Rainbow connection
The president of the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Pride Society says the significance of the rainbow flag should never be forgotten.
Ken Coolen addressed a large crowd at city hall Monday afternoon gathered for the launch of both Pride Week and the North America Outgames in Vancouver. Coolen, who has travelled the world helping Pride groups in countries where homosexuality is illegal, says during his journeys a tiny rainbow flag sticker spotted in a shop window offered safety on mean streets.
When you saw that flag you knew you were home and you were safe, Coolen told the crowd.
Following the flag raising ceremony, Coolen said the rainbow flag will fly at city hall for the duration of Pride Week through July 31, signifying, Were home and were safe.
Two 2011 Pride Parade grand marshals also spoke at city hallthis years Local Hero, longtime community volunteer Joan-E, and International Hero, Pat Rocco, a Hawaii-based gay activist who for years fought for equal rights. Bill Siksay, the gay NDP MP for Burnaby-Douglas, is also a grand marshal and this years Role Model, while the Posthumous Pride Hero for 2011 is AIDS Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»co-founder Bill Tivey, who died earlier this year at age 68.
This rounds on me
While at city hall I saw Green Party park board commissioner Stuart Mackinnon chatting with Vision Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»park board chair Aaron Jasper. I had to wonder if they were talking booze.
I know Jasper supports a proposal to allow liquor sales on the links at the citys three public gold courses, McCleery, Langara and Fraserview.
When it comes to money, those golf courses are the park boards bread and butter and are responsible for about $8 million or 20 per cent of the $40 million the board brings in annually from its own revenue sources. Jasper believes those golf courses can generate even more revenue if golfers are allowed to buy liquor while playing as they do on many private courses.
But Mackinnon disagrees and wrote a blog post entitled A Martini with your putter? in which he asks while it might be legally possible to sell alcohol on the golf courses, is it good public policy to do so?
Many golfers already take their own alcoholic beverages to drink while golfing, so this would be a way to increase park board revenues. But Mackinnon says profit as the only reason for selling booze on the greens is wrong. He adds if the park board ends up selling drinks on the links, why stop there?
Would we next be setting up bars or liquor trolleys ay Jericho or Kits beaches simply because people are already drinking there and we are losing out on an opportunity to make money? asks Mackinnon.
Zippity, do dah
The public is invited to the opening celebration of the recently redesigned Fraserview Park, located at the south end of Victoria Drive at East 61st Avenue, today (July 27) at 3 p.m.
Upgrades to the 1.27-hectare park include a zip line and playground, an accessible walking and jogging trail with circuit training and improved landscaping and garden areas. The project cost $700,000 with one-third provided by the federal Recreational Infrastructure Canada Program.
Twitter @sthomas10
