Posts from — March 2010

Let’s hope I’m wrong in my forecast that public debate about a new, expanded casino at BC Place Stadium will be “nasty.”

The BC Place redevelopment plan is much more than a new roof and a casino, as project manager David Podmore is keen to point out. A massive commercial, entertainment and office complex — including a casino — will reanimate the large parking lot between the Cambie Bridge and BC Place Stadium.

And Councillors Raymond Louie and Ellen Woodsworth, no strangers to gaming approvals, say public attitudes to gambling have changed. Edgewater Casino, the existing Plaza of Nations facility, has operated for many years without problems. (Woodsworth was implacably opposed to slot machines and casino gaming during her first term as a COPE councillor from 2002-2005.)

But gaming has never been non-controversial in Vancouver, although the city arguably has a much smaller gaming sector — a small casino, Hastings Park Racetrack and a struggling bingo hall — than neighbours like Richmond and Burnaby, each a host to one of the province’s largest casinos.

And the debate in Northeast False Creek is as much about delivering amenities, especially parks, to current and future residents, as it is about the actual uses of the new density.

It’s the amenities that will be difficult to secure. On the eve of the last election,  the NPA council voted to deem the retractable roof a suitable substitute for all community amenity charges and development cost levies that would otherwise be payable. That means no requirement for affordable housing, parks, daycare centres, community centres or other local improvements. (The Vision councillors voted against this approach.)

All the more reason, in my view, to move forward a review of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts to see if the entire area could be redesigned to meet future needs, not to house the heart of a freeway system that was never built.

Next week, Vancouver City Council will debate the recommendations of an all-party committee on the city’s response to the Local Government Elections Task Force, the snap review of civic election law announced by Premier Gordon Campbell last fall during his speech to the Union of BC Municipalities.

Council’s decision should help kill the worst idea floated by the Premier: return of the business vote, so business licence holders could vote in civic elections. This relic of pre-democratic times, when male property owners were once considered the only folks suitable for casting ballots, was shoved back onto the provincial agenda by an aggressive lobby by small business interests.

The idea of “one person, two or more votes” held no fear for them if they had the multiple ballots.

Fortunately, the reaction has been universally negative. Last week’s rejection of the concept by the UBCM should make the idea Dead On Arrival as far as the task force is concerned. [Read more →]

Perhaps the best news for the Vancouver Art Gallery board less than two weeks after the release of its relocation plan is that public opinion is unanimous: no one is opposed to expansion for one of the city’s premier cultural institutions.

But opinions diverge sharply on everything else: the size of expansion required, the best location for that expansion and the future of the existing site at Robson Square. The plan has even been attacked from beyond the grave in a posthumous editorial by Abraham Rogatnick.

Until council receives a staff report on discussions between the city and VAG for its proposed move to Larwill Park, the old bus depot site next to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, I will be doing some careful listening.

One view that has not been previously released, beyond her own e-mail network, is this open letter from long-time city councillor and former VAG member Darlene Marzari, who provides a unique historical perspective on the possibilities for expansion at the current site: [Read more →]

Last week’s Innovative Research poll on 2010 Games public opinion, summarized here, tells us little we couldn’t have surmised on our own:

• the four-in-ten British Columbians who never wanted the Games never changed their minds;
• those who were undecided going into the Games had the time of their lives;
• elsewhere in Canada the mood was more positive;
• by the end, almost everyone was having a good time.

Unavailable in the public opinion analysis I’ve seen, and certainly not commissioned by the city given its budget constraints, are answers to questions like these:

• did you find the transportation shift good, bad, indifferent? Will it change your commuting? Are you more likely to walk, cycle or take public transit?
• for downtown residents: during that wild, crazy time in the downtown were you a) using earplugs and praying it for to end? b) tolerating it because the Olympics are a once-in-a-lifetime event? c) pleasantly surprised at how much fun you found at your doorstep? or d) keen to see the city bring it on whenever possible?
• for residents and civil libertarians concerned about the bylaws: did you find the additional closed circuit TV obtrusive? How do you assess VPD management of demonstrations? Are the two issues linked? How did the city handle ambush marketing? Litter? Information?

The city moved outside the envelope in every respect for that 14-day period. What did people really find the best? What should not be repeated?

Just a new willingness to experiment would be a great Olympic legacy on its own.