Vancouver City Councillor

Translink’s TaxiSaver program is headed for elimination as the beleaguered transit agency struggles to find “efficiencies” ordered by the Translink fare commissioner just weeks ago.

That means funding formerly available to help seniors and people with disabilities, by giving them a 50 percent discount on taxi fares, has been reallocated to HandyDART.

Translink says this will actually improve service and save$1.1 million at the same time. But the bottom line is clear: the money is going to HandyDart and TaxiSaver users are losing flexibility, even though they pay half of their fares.

The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities and the Council of Senior Citizens’ organizations are greeting the news with dismay.

The Secured Market Rental Policy program going before the city’s Finance and Budget Committee Tuesday opens the door to long-term expansion of the city’s rental housing stock by building on the success of last term’s Short Term Incentives for Rental program (STIR).

The STIR program generated 1,648 new units or about 550 units a year, up from the 150 units a year the city had seen until then. Although the rents are not subsidized, the new rental units are much cheaper than home ownership — owning a similar bachelor unit would be between 23 percent and 118 percent more expensive.

Action to encourage rental housing construction was a key element of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s campaigns in 2008 and 2011.

Despite the good news, councillors’ mailboxes have received a flurry of e-mails claiming the new program is being launched without consultation. Here’s Raymond Louie’s reply: [Read more →]

A ground-breaking study of pedestrian safety in Vancouver shows that we do a lot more walking than most other cities and are safer while we’re at it.

The report, to be considered at council next week, shows Vancouver virtually tied with Boston both for the amount of walking done around town and the low number of fatalities. Portland, surprisingly, is near the other end of the scale. As for Los Angeles . . . don’t ask.

The number of annual fatalities is declining steadily in Vancouver. But while pedestrians are involved in only 2 percent of all traffic incidents, they account for 45 percent of fatalities. Nor are pedestrians normally at fault. In about 18 percent of the accidents, vehicles had the right of way. The rest of the time, the pedestrian was in the right.

We have about one fatality for every one million “walk to work trips.” (Portland’s toll is 2.5 and LA sees 5.2 deaths every million miles.)

The report recommends increased spending on education, along with VPD and ICBC, as well as stepped-up enforcement and continued improvements in pedestrian infrastructure.

There’s $8,000 in prize money up for grabs in Vancouver’s re:Think Housing contest, an open competition to find the boldest, freshest ideas out there to tackle the city’s crisis of housing affordability.

And like last year’s re:Connect contest to reimagine the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts, contestants will be judged both by a panel of professionals and the general public through an online poll.

Mayor Gregor Robertson launched the contest late last week as part of his Affordable Housing Task Force. The task force will build on the city’s work to fight homelessness with a new focus on housing to serve the needs of people earning between $21,500 and $86,500.

Do you have big picture proposals to bring on more affordable housing for families earning in that range? Or suggestions to make our neighbourhoods more affordable? There are lots of opportunities to help the city become more affordable — and win great prizes.

Ladies and gentlemen, start your laptops! Deadline June 29.