Karen's New York Love Affair – Page 12 – Karen Rempel's Art and Stories

Another Super Shoreline Cleanup!

*East Van Pickers with 19 bags of trash*

Yesterday I met with a group of friends to participate in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Our group of 6 people picked up trash for 2 hours and these are the amazing results:

570 food wrappers
1,074 takeout containers, cups, lids, bottles, cans, and utensils
432 plastic bags and pieces of packaging
1,120 pieces of tiny trash (1 inch or smaller)
19 bags of trash (91 Kg or 200 lbs)
Additional furniture, construction waste, and large items totalled another 113 Kg or 250 lbs
Total items picked up: 3,592 pieces of trash
Stefan holds an erotic video and an expired visa card
Total trail length cleaned up: 2.2 KM

The most interesting items we found were a VHS cassette entitled The Ancient Secrets of the Erotic Arts, an expired Visa card, a bullet, and a car cigarette lighter.

We concentrated on the area of the Trans Canada trail from Bridgeway at Skeena to the Second Narrows Bridge, as this industrial area seems to attract a lot of litter and dumping. We also did the gravel lot immediately to the west of the junction of Bridgeway and Skeena, and a light pick-up on the trail all the way to Willingdon. Check out the before and after photos. My East Van Pickers gang members found the concrete, visible results very satisfying. Not bad for a couple hours on a Saturday morning! Thanks, gang!

Loading the pickup — *Cary helps the guy from City of Vancouver load the pickup*

Part of Something Bigger

We had a lot of support from the Keep Vancouver Spectacular program, which provided pickers, safety vests, gloves, garbage bags, and buckets. They picked up the full garbage bags immediately after the event. I’d like to thank Riley and the other folks at the City of Vancouver who helped support our event.

I’d also like to thank Katie Rodgers, who hosted the cleanup event at this location in September 2013. The way you laid the groundwork, you made it very easy to follow in your footsteps. Thanks, Katie!

And thanks also to the folks and organizations at the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Local sponsors are the Vancouver Aquarium and the Vancouver branch of the World Wildlife Fund. Nationally, the program is sponsored by Loblaw Companies Limited. And this group is part of a larger effort, the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup. Data that we collected at our event goes all the way up the chain to provide information for global initiatives to reduce garbage at the source.

Under bridge - before — *Under the bridge – before cleanup*

Under bridge - after — *Under the bridge – after cleanup. What a difference!*

Shoreline Cleanup Fast Facts

The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is one of the largest volunteer efforts in the world.

Over 50,000 Canadians participate each year
We clean over 3,000 KM of shorelines (equal to the distance from Vancouver to Thunder Bay, ON)
Over 110,000 food wrappers and containers are removed every year—the amount one person would produce by having takeout 3 times a day for 100 years. Wow. That’s a lot of people littering.

Illegal dump - after — *Illegal dump – after cleanup. Nice work!*

Illegal dumping - before — *Illegal dumping – before cleanup*

What’s with the Dog Poo?

One of the most bizarre items we picked up was dozens of little bags of dog poo, neatly tied in a knot. We puzzled over how a person could take the time to pick up after their dog, doing the right thing, and then toss the bag into the woods, doing the wrong thing. What is the psychology of this? My friends came up with the theory of situational morality. Dog owners pick up the feces either because someone is watching, or because they actually feel bad about leaving poo on the trail. But then when no one is looking, they throw it in the woods, rather than walk another 100 metres to the garbage bin, or carry it home to throw away there. Grow up, people! We don’t need our tiny remaining amount of green space filled with little bags of dog poo.

Why Do People Litter?

This is the bigger question. Not why do people throw away the little bags of dog poo, but why do people litter at all? I confess, I used to throw away cigarette butts. I am probably responsible for thousands of butts on roadsides around the province. I had a technique for flicking the butts, and I thought I was pretty cool doing it. It seemed like an invisible item, that tiny cigarette butt. I had no awareness of how it makes the landscape ugly for people who come along after me.

So I imagine that littering is like this. People are not aware of the impact it has. There is a momentary relief of being free of a burden. Just tossing it away. Feels good, right? I noticed that around the park benches, there was a lot of trash just a little bit into the brambles, as though people didn’t want to see their litter, and thought if it was a few feet off the path, it wouldn’t bother anyone. So this indicates some awareness, some concern for appearances, and perhaps a lack of awareness of the bigger picture, that those bushes a few feet away are worth caring about too.

Increasing Awareness

Trans Canada Trail - after — *Trans Canada Trail – after cleanup. Lovely!*

So to help increase that awareness, here are some factoids about the impact trash has on wildlife:

Trash can travel great distances: a plastic bag can blow away and wind up in a waterway, entangling wildlife. This can cause long-term injuries and even kill the bird or animal.
Trash can persist in the environment for many years. A plastic bottle can take up to 450 years to break down. But it just breaks down into smaller pieces, which wildlife eventually eat. The law of the conservation of matter: nothing ever disappears.
Eating littler can lead to choking, poisoning, and even malnutrition among wildlife.

To find out more about the impact of shoreline litter, see the GCSC Learn More page.

Parking lot - after — *Parking lot – after cleanup. Awesome!*

Change Starts with Action

Number one thing you can do to reduce waste in the landfill, litter on the trails, and unnecessary strain on our planet’s limited resources:

DRINK WATER FROM THE TAP

That’s right. Pretty simple. Something you used to do as a kid, right? Bottled water is a Coca-Cola and Nestle marketing scam. Don’t fall for it.

Vancouver’s water is the best in the world. It collects naturally from rainfall gathering in the mountains and streaming to the Seymour Reservoir. The City of Vancouver lightly treats it with chlorine to remove harmful organisms. If you don’t like the chlorine, use a water filter.

Other things you can do:

Put your garbage in the trash can.
Buy less stuff.
Organize a garbage-less lunch day at the office one day a week.
Recycle, compost, and reuse as much as possible.
Donate items to charity or sell them on craigslist.
And for items that you really can’t get rid of any other way, take them to the dump and pay the fees. Don’t leave them in the bushes so that other people have to come along and clean up after you.

Thanks again to my awesome friends for coming to help clean up my favourite running trail. Hundreds of people use this trail every day for commuting by bike, running and jogging, and recreational enjoyment. Lots of people thanked us as we were working, and it was a great feeling to know that we were making this trail a more beautiful place for everyone to enjoy.

Water runoff channel - after — *Water runoff channel – after*

Water runoff channel - before — *Water runoff channel – before*

Stuff we picked up 1 — *Stuff we picked up. Coach, mattress, plywood board.*

Stuff we picked up 2 — *Stuff we picked up. Cushions, a decomposing particle-board bed frame.*

Stuff we picked up 3 — *Stuff we picked up. A table, lawn mower, and carpet.*

Choices Responds

I’d like to follow up on my last entry about expressing my concerns about the Choices takeover of Drive Organics. I gave a copy of my letter to the staff and to one of the current managers of DO, Riley, who was also the manager under the old ownership. I spoke to him for a while. He thanked me for writing the letter and said it meant a lot to the staff. I also received a phone call from the Choices Community Relations spokesperson and nutritionist, Nicole.

Both of these folks were open to hearing my concerns and did their best to address them. Nicole spoke to me for about 45 minutes, going through the concerns in my letter one by one. She told me about the Choices commitment to local buyers. They de-list imported produce when local produce is available, but if organic is not available in BC, they will carry local BC non-organic, and also an organic imported option. That sounds fair to me. Currently, the DO location is still 100% organic produce, but that might be changing.

They are also committed to sustainability, and do their best with composting, recycling, and so on. In fact, Nicole wrote a book for Choices called Becoming a Sustainabilist! They carry Oceanwise seafood and support labelling to identify GMO products. They are not 100% GMO free. But they support programs like “Plea for the Bee.” I was really happy about this. You may recall I wrote about bees a while ago on this blog, and have been involved in activism to help save the bees.

Choices also supports cultural diversity, and inclusivity of people with disabilities and mental challenges. Nicole said they give appropriate work to people with these types of challenges, when possible. Choices also give $150,000 to $200,000 per year to community and charitable organizations such as Farm Folk/City Folk, a school nutrition program, Food Bank donations, and so on.

In regards to my concerns about long-time DO employees being forced to leave, Nicole said that Choices did not make anyone leave. She said piercing is an issue with WorkSafeBC for some roles, and that Choices needs to follow the rules for food safety. However, everyone is grandfathered in at the DO location to keep whatever piercings they currently have. So that sounds fair and reasonable to me. They gave severance to people who wanted to leave, and honoured all years of service at the DO location.

Choices is family-owned and started in Kits 25 years ago, in 1990. They have been pioneers in helping local producers, as well as bringing in US products that weren’t previously available here. The previous DO owners actually picked up the store as part of a bigger purchase and weren’t interested in developing it. The new owners want to carry the best selection of organic, natural, and specialty foods in the neighbourhood, while keeping the special vibe that we all love about DO.

One thing Nicole told me was that they wouldn’t expand the meat section, in recognition of the high proportion of vegetarian and vegan customers who frequent the store. She said the meat would be in a back corner. However, one of the first changes I noticed was that there is now a big meat section straight ahead from the front door, where the San Pellegrino water used to be. However, she said they will continue to carry only specialty meats that are from animals raised in pastures, with no antibiotics or hormones. Someone else will have to check whether that is true, and I will continue to avoid that part of the store.

So all in all, well done, Choices! I was very impressed, and felt a lot better about continuing to shop at DO after this conversation.

I choose Drive Organics, not Choices

With the recent takeover of Drive Organics by Choices Market, I am very concerned that I will be losing the store I love. I walked into the store this week and already the apple bins had been changed. Staff had been “offered the choice to leave” due to Choices’ corporate dress policy, and a number of people I know and appreciate are gone. There was a section of pre-packaged, non-organic, pre-made food items. The bulk food section has been decimated. And this is just the beginning.

I am very sad to see the end of my beloved Drive Organics. I have written this letter to the CEO of Choices Markets, describing what I love about Drive Organics, hoping to stem the tides of change. And I am preparing to vote with my feet…

———-

Dear Ishkander Ahmed,

I have been a very loyal customer of Drive Organics for many years. I currently do all of my grocery shopping there, as well as purchase supplements and household cleaning products. My monthly spending at Drive Organics is between $500 and $1,000 every month.

I am concerned about your intention, as stated in Business in Vancouver, to rebrand the store as a Choices Market. I believe you do not understand the culture on Commercial Drive. It will be a mistake for you to rebrand the store to be like the other Choices Markets. The people on Commercial Drive value different things than your customers in Yaletown, for example. We value cultural diversity and individual expression, political dissent, and local and sustainable food sources. The current branding at Drive Organics reflects these values.

I am aware that you have already begun the rebranding by forcing employees to leave Drive Organics because of Choices dress policies regarding tattooing and piercing. Big mistake! This will drive away customers who are not only loyal to the store but to the members of our community who work there.

These are things I love about Drive Organics:

Employees with dreadlocks, tattoos, piercings, and odd clothing choices. I don’t want to shop at a store where the employees are forced to conform to a mainstream image. No uniforms!
Eclectic alternative music that reflects these employees’ tastes. Not elevator music or Top 40.
The feeling of being in a hippie market in a small town, not a sanitized corporate chain store.
All the produce is organic. Yes—100% of the produce is organic. I don’t have to read the labels on the shelving to sort out which products are organic and which are not. I don’t have to limit my menu because only a few items I want are available as organic—as happened on those few occasions when I tried shopping at Choices Yaletown.
Very little meat. The customer base at Drive Organics is mostly vegetarian and vegan. We don’t want to see a big meat section with a display of the flesh of dead animals. Currently Drive Organics has a very small selection of ethically raised and butchered meat and fish. If you change that to offer the type of meat selection most markets carry, you will drive away a large portion of your customer base.
Organic choices for every type of food and grocery items, including bulk foods. I have seen at Choices that you offer a lot of non-organic items. Not interested! There is a reason that I do all my shopping at Drive Organics and that is because whenever possible I only buy and eat organic food.

I advise you to think twice before making any changes that will change the vibe and ethos of Drive Organics. There are other grocery stores that Commercial Drive customers can choose, including Sweet Cherubim, Eternal Abundance, East End Food Co-Op, and Donald’s Market.

I will be watching closely to see the changes you make. If you try to make this store into a regular Choices Market, you will lose me and many other customers.

Kind regards,

Karen Rempel

Black Rook Bakehouse is back!

I wrote in August about the sad closure of Black Rook Bakehouse’s funky E. Hastings location. It seems that renovations and permitting took a lot longer than they planned, and it was many months before they re-opened at their new location, a few blocks further east, on the opposite side of the street. Well worth the wait!

I had been jonesing for their coconut cream pie for months, so I was really excited to visit BRB shortly after they re-opened in December. I was very sad to discover that there was no coconut cream pie to be had. I had a cookie instead, and some pretty awesome quiche, but the craving went unsatisfied. Then, just last week, I met a friend there to try again. I was speeding across town to meet her when she texted me that there was a pie situation. They were almost out of pie! She said there was one piece of berry pie and one piece of coconut cream, and she asked if I wanted her to reserve one for me. I took the first safe opportunity to text her back CC!

And oh, the beauty of that last glorious slice, sitting on a plate waiting for me when I arrived. I dug in too eagerly to think of recording the moment. Partway through, the craving starting to settle into a feeling of purring satisfaction, I recalled my blog and took this pic.

The new location is at 2474 E. Hastings, in the East Village. There is a cozy fireplace, and the same kind of country-homey furniture and friendly neighbourhood vibe as the old location. Check it out!

What’s in a Tiffany ruby?

Part of the thrill of being in New York is visiting places I’ve seen or heard about in books and movies. One of the most famous, glamorous New York institutions, in my mind, is Tiffany’s. Perhaps I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s at an impressionable age, but I suspect the allure of Tiffany’s was caused by the even earlier impressions of the magic of jewels from 1001 Tales of Arabian Nights, which I read as a very young girl.

Yes, we have a Tiffany’s in Vancouver (3 in fact), but I’ve never gone there. It seems like these are sham Tiffanies. The real Tiffany’s is in New York, on Fifth Ave., at the corner of 57th St.

So when I made my first trip to midtown, to enjoy the nap I had booked at YeloSpa, I was delighted to see that Tiffany’s was right across the street. I had a few minutes before my nap, so I popped into Tiffany’s to marvel at the beauty.

I stepped into the vast, high-ceilinged room and saw what seemed like dozens of display case islands, many of them populated by Tiffany tour guides. The glamorous woman guide on the closest island asked if there was anything she could help me find.

I have been on the lookout for a pair of ruby earrings to match the ruby necklace my mom brought back for me as a gift from Australia, so on a whim I said, “Can you point me in the direction of the rubies?”

Imagine my surprise when she told me they don’t have any rubies. What!!? Tiffany’s doesn’t have rubies? She went on to explain, in a friendly way, that the only “Tiffany quality” rubies in the world come from Burma. She said that there is a trade embargo in place against Burma because of their human rights violations. Who knew? Well, I didn’t until that moment. I also didn’t know that Tiffany’s was such an ethical company, and I felt very moved to be informed of this. This discovery was one of the magical moments of my trip to New York.

I spent the next few minutes wandering around the store and feasting on the beauty shining forth from every island. My attention was drawn to a fabulous, sparkling diamond bracelet, costing a mere $20,000. Yes, I could afford it if I really wanted to spend money on something like that. But as I thought of a better use I had recently put $20K to, I once again felt a warm feeling in my heart.

So that’s my Tiffany’s story. I must say that the woman I spoke to was much friendlier than the sales staff at Giorgio’s on Rodeo Dive, a place I stumbled into and out of with my sister Kim in the 1990s. Well done, New York!

As a P.S., as I mentioned earlier, I have been researching New York in preparation for my next trip by re-watching Sex and the City. Tiffany’s has been an important place for purchasing Charlotte’s wedding rings on that show! Here is a picture I took of Charlotte and her first husband, Trey, on the street in front of Tiffany’s.

Sex and the City

One of the highlights of my visit to New York was going to the street where they filmed all those scenes of Carrie Bradshaw on her front stoop. Though her address was 245 E. 73rd Street (at Madison), they filmed the scenes of her front stoop in the village, at 64 and 66 Perry Street. This picture is of me on Perry Street, on my way for a run. I went past this address four times during my stay, and there were always one or two people out front taking each others’ pictures. I think this shows what a profound impact Sex and the City had on our cultural consciousness! Truly, New York was a main character of the show. I think the movies weren’t as great because they didn’t feature New York the way the TV show did. Even the episodes where they went to LA didn’t have quite the same appeal. Though It was hilarious when Samantha met the LA dildo model.

In the spirit of the show, which I am currently re-watching to find references to restaurants and night clubs for my next visit, here is a picture of some fabulous shoes! I saw these in the White Room at the Bay, and I wanted them badly. But I contented myself with taking their picture—for now.

A polite Canadian in New York

There was a guy in the same row as me at the Motley Crue concert who kind of looked like Charles Manson. I was a bit afraid when he and his friend entered the row and sat next to me. Yet during the pre-concert wait, he was the most polite person imaginable. He passed me at least 5 times to go get another beer, and said “I’m sorry” each time. In fact, the entire crowd at Madison Square Garden was very well-behaved. A woman in the row in front of me was really getting into the circular rotating head banging move. (Not for older necks, believe me!) Her cell phone fell out of her pocket during her gyrations, and all the people around her helped her to find it on the floor under the seats. If I was hoping for a mob scene, as in the metal heydays of old, this was not the place to find it. Even on the floor, I didn’t see any jostling or body surfing. Just a number of devil symbols from raised arms. Is this a sign of the times, of the post-911 drone-targeted US citizens curbing their wilder impulses? Or are New Yorkers just polite, friendly people, kind of like Canadians?

The Metal Era

Karen at MSG — *Waiting for the show to begin*

Being here in Greenwich Village has awakened the nostalgia I have always felt for the 60s. Being born in 1965, I was influenced by the vibe of the 60s, but I never got to see the greats as it was happening. I never got to see Led Zeppelin or the Beatles. One of my first concerts was The Who’s first farewell tour, in 1982 (they recorded Who’s Last on that tour). Guess what? (Guess Who? I am overcome with my own cleverness.) The Who are currently having their 2015 farewell tour—33 years later! OK, so farewell tours are a joke, because the bands often have numerous farewell tours. But the point is, I wish I had been here in Greenwich Village to see the first Bob Dylan show, as one of my friends did. I wish I had seen the Beatles play in Vancouver at the Empire Stadium in 1964. I wish I had been part of the aliveness, joy, and hope of the summer of love. A time of social change and new freedom. A time of excitement.

And all along, I didn’t realize that I was actually a part of a new exciting movement—the metal years! Yes, the 1980s were also a time of social change, with the Punk movement and Heavy Metal movement expressing the angst of a new generation of teenagers who wanted to fight the man.

This didn’t come home to me until another farewell tour—Mötley Crüe‘s farewell after delivering 33 years of kick-ass glam metal. (Gotta love the umlauts!) I saw the concert poster on a hoarding on Battery on Monday, and was lucky enough to get a ticket that night for Tuesday’s show. So there I was, Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Madison Square Garden, watching Alice Cooper and Motley Crue! I have seen both of these bands several times in Vancouver, and most notably, early tour dates in the 80s. For example, I saw them at the 1982: Crüesing Through Canada Tour! Surprisingly, the Crue is one of the bestselling bands of all time, with over 100 million records sold worldwide. I think they started the whole tattoo thing.

I sat in the stadium on Oct. 28, relishing the fact of being in New York, in this semi-historic building. The Garden moved from its second site in Madison Square to 8th Ave in 1925, to its current location on 31st St in 1965. Construction began at the current location 50 years ago, Oct. 29, 1964! I looked around as the seats began to fill. In my row, two teenaged young men were in the row already. They were the first to stand when Alice Cooper took the stage, and were on their feet for the whole show. I was glad to be in their row, because I too wanted to stand and dance.

One of the things that occurred to me as I relished the wall of noise for over 3 hours was that I really had been part of something special. To those teenagers, the 80s was the time they wish they had been at the rock concerts, at the beginning of the metal wave. And I really was there! I just didn’t realize it was a part of history. Thanks to my boyfriend Rick and friends Ray, Mark and Joe, Johnny and Dianne and Silvia, sister Kim, cousin Sherry, we were all part of our own time of rebellion and self-definition. Listening to metal was our revolution. Our way of staking our claim in time and space, and differentiating ourselves from our parents.

I want to write more about this revelation, but I’ve got to go take a nap. The big four-nine!

Later…

I guess the point is this moment is where it’s happening. This is the exciting time to change the world. After the nap…

Think Coffee

Cafe Wha? — Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan both played their first or early gigs here

At Think Coffee in NYC. Drinking a decaf soy latte (organic, fair trade, socially responsible). Eating a Johnny Boy sandwich–peanut butter, banana, and cinnamon! I found this place by Googling best New York cafes to write in. This one got the best ranking on numerous factors, including comfort level for occupying a seat for a long time! (That is, not getting the hairy eyeball if writing and not ordering much.) Also quality of coffee. I totally agree!

I just submitted my website to the STC Regional Competition – New York Metro, Philadelphia Metro, and Houston chapters. It seems extra special to submit the entry to the New York chapter from a New York cafe!

Will upload pic of the Think Coffee cafe later. For now, here is Cafe Wha?!! I will be going there tonight to listen to world-class musicians pay a tribute to the founder of bossa nova, Antonio Carlos Jobim.

New York is such an inspiring city! I wish I could just sit in a cafe and write all day. But there is also so much to see and do. It is hard to get enough sleep with the lure of the city keeping me out late every night. Luckily, I have a nap booked at 3:00 this afternoon at YeloSpa in midtown Manhattan!

In New York City!

As some of you know, I am currently in New York doing a two-day course with Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. I want to share some of my travel adventures, starting with a few highlights & filling in the details later. Here is a pic from Sunday night. I arrived at about 9:00 PM at La Guardia. Had a kamikaze taxi driver whiz me to the Washington Square Hotel. Unpacked and then went looking for the city I have dreamed about. The Blue Note is close to my hotel, so I walked over there, but it was just closing! Around midnight. Not an impressive start for the city that is reputed to never sleep! But just down the street was NYC Groove . Funk-o-rama! I went in (no cover charge), and had a great time listening to a funk band. The crowd was very friendly. Mostly younger student-types, as the rep for this neighbourhood would have it. After listening to a few songs and dancing my hello to the city, I went across the street and got a huge piece of pizza for $4. Cheap night out, and a great start to my trip. More layta!