Sorry ...

I have to apologize. That last post was even worse than the one before. I'm taking myself far too seriously as a blogger. I'm going to take a break and read Hot Chicks with Douchebags until I come to my senses.

there's more good stuff where that came from. Go check it out!

Beyond Asperdome: bottom line

After writing my last eloquent post about the tight fit of a stadium in Point Douglas, I have since heard that Asper is in fact planning a 30-40,000 seat stadium. I suppose it might work if it were more of a bowl design, with smaller side grandstands and more end zone seating.

But really, who the hell knows what's going on? There are so many theories and suggestions out there on the internet that I don't even want to try to keep track, or add further speculation to the pile of speculation that's already filling up cyberspace. Instead, I'm going to lie low on this issue for a while, except to say this:

Whatever the plan is, it should not be forced on us. We shouldn't compromise for the sake of getting a deal done or compelling David Asper to quit smoking. If the terms and conditions are not right -- if the stadium is not what we need it to be, or if Asper ("Asker" as they're saying on NewWinnipeg) makes out like a bandit while the tax payers get screwed -- then there needs to be a way to stop the deal. Unfortunately I am not confident that we'll see that. Doer, while pretending to be responsible with the purse strings, will ultimately cave in to anything; Sammy would love nothing more than to leave a stadium as a legacy, especially as he has done very little else to be remembered by; David wants his empire; and Vic Toews ... I don't know if we can count on Vic.

There is only one entity that can give this proposal -- whatever it ends up being -- the sanity check it needs: you and me - the people of Winnipeg.

Beyond Asperdome: Ouch, that's tight!

Stop it -- it hurts! Ouch ouch ouch ouch!

... that's that downtown Winnipeg will be saying after we stuff a stadium up it's ass.

A 24,000 seat stadium is not big enough. It's a non-starter. If we build a stadium it should be somewhere in the 35,000 seat range, and have space to expand to host a Grey Cup. So, lets have a look at McMahon stadium (37,000) and see how that fits in downtown Winnipeg.

Just for fun. I'll be careful. I promise...

First, Point Douglas:


d'oh! Are we allowed to build a grandstand over a river? And what's that north of the tracks? A park? Are we destroying a park to build a parking lot? Just asking.

Ok, so let's check out the other location -- south of the Convention Centre:

Jesus, did anybody bother looking at a map before coming up with this one? The field barely fits in there, never mind the grandstands.

This is stupid. I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I have a feeling that once Sammy, Vic and David are done with us, we're all going to be reaching for the aloe vera cream.

Beyond Asperdome: Urban Goliath

I suspect that those who were upset that a real estate agent and urban sprawl advocate became head of Winnipeg's Property Planning and Development department will also not be impressed that a Federal bean counter is now telling us where to build a new stadium.

Well, that's not exactly what's happening, but pretty close. The Polo Park location was the best part of the old deal. Now it appears that the Polo location is out of the picture because Vic Toews has made funding contingent on the stadium being in a downtown location. Now, if there were a logical place to put it near down town, then OK. But that's not the case. The options are:

• Point Douglas, where an under-sized stadium will be shoe-horned in between rail way tracks and the river, with only three small roads (including one that goes through a residential neighbourhood) available to carry traffic to and from the games
• South of the convention center, where an under-sized stadium will sit empty for 350* days a year, doing nothing to make downtown more vibrant.

My message to Vic:

Vic: let us put our damned stadium where we want to put the damned stadium. If you want to fund it, fine. Don't force us to compromise by squeezing in a stadium that's too small in a location where it's not appropriate. If you want to fund a 24,000 seat stadium, give the money to Halifax!

*it will be used more often if it is domed, but it won't be domed because that would be crazy expensive and would also involve a big payoff to True North/Chipman who have a negotiated monopoly on large indoor events in Winnipeg.

related commentary from the peanut gallery:
Policy Frog one and two
Progressive Graham
Marginalized Action Dino
The Hack
Pissing on the Stadium
Rise and Sprawl
did I miss you? Let me know.

How to sell out your blog

I received a comment on my last post from a Mr. Rob Campbell. The comment was not about my new hat, nor was it about my fuzzy belly, or Dust My Broom or anything else having to do with the blog post. Rob, who apparently has not seen The Princess Bride, wants me to email him so he can add me to his index of Canada Blog Friends.

Well shoot ... who wouldn't want to be a Canada Blog Friend? I certainly don't want to be a Canada Blog Enemy. Canada = good. Blog = good. Friend = good. Canada Blog Friend = awsome!!!

But why do I have to email him? And why does he want to add me to his list seeing as he obviously knows nothing about my blog? And why is there no mention of Canada Blog Friends on his own blog? Time to put Mrs Google to work ... (that's right: Google is a chick, didn't you know?)

I find out pretty quickly that Rob The Garbage Digger has been spamming bloggers across the country. His MO is to make some kind of complementary comment about the blog, but nothing specific that indicates that he actually read the blog. For example:

seriously I cannot believe how many blog rolls you are on. You are like the quintessential West coast female blogger in Canada.

or

This site is the best I’ve seen for NB - the quality of information here is terrific.

Now I'm actually a little pissed because he didn't even bother to complement me. Turns out "Roberriffic" is a new breed of blogshiller. He's recruiting people to post promos for shit on their blogs for $10+ per post. See here:

Calling All Canadian Bloggers! As Roberrific, I work for an innovative web design and marketing company in downtown Toronto. They have asked me to build a Canadian blog club to promote their clients nationally... now they are really keen to see bigger club.

As the new Canada 'blog friends' club has already shown enormous potential, I have been authorized to reward $10 to $80 per post.

Rob calls it Social Media Optimization or SMO. His tool: SMOJoe

He can call it whatever he wants, but I don't much like it. He can take his SMOJoes and sneezers and his peanut for that matter and stick it up his virtual ass. Rob is no friend of Canadian bogs.

I am a Free Canadian!

A big thanks to Darcey over at dustmybroom.com for the nifty hat, and for adding me as a "friend of the broom".

The world according to Garth

From Garth Turner's blog:

The moment Stephane Dion has been waiting for, the launch of his plan to heal both the economy and the environment, draws near. In speaking with him in private, I got the sense this is his time. ... Destiny may not be the right word in his mind. But it’s not far off.

Ooooo. I'm all tingly with anticipation.

It has taken a toll on everyone to eschew key votes and keep an undeserving government alive. The trolls are vicious, workers and loyalists dismayed, reporters dismissive, donors turned off and troops restive. Dion knows that, of course, but he has soldiered on to a moment of his choosing.

Really? The moment of his choosing is after Liberal party workers, loyalists, troops and donors have lost faith in his leadership, and the press is dismissing him? Wow, his intellect is obviously on a whole different plane than mine. (please no snarky comments).

He has to pull the trigger sooner or later. It would be really embarrassing to allow a minority government to survive an entire term. Let's see what trick he has up his sleeve (nitrogen taxes??) . Garth has my expectations up pretty high.

Warning labels are the answer

Live blogging little birdies - UPDATED

Yeah, that's right. Watch out Falcon Cam, Cherenkov has up-to-the-week coverage of the little birdie who decided to nest in his yard, thereby screwing up his landscaping plans, complete with blurry pictures:


Little birdie is sitting on a cluster of wee little blue eggs, in a nest in a bush that was not supposed to be standing anymore.

Little birdie is still sitting there.

Yup ... still just, umm ... tell you what ... I'll keep you posted if anything happens.

UPDATE:

It appears my little birdie chose her nest more wisely than the falcons. In an unfortunate turn of events, the ledge on which the falcons were nesting got flooded in the rains today and the chicks perished. Story here.

Who wants to bet that Trey will get an earful from Princess about this one? "I wanted to go back to the nesting box, but nooooo ... you wanted to try the ledge."

I checked on my little birdie this afternoon. Seems to be doing fine. Did not take a photo, as it would look exactly like the one above.