There are pivotal characters that have put Vancouver on the map in many different realms, from First Nations literary works, legendary hockey skills, to helping children learn to swim in English Bay. Vancouver’s history is made by its people, from many generations.

Anyone who has passed by the intersection of Georgia and Hornby may have noticed a sign marking the route as “Wasserman’s Beat”. This refers to former Vancouver Sun reporter, Jack Wasserman.

Starting May 12, 1954, [the Vancouver Sun] gave him a man-about-town column, and he hit his stride. His column on “the second front page” of the afternoon paper, often detailing the city’s underbelly, became a hugely popular feature. His biggest scoop was the death in 1959 of Errol Flynn in a West End apartment. [VancouverHistory]

The self-described “Saloon Columnist” hung out at places like The Cave Cabaret, the Mandarin, and Isy’s Supper Club, which are now just faint dots in our city’s rear-view mirror. These nightlife hot spots (from the 1930s and into the 80s) hosted such acts as Mel Torme, Milton Berle, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, a young Yvonne De Carlo got her start at the Palomar (on Alberni and Burrard) thanks to Dal Richards. [source: SunSpots].

Photo Credit: Pacific Northwest Bands

“Vancouver erupted as the vaudeville capital of Canada, rivaling and finally outstripping Montreal in the East and San Francisco in the south as one of the few places where the brightest stars of the nightclub era could be glimpsed from behind a post, through a smoke-filled room, over the heads of $20 tippers at ringside. Only in Las Vegas and Miami Beach, in season, were more superstars available in nightclubs.” [Jack Wasserman]

In the heyday of night life in this town, Jack Cullen, Jack Wasserman, and Hugh Pickett would be running around having a late supper with Lena Horne or Duke Ellington and it was big news. Wasserman would have something in the Sun the next day, and Cullen could have an exclusive interview on ‘NW. Whenever he’d play an old interview of his, I swear you could smell the rum and cigarettes off of his breath. [TheCommentary]

Wasserman wrote about the city’s “underbelly”, but also covered political issues like 1952′s Provincial Election and what he coined “an unholy mess” made by the Social Credit party [see: CBC news archive footage].

He worked for the Ubyssey at UBC, the Vancouver Sun, CKNW and CJOR radio, CBC TV, and was a pillar of Vancouver journalism. At the Hotel Vancouver in 1977, he passed away mere yards away from what the city would commemorate as “Wasserman’s Beat”.

A great part about this weekend’s EPIC Expo was the diversity of exhibitors. From office products, to fair trade coffee, electric scooters, and bamboo underpants, EPIC pretty much lived up to its name. I really appreciated the Parks Canada display and DaveO had a chat with Coral over on the happy frog podcast. I stopped by briefly and noticed a large display featuring the Fisgard Lighthouse and Fort Rodd Hill.

The Parks Canada representative gave me some information about the National Marine Conservation Areas of Canada.

National Marine Conservation Areas, or NMCA for short, are marine areas managed for sustainable use and containing smaller zones of high protection. They include the seabed, the water above it and any species which occur there. They may also take in wetlands, estuaries, islands and other coastal lands.

Although they only currently exist in Ontario and Quebec, they are working toward incorporating two sections of BC coastal waters. The first in the southern Strait of Georgia and possibly another up north. However, determining a NMCA is a long process filled with feasibility studies and much-needed input from the population. The studies are expected to be completed sometime in 2008, which will allow the governments of the region to decide whether a NMCA would be practical and desirable.

The Strait of Georgia marine region is the smallest of five marine regions found on Canada’s Pacific coast, yet it is also one of the most productive. It includes a wide diversity of seascapes ranging from the fjords of Desolation Sound to the broad mudflats of Boundary Bay, and from the cloudy sediment plumes flowing from the Fraser River to the clear waters among the southern Gulf Islands. [Parks Canada]

Photo credit: neilbanas on Flickr

The second proposal for BC is the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. The 1470 square km area (part of The Queen Charlotte Islands) was made a BC Provincial Park in 1958 and a National Park in 1988.

The boundary between earth and ocean exists only on a map and the cycle of life in the diverse marine ecosystems of Gwaii Haanas encircles land and sea. Once the NMCAR is established, nearly five thousand kilometres of Gwaii Haanas will be protected. This will be one of the only places in the world where a representative area is protected from mountain top to the great ocean depths. [Parks Canada]

It’s pretty amazing what you can learn when you stop to talk to the good folks who make appearances at these exhibitions. Sure, the Parks Canada booth didn’t have free samples of coffee, wine, organic beer or vodka, but it was truly something I was interested in and I learned a lot just by stopping in for those few minutes.

Photo credit: neilbanas on Flickr

As a bit of a post-mortem since the EPIC Expo is now over, a huge thanks to happy frog (and our crew-chief DaveO) for having us on their team this weekend. They were the official social media sponsors of EPIC and I think we successfully generated a lot of buzz, not only for happy frog but for all the featured businesses and products we got to explore. You can check out all the content we churned out this weekend over on the frog blog.

This post was written for happyfrog at the EPIC Sustainable Living Expo

Here at the happyfrog.ca booth in the concourse of the EPIC Expo we’re blogging and podcasting up a storm. The show continues until 9:00pm tonight and will resume tomorrow from 10am to 5pm. You can’t miss this social media sponsor’s booth as we’re located directly in front of the entrance to the showroom.

Raul got to interview Adria Vasil for his first podcast EVER, which will be posted to happyfrog.

Everything you ever wanted to know about organic beer. Side note: It tastes great, the lager, the pale ale, and the lager… and the pale ale again…

Photo credit: DaveO on Flickr

Big shout out to Salt Spring Coffee for allowing DaveO to borrow a thermos of caffeine to keep us going.

This post was written for happyfrog at the EPIC Sustainable Living Expo

At this time yesterday Mike Holmes was in Toronto redoing a roof and getting a sunburn.

Although we can’t control our flip flopping weather in Vancouver, this city was sure grateful for Mike’s appearance. I had the chance to take some notes during his presentation although my blog post simply can’t express the passion and commitment this man emits, but I’ll try.

Over 7 seasons the TV show Holmes on Holmes has helped over 100 families, 365 days a year often working on 3-5 projects at a time. Mike announced that the final episode of the show will air in June and after that he’s moving on to bigger things.

Going to the next level of homebuilding, Mike’s new show Make it Right will see him in building houses in New Orleans and even heading to Africa to build 5 homes for children. Not only is he going international with the program, but he’s starting up a development company to make: “homes that will not burn down, fall down, blow down, will not mould, are totally enviro-friendly and ‘greener than green’.”

After we had been updated on various projects, and got over the sad news of the show’s ending (followed by the joy of knowing he’ll be spreading his knowledge across the world), Mike launched into his talk that contained so many energy-efficient tips I didn’t have the time to catch them all, but here are a few which he details as various “shades of green”:

Dark Green:

Mike shared a story about a local fire department that was asking him to help promote the use of sprinklers in buildings and homes. Unfortunately he couldn’t back their campaign, “why would I get behind something that would put more water into a house I’m trying to keep water out of?” – “build a house that won’t burn!”

Dark Green:

Lighter Shade of Green:

Even Lighter Shade of Green:

Mike used a few obscenities on stage and laughs them off, “I’m sorry, I’m a contractor!”. Other parts of the presentation were a little too technical for me, especially the explanation of a Thermal Break and Thermal Barrier. Gotta love those vapour barriers, folks.

Unfortunately too many homes are built to ‘minimum code’, and that won’t change until lives are lost. How often do you hear about 100 condos in a complex going up on flames? Minimum code needs to change – there is no reason why homes and lives need to be lost if things are built right.

After a long question and answer period followed by book signing, Mike was catching a flight out of Vancouver. His insights are appreciated and it’s nice to see someone with so much passion for the greater good who is thinking about the future its generations.

Yes, this is still totally a Link Fest I just felt like having some fun, in the sun, on a Friday afternoon because what could be better? Oh yes, it’s not quite the weekend but it’s so close I can taste the margaritas.

Who walks down the street randomly carrying a box of detergent and decides to discard it in a fountain? I know the other scenario is that this was planned mischief but… really…

Photo credit: John Bollwitt on Flickr

Finally a shout out to Tequila Kitchen that will be entertaining and supplying nourishment to kick off my weekend. I’ll be live blogging from EPIC tomorrow with the happy frog crew so be sure to check for more green content over the weekend and if you come on down to the show be sure to swing by the happy frog booth and say hi!

The sounds of summer usually include the splashing of swimmers at the beach, the repetitive midi tune of the ice cream man’s truck, and the sound of your neighbour mowing the lawn. It may however be a little-known fact that gas-powered lawn mowers are serious environmental offenders.

Photo by Darren Barefoot at the CAF’s Mow Down Pollution Launch in Victoria

So how can we trim our grass so that its length is still conducive to hours of croquet without loosing the ball in the mossy brush of the backyard lawn? Simple – use an electric mower. To enable Canadians to take another step towards green living, “Mow Down Pollution” is educating Canadians about the eco-friendliness of using electric tools around the yard.

Bring your working or non-working gas-powered mower or trimmer to any Home Depot location between April 17 and 27, 2008 and receive up to a $100 instant rebate on the purchase of a new push-reel, electric, rechargeable or low-emission alternative mower or trimmer. [Mow Down Pollution]

Photo by Darren Barefoot at the CAF’s Mow Down Pollution Launch in Victoria

If you’ve spent a hot summer in Vancouver then you know how terrible our air can get – especially by the time it all blows out to the valley and they warn seniors to stay indoors to due its low and harmful quality.

By bringing in your old mower – or trimmer – you’re not only recycling something old and stinky that takes up space in the corner of the garage, but you’ll also get some green points (which are kind of like warm-fuzzies). You’ll know that achieving that perfect putting-green lawn for your next BBQ get together with the Jones’ won’t hurt clog the air with pollutants that can cause and irritate respiratory problems such as asthma. That’s a good thing – for you, the Earth, and well… Chilliwack.

There are a lot of award sites on the internet, but when it comes to the most trusted and widespread nothing comes close to the Webby Awards, which are handed out annually with winners hand-picked by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. The most engaging part for the common internet user is the crowd-powered People’s Voice portion of the Webby Awards.

The Webby People’s Voice honors excellence in 100+ categories including Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile. Last year, nearly half a million votes were cast and even more comments were posted to mark the biggest turnout in Webby history. And this year we expect even more spirited participation with addition of 25 new categories. [Webby Awards - About]

In 2007 the locally produced environmentally-conscious social networking site ChangeEverything.ca was a Webby Award honoree. They’ve grown over last year and have now been officially nominated for the ‘web award of web awards’, pitted against the likes of Flock, Bebo, Ning, and Facebook.

If you want to make changes – in your own life, in your neighbourhood or in your world – then Change Everything is the site for you. It’s fun, it’s free and it’s a great way to work towards positive change for you and our community.

ChangeEverything is a social networking site that allows you to…

Basically, it’s an online community of change makers, “Some of us are longtime activists; some of us are community leaders; and a lot of us are just regular people with a few ideas for how we’d like to change things.” [ChangeEverything - About].

Using the web community for social change is a noble feat by this homegrown project, which is powered by those who would like to participate in ‘change’. Being nominated for a Webby Award is an excellent accomplishment, anyone and everyone can go here to cast their vote for ChangeEverything.

A big shout out goes to Rob and Alexandra of Social Signal for working with Vancity to make ChangeEverything a very successful reality for Vancouverites, Victoria, and the Lower Mainland.

We continue the park series with great guest post by Stewart Marshall (aka Right Antler) of the Moosehat Blog and FinancialStoryteller.com

Iona Beach Regional Park

How to get there by transit: Umm, you can’t. However, you can take your bicycle on the 98 to Airport Station. From there cycle west on Miller Road toward Russ Baker Way (i.e. the Airport) and turn right onto Templeton Street heading North, then keep going as it becomes Ferguson Road. The distance from the Airport Station to the park is about 8km.

Photo credit: Left Antler on Flickr

Size: 30 Hectares, whatever that means! What it does mean is 16km of hiking, 2km of horseback riding and 8km of cycling.

Photo credit: Left Antler on Flickr

Features and selling points: This is a quiet park, apart from the birds! Approximately 300 species of birds call it home and the park is one of the best places in North America to study shore birds. Unsurprisingly dogs must be kept on a leash. The 4km jetty takes you way out into the sea! In addition to fantastic birding, you will be rewarded with amazing skies, beautiful sunsets as well as the old jet to watch landing at YVR – the walkers and cyclists have their own paths. The beach has the biggest collection of drift wood anywhere which means there’s always a place to sit. This is a classic piece of the Pacific North West, you can ponder your thoughts by sand dune habitats, saline dune meadowns, wetlands and riverbank not to forget the beach of course.

Photo credit: Left Antler on Flickr

History: The park was opened in 1990 by the then BC Premier, William N. Vander Zalm and later developed as a part of the YVR Habitat Compensation Program after the second runway was built in 1992. 400 metres of tidal channels were created for herons and fish as well as the planting of around 1500 native trees and shrubs.

Photo credit: Left Antler on Flickr

Notes: For Leftantler and I this is a great place to take photographs. In a sometimes hectic city this is a fantastic escape and a perfect place to recharge!

Read more from Stewart Marshall on the Moosehat Blog and FinancialStoryteller.com