Category Archives: Park Board

#ParkBoard | The Politics Never End Within Our Civic Bodies

December 4, 2020BC Politics, Park Board, Politics, VancouverRaymond Tomlin

John Coupar, Non Partisan Association Park Board Commissioner | Standing in opposition to an anti-democratic motion coming to the Vancouver Park Board | Photo: Dan Toulgoet

In civic governance as practiced within the City of Vancouver, politics — you know, the kind of politics that have our electeds sniping at, belittling, attempting to one up, disliking verging on hatred, while actively engaged in disrespecting one another — remains the order of the day, less so at Vancouver School Board, but ever present at Council (or, now, during their safe socially distanced Webex online meetings), and around the Park Board table nestled within the Vancouver Park Board offices, or is now the case during our pandemic times, online using the city’s Webex online platform.
In the new year, VanRamblings will dedicate the early months of the year to writing about Vancouver civic governance (suffice to say, we’re not happy), and had intended to enjoy the season and leave for another day what will in all likelihood be an evisceration (such a nasty word) of governance in the city of Vancouver, as it is currently practiced, until the following arose …

Vancouver Park Board staff will bring the above recommendation to the Park Board table next Monday, December 7th, first in an in-camera online meeting not available to the public, and then at 6:30pm when the final online meeting of Park Board Commissioners — before the holiday break — will take place. The next Park Board meeting is set for January 18th, 2021.
According to a 31-page Vancouver Park Board staff report [PDF] …

The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation Procedure By-law (Park Board Procedure By-law) guides how the business of the Park Board Commissioners is handled and applies to all meetings of the Board and its committees. While the current by-law underwent a comprehensive review in 2018 before being enacted by the Board January 2019, it is best practice to undertake regular administrative reviews to ensure procedures remain relevant.

The revisions outlined in this report, and attached as Appendix A, are proposed to reflect current practices, address gaps, and clarify procedures that may have led to some ambiguity or confusion. Additionally, recommendations have been included to provide Commissioners options to follow-up on the “Future Considerations noted in the last by-law update report regarding electronic and special meetings.

The net impact of the recommendation, when it becomes a motion before the Board this next Monday, as it surely will, would be to deny a minority contingent of duly elected Park Board members to call a Special Meeting of the Board to seek public input on issues of concern to the general populace.
In these parts, we call that bullying, rule of the majority, arrogant decision-making by elected officials, and - let’s face it - downright anti-democratic.

Vancouver Park Board Commissioners, l-r: Tricia Barker, John Coupar (NPA); Gwen Giesbrecht, John Irwin (COPE); Stuart Mackinnon, Camil Dumont, Dave Demers (Greens)

Apparently, the genesis for the staff recommendation arises from a Special Meeting of the Board that two Commissioners, John Coupar and Tricia Barker, called this past summer to discuss transportation issues within Stanley Park, with which members of the public had expressed concern.
As a general rule — be it at Council, School Board or Park Board — senior staff are reluctant, at best, to meet with the public to discuss issues of public concern, cuz it’s messy and democratic, and diminishes their power as the professionals who, in actuality, “run” city governance — not to mention which, these time consuming meetings can go on for days, and it takes them away from the familial comfort of their homey and cozy offices.
Park Board staff were none-too-pleased with the calling of the June 18, 2020 Special Meeting — thus, their recommendation to Commissioners. And, if truth be told, neither were COPE Commissioners Gwen Giesbrecht — who viscerally dislikes the rather lovable John Coupar — and John Irwin, and Green Party of Vancouver Park Board Commissioners, current Chairperson, Camil Dumont (also not much of a fan of his NPA Park Board colleagues, ditto his fellow Greens) — Dave Demers & Stuart Mackinnon.
Yes, it’s civic governance as a particularly bad high school experience.

Now, should the staff “recommendation” be accepted by a majority of the Board at this upcoming final 2020 meeting of Park Board, here’s what the net effect the passage of the motion would mean for governance at the Board, as well as the process to realize the intention of Park Board staff …

1. Going forward only the Park Board Chairperson, or a majority of Board members could call for a Special Meeting of the Board — a derivation of Board practice dating back to its inception more than a century ago;

2. Although there is a provision in the by-law and Park Board governance provisions that would allow a minority contingent of Park Board Commissioners to call a Special Meeting, to address urgent issues of concern to the public, such a motion could (and probably would) be tabled by the majority of the Board Commissioners, effectively making moot the urgent concern provisions of Park Board governance;

3. Assuming the “motion” passes, it would then be forwarded to Vancouver City Council for passage before Council (where such provisions as staff are recommending at Park Board are already in place). How would Council likely respond to the entreaty of Park Board to make application to the provincial government for a change to the Vancouver Charter to accommodate the expressed wishes of the current Park Board? VanRamblings believes the answer would be, contentiously not well;

4. For the sake of argument, let’s say Council says, “Okay you buckos at Park Board, we’ll grant you your Christmas wish, and post your recommended Charter change to our mistresses and masters in Victoria.” La-di-dah. How would British Columbia’s new Minister Responsible for Municipal Affairs, former Tofino Mayor, Josie Osborne, receive the entreaty of Council and Park Board for a change to the Vancouver Charter?

Uuummmm, not well?

One would think that our currently elected Park Board Commissioners would have many better things to do with their time than to seek to diminish democratic governance around the Park Board table, and diminish input from the public into decision-making by our elected Commissioners.
Apparently not.

Vancouver Park Board Commissioner John Coupar on his opposition to a motion to be presented at Park Board on December 7 2020 that would limit public input into decision-making at the Park Board table, and prevent minority members of the Board from calling for a Special Meeting of the Board when issues of public concern arise.

Note should be made that Park Board Chair Dumont determines what items find their way onto the Park Board agenda — as it happens, the Park Board Chair is all powerful. Nothing gets onto the agenda if he doesn’t want it to. So, apparently, Mr. Dumont is possessed of a strong desire to see this staff recommendation become a motion at the Park Board table, a motion he would vigorously support and urge his fellow Commissioners to support.

‘Ceptin one thing: at some point, it’s possible that Mr. Dumont and Mr. Demers would comprise a minority contingent of Green Party of Vancouver Park Board Commissioners on the elected Vancouver Park Board, the values of the remaining Park Board Commissioners in diametric opposition to that for which Mr. Dumont and Mr. Demers steadfastly stand.
Note to Park Board Chairperson Camil Dumont, and his fellow COPE and Green Party of Vancouver Park Board Commissioners: turn the the staff governance report into a motion of Park Board at next Monday’s meeting, and risk that at some point down the road, your very own power as a duly elected Park Board Commissioner will be much diminished.
A risky venture for our elected Park Board Commissioners, anti-democratic in design and intention, and very much contrary to the public interest.

#VanPoli Civic Politics | Faith Groups + Affordable Housing | Part 4

May 16, 2019#VanPoli Civic Politics, BC Politics, Canada, Essay, News, Park Board, Vancouver, Vancouver Votes 2018, VanRamblingsRaymond Tomlin

Joming Lau, a City of Vancouver Planning Analyst and member of Vancouver city’s Community Serving Spaces Team, and his colleague James O’Neill, a Cultural Planner with the city, working in the Cultural Spaces and Infrastructure Division of the Planning Department — and also a member the city’s Community Serving Spaces Team — have been kind in posting to VanRamblings the core document informing the conduct of the Tuesday, May 7th, 2019 affordable housing forum held at CityLab, at Cambie and West Broadway, the document in question, the Community Serving Spaces Place of Worship [pdf] presentation paper on the development of affordable housing and community service spaces on the sites of places of worship.

In an April 1, 2019 article in the Vancouver Sun / Province / PostMedia, migration, diversity and religion writer Douglas Todd asked the question, “Can Metro Vancouver churches plug the dire housing gap?”, going on to ask a second, related question, “How big a dent will re-developing scores of places of worship into housing make in a metropolis that ranks as one of the most unaffordable in the world?”, quoting Andy Yan, director of Simon Fraser University’s city programme as saying …

“Hopefully, the redevelopment (of places of worship) is one of the steps of creating a stairway to housing nirvana in Metro Vancouver. But the scale of trying to house those on local incomes affordably is almost biblical.”

Mr. Todd goes on to report that Christian and Jewish religious groups are together adding hundreds of units each year to the region’s rental and housing market, their annual contribution sometimes exceeding 1,000 new homes, a relatively small portion of the roughly 20,000 to 28,000 homes being constructed each year across Metro Vancouver, but still an invaluable contribution of low cost, affordable housing across our region.

Approved by Vancouver City Council in 2014, completed in 2018, a partnership between Central Presbyterian Church and Bosa Properties.

In collaboration with the city, Bosa Properties and Central Presbyterian Church, at 1155 Thurlow in downtown Vancouver, set about to provide 45 social housing homes that would be owned by the church, allowing Bosa Properties to build 168 secured rental homes that would be owned by Bosa, the project including the construction of a new church (and child care centre) built for the church by Bosa — at no expense to the church — and still owned by the church, the very much needed social housing homes and the child care centre creating an ongoing revenue stream for the Central Presbyterian Church. A win-win for all concerned: city, developer & church.

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The role of the city? To collaborate with the places of worship to secure funding — from private sources, from the federal or provincial governments through their affordable housing programmes, or in some cases through access to the city’s Community Amenity Contribution programme, which secures in-kind or cash contributions from property developers in exchange for re-zoning of the property — which pays for the entire cost of construction, the city liaising with the place of worship to establish a relationship with a non-profit or for-profit property developer / builder.

Further, the city expedites the development permit process.

From first contact with a place of worship to final completion & occupancy, an average of three years transpire, with the end result: the creation of affordable rental housing, low cost social housing, and much needed community serving spaces, such as the aforementioned child care centre.

The most common phrase enunciated at the Community Serving Spaces for Places of Worship forum last week was, “Robert Brown can’t do it all.”

Mr. Brown, the founder of the Catalyst Housing Development Society is the President of our province’s largest non-profit real estate developer, he and his team responsible for the development of more affordable rental homes on the Lower Mainland and across our province than any other British Columbia developer, allowing faith groups to unlock the value of their real estate assets, while reinvesting that value back into communities for the benefit of families, and a revenue creation stream for places of worship.

A key piece of altruistic advice Mr. Brown provided to faith groups at last week’s affordable housing forum: retain ownership of your property.

Here’s the bottom line: there are 364 land rich, cash poor places of worship across the Vancouver landscape. The City of Vancouver, as part of the city’s Healthy City Strategy, has set about to work with faith groups to create the conditions necessary that would result in the construction of much needed low cost, affordable housing on the under developed properties owned by faith group congregations, providing a no cost renovation or reconstruction of the aging church, synagogue or other place of worship infrastructure, while also creating a revenue stream for the faith group membership, to ensure that our city’s places of worship will continue to thrive, while serving the social and community interests of neighbourhoods across our city.

Music Sundays | Ani DiFranco | Vancouver Folk Music Festival

April 28, 2019A & E, Music, Park BoardRaymond Tomlin

Ani DiFranco first played the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in 1992, a 22-year-old up-and-coming singer-songwriter who drove herself from concert to concert across the North American continent, billing herself as the “Little Folksinger” (Ms. DiFranco is 5’2″ tall), in the process creating her own record label, Righteous Babe, allowing her significant creative freedom.
Through the Righteous Babe Foundation Ms. DiFranco, long a political and cultural activist, has backed grassroots cultural and political organizations supporting causes including reproductive rights, gay, lesbian and women’s issues, in 2004 touring Thai and Burmese refugee camps to learn about the Burmese resistance movement and the country’s fight for democracy, in recent years lending her voice and presence to the Women’s Lives Marches in Washington, DC, tangibly demonstrating her belief that the personal is, now and forever, political.

When she first appeared on the various Vancouver Folk Music Festival stages, she immediately connected with the rapturous festival audiences, and that grassroots connection has endured here and far beyond.
Over the years, Vancouver’s Folk Music Festival stages have also been gay-friendly: in addition to Ani DiFranco, Canada’s own k.d. lang, the Indigo Girls, Nanci Griffith, Holly Near, Janis Ian, Tret Fure, Melissa Ferrick, Toshi Reagon, Jill Sobule, Cheryl Wheeler, Patty Larkin (and dozens more) have graced festival stages, and delighted and moved audiences.

When she first emerged in 1990, Ani DiFranco had an immediate appeal to misfits. After débuting her eponymous solo album that year, she followed it up with six more in rapid succession, taking only a brief one-year breather in between 1996’s Dilate and 1998’s best-selling Little Plastic Castle.
Ms. DiFranco’s folk-punk aesthetic (complete with staccato finger pickings and spoken word spun into song) was especially exciting to queer women, who rarely had the opportunity to sing along with inclusive lyrics like Ms. DiFranco’s. Not only was she a poetic lyricist, she had a handful of songs that were explicitly about other women, using female pronouns.
Success has been somewhat bittersweet, though, for the folk-punk feminist and rabble-rousing storyteller.
Early on, Ms. DiFranco was open about her bisexuality (she’s married to producer Mike Napolitano, with whom she has two children), but in 2015, she told the LGBT blog GoPride.com she’s “not so queer anymore, but definitely a woman-centered woman and just a human rights-centered artist.” This didn’t sit too well with the lesbian and otherwise queer fanbase she’d drawn from the beginning.

Ani DiFranco - No Walls and the Recurring Dream

Ani DiFranco is set to release a memoir entitled No Walls and the Recurring Dream, recounting her early life from a place of hard-won wisdom, combining personal expression, the power of music, feminism, political activism, storytelling and philanthropy, while chronicling her rise to fame with an engaging candor, a frank, honest, passionate, touching and humorous tale of one woman’s eventful coming of age story and radical journey, defined by her ever-present ethos of fierce independence.
Viking Press will release Ms. DiFranco’s book next month, on Tuesday, May 7th, a week from this coming Tuesday.

Holiday Season | VanRamblings Will Reduce Posting This Month

December 1, 2018#VanPoli Civic Politics, Cinema, Music, Park Board, Politics, Stories of a Life, VanRamblings, Web & TechRaymond Tomlin

The holiday season is upon us. For VanRamblings that means spending time with friends and family (as I suspect is the case with most of us), and a level of busyness that is unusual for us — given that much of our life is given over to the creative endeavour of writing on VanRamblings, which entails a dozen hours or more each day sitting in front of our computer composing the posts that you read from time to time, on this blog of ours.
From April 20th on of this year — six months out from the 2018 Vancouver municipal election —&#32there was a raison d’être for VanRamblings: to introduce you to the candidates we felt were worthy and deserving of your vote. To that end, we wrote as many as 2500 words each day about the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, the issues we felt were important for candidates to address, and who we felt best were most capable of creating the city we need, a fairer and more just city for all.
While it remains our intention to continue our coverage of Vancouver City Council, School Board and Park Board, we are not quite so obsessed with civic governance and all that occurs each day with the process of decision-making that will lead to creating a city for all of us. In Vancouver, we’ve elected our Mayor, Kennedy Stewart, and a pretty darn fine group of City Councillors, School Board trustees and Park Board Commissioners — we’re prepared to let them get on with the job sans the obsessive coverage that has come to define VanRamblings these past almost eight months.

Damara, our new 3-year-old kitty, soon to be our companion as we write each day.

Here’s our plan for VanRamblings, then, going forward, which, of course, is subject to change — we’re planning on writing about politics once or twice a week this month. We have a column on Janet Fraser, Chairperson of the Vancouver School Board, that we’re intending to write, with likely publication this upcoming week (for the record, we consider Dr. Fraser to be a transformative political figure, and believe we should all be grateful for the gift of her presence on Vancouver’s political scene). We’ve also got a column on Vancouver International Film Festival programmer Tom Charity’s Best of 2018, which it is our current intention to publish next Friday.
In fact, VanRamblings will publish a great many columns on film this month — because we love film, considering it to be the art of our age, and during the April through October period we forfeited our love of film in favour of covering the election — where the majority of candidates we endorsed were elected to office, as well as a few we failed to endorse, but should have.
As far as is possible, in addition to our once or twice a week political coverage, we’ll keep up our Arts Friday coverage — which will be given over to film for the foreseeable future, but within which we plan to expand our coverage into other facets of Vancouver’s arts scene. We’ll continue our Stories of a Life feature — no such posting this week, or last, but next week we promise — and our Music Sunday feature, which tomorrow oughta emerge as a sort of Story of a Life when, and if, it actually comes to fruition. Tuesdays and Thursdays may be fallow days, or given over to tech coverage — we have a column for Apple iPhone SE, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X users we’ll publish this upcoming Tuesday.
In the new year, VanRamblings will finally write about our cancer journey — which “story” will begin 10 months prior to our official cancer diagnosis. We’ll introduce you to those who made a difference in our life, and who are — we believe — the reason we are here today, enabling you to read those words on the screen in front of you (there’ll be a great many political folks who will find their way into our reporting out, as our “life savers”).
Thank you for hanging in with us.
Going forward, it is our intention to remain relentlessly positive about pretty much darn near everyone and everything, while focusing on change for the better, and a better life for everyone in all aspects of our lives.