July? Must be the silly season in Vancouver politics
Being an election year, this summer is a lot more political than usual. In non-election years the local press often has difficulty finding stories of interest on the civic scene. Not this year. Not a day goes by that there isn’t some sort of story to shake things up.
What seems lost in most of these stories is what I think is most important to voters: Vancouver. Not infidelity, not youthful exuberance, not the internal machinations of giant political machines. Vancouver. The city and its problems. Its future. Its plans.
I hope we can all get back to what is important soon. For me and for this blog that would be parks and recreation. I hope that in this year’s election we can have a real debate about what the Park Board actually does. The Park Board website describes it this way:
“exclusive possession, jurisdiction, and control over more than 230 public parks in Vancouver and a large public recreation system of community centres, pools, rinks, fitness centres, golf courses, street trees, marinas, playing fields, and more.”
I hope in this election this is what we will discuss.
We need to talk about the state of our parks and playing fields. We need to discuss governance and volunteerism at our Community Centres. We need to debate fees and access. We need to talk about future growth and current maintenance. We need the electorate to understand the importance of these public assets.We need candidates that are concerned about the things the Park Board actually does.
So here’s a challenge: From now until the election on November 15th, let’s talk about Parks and Recreation.
Stuart Mackinnon has granted VanRamblings permission to re-publish his Better Parks column.
