Parking lots was part of the news today and the cosumeristic aspect of 'the season'. (Thanks god damn Pineapple express for washing out the season again. 2 years in a row. Only 4 more 'great' years till Cowtown. In case you're an idiot, I'm like being sarcastic)
That's royally sad. Of course talking about the commerce districts of the wastelands, aka malls. That they are full of cars of course. You must have a car. It just drives me nuts that bullshit almost as much as people can't speak the language of the country. But at the same time they can't seem to drive either or like integrate with the original community. I was gonna say greater community, but unfortunately only 40% of the world population are from the main 'immigration' centres into Hongcouver. Of course you shop at Wal-mart/Costco/big ass parking lot store. Of course, eh. Like ok Nein Danke. That assumption that everyone is a lemming to Exxon and GM and the other makers of the same ol same ol shit is just fucking ignorance. I guess sorta like Americans thinking they own everything, but they just consume everything they can. Eventhough most of the shite they buy is made outside their country. Oil, cars, disobable Wal-mart landfill 'merchandise', lumber, coal, hydro. One thing they probably lead in is creating pollution of many sorts; nuclear,smog like LALALALALland has nice air (the sad part is the automobile is perpetuating it everywhere. ONly had smog first in LALALALand generated by cars anyways in the 50's. First for that. First for consumption. First for fucking ingornace. But those are generalizations and aren't a good basis to have any meaning. But stereotypes exist for a reason.
This story on the news was really sad. Just goes to show how many people the car lobby have on side. Well except the traffic issues, and there solution is to make everything more beautiful with bigger roads. That's really smart. But this really fat single mother, no shit she's fat and has kids that's sad in Langley I think it was.
Langley seems to be turning into the new Surrey. There is bush and shite still sorta left. Willowbrook is fucking a nightmare of 'consumption zone', with probably the 80% of the landprint of it paved over. Maybe 20% for the consumption aspect. Only 8 gas stations in a square mile. Find a place like that in Vancouver. All the gas stations are closing down. The last new one I've seen is the one on Georgia. So many have closed down. Its wild to think about. In the wastelands/car land/suburbs (therefore better since its segmented, well in many ways besides the housing/malls/office parks, with a bigger parking lot than building, witht he buidling being the nipple surrounded by aeoriali). Every time I got out to the fringes of the new frontier everything changes. By no means for the better though. The city changes too, but its not as noticable. Well Yaletown and Coal Harbour with Shaw Tower are rather, but for the whole part its getting bigger. Not just the means of razing for parking lots and houses. Fuck the trees lets get more car related devleopment going on. Of course with that you need to have the gas stations coming around too. The Georgia street gas station is the only new one, besides them getting renovated, for the new tower districts. Rather insane to think there are only 3 public gas stations downtown for the pennisula. The same size in Surrey for example or any suburb would be just houses, and culdesacs, with maybe a mini mall. If it crosses a commercial district there will be at 4 gas stations for a mall. Pretty wall on all corners. Surrounded by mini-malls and drive thrus. The population out there has the front yard and 5% the number of people with 3 times as many cars. Every house needs to have its own private parking lot. Because the garage is full of shite, either just bullshit that you haven't finished consuming. Not fecal matter yet. It still may be good. Hopefully a meth lab or grow show. That would be better. Maybe one car, if not 2 in the 2 car garage.
Considering I rarely have driven for the last decade I know where shit is. Be a speaker man and it helps learn the city good and where the banks are. But by riding a bicycle you get a hell of a lot better understanding of 'place' not just the distance measured in time, which it still is, but by distance. Not as much as on the freeway or uphill for sure. Distance by definition means place not time. Its not nuclear fission E=mcc. Place is somewhere on this planet of anywhere. Time is a defintion for the aspect of dying and living. A way to judge the seasons, and we get winter weather in the summer and spring and summer like weather in the winter, caused by something maybe. The distance signs are in KM or miles if your down south. Not time, depends on conditions. Not just the other fukcing retarded lemmings in 'your way', black ice, pissing rain, stupid pedophile pedestrians. When I was a kid to get home I had to jaywalk the freeway from the Mall and 'high' school even farther from because you got home 15 minutes earlier. Instead of 35 minute walk it was 20. Of cousre you were walking since you are not of age to drive, well legally anways. I knew a few kids that stole cars for or borrowed days care fun and joy riding but you still had to walk quite a bit. The instance of the time aspect again. Jay walking the freeway cut the distnace in half pretty well. Weird exact corelation to the 2. There are different speeds of walking to, but you generally go at a good pace but not too fast.
I don't understand that aspect at all of the car land based environment. I grew up in it, but travelled to Europe where you see the shit downtown everywhere. You walk everywhere. All towns of a decent size say like Kelowna or so, have a pedestrian zone. Every fucking one. No cars at all. None, well for the exception of fire trucks and amulances in emergencies. The scope is so nice nicer in the pedestrian areas than those others. (The equilavent aspect is go to the mall, which is just absurd. Its not outside. Plus the only thing going in there is just consuming shit made that you need to 'live', which is a crock of shit. Well at least live your lifestyle. Somethings you need for sure like booze and drugs. I guess some food too and a roof overhead and some clothes and shoes. That's about it. Everything else is a luxury such as snowboard, computer, TV, DVD player, VCR and cassette player those sure are dated, bicycle and of course a car. I have all of those except for the last.) But that made me get some understanding going to Europe anyways. The weird pedestrian alleys of Amsterdam are weird. really narrow too. Venice is royally fucked up on the main island there. Crazy 3 or 4 wide gaps for walkways. That coke commercial in Praque. The one where they draw with chalk the outline of a coke bottle and a glass and pour the 'people' in. Frankfurt on the Zeil. Munich by the thing that does the same thing as in Praque by the Marienplatz I think it is. Fucking memory. Freiburg with its Pissbächlen. Dublin bar distirct town. I can't remember one in Berlin though. Well Love Parade turned the park into one. I wasn't in cities that long to remember. You have to be somewhere for 4 days to get a feeling and location understanding going on. 2 days ain't enough. But you can start to get figured out. The longer you are there you know the good things to get. Namely the good bars, where to get cheap beer and of cousre where the drug dealers are. If you are only there for a couple days then you might stumble across so off those atypical aspects. Cities have character too. There is age to them too. Of course there is the grim too. Not just like someone power washed the trees away to build another atypical Levittown in some outskirt fringe land of the so-called city close by which could be 30 miles or further away.
Back to the fat girl. She's 26 and is fucking fat whore with at least one kid. Probably a nice person, but fuck she's got issues. Like money for a rubber comes to mind. But she works in a restaurant. I forgot what happend to her car if it got totalled or stolen. At anyrate some car shops got together and gave her a 'new' car, a 89 GM like model, I can't remember that aspect. But the one thing that incensted me was when they said. "She had to ride her bicycle to work". In the saying of like , Oh My god. She's a grown person. She must be drug addict kind of mentality. That can't be real. Well apartly not enough riding bicycle since she's still fat and shit. I don't want to dwell on that aspect, but it important. The easiness brought by the car supported culture. A lot is probably self control. That's a good one I have lotsa issues too. Fuck I'ld totalyl be a fucking whale if I didn't ride a bike.
Gas Stations closed in the city
Jackson now social housing, acutall pretty quick conversion
Save on Gas on Seymour
The 2 empty lots across from Main Street / Invahoe Station and the park on the other side of Main.
Nanamio and is housing now, I think it was a Shell
Commerical
Howe & Davie. It must be its been empty for ever. That's even before I came to live in the city before the European Vacation.
Broadway a block across from the welfare office by the Kingsgate
7-11 in South Granville around 14th
MacDonald and 4th, another Shell and 7/11
One for Surrey here. The Petro Canada beside the Active Pass on Gateway road/108/Ferguson.
There are 4 gas stations downtown
Denman
Georgia
And the 2 on Davie
there are the private ones for the cabs too, but those are the public ones
Closest gas stations to downtown
south, Burrard just past the Armoury
west,north, Park Royal
east, Main and 2nd
I had to pump gas last week. Probably the first time I did in quite some time. There is a company vehicle I have access to. But I don't use it. Like maybe once every other month. So I filled it up since its on the company card. I even joked with the guys in the office that hopefully I can remember how to do that. I got it since I have a week off. But probably won't even use it much. I wanted to use it for boarding. But fuck no snow again. Like springtime weather again. Pissing rain. I was stoked since they were calling for rain after a month of dryness. And of course its not 5 degrees rain, but 13 degrees which even means rain from the top of Seventh Heaven down the 5000 feet or so vertical. Just fucking garbage.
I hate the fucking Pineapple Express.