No. 1 issue on City Council’s agenda over the past few months has been the removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts. Last week this issue was finally put to a vote. With 5 in favour and 4 against, Council decided to remove them. At first blush, Council’s decision would appear to be the right…
Category: affordable housing
The only national housing strategy stands firmly on Green ground
The federal election is now down to the wire. It is time for those of us who have not yet made up our minds on who to vote for to focus on the issues that are the most important to us. We need to take a look at where the parties stand on these issues….
Whatever happened to equality?
As we all know, developers make windfall profits every time their property is rezoned by Vancouver City Council to increase density. Many years ago, Vancouver’s City Council of the day wisely decided that henceforth any rezoning over a certain size would come with a very positive requirement — the developer would have to designate 20…
All we’re asking for is a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t
City watchers are still buzzing about a meeting held behind closed doors last month at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning. It was all about what Michael Geller describes as Vancouver city hall’s “diminishing respect for the importance of urban design and planning.” The biggest deal breaker was the re-zoning application for the contentious…
Never Never Land: Where a boy never grows up and promises never come true
Vancouver’s annual two-day homeless count recently wrapped up, and it’s clear that Vision Vancouver’s promise of ending homelessness this year is something straight from Never Never Land. Critics have missed the point when they say that Gregor Robertson was unrealistic or naïve when he made the promise in 2008, when he first campaigned for office,…
Crimes in the Making – Vancouver’s Affordable Housing Crisis
In a world drowning in wealth; in the richest era ever in the history of humankind; in one of the richest nations on the face of the planet and one of the richest cities in that nation, it’s a crime we have people living on the streets of Vancouver. It’s even more of a crime…
Six Years Too Late
Today Mayor Gregor Robertson issued a vague apology during the CBC debate. We now know what we had been suspecting for a number of days now — Mayor Robertson sees the writing on the wall and is desperate to avoid defeat Nov. 15th. After six years of ignoring community concerns, three days before voters cast…