Official Joan Osborne music video
Dr. Evil (Austin Powers) cover video
Background
This is one of those songs that I didn't know very well before spending time with it – all I knew about this song was from 34 seconds in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me 😁. As an atheist, the original lyrics are…not very appealing to me. But the song is eminently mockable, and that's what matters!
BC is holding municipal elections on October 15th, and I've been very involved in campaigning in Langford. One of the campaign issues is construction dust, so the subject of dust has been on my mind a lot lately.
Langford is very rocky, and also very dry in the summer months. The standard construction process under the current mayor and city council is to find a forested hillside, chop the trees down, blast the hills into terraces, and reinforce lot boundaries with large rock retaining walls. And there is a lot of construction happening in Langford – Langford is currently building over 180% of the housing it needs, largely because the other municipalities in the Greater Victoria Region aren't building enough. Unsurprisingly, all this blasting creates a lot of dust. Dust clouds float all over the city, causing asthma and other health problems.
The word "dust" sounds a lot like the word "us", and the words "what if" create a line of hypothetical questioning. What if Langford wasn't destroying its natural environment to build expensive homes that most people can't afford?
Stew Young is the mayor of Langford – and he has been since 1992. The city council is filled with homeowners aged 55+ who have also been serving for decades. Currently, Young and his rubber-stampers are "rolling out the red carpet" – his words, not mine – for developers and businesses. I hope that this will change on October 15th and that Langford will have a very different city council with a very different vision of the future.
Lyrics
It's all such a shame – where are the trees? And did you see what it displaced? If you could start again – a brand new story What would you do to avoid eco-depression? For now, yeah, sod awaits Yeah, yeah, sod the woods Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah What if Langford had less dust? A city council you could trust? You could get somewhere by bus? And you could afford a home? It's odd in this place to travel by bike But if I had one plea It would be to have all the REITs Be forced to return all their pricey real estate And all their profits For now, yeah, sod awaits Yeah, yeah, sod the woods Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah What if Langford had less dust? A city council you could trust? You could get somewhere by bus? And you could afford a home? Why can't we all afford a home? Renters in Langford on their own Stew Young not sitting on his throne Our neighbourhoods not filled with stone [Instrumental] For now, yeah, sod awaits Yeah, yeah, sod the woods Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah What if Langford had less dust? A city council you could trust? You could get somewhere by bus? And you could afford a home? And there were fewer traffic cones? Renters in Langford on their own Why can't we all afford a home? Stew Young not sitting on his throne Our neighbourhoods not filled with stone