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6 Oct, 9 tweets, 3 min read
I have a small update about the law banning people from owning pigeons in the District of North Vancouver
Folks right remember, in the before times, that North Van council passed a bylaw (unique in Metro Vancouver) specifically banning pigeons.

They never revealed the ban seemed to be prompted from a years-long feud between a councillor and her neighbour.

cbc.ca/news/canada/br…
Long story short, we revealed that years-long feud, it turned out the councillor in question emailed other councillors urging a pigeon ban, and a whole bunch of investigations and lawsuits started to happen.

Over pigeons.

It was a simpler time.

cbc.ca/news/canada/br…
In February, a majority of councillors said "you know, maybe we should unban pigeons, given how all of this looks to the general public."

(these are all different articles, I promise, but the photo by @Ben_Nelms is very good, so we keep using it)

cbc.ca/news/canada/br…
Anyhow, today North Van council voted on adopting the recommendations from the independent investigation into what some in the community call #PigeonGate.

However, staff told council not to bring up pigeons, or the councillor, or anything in the investigation.
The reason is that North Van is still being sued for the pigeon ban, and the councillor who lives next to the pigeon owner is being sued (by a group that includes multiple neighbouring houses) in an attempt to remove her from office.

So a public discussion could be tricky.
Councillors want a forum to discuss the pigeon ban. Staff said they'll figure it out.

It might be public. It might be private. They might wait until the lawsuits wrap up.

For now, one year after passing the bylaw, pigeons remain illegal in the District of North Vancouver.
There have been bigger issues going on in the world and in this province for the past few months.

But I'll keep folks updated on the pigeon story.

It's Local Government 101 stuff, and a resolution can only be delayed so long.
North Van staff have said they won't enforce the bylaw until the legal situation is resolved.

Council could also vote to amend the pigeon bylaw, grandfathering in existing pigeon owners.

We don't know, because staff restricted discussion today.

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More from @j_mcelroy

Justin McElroy Profile picture
5 Oct
358 new cases of #COVID19 announced for B.C. over the last three days.

Four new deaths, and hospitalizations rise from 63 to 69.

Active cases up to 1,353, but it's hard to judge this number, given that Coastal Health is still unable to account for 500 cases.

Today's chart.
New #COVID19 modelling from the government shows that B.C.'s r-rate has gone below 1 (which is good!) and that the virus can be held in check if we keep contacts under 60% (which has been the case since May)
Dr. Bonnie Henry announces there were around 33,000 tests conducted over the last three days, and the positivity rate was 1.03%.

That's quite good, and reflects a continual decline in the positivity rate over the past few weeks, as we've talked about.

cbc.ca/news/canada/br…
Read 4 tweets
Justin McElroy Profile picture
3 Oct
I've answered this question about the deaths per capita chart about 20 times.

But Rob's a good guy, it's been a while, and this is a good distraction from endless election charts, so let's explain this one more time.
Here is chart showing that B.C. has the lowest #COVID19 deaths per capita of places with at least five million people in Canada/United States/western Europe.

It's a chart that gets shared a lot whenever I update it, and the government has used it as a talking point. Image
The reason those places were chosen, way back in April, was that Canada, the United States and western Europe had their first wave happen at the same time.

They are large interconnected jurisdictions with similar political systems, and were all dealing with similar issues.
Read 9 tweets
Justin McElroy Profile picture
10 Sep
(Deep sigh)

It is once again time to actually use data to discuss where homeless people in Vancouver are from.

Here is the city's 2019 homeless count, showing the breakdown.

It's a clunky chart. Can anyone tell me why?
The percentages shown by the City of Vancouver in the 2019 homeless count only account for those who said they originally lived somewhere other than Vancouver.

It doesn't account for the 189 people that said they always lived in Vancouver, or the 1,400 or so who didn't say.
What we can say is that, of the 40% or so of the homeless people who responded:

- 80% had lived in Vancouver more than a year
- 81% of people said they already lived in Vancouver when they became homeless
- 34% of people had been homeless for less than a year
Read 5 tweets
Justin McElroy Profile picture
3 Aug
Happy British Columbia Day.

Over the last year, I've collected pins from all 162 municipalities in this wonderful province.

And now, we're going to rank all of them.
NOTES BEFORE WE START:

- Feel VERY free to mute this thread, it will go on all day
- Sometimes I had multiple pins for a municipality; I picked the one I liked most; there may be a "better" or "more recent" pin, this not a definitive exercise
- Two friends helped with judging
162. ELKFORD

- hi, my name is elkford
- incredibly unexciting
- this will be a common complaint, but nobody cares you're a district municipality
- we gave points for "clarity", "locality" and "design", this did badly everywhere
Read 172 tweets
Justin McElroy Profile picture
3 Jul
Ranking Every Park In Vancouver: Kitsilano Edition

(Buckle up, because there are A LOT)
17. JEAN BEATY PARK

- There are six parks along Point Grey Road that are just "a patch of grass and ocean views", which, bless Point Grey Road, power move
- But this is the worst of them
- Small path in the middle cramps it even more
16. SEAFORTH PEACE PARK

- Cramped park with overgrown grass next to the Burrard Street Bridge
- Interesting monuments, but feel randomly placed and too noisy to enjoy for long
- Definitely the only park in Vancouver that has a recipe for soup
Read 20 tweets
Justin McElroy Profile picture
25 Jun
20 new cases of #COVID19 announced in B.C. today.

That's the highest number since June 3, and the first time since May we've had four straight days of double-digit cases.

Active cases and hospitalizations slightly up, too.

Today's chart. Image
The five-day rolling average of new cases in B.C. is still within the 6-15 range that we've seen for the last six weeks.

But there's a small but clear trending up since the end of May. Image
Remember how months ago we all read about The Hammer And The Dance?

How after coming down hard on #COVID19 to flatten the curve, we'd have to regularly make small adjustments over a prolonged period?

Well, it's dancing time.
Read 5 tweets

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