The economy sucks. Funding for the arts has always been bad, and it may never have been worse than it is right now. In a universe with a million channels no one’s watching, a billion stories and Tweets no one’s reading and people liking events on Facebook but not liking them enough to leave the house to attend, it’s a bigger challenge than ever to spread the word about what’s on, never mind get people to show up.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/story.html?id=8139917&fb_comment_id=fbc_290941287702466_1313511_291467020983226#f170b6fc64#ixzz2OTTPauqN

blownspeakers:

Residents of area relatively recently made up almost exclusively of industrial buildings, scuzzy night clubs, and, yes, homeless people, super pissed that the city is putting a shelter in their neighbourhood so homeless people don’t freeze to death this winter.

Here’s an idea: if you don’t like seeing poor people, don’t live 15-blocks from the poorest neighbourhood in Canada.

Or, you know, house them.

Coun. Kerry Jang, a University of B.C. professor of psychiatry who specializes in mental health issues and is the city’s representative on housing and homeless issues, was nearly moved to tears by the donors’ largesse. He said he and city staff, including Judy Graves, the coordinator specializing in dealing with the homeless, have sometimes despaired at trying to solve the complex, interwoven issues of homelessness, addiction and mental health.

“It is a bit of an emotional moment for me, simply because for many years Judy and I and many of our staff have been out there and we see the suffering every single day. And every day I feel hopeless because what can we do? We put [people] into hospital for a while and they are let back out on the street again with no hope. It is just a revolving door, a revolving door, a revolving door,” he said.

“Taylor Manor is fundamentally different. Taylor Manor provides that hope, that place of belonging, that place of care. It is like when you come home from a long trip and you come in through the front door and sit down on the couch and breathe ‘I’m home.’ This is the vision of our donors and one that I am so glad to help bring forward.”

the numbers are stupid. 30 mill for 50 some people?

The article says, “$14 million renovation and expansion plan for the 1915 Tudor Revival-style heritage mansion” so that’s to get it started and the annual operating budget is $900,000.
Sounds like the rest of the money is being put in an account where the interest will continue to pay for operations. Restoring buildings is crazy expensive and housing in general in Vancouver is very costly. This insures that after renovations, that the place will continued to be used for its intended purpose to help the homeless, and not be bought by some developer when times get tough.