Be afraid, be very afraid!

Debates I crashed

Vancouver Real Estate Board debate (AKA: what's the new rental loophole?)
It actually included ALL mayors! Too bad the content of the brown envelope given to candidates after the debate was just a "thank you" note. (I was expecting to practice as a mayor)

AMSSA Immigrant Debate (AKA: we're all equal, but some mayors are more equal than others)
The mayoral debate at the Library hosted by CJC, S.U.C.C.E.S.S., the Vancouver Multicultural Society & AMSSA featured only the famous two bike-riding moderate white businessmen.

Decison 2008 (AKA: we take the comedian seriously)
Airing November 9th, 1:30pm. Shaw Cable lost my original footage and after playing phone tag for a week, I finally crashed at their studios to have my 2-minute candidate retaped.

The Langara Dialogues (AKA: the Langara Monologues)
David Berner enjoyed the usual suspects company. I didn't dare to crash this one.

Get Your Vote On (AKA: speed dating with arranged marriages)
@Biltmore Cabaret. The student organization organized this fun event made to promote the politicians they favour.

Arts Alliance debate (AKA: an artist representing us? Eeeeew)
@Granville Island. I didn't crash this one because my ex-wife organized it!!!

Church & state

We're learning with the U.S. as far as the illusion of social inclusion and democratic participation is concerned. Are Peter McCain and Gregor Obama the only ones running for mayor/president?

Thinking and living outside the box

Homelessness is not a housing issue. There'll always be houses. It's just that most low-income people can't afford rent. However, the meltdown is bringing us a unique opportunity to shift paradigms: let's learn with the First Nations, third-world people and Buckminster Fuller: Simple-living is the way to go. As the world financial houses collapse around us, it will be the homeless who will outlast the best because they learned to be survivalists.

Out top-down current housing models are okay as a make-work scheme. The cost-benefit is ludicrous: $200,000.00 per capita to allow a homeless to endure month-to-month Draculean contract and a life of regimented despair and bed bugs? The less fortunate need dignity. Let's give them wireless laptops, so they can cross the digital divide once and for all. Let's provide them with prefab units on wheels and liveaboard floating devices. Electric outlets & shower opportunities and honey wagons should be placed all over the city/BC. Let's change legislation so homeless can have driver's licenses/insurance/and vote without a 'brick&mortar' address; so they can park in empty lots-cum-trailerparks, or moor their boats wherever they see fit.

The digital nomad is the new man.

Land of the Dead benefit

The digital nomad

"So, where do you call home?" Someone always asked me during those on-the-street encounters around my RV. "Where do you actually LIVE?"
"In the Internet," I'd answer, usually receiving a blank look in response. "You know... my home is the Net. Once you move to the Internet, your physical location becomes irrelevant."
By this time, the average questioner is squirming uncomfortably, unsure whether I am some kind of nutcase. I can almost hear him: "What's this freak trying to tell me? To give up my Jaccuzzi?"

Our world is increasingly opened up by wireless communication breakthroughs. Last year, in my mid-life crisis, I thought, 'My God, I'm lost and there's no hope!' But it wasn't that bad; it was more like, 'I'm lost but this may be a good thing because there is maybe a change that I have to make.' So, I shrunk my housing back down into manageable proportions. Living in a van is a hoot. Mobility satisfies your tangible needs. Being capable of becoming physically rootless but wired into your electronic "home" in the Internet changes our basic constructs: adjacencies, accessibility, attachment to the grid, boundaries between work and home. All these liberating, fascinating and terrifying concepts are being challenged by our current mortgage crisis! If elected I'll put a motion to allow vans & RVs to park in empty parking lots, behind churches, community centres and back alleys.

Ask Leon!

The cure for anything is salt water

My friend used to say, "Leon, it takes one like you to degentrify an entire neighbourhood." He wasn't completely wrong. Just ask anyone in Yorkville or Kits.

Before you jump into the fray with more street-smart bravado about Victoria's tents-in-parks judge ruling precedent, I'd like you to reflect on how there's more dignity to living aboard than to be in a tent or a room. Liveaboards practice a cooperative, sustainable lifestyle. I guess that's why they had to go! (Watersquatters, Thinking and Living Outisde the Box is available at DEVOUT BOOKS).

Ask Leon!

watersquatters.blogspot.com
waterworld at youtube

BC's new currency: iTap

This is my suggestion for investors: instead of buying gold, pile up Vancouver bottled tap water, more exactly "iTap" -- available at DEVOUT, 6 E. Cordova. We're currently selling them as campaign contributions for $10 each (hey, I predict this WILL be the price of bottled water in 2015).

PS -- DTES residents, mostly, do not consume bottled water, they can't afford it. However, they supplement their income recycling PET bottles.

Ask Leon!