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…
Vision Vancouver gives Aquilini $35 million; Gives green light to expensive condos, red light to affordable housing
Last week Vision Vancouver once again proved with certainty who they don’t owe their allegiance to: the citizens of Vancouver, the people who can barely afford housing, and the homeless. Vision Vancouver’s allegiance is only and solely to developers. Last Thursday night (July 19th), a rezoning application by Aquilini Investment Group for a high-rise development…
Protest should be celebrated not criminalized
In a healthy society, protest is celebrated as a sign of life and fighting spirit. Whether it is Civil Rights advances in the Southern states, environmental struggles or widespread movements for social change, protest has always been a vehicle for transformation. Instead of seeing protest as a way of change, however, the state sees it…
Why I Oppose Sullivanism
The Georgia Straight recently published a cover story titled “Sullivanism versus Jane Jacobs”, detailing former NPA Mayor Sam Sullivan’s continuing efforts to push high-rise densification onto the city. In the article, Sullivan praises former Mayor Tom “Terrific” Campbell’s reign of free market ideology. The issues are clear. Do we let capitalism run roughshod over democratic processes and the…
Why are Vision representatives abandoning the city?
In the past two weeks, two prominent Vision Vancouver representatives have announced to the public that they are putting their names in the hat for the upcoming provincial election. Last Sunday the chair of the Parks Board, Constance Barnes, announced that she is running for nomination as the NDP Vancouver False Creek candidate. On Friday,…
Vote COPE, For Responsible City Government
This year, Vancouver heads to the polls to choose the type of Vancouver they want to see going forward into the future. At the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE), we’ve been listening to Vancouverites from across our city, so we know that in the next term of City Council, the citizens of Vancouver want to…