I’m intrigued by the activities of a group calling themselves Gateway Sucks. They’ve been hitting the streets lately to talk to locals about the expansion of Highway 1, the congestion 'reducing' project masterminded by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon (that’s his face on the button, image courtesy of Gateway Sucks).
With virtually no public consultation, Falcon and the Gateway Council (whose Honorary Chair is none other than Federal Minister of International Trade, David Emerson) pushed through the expansion project last spring, at a projected cost of $4.5 billion. The project will include the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge and the expansion of Highway One to eight lanes between Langley and East Vancouver.
Though many urban planners and environmental luminaries have spoken out against the project, Falcon calls it a done deal.
In a recent letter to Emerson, David Suzuki denounced the expansion as “an old-school, 1950s-style urban planning model plopped into 21st century Greater Vancouver.”
What kind of city can we look forward to during and after construction? To be sure, the new highways will carve up the city and suburbs into neat little “geography of nowhere” wastelands, take funding away from the regional transportation system and make Vancouver even more of a car-dependent city than it already is.
Whatever happened to the GVRD’s Liveable Region Strategic Plan? This plan, in development since 1986, has been designed to reduce traffic congestion and would be transit friendly. It would also be comparatively pocketbook friendly too, at an estimated cost of $300 to $500 million.
It seems the GVRD plan got 'falconed'.
What is Gateway Sucks doing about all of this? They’ve been going door-to-door to talk to locals, spreading an impressive petition, and distributing the aforementioned buttons—all with real direct action flair.
Oh, and they’re hosting an anti-Gateway dance party next week, too. After pounding the pavement, every good activist needs to shake a leg.
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2 comments:
Yeah you know, I've been going around to local businesses handing out posters for the Stop the Highway Dance Party, and handing out flyers on the street...to ALL KINDS of people...and they are GETTING IT!
It feels to me like suddenly, critical mass has happened re: climate change awareness...and people are waking up to the big clumsy self-destructive forces at play behind the scenes. It's all very exciting.
Thanks for the post-up Emily...hope to see you at the PARTY on Feb. 10, it's gonna be a shaker...
-Carmen at Gatewaysucks.org
Oh and I gotta add...
Gatewaysucks can't take credit for the petition or the door-to-door campaigning, that's SPEC's work...that and so much else, those guys are on it like flies, check it out:
www.spec.bc.ca
Gatewaysucks is a place where everyone can flaunt what they are doing individually, or as organizations, to stop this madness.
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