We have paraphrased the title, but here is the full text of a op ed in the Vancouver Sun on October 9, 2018. Very timely, as the civic election is on October 20, and advanced voting has begun. Whoever is elected is in there for the next FOUR years, til 2022. Full text follows, but we have bolded some words for emphasis.
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Vancouver voters need to think about the city they want before they vote
This is a critical year for Vancouver to restore its reputation for the Jacobs model of planning and move away from Moses-type destruction
Elizabeth Murphy, Vancouver Sun, October 9, 2018
Vancouver became renowned for participatory community planning based on the principles of Jane Jacobs. But over the last decade, this reputation has become undeserved. There has been a shift from a sustainable complex city of neighbourhoods for people to bland density obsession for the benefit of developers. Vancouver has lost its way.
Jacobs’ influential writing was central to stopping major highway and urban renewal that was destroying inner-city neighbourhoods in the 1960s. She stopped the Lower Manhattan Expressway through her neighbourhood of Greenwich Village in New York City, the Spadina Expressway when she moved to Toronto and this also inspired the 1970s cancellation of Vancouver’s proposed highway through Grandview, Strathcona, Chinatown, Gastown and the waterfront.
This set Vancouver on a new sustainable path based on Jacobs’ principles of neighbourhood-based participatory planning.
Prior to 2007, the planning process in Vancouver included meaningful involvement from the people who lived here, such as CityPlan and earlier Local Area Planning. This was a basic principle that resulted in a sustainable mix of neighbourhoods that focused on social capital. However, the shift over the last decade from livability to growth, at both the regional and civic level, has resulted in housing primarily as a commodity that has caused a severe affordability crisis and increased homelessness.
Globalization has only made this worse as over-development has been consumed by inflationary forces that locals cannot compete with. Yet those who live here are increasingly being excluded from the decision making process that is dominated by the development industry that benefits through their control of city council.
Recent citywide rezonings are a case in point. Without community consultation, the outgoing Vision council is forcing through rezonings that affect the majority of the city right before an election when few are running for office again. Adriane Carr (Greens) and the NPA voted against the rezoning while Hector Bremner (of Yes Vancouver) voted with Vision for the rezoning.
The reasons why this approach is failing Vancouver are many. In simple terms, it is because we are demolishing the older more affordable housing and replacing it with new, more expensive units that most locals cannot afford. So as rezoning increases outright supply, this cycle continues. Continue reading
The Vancouver civic election is October 20, 2018. This also happens to be five years since City Council adopted the West End Community Plan. A good time for taking stock and communicating with election candidates.
Vancouver election: Watch seven mayoral hopefuls debate the hot topics
(Updated Oct 6) Below is a seven-point process with suggestions on how to address community opposition. The specific example is for “non-market housing” going into existing neighbourhoods, but perhaps the same approach could be applied to many other scenarios. The author has extensive experience in community dialogue and wishes to remain anonymous. In the upcoming civic elections in B.C. will any candidates take this approach to heart?
