Posts from — October 2010

In the first of the Globe and Mail’s Big Ideas series on ways to transform Vancouver, SFU professor Anthony Perl urges removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts to create a vibrant new heart for the city core.

Council’s decision Sept. 23 to approve the West Point Grey Community Vision plan drew little attention, perhaps because the Vision document means little will happen in Point Grey as a result.

As Bob Ransford points out in today’s Sun, the plan was given a poor review by the City Perspectives Panel, an arms-length group of community leaders who assess the document from a wider perspective.

Point Grey activists were outraged by the CPP view that the plan had “glaring shortcomings” when it came to finding new housing options even for existing residents, like seniors, who wish to downsize.

But the CPP’s viewpoint was ably represented before council by Andrea Rolls, herself a veteran of the community planning process in Kensingston-Cedar Cottage.  She spoke compellingly, from the perspective of the community, about the need for community vision plans to be living and creative documents, not just a mandate to freeze a neighbourhood in time.

Council, including me, voted to adopt the West Point Grey plan.

But no one who heard Rolls could feel confident that the community vision processes really the reflect the future needs of their own communities, never mind the city as a whole. Even financially-secure seniors in Point Grey and Dunbar, to name two examples, have few options if they wish downsize to a townhouse or apartment in their own neighbourhood given current attitudes.

For that reason, this motion proposed for the upcoming council meeting by Councillors Raymond Louie and Andrea Reimer is especially significant. Which way forward for community visions? And which communities will lead the way?

Few recent e-mails to city council have summarized drivers’ frustrations with cyclists as colourfully as the citizen whose e-mail triggered the following reply from VPD traffic officer Jeff Schwenneker.

Schwenneker’s answer, reprinted with his permission, summarizes the common sense approach adopted by Vancouver police. The original complaint follows Schwenneker’s note, but I have removed the writer’s name for reasons that will be obvious.

My name is Jeff Schwenneker and I have been a police officer for 26 years.  I have been assigned to the Traffic Section of the Vancouver Police Department for the last 19 years.  Your e mail has been sent to me for response.   I am not a cyclist.  However, cycling is an alternative form of inexpensive, non polluting transportation.  It is exercise and fitness does provide benefits both personally and to society.  Some cycle for the very reason that they can’t afford vehicles.

The administration costs of regulating the cycling world would be high and probably not be covered by the amount of cyclists out on the road.  Cyclists are already governed by the BC Motor Vehicle Act and City of Vancouver By-Law 2849.

A common view regarding compliance with traffic laws, which I agree with, is that there is a need for both education and enforcement.  There are cyclists who have been cycling for 20-25 years in Vancouver who have never been injured, or stopped by police.  We tend to overlook the good and concentrate on the bad behaviors that we observe.

While those of us who drive and share the road with hundreds of vehicles it is the one vehicle that exhibits some form of aggressive or dangerous behavior that stands out.

I spend a lot of time driving and like you, I observe various bad driving behavior.  It appears to me that the percentage of poor behavior is higher among cyclists than vehicle operators. In my view, educating cyclists first and then using appropriate enforcement to ensure compliance with traffic laws is the answer. [Read more →]

The Translink Mayor’s Council is in an in camera session today, presumably wrestling with the province’s demand that municipalities fund Translink’s share of the Evergreen Line with a significant hike in property taxes.

Municipal leaders showed their intolerance for tax hikes yesterday when they gave the proposed Metro Vancouver budget — up more than five percent — a rough ride.

The province’s demand that property taxes be lifted contrasts sharply with the Premier’s announcement last night that he will cut personal income taxes 15 percent in January, generating a windfall of $248 million for families earning over $70,000.

In fact, all of the municipal share for Evergreen and proposed North Fraser Perimeter Road work would come from property taxes because there’s no room within the legislative cap for the traditional mix of property tax, gas tax and fare increases.

The mayors have rejected a property tax hike, insisting that the province put new funding sources on the table like a vehicle levy — now termed a transit improvement fee — or a share of carbon tax. Neither of those options could be designed, passed through public review and implemented in time for the Evergreen deadline.

So does the Premier have a Plan B, as some elected officials have warned? If so, it’s hard to imagine what it could be.