CP Rail starts bulldozing community gardens in Arbutus Corridor
1 of 1 2 of 1
The Canadian Press has reported that CP Rail has begun dismantling community gardens in the Arbutus Corridor in Vancouver.
According to the news agency, a bulldozer and a dump truck are being used remove trees and garden plots from its right of way.
CP Rail had given gardeners a deadline of July 31 to remove any "unauthorized encroachments" along its tracks.
The City of Vancouver has offered to buy the corridor for "fair market value", but the government and company disagree on how much it's worth.
Comments
15 Comments
SlightlyBroozed
Aug 14, 2014 at 5:31pm
Couldn't they wait until the growing season was nearing its climax!?!
Angela
Aug 14, 2014 at 6:21pm
I can't believe that CP Rail would have a contractor come in and remove community gardens when the railway tracks were no longer being used. Shame on you, CP Rail!!!
Margaret
Aug 14, 2014 at 7:36pm
CP Rail - what a bunch of fucking assholes.
Susan Manning
Aug 14, 2014 at 7:46pm
I've sent my reaction to http://www.cpr.ca/en/in-your-community/living-near-the-railway/community...
James Blatchford
Aug 14, 2014 at 10:23pm
To residents, community gardens; to CP, vegetable encampments.
Naturalmystic
Aug 15, 2014 at 12:34am
The squatters have no claim to the land. The land belongs to CP Rail.
CP has the hammer and they don't have to run a single train to get their price for the land. To run trains they need to upgrade the tracks. They need to upgrade the level crossings. Imagine you are trying to drive down Broadway and Arbutus at 8:30 am and the traffic is gridlocked. The cause? CP is doing work at the crossing. That entails working in the signals, the track...The city can't do a damn thing. CP has the right to maintain their tracks, equipment, level crossings at any time without restraint. CP has the right to run their trains 24/7. CP has the upper hand. The city could have had the land over 10 years ago for less than 40 million dollars. The city tried to bully CP into selling the land for almost nothng. They still are trying to bully CP.
CP will win. This will turn into an albatross for Gregor and Vision if they can't make this go away by October as CP should be in full swing restoring their tracks causing traffic mayhem. Gregor will find some friendly developer to pony up the dough in return for concessions for future condo developments.
Squatters
Aug 15, 2014 at 5:47am
If squatters have no claim to the land then all non-aboriginals should leave Canada immediately.
Jerks
Aug 15, 2014 at 7:31am
There was no reason for CP to tear down these gardens at this point. Why not wait a few weeks until most of the food was harvested? I guess those Neanderthal's who operate the company don't realize that you can't just transplant mature plants like that. What makes me even angrier is that their reasons for destroying them is pure bullshit. Their yards on Kent Ave are largely deserted and could have been used for 'storage' and 'driver training', but no, they just want to use it as a bargaining chip with the city. It's going to cost CP a fortune to bring the tracks back to working condition and I bet anything they won't fix up more than the tiny stretch they destroyed.
And before the East Vancouver activists get all sanctimonious about these gardens being for rich hobbyists, the section they destroyed has a lot of low-income renters using it for food.
CP: Profit is what we're about
Aug 15, 2014 at 8:12am
I look forward to the day when CP's UNREGULATED POLLUTING cheaper HIGH SULPHUR DIESEL FUEL locomotive emissions are treated as "unauthorized enroachments" upon the health of the environment.
thomas the tank engine
Aug 15, 2014 at 8:22am
thank-you gordon campbell wherever you are...we're still cleaning up your mess....toot toot!!!