Setting the bar for fun a little too low

Pubs over clubs

By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor

ou’re in a dimly lit room where
Y= only sources of light are

infrequent coloured bursts
coming from the far wall. The noise
level is deafening, and your eardrums
are numb with the over-the-top bass
vibrations. Everyone around you is
either a sternly sober citizen or a total
lagoon monster, already clammy and
sweaty from the evening’s labours. Are

of morale-crushing bar tabs and all-
nighters. But faster than you can say
“forty-dollar cab ride home,” I realized
that there was more to life than what
the strip on Granville Street had to
offer.

Some of the basic foundations that
clubs operate on are even offensive
not just to me, but to basic morals
and ethics. As someone with a penis,
I think I speak for a large portion of
the population when I say clubs are so

“Clubs are the Mos Eisley of a city’s nightlife—as Obi-Wan wisely put
it, ‘you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.’””

you in some form of specially designed
torture chamber? Perhaps I’ve just
described an interpretation of what Hell
might be like? Both guesses are not far
off, since I was merely just recounting
the experience I had the last time I
decided to go to a club.

Clubs are the Mos Eisley of a
city’s nightlife—as Obi-Wan wisely put
it, “you will never find a more wretched
hive of scum and villainy.” Like most
young people who have a pulse and a
chequing account to go along with it,
the moment I became of legal drinking
age, I was engulfed in a counter culture

sexist, they make an episode of Mad
Men look progressive. Females are
constantly being courted by clubs with
offers of no line, no cover while guys
are forced to drop half of their nightly
budget on just getting inside.

The concept of having to pay cover
to go into a dark room where I have
to spend six bucks for a single bottle
of crappy Molson Canadian is mind-
boggling enough, but the other night
I was presented with a situation that’s
on a whole new level: the bouncer told
us we could skip the enormous line
outside, but only if we paid the hefty

service charge of a Queen Elizabeth
II-faced paper bill. Each. I’m a bit
rusty on my legal definitions, but
the word extortion comes to mind.
Unfortunately for me, I was intoxicated
and in desperate need for a porcelain
rendezvous, so I parted ways with the
$20 and made a break for the nearest
urinal.

The Mirage in Surrey is probably
my favourite bar to verbally tear apart
on a weekly basis. Everyone looks like
they just stumbled out of an episode
of Jersey Shore—and not in the ironic
way. My friend put it best when she

 

   

referred to the bar’s usual, over-
tanned cliental as an Oompa-Loompa
community. The resemblance is really
quite striking.

I get that some people dig the bar
scene and practically live downtown
during the weekends, but I’m confused
as to why‘this is at all appealing. Pubs
are an exception though, because you
can sit down with a group of friends
and share a conversation over a pitcher.
If I wanted to listen to crappy music
and watch a room full of people hitting
on each other, I would be more into UFC.

 

Crosty’s call for change

New Westminster mayoral candidate looks to dethrone current regime

By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor

here’s no denying the fact that
the political landscape of today

has shifted dramatically from
what it was even a year ago. The NDP
party surged ahead on a federal level,
foreign regimes are being overthrown
almost weekly, and the Occupy Wall
Street campaign has spread faster than
a Viral kitten video. But with all of the
news being reported on a national scale,
it’s easy to forget about the things
that affect life a little closer to home,

The presentation started off with
a disappointing statistic: only 20 per
cent of New Westminster citizens voted
in the last civic election three years
ago. This came as a shocker even to
me, someone who thinks local politics
are about as interesting as a month-
old bologna sandwich. It also mirrors
my concerns with the last federal
election, where we have a majority
government that actually has less than
half of the population’s approval. But
Crosty hopes to bump up the number of
voters in this upcoming election and is

“The presentation started off with a disappointing statistic: only 20
per cent of New Westminster citizens voted in the last civic election
three years ago.”

namely local politics.

One citizen however, James
Crosty, hasn’t forgotten about the
government in New Westminster and
as of October 12, has officially filed
his papers to run for mayor. Although
my residency within the Vancouver
city limits prevents me from voting
in the upcoming civic election,
that didn’t stop me from attending
a DSU Representative Committee
meeting last week to hear a special
presentation being given by Crosty on
why there needs to be change in New
Westminster, and why he’s the right
man to bring it about.

looking to the youth vote to do some of
the heavy lifting.

Affordable housing was inevitably
the first topic to come up. Property
taxes in New West have risen
consistently over the years, and Crosty
pointed to that as the reason why
only three of the students present at
the meeting even lived in New West.
Unknown to me, the college apparently
owns the property across the street on
8" Avenue and one of Crosty’s hopes
for the future is to create a residence
there for students— meaning students
would actually be able to live and go to
school in the same city.

Crosty commented on how some
of the people on city council have
been in their positions for 25 years
and how civic politics should never be
a career, “You go in there to make a
difference and then get out and let some
new, fresh ideas come forward. [New
Westminster] is 150 years old, but we
don’t have to act like we’re 150 years
old.” The aging tactics show with the
current polling state, where nothing is
done electronically and instead runs
on a physical system that doesn’t even
allow for cross-referencing between
stations.

The DSU has also been
encountering problems obtaining liquor
licenses for events smaller than the
recurring pub nights that they host,
pointing out that New West has some
of the strictest regulations in the Lower
Mainland when it comes to this area.
Crosty suggested that such issues
should be able to be resolved quickly
with the correct kind of political will :

__ and that parties other than the police

department should be involved in the
matter.

And what local political
presentation goes without addressing
the current state of transit, primarily —
the Evergreen Line? Tim Rattel, the
Executive Director of the DSU, was
the first to bring up the topic and
pointed out that most students would be

 

interested in a candidate that supported
transit system advancements. Funding
is of course an issue, but what surprised
me was when Crosty responded with
how much savings could be had within
the city, dropping another statistic
bomb: “80 per cent of every tax dollar
that’s generated goes towards paying
salaries in the city.” Crosty reassured
the room that he was a big believer

in transit, which would also help deal
with the headache-inducing congestion
that happens in New West during peak
traffic hours.

The half-hour presentation was
enough to get even me fired up about
local politics. In my eyes, Crosty is
making a brilliant move in reaching out
to the youth voters to garner support
for the next election. He failed to shy
away from the issues most students
face and seems to have solutions that
are completely reasonable. Perhaps
this mayoral candidate’s drive will be
enough to kick start this fall’s civic
election into high gear.

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