A group of local radio stations are teaming up over at Canuck Place Children’s Hospice for a day of live broadcasts from 6:00am until 11:00pm.
Canuck Place offers specialized pediatric palliative care to over 350 children with life threatening illnesses and their families across BC. The demand continues to rise. Internal estimates suggest that only approximately 20% of the children and families that need the program currently have access. Your help is needed to reach those children.
Canuck Place relies on the generosity of individuals, corporations and organizations to provide its program at no cost to BC families.
Families, volunteers, and those who have been involved with or touched by Canuck Place will be sharing their stories on air with the following stations throughout the day: QMFM (103.5), The Beat (94.5), The Team 1040am, and Talk 1410am.
You can donate online to the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice in many creative ways; by purchasing an e-card greeting, branded merchandise or other Precious Gifts.
Canuck Place is also making it easy to give this holiday season with their Precious Pages that you can setup and customize (upload a photo, a personal message) and send the link around to friends and family. They can donate to the cause in your honor this season in lieu of a gift under the tree.
Each year around the time of my blogiversary I write a reflective post or hold a contest. For 2008 I’m going to invite everyone celebrate the online efforts of others from across the region with the Best of 604, since being ‘hyper-local’ is what I do.
As often as I can, I try to highlight and promote local business, organizations, bloggers, and online triumphs. In 2007 I started the Best of 604 wherein I listed some of my favourite things around the region.
This year, I wanted to leave the nomination and voting to the public (that way no one can wonder what my mystery formula was for calculating winners). The nominees do NOT have to be blogs – they can be any website that fits into any of the 14 categories.
Who do you turn to for information? What site do you check first thing in the morning (or ten times a day)? Who do you love to read? This is all about the best of our region, and we should all be proud of the many accomplishments of our friends, neighbours, and peers. It’s the people’s choice awards for Metro Vancouver online.
How it works:
Head to the Best of 604 website and enter your nomination in the variety of categories – from Best News Site to Best Personal Blog – by leaving a comment. After one week (on December 4th) I will flip the switch and have official voting ballots available until December 11th.
Come on back and see if your pick has made the cut and together at a private awards reception on December 11th at The Cellar, we will congratulate the Best of the online 604 with recognition and prizes.
More info:
Rules, Nominate and Vote, Contact, and Sponsors.
Tickets for the awards reception are available through EventBrite and admission on the 11th is by (monetary) donation to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society (official donation envelopes will be available). Anyone who attends and donates to the Food Bank will receive one of their Community Angel pins.
Everyone is invited to attend the reception, although please make sure to RSVP through EventBrite.
Although Katkam‘s Western view has been the webcam of choice for years, during last year’s blogathon I found a site that listed over a dozen webcams from around the Vancouver area.
A few weeks ago on my Talk1410am segment I highlighted a few more area views and I discovered the many sides of the Vancouver.com webcam.
There are North, South-East, and North-East shots that give some amazing views on mornings like this.
I’m also a fan of the Numinous webcam as well as the Jericho Beach webcam. I’m curious to know if there are any more out there worth checking out.
You can find Celebration of Light road closure info here.
One thing I love about not owning a car and living downtown is that I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go either by walking or on transit. Buses, SkyTrains, West Coast Express, and my own two legs can be relied upon whenever inter-urban travel is necessary. There is much room for improvement (although not when it comes to my legs, I don’t think) so bearing this in mind you can now view the transportation concepts for the 2010 Olympic Games online.
the City of Vancouver has released a map of temporary changes to the city’s road network leading up to and during the two week event.
The temporary changes will include pedestrian-only areas, security zones, on-street parking limitations, and priority lanes for Olympic traffic.
The city plans to make pedestrian malls out of parts of Granville, Robson, Mainland, and Hamilton streets in the downtown core, and create priority lanes for Olympic traffic on Broadway, Hastings, West Georgia, Seymour and Howe streets.
Over the next month, the city staff members intend to meet with business, transportation and community groups to discuss the effects of the changes. [CBC]
With the Canada Line nearing completion, a need for more (frequent) sustainable travel options in the Eastern cities and the call for More Buses Now, how do you think Vancouver’s transportation plan will fare when we host the world in February of 2010?
Update March 11, 2009: Official Road Plan for 2010
“Organizers of the 2010 Oympics unveiled on Wednesday an ambitious transportation plan that involves major road and bridge closures, expanded transit capacity and a plea to the public to ditch their cars and use alternative methods to get around.” [Source: CBC] You can view the entire plan here (pdf).
Update July 2009, 2009:
Update October 14th, 2009: The transportation and road plans for the 2010 Games were finalized today. Check out TravelSmart2010 for more information.
Update January 7th, 2010:
Olympic Lanes soon go into effect:
Designated Olympic Lanes for TransLink buses and Olympic accredited vehicles will be in place from February 4 to March 1, 2010 for 24 hours, 7 days a week. Olympic Lanes in Vancouver will be in the curb, or right-hand lane during this period at the following locations:
Burrard St, Burrard Bridge to Pender St
Seymour St, Granville Bridge to Hastings St
Howe St, Hastings St to Granville Bridge
Pender St, Cambie St to Howe St
Cambie St, Cambie Bridge to 59th Ave
Broadway, Arbutus St to Commercial Dr
Georgia St, Richards St to the Stanley Park Causeway
Hastings St, Seymour St to Boundary Rd
All cars stopped/parked in Olympic Lanes or parking restricted areas between February 4 to March 1, 2010 will be fined $100 plus an automatic tow.
I have also published a guide to taking bus transportation from February to March, 2010.
Update January 25th, 2010:
Here are some maps outlining the Opening & Closing Ceremonies closures.
Visit this website to download larger versions of each map.
Club closing times, patio seating, and smoking are some of the hottest topics lately when it comes to Vancouver restaurants and bars. However tomorrow if you’re interested in having your say, there is a public event at the YWCA Hotel tonight with presentations starting at 6:00pm.
Licensing staff are developing an hours of service policy for licensed restaurants, also known as “Food Primary†establishments. Currently, liquor service must end at midnight in restaurants that were licensed after December 2002, when the Province’s new liquor licensing policy took effect. Under the new Provincial policy, restaurants may apply for extended hours past midnight, but must first obtain a resolution from the City.
If you’d like to voice your opinion on the subject, you can also email your comments to liquor.review [at] vancouver [dot] ca.
On a somewhat related note, the BC Hospitality Expo is currently happening at BC Place until 6:00 tonight as well.
