Probably still there.
In the top left corner of the image is a box with the date the image was taken (usually the most recent). Click on the date and there is a slider that show previous images and dates. Move the slider to the year and click on the small image and the large image will update. Some places have images going back 10 years.

Good heavens, you're right. I can go back to blackmailing him now.

Cheers

Good luck with that. Driving has been less fun of late.

I came down to visit my daughter & co for a few days Tuesday evening, & found myself in the worst hit area for power outages after the ice storm in Quebec. 9pm Tuesday to 8am today.

Two streets over they still have no power

Last night we ended up taking refuge at her friend's house, along with another family & "camping out". Indoors. 8 adults, 7 children, 2 dogs, a cat and 4 lizards...

We still managed to prepare buffet for granddaughter's 1st Birthday do today.

I do not dare to guess what was in the buffet........

"Someone" might have threatened to grill a lizard or three, if someone else's child did not stop shoving said reptiles under her nose at inopportune moments...

Road/sidewalk salt especially when free is a hot commodity.

Mayhem at Vancouver fire halls as residents break the line for the free salt - BC | Globalnews.ca

It's been difficult for stores to keep stocks up.

The optics in this coverage did not portray certain immigrant groups in a very flattering way.

Seems the city (and the poor fire halls which actually have to deal with the distribution) didn't think that through too well. Basic crowd control logistics would have seemed like a no-brainer to me before the first delivery, and should have been considered, IMO & experience.

Did some Vancouverites behave badly? Yes. Could this have been avoided? Absolutely.

If the authorities had anticipated a rampant craving for road salt, I certainly wouldn't have seen that coming.

There are huge mounds of unattended road salt around here; at least there were this morning, it might be under lock and key with armed guards now.

Theft from the largely unattended road salt piles isn't a problem around here either.

I'm (a bit!) cynical about human nature/crowd behaviour in such circumstances (I believe the weather conditions in Vancouver have been unusual for there, recently).

Examples:

- years ago, municipality I worked for offered "free" compost on a shovel it yourself, first come first served basis. I expressed some concerns (quantities, "what happens if people turn up with trucks/trailers instead of buckets as you are expecting?") which were poo-pooed. What happened? Trucks/trailers & fighting over who got what. Fighting over compost, FFS.

- Distribution of drinking water during a power outage in a place with no mains water. Enough for every household. A lot of pushing, shoving, aggro to get to the front of the queue & people attempting to go around twice.

- I have more examples (& worse, in the baffling sense), but will stop there

In the end, yeah, perhaps you're right; time, place, circumstances, public reaction, may have taken the authorities involved by surprise.

Compost and poo-poo. Nice juxtaposition.

Try reading the article on salt in the National Post today. It's very interesting. The salt companies are going to be livid.

Which one? This?: The awesome price we pay for road de-icing: Melting cars, collapsing bridges, billions in damage

I found this one informative on the "problem" in Vancouver: https://www.google.ca/amp/news.natio...?client=safari

The first one.