Pete Fry has run for civic office twice previously. This time around could be third time lucky. The lucky ones, of course, will be us.
VanRamblings knows that Pete Fry would be a transformational City Councillor, who would spend his every waking moment working to build a livable city for you, for your neighbours, your friends and your family.
We know Pete Fry to be Vancouver’s pre-eminent city building philosopher, and at this critical juncture in Vancouver’s history, Pete Fry is not only a necessary candidate for whom to cast your ballot, but an absolutely critical candidate to elect to Vancouver City Council if your needs, and the needs of your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours are to be met.
The Greens’ Pete Fry, OneCity’s Christine Boyle and COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe constitute an historic trinity of civic election candidates who, working together, will build the city we need, the three most charismatic, thoughtful, educated, urban planning democrats to run for City Council since the days of renowned urbanists Walter Hardwick, Fritz Bowers, Setty Pendakur, William Gibson and Art Cowie, who made up Council’s sagacious academic quintet of respected urban planners and landscape architects in the early 1970s, establishing a livable region plan that lives on to this day.
What does all of the above mean for you, for your life in the city, and the livability of Vancouver going forward? As is the case with must-elects Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe, Pete Fry is committed to …
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Public amenities. After 10 years of woeful underfunding of Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, Pete Fry is committed to the growth and renewal of this critical public infrastructure, and greater, less expensive and universal access to these critical community resources.
- Affordable housing. Pete Fry is committed to recognizing the right to housing in the Vancouver Charter, and defining affordability relative to local incomes, such that Vancouver’s citizens would pay not more than 30% of their income on meeting their housing needs.
In addition, Pete Fry on City Council would work with his Green Party colleagues, and with Christine Boyle and Derrick O’Keefe, as well, to set a goal of 50% below-market-rate housing overall for all new multi-residential development, while launching a city-funded, city-built housing programme on city-owned land, as well as provincial and federal Crown land, on a leasehold basis, construction costs to be paid through developer community amenity contributions, federal and provincial tax, and a speculation land value capture tax.
- Small business. Pete Fry and his Green Party colleagues — must-elects Adriane Carr, out city’s most beloved and most cherished City Councillor; the estimable and surprising and charismatic Michael Wiebe, a democrat and arts and small business advocate extraordinaire; and David HT Wong, an architect, long an advocate of heritage preservation, and slow growth, respectful of the needs, wants and desires of citizens in neighbourhoods across our city — all of whom are committed to lowering small business tax, while having major corporate business pay a fairer share of tax. In respect of housing, the Green Party’s commitment to 3500 units of rental, social, co-and-co-op housing built on city, federal and provincial land, each and every year for the next 10 years — with no one paying more than 30% of their income for housing — would mean not only would lower income workers be able to afford to live in city, small businesses would find it easier to recruit employees.
Have you noticed lately while walking down the streets of our city, the number of businesses that are shuttered due to the lack of staff. The Green Party housing plan, along with lower small business tax, would enable small business to pay higher wages to employees housed nearby on affordable city-owned rental, or co-op housing.
- Small business. Pete Fry and his Green Party colleagues — must-elects Adriane Carr, out city’s most beloved and most cherished City Councillor; the estimable and surprising and charismatic Michael Wiebe, a democrat and arts and small business advocate extraordinaire; and David HT Wong, an architect, long an advocate of heritage preservation, and slow growth, respectful of the needs, wants and desires of citizens in neighbourhoods across our city — all of whom are committed to lowering small business tax, while having major corporate business pay a fairer share of tax. In respect of housing, the Green Party’s commitment to 3500 units of rental, social, co-and-co-op housing built on city, federal and provincial land, each and every year for the next 10 years — with no one paying more than 30% of their income for housing — would mean not only would lower income workers be able to afford to live in city, small businesses would find it easier to recruit employees.
Pete Fry, along with his Green Party colleagues, Christine Boyle and her OneCity Council candidate colleague, Brandon Yan, in concert with Derrick O’Keefe and COPE’s Jean Swanson and Anne Roberts will work with the provincial government to shorten the timelines for rollout of $10-a-day child care, while also requesting more money for transit, community shuttle bus, and overnight Skytrain service on the weekends.
Child care centres established in housing co-op developments, as is the case at the 135-unit Railyard Housing Co-op, built on city land, the construction and materials paid for by Concert Properties through an arrangement with Vancouver’s Community Land Trust, a re-opening of The Playhouse as a year-round theatre company servicing all other theatre companies in Vancouver, continuity of care seniors housing built in every neighbourhood, keeping our streets and our boulevards clean and groomed so it might said once more that Vancouver is not only the most beautiful city on the continent, but the cleanest and most welcoming city.
And let us not forget, either, that Pete Fry is committed to — unlike the right-of-centre NPA, Vancouver 1st, Yes Vancouver, Coalition Vancouver civic parties — the negotiation of a fair collective agreement for Vancouver’s 3500 city workers, organized within CUPE 1004 and CUPE 15 bargaining units. Negotiations begin later this autumn.
Make no mistake, Pete Fry is a key element in the success of any reformation plan that will be undertaken at Vancouver City Hall.
Pete is the visionary, Derrick is the take no guff charismatic, truth-telling spokesperson, while Christine Boyle is the democratically-engaged, collaborative, ‘get things done’ negotiator with stakeholder groups, the Council member who will ensure that things will actually get done, and that Pete Fry, Derrick O’Keefe and her plans are fully realized and implemented.
As remarkably well-qualified & livable city building candidates for Vancouver City Council in our city’s 2018 municipal election, the Greens’ Pete Fry, OneCity’s Christine Boyle and COPE’s Derrick O’Keefe are uniquely positioned as the holy trinity of civic governance, the magnificent trio who will transform our city into the paradise by the ocean we know it can once again become.
At the advance polls vote, under the Councillor ballot near the top in the lucky number 7 position, you’ll find the name FRY, Pete all ready for you to fill in the oval by his name. You might as well do the same for BOYLE, Christine, given her second place placement on the ballot.
As Christine Boyle’s father told Pete when he met him for the first time at the Kerrisdale Community Centre all candidates meeting awhile back, “Boyle and Fry, now there’s a recipe for success at the polls.”
And so it is, and so it must be.
Lucky you. The advance polls are open today through until next Wednsday, October 17th — you can cast your vote today for #2 BOYLE, Christine on the randomized ballot, skip down to 7th place, FRY, Pete, and place a check mark by his name. You might as well check O’KEEFE, Derrick, at lucky #13th from last place at the bottom of the Councillor ballot.
You’ll sleep better tonight, we promise!
If you decide to cast your ballot early, you choose one Mayoral candidate out of 21, and for City Council you’re to elect 10 Councillors in total, at Park Board there are 7 Commissioners to elect, and at School Board, 9 trustees.
We’d ask that you please, please please keep yourself informed, and being partisan for just one moment, we’d ask that you please vote for the progressive candidates running for office with the Greens, COPE and OneCity in this year’s critical-to-our-future Vancouver municipal election.
Advance voting locations, today thru October 17th, 8am til 8pm …
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Vancouver City Hall, 453 W 12th Avenue
- Roundhouse Arts & Rec Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews
- Britannia Community Services Centre, 1661 Napier Street
- Hastings Community Centre, 3096 East Hastings Street
- Renfrew Park Community Centre, 2929 East 22nd Avenue
- Killarney Community Centre, 6260 Killarney Street
- Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive
- Sunset Community Centre, 6810 Main Street
- Marpole | Oakridge Community Centre, 990 West 59th Avenue
- Kerrisdale Community Centre, 5851 West Boulevard
- Kitsilano War Memorial Community Centre, 2690 Larch Street
- West End Community Centre, 870 Denman Street
We’ll see you back tomorrow for another critical endorsement.
Full VanRamblings election coverage is available here.
