Mayor’s Council on Regional Transportation meets 15-Nov-2018 in New Westminster

Another big meeting is coming up following the Oct 20, 2018 civic elections — the Mayor’s Council on Regional Transportation. Transportation is a crucial regional issue, affecting our daily lives, pocket books, and development in the region. There are going to be many new faces on this council. Translink web page here. Council website here. 

For people following this stuff, here is the agenda to the meeting. Note the weighted votes on this council, which we have arranged further below here by number of votes.

Agenda, main items.

1. OATHS OF OFFICE BY NEW MEMBERS
   1.1. Call to order
   1.2. Swearing-in Ceremony
2. ELECTION OF INTERIM CHAIR AND VICE-CHAIR
3. PRELIMINARY MATTERS
   3.1. Adoption of agenda
   3.2. Approval of Minutes (September 21, 2018)
4. REPORT OF TRANSLINK MANAGEMENT
   4.1. CEO’s Report
5. REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
   5.1. Proposed 2019 Work Plan
6. REPORT ON 10-YEAR VISION
   6.1. South of Fraser Rapid Transit
7. PUBLIC DELEGATES
8. OTHER BUSINESS
   8.1. Upcoming meetings:
    Mayors’ Council: December 13, 2018 at 9AM
9. ADJOURN
   FOR REFERENCE: Rules of Procedure for the Conduct of Meetings

First Vancouver City Council meeting 13-Nov-2018: A big one

Vancouver City Council 2018 – 2022. All but two are new faces here. Photo credit: CoV.

The first Regular Council meeting in Vancouver after the October 20, 2018 civic election is today, November 13. The city could be in for big changes, with brand new mayor Kennedy Stewart and only two Councillors carrying over with council experience (Clr Adriane Carr and Clr Melissa De Genova). This first meeting will be a doozie, with many crucial topics and motions. Note that all motions except B5 have been referred to hear from speakers at the Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities on November 14, 2018, at 9:30 am.  

For the record, here is the full and unabridged agenda for this first Regular Council Meeting.

https://council.vancouver.ca/20181113/regu20181113ag.htm

Vancouver Tenants Union to rally to ban renovictions, 12:30 pm Fri (Nov 9), BC Law Courts

From the Vancouver Tenants Union. https://www.vancouvertenantsunion.ca/events

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 8, 2018
Tenants organize mock courtroom rally to protest notorious renoviction company.
When: Friday Nov. 9, 12:30-1:30pm
Where: Outside 938 Howe St.
(Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories): Join the Vancouver Tenants Union to launch their campaign for a renoviction ban.

Hear from tenants of Berkeley Tower, Yew St., Burnaby St., Keefer St. and from New Westminster to learn how their landlords have tried to get rid of them so they can change affordable housing into luxury housing. Multi-pronged companies hired to renovict tenants before they are aware of their rights will be exposed.

Hear Vivian Baumann, a fiesty tenant fighting renoviction, speak about her court case happening that same morning (Fri, Nov 9 10am-12:30pm Court of BC Appeal – Courtroom 50) where the landlord lobby is fighting to overturn her right to come back at the same rent.

Hear the motion by COPE City Councillor Jean Swanson to ban renovictions that she will present at City Hall on Tuesday, Nov 13th and tenants call on the provincial government to implement vacancy control in order to protect tenants and save affordable housing.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2108917375820223/

Berkeley Tower tenants (1770 Davie) appeal for urgent action to prevent renoviction: Oct 29 (TODAY) deadline for public input

Berkeley Tower at 1770 Davie in Vancouver’s West End. Credit: Tenant’s group

The West End Community Plan was adopted in November 2013, five years ago.

It set off a gold rush for developers, enabling them to build towers up twenty, thirty, forty and more than fifty storeys along the main corridors of the West End – Robson, Alberni, Thurlow, and Davie.

During Community Plan consultation, the City and elected officials told West Enders that increased density will “deepen” housing affordability. Among the planning objectives, “livability” and “neighbourliness” also featured prominently. Despite that, there have been many demovictions and renovictions. As far as we know, the City is not keeping score, but the count of renters displaced could already be in the high hundreds or more.

Now the tenants of the iconic green and yellow Berkeley Tower (1170 Davie, at foot of Davie near Denman), are appealing to the community for urgent support to help them fight renoviction and displacement by Reliance Properties Ltd. Some of them have lived there forty years. It is a close community of neighbours.

Below is a bit more background and links to their website. The main point is that they are asking people to take immediate action by writing to the City of Vancouver. The “official” deadline for public input is Monday, October 29. Public input will be considered by the Development Permit Board, and a decision will be made in the coming weeks or months.

Suggested actions:

1. Oppose this application by writing a letter to the project facilitator at the City of Vancouver.
2. Share this information with others and encourage action. The more people who oppose, the stronger the chance the application will not be approved.

Writing an email is easy and can take as little as five minutes. All the steps and talking points are laid out here:
https://berkeleytower.wixsite.com/tenants/blank-page

More info (including links to media coverage):

https://berkeleytower.wixsite.com/tenants

https://www.facebook.com/BerkeleyTowerTenants

The iconic green and yellow Berkeley Tower at the corner of Davie and Denman was the first residential High Rise constructed in Vancouver’s West End. Completed in 1958, it is home to a diverse community of long term-tenants – some have lived there for up to 40 years.

A new day begins in Vancouver politics (2018 to 2022) with Green wave, independent mayor, and diverse political views in Council, park board, school board

Below are the unofficial election results. Vancouver voters have elected 27 people to public office (mayor, councillor, Park Board commissioner, and school trustee) following the preliminary count of 2018 city election ballots. About 176,744 ballots were cast and voter turn-out is estimated to be about 39.43%. Both are lower than in 2014, though a record 158 candidates ran. Official results will be declared by the Chief Election Officer by October 24, 2018. As of this moment (morning, Oct 21), the NPA mayoral candidate Ken Sim had not conceded defeat — the gap from him to Kennedy Steward was just 984 votes (see all vote counts here).

Composition: The new City Council will have an independent mayor, five NPAs, three Greens, one COPE and one OneCity. With a total of eleven votes on Council, no party has a majority, and that situation will probably result in some real discussion, something absent for ten years due to Vision Vancouver’s arrogance and absolute majority. Public input might actually be able to influence policy more than in the past decade. Let’s hope they all focus on who they are serving — the people of Vancouver.

Vision Vancouver was almost completely obliterated, electing only ONE candidate in the final slot on the school board (with Allan Wong, reelected as school board trustee, only 693 votes ahead of COPE’s Diana Day). This is a stunning rejection of Vision Vancouver, almost sending the entire organization to the dust bin of history for a disastrous ten years with absolute control of City Council.

With one exception, new parties and independents did not get elected. Other than Kennedy Stewart as “independent” mayor, not a single independent candidate was elected, a sign of how hard it is for an independent to get elected. In fact, Stewart was not entirely “independent,” as he inherited massive support from Big Labour and Vision Vancouver. Not a single member of a first-time new party running in this election was elected.

Election finance money flows will become clearer once the dust settles. There was a lot of in-kind money flowing particularly from Big Labour, which favoured Kennedy Stewart and funding just before the official election period. It will be interesting to see the numbers once everything is factored in. Worthy of special mention — the Green Party has always had strict rules on donations, rejecting corporate and union donations. Their total budget this time was just a fraction of what the big players had, yet they garnered the top votes in all the races they ran — a testament to their track record, credibility and trust they have earned from the community.

What next? We hope that the many people who got engaged in this election as candidates and supporters will continue to be engaged in dialogue and help Vancouver address the many challenges facing it for the next four years!

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Mayor
Kennedy Stewart (independent) – 49,812 votes

Council
Adriane Carr (Green) – 69,885 votes
Pete Fry (Green) – 61,925 votes
Melissa de Genova (NPA) – 53,324 votes
Jean Swanson (COPE) – 48,955 votes
Colleen Hardwick (NPA) – 47,811 votes
Michael Wiebe (Green) – 45,700 votes
Christine Boyle (OneCity) – 45,529 votes
Lisa Dominato (NPA) – 44,769 votes
Rebecca Bligh (NPA) – 44,117 votes
Sarah Kirby-Yung (NPA) – 43,646 votes

Vancouver election voting options? Consider this slate by Elizabeth Murphy, housing policy commentator

Elizabeth Murphy is a long-time watcher and commentator on Vancouver civic affairs. For people wondering about options for the 2018 civic election, below is her recommended slate for the civic election on October 20.

Related, here is her current article in Common Ground: “2018 Vancouver civic election: to change or not to change“:
https://commonground.ca/2018-vancouver-civic-election-to-change-or-not-to-change/

The big question is who will also work for a change in direction. There are many options, perhaps too many. And although many are good people, will any get elected in such a split broad field? When the public are confused, they tend to go with familiar names…

Vancouver Civic Election 2018 Slate from Murphy.

“This is a critical election. There is finally an opportunity for a big change at city hall with most incumbents not running again. We need a new direction from Vision’s failed decade in power. The challenge is that there are too many people and parties running for office. Many have good intentions, but will not likely be elected and are only splitting the vote…”

MAYOR: SIM, Ken (NPA)

COUNCIL (10):

• CARR, Adriane (Green)
• FRY, Pete (Green)
• WIEBE, Michael (Green)
• WONG, David (Green)
• HARDWICK, Colleen (NPA)
• NOBLE, Penny (Independent)

PARK BOARD (7):

Bob Dylan’s secret message for civic elections in 2018: Gotta Serve Somebody

Civic elections in the province of British Columbia are on Saturday, October 20, 2018. The term is for FOUR years to October 2022.

CityHallWatch has a theory that Bob Dylan, when he released “Gotta Serve Somebody” almost forty years ago in 1979, was actually sending a secret message to candidates in this election. See the full lyrics on his official website here. Enjoy his performance on YouTube above. Below we share a few excerpts.

The question to all candidates: WHO are YOU gonna serve?

Specific supporter or interest groups? Donors? Political insiders? Your party? Young? Old? Renters? Owners? Developers? Friends and connections? Or the whole city and its people?

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Gotta Serve Somebody
(By Bob Dylan)

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

See the whole lyrics here.

https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/gotta-serve-somebody/