Vancouver’s developer-backed municipal party, Vision Vancouver, has recently approved the final recommendations of its Housing Affordability Task Force. The recommendations have been widely criticized for being more of the same pro-market ideology — higher density without any affordable housing! What would a progressive City Council propose? COPE has recently released its own housing recommendations in…
Vision Vancouver’s Affordable Housing Report – More Density, Less Affordable Housing
Last week, on Wednesday Oct. 3, Vision Vancouver approved the final recommendations of the Mayor’s developer-controlled Task Force on Housing Affordability. You may have read an Oct. 3rd article in the Province, “City Council in Density Dilemma – ‘Thin Street’ Plan to Provide Affordable Housing Has Some Residents Fuming.” The headline says it all —…
Vision = NPA + Bike lanes
Much of the past century saw a winning-streak by the right wing NPA, Vancouver’s historic party of wealth and privilege. Pundits talk about Vision Vancouver’s interruption of that NPA legacy, and there has even been talk of the disintegration of the NPA “brand.” By winning two consecutive terms in municipal office, Vision is said to…
City Council sets sights on mega-development at 955 East Hastings
This week, City Councillors will be returning to City Hall from their summer break. One of the first orders of business will be to consider a large-scale condo development in the Downtown Eastside Hastings Corridor, directly across from the Raycam Community Centre and Stamp’s Place social housing. The applicant for the project – Vision financial…
Rapid transit on West Broadway – getting it right by learning from history
Those who ride the 99 B-Line along West Broadway know just how full to capacity public transit is on this busy corridor. Transit analysts tell us that the current form of public transit on West Broadway is just not capable of carrying any additional passengers, and that if we are going to improve public transit…
The Olympics – a celebration of human excellence, or a party for the rich funded by the rest of us?
While the world watches the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London with excitement and enthusiasm, now is the perfect time to reflect on the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and to draw conclusions that the two years that have passed allow us to draw. In the years leading up to the Vancouver 2010…
Market Housing is Not the Solution
Two social housing sites – the province’s Little Mountain and Metro Vancouver’s Heather Place – are about to be redeveloped. With today’s housing crisis, this should be good news. Both sites could easily accommodate an increase in the number of social housing units. But the owners have no interest in addressing our homelessness crisis. Both levels…