January 10, 2018

Bye-Bye Mr. Mayor

Gregor Robertson sent me (and probably a few thousand others) an e-mail today. The list of city council departures now looks like this: Gregor Robertson, Geoff Meggs , George Affleck, Andrea Reimer.

Burrard Opening

Don Luxton (Heritage), Mayor Robertson, Jerry Dobrovolney (Engineering)

Mayor Robertson’s E-mail reads as follows:

Today I announce one of the hardest decisions of my life. This will be my last term as Mayor of Vancouver – I won’t be seeking re-election on October 20.
I took time with family and friends over the holidays to reflect on my future and made this bittersweet choice.
It’s been an honour to represent Vision Vancouver as your Mayor – and I’m excited about what’s next for the party.
I love Vancouver and our amazing people. I love serving our city as Mayor. When I finish my third term later this year, the decade in office will be the longest consecutive run as Mayor in Vancouver’s history. Ten years is a long time in politics. An important part of leadership is recognizing when to step aside to make space for new leaders.
I dove into politics as an entrepreneur committed to making positive proactive change. It’s been an incredible honour to serve our city through such historic and challenging times. Thanks to our bold, collective efforts over the past 10 years, Vancouver is now widely recognized as one of the most liveable, green, innovative and prosperous cities in the world.
Vancouver was struggling when I first ran for Mayor in 2008 and we’ve faced extraordinary challenges since then – from the global recession and a regional gang war to the affordability and homeless crisis that is impacting many leading cities around the world. Time and again, the people of Vancouver raised our game to meet these challenges head-on.
We were first in North America to become a City of Reconciliation, working in deep partnership with Indigenous peoples. We helped lead the global fight against climate change. We successfully hosted the 2010 Games. We built the strongest city economy in Canada.
We never shied away from tackling the toughest issues. We didn’t back down from opening homeless shelters, warming centers, modular or supportive housing to help our most vulnerable residents. We made Vancouver a city that speaks out forcefully against racism, homophobia and transphobia. We’ve led the national effort to fight for health-focused drug policy and saving lives in the opioid overdose crisis.
We’ve made great progress towards being the world’s greenest city, we’ve built a creative, resilient economy with leading edge tech and innovation, and become a much safer city. We’ve done more to protect and build affordable housing than any city in the country but we must continue to work tirelessly to end homelessness, and keep pressure on other levels of government to work with us and do their part.
We endured many years with those governments ignoring their responsibilities on critical urban issues. As Chair of Canada’s Big City Mayors and TransLink’s Mayors Council, I pushed hard with Mayors locally and across Canada to see our provincial and federal governments re-engage with cities.
Together, we’ve made big progress. With recently elected BC and federal governments now committed to urban agendas, we’re finally seeing long-awaited funding for affordable housing, transit, child care and green infrastructure. And we’re seeing long-overdue changes to drug policy, campaign finance reform, and renters’ rights.
I am incredibly proud of our accomplishments and I will work hard to see that bold action continue. It’s only been possible due to everyone’s contributions – my heartfelt thanks to my Council and Vision colleagues, City staff, volunteers, supporters, and citizens in our diverse neighbourhoods. My personal appeal to you all: please continue to step up and do your part to make Vancouver the greatest city in the world.
Because the challenges keep coming at us. We face daunting issues like climate change, homelessness, and mental health and addictions. The much-needed breakthroughs on these fronts will require a passionate, engaged community and bold, progressive leadership at City Hall for the years to come.
I’m fired up for the rest of the term. Over the next ten months, I’ll be focused on taking aggressive action to approve record levels of affordable housing, securing funding for the Broadway Subway and transit projects across the region, and creating even more vibrant public spaces on par with the new Arbutus Greenway and Jim Deva Plaza.
I’m very excited about the 2018 election and electing diverse new leaders. Vision’s strength has been in the depth and diversity of our coalition – people who may have different political allegiances provincially or federally, but come together around a shared progressive vision for our city.
A decade of collective passion and hard work has prepared Vancouver as a launchpad for the next generation of dynamic leadership. I will work hard to elect a renewed Vision team that is open to cooperate with anyone on an ambitious, progressive agenda.
To everyone who worked so hard to elect me and the Vision team in three consecutive elections – knocking on doors, phoning supporters, speaking out in support our policies, putting up lawn signs, getting out to vote – thank you so much. But the work does not stop here.
Next Monday is the Vision Vancouver AGM. It’s an important step in preparation for the 2018 election – I’ll be there and I hope that you’ll be there to. It’s time to gear up for an exciting election year.
It’s been the greatest honour of my life to serve this extraordinary city, and help make Vancouver an inspiration to people and cities around the world. Thank you for this opportunity, for your constant feedback and your support.
Every day, Vancouverites continue to demonstrate their love for each other, our city, and our planet. We are blessed to live here. With a relentlessly positive approach to politics and government, Vancouver can be an even greater city for us all, and for future generations.
Take care, Gregor

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  1. Vancouver was struggling when he took office in 2008? At least a heck of a lot more people could afford a home during those “times of struggle”!

  2. The bike lanes were THE ONLY achievements, really. For that I thank him.
    For the rest, not so much: Run away house prices, zero progress on homeless front, no @Uber, bad deal with Olympic Village land sale, congestion throughout, no new subways, huge commercial prop taxes, just an elevation of #Vancouver as a very expensive resort town.
    Perhaps tarnished GreenPeace needs a new leader? Or he might go on a speaking tour touting the many accomplishments under his watch as the gr$$nest city on the planet. Or he might become a developer as that is far more profitable than being a mayor. Or he’ll replace Justin Trudeau. We shall see.

    1. Thomas, do you really think anybody else would have moved the subway along quicker? Who might that be and what would they have done differently? As with all your complaints the blame lay at least as much on senior governments.
      Meanwhile, everything to do with the land sale of Olympic Village was the fault of the NPA who didn’t protect the city from the bankruptcy of the developer. It’s probably the main reason the NPA were turfed at the time.
      As well as the bike lanes, Vision did a lot to remove our label of “No Fun City” by allowing an increase patio spaces and allowing them to remain open later to allowing more use of industrial buildings for unique events and being supportive of grassroots arts culture. The city is a lot less no-fun since they’ve been in.

      1. //As well as the bike lanes, Vision did a lot to remove our label of “No Fun City” by allowing an increase patio spaces and allowing them to remain open later to allowing more use of industrial buildings for unique events and being supportive of grassroots arts culture. The city is a lot less no-fun since they’ve been in.//
        Vision also rezoned many thriving commercial spaces for residential, and the area around the stadiums for condos (leading to less concerts overall http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/the-waldorf-is-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-new-condos-at-bc-place-and-rogers-arena-will-kill-false-creek-entertainment-district/). One step forward, one step back.

        1. You’re resorting to a five year old opinion piece? How current. Meanwhile I continue to go to events at the Waldorf because the Vision dominated council blocked (at least temporarily) its demolition and redevelopment.

        2. Would it be more relevant if it happened yesterday? The stadiums are a focal point for a city’s night life -> Vision rezoned the stadium district for quiet residential and a school -> in response to anticipated “turn that crap down” complaints, there are now less events. Please correct any of the above if wrong.
          If you want something newer, Vision also limited late night bar/club closing hours last year http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/granville-street-clubs-will-close-their-doors-1-hour-earlier-this-summer-1.4163233. And let’s not forget that Vision-accelerated gentrification is pushing the youth and creative class out of the city; can’t banish No Fun City without them.
          Again, one step forward, one step backward.

        3. In many cities stadiums are a focal point for giant parking lots.
          There are still big plans for the area and new residents have been informed in advance that it will be noisy. Some people are okay with that.
          “No… sorry, we’re not going to book [insert famous band here] because the neighbours might complain.” I don’t think so.
          But you’re definitely wrong about clubs closing earlier. They’re just not allowing last minute entry. If you’re already in they still go until 3:00am. Just nobody new after 2:00. Really, what is your purpose if you arrive in the last hour? Not saying I agree with the policy but I certainly understand it. Personally I think clubs should be allowed to go all night to spread taxi demand, allow club/entertainment staff to go out after work and to allow people to catch early SkyTrains home. So Vision (and the provincial government) haven’t gone far enough. But it’s still better than it was.
          And there are more legal after-hours clubs and events than there were before.
          As for young people being pushed out, I just don’t actually see it. I’m always amazed at how many young people are out for late dinners, hanging out at bars and pubs any night of the week. I don’t know how they’re all doing it. But they are. Maybe when you like to live in a city and the alternative is the suburbs or moving to a small town you just make it work somehow. You get creative when you’re in the creative class. It’s worth it if the city is worth it.

        4. @ Justin,
          What are you on about? We attended a Christmas jazz concert at Frankies in the Georgian Court Hotel on Beatty St, like right across the street from one of the main entries to the stadium. While Jennifer Scott brought the house down and shattered glass with an Etta James version of ‘Silver Bells’ a fight erupted between drunken hockey patrons right outside the door. The sirens interrupted the musician’s top drawer performance, and of course that led to a few sarcastic asides on stage.
          Frankies is only one excellent venue managed by the Coastal Jazz & Blues Society, a venue that attracts international talent. There are many other performance venues near the stadiums, the QE Theatre and Playhouse come to mind along with many nearby Yaletown and Gastown restaurants that have live blues and rock music. This is to show that there is a world of entertainment way beyond the hugely overrated sports bar vernacular near the stadiums.
          And one also has to be reminded of the massive public costs of providing the cathedral to sports known as the BC Place Stadium, of dealing with the occasional sports event riot and the years of litigation that follow, not to mention the stupid and illiterate zoning response to the calls by bar owners to create an “entertainment district” in our supposedly “no fun” city that in practice ended up being nothing more than a weekend site made for drunken, fighting suburban youth.
          That’s some definition of Fun

    2. There’s also the Arbutus Corridor deal which was probably the best deal we could get to free up that land for better uses.
      We’ve also become a North American leader in green building codes and (finally) the actual construction of ultra-high thermal performance buildings is taking off. We are a North American leader in many other green initiatives like reductions in solid waste going to garbage dumps and reductions in water use. Robertson also oversaw strong economic growth and the the growth of thriving tech and green-tech sectors. And we’ve seen massive population and job growth but a reduction in motor vehicle trips. Our GHG emissions are going down.
      We’ve also seen a big increase in street and other festivals.

      1. The Greenest City initiative has been a pretty mixed bag. Limiting garbage collection to once every two weeks, putting charging stations in city parking lots and creating all those garden plots sure got him and the city a lot of status, but they aren’t a very significant impact on pollution.
        Also note that the solid waste reduction initiative AND the citywide rat problem started at about the same time.

        1. If you produce half as much garbage it only makes sense to collect it half as often. Since the garbage has no organic matter it doesn’t attract rats. Compost collection is every week just as often as organic matter was collected before. So it’s pretty hard to see how it has anything to do with an increase in the rat problem… if there really is one.
          What is clear is that major redevelopment flushes rats out of the places they had come to inhabit. But it is fleeting. They disperse in the short term and re-inhabit new developments in the long term in numbers small enough not to be a problem. The city is home to many animals including rats.
          Garden plots are about a lot more than reducing pollution, though they do that too. They inspire community building and reduce isolation and loneliness as well as producing fresh local food. They help people care about and care for public space.
          Charging stations need to start somewhere and some time and it’s a relatively cheap way to give a signal that you will be supported if you choose a car that pollutes less. Acceptance of alternatives always starts small and needs a little incentive. Progressive policies bring solutions on faster and we all benefit in the long run. Humans don’t advance if we fixate on doing things the old way. Would you rather use an outhouse? Governments had to build the sewer lines and treatment plants too. Would you have been criticizing that as well?

        2. So there weren’t any rat traps in every back alley before the composting initiative and mandatory pre-sorting? Not sure if we’re talking about the same thing. As for charging stations or half as many garbage trucks, maybe I phrased it wrong. I’ll try again.
          I’ve got no problem with trying to be greener, I’m just pointing out that these are relatively cosmetic changes in an already low-footprint city – waste is about 4% of GHG, and there isn’t much point in electric cars when the point is to reduce car traffic in general. Their one large-scale measure was “ban natural gas in newer buildings,” which naturally never got anywhere.
          What about more chemical streetlights replaced with LEDs, or refits of older homes, or a solar panel initiative? Maybe even save up and build a city-owned vertical farm?

        3. Does anybody go and collect rat traps that are no longer necessary? Or do they just become a fixture nobody wants to deal with? Is there a proliferation or just a steady addition with no subtraction?
          I agree with most of your last points. But you’re wrong about banning natural gas in new buildings. Only in *rezoned* new buildings. And the ban was to be phased – the full ban wasn’t to take place until 2050 – an eternity away.
          They backed off because it’s largely going to happen anyway so why pick a fight? Once most buildings are built to Passive House standards the demand for energy is going to plummet. And that’s still going ahead as planned… a decade or two behind Europe. Rezoned buildings already need to meet LEED gold or Passive House standards and Passive House is becoming the preferred option. Electricity becomes a viable and cheaper installation option for the small heat demand.
          As carbon taxes continue their rise it will become cheaper to use biogas than natural gas for those few who really still need gas.

        4. @ Justin
          The “rat problem” predates modern Vancouver. Arguably, sealed green and black bins have reduced the amount of organics that ended up in rat-attracting scattered piles on the ground or in unsealed overflowing bins, or in compost heaps.
          And you obviously haven’t noticed that every city in the Metro has been replacing sodium street light luminaires with LED units for a few years now. Be patient. Vancouver alone has thousands of km of streets and they obviously cannot replace all the streetlamps at once.
          You points are moot.

    1. Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa would just love Trudeau if he brought in a westerner that doesn’t speak French, to guide them in running their cities.
      They love it when Anglos tell them what to do.

      1. And Vancouver’s current MPs / cabinet ministers are bilingual? Nice try.
        Having a former big city mayor in an urban policy portfolio makes sense.

  3. There is a reliable story coming from Victoria that Gregor is poised to become Special Consultant to the government for Provincial Cycling, in Victoria.

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