"Accused" pub destroyed by fire and other neighborhood disasters.

The pub used in Jodie Foster's 1988 film The Accused burned down early Fri. morning.
The Tidewater was the setting for the infamous rape scene at the heart of the revenge movie.

The pub, which used to be called The Sidetrack is just a few blocks from my home. It sits on the banks of the Fraser River under the Alex Fraser Bridge and it was used for several months during the filming of "The Accused."

The courtroom drama, which stars Kelly McGillis as lawyer Kathryn Murphy and features Jodie Foster as a rape victim out for justice, nabbed Foster a 1990 Oscar for Best Actress.

The pub owner says he'll rebuild. I'm still scratching my head in wonder. The new highway South Perimeter Road which is in progress will link up hyws. #1, 91, and the 99 freeways and the Golden Ears Bridge.   It's slated to go under the Alex Fraser Bridge and overpass the existing River Road.....now thats going to be a tight squeeze of a bridge, an overpass, a pub and a well travelled road.

It's going to get real hairy around here.....

About 75 riverfront properties and houses inc. some of our friends, have been sold or are being expropriated inc. some heritage homes and most have already been removed to make way for this road. The land could easily feed 100,000 people.

The highway is going through 7 envoiromentally sensitive ravines and will be a hazardous goods route risking chemical spills.
Can you believe it - right alongside the mighty Fraser River! OMG what are they thinking?

Trees will be or have already been downed that shaded the creeks and sheltered 150 species of birds en route, as well as numerous species of plants, mammals and animals found nowhere else in the lower mainland.  Many of these are threatened or endangered species.

Archeological sites are being pile driven or capped in concrete.

Last but not least this road will pass on the edge of the world famous Burns Bog.

This project which has projected costs of over a billion dollars appears to have no care for what its doing to the land. And some say traffic conditions will get worse, not better.

The Burns Bog is a unique ecosystem due to its chemistry, form, flora, fauna and size as one of the worlds largest undeveloped ecosystems in an urban area.

Its a sanctuary and home to black bears, deer, fox, coyote, porcupine, racoon, badger, beaver, voles and shrews, Canada geese, herons, falcons, Trumpeter swans, owls, gulls, cranes, frogs, turtles, butterflies, dragonflies and many other life forms.

However, thats never been an issue as the landfill for Vancouver is in it and has been for many years! 

Fires of course are a natural part of a bog, although i think a lot of them have been man made in the past. These fires burn for sometimes months underground and pop up now and then, often requiring water bombers to help put them out.

Sometimes called "the lungs of the lower mainland" the bog is thought to be a major regulator of the regions climate since theres no drainage and all the rain that falls there eventually evaporates.

The Burns Bog is the largest domed peat bog in North America.  It covers 40 sq. kms. and 1/4th of  the municipality of Delta, British Columbia.

This project will obviously kill or mortally wound the lungs of paradise.

How can a government be so envoiromentally insensitive?

Disasters happened on earth all the time.  Some by natural causes, some by man and insane governments.

This one is virtually right at my doorstep and will be completed by 2012