In September, The Vancouver Courier's Allen Garr reported Non-Partisan Association councillor Peter Ladner "is being pressured to bail out of Mayor Sam Sullivan's city hall circus and take a run at provincial politics" as a Liberal candidate. Which makes us wonder what his would-be seatmates will make of Mr. Ladner's recent diatribe against the Campbell administration's initiative to remake Greater Vancouver's transit authority. In an email sent to friends and supporters, the councillor writes, "Whether TransLink will be improved with the new governance structure remains to be seen, but we do know it will add two extra layers of bureaucracy, provide less accountability and transparency, severe (sic) the formal relationship with Metro Vancouver, and lead to higher administration costs." The following is a complete copy of that email.

Dear friends and supporters:
We're back to work in our great city. Here's some of what's going on.

City moves on social housing
Province moves on non-market housing
Crime still hurts, but it's down
Vancouver looking smart
Stadium tedium
TransLink scrambling
Granville stroll
Fraser Street haven opens
Regional economic cooperation is now
A solution to middle-income affordability

City Moves on Social Housing
Even though housing isn't supposed to be a municipal responsibility, Vancouver continues to lead the nation in funding non-market housing. On top of having one in 12 housing units in the city already dedicated to non-market housing, we're turning over 12 city-owned sites for social housing ($50 million value) waiving their property taxes ($1 million/year), and putting up $10,000 cash to upgrade 500 single room occupancy hotels ($5 million). That's on top of $99 million cash and foregone revenue to finance social and non-market housing in False Creek.

This will never be enough until other cities in this region and across the country provide homes for housing-starved people in their home towns.

Province moves on non-market housing
The Province and feds have teamed up to fund 77 new units of non-market housing specifically for Aboriginal Housing in Vancouver this year. Aboriginals are 10 times more likely to be homeless as the rest of the population. The City's housing director Cameron Gray tells us that the Province has now funded 1170 units of non-market housing in the City of Vancouver this year: 760 of single-room occupancy hotels or market rental housing, and 410 new units. It's coming.

Crime still hurts, but it's down
Earlier this month I walked along the English Bay seawall after dark with a partner of a West End senior who was pepper-sprayed, beaten (bruised face, broken arm) and robbed of a few dollars he had a week earlier. It happened in the evening outside the Sunset concession building. We could do a lot to make that walk safer. I referred him to the good people at West End Community Action Network who have been working on these issues from a community base.

In spite of these personal tragedies and the current spate of gang shootings, violent crime in the city is down 9% in the first 8 months of this year, total property crime down 11%, robberies down 17%, theft from autos down 16%, vehicle theft down 12%, commercial break and enters 12% and sexual assaults down 10%.

Vancouver is looking smart
Vancouver made the Smart21 semi-finalist in the 2008 Intelligent Community of the Year awards. I was proud to be able to organize the entry and am working with the Vancouver Economic Development Commission on the final application to see if we can make the Top 7 list - to be announced in January.

Stadium tedium
The downtown waterfront Whitecaps stadium proposal is still limping along, moving through legal and financial negotiations between the Whitecaps and the Vancouver Port Authority (VPA).

The Whitecaps want to swap their rail lands for the stadium site on port waterfront property by the heliport, closer to Crab Park. To accomplish this, they have to:

Secure federal and VPA board approval, then
Complete a technical and public review process with the City of Vancouver (expect Downtown Eastside pushback), then
Secure approval from the City Council to rezone the property, then
Complete a 12-month rezoning process, then
Complete a 4-month development permit process and then
Greg Kerfoot could start construction of this great gift to the city.
All members of the NPA Caucus are strong supporters of this initiative and will be working hard to shorten the City's timelines.

TransLink Scrambling
Next month will mark my last meetings with the outgoing TransLink board.

Last month the board passed my motion to fund future growth from transportation demand-related revenue sources (eg fuel taxes, road pricing, tolls, vehicle levies) rather than property tax and fare increases. My motion to push ahead with a large bike-sharing program similar to the ones in Paris, Lyons and numerous European cities also passed. A feasibility study is now underway.

I had less luck with my proposal to extend the time on a transit ticket past 90 minutes to compensate for recent fare increases - too costly and complicated, say staff.

Whether TransLink will be improved with the new governance structure remains to be seen, but we do know it will add two extra layers of bureaucracy, provide less accountability and transparency, severe the formal relationship with Metro Vancouver, and lead to higher administration costs. Meanwhile, everyone on the TransLink side is scrambling to come up with a 30-year transportation plan by early 2008.

Granville stroll
I wandered up and down Granville Street to check out the recent entertainment zone night-time street closures. The police were excited by the dramatic drop in fighting, assaults and arrests - one reason being that revelers don't have to bump shoulders on the narrow sidewalks.

But I was shocked by the size of the police presence: cars parked down the middle of the street, paddy wagon on the corner, bikes lined up at the end of the blocks, groups of officers everywhere. I was encouraged to hear the VPD are experimenting with scaling back the numbers. Hopefully they can get to a point where smaller numbers, no extra overtime costs, and safe streets intersect. Then, we can start turning the area into a true entertainment zone.

In the meantime, VPD is asking council for $430,000 in next year's budget to cover added costs.

Fraser Street haven opens
Having been at the much-publicized neighbourhood meeting at John Oliver High School when fears were running rampant about a proposed housing complex for people coping with addictions and mental illness, it was heartwarming to be at its opening last month. The 39-room building on Fraser at 39th had been open for several months with no problems in the neighbourhood. The provincial/federal-funded complex is drug-free and is staffed around the clock. Places like this, outside the Downtown Eastside, are the solution to homelessness.

Regional economic collaboration is now
A little-heralded memorandum of understanding was signed last month between Surrey, Richmond, Vancouver, and North Van District, signaling the most promising step toward regional economic development in years.

Open to any other municipalities that want to join (lots are interested), it brings user-pay signatories together on specific projects such as a booth at the Beijing Olympics. Many of us who worked with our municipal economic development staffs to get this going are confident that it will grow into a bottom-up regional economic development initiative, eventually attracting private sector partners.

A solution to middle-income affordability
I've been won over to "green granny flats" as an easy Ecodensity project to open up middle-income affordable housing in single family neighbourhoods.

Allowing garage-equivalent spaces to be used for laneway backyard housing (540 sq. ft., $935/month cost at zero-down payment financing) would open up small (potentially rental) spaces without threatening the character or makeup of our single-family neighbourhoods. They'd be ideal for seniors to age in place and for starter families to finance a home. No government funding would be necessary.

Last words
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