Now I Know My ABCs

On the morning of Wednesday, February 15tth, I listened with interest as my very favourite radio host, Stephen Quinn on CBC’s Early Edition interviewed Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim on the 100-day anniversary of the Mayor and his ABC (A Better City) colleagues being sworn into office.

Here are certain highlights (some, including me, might say lowlights) of ABC’s and Mayor Sim’s achievements so far:

• Council twice stripped the Vancouver Areas Network of Drug Users (VANDU) of funding. The first time may have been justified, as the City cancelled a contract with VANDU for street cleaning in the Downtown Eastside on the ultimately agreed to grounds that they were not fully doing the work being paid for.

The second instance had little justification and just seems spiteful. The ABC majority on City Council voted to remove VANDU as a grant recipient for a proposed art table project which would benefit the Downtown Eastside’s most challenged residents, citing the earlier “misuse of funds” – even though City staff had recommended that VANDU receive $7,500 for this project. Ultimately donors to a Go Fund Me page raised over $10,000 to support the project. If ABC Councillors had been truly concerned with VANDU’s financial management, they could have offered some help with budgeting instead of penalizing already challenged Downtown Eastsiders.

• I do not need to tell you that Vancouver renters are in a desperate situation with rents the highest in Canada and unaffordable for most. In the midst of this crisis, ABC Councillors voted unanimously to shut down the Vancouver Renter Office established by the previous Council. No matter how ABC tries to defend this decision, Council seems to be absolving itself of any responsibility for directly helping renters. The numbers of the homeless continue to rise.

• The ABC majority on the Vancouver Park Board voted to eliminate the separated bike lane on the road through Stanley Park. This will force bicyclists to either share the roadway with vehicle traffic or to ride on the already congested seawall bike path.

This move will also expand the roadway for vehicles, almost certainly attracting more traffic to the Park. It is now a well-recognized fact that as more room is provided for vehicles, vehicle volume increases, leading to more traffic congestion. Urbanist and former City Councillor Gordon Price, among others, has clearly outlined the problems that occur when cities build to accommodate cars.

And to say the least, this decision seems out of tune with efforts by all governments to reduce carbon emissions as they finally deal with the climate change crisis.

• Council approved the budget to hire 100 more Vancouver Police officers. It should be noted that there is no correlation between just increasing police budgets and reducing For an increase in policing levels to really deter or prevent crime, we would literally need a police officer on every street corner. Furthermore, research clearly shows that investing in crime prevention is a much more effective strategy. The Vancouver Police now receive over 20% of the City’s entire budget.

• Mayor Sim openly mused about turning our beloved library system into a profit centre. As I explained in detail in my December 10, 2022 blog, this should not be even contemplated. We must never permit payment terminals to be placed between library patrons and knowledge.

All of the above happened in just 100 days of ABC government. Unfortunately, we have another 1,360 days to endure before the next civic election.

 

Daily atmospheric CO₂ [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]

Latest daily total (Feb 16, 2023): 420.26ppm

One year ago (Feb 16, 2022): 419.18ppm