NEWS RELEASE about HousingEnvironmentDirect Action posted on July 19, 2011 by Joseph Jones
Renewal of Norquay Park IS NOT a Special "Benefit"
Norquay Resident Exposes Misrepresentation
Norquay Park – Ordinary Maintenance at Last
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Vancouver city planners latch onto an ordinary capital plan expenditure for upgrade of Norquay Park as specious evidence that their Norquay Village Neighbourhood Centre planning has already brought "benefit" to Norquay!
The falsity of the "benefit" assertion is documented in detail in Renewal of Norquay Park: a Case Study in Misrepresentation.
These untrue claims must stop. An honest amenities and benefits strategy, with genuine community involvement, must move in tandem with the intentional acceleration of development. Community Vision policy must be respected. Building a livable and sustainable community requires much more than export of quick profits to come-and-go developers.
A reactive July 18 email from planners has just followed trenchant criticisms of Norquay planning made at the July 12 public hearing on the rezoning of 2667-2703 Kingsway. Will the core of CityPlan/neighbourhood centres for Vancouver's future again spawn only empty promises and vague reassurances, while opening up one more swath of East Vancouver to developer land rush?
All that Norquay has experienced from planners recently is:
• Being told during many 2009-2010 Norquay Working Group sessions that amenities are hard to come by, and that Norquay should expect nothing beyond a scrounging from minimal ordinary funding sources (not the Capital Plan, not the Property Endowment Fund)
• Suffering November 2010 imposition of a widely opposed Plan (augmented at last minute with massive increases to scale and density), a Plan that specified no certain benefits
• Enduring February 2011 unilateral termination of the Norquay Working Group that has represented community residents
• Seeing an April 2011 open house already disrespect parameters for new housing types set out in the November 2010 plan
• Undergoing the second of five anticipated major rezonings on 12 July 2011 — with shockingly little payback to the community
Norquay residents also look forward to joining together with unhappy local communities from across Vancouver at a gathering in front of City Hall on the evening of Tuesday, July 26.
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Media contact: Joseph Jones
Joseph Jones will be present at the opening of Norquay Park on Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Countering an Insidious Spin Campaign
Seeking Transparency, Equity, and Respect for Policy
All for Livability and Sustainability in Norquay
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Comments
Norquay pk ... upgrade???
So they shut it down for a year, fenced it off, brought in all the heavy equipment,.....
and .... did it not seem like they let it sit there for 9 months ,, through in a few boulders, added a gravel pathway,... and ta-da ... a new amenity .. so shut up now while we densify all the area around it so you'll never get access to it anyway .. not impressed .. or could you already tell..