Twinning the Port Mann

My sister was telling me the other day that she had been sitting on the bus when some slob of a guy picked up a discarded copy of the Metro with a picture of David Suzuki, and proceeded to tell no one in particular that Suzuki was a genius because he said that the argon in the air that we breathe was the same stuff that Jesus breathed.

Which of course wasn't the reason why he was in the paper. He's come out to publicly oppose the twinning of the Port Mann bridge as part of the Gateway Project. I agree with him, personally. I can't think of any time or place where building an extra road or bridge has ever solved a traffic problem, just as building an extra smokestack on a factory has never ever encouraged it to pollute less.

This isn't the first time this has been debated in Vancouver. Seems to me that at one point in time during the 70s developers wanted to build some huge roads in and out of the city but some people with foresight decided against it. The result is that it is such a hassle to drive downtown that many people take public transit and there are some really vibrant communities like Commercial Drive which could probably do without cars altogether.

The current debate is more about politics and rivalries between cities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District than it is about what is actually good for people. It's sad that so many things are.

The guy though, obviously wasn't listening during chem class in school. Argon happens to be a noble gas, that means that it's inert, as in it floats around all day doing absolutely nothing, as it has for billions of years. There are many people that I have met who would also fit that description.

I have to clean out my fridge but I think I'll do it tomorrow. I've already cleaned my bathroom and vacuumed practically everything and I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'm not a slob.