The folks in the Cedar Party are at it again, telling us stuff that we already know. Like how there was only one bidder — WestBank Corp, owned by Mayor Gregor Robertson’s bestest pal and big time Vision Vancouver supporter, Ian Gillespie — on the property where the much-touted GesamtkunstwerkVancouver House will be built. We say, so what? If the Mayor wants to gift his good friend Ian with ‘special favours’, so be it.
But are the noisome folks in the Cedar Party prepared to leave it at, “That Ian Gillespie fella, he has this in with the Mayor, and with Vision Vancouver, you see, and there’s just something a little unsavoury about the whole circumstance where there was only one bidder allowed on the Vancouver House site, and don’tcha know that bidder was Ian Gillespie, and doesn’t it somehow seem wrong to you that Ian Gillespie ‘was allowed to tie up this property for several years without paying for it until final approvals were granted, which only occurred recently?” Nope. They just can’t leave it alone!
That Glen Chernen fella — you know, he’s the Mayoral aspirant for the Vancouver Cedar Party — and his hearty band of civic miscreants — I mean, really, who are they to be asking questions of our esteemed Mayor and his fabulous gang of demogogues at Vancouver City Hall, the once and forever Vision Vancouver party that will rule over us for our own good, whether we like it or not, for generations to come — where does the Cedar Party get off having the temerity to ask a question like, “How can the interests of Vancouver residents be seen to be looked after if our local government gives itself the unilateral right to sell off city-owned land without even passing consideration being given to the notion of competitive bidding for the sale of our precious, ‘belongs to the people of Vancouver’, property?”
Who do the folks at the Vancouver Cedar Party think they are? Heck, you’d think they live in Vancouver, and have a dog in our 2014 civic electoral fight.
Oh, you mean, these Vancouver Cedar Party folks, they do actually live in Vancouver, and they’re running candidates to defeat Vision Vancouver this November 15th. Good luck to them, those newby civic electoral naïfs — as if that’s going to happen, given the millions of dollars that developers have poured into Vision Vancouver coffers these past six years, and more!
And to top it off, Chernen and his bothersome, irksome group of detectives go about quoting a July 28, 2014 Sam Cooper article in The Province newspaper — but three weeks late, cuz Green Party of Vancouver Council candidate Pete Fry had already written a blog post about the 52-storey Westbank project at the north end of the Granville Bridge.
And, just like the folks at the Cedar Party, Pete Fry goes and sticks his nose where it don’t belong, and casts aspersions on the character of the Mayor and his Vision Vancouver colleagues, in having approved the Vancouver House development (you remember Vancouver House, with that annoying ‘star’ architect Bjarke Ingels on our TV every night, endlessly overselling just how wonderful Vancouver House will be once it’s finished) — not that anyone in Vancouver will be able to afford to live there, but like who cares anyway, except maybe the Cedar Party, and Pete Fry, both of whom point out that Vancouver House is being marketed exclusively (an allegation since corrected) to wealthy overseas buyers — replete with (gosh, wouldn’t it be nice?) “special absentee owner concierge services and a fleet of luxury BMWs on reserve”. But there you go again, with those annoying Cedar Party folks, and Fry, chiming in with a quote from Cooper’s article:
“According to the South China Morning Post, two sales offices were opened in Hong Kong in June … (with units) marketed in Singapore … reserved for overseas buyers … (meeting with an) overwhelming response.”
As we say, looks like folks from Vancouver won’t be able to afford Vancouver House, anyway — well, certainly not you or me.
Like, so what, eh? The folks who live in Vancouver have bigger things to worry about — will the kids be back in school on September 2nd, or when to set aside some time to go to the PNE, and important stuff like that.
Who does that Pete Fry guy think he is, anyway, questioning his betters — I mean, Geoff Meggs and Andrea Reimer, they done got themselves elected to Council, and the folks who live in Vancouver put their trust in them, and now youse got this Pete Fry fella askin’ questions, like somehow he’s got a right to ask questions of his betters. Gosh, we think not. Heck, you’d think that there was an election going on, or sumptin’ like that there.
And, don’tcha know — probably under a threat of a lawsuit — The Province pulled the original story, and all readers can find now is this correction.
Thank goodness the Non-Partisan Association seems to think that the Vancouver Houseskullduggery is just fine, with nary a peep from NPA Mayoralty hopeful Kirk LaPointe — although, one supposes, these are early days in Campaign 2014. LaPointe will certainly have to enunciate a position on development once the civic election campaign begins in earnest.
Let us hope that the NPA narrative on development in our city differentiates itself from the Vision Vancouver development narrative, which is …
“Hey folks, it’s only development we’re talkin’ about here. You should let your betters make decisions on your behalf, cuz we know what we’re doing, and you don’t. Honest, there’s nothing to see here folks, just move along. Don’tcha know, the PNE is on, and there’s this darn teacher’s strike that’s happenin’, you don’t want to worry your pretty little heads with something as stupid and arcane as development. Ewww, that’s yucky stuff — you’re not really interested in that. Oh look — a bright shiny object. Pretty, isn’t it?”
And thank god, too, that the naïfs and ne’er-do-wells over at COPE headquarters could give a good goddamn about secretive and unsavoury development in our city — gosh, they’re only concerned with turning our city into a communist paradise. Me, I can’t wait til they issue the drab grey uniforms that we’ll all have to wear when COPE takes over — gosh that’ll be no fun, and don’tcha know that’s exactly what COPE wants, for all of us to live under the yolk of COPE oppression. Gosh, that oughta be great!
And best of all, thank God we’ve got such a subservient media, who wouldn’t say shit if their mouths were full of it. Well, it is Vision Vancouver, after all, and who in the media would dare to question the majority party that has reigned supreme at Vancouver City Hall these past six years?
A couple of weeks back, in an interview with The Straight’s Carlito Pablo, former three-term Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) City Councillor David Cadman predicted that Vision Vancouver would likely win a third consecutive majority term in office at City Hall come this November 15th.
“I’m not a betting person but I would think, and I haven’t seen any of the polls, but I would think…that they will get another majority, yeah.”
As it happens, VanRamblings concurs with Mr. Cadman’s prediction. Let’s take a closer look at Vision Vancouver’s prospects for re-election in 2014. Vancouver Civic Election: The Mayor’s Race, Robertson vs LaPointe
Vision Mayor Gregor Robertson, the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe, and the Cedar Party’s Glen Chernen
In the 2014 Vancouver civic election, Mayor Gregor Robertson would seem to have another win at the polls, come November 15th, virtually in the bag. In 2011, Mr. Robertson took 53.17% of the vote, as 77,005 electors cast a ballot for the sitting Mayor, almost 10,000 more votes than were cast for him in 2008. Meanwhile, in 2011, the opposition Non-Partisan Association garnered only 58,152 votes, or 40.15% support. In order for Kirk LaPointe, the NPA’s mayoralty candidate in 2014, to triumph on the evening of November 15th, the Mayor’s popularity would have to drop by almost 10,000 votes, with a concomitant rise in popularity for the NPA. What are the prospects that the Mayor will lose 10,000 votes, while Mr. LaPointe transfers Mr. Robertson’s lost votes into the winning column for the NPA?
VanRamblings’ answer to that question: bloody unlikely.
For all the kvetching of the opposition poli parties about City Hall secrecy, development run amuck, Vision’s failure to build affordable housing, and the utter collapse of the Mayor’s commitment to end homelessness by 2015, a recent Justason poll indicates that the Mayor maintains the support of 59% of the electorate, an almost insurmountable lead in popularity over the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe, who registers only 41% support from the electorate.
Opposition parties don’t win elections; the party in power loses government, generally arising from scandal, utter incompetence, in-fighting within the party, or a weariness among the electorate. None of those latter attributes apply to Vision Vancouver, who would not only appear to have maintained the support of the electorate, but have, as well, an experienced, well-funded, and professionally-run electoral machine that has won majority government twice, and means to win a third majority mandate in 2014.
As we’ve written previously, in 2002 the NPA lost office at Vancouver City Hall when City Councillor Jennifer Clarke succeeded in a party coup to dislodge popular three-term sitting Mayor Philip Owen, much the same circumstance as occurred in 2008, when NPA City Councillor Peter Ladner defeated sitting Mayor Sam Sullivan to run — in what proved to be a losing bid — as the NPA mayoralty candidate. Both times the party was trounced at the polls. As we say, the electorate simply doesn’t like party in-fighting.
In 2005, the Non-Partisan Association was once again able to gain a win at the polls, when the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) — the sitting civic government of the day — found itself rent with division.
What could cause Mayor Robertson to lose in 2014? Character issues, or evidence of financial impropriety. Rumours continue to abound about indiscreet behaviour involving the Mayor. Meanwhile, there are rumours afloat about the Mayor’s involvement in financial / development transactions where the Mayor and / or his friends have unduly, or ‘illegally’, benefited.
VanRamblings’ perspective on these politically-inclined rumours: political partisans opposed to the Mayor’s re-election are dreaming in technicolor.
At this point, there are only three Mayoralty candidates, other than the Mr. Robertson, who’ve announced their intention to seek office at Vancouver City Hall: the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe, the Vancouver Cedar Party’s Glen Chernen, and independent candidate for Mayor, Colin Shandler. COPE, as well as TEAM, had been rumoured to be running mayoralty candidates, but that prospect seems to have dimmed in recent months.
The Non-Partisan Association is the only civic party, other than Vision Vancouver, that has the funding necessary to mount a winning campaign for office. For all that the Cedar Party’s Glen Chernen is a fine fellow, his party is underfunded and understaffed, with little or no history of involvement on the civic scene — as such, Chernen’s potential for success at the polls is remote, his role in a bid for civic office that of spoiler, most probably as it relates to the prospects of the NPA’s mayoralty candidate. Colin Shandler’s prospects for a win are nil — he’ll just not find himself in the conversation, however much of a decent guy he may be.
All is not necessarily lost for the NPA’s mayoralty candidate, though.
In Kirk LaPointe, the Non-Partisan Association has a handsome, informed, articulate, grounded and charismatic candidate, a mayoralty hopeful who thinks on his feet, writes well, connects in a palpable manner, and has staked out firm positions on the issues that have arisen over the summer.
Unfortunately, Mr. LaPointe would seem to be suffering from Left Foot Syndrome — which is to say that Mr. LaPointe would seem to favour that particular appendage for regular placement in his mouth (at least it’s not both feet!). It’s difficult to disagree with what Green Party of Vancouver Park Board candidate Stuart Mackinnon has to say when he writes …
“While I’m not a fan of the current regime at City Hall and agree that we need change, I think Kirk LaPointe should choose his examples a little more carefully. All three examples he uses — Aquarium, tankers and Granville Island ownership — are very important civic issues. The Aquarium because it sits on public park land and leases this from the Park Board, tankers because even one mishap could have irreversible consequences for Vancouver, and Granville Island because what happens there has great effect on the City as a whole.
There are many examples to show why we need a new government in Vancouver, these 3 are not amongst them.”
VanRamblings believes the points Mr. Mackinnon raises to be unassailable.
Even if Kirk LaPointe hasn’t proved to be too much the politician to this point in the civic electoral race — why would he take a position on a hot-button issue like the Aquarium, and risk alienating a goodly portion of the electorate who don’t agree with his enunciated position of ‘Park Board should leave well enough alone, things are fine at the Aquarium’? — these are early days in Campaign 2014 for elected office in the City of Vancouver.
As much as Vision Vancouver aims to emerge victorious at the polls come November 15, 2014, Kirk LaPointe and his ready band of NPA colleagues are just as intent in securing a majority victory on that very same evening.
In 2014, Vancouverites may just find themselves witness to an honest-to-goodness civic election campaign that engages the hearts and minds of the electorate. In the coming days, VanRamblings will publish analyses of the Councillors’ race for elected office, as well as Board of Education and Park Board. Welcome back. Nice to have you reading VanRamblings again!
Approximately one week ago, Vancouver Magazine columnist Frances Bula casually asked me why I was covering Vancouver’s civic election scene on VanRamblings — stating that, “I don’t recall you doing that much before.”
Now, Frances’ query was framed as a simple question — she was curious, and given that we’d been corresponding, and I turned up at the NPA breakfast meeting with Kirk LaPointe on July 14th (unusual for me), the question seems a valid one, and deserving of a reply. Because the question Frances poses is a question that has been asked of me by many (not the least of whom was COPE’s Sarah Beuhler), I’ll use this forum to respond.
The primary reason VanRamblings revived itself on June 15th to commence in-depth coverage of the current civic election cycle was to create an alternative narrative to the one most often expressed by Vision Vancouver.
On VanRamblings, I want to hold Vision Vancouver to account for their decision-making, practice and conduct over the course of the past almost six years, and to remind VanRamblings’ approximately 17,000 weekly readers of Vision Vancouver’s position on a number of issues: development, community consultation, the arts, parks as well as green and environmental issues, affordable housing, and transit — and of how what Vision Vancouver says (or said in the past), and what Vancouver’s majority municipal party actually does in practice are often two very different things.
As I’ve also written on VanRamblings many, many times before, I believe Vision Vancouver to be the worst municipal government that Vancouver has had since the hoary days of Tom ‘Terrific’ Campbell — and, what I’ve set about to do on VanRamblings is back up that contention with dogged research, and the regular breaking of stories on this blog, commencing with intensive coverage of Vancouver’s civic scene some eight weeks ago.
Now, to the second part of Frances’ query (before returning to a continuing answer of the initial question): while it is true that VanRamblings has not had a history, over the past decade, of providing intensive coverage of the civic scene, as the last PoliSci / Anthropology / Sociology graduate from Simon Fraser’s old PSA department, I can tell you that my interest in the art of politics captured me whole in the early days of my young adulthood.
At Simon Fraser University, where I undertook two undergraduate degrees throughout the 1970s, I developed an overweening interest in politics that was honed and academically informed through the guidance of professors and activists of political conscience. I was privileged to continue a process of a refining of my political understanding as I undertook a Master’s degree in Policy Administration, again at Simon Fraser University, in the early 1980s.
The allure of politics, and of democratic engagement and empowerment dates back even earlier, to the first part of the 1960s when I marched with my father on postal workers’ picket lines, on strike after strike after strike.
As I’ve written previously, I worked on my first political campaign in 1963, volunteering on NDP MP Harold Winch’s Vancouver East campaign for re-election to federal office, and from those days until now, the allure of politics and democratic engagement has held a pull and a fascination for me, as part of a lifelong endeavour that has consumed me, as a good portion of my life has continued in dedication to building a fairer, more just and truly democratic society, an interest that sustains me until this day.
In additional answer to the query, although I’ve not covered civic politics to distraction on VanRamblings (I’ll explain why in a moment), I have consistently covered the federal and provincial political electoral scene: for instance, in my Decision Canada coverage of federal elections, and last year’s intensive Decision BC 2013 coverage of our BC provincial election.
As to why I turned up at the NPA breakfast meeting with Kirk LaPointe, or attend press conferences for the other municipal political parties? I’ve asked to be placed on the press contact list, and the various civic parties have kindly acceded to my request. I’m retired, I’ve got the time, I have the interest, and I have the forum — VanRamblings — to publish. Yes, we live in a new and different age. We now have citizen journalism on the web!
While it is true that there’s not been all that much coverage of civic issues, on a regular basis, on VanRamblings, and certainly not intensive coverage of Vancouver’s civic scene, there’s good reason for that …
During the course of the 2005 election, I was a member of Vancouver’s Board of Variance. Given that the BoV is an independent, quasi-judicial body, I believed that it would have been unseemly for me to pronounce publically on civic election affairs — which doesn’t mean that I, and other members of the Board of Variance on which I sat, didn’t stump for and support civic parties running in the 2005 election; rather, it was that such engagement was quieter, and reflective of the position of trust we held as members of the Board.
During the course of the 2008 and 2011 Vancouver civic elections, I worked as a co-campaign manager on Tim Louis’ campaign for office, designed, created and posted to his campaign website, and worked assiduously on the COPE campaign, as a whole, to elect members to Vancouver City Council, Park Board and School Board.
In 2008, given that I had a relationship of some longstanding with Aaron Jasper, I worked as a campaign organizer on the Vision-COPE Park Board slate (both at the request of COPE, and at Aaron’s request, and with the support of Vision). Throughout both campaigns, I was busy working on Tim’s / COPE’s campaign for office, as well as engaging in grassroots campaigning, going door-to-door campaigning for COPE.
So, as you see, my interest in civic politics was always present — I have chosen in 2014 to direct that involvement in the life of our society, online.
Back to the implicit question contained in Frances’ initial query: why you, Raymond, why now — and, perhaps, how is your voice a valid one?
The answer is simple: although I have not previously acted as a journalist covering Vancouver’s civic electoral scene, I believe I am in a unique position to cover the 2014 Vancouver municipal election: which is to say, I have a personal relationship with, and have had a personal relationship, with almost every civic politico in town, dating back a decade and much longer.
For instance, for a year-and-a-half, commencing in early 2012 through until the autumn of last year, one Sunday every month, I met with a group of progressives in COPE to help develop a framework for COPE policy — as such I was “inside” the process of decision-making for one of Vancouver’s four main political parties. During that time I was afforded the opportunity to get to know Tristan Markle, Stuart Parker, Kim Hearty, and the nine others who sat around Dr. Penny Parry and Tim’s Louis’ dining room table.
I also worked closely with COPE Executive Director Sean Antrim, and was very much involved in various aspects of the COPE planning process.
Board of Education Chair, Patti Bacchus, and NPA BoE candidate, Christopher Richardson
Given my gregarious and curious nature (and much to the chagrin of my COPE colleagues), I have also come to develop a close rapport, verging on friendship, with a number of folks involved in the Non-Partisan Association.
For instance, for the past year and a half, I have met once a month with current NPA Council candidate Rob McDowell (one of my very favourite politicos in town, and my favourite of the NPA candidates for Council). As the Park Board watchdog (so named by The Courier’s Sandra Thomas), in addition to speaking regularly with the Vision Vancouver Commissioners on Park Board — Chair, Aaron Jasper, Constance Barnes, Niki Sharma, Sarah Blyth and Trevor (each of whom I both like very much, and for whom I have much respect and admiration) — I have also had the privilege of speaking and meeting with the two NPA Park Board Commissioners, John Coupar and Melissa DeGenova. I like, admire & respect both John & Melissa, very much.
If I am over the moon about Rob McDowell (and I am), my regard for current NPA Board of Education candidate Christopher Richardson knows no bounds — he’s not just one of the finest politicos I’ve ever met, Christopher is one of the best people I’ve ever met, period; it is a privilege to have the opportunity to speak with both Rob and Christopher.
In addition to Rob McDowell and Christopher Richardson, I’ve come to hold NPA Board of Education candidate Sandy Sharma, and NPA Park Board candidate Erin Shum in the highest personal regard. My admiration for NPA Council candidate Ian Robertson also knows no bounds — I think he’s the smartest politico in town. I’ve also become more familiar with NPA Councillor George Affleck, and have long known NPA Councillor Elizabeth Ball, dating back to the days when I was the de facto arts and entertainment editor for a number of community newspapers, and regularly met with Elizabeth, in her capacity as Managing Director of Granville Island’s Carousel Theatre.
That I believe that each of these candidates for the Non-Partisan Association to be principled, honest and humble, and deserving of the public’s support at the polls should be considered a given — truth to tell, though, these are early days, and I have not as yet determined the list of candidates I will endorse in the final week of the current civic election cycle.
For Council, I can tell you that COPE’s Sid Chow Tan and Tim Louis will be on my final endorsement list, as will the Vancouver Cedar Party’s Nicholas Chernen. Clearly, the NPA’s Rob McDowell and Ian Robertson are at the top of my list for Vancouver’s natural governing party.
At this point, I can’t imagine not endorsing Vision Vancouver’s Andrea Reimer and Niki Sharma (tough, incredibly bright, principled women) — regardless of my somewhat untoward coverage of Vancouver’s majority party at City Hall. And, of course, current Green Party City Councillor Adriane Carr, and her running mate, Pete Fry (about whom I feel as equally strongly as I do Tim Louis, Rob McDowell, Ian Robertson, Sid Chow Tan and Nicholas Chernen) will likely be on my final endorsement list.
Still, as I say, it’s early days — the final civic election candidate endorsement list is three months away from publication date.
All of the above is by way of saying, I believe that the perspective I offer on Vancouver’s civic scene to be fetchingly humane and idiosyncratic, as well as informed to a degree unusual among those who cover the civic scene.
Given my relationship of long duration with politicos from across the political spectrum, and based as well on my work with many of Vancouver’s most activist politicos, I have most certainly developed a more intimate rapport than most reporters would allow to be the case, all of which provides me with a unique insight into the character of those who are running for office, and those mounting and backing the various municipal political campaigns.
As such, VanRamblings can, and will, offer a warmly idiosyncratic (and we hope, as well, often amusing) take on the civic scene, in the days, weeks and months leading up to the November 15th municipal election.
An aside, if I might, on two issues concerning VanRamblings …
Humour. You’ll notice above that I employ the phrase “natural governing party” to describe the Non-Partisan Association. Allow me to point out that use of such phrase does not constitute an endorsement of the NPA, nor is it meant to suggest in any way, shape or form that I am “in the tank” for the NPA — I am simply having a little fun (mostly at the expense of some of the folks in COPE, it would seem, although that was never my intention). Readers should know, as well, that I have fun with the headlines / titles of the various articles: surely, having read VanRamblings for awhile now, you must know that I indulge my penchant for hyperbole at almost every opportunity that is afforded; sometimes after I’ve finished writing a column, and read it back to myself, I laugh out loud at how outrageous and over-the-top my “seeming endorsement” of a candidate would be to the casual reader. That a good many of my readers read some of my writing as amusing (as is intended) is heartening for me; that the converse is also true is, well, unsettling for me — doesn’t mean I’m going to stop from composing headlines that, as I wrote a couple of days back, are designed to “engage, enrage and misdirect (challenging the reader to actually read through the commentary below the ‘meant to outrage’ title).”
Pejorative attack: Although I believe that the politics of personal destruction is the modus operandi for both Vision Vancouver and Stephen Harper’s federal Tories (an electoral strategy that has proved successful for both political parties, thus far), on VanRamblings you will never read an attack on someone’s character. Ever. There’s no one on Vancouver’s civic scene that I dislike (I have some personal favourites, and some quite not-so-favourites) — I am admiring of those who are engaged in the civic political scene, & in service of the public interest.
Yes, it is true that I’ve had some fun at the expense of Vision Vancouver’s campaign team, but let me tell you that not for one moment do I ever forget that a person I am writing about is someone’s son, daughter, husband, wife, companion, beloved uncle or aunt, someone’s father or mother, brother or sister, or cherished friend.
I do not, and will not, deny someone’s humanity.
When I write about the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, Mike Magee, I do not forget who he is as a man, as a husband and a father and a friend, in addition to his work as a politico of stature and much accomplishment. You will never see me going after someone personally on the VanRamblings blog — sure, I’ll take Vision Vancouver to task, but you will never read personal invective or ad hominem personal attack on this website.
Today’s post constitutes only the first part of my answer to the question posed by Frances; there’s more that I have to say — but not today.
This is my pre-birthday week. This coming Monday, August 11th, is my — as a neighbour suggested to me — ”Beatles birthday”. I will be 64.
I may have one more post before, or on (or after) my birthday (nothing political), after which time I’ll take a break from VanRamblings for one week, before commencing with posting once again on Vancouver’s civic scene. I look forward to your return on Monday, August 18th, for VanRamblings’ continuing coverage of the upcoming 2014 Vancouver municipal election.
Now, it’s not that we want to turn VanRamblings into the official blog of the Vancouver Cedar Party — any more than we want to turn this blog into the official organ of the NPA, COPE, the Green Party, Vancouver First, TEAM, heaven forbid Vision Vancouver, the A Better City party, Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver, IDEA, the Work Less Party, or any one of the other municipal parties running in the 2014 Vancouver municipal election.
We do, however, appreciate that in the Vancouver Cedar Party, there’s a civic party that’s out there digging, doing research, not engaged in bitter internal warfare, that’s keeping its eyes focused on the goal (ousting Vision Vancouver come November 15th), and creating an effective (yet polite) narrative respecting our majority civic party at City Hall, Vision Vancouver.
The problem that the Vancouver Cedar Party has, though, is that the mainstream press pretty much doesn’t want to cover them.
That’s where VanRamblings comes in, we suppose. We like the consistency of the Cedar Party narrative — that Vision Vancouver is a secretive, non-consultative, arrogant and high-handed, overly-friendly-to-developers (at the expense of the livability of our city) municipal political party.
On Sunday evening, the Vancouver Cedar Party issued a press release with the headline, Communities Won’t Be Listened To When Developers are Managing City Hall from Inside (the edited text of which you’ll find below), pointing to a member of Vision Vancouver’s Board of Directors — a woman, a longtime ally of the Mayor, an individual who has an ownership position in Core Real Estate, who also maintains close ties to the Mayor’s svengali, Joel Solomon, Chairman of Renewal Partners, the millionaire philanthropist who, since 2008, has emerged as a major funder of Vision Vancouver.
That yawn you hear? Yes, that would be the mainstream media in town, and every member of the political class who has known for ages of the Mayor’s close ties to Hollyhock, the Tides Foundation, Renewal Partners, Joel Solomon, and Carol Newell, Rubbermaid heiress and founding principal of, surprise surprise, Renewal Partners. Yes, that’s right — it’s old news.
You know what they say, though — there’s no news like old news.
Well, maybe there’s no one that says that — but you know what, it never hurts to remind the Vancouver electorate, who seem to have such short memories, about Mayor Gregor Robertson’s ties to folks who, maybe, just maybe, have interests that may conflict with yours and mine, and the voting public across the 23 neighbourhoods that comprise Vancouver.
Without further ado, then, the latest Vancouver Cedar Party Press Release:
Illustration courtesy of CityHallWatch magazine —
“engaging citizens in decision-making”
The majority party at City Hall, Vision Vancouver, has a 30 year+ real estate development veteran on its Board of Directors, Martha Burton. Ms. Burton has a long and close working relationship with Mayor Gregor Robertson.
A native of Tennessee, Martha Burton joined the Solomon Development Company in 1982, becoming a partner in 1984. In addition to being a member of Vision Vancouver’s BoD, Ms. Burton states that her real estate expertise is available for hire in the real estate development process.
Martha Burton is an investor in many businesses including a real estate development firm, through her partnership position in Vancouver based investment firm, Renewal Partners.
This week, Metro’s Emily Jackson reported that a City of Vancouver Real Estate Department manager told her that the sales and demolition of the Granville bridge off-ramp and rebuilding / relocation of the Aquatic Centre arose resultant from unsolicited offers from foreign and local developers.
Who were the foreign or local developers that made unsolicited offers encouraging The City of Vancouver to put the Granville off-ramp for sale?
Who is making it a “High Priority” to move the Vancouver Aquatic Centre to the soon-to-be former Granville Street bridge off-ramp location?
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Communities won’t be listened to with Vision developers in charge
Is Martha Burton one of the foreign developers that was involved in creating the secretive and sudden sale / demolition / relocation process for the Granville off-ramp / Aquatic Centre? Did she and Joel Solomon turn it into a “High Priority” from within Robertson’s Vision party or was it another foreign or local developer? Does it not appear the Mayor or his Chief of Staff have not been very open to the electorate with the fact that they were so close to, or receiving guidance from, two developers? Having an active developer advising the Mayor from within his Board is a serious problem.
Through investment firm Renewal Partners, Martha Burton has an ownership position in Core Real Estate, one of the most successful developers in Tennessee, along with Joel Solomon another 30 year+ plus Tennessee developer.
Along with several others, Joel Solomon and Martha Burton also have an ownership position in successful Tennessee real estate Brokerage firm Village Real Estate. Mr. Solomon apparently owns a larger position on his own, but together they own a partnership interest through their jointly owned investment firm, Renewal Partners.
Through Renewal Partners, Ms. Burton and Mr. Solomon have given the Mayor’s Vision Vancouver municipal party more cash donations than any other corporate entity.
Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Chief of Staff, Mike Magee, and Mayor Robertson have had a close working relationships with developers / investors, Martha Burton and Joel Solomon, for well over a decade. They all worked together for Mr. Solomon before they decided to help elect Mr. Robertson as Mayor of Vancouver, and appoint Mr. Magee as his Chief of Staff.
Martha Burton’s LinkedIn profile lists her profession as a real estate consultant with 30 years experience in real estate development, including detailed negotiations (Read her offerings under the experience subject). She is also an Executive Board member of Vision Vancouver, a position which typically acts in an advisory role to the Mayor. In addition to her Board position, Ms. Burton was also the party Treasurer until recently.
Communities will never be listened to when developers are in charge
Have any companies that Martha Burton or Joel Solomon have an investment interest in consulted for any developers in Vancouver that are subject to approvals or special consideration from their old co-workers, Gregor Robertson and Mike Magee?
Too often plans such as the Granville Bridge off-ramp sale are discovered at a more advanced stage when the community has too little time to organize and raise their voice. Not this time.
We are finding out before a development application has even been produced. However, that is not good enough. Somebody thought they could set the dominoes falling (in secret) with the sale of these lands. We found out about their plans.
Secretive City of Vancouver real estate transactions must stop.
Residents need to be listened to for a change. The needs of our community must come before the mad desires of real estate developers.
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Written and researched by Glen Chernen, and a village of volunteers.
