Better banter from baseball

Since the Bowen Island Men's Fastpitch Tournament wrapped up last August a lot has changed on the island. We have been through the tail end of a fractious national park debate and a bitter election in which the man who became mayor began his candidacy with a vicious attack on sitting Councillors he called the "gang of four" (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, that his knowledge of Chinese history or eighties punk is scant). In his first Council meeting, he began things by reaming out his colleagues and asking for a legal ruling on the extent of his powers to exclusively set the agenda.

The level of public banter and nickname coining has never recovered.

Which is why I am looking forward to baseball season starting again. In this excellent article, my bantermate-in-crime, Katalina "Chickpea" Bernard invites everyone to get down to the delightful Snug Cove Field, where bleacher banter is a fine art practiced by a select few throughout the summer. It is all in good fun, by the baseball can be deadly serious, and thrilling.

This is the salve we need. I'll be there every evening I can be. I love it. I'll probably be down there at 80 years old, calling out newly minted nicknames for the grandchildren of Adrien "BeBop" Belew, Brian "The General" Park and Sean "A dollar for my daughter" Delany.

See you there.

Rebooting democracy

It happens on every scale. A community, a nation, a people becomes bitterly divided on an issue and the civic conversation deteriorates to become nasty, rhetorically or physically violent and entrenched. Suspicion arises on every side and distrust, camps, territory and accusations fly. Perhaps someone launches a lawsuit, someone else accuses someone of unethical behavior. People who come forward to help are shot down if they can't be pinned down.

It feels like we are going through that on my little Island at the moment. Yes it is a #firstworldproblem, and in more ways than one, for what we are going through is happening all over the place at the moment.

Groups go through this kind of thing all the time. But this breakdown of the public conversation creates difficult problems and has real costs. When the public conversation is throttled by power or bullying or other non-dialogue behaviors we pay a real price.

So what to do? Well, for one I like Peter Block's take on things: transform the conversation starting with how you meet and then what you talk about. You cannot have a new conversation in the old format, so let's get rid of the talking heads and the power points and the raised tables. It's time to all come to the same level and discuss declarations of possibility that would inspire us all towards some action.

We need to find common purpose together, to open ourselves to each other and to host our own stuff so that we can hear other people and offer advocacy of our positions and ideas that makes us easy to be heard in return. We need to start from a place of renewed trust and good faith, even in people that might take advantage of our naïveté in doing so. We need to do that because restoring quality relationships is the only way to reboot the democratic conversation so that we might engage in some truly beautiful community building, nation building.

So, what declaration of possibility for your community can you make that joule inspire us all? What opinion, attitude or behaviour do you commit to letting go of so that a little more space can be opened? The work of cultivating possibility starts with all of us, and the burden is on skeptics. Transform your doubt into clear and legitimate dissent but keep your hope strong. Find someone across the aisle with whom you can reboot this precious space of democratic engagement, and don't let the cynics drive you apart. In the end, only they will gain.

Private über alles

In trying to make sense of the polarization on Bowen that was evident during the National Park debate, the Cape Roger Curtis saga and the recent election it has become clear to me that the political split on the island is not left vs right or developer vs environmentalist but rather public vs private.

So islanders, what do you make of this dichotomy. There are times and places when the public interest is clearly supreme - clean drinking water comes to mind. And there are times when the private interest is supreme such as what colour I can paint my house.

But what about at the margins of public and private? For instance your stance in the proposed piers at the Cape will probably depend on whether you see it as an issue of a property owner exercising a right to have a private dock in front of their land. Or whether you think the public access and use of the foreshore should frame the decision.

Likewise with ferry marshaling. Would it be fair to say that those who are pushing for a loop road feel an affinity for the private development of the Cove whereas those who are not in favour instead see the public interest in the parkland and wildlife as primary?

What do you make of this split? And would you be willing to engage in dialogue across these two world views?

Harvest from our Cafe at Shadow Lake

 A little story of what folks are facing in their work, shot and edited on an iPhone.

 

 

Governance is hard

Before our new Council was elected, two Bowen Island residents, Wolfgang Duntz and Richard Underhill, took the municipality to court over a complaint they had about undue process.  They claimed that Council had not given proper notice of documents related to the approval of the Official Community Plan, and they sought an injunction against the implementation of the plan.  The injunction was dismissed, because, well, it wasn't substantive.  Many islanders in fact argued that it was malicious, while others said that if the municipality is not following their own procedures it serves them right to be taken to court.

Now it turns out that Wolfgang Duntz later ran for and was elected to Council (in fact he sat on Council while the action he was pursuing against Council was unresolved and while the Court was ruling on how the costs would be handled, a decision that has ended up costing the municipality - the one Duntz is a Councillor for - incurring a bill in the tens of thousands of dollars).

But governance is hard and it turns out that in an effort to help deal with the green waste that is generated on Bowen, Councillor's Duntz's Council may have in fact done exactly the same thing again.  They made a decision without proper process being followed that runs counter to the concerns of many neighbours.  And they made this decision even as Underhill and Duntz's action was still being settled.

I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.  Governance is a tricky thing to get right and I don't think as a community we can defend ourselves from court challenges every time a process is not exactly followed to the letter.  On the other hand it will be interesting to see what those who brayed for blood before the election have to say now.

I think the proper course of action is for the Council to talk to the local neighbours, and reintroduce their motion using proper process.  That way every one gets a good hearing and the decision gets made properly.  What do you think they should do?

Birds and mammals and fish and things

The complex rising and falling of the birds and mammals of the Salish Sea:

For other waterbirds, the March herring spawn is a time of plenty, particularly between Nanaimo and Comox. “There is an exodus from this side of the strait,” Bird Studies’ Davidson said.

Species such as gulls and harlequins gorge on the roe. Others such as Pacific loons and western grebes target the actual herring. “The cycle is so dynamic in the Salish Sea, so many different types of bait fish, birds and marine mammals that are all part of this complicated food chain,” he said.

Almost on cue, Davidson spots the slick dark-grey backs of two harbour porpoises farther offshore.

As perplexing as coastal birds, this marine mammal is listed as a species of special concern in our waters with information lacking on their overall numbers and population trends.

A PhD thesis by Anna Hall at the University of B.C. found that harbour porpoises seek out strong tidal areas for foraging during the reproductive season, from April to October, in the Salish Sea.

In April they will gather by the dozens off Point Roberts, another mystery of a coastal ecosystem dominated by strong tides and currents and the brutish muscle of the Fraser River.
“It’s a very complicated puzzle,” Davidson said. “Everything affects each other, probably in different ways.”

Only on Bowen: gutter recycling

From the Bowen Forum today:

Does anyone have some gutter pieces lying around? Any colour, any size. I want to build a wall of lettuce planters.

Gil
778.668.3675

Love it. Give Gil a call if you can help. As for me, I'm going to head over to see the lettuce wall.