It won’t be easy to get people on side after this fiasco
Gregor Robertson has made solving Vancouver’s homelessness crisis the top priority of his mayoralty, and I don’t doubt that he’s sincere in his efforts.
But plunking down two “no- barrier” shelters in the middle of condos, daycares and nursing homes — turning a stable neighbourhood into an out-of-control freak show in the process — is not going to get it done.
Just the opposite, in fact. The False Creek North shelters were so thoroughly botched by city hall that it’s hard to imagine any neighbourhood that would now be willing to co-operate with Robertson on his housing agenda.
And that’s a sad state of affairs, given that not-in-my-backyard belly-aching has been one of the biggest impediments to solving the housing crisis.
It wasn’t that long ago that Premier Gordon Campbell challenged British Columbia mayors and councillors to rise above the nattering nabobs of NIMBYism and start allowing more social housing.
At the 2006 Union of B.C. Municipalities conference, Campbell told the story of how a $4-million affordable-housing grant for Prince George slid off the table because local councillors refused the zoning in the face of community griping.
“It’s execution that matters,” Campbell said. “We simply can’t allow fear and, in some cases, ignorance from doing what is right.” Good point, but what Robertson did was go to the opposite extreme: Two “no-barrier” shelters that allowed pets, shopping carts and drug users forced into an otherwise safe neighbourhood. No consultation with the people who lived there. No effective response to the chaos that erupted until residents organized themselves and went to the media.
Even then, some of Robertson’s Vision Vancouver councillors opted to lecture and harangue residents rather than respond to their concerns.
“Many times, I’ve been in the alley and they’re calling me [to complain], and I say, ‘Well, I’m down here right now, come on down,’ and they won’t,” Coun. Kerry Jang told the Georgia Straight.
Gee, do you think maybe it’s because they’re afraid? I spoke to a guy on CKNW radio last week who said he doesn’t let his wife walk in the neighbourhood any more unless he accompanies her — carrying a baseball bat.
Maybe that’s why they don’t want to meet you in an alley, councillor! Instead, Jang suggested the residents simply don’t care about poor people.
“They don’t care as long as it’s [the shelter's] not there, and that’s not responsible,” he said. Unbelieveable.
Meanwhile, I hear lots of grumbling that Robertson simply doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to the raving left-wing idealogues inside his own party.
I’m sure there are some Vision Vancouver types who thought it was deliciously subversive to stick a bunch of junkies and crackheads into a smug cocoon of latte-sipping condo-dwellers and watch the ensuing mayhem.
I think Robertson has tremendous potential as a politician, but he must get a grip on his own agenda. The next “bold idea” that could go sideways on him: the bicycle-only lane on the Burrard Street bridge.
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July 5, 2009 at 1:31 am |
We can be certain that if the situation doesn’t improve soon, there will be more of the new poor pitching their tents in shantytowns across Vancouver – maybe in your neighborhood.
July 13, 2010 at 9:43 pm |
[...] before his government is not an isolated incident. His comments are instead reminiscent of comments made by the Mayor and Councillor Jang about residents of False Creek North when they dared complain about the mayhem caused by No-Rules [...]