You’d think a place like Vancouver, known for its rain, would have made more of an effort to improve its drainage systems over the years. But every year it’s the same routine; waterlogged bike lanes, swampy sidewalks, and lakes where streets should be. The City pretends to care and tells you to report these things when you see them, but then fuck-all gets done about it.
Well, that’s not completely true. There’s always the Adopt a Catch Basin program!
That’s right folks, you too could sign up to spend your free time digging disentegrating leaves, discarded food wrappers and slimy cigarette butts out of our Atlantean city’s storm drain grates for absolutely no compensation and minimal recognition!
It’ll be fun! Bring the kids! Bring the toy boat!
When it comes to teaching a child how to give back to the community, Emily Lefebvre thinks it’s best to start early.
That’s why the 37-year-old enlisted in Vancouver’s Adopt a Catch Basin — a city-sponsored community program that encourages residents to keep a storm drain unclogged.
“We thought it would be something fun to do with our three-year-old daughter — just teach her a little bit about community spirit,” Lefebvre told CBC News.
Forget community spirit; think what she’ll learn about community buoyancy! After all, we all float down here!
Spoken Like A True Nut 
How interesting to hear that Canada is abdicating it’s community responsibilities the same way the UK is!
We have the same nonsense going on here and these people who instigate community programs to address issues like this make me cross. They are playing right into the hands of the governments who are taking more and more taxes off us and doing less and less for it.
I’d have no problem getting out there and doing my bit to clear drains, cut down foliage that is obstructing our view at road junctions, pick up litter, fill in pot holes that appear in our roads, sort our rubbish into types for recycling, be a volunteer responder for accidents etc etc (the list is endless for what a citizen can now proudly do for their community over here!) if they would stop charging us for the council workers to do this stuff.
What these do-gooders who arrange community groups to address the problems we face are overlooking is that we PAY for these things to be done in our taxes and we pay more and more every year. In the UK, probably as in Canada, we are taxed and taxed in so many different ways.
Our local governments charge us all a very heavy Community Charge that has always paid for ALL the community needs. But what they have done in the last few years is gradually cut services year on year until we have road signage that isn’t kept clean, trees, bushes and grass that obstructs vision at road junctions, pot holes in the road that are wrecking our cars, less rubbish collections so our Wheelie Bins get full to over flowing and stink in summer because there is longer between collections, reduced emergency services (which is totally unacceptable) and much more.
Why are we not fighting this and campaigning to get our taxes reduced in line with all the services they have cut but still charge us for? And now, we have just been told by our local council that this winter, they are slashing the road gritting programme and only washing the most important road signs. What a recipe for disaster that is! Icy roads, signs we can’t see and having to wait two days for an ambulance. Wonderful. Oh and they are also RAISING the Community Charge at the same time. Is it this bad in Canada?
If people really want to be ‘community spirited’ we should be standing together and asking what the hec our taxes ARE being spent on and demanding a reduction every time they cut another service. Oh yes, our libraries which we PAY FOR are run by volunteers now. Most of the library staff got made redundant and we stood by watching. This world has gone nuts.
Rant over 😀.
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Yikes. 😦
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Omg, that’s beyond bizarre. I doubt any self respecting child would say, “ No mommy, I don’t want to go to the amusement park today. Let’s go clean that storm drain on 2nd and Main instead”
Priceless!
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Not to mention clearing the drains makes for fewer puddles to jump in. What kid is going to be on board for that? lol
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Asking to push the leaves off the storm drains doesn’t seem like such a big deal. Our city just vacuumed all the leaves off the boulevard this week and it has taken them a full week to do 3 square kilometres. It would take an actual army to keep up with the storm drains. I just use my foot when I pass the one in front of my house, and thankfully haven’t encountered a clown. I did encounter a raccoon once who was caught in the drain and hanging from the grate and I thought his little fingers were sticks until I heard the hissing and I ran screaming.
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Honestly, I think the program is cute in its own way. My main beef is that the the City happily publicizes small initiatives like this but never seems to address bigger drainage issues where a few leaves aren’t the problem. The same busy streets and intersections keep flooding year after year. There’s been a giant problem spot on my commute for as long as I can remember, and what do they do? Put cones and a detour sign around it until it stops raining. In all these years they couldn’t come up with a better solution than, “Uh, go around, I guess?”
I’m glad people are having fun adopting drains and naming them things like Drainy McDrainface, but a toddler scuffing leaves off a grate on a quiet side street isn’t going to help keep asshats who don’t know how to drive for the conditions from hydroplaning into each other on the major arteries downtown.
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I need to know … Did someone help the raccoon??????
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