Category Archives: Vancouver Votes 2018

VanElxn2022 | An Ugly and Disputatious Vancouver Municipal Election In 2022

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In 2014, Vision Vancouver’s Queen of Mean, the party’s longtime Director of Communications, Marcella Munro, ran a 24-hour-a-day backroom operation for the governing party, staffed by 20 writers who’d been hired to respond to any online provocation that might be seen by some to bring Vision Vancouver into disrepute.

For the most part, the operation was harmless: if some average citizen made a comment on an online story in The Georgia Straight, The Vancouver Sun or The Province newspapers — or any other online publication that covered civic affairs, including social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — members of the cult-like Vision Defense Team were at the ready with a pithy and well-written response to the miscreant commenter who had dared — heaven forbid! — to call into question the innate integrity and goodness of  Vision Vancouver.

That was then. This is now. Over the past eight years, political dirty tricks, such as the relatively harmless work of the Vision Defense Team, has evolved.

It would seem that the Greg Andrews aka @gregeh on Twitter — a vicious YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) provocateur — who attacked TEAM’s quite wonderful Linsea O’Shea (the absolute find of the 2022 Vancouver civic election campaign) is not only a disreputable, violence prone misogynist (aren’t they all?), but an avowed racist and serial abuser who counsels women to take their lives (isn’t that a crime?)

You see, these YIMBY folks — who would very much seem to be in the employ of Vancouver’s development industry — in pushing for more unaffordable condos to be built everywhere across the city, and who — unlike Marcella Munro and her otherwise well-intentioned Vision Defense Team — are prepared to go to any lengths, involve themselves in any sort of untoward conduct that would, at least on the surface, seem to serve the declared interests of their well-heeled developer masters.

VanRamblings would like to present Mr. Andrews’ original tweets but, alas, he’s blocked us, so you’ll just have to make do with the following screen captures …

Also, note this: Greg Andrews has argued for gassing his opponents …

Despite Andrews’ history of racism, misogyny and violence, a number of local YIMBY politicians and activists follow him on social media.

According to a June 17, 2021 story in the online indie journal, ThinkPol …

This is not the first time Vancouver’s YIMBY movement has faced allegations of racism. During the 2018 municipal elections, a YIMBY blogger asked voters to reject a South Asian candidate because “you can take a slave out of the jungle but you can’t take the jungle out of a savage.”

A surfeit of directors of Vancouver’s prominent YIMBY organization, Abundant Housing Vancouver, shared the blog post, later claiming that publication of the blog post was a conspiracy by the group’s opponents to make the group look bad.

In 2020, YIMBY blogger, Smart Living VanCity, came out as an alt-right white supremacist. A number of YIMBY advocates, including Greg Andrews, have since turned their Twitter timelines private, as @MonitorYvr continues to tweet out.

All of the above is to record the toxic level of discourse among opposing sides in the debate as to whether steel-and-concrete, beads on a string, greenhouse gas emitting podium and plynth style 40, 50, 60 and 70 storey towers is the development model Vancouver should adopt going forward — as is the case with the Forward Together, Vision / OneCity and Progress Vancouver civic parties — or, as is the case with TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver, a democratic and community engaged, neighbourhood-and-citizen respecting gentle density approach to building housing to resolve Vancouver’s omnipresent housing crisis is the preferred approach.

Meanwhile, in other not-so-good news of the day, the September 19th Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods Mayoral debate that was to take place at the Britannia Community Centre and be moderated by Business in Vancouver publisher and editor-in-chief, Kirk LaPointe, was cancelled yesterday, after a representative for ABC Mayoral candidate Ken Sim wrote to the Coalition stating that Mr. Sim would not be made available to attend the single most important Mayoral debate of the 2022 election season, while Vancouver’s feckless and invisible Mayor Kennedy Stewart and his Forward Together Vancouver civic party failed to respond at all.

In other distressing campaign news, the Non Partisan Association (NPA) is accusing ABC President Peter Armstrong of hiring an individual to work on the NPA campaign, with the sole purpose of retrieving data from the NPA for ABC (A Better City?) to use in their campaign — for many years, Mr. Armstrong was the President of the NPA, only to have the party stolen from him while vacationing on his yacht, and visiting his very good friend, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s Italian villa.

As for more dirty tricks from the ABC campaign for office, there’s this …

Then there’s this tweet by Peter Meiszner, an ABC candidate for Council.

And how about Vancouver City Councillor Christine Boyle’s “head over heels in love with her” (wait til he wakes up one day) husband Seth Klein going after TEAM … for a Livable Vancouver Mayoral candidate, Colleen Hardwick.

VanRamblings will leave the campaigns for office with this peace of advice …

#VanPoli | Vancouver City Council | Vapid & Not on Your Side

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Vancouver City Hall.

Today’s VanRamblings column was originally intended to take our “new” Vancouver City Council to task, a City Council in which we are profoundly disappointed — who have against all reason turned out to be a reactionary amalgam of self-serving, do-nothing municipal politicians who have surrounded themselves with sycophants who praise them for their “good works”, a group of electeds who not only have lost the thread of why it was they were elected (read: build affordable housing!), but rather who have proven these past seven months to be just like the character in the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, who seem to as the child in the story says appears not to be “wearing anything at all!”
We here at VanRamblings had intended on employing satirical commentary, combined with our tried-and-true hyperbolic approach to recording our thoughts on the screen in front of you for the Thursday post today.
But, alas, we’re simply not up for doing that on this tremendous day!

Vessi footwear | Carbon blue | 100% waterproof | comfyVanRamblings’ new carbon blue Vessi shoes. Comfy. Stylish. 100% waterproof!

For you see, it is a wonderfully sunny day in Vancouver, deserving of a walk along the beach and an opportunity to spend time with friends. Today, VanRamblings — our disappointment in our “new” Vancouver City Council notwithstanding — find ourselves enjoying our new carbon blue Vessi shoes that are comfy and swell-looking and oh-so-stylish, which makes us happy.
So, in consequence, VanRamblings will hold off until next week to spell out exactly why we find ourselves dispirited in respect of Vancouver’s “new” do-nothing, survival of the fittest Darwinian City Council, and instead will set about to enjoy the day, while thinking to our self: why was editor, author, columnist, political activist, father, lover of baseball, and person of principle (always!) Derrick O’Keefe not elected to Council, to hold the current ne’er-do-well group of “oh we love our City staff, they’d never give us advice and provide direction to us that is anything other than true to the interests of the citizenry of our fair city” members of our inept Council to account?
Arts Friday on Friday. Stories of a Life on Saturday. Music Sunday Sunday.
And back to municipal political writing on Monday or Tuesday. See ya then.

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

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City of Vancouver affordable housing graphic

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.

BOSA affordable housing development at 1155 Thurlow Street, with 45 social housing and 168 secure rental units
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.

Catalyst Community Development Society, Vancouver

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.”


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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.


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

Catalyst Community Development located at 2221 Main Street, in the city of Vancouver

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.

#VanPoli Civic Politics | Faith Groups + Affordable Housing | Part 3

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Audrey Anne Guay, Vancouver power broker, SFU Urban Studies Masters student, Chairperson of MVA Housing Leadership TeamAudrey Anne Guay, powerbroker, Simon Fraser University Masters student in Urban Studies, Chairperson of the Metro Vancouver Alliance Affordable Housing Action Team, community activist, organizer, an inspiration to all who know her & hope of our future.

THE ROLE OF THE METRO VANCOUVER ALLIANCE IN WORKING WITH FAITH GROUPS TOWARDS THE PROVISION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING ACROSS THE METRO VANCOUVER REGION

Audrey Anne Guay, 26, arising from a research grant bestowed by Simon Fraser University for the past eight months to spearhead the Metro Vancouver Alliance’s (MVA) Affordable Housing Action Team has, this past year, emerged as one of the key figures in the continuing discussion on the provision of affordable, low cost housing in the Metro Vancouver region.

The Metro Vancouver Alliance (MVA) is a broad-based alliance of 75 civil society institutions who work together for the common good, comprised of members of 60 faith groups across our region, and representatives from 15 labour unions, including the British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union (BCGEU), and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

In fact, democratic, activist grassroots MVA members (and sponsoring) organizations together represent more than 200,000 citizens across the Metro Vancouver region, and over 700,000 citizens across our province.

Metro Vancouver Alliance meeting on the role of faith groups who, together, are creating the conditions that will lead to the construction of affordable housing

Here is the erudite, socially conscious and, often, emotionally trenchant Ms. Guay, in her own words, on her work with MVA and faith groups across our region who, together, are creating the conditions that will lead to the construction of affordable housing across our region …

“There’s a great deal of energy in the faith-led sector to develop land owned by places of worship across the Metro Vancouver region, for the provision of low cost, affordable housing. The research conducted by MVA has provided insight into both the motivations of the faith groups, and the challenges they face.

A secondary, but still important, focus of MVA’s Housing Team revolves around the role of Community Land Trusts, arising from the successes of MVA’s sister organization in London where as just one small but significant component of the work they’ve successfully completed, involved the construction of 23 affordable homes in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in London. The Land Trust model, going strong in Vancouver (1500 affordable homes are now under construction in Vancouver!), is of particular interest to MVA, in that it involves community leadership in developing affordable housing solutions.”

Much of Audrey Guay’s work has involved speaking with faith leaders, who may or may not be members of the Metro Vancouver Alliance, who have indicated an interest and begun a discussion on making their sites available for the building of much needed low cost housing.

In addition, over the past year, Ms. Guay has met and had in-depth discussions with city planning staffs in municipalities across the region, City Councillors, affordable housing development staff at the Pacific regional office of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, various non-profit associations across the region, and community-oriented developers like Robert Brown’s Catalyst Community Developments Society, and Stuart Thomas, Simon Davie and Jim O’Dea, among other development staff, at Terra Housing.

Audrey Anne Guay is a name you will hear for years and years to come — a critical and necessary voice of change in a society in flux, and a splendidly energized and energizing difference maker, an undeniable presence in all of our lives, whether you are aware of her or not (and you should be!).

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Want to gain an understanding of what’s going on in the faith-based and non-profit affordable housing development front? Well, then, your attendance at tonight’s Metro Vancouver Alliance Housing Forum is absolutely mandatory (and, it will be fun and informative!). Organized by MVA Executive Director Tracey Maynard and MVA Housing Leadership team leader, Audrey Anne Guay, information on the where and when of tonight’s critically important housing event may be found in the poster below.

The Metro Vancouver Alliance Housing Forum, at the Wosk Auditorium, Jewish Cultural Centre, May 15 2019