btvancouver

Wow!  One week to go until the Winter Olympics get underway!  And there’s still SO much to do!

I was up bright and early doing live interviews with our Citytv affiliates across the country (in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg) – filling their viewers in on everything that’s going on in Vancouver right now.  Take a look at my segment with Breakfast Television in Edmonton this morning.

I’m now off to file a story for Citytv Toronto’s 6pm news.  It’s already a busy day!

Have a great weekend!

K

Am crazy busy today doing Olympic preparations for BT!  I’ll be spending my Friday morning doing live segments with BT in Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg…and also something for Toronto’s CityNews at Six. 

Not much time for a blog today.  But wanted to share this incredible video that’s making the rounds on Youtube right now.   It’s a time-lapse music video which showcases our beautiful city.  Check it out here.

Friday’s almost here, people! 

K

For some reason, everyone loves talking about the weather.  It’s a great “go-to” conversation when you’re chatting with relatives who don’t live in the area.  And right now, the weather is a huge topic of conversation, with the Olympics on the horizon.

January is proving to be unusually mild for us here on the South Coast.  Vancouver gets lots of rain every single year.  But our current “wet spell” is a little strange.  Especially given the fact we’re hosting the Winter Olympics in just over a week.  This “winter weather” certainly isn’t what most of the world is used to seeing!

Hard to believe crews are having to truck in snow from Manning Park, in order to keep the slopes nice and white on Cypress for the Olympics!

And one of the main centres for the Olympics is closed today.  But it’s not because of the weather.  The Robson Media Centre in downtown Vancouver has been shut down because of a flood last night!  A pipe burst on the main floor and flooded the centre.  So crews are spending today mopping everything up and hope to have the centre up and running once again by tomorrow morning.  Luckily, no equipment was damaged!

By the way, we’ll be doing Breakfast Television live from Robson Square each morning during the Olympics.  Dawn and Riaz will be there.  And I’ll be doing BT live from Whistler each morning.   We’re excited about the next few weeks!  And we hope you are, too!

Have a great day!

K

Hard to believe that we’re getting closer and closer to the start of the Olympics! And no matter what side of the fence you’re sitting on (the “for” or “against”) — I think you can agree there’s a certain vibe buzzing around Vancouver and Whistler right now. And it’s exciting to know the entire world will be checking us out!

Traffic is already bad. And it’s going to get worse and worse as each day passes. Tune into BT each morning and Michel will keep you posted on all the traffic restrictions and road blocks. But if you plan to travel around Vancouver, or even up to Whistler during the games, check out this website. It’s loaded with tons of great information for commuters on how to get around during the Olympics.

By the way, I’m going to be in Whistler starting next week doing BT live each morning from the Village.  Can’t wait! 

K

I appeared on Breakfast Television in Edmonton this morning to do a chat on the current homeless situation in Vancouver. And the image our city is going to portray to millions of people around the world.

What many “foreigners” don’t know much about is the situation in the downtown eastside.  All of us “locals” know it’s the worst part of the region. Homelessness.  Drug usage.  Prostitution.  Garbage.  It’s a disaster area.  I’ve taken visitors through this neighbourhood in the past, and they’re always blown away with what they see.  It’s such a shame.  It’s unreal.   Something NEEDS to be done.  But the question is — what.

What many “foreigners” also don’t know, is just how close this problem is to the main Olympic venues.  The downtown eastside is 3-4 blocks away from GM Place (aka Canada Hockey Place as it will be called during the games).  And less than a 10-minute walk from most hotels in the downtown core where thousands of spectators will be staying.  As well as the Athlete’s Village, where thousands of competitors will be living during the Olympics. 

While millions of people will be watching these celebrations and competitions around the world, they won’t see the situation that’s happening, just a few hundred metres away from these major venues, in Canada’s poorest neighbourhood. 

But when the Olympics are over — will visitors remember us for being a beautiful city in a beautiful region?  Or will they remember us as a beautiful city, with a disturbing neighbourhood’s out-of-control social problem, that no one seems to know how to fix.

Now that I have your attention, I’m going to spend some time chatting about the word “Olympics.”  With just over two weeks to go until the competition begins in Vancouver/Whistler, more and more media outlets are beefing up their coverage.

But when the Olympics actually start, only members of the Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium are allowed to broadcast full coverage of the games.  For the majority of us who aren’t in that group — comes a lot of rules and regulations.  Like these:

*We can broadcast no more than 6 minutes per day of Olympic material

*No more than 2 minutes of Olympic material can appear in any one program

*We can only broadcast Olympic material for 48 hours after the earliest start time it becomes available

And these points are just the tip of the iceberg!  We can’t even use the term “Olympics” or even show the Olympic rings in any of our branding for the games!

The Olympics are always an incredibly cautious two-weeks of math and thought for newsrooms around the world, to make sure no one violates these carefully crafted rules.   So now you know why some of your favourite moments during the Olympics — never get replayed after they air.

Kids Up Front  is a fantastic organization that lets you get rid of tickets for sporting events you cannot use, and give them to kids who might not have the opportunity to go otherwise…in fact since June 2004, Kids up Front has provided more than 140,000 tickets to underprivileged kids!

With the 2010 Winter Games just around the corner, they are putting the call out- if you can’t use your tickets, LOTS of kids would LOVE the opportunity to go…to donate, call 604-266-KIDS, go to their  website  or drop off your tickets to 402-134 Abbott Street in Gastown weekdays between 9am and 5:30pm

Cindy Graves from Kids up Front, pic by Ian Smith, PNG

Stay Generous,

Dawn

I got the chance to spend the day in Whistler, as VANOC gave the media a tour of the Olympic Athlete’s Village and a few venues.  Wow.  What a great experience.  It was amazing to see just how far crews have come over the last few years in getting everything together for the games.  The buildings look great.  And the finishing touches are underway with just two weeks to go until athletes start arriving in Metro Vancouver!

We checked out one of the buildings which will house competitors and it’s really cool.  There are two beds per room.  And one bathroom for every four athletes.  When the games are done, this building will be taken over by Hostelling International.

How do you feed 3,000 athletes?  Simple.  A 43,000 square foot dining tent has been created and will serve roughly 11,000 meals every single day.   There are several options for food, including good ol’ McDonald’s — which is an official sponsor of the Olympics.  And there’s even a gym for everyone to burn off those calories and stay in shape!

Check out some pictures I took from my tour!  More to come!

K