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For Immediate Release: October 24, 1996
Hug a tree, you'll never go back to Philip Owen
Guerrilla Media (GM) took to the streets of Vancouver early this morning and posted over 500 Tree Cutting Notices on the city's West Side. A dozen members of the cultural activist group attached the "official" City of Vancouver posters to trees in various neighbourhoods to focus attention on city council's bungled tree-cutting by-law.
"We feel that Philip Owen and the NPA councillors showed Vancouver residents that they care more about the special interests of rich supporters than the environmental welfare of the city," said GM spokesperson Noam de Plom. "By caving into pressure from a few select, well-heeled homeowners, the NPA has turned its back on the majority of those living in Vancouver and effectively declared open season on the city's trees."
Though council originally drafted the tree regulations last June to protect Vancouver's significant trees, last-minute tinkering in July by council gutted this tree-saving initiative and replaced it instead with a tree-cutting by-law.
"With the municipal election coming up on November 16, we wanted to highlight council's record on making Vancouver a liveable city for voters," explained de Plom. "We feel that preserving the urban forest is vital to the city's future and that Philip Owen needs to be reminded about the importance of protecting Vancouver's environment."
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who
routinely ridicule corporations and governing elites that
carry out their business at society's expense. In the past,
GM has focused on a number of environmental issues. We have
stumped the provincial NDP over their mishandling of
Clayoquot Sound, buzzed BC Transit to reverse its opposition
to integrating bicycles with SkyTrain, loudly opposed
Vancouver's continued support of the Molson Indy and called
Jack Munro naughty names from time to
time.
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For Immediate Release: November 4, 1996
Guerrilla Media creates truth in NPA advertising
Guerrilla Media's (GM) marketing swat team altered several billboards this morning. This time around, GM targetted Philip Owen and the NPA's misleading election advertising campaign.
GM changed the NPA's central message from "A City That Works For Everyone" to "A City That Works For Developers." As well, a voice bubble was placed beside Philip Owen's photograph that had Owen saying either, "Hey! Stop that or I'll get you FIRED," or "Some of my best friends are developers!"
"Phil and the gang like to say they have a city council that works for everyone," said GM spokesperson Noam de Plöm. "However, upon reviewing the NPA's record over the past decade, it is more accurate to say that they work for large-scale development corporations."
In the past, the NPA-dominated council has waived fees for the mega-developers Concord Pacific and Marathon, robbing city coffers of much-needed revenues. At the same time, these developers contribute big bucks to the NPA's re-election campaign.
Additionally, when the NPA rezoned industrial land for commercial or residential development, land values jumped in price. However, the city saw no benefit from these increased land values. Instead, Philip Owen let developers pocket the difference. Taxpayers got diddly, and Vancouver lost some valuable industrial land forever.
More recently, Philip Owen made a gift of $2 million to developers over a new regional sewage fee. Instead of joining the 15 other GVRD mayors who decided to make developers in their municipalities pay the entire fee, Owen felt that Vancouver taxpayers should split the city's new $4-million sewage bill. According to an October 29 article in the Vancouver Sun, Owen believed that charging developers the entire shot would be going "overboard."
"In a city where the vacancy rate is less than one per cent and rent prices often lead the country, the NPA has done little to make sure that development works for everyone in Vancouver," notes de Plöm. "The NPA's plan for the city is to simply build upscale condos and convert rental housing to strata title - and the rest of us be damned. The NPA may claim they work for everyone, but they are lying."
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who
routinely ridicule corporations and governing elites that
carry out their business at society's expense. Though some
people accuse our organization of hating everything, we only
hate dumb-ass reporters who are too lazy to go chase down a
real story like a corrupt and arrogant civic government that
constantly sucks up to its rich masters and screws average
citizens.
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For Immediate Release: November 14, 1996
Guerrilla Media gives NPA a marketing boost with web site
Guerrilla Media's (GM) marketing swat team today helped pump up the election advertising campaign of Philip Owen and the NPA. "The NPA was being too timid with its slogan 'A City That Works For Everyone,'" said GM spokesperson Nan Partisan. "Their message was being twisted by the media and misunderstood by the public."
The NPA should be trumpeting its excellent record of working for the economic elite of Vancouver, including mega-developers, the automobile lobby, and private garbage-collection services. "After all, the wealthy and large corporations provide many jobs in Vancouver, so why shouldn't they get special treatment?" queried Partisan.
To encourage the public to learn more about the NPA's exciting agenda for the city, GM established an NPA 1996 website. The website launched this morning with a press release and a news conference issued by GM on behalf of the NPA.
The site includes a series of posters that updates the NPA's campaign slogan. The posters boldly declare the NPA's vision of "A City that Works for Automobiles, The Rich, Developers, and The Elite!" They are available for downloading and reproduction by citizens who want to spread the good word about the NPA. In addition, GM has included the NPA's "Transportation/ Procrastination Plan" that details the party's efforts to ensure that the car remains supreme in Vancouver into the distant future.
The NPA has mistakenly downplayed the important role they have played in maintaining jobs in the automobile sector - including car dealers, parking corporations, and oil companies. Despite many reports, surveys and recommendations that have called for a reduction in car use (and more emphasis on alternatives such as bicycles and transit), the NPA majority council has staved off any possible impacts on the automobile sector by delaying the implementation of any real changes to Vancouver's transportation systems. And while they keep transportation alternatives tied up in a gordian knot of more studies and cancelled pilot projects, the NPA continue to provide significant capital spending to improve automobile flow.
"The NPA should be emphasizing their valuable support of those engines of Vancouver's economy - real estate and automobiles. Whether or not these industries also contribute generously to the NPA campaign is not the issue. The NPA is just doing their best to keep Vancouver building higher and driving more," concluded Partisan.
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who
often assist the media, corporations and governing elites in
clarifying their marketing messages. Although some people
accuse our organization of using satire, we assure them we
are sincerely trying to help.
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For Immediate Release: November 19, 1996
Guerrilla Media alters NPA billboards to celebrate another massive civic win
Guerrilla Media (GM) attached thank-you messages to the NPA's election billboards early this morning. The new billboards congratulated wealthy voters for the overwhelming NPA victory in Saturday's Vancouver civic election.
Under cover of darkness, GM's crack marketing gurus altered the NPA billboards to read "THANKS TO THE RICH!" As well, a voice bubble was placed beside Philip Owen's photograph that had Owen saying, "The best government money can buy!"
"We just wanted to thank those well-off Vancouver voters who live in Shaughnessy, Kerrisdale and other homeless-free zones for putting the NPA back in the saddle for another three years," said GM spokesperson Nan Partisan. "After all, if it wasn't for this fantastic at-large system, how could 16.4 per cent of the electorate deliver the NPA a clean sweep of council, park board, school board and the mayor's office?"
According to the city clerk's office, only 32 per cent of Vancouver voters took part in the November 16 election. By taking an average of all the votes cast for mayor, council, school board and park board, approximately 51.4 per cent of the vote or 16.4 per cent of the electorate supported the NPA, 30 per cent of the vote or 9.6 per cent of the electorate supported COPE and 18.6 per cent of the vote or 6 per cent of the electorate supported other candidates.
"Sure, some of those tofu-eating, cappuccino-sucking, Marx-quoting, NDP-lying whiners on the left will carp on about the lack of real participatory democracy at the local level, but like Philip Owen, we at GM say screw 'em," said Partisan. "The NPA deserved to win: they outspent their opponents; they studiously avoided talking about their record; and the media let them get away with it."
If the remaining 84.6 per cent of voters are not happy with this new NPA mandate, GM has some suggestions:
1/ Demand electoral reform that provides direct representation for neighbourhoods and communities. GM suggests a mixture of proportional representation and wards.
2/ Seek campaign spending limits relative to those established for federal and provincial elections.
3/ Call for ballots in other languages like Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, Punjabi, etc.
Guerrilla
Media is a Vancouver-based group of cultural critics who,
unlike too many mainstream journalists, passed high school
math. A 16.4 per cent win by the NPA is no mandate from the
people of this city. Vancouver will have real democratic
representation someday. However – to paraphrase SFU
professor Patrick Smith – in the meantime, we must
suffer under a system that even Albanians wouldn't
tolerate.
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