more like feudal lords, using their position either to siphon money from the budget or get kickbacks from the people they are supposed to serve. In the Soviet Union, the bureaucracy was unwieldy and inefficient. Today, bureaucrats simply refuse to do anything unless they see an opportunity to make some money on the side. The results are plain. Police don’t protect citizens but rob and harass them. Sports officials don’t generate Olympic victories but live high on the hog at international competitions. Sochi 2014 may very well earn the dishonorable distinction of being the costliest and most unsuccessful Olympic Games in history. In 2008, the Beijing Olympics showed that China’s post-communist system, for all its problems and shortcomings, definitely works. Four years from now, the Sochi Olympics may reveal that the post-Soviet Russia, for all its pretensions, doesn’t. Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, is a New York-based economist. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinio...st/401147.html |
should be interesting
my friend was looking it up cause he had olympic fever and he was like there are no flights and there are no hotels there! |
Don't tell the Brits ... they"ll start the negative press coverage before the games are even underway!
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^Actually, they already have started setting their gaze on Sochi.
In the meantime, they are still trashing Vancouver's Games, as well as Canadian athletes. This was published on Friday in the Guardian. Amy Williams accuses Canadian Winter Olympics organisers of bias • Amy Williams speaks out over lack of access to facilities • 'Other began looking at it as the rest of the world v Canada' guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 March 2010 10.17 GMT The Winter Olympics skeleton champion Amy Williams has called for Olympic hosts to allow equal access to facilities in the run-up to a Games after describing the Canadian approach for Vancouver as "sad". Williams won gold in the skeleton despite minimal access to the sliding track in Whistler, where the male Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died on the eve of the Games. In contrast, the Canadians, including the women's skeleton world No1, Mellisa Hollingsworth, enjoyed the benefit of hundreds of runs. "It is not right to compete against someone who has had 400 runs when you've only had 30, because to the athlete each run slows the process down in your head and your reactions get quicker," she told the Daily Mail. "I thought it was sad the way the Canadians acted. "And what happened in the sliding sports was that the other nations began looking at it as the rest of the world versus Canada. You wanted your own country to win, but beyond that you didn't care who did as long as it wasn't Canada. "The way the Canadians behaved united the rest and then they finished out of the medals in my event anyway. I hope people will now realise it is not fair. You should want to win but only if everybody has the same chance. It's not winning if you've given yourself an unfair advantage. The hosts should set out a level playing field, that's the point of the Olympics." Williams also had to contend with Canadian claims that her helmet had illegal aerodynamic modifications on the eve of her gold-winning run. The protest failed and Williams says it was motivated by "sour grapes". "It was only because Mellisa didn't win that they tried to claim my equipment was illegal," she said. "It was just sour grapes. I thought Mellisa was a friend but the Canadians could not bring themselves to say of me: 'She drove the best, she was dominating in training."' guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010 |
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Williams: " Canadians are sore losers, how dare they accuse the helmet of being illegal! Sour grapes is what it is, they are just jealous because Melissa did not win! British: " Those cheating Canadians. They won but only because they cheated and gave their team an unfair advantage in training." Me: No sour grapes from you guys either hey? None at all? O.K, so your allowed to complain but Canadians are not. :koko: |
Nobody likes whiny athletes. Please go away, Amy Williams.
You get paid tax dollars to throw yourself down a hill in a sled. Dance, monkey, dance! |
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Sure Canada could of opened the doors and let everyone go on the track over and over again. But by the rules they only have to do it so many times. Nothing says Canada has to give more access. So if you want more access at future games talk to the governing bodies and not a Country. |
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You do have to sympathize with Amy Williams' position. After all, the training imbalance did shatter her Olympic dream by forcing her to settle for a gold medal, while her Canadian competitor unfairly triumphed in fourth place. So, on the face of it, her complaint clearly has merit, and I think we would all be equally resentful if placed in the same position as her and a host nation's biased policy robbed us of fourth place and we recieved gold instead. So let's try to show a little sensitivity to the injustice she has had to endure.
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CTV to air Paralympic Closing Ceremony Live: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/paralympic...+ceremony+live
guess they heard from the viewers. |
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And seriously, their website: http://sochi-airport.com/ is no better than your average wordpress blog. It's sad. |
My pictures of the Paralympic Cauldron.
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there was a small crowd down there today and CTV had a truck thing there perhaps to get the word out that its worth checking out again
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Isn't Russia building High speed rail from Moscow to Sochi? If so, probably the best way to get there would be fly to Moscow and take the train.
Now... about direct flights to Moscow... |
^ the current train ride from moscow to sochi can take up to 32 hours so i hope some form of high-speed rail is built (the distance between the two is 1,358km).
but no need to fly all the way to moscow. it would be much easier and faster to fly into Istanbul and take a ferry across the black sea over to Sochi. That's about a 12 hour ride and much more pleasant. that's my plan if i go. |
Good idea.. possibly there are ferries from Odessa as well. I just checked and air fares seem cheaper to Istanbul than Odessa. You can get to Istanbul or Moscow from here in 1 stop, then either ferry or fly to Adler-Sochi.
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