Vancouver Civic Election 2022

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Interesting news, yet not surprising at all, in City of Vancouver having last year lost people for the first time in 45 years. Sure, you can blame some of it on remote work, but the truth is that the city with its crazy policies has lost all its appeal to crazy housing prices and high crime rates. Urban flight for the neighboring cities won't end and Surrey will take over as the most populous city in the region still this decade. While Vancouver lost almost 7K (!) people in a year, Surrey gained 13K - in a single year!!

https://www.livabl.com/2022/01/vancouver-population-dips-first-time-45-years.html

Looks like the estimates are more than a bit wrong. The estimates said Surrey grew by 71,300, but the census said it was only 50,400. Vancouver's census population grew by over 30,700, more than the 29,000 in the estimates. The growth in Vancouver was actually more than in the past two census periods. If the recent rates of growth carry on as in the past decade (Surrey +50,000, Vancouver + 30,000), and Vancouver having about 100,000 more people than Surrey, it would be another 25 years before Surrey has more people than Vancouver.

[cov]

Originally Posted by rofina

You know both of you can be right? Right?

Ill add 1 statistic to the count; myself. I specifically sold all my Vancouver proper condos precisely because of the issues Klazu mentions. I want as few of my own resources and money going to Vancouver coffers if it will continue to govern itself the way it has.

I'm not a particularly special person, I cant be the only one.

If you sold it means somebody bought. If lots of people start selling investment properties then it might result in an increase in ownership residents, leading to long-term neighborhood improvements. I know quite a few 20 something professionals who used the covid opportunity to buy downtown, all of whom used to rent.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by rofina

You know both of you can be right? Right?

Ill add 1 statistic to the count; myself. I specifically sold all my Vancouver proper condos precisely because of the issues Klazu mentions. I want as few of my own resources and money going to Vancouver coffers if it will continue to govern itself the way it has.

I'm not a particularly special person, I cant be the only one.

I'm sure that you're not alone but you also post here very frequently about how you feel on this topic.

I might consider if I were in your position that your feelings about the topic are stronger than average.

[whatnext]

Shame there isn't a similar thread for Surrey. Doug McCallum is such one man walking disaster that it would be interesting to hear who Surrey residents are going to vote for!

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Shame there isn't a similar thread for Surrey. Doug McCallum is such one man walking disaster that it would be interesting to hear who Surrey residents are going to vote for!

This thread could become 'Metro Vancouver Civic Elections 2022'

[rofina]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

I'm sure that you're not alone but you also post here very frequently about how you feel on this topic.

I might consider if I were in your position that your feelings about the topic are stronger than average.

I cant disagree, but at the same time that's not quite the whole story.

If getting personally involved back in 2018 taught me one thing is that there is a silent majority that is extremely unhappy with status quo. But they tow the line, and generally have in the past, and I expect will into the future.

I will readily admit I am surprised at the current residents threshold for bull*hit acceptance from City Hall and I fear that too many people have chosen the eject button versus the stick around and invest in change button.

Myself and my business partner are just a small example, but anecdotes abound to make me feel we are not the only ones.

This will correct itself, the trends are so deep rooted conditions will continue to worsen and eventually action will be forced. My whole view point was to avoid getting to maximum pain.

I think it will be clear that this time period wont be one to proud of for the City, but most will need hindsight to have that benefit.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by rofina

I cant disagree, but at the same time that's not quite the whole story.

If getting personally involved back in 2018 taught me one thing is that there is a silent majority that is extremely unhappy with status quo. But they tow the line, and generally have in the past, and I expect will into the future.

Silent majority tows the line they don't like? We have elections that are secret ballots. Why on earth would they do this?

[Tysonbrown]

Bye Kennedy Stewart. You are not qualified for the task.

[WarrenC12]

I think what people don't seem to get is that by-and-large, left wing politicians are popular in the City of Vancouver. The bridge and tunnel crowd crows about bike lanes, but they don't live in the City and don't vote.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

I think what people don't seem to get is that by-and-large, left wing politicians are popular in the City of Vancouver. The bridge and tunnel crowd crows about bike lanes, but they don't live in the City and don't vote.

Certainly a good case for municipal amalgamation, so an out of touch minority in Metro doesn't get to mess up the majority.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Certainly a good case for municipal amalgamation, so an out of touch minority in Metro doesn't get to mess up the majority.

Be careful, that turned into Rob Ford in Toronto.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Be careful, that turned into Rob Ford in Toronto.

Sometimes it bothers me that the North Shore is 3 municipalities—two of which being North Vancouver—but then I remember how much worse it would be if West Van and the District drowned out the City in decision making. There's definitely a balance between "We need local representation to keep centralized power from making centralized bad decisions" and "we need centralized power to keep local representatives from making local bad decisions"

It was always interesting to me that people who advocate for "we need to amalgamate to stop the bad metros from ruining things for the good metros" often seem to be the ones against policies that all metros agree on like transit or cycling infrastructure or are the ones who advocate for a ward system in the City of Vancouver. Seems less about the principle of the policy and more about doing whatever you can to make sure your way gets done.

[Feathered Friend]

Andrea Reimer has announced she won't be running for mayor of Vancouver.

https://www.citizenandrea.ca/tl-dr-im-not-running-for-mayor/

[rofina]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Silent majority tows the line they don't like? We have elections that are secret ballots. Why on earth would they do this?

I would say social pressure is a huge one.

There is a certain level of prestige that comes with towing the line, and donating endlessly to causes that actually see no improvement. It looks good among your peers, virtuous.

Put another way; none of the problems we face started yesterday. Yet most of the articles about broken windows and call it general chaos downtown really only started going into print in the last 6ish months. Which means the entire time this was happening before, building up, business owners generally felt compelled to not speak out. Speaking out carries a non negligible level of risk.

Secondly, you have a lot of folks speaking out after the fact. After a business is failed. There are 2 ways to look at that;

1. Sour grapes, business failed so now you talk trash about the state of things to cover up your failure.
2. The owner is now free to speak an open mind without fear of repercussion both from City and locals/media.

I wont pretend to know the statistical breakdown of how many fit into 1 or 2, but I can say with certainty both categories have a non zero amount of business owners that fit into them. I have spoken to enough folks to know that's true.

Lastly, looks no further than me. Sometimes we type on these boards and pretend that were not the people about which we speak of. I am a Vancouverite. I'm someone that has built and sold a business here. I been here for 23 years. I have sang the praises of this City and the opportunity it gave me for years and years.

I'm comfortable with my contribution here and the fact that its a net positive to the City. I don't think anything is improving here anymore, the way it had from 1998-2010 and I find that beyond frustrating, because worse, we didn't plateau, were going downhill.

I don't talk about this because I want bad for the City, just the opposite. I'm in a constant state of shock how accepting we have all become of mismanagement and year after year deterioration of the public realm, poor decisions making in general. I speak to this because we all should demand more accountability by now.

And to speak to your Rob Ford point - I think that's the end game for Vancouver. A punish vote that goes to a populist candidate, and that's an outcome that wont be preferable for anyone. Only one way to avoid it; right the ship.

[EastVanMark]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Andrea Reimer has announced she won't be running for mayor of Vancouver.

https://www.citizenandrea.ca/tl-dr-im-not-running-for-mayor/

Oh no! There's a big loss.

Guess she'll have to go back to previous business interests consisting largely of dumpster diving.

[cov]

Originally Posted by EastVanMark

Oh no! There's a big loss.

Guess she'll have to go back to previous business interests consisting largely of dumpster diving.

From an abusive family to homelessness to LOEB fellowship at Harvard to now being an adjunct professor at UBC.

Really reveals the small and ugly people talking trash on social media don't you think

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

Andrea Reimer has announced she won't be running for mayor of Vancouver.

https://www.citizenandrea.ca/tl-dr-im-not-running-for-mayor/

Thank God. The last thing we need at City Hall is a remnant of the disastrous Vision Vancouver regime.

[cov]

the funny thing is that vision was far nimbyer than this regime. Their city development manager selection, people they selected to sit on the city planning council, and upzone criteria were all more conservative than what came after. The only thing they were more liberal about was bike lanes, but you are bitter about that too aren't you.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by cov

the funny thing is that vision was far nimbyer than this regime. Their city development manager selection, people they selected to sit on the city planning council, and upzone criteria were all more conservative than what came after. The only thing they were more liberal about was bike lanes, but you are bitter about that too aren't you.

Were they really more liberal with bike lanes? I'd love to see the lanes constructed and painted under various governments. My sense is that the progress has been pretty linear across all, including before Robertson. Big things like the Burrard lane drew all the hate.

[GenWhy?]

I definitely think two elections ago we crossed the threshold of what are no longer debatable items to have, and more-so towards the where will it go and when in the budget cycle.