The fact that this is a municipal election year will dominate Vision Vancouver’s every move. And much of what does move will be slowed down or stopped entirely — nothing more than the Grandview-Woodland’s Community Plan, which has caused the city’s governing party so much grief in its haste (blamed on staff of course) to push through high rise towers that mysteriously appeared after nothing of the sort was discussed with residents who live in the very heartland of Vision territory.
Five months have passed since council put on the brakes. And a so-called “Citizens Assembly,” proposed as a way of bringing the community on side, is still in the most preliminary of stages.
The city’s assault has also slowed on the Ming Sun Benevolent Society building, where the civic bureaucrats put the squeeze on a group of Chinese seniors to have the historic Powell Street structure torn down.
The city initially concurred with Rockingham Engineering Ltd., which was working for a developer who was hot after buying the property from Ming Sun that “the best course of action may be to demolish the entire building.”
The building, which dates back more than a century to the beginning of Japantown and has been used for the past several decades as affordable rental housing and a social centre for seniors, now appears to be less of an “imminent danger to the public.”
While the city has yet to admit to the damage caused to the building by its contractor in demolishing the adjacent building to the east, they appear to have cut Ming Sun some slack. The building has won a reprieve from demolition.
What moves that are made in the next few months on that file will probably be less boneheaded than what we saw, as reported in the Province newspaper, when last month Vision Coun. Tim Stevenson thought it was a good idea to pick up the phone and ask “Condo King” Bob Rennie to cough up some dough — $25,000 from him and Peter Wall — so Stevenson and a couple of others could head off to the Sochi Winter Olympics and lobby the IOC on the issue of gay rights.
Robertson, Rennie and Stevenson shared the stage for the announcement. People raised the possible conflict of interest. Both Wall and Rennie contribute mightily to Vision’s election campaigns. Rennie made millions selling off city-owned condos at the Olympic Village while Wall is not an infrequent visitor to city hall regarding his developments. But as is typical of the mayor – “who are all these f***king... NPA hacks” — he just brushed off the criticism: “I think that is just trying to stir up trouble here.”
A week later, Vision came to its senses. Stevenson’s costs will come out of the city’s piggy bank.
One area that will require some speed is the TransLink referendum; the province’s latest solution to future long-term funding for the regional transit authority. Both NDP and Liberal governments have choked on requests over the years to approve specific funding sources from vehicle levies to increased gas taxes and road tolls.
The TransLink mayors’ council grumbled mightily when Premier Christy Clark more recently announced that she would impose that referendum during the 2014 municipal election to ask voters to approve a source of funding for TransLink.
Council chair Richard Walton (mayor of the District of North Vancouver) said the group doesn’t have the resources to conduct a referendum while many on the council observed that the province didn’t need a referendum to build the new Port Mann Bridge nor to move on a replacement for the George Massey Tunnel.
The premier made matters momentarily worse when she suggested the referendum would be multiple choice and the province would not campaign to support it. Within nanoseconds her transportation minister Todd Stone stepped in to – um— clarify: the question would be a simple one (though not spelled out yet) and his government would campaign to see it passed. Riding on this is nothing less than Vision’s desire for a SkyTrain to UBC, not to mention Surrey’s demand for a light rail system south of the Fraser.
Finally, while there is no viable opposition to Vision on the road to the November civic election, to no one’s surprise Vision is slipping in popularity. This would not be the year to announce yet another major investment in bike lanes.
agarr@vancourier.com
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