Rapid Transit — not Freeways

By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Last Fall City Council estab-
lished a Liaison Group to secure
citizen opinion on a proposed
freeway connection between the
| new Georgia Viaduct and
Highway 401. It included three
alderman — Bird, Wilson and
Rankin, consultants and
representatives of community
organizations from the area that
would be affected by the
freeway. The consultants on the
committee included members
of a Study Team engaged by the
City to draw up plans for the
freeway route.

The report of the Study Team
will be submitted to Council on
August 10th. It proposes a route
going in a south-easterly direc-
tion from the east end of Georgia
Viaduct, avoiding the densely
populated areas, and meeting up
with Highway 401 in the vicinity
of Boundary Road and the Grand-
view Highway. Its cost is estim-
ated at about $60 million. A
conservative estimate places
the number of homes that would
have to be removed to make way
. for the freeway at between 55
and 60. However, this does not
take into consideration the
ramps that would be built which
could bring the figure closer to
200.

Aldermen Wilson and Bird
appear to go along with the
proposals of the Study Team re
this route. The representatives
of the community groups,
however, have joined me in
opposing it. We have filed a state-
ment with Council outlining our
reasons. The statement is
signed by G.A. McLaren,
Renfrew Heights Community
Association; Karl Zuker,
Cassiar Ratepayers  Asso-
ciation; William Dey, Grand-
view Woodland Area Council: J.
Lau, S.P.0.T.A.; J. Warnock,
Cedar Cottage Ratepayers Asso-
ciation, as well as, of course,
myself.

Our position is this: While the
route now proposed by the Study
Team of consultants is less
reprehensible than the Union-
Prior corridor, which would
have cut through a heavily popu-
lated area and brought the

destruction of over 1,000 homes,
it is still a freeway and we want
no part of freeways, in the east
end or anywhere else in Van-
couver. What we want is a rapid
transit system that will move
people instead of cars, and move
them swiftly, efficiently and
economically.

The fact is that City Council is
forcing a freeway system on the
citizens of Vancouver without
their knowledge and against
their wishes. The method used is
to build it piecemeal, in such a
way that its total effect is not
seen or realized all at once and in
such a manner that each
completed section requires the
completion of another.

The Georgia Viaduct is not just
a replacement. It has been
carefully designed as a section of
a freeway. A third crossing of
Burrard Inlet is another essen-
tial link in this freeway system.

This freeway system is
designed to bring more cars into
the centre of the city where the
big developers — Four Seasons,
Project 200, Block 42-52,
Bayshore Inn, etc. have their
investments. It would bring in its
wake not only traffic congestion
of unprecedented proportions,
but ugly structures of concrete
and steel dividing up our city, air
pollution to the point of
seriously endangering health, a
demand for more parking lots,
service stations and eventually
still more freeways. The cost of
a freeway system could be
anywhere up to $500,000,000
leaving us, our children and our
children’s children saddled with
an impossible debt and a
crushing tax burden.

We are disturbed over the fact
that while City Council is
pushing through the freeway
scheme, nothing is being done
about rapid transit.

We believe the whole direction
of City Council’s policy on
transportation should be
reversed, with freeways aban-
doned and rapid transit
endorsed. To this end we propose
the following steps:

e Drop any plans for a
freeway connector between
Georgia Viaduct and Highway
401.

‘Move people instead of cars’

e Inform Ottawa and Victoria
that another Inlet crossing is not
a priority and that funds avail-
able for a crossing should be
diverted to rapid transit.

e A drastic beefing up of bus
service that would include many
more buses, extending the
service to more areas, reducing
fares, and the use of fast express
buses along curb lanes. The cost
of such an improvement in bus
service would only be a fraction
of the cost of freeways.

e Start now on the first link of
the rapid transit scheme — the
Kingsway Corridor, proposed in
the Greater Vancouver Area
Rapid Transit Study presented
to City Council last September.

e Acquire substantial strips of
land on each side of the Kings-
way Corridor. Later, when the
Corridor is near completion,
this land could be rezoned
upwards, sold and the proceeds
used to finance the transit route.
In this way, we could avoid debts
and keep our taxes down while
still building a rapid transit
system.

Anti-hail
missiles

A conference in Baku, Azer-
baijan, was told that anti-hail
measures in the Soviet Union
have been so successful that the
country is now training experts
for several other socialist
countries, Lebanonand Argen
tina.

In all of these countries hail is
a frequent menace to crops.

The methods include the use of
a Soviet-made radar device to
detect approaching hail clouds,
and anti-hail missiles which
disperse the clouds or cause the
hail to fall as gentle rain.

Missile treatment succeeds in
four cases out of five.

The areas with a_hail-
protection service have grown
by half in the past five years and
will be extended to other areas of
field crops and orchards in the
near future.

A press release issued last
Sunday night by the Vancouver
Tenants Council called on Van-
couver tenants to defeat the
latest desperate move of Wall
and Redekop to break the
successful strike-boycott now in
its fourth month.

On July 6 the realty firm com-
menced proceedings asking for
a Supreme Court injunction. If
granted, this injunction would
prohibit tenants from with-
holding their rent, prohibit them
from publicly letting other
tenants know about high rents in
Wall and Redekop blocks, and
would even prohibit tenants from
discussing the matter with other
tenants.

The injunction is being sought
against four striking Wall and

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 16,,197]—PAGE 2

Redekop tenants at 1265 West 13.

The case will be heard in
Supreme Court Chambers at the
Court House at 10:30 a.m. on
Thursday, July 15. The law firm
of Rankin and Co. will represent
the tenants.

“Every tenant in Vancouver
should make a special effort to
attend this hearing’, said VCT
secretary Bruce Yorke. “It is
the most important case
affecting tenants ever held in
BC:

‘‘Wall and Redekop are
attempting to establish that the
organization of tenants for
collective action constitutes an
unlawful act and therefore
should be prohibited. On the
other hand public opinion has
repeatedly supported the W. and

Realty firm seeks injunction
against high-rental strikers

R. tenants struggle to keep rents
at a reasonable level and thus
combat inflation. Rents already
take too high a portion of most
people’s income. This is the
underlying economic matter at
stake.”

“No matter what the outcome
of the injunction proceedings
the VTC will use all means at its
disposal to have the right to
organize and to bargain
collectively (including the right
to strike and to picket) explicitly
written into the law, both at the
provincial and municipal level’,
said Yorke.

The Tenants Council urges all
tenants, city-wide, to attend the

Small Claims Court hearing on §

July 19 at 10:30 a.m. in the main
Court House where the eviction
cases will be heard.

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TOM |
3] McEWEN

2 = = Seta see ae

earing the brunt of all the vicissitudes and chanet

moods of Mother Nature, on top of the grain, mae

ine, mortgage and other monopoly sharks, Canada’s praill

farmers of a kygone day pinned a lot of faith in ‘‘next year

Then they would ‘‘make the grade” — up out of the shiffil

sands of adversity. It was a stubborn and prevailing “b®
whatever else might be said about it.

So ‘‘next year”’ the sovereign people of the USA will el
new president, perhaps, and probably with the ‘‘hope
they can improve on what they've got now, or, by a na
margin, hang on to the top-notch liar they now have, credib
gap and all?. é

In either case it will be something of a phantom “oP”
since capitalist Establishments don’t change with ‘‘new” PP
dents. Big Business sees to that. :

Either the old or ‘‘new’’ president bends to the edi€
Big Business or his tenure of office— and even his life becom
forfeit. Violence and capitalist Establishments have beco
almost synonymous!

“Next year’’ also (perhaps), Canadians will elect a “Ne™
government — and be saddled, according to tradition i
custom, with a ‘‘new”’ prime minister it chooses ina politica y
super-charged convention. ;

At this moment of writing, the political stocks of Piet
Elliot Trudeau’s ‘‘charisma”’ are just about their lowest Tg
lower even than the stocks in B.C.’s latest fly-by-night me
swindle. Aware of this catastropic drop in popularity Pier
has been busy in recent weeks mending his political fence
much wire and posts are down however that even all Ip
lineman would balk at trying to string it up again.

With the advent of Trudeau however, the Establish
changed very little, if any from that of the Mackenzie Kine
Laurent-Pearson era,:-with Dief thrown in to fill UP ‘el
decades: King, a graduate of the Rockerfeller Institu a
specialized mainly on how to diddle labor and weasel me, ip
tight spots; St. Laurent, an adept on how to twist the stille tra
vulnerable spots, Pearson the renowned ‘‘diplomat’ ont
ordinary, (which means in Establishment jargon the inher
ability of double-talk), and now Trudeau, the afte
“swinger’’ one day and a ruthless wielder of the War Meas’ of
Act the next, to terrorize Quebec— and Canada? A chamey f
dilettante who wouldn’t find it too difficult to don the 8% ral
fascism should the Establishment of which he is an integr”
part, decree it necessary!

and
Of course charismas, like used cars, can be replaced: ney

who is to argue that, Canadian political levels being wha ith
are, Pierre and his Liberal politicos won’t come UP ove!
another shop-worn charisma, at least usable enough to gel
another electoral hump?

Well, according to all the pundits and political sooy
sayers, we’ll have to wait until ‘‘next year’’ to know our e in
under the long-established class rules of an unchal
Establishment.

i
And who knows, mebby ‘‘next year’’ the people of Bod
have another opportunity to settle accounts with the | of the
Bennett government, hopefully before it barters away al
province’s resources, jobs, security and well-being to U.»: me
home-bred monopoly. Should that happy eventuality yen if
earlier than ‘‘next year’’ so much the better for B.C. nol
the Establishment per se don’t change overnight. "4 of
Bennet and his god-punching crew, a substantial we ublic
political pollution would be immediately lifted from the
domain, and the common people would breathe easier!

: ; ee! ial al
In our changing world remedies for political, ws ef:
economic ills, are no longer tied to a ‘‘next year chi edie’

Given the mass will, desire, and unity, they can be re tio
NOW -— and the Establishment shaken to its very foun :
as preliminary to the permanent change!