David's Vancouver

I want a Vancouver for Everyone. For me, this means....

Reducing poverty in the Downtown Eastside

Vancouver is one of the most desirable places in the world to live. It is also a place where the most expensive neighbourhoods are in close proximity to one of Canada's poorest and most disadvantaged communities: the Downtown East Side (DTES). Rooming houses that were once home to the loggers, miners and fishers are now hotels for people living with mental illness and drug addiction. Vancouver, along with the Provincial and Federal Governments, agreed to a Four Pillar strategy but it has been very slow to be enacted and implemented. It is only in the harm reduction pillar -- INSITE -- that can truly claim success. Even then, it is in only one venue. We need to fully implement the Four Pillar Strategy to properly begin solving the problems of mental illness and drug addictions and particular attention must be paid to youth prevention to reduce the incidence for the future.

Ensuring and increasing affordable housing stock

Housing prices have skyrocketed, leaving many with little hope of ever being home owners and putting enormous pressure both on the price and availability of all categories of rental accommodation. The city needs to use its standards of maintenance bylaw to prevent the deteriorization of existant rental stock and its conversion to condos for the wealthy. We need to bring the federal and provincial governments back into the building of more social housing -- particularly cooperative housing -- and give incentives for the development of affordable rental housing.

Saving energy through reducing consumption and Increasing transportation capacities

We need to understand that the cost of energy is going to do nothing but rise. Every new building built and every substantial renovation needs to substantially reduce both energy consumption and demand on the city for additional water, solid and liquid waste treatment. District heating, neighbourhood composting, neighbourhood recycling, return depots and neighbourhood gardens are just some of the ways we can move towards neighbourhood sustainability. Rising gas prices mean that we have to accelerate the enhancement of the pedestrian, cycling and public transit options with a primary focus on expanding the fleet of clean buses and the upass system for college, schools and workplace nodes to get more people out of cars and reduce congestion. Transportation investment needs to focus on public transit and shift truck use to off-peak times when there is additional road capacity, rather than building for additional peak period capacity at enormous cost bringing yet further congestion and air polution.

Using waste to create energy

Vancouver needs to improve its sewage treatment facilities and capture the biogas created to fuel its fleet of vehicles. It needs to expand its district heating capacity and look for opportunities to capture and store waste heat from commercial, industrial and even residential facilities. We need to reduce our solid waste disposal by another 25 percent by getting all of the organic materials out of the waste stream coverting them to compost. This is particularly important as more multitenant building are built.

Strengthening neighbourhoods by increasing representation

We need to strenthen the fabric of our neighbourhoods through representative neighbourhood councils, advisary committees and community policing offices. We need to strengthen and enhance the neighbourhood visioning processes and set an eco budget each year to enhance tree planting; expand community gardens; calm neighbourhood traffic; enhance bike routes; expand greenways; replace graffitti with wall murals; and generally give neighbourhoods pride of place while building social cohesion. We need to respect and enhance the historic and cultural feel of our distinct neighbourhoods and prepare those neighbourhoods for an aging population while planning for the vibrancy that will attract young people and the culturally creative who set the tone for attracting artists and innovators who give neighbourhoods their dynamism.

Making Vancouver a world class creative city where artists and neighbourhoods are healthy and supported

We need to make sure there is sufficient green space, community centres, affordable housing and childcare centres to attrack working families. We need to work with neighbourhood policing offices and an active neighbourhood watch to enhance community security. We need to strengthen our cultural mosaic by fostering an artistic explosion of festivals and cultural programming; not just through our major cultural organizations but also through programming in neighbourhood facilities such as school auditoriums, parks, community centres and neighbourhood houses. The promise of the olympics to conribute to building a community of physically fit and active residents needs to happen through enhanced park and rec centre usage. If Vancouver is to be looked up to around the world as a centre for creative 21st century cities, we need to make sure a good healthy lifestyle is available for all of its residents.