I’ve been through garbage strikes in this town before, and they’re not pretty as no one would expect they would be. I’ve also been to Toronto during a heat wave AND a garbage strike in the middle of August and well, I think it actually made the town smell a little better.

All joking aside city workers in Vancouver, who are an integral part of the maintenance and upkeep of our tourist-attracting streets and dispose of our household waste, could be going on strike very soon.

Take full advantage if it’s your day to drag those garbage cans to the curb because it could be your last chance for a long time… Last-ditch talks aimed at averting a strike by outside workers in Vancouver have broken off, and there’s still no deal in sight. They started hopefully, but ended abruptly yesterday, with what is being described as a “significant distance” between the two sides. [News1130]

Photo Credit: Famewhore on Flickr

Vancouver’s 1,800 outside workers, including garbage collectors, will refuse to work overtime as of 11 a.m. Thursday, while 375 district and recreational staff in North Vancouver will ban overtime and will work to rule… Mike Jackson, President of CUPE Local 1004, said garbage collection likely wouldn’t be affected by an overtime ban. “It’s only if pickets go up, that’s when garbage is affected.” [Vancouver Sun]

That isn’t very good news, which only makes me think of the upcoming fireworks, the Celebration of Light, that attract millions of spectators to the downtown core and surrounding beaches over several nights. I see how the trash cans along Robson get stuffed just by the end of the day (side note: the tray in front of the trash cans is for recyclables, not frappucinno and slurpee cups).

If the photo above is any indication it can get really messy, and with no one to clean it up do you suppose they’ll just find volunteers? Cancel the event altogether? We’ll find out more tomorrow as negotiations are still underway.

retrocactus on Flickr

The whole gang is back and Episode #38 of The Crazy Canucks podcast is now available for your listening pleasure – that’s right folks, even in the off season we’re still alive and kickin’.

…[we] go over the recent moves by the Canucks on the free agency deadline. We also look around the league and examine what other teams are doing, not to mention who is left that we wouldn’t mind getting our hands on. We talk a little bit about BC Floorball, the 2007-2008 schedule, some listener feedback on U.S. television coverage, and the future home for Nashville [TCC Episode 38]

In honour of summer hockey talk, here’s another Miss604 Poll:

Every single workday I walk through hoards of tourists all crowded around the steamclock in Gastown. On the 15’s, 30’s and 45’s it lets out a little toot and on the hour it plays its little steamy whistles for about a minute. Now, I’ve unveiled the “true” steamclock in a previous post and I for one know of at least a dozen locals who can’t stand the sight of the thing:

I enjoy the coffee, I enjoy the coffee often. In order to get to my green logo’d dealer I must bob and weave through this sadly miss led crowd of photographers whom appear to be awaiting a press conference from the next alleged father of Anna Nicole’s baby. Does it anger me, well…yes! After all I’m Jonesing for my caffeine fix and tripods and the likes slow me up which increases my withdrawal headache to the point of having irrational thoughts about loading up a golf cart up with screechers and bottle rockets and driving it through the clock to put and end to the madness. Daddy needs to feed the addiction, damn it!
[Rod Bruno on MatthewGood.org]

This weekend Keira and I decided to be tourists in our own town, checking out all the tacky tourist shops along Water Street. We got out alive although we narrowly averted purchasing some maple syrup in a can. We decided a pretty fun thing to do would be to take our picture with the locally-despised clock on the corner of Cambie and Water. As we stood there, posing like so many visitors to our city do every second of every day, we giggled. Many times have we walked by this cursed landmark from the days of disco and scoffed at those taking photos, and now here we are, posing all cheeky-like and doing the same.

Photo credit: Keira on Flickr

I think the best part was, while we were posing facetiously a couple walked by us and snidely remarked, “… Seems like everyone is taking photos of that clock pfffft!” I had to laugh because they did what we do pretty much every day. Oh well, it was a good time to hang out and be silly in Gastown and our photo is, as Keira fittingly deemed it, dedicated to Merle and all those who just can’t comprehend why a faux-steam clock would attract so much attention in this fair city.

Thanks to Translink, I found out about several community happenings next weekend and even though the public transit beast may just be trying to get into our good books, the redeeming part is… they’re absolutely free. If you’re a frequent reader of the blog you’ll notice the “cheap fun” and “cheap things to do” category for several posts I have here. We’re proud supporters of low-dough festivities in the GVRD and Saturday July 21 there is a plethora of good times happening around town.

The Heineken Yaletown Street Party is Vancouver’s Best Free Day of the Summer! Don’t miss live music all day, dj’s and street dancing, a hot rod show, celebrity chef chili cook-off battle of the bartenders, a dog agility show and BMX bike show.

Dining Zone with tables, chairs, and live jazz by Kostas Roumeliotis Jazz Quartet, DaDeO Chili Tasting, Capers BBQ, Capers First Year Birthday Celebration, Poema Flamenco guitar and dancers at noon, Fashion show by Shop Cocoon at 2pm, Percussion music by Kutapira at 3pm, Kid Zone sponsored by Choices, face painting, craft tables, balloon animal, clowns, popcorn and balloons, ice-cream, drinks, and more.

Entertainment, food, fashion and hopefully sun! Dance alongside the Cuban band, Miguel Valdes y Puro Son, and Julio Montero and his Cuban Salsa Dancers, performing on stage from 1:00 to 3:00pm. Enjoy roving entertainers, a chili cook off, children’s activities, and much more. All activities will take place outside in the Oakridge Plaza at Cambie and 41st from noon to 4:00pm.

I can’t find more info about this event at the url given but I’m sure it will have more of the same… food, music etc. Although you can read about even more events throughout the rest of year at this portion of the DowntownVancouver.net website.

There will be FREE shuttles between all of these events, and if you’re not going to be in or around the downtown core, Cambie Village or Oakridge, you may want to take in Gay Day at Playland, also happening July 21st.

Wear a RED SHIRT and stand out from the crowd! Support the VPS and show your Pride! Drag out all your favourite family, friends and, yes, even the kids, to this unique event at Playland. Spend the day @ Playland, and when the clock strikes four, come to the Queer-coustic stage and enjoy the live entertainment that’s being DRAAAGGED out just for you.

If you’re still looking for something to do, try heading out to Swangard for some Women’s White Caps action that evening when our championship ladies play the Real Colorado Cougars – tickets starting at $16 or check out Tourism Vancouver’s 100 Days of Summer guide for more festivities of all kinds throughout the season.

Update: Another cool, free event happening before next weekend is the Tour de Gastown, Wednesday July 18th. Aside from the men’s and women’s races there is also BMX demos, kids play areas and obstacle courses, and various other activities. You can read more about these bicycle racing and festival-style events on Ryan’s Metroblogging entry or visit TourdeGastown.com.

Photo credit: uncleweed on Flickr

Love’em or hate’em, the HSBC Celebration of Light fireworks nights are back for another go this summer. It’s outdoors, it’s midsummer and it’s free, not sure how much better things can get except for the fact that you’re sharing this experience with one million other people on the shores of English Bay.

The world’s leading fireworks manufacturers consider the HSBC Celebration of Light international fireworks competition to be the most prestigious events of its kind in the world and an exciting arena where they can unveil the latest pyro-musical techniques and the most innovative fireworks materials. [Celebration of Light]

To observe the spectacle this year park your beach blanket early to reserve a good vantage point and pick your night to go check them out.

Each show is approximately 25 minutes and is centered around a barge floating off the shore in English Bay. They can be viewed from various vantage points from English Bay, Vanier Park, Jericho Beach, out in the water if you have a boat, and the photo below was taken from Cypress Mountain. The event used to be called the “Symphony of Fire” because each presentation is actually put to music that you can turn into on ROCK 101, which you can still tune in and listen to.

Remember this is a competition afterall, so beginning this year spectators get the chance to vote for their favourite display via text message.

New this year, YOU can participate in the voting for the HSBC Celebration of Light using your mobile phone! Text LIGHT to 24365 to register. Upon registering, you will receive a text message after each of the 3 competition nights asking you to rate the performance for that evening. Audience text votes each night will be tabulated and submitted as the 7th official judge. [Text to Vote]

Photo credit: uncleweed on Flickr

The whole ‘controversy’ stems from residents downtown and in Kits being annoyed by the crowds and noise, although every negative blog post I read about the fireworks last year doesn’t just complain about hundreds of thousands of people – no – they complain that they are coming from the suburbs. (I’ll hold my tongue on that one…) I also hear it’s not the best for the environment with the smoke and loud noise killing little baby birdies’ eardrums. Aside from all of that… it seems to be great for businesses downtown and fun for the whole family.

I’ve experienced the fireworks as a child. We’d drive out to Kits from Surrey in the family van and have a picnic on the beach. Finding that perfect rock to balance on and watch the display took a little time. And 10 minutes later the tide was in and my butt would be sore so I’d retire up the hill a bit to the blanket my mom had laid out. [Miss604, 2006]

Last year we met up with Dave O [uncleweed][Canucks Outsider] and his clan for a picnic on a grassy hill and enjoyed a summer sunset. I don’t miss my days of Skytraining back home after the fireworks waiting for hours in a transit mosh pit since the walk back home through the West End is pretty painless – you only have to play Frogger a few times.