‘Why ask for trouble when you don’t need it?’

The Kamloops school board didn’t meet last night (it meets every second Monday) but if it had, it’s a pretty sure thing there would have been nothing on the agenda about the upcoming “winter break.”

This board is not one to take risks. After Saturday’s Armchair Mayor on the winter-break issue, Daily News reporter Jason Hewlett polled some of the trustees during his Sunday shift.

He found no appetite among board members to even discuss the idea of calling the “winter break” by its proper title — Christmas vacation.

As I noted on Saturday, the Chilliwack board is showing some moxy by making the change. For its trouble, it’s under fire from the Chilliwack teachers association and parent advisory committee.

Website comments down there, though, are more supportive of the board for “showing some intestinal fortitude.”

The Kamloops board would seem disinterested in stirring up anything that would be controversial. The sleeping-dogs-lie method of governance is best summed up by vice chair Diane Dosch, who told Hewlett, “It doesn’t need to be discussed. That’s just calling for trouble when you don’t need it.”

So, please, let there be no reference to Christmas Day, lest it cause offence to we non-Christians.

Frankly, this sentiment of trying to avoid offending non-Christians is so misdirected, so indicative of a lack of maturity within our public institutions, that it’s barely worth arguing about. In that sense, the Kamloops board is right, though not for the reason it provides.

That hasn’t stopped a lively debate breaking out at http://www.yournewsnow.ca, where the preponderance of opinion is that the School District 73 board has its collective head somewhere up a dark place.

“Oh, sure, Christmas isn’t allowed, a holiday observed by a third of the planet’s population,” writes DSavage. “Yet, when it comes to Hallowe’en, a holiday banned by our ancestors, the schools show no restraint.”

Intrepid writes, “I love the Christmas season, the Christmas cards, the Christmas Holidays, Christmas stockings hung with care, Christmas lights, Christmas shopping, Santa Claus and the stories about the birth of the Baby Jesus in a stable long ago. And, yes, I loved all the Christmas concerns that have been held at the schools all through the years. . . .

“Winter break? How boring is that!”

And logicalview chips in, “SD73, you should be ashamed of yourselves. There is nothing offensive about Christmas. . . . Geesh, when will this crap stop?”

Of course, some less thoughtful opinions are being expressed as well. There’s always someone who will take an issue like this and use it as reason to close our borders to anyone who doesn’t fit “the Canadian way.”

The basic message, though, is that camouflaging a major national holiday by calling it something else a) fools nobody, b) insults the intelligence of Christians and non-Christians alike, and c) does the opposite of what’s intended, creating more backlash against religious minorities than it does tolerance.

JUDGING BY THE SEASON, this is going to be another good one. One of the things I like most about the Christmas season, and about this job, is being asked to judge stuff. Last week, I had the difficult job of tasting entries in our annual cookbook recipe contest. Dirty job, but each year I suck it up and spend an hour or two with the other judges eating incredible food. Saturday, Syd and I were on the panel of judges for the Santa Parade, and it’s one pile of fun. The work that goes into that parade behind-the-scenes is really quite amazing, and the KCBIA and its partners, sponsors and volunteers deserve tremendous credit. Next week, I’ll join two other judges for the 2010 Kamloops Daily News Christmas Story Competition. Reading the entries in this contest is a real treat, and The Christmas Letter theme this year is drawing a lot of entries already. Don’t forget, the deadline is next Monday, Dec. 6 at 5 p.m. Contest rules are available at our front counter.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Season of political correctness is here again

‘Tis the season for political correctness once again. How quickly it comes upon us but, as sure as snow comes arrives the third week of November, so does the time when people get their shirts in a knot over what to call Christmas.

If you go to the School District 73 website, you’ll find reference to “Winter Break.” This break in classes runs from Dec. 20 to Jan. 3, which happens to be the time for Christians — and, in fact, a lot of non-Christians — to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Without getting into debate over when Christ actually was born, let’s accept that Christmas is about Christ. As you are well aware, there are those among us who feel strongly that all references to Christmas should be expunged from our vocabulary and replaced with Holiday Season and such.

Three years ago, there was a bit of a flap when Kay Bingham elementary school changed its annual Christmas concert to a “winter talent show.” No Christmas carols were allowed.

Parent Marina Dooley was livid. “The heck with them taking Christmas away from the kids,” she proclaimed. “I refuse to let anyone take Christmas away from anyone.”

Fortunately, the “winter talent show” approach didn’t catch on. I suspect most people wholeheartedly agreed with Marina Dooley, but not all. They worry about religion in our schools, and feel reference to any one religion de facto discriminates against others.

Down in Chilliwack, school trustees are in a little hot water because they voted to call the upcoming December break “Christmas holidays.” Radical.

They recognized that a “winter break” is not what it’s all about. “We’re not having a holiday because it’s winter,” said Trustee Martha Wiens. “We are having a holiday because it’s Christmas, so why not just say what it is?”

The “winter vacation” reference is commonly used by school districts because that’s the term used on the Ministry of Education calendar, apparently.

And that’s the way it should be, according to the Chilliwack Teachers Association and the Parent Advisory Council, which both opposed calling the break “Christmas holidays.”

“I feel that we are going backward versus forwards,” PAC president Kirsten Brandreth was quoted as saying in the Chilliwack Times.

“I think that we have to be very sensitive that within our community there are many other beliefs, so I feel that it has been a very insensitive decision.”

Oh, come on. As a non-Christian, I’ve never been offended by Christmas concerts or Christmas holidays and enjoy the Christmas season like everyone else. Plus I enjoy a good story about the three wise men, and a carol about Bethlehem, as much as anyone.

Will our own Kamloops school board walk on the wild side and let kids out for a Christmas holiday, or will they be released for a winter break? We wait with baited breath.

AND THE BEIGE GOES ON. Coun. Tina Lange, who also runs the Plaza Hotel, admits that she did, indeed, think about painting over the current peach on the outside of the hotel with “a nice solid gray/taupe.” But she recently went to Portugal and the current paint job on the hotel began looking better when she saw the brightly coloured buildings there. “Every building in Lisbon reminded me of the Plaza.” She adds that she opts for bold colours in her own decorating, and her current house is green, blue, pink, purple and yellow. “Nothing beige about those colours”. . . . Michael Black tells me that when he moved to Kamloops in 1977 he painted a six ft. by 16 ft. dragon on the outside of his Barnhartvale house to brighten it up and to prove not all Brits are ultra-conservative. The neighbours complained at first but after they got used to it they “thought it was quite amazing.” Sadly, a month after he sold the house, the new owner painted out the dragon.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

New appreciation for Plaza Hotel colours

More on beige, this time from Coun./Plaza Hotel manager Tina Lange:

“hi mel , 

“i enjoyed your article on beige.  in fact i agree totally. however i must set the record straight.  yes i was not wild about the color of the plaza heritage hotel when i took over and i would loved to have repainted it a nice solid gray/taupe to set off the great red windows.  then i realized that there were many better and more pressing areas in the hotel to spend $150,000.

IN PORTUGAL, they appreciate brightly coloured buildings.

 
 
“this past october i spent a week in portugal with two of my sisters and fell in love with the color of my hotel.  every building in lisbon reminded me of the plaza.  makes sense of course since the plaza is ‘spanish american design’.  i have attached a picture of a plaza looking building in lisbon.  the building looks like it is leaning but that is just my bad photography.  by the way i loved portugal and would highly recommend it for travel.
 
“and…i must let you know that i am the queen of color and known for bold colors in all my decorating.  i live in a little house on 700 block battle.  it was a very boring beige when i bought it.  a couple of years ago i had it repainted and now it is….. green, blue, pink, purple, and yellow!  nothing beige about those colors.  there are many houses in the ‘east end’ that are painted boldly and i like to think i started a revolution or at least an explosion of color.  i have attached a picture of my beautiful home. 
 
“and.. what color is your house?
 
“cheers… tina”

(The answer to Tina’s question is yellow with red trim and green windows.)

Hail to those who don’t play it safe

The ol’ email bag has been pretty full this week in response to a couple of recent columns.

The “beige” column in particular seemed to strike a cord with quite a few readers who agree that our Kamloops buildings tend toward the ho-hum when it comes to colours.

To my mention of an orange house in Westsyde came this response:

“I couldn’t agree with you more about the colour beige in our fair city!
 
“That is why I want to thank you for pointing out the house in Westsyde that someone was brave enough to paint that burnt orange colour. I just want to say, though, it was not a man that picked that colour, it was me.

DARING to be different, this orange house stands apart from its Westsyde neighbours.

 
“I took much flak for picking that colour out, including from most of my family, but did it anyway. I certainly don’t regret it.
 
“Unfortunately, I had to sell that house a few months after the paint job, and am now living in another beige house. Maybe down the road I will be able to paint another one a colour just as inspiring.
 
“In the meantime I do applaud the people out there who don’t play it safe as well! Life is too short.”
 
It’s signed by Adina Sytnyk, who describes herself as a “lover of all colours.” 

They also appreciate colours out at Rivershore.

“Love this morning’s topic,” writes Ann-Marie Pankratz. “I, too, wonder why everyone paints or sides in beige. We had our home repainted this summer and I agonized over the palette. It was NOT going to be beige or brown as most of the other homes around us in Rivershore are.

“So what did I decide? Bed of Ferns (a fabulous shade of green that blends with our sage-covered hills), contrasted with forest floor and the ‘piece de resistance,’ Chambourd (purple) doors with brick red trim. And everyone loves it and we’re different.

“’Oh,’ I say to people asking directions, ‘It’s the green house with the purple doors trimmed in red!’”

Speaking of purple, one Daily Newser confesses to incurring the wrath of her neighbours by painting her house purple. OK, I might be with the neighbours on that one. Trim and doors are one thing, siding another.

Another observer somewhat indignantly pointed out that a lot of houses up in Snoot Heights are very colourful thank you, and a third informed me the reason houses are so colourful in Newfoundland is that they use whatever paint they have left over after painting their fish boats.

If only we had more fish boats in the Tournament Capital. Here, we use leftover paint to cover the graffiti. The Graffiti Task Force mixes all its donated paint together and, guess what colour they end up with?

Which is why all the graffiti walls that have been painted over are beige.

Finally, this note from architect Brian Nelson emailed yesterday that the City, not architects, sets “the tone (and hues) of the look of Kamloops buildings. In a PS he says “architecture students are not ‘taught’ much — they have to learn what suits their works — and beige is one ‘natural’ colour.”

And he includes an excerpt from City guidelines for building materials stating that “to reflect Kamloops’ natural setting, earth tones and warm colours should be considered. . . .”

Well, earthy we are.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Farewell to Meryl Matthews

A very fitting farewell for Meryl Matthews today as a about 100 people gathered in Kamloops United Church for her memorial service. Meryl died last week at 99 after a lifetime of community service.

While she was known for her love of rose gardening, she also made significant contributions to Kamloops via politics, serving both as an alderwoman and then as a school trustee. I served on the same school board as Meryl in the late 1970s. I was one of several new board members — Nelson Riis, Tom Balson, Neil Morrison and Dave Kendell — who had some ideas about new ways of doing things, and I think we flummoxed Meryl quite often. But she was fun to work with. She had an infectious grin, a good heart and a genuine affection for Kamloops.

Of that board, Tom, Neil, Dave and now Meryl have been lost to us.

 

Are we really a beige kind of a town?

I would like to know why beige is the required colour for houses and offices and public buildings and hotels in Kamloops.

Did City council pass another bylaw? Maybe an addendum to its “no chickens” regulation?

My neighbours’ houses are beige. Our city’s newest hotel is beige. (Please, Mr. Gaglardi, make your hotel anything but beige.)

If a Kamloops building isn’t beige, it’s white or grey. That’s as adventuresome as we get in these parts.

I may have found out last weekend why we love beige the way we do. Syd and I enjoyed the Homes for the Holidays tour in which a half dozen local homes are decorated for Christmas by local stores and designers — truly delightful.

One of the houses on this year’s tour is a heritage home built by William Slavin on West Seymour Street before the 19^th century turned into the 20^th.

As long as I can remember, that house was painted a benign white, a colour people insist on painting old houses. New owners restored this beautiful old house and returned it to its original colours — bright red siding with green trim.

It was a brave thing to do, since it stands out among ordinary houses with ordinary colours like a bright red Christmas ornament on a pallet of brown. And that’s the thing — nobody likes to stand out, nobody likes to take risks.

That house is a risk, and a wonderful one. It’s a statement; it brings energy to the entire street. Few would have the courage to paint a house bright red with green trim in Kamloops.

No, we prefer to play it safe, but it has its downsides. Have you ever tried giving someone directions to your house? “Ours is the beige one.”

Remember a few years ago when the Plaza Hotel got a new paint job? It caused a minor controversy because it wasn’t beige.

When Tina Lange became a part owner, one of the first things she said she wanted to do was repaint it beige. Or, at least, something less jarring than its current peach.

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of buildings in Kamloops that are not beige, grey or white. That’s not the way it is in other parts of the world, where people appreciate colour in their buildings.

Newfoundland is one of them. How wonderful their streetscapes are with each house a different colour — blue, green, yellow and blue. No white, no beige.

I thought I might find more explanation of our fascination with beige, but there’s surprisingly little available. One blogger does describe beige as “the colour of evil.”

(His explanation goes something along the lines of white being the colour of virtue and beige trying to look as much like white as it can.)

Another website asks why the original computer colour was beige (the answer is obvious — manufacturers were playing it safe); another wants to know by beige computers turn yellow. Not much help there.

Abandoning my “why beige?” query, I turned to “define beige.” It’s described as “a light grayish brown or yellowish brown to grayish yellow.”

Does that sound inspiring?

The one thing beige has going for it is that it totally suites today’s uninspiring architecture. Clearly, architecture students are being taught that all new buildings, especially public and commercial buildings, must be square with aluminum-clad windows and beige stucco.

Throw in a false front at the entrance and we’re good to go.

No, our forefathers had the right idea. Give me a multi-coloured classic Queen Anne or an angular Craftsman over today’s boxes any day.

And hat’s off to the fellow who put orange stucco on his house in Westsyde. It catches my eye every time I drive past it. You, sir, are clearly a man who eschews the ordinary.

Would there were more like you.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Lessons learned, lessons forgotten apply to parkade

A few lessons from the Aboriginal Cogeneration fiasco could be applied to the parkade-at-the-park but it seems City council learned none of them.

Lesson 1: Talk to the public early, and often.

Last week, council voted to fund geotechnical studies before engaging the public in any sort of public-information process. This would be okay with your average everyday project, but the rules change for controversial ones.

By deciding to spend money now, council is sending a message that the Riverside Park location is its preferred choice. Reassurances that it could all be a moot point if there are soil problems with the site don’t cut it. The flipside of that argument is that geotechnical studies could all be a moot point if the public doesn’t want a parkade there.

The ACC project failed because by the time the proponent started providing good information, opponents had effectively used fear tactics to generate such an emotional backlash that the point of no return had been reached.

By the time council gets around to detailing how nice its parkade will look in front of the park, nobody will believe it’s going to be anything but an ugly eyesore that blocks out the sun and the view.

Already, characterizations of the project as a “Berlin Wall” are coloring the debate.

Lesson 2: Don’t make it personal.

Mayor Peter Milobar gets an F on this lesson for grumpily firing back at Coun. Denis Walsh at Tuesday’s council meeting on the issue of whether or not there are other locations better suited to a parkade than the Heritage House parking lot.

Chastising a fellow council member in a public meeting isn’t included anywhere in Team Building 101.

Not content with that, he followed up yesterday by releasing a roll call on how many times council had discussed other possible parkade locations in a further effort to refute Walsh.

Going to the extent of digging into past minutes to prove a minor point isn’t becoming of the mayor of the city. While Milobar scores a technical point, Walsh is on the side of the greater issue — the fact that administration brought forward a recommendation on only one site for further study and development.

Sensitivity around anything viewed as encroachment on Riverside Park should have been enough to lay out some alternatives, even though there’d be limitations to that due to the confidentiality of land transactions.

Lesson 3: Engage your detractors.

This issue is tailor-made for public outrage, and it will build quickly as the usual suspects — you know who they are, the cheerleading “environmentalists” ready to raise the alarm on any issue — generate petitions, rallies and websites demanding that council cease and desist.

The parkade-at-the-park will become the evil incarnate, the death knell for the community’s “gem,” i.e. Riverside Park.

Judging by a couple of delegations to council, it’s already too late to do anything about this lesson.

Instead, the City is trying to get the downtown business community onside, which is a good idea since a new parkade will be of primary benefit to merchants in the city’s core.

The downside is that it may have the effect of pitting business owners against park users.

There’s no question a new parkade is years overdue. There’s also no question that the Heritage House lot is a poor location due to its adjacency to the park.

Best option now would be for council to backtrack and return to the drawing boards. Second best would be to quickly throw together a public relations strategy — one that can start immediately — and let the geotechnical study proceed.

Alas, the point of return of public opinion may already have been reached.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca

The day the buffalo fell off the truck

Mohamed Ali Khalaf introduces himself simply as Mohamed Ali, “but not the boxer; my muscles are weak.”

Thin as a stick, in his late 20s, he’s a poet, story teller, a travel guide and, he jokes frequently, a future president of Egypt.

A brilliant student who was expected to become a doctor, he instead got his degree in tourism and is now the go-to guide guy in the land of the Pharaohs.

For two weeks in November, he is charged with showing three dozen mostly-Kamloops tourists around Egypt, cramming as much history and as many temples and ruins as he possibly can into each 12-hour day.

Mohamed Ali describes history of Karnak temple near Luxor to Kamloops group.

Tuesday, Nov. 2, 9 a.m. — Camel owners at the Great Pyramid are trying to negotiate higher tips from customers who’ve taken 20-minute rides on the gentle beasts. Be firm, Mohamed has warned his wards — no more than one American dollar is necessary. The camel guys are but the first example of the advanced hucksterism at Egyptian tourism sites over the next 14 days.

Members of the group soon adopt a saying — “running the gauntlet.” At the exit of every tourist site is a conveniently located bazaar through which one must pass. Vendors surround each tourist, draping cheap scarves on their shoulders, displaying knockoff papyrus paintings, and showing them shirts and galabeyas (the dress-like garment worn by Egyptian men).

“Good price, no hassles!” the vendors insist as they block the way.

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 4 a.m. — On the road to Abu Simbel, one of the greatest of Egyptian temples in southern Egypt, Mohamed Ali is bundled up against the “chilly” 17C morning, pulling his hoodie tight over his head. He explains that the soldier in the front seat with the AK-47 is there to help out just in case we get a flat tire or have an engine breakdown. “Egypt is as safe as heaven,” he assures the B.C. contingent.

I read not long ago that all Egyptians share one common trait — a passionate pride in being Egyptian. Mohamed Ali is no exception, though he recognizes that Egypt — already thousands of years old — is a work in progress.

During an overnight train ride from Aswan to Cairo he speaks candidly — and apolitically — about the need for improved health care, recycling, transportation infrastructure, and assistance for those who live in rural (in Egypt, that means desert) areas.

Thursday, Nov. 11, 9:30 a.m. — There’s a screeching of brakes as a chain-reaction smash-up brings freeway traffic to a sudden halt. A buffalo riding in a small pickup truck is thrown off the side, but Mohamed Ali goes to investigate and returns with the news that “he’s OK.” Indeed, the buffalo is somehow hoisted back on the truck and looks none the worse for wear. Not so with several vehicles.

Maybe when Mohamed Ali becomes president he can do something about crazy Egyptian drivers who tailgate at 100 km/h and don’t bother to turn on their headlights at night. Egyptian cars seem to all have a minimum of one crumpled fender and at least one missing tail light and head light.

Note to self: Kamloops drivers would feel right at home.

Saturday, Nov. 13, 5 p.m. — Baharya is a decrepit little town in an oasis a couple of hundred kilometers from Cairo in the western desert. Empty tin cans, plastic bottles and other refuse are everywhere. Instead of collecting garbage, people burn it in the streets. This is a place that looks forgotten. (Wayne McRann and Developing World Connections, where are you?) Yet small children have big smiles and greetings of “Hallo!” for visitors, and even older adults offer a friendly wave. Mohamed explains there is virtually no crime in Baharya.

This is Mohamed Ali’s Egypt in 14 days — unparalleled history, spectacular monuments, filthy streets, tourist bazaars abuzz with con men, public washrooms you must pay five Egyptian pounds or an American dollar to use, crazy traffic, and people who would literally give you the clothes off their back if you needed them.

When it comes time to part, there are many handshakes, hugs and tears shared with this young man who has bonded with a group of strangers he affectionately calls his “Canadian heroes.”

Mohamed Ali has never been out of Egypt. Some day, he says, he wants to come to Canada. When he does come, he’ll have 30 or so Kamloopsians competing to return his hospitality.

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com

Time is up for arena mural

What was once billed as the largest graffiti mural in Canada reached its 10^th anniversary earlier this year. A good time for it to say goodbye.

While I’d be fine with a nice overcoat of beige latex semi-gloss, others disagree. I have some interesting debates from time to time with other members of the Graffiti Task Force — of which I’m still a member — on the future of that mural.

It came into existence not long after the creation of the task force itself, launched to fight what was then a growing graffiti problem.

Then-councillor Dave Gracey, along with parks and recreation director Byron McCorkell, came up with the idea of hiring some graffiti artists to decorate the north wall of the Memorial Arena, a declared heritage building.

The concept was that if graffiti artists were allowed to express themselves in a legitimate way, it would discourage tagging.

Even when the project began in the spring of 2000, it was controversial because some people saw a public building named in honour of our veterans as an inappropriate canvass.

Over time, though, it became accepted as a part of the landscape, much like a particularly ugly black velvet rendition of bulldogs playing poker might become white noise in your living room.

Dave Warriner, president of the Kamloops branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, wouldn’t be disappointed to see it go.

He understands the concept of public murals and tagging but says veterans aren’t fond of the mural. “A number of veterans who are Legion members and a number who aren’t have concerns that Memorial Arena was built to honour the veterans,” he said. “They would love to see it (the mural) changed.

“Are the veterans happy with what’s on the wall of Memorial Arena right now? No, they aren’t.”

A new mural, one that honours veterans, would be quite another matter. But, he pointed out, murals are expensive and the Legion doesn’t have the funds to pull it off.

Warriner and his fellow veterans don’t know it yet, but they have an ally in the man who facilitated the graffiti mural. Respected artist Vaughn Warren, who has created several pieces of public art for the city (and who, incidentally, also designed the Tournament Capital logo), says the mural isn’t sacred.

It made a huge point about graffiti being a true art form, and the five artists who created it are now “legitimate,” practicing other forms of art.

“I’m not going to sit here and feed you material that denigrates the project,” he warned me. But, he added, “I think that the project has served its purpose. Murals come and go.

“If that wall was used for a different artistic pursuit I wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

Warren has always hated the use of tagging to vandalize property — the objective of the Memorial Arena experiment was part of a plan to divert vandals to legitimate expression “and not go skulking about back alleys.”

The “engagement” aspect of the fight against graffiti vandalism was dropped somewhere along the way, said Warren, who served as vice chair of the Graffiti Task Force in its early days.

“I think the Graffiti Task Force is a failure. It’s just a big paint-out.”

What about a new mural honouring vets? “Awesome. Hell yeah,” he said, his mind already working on how to best use the wall for such a project. “It’s a beautiful huge canvass; it needs contrast….”

So, all that’s needed is money, and maybe a little nudging from City council and Parks and Rec. Anybody out there know how to fill out a grant-application form?

 

mrothenburger@kamloopsnews.ca

http://www.armchairmayor.wordpress.com