At the outset of Monday evening’s Vancouver Park Board meeting, scheduled for 6pm, with Park Board Vice-Chair Aaron Jasper at the head of the table, there were not enough Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioners present for the necessary quorum. Over the course of the hour until quorum was present, at 7pm, Mr. Jasper adjourned the meeting.
Vancouver Park Board Commissioner John Coupar on CBC’s Early Edition. Nov. 4 2013.
During the course of that hour, Aaron “done deal” Jasper approached Save Kits Beach organizer Howard Kelsey to inform him that his mind, and that of his fellow Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioners were already made up. Further, Jasper told Kelsey that the Special Meeting that had been ordered convened by Commissioners John Coupar and Melissa DeGenova — in order that the community might provide input into the membership of, and terms of reference for, an already sanctioned Park Board Special Advisory Committee on the Hadden and Kits Beach portion of the Seaside Greenway bike route — would prove to be a frustrating “exercise in futility,” would accomplish nothing, that the Visionless Park Board Commissioners would proceed as they had always intended, and under no circumstance would Park Board relinquish, or cede, control to a Special Advisory Committee respecting the determination of the final parks bike route.
Save Kits Beach rally. Vancouver Park Board Commissioners, John Coupar and Melissa DeGenova, addressing the crowd. Video, courtesy of Elvira Lount. October 20, 2013
Four hours after the Special Park Board meeting was convened that is exactly what happened. One Vision Vancouver Park Board Commissioner after another, led by Mr. Jasper, and followed by Constance Barnes and Trevor Loke, and finally Niki Sharma (the beleaguered Commissioner chosen to Chair the Special Meeting) - who was all but mute on the subject of the defeat of Commissioner Coupar’s motion - voted lock step against a motion calling for a fair, open and transparent process for the determination of a bike route through, or around, Hadden and Kits Beach parks.
Raymond Tomlin, on behalf of COPE, speaks out against Hadden + Kits Beach portion of the Seaside Greenway. Video courtesy of Elvira Lount. October 20 2013
Update: On Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, Megan Carvell Davis launched a B.C. Supreme Court action, applying for an injunction to stop construction of the Hadden Park portion of the Seaside Greenway. On Friday, November 8, 2013, the Supreme Court of British Columbia granted injunctive relief to Ms. Carvell Davis. For now, the City of Vancouver may not proceed with the Hadden Park portion of the Seaside Greenway. Work will be halted.
Please find the Press Release on the matter below.
Hadden Park Press Release, Nov 8 2013
As stated in The Province newspaper story the day after the meeting …
The Vancouver Park Board voted against a motion to give “claws or teeth” to a promised advisory group on the controversial Kitsilano Beach and Hadden parks bike lane.
Speaker Elvira Lount questioned why Park Board was going ahead with its request for proposals deadline of Tuesday when the advisory group, which is expected to be up and running by mid-November, has not yet been formed. “How can (potential bidders on the bike route) budget for something that has not been determined?” she asked the board.
The manner of approach Vision Vancouver chooses to the business of the people? In the dark, with no transparency, spun to make themselves look good, anti-democratic, arrogant and bullying — and, let’s face it, just downright infuriating for the hundreds of irate citizens who have turned up meeting after Park Board meeting this past couple of years, only to be dismissed and ignored by the Vision Vancouver members of Park Board.
Gregor Robertson announces it’s his intention to hive off 1/3 of the Langara Golf Course for “affordable condominums”, Langara residents turn out to protect their green space, and Vision Park Board Commissioners order a “metrics report.” With much fanfare, in the summer of 2012, Gregor Robertson announces Vision will build a 30-foot-wide bike path / pedestrian seawall from Kitsilano thru Jericho beaches, along the last piece of pristine foreshore. The response of our nature-loving Vision Park Board Commissioners, “Hey, what a great idea. Birds, wildlife? Nope, it’s bikes that matter to us.” Fortunately, B.C. Common Law, and the legal concept of riparian rights prevented Vision from acting on their ‘off the cuff’ plans — there’ll be no foreshore-destroying seawall bike path anytime soon, or ever.
Click on the photos above for added pithy commentary, or comment yourself on Facebook. Please click here for additional photos of Monday night’s meeting, courtesy of David Fine.
Of course, Aaron Jasper’s and Vision’s rationale for defeating John Coupar’s reasonable motion was, as Randey Brophy writes in a Letter to the Editor to The Province newspaper Thursday, “a complete misrepresentation” …
Contrary to Vision Vancouver Park Board Vice-Chairman Aaron Jasper’s comments after the meeting, there was no overriding power proposed for the advisory group over the city’s decisions or policies. What was proposed was that “the advisory group formed will fully review the Seaside Greenway route (Kits Beach / Hadden Park portion) and report back to the Park Board with their recommendation for any changes.”
The ‘proposed overriding power’ of the advisory group, as stated by Mr. Jasper, was not proposed — it was completely made up by Jasper at the end of the meeting, to a chorus of disbelieving questions and boos from the vast majority of the audience …
Consulting with and listening to recommendations from the affected taxpaying electorate, as opposed to those made by unelected but taxpayer-funded bike lobby groups, is something Vision Vancouver is, once again, demonstrably incapable of doing.
C’mon back mid-Saturday for additional content and insight into the continuing struggle — a struggle that beggars belief, given that our Park Board Commissioners have as their mandate, and are supposed to protect and enhance our parks — towards the preservation of green space, and a Seaside Greenway bike route that will prove safe for cyclists, and all recreational users of our beloved Hadden and Kitsilano Beach parks.
Photos of Monday, Nov. 4th’s Park Board meeting. Courtesy of Elvira Lount. Nov. 4 2013
