No Joy in Vancouver

BLOG POST posted on April 26, 2011 by Joseph Jones

Vancouver is seething with unhappiness.

Homeless persons face closure of five shelters at the end of April.

People swarm through an April 12 open house about putting a 26 storey tower (now down to 19 storeys) at Kingsway and Broadway. On display that evening are city planner boards that record how little acceptance the planning has found in public opinion.

City Council on the afternoon of April 19 blithely severs Chinatown from the Downtown Eastside in order to "revitalize" the interests of land speculators by permitting out-of-human-scale towers. Audience support was palpably not there.

A scarce community facility (St. John's Church) surrounded by green space in the very dense West End is poised to become landfill rubbish as a project grinds inexorably toward a STIR-incentivized implementation that profits no one other than the developer and a City administration that mainlines fees and new tax revenues.

Residents of Norquay will get told on a single Saturday (April 30) what city planners have decided on for over 1500 homes (currently housing 32% low-income families) — "planning" done without any input from people who live there.

Seven Vancouver councillors plumbed the depths of absurdity, trying to specify the details of acceptable protest structures while the clock ticked toward midnight on April 19, and then said more than once in concluding remarks they don't care if the City has to pour yet more money into useless court defense of their feeble attempt at protest restriction.

Report from a first night (April 21) of public hearing says that city planners claim residents of Marpole approve a megaproject on the Safeway site but are too anxious to offer public support! (Some reincarnation of Richard Nixon must think there is still a silent majority out there somewhere.)

At least three grassroots events are already on the calendar for the coming month. On April 27, Citizens Forum on Kingsway/10 Tower happens at St. Patrick's Parish Hall. On May 13, Impact of Civic Planning Policy on the Future of Vancouver's Communities happens at Unitarian Church of Vancouver. On May 24, Neighbourhoods in Crisis with Spot Rezoning! happens at the Hellenic Community Centre. Notice the consistent use of venues outside of City of Vancouver control.

A recent local presentation on Crisis in Greece reported a broad common cause found among diverse interests and classes when Greek authorities set out to impose a massive landfill rubbish dump on Keratea, a local community 50 kilometers south of Athens.

Vancouver's local communities may be starting to understand that either they stand together or get picked off one by one — as machinations become ever more clear, revealing a city that will do almost anything to facilitate unnecessary and inappropriate real estate development at the expense of existing residents.