Pat Campbell, whippersnapper

Vancouver City Councilor Pat Campbell is 66. But that doesn’t mean he’s too old to have an elder put him in his (at least chronological) place.

Resident Ralph Peabody, who is in his late 70s and frequently comments about different issues, visited the city council’s Citizen Forum Monday to talk about traffic issues in his neighborhood.

Cars come “ripping and snorting” speeding down Ninth Street, especially now that work is being done on 18th Street, Peabody said. He said he hasn’t seen the police patrols he was promised.

Campbell chimed in after Peabody asked for a remedy: “I travel Ninth Street quite a bit. There’s series of speed bumps that make it impossible to travel at the speeds you’ve named here.”

He said he only hears this complaint from Peabody, and if it were the “disaster area” Peabody describes it to be, he’d hear from more people.

That didn’t sit well with Mr. Peabody.

“Let me get one thing straight,” Peabody said. “You’re calling me a liar, and that’s not going to work, young man. I am not a liar and I really resent that.”

With all due respect to Mr. Campbell, we bet that hasn’t happened to him in a couple of decades.

(The city’s also looking in to putting one of those “your speed” trailers on Ninth Street that record a drivers speed and then display it electronically to them.)