New bill aims to protect B.C.'s long-term renters

THE WESTENDER
November 27, 2008

On the evening of December 28, 2007, tenants of an apartment building at 1234 Barclay Street received a package in the mail from their landlord that was distinctly bereft of the holiday generosity characteristic of the season. Indeed, they were quite the opposite. The packages contained notification of a rent increase, in amounts that seemed to vary suspiciously between tenants. “Our property managers had not increased our rent at all in two years,” recalls Lynne Lawrie, who has lived in the building for 17 years, “but they were asking for increases of anywhere from 1.4 per cent up to 24.03 per cent, based on information they had gathered comparing our rent with similar suites in the area.”

Rent hikes like the ones Lawrie and her neighbours faced are becoming more common in an increasingly competitive rental market, where landlords are able to justify significant rent increases with the belief that they are just keeping up with market demand. Section 23(1)(a) of B.C.’s current residential tenancy regulation (not to be confused with the Residential Tenancy Act) says landlords can apply for a rent increase above the standard annual increase if the unit’s rent is significantly lower than that of others in the same geographic area. The rent increases that result from landlords who exploit that section of tenancy regulation can hurt long-term tenants the most, forcing them from their homes or obligating them to be complicit in rental arrangements that endanger them financially.

Spencer Herbert, the newly elected MLA for Vancouver-Burrard, is bringing forward a private members’ bill to the provincial legislature today (November 27) that he hopes will stop landlords from abusing parts of residential tenancy regulation that hurt long-term tenants. The bill, called the Long-Term Renters Protection Act, aims to remove section 23(1)(a). “[Tenancy regulation] is supposed to be about balance, so that renters and landlords can have some security,” says Herbert. “It’s not designed so you can just say, ‘Hey, I feel like charging this amount of rent today and a huge amount the next day.’”

Herbert conducted a survey of other provincial tenancy regulations across the country, and found that B.C.’s is the only one containing a provision for geographic-area increases. “It’s quite often the people with the least who are hit the hardest,” he says. “Quite often it’s seniors who’ve lived there ever since the building was built. They pay their yearly increase, they pay their taxes, they follow the rules, yet one of the rules the government’s put in place is now being abused and forcing them out of the only community they know.”

Given her experience at 1234 Barclay, Lawrie supports Herbert’s bill. She was eventually able to rally her neighbours and negotiate lower rent increases at the Residential Tenancy Office, but it was a stressful experience that not everybody is capable of following through successfully. “I thought we were protected until it happened to us,” she says. “For long-term renters who have been paying rent for years to suddenly get an increase like this is upsetting and unsettling. Spencer Herbert’s [act] is needed.”

Martha Lewis, executive director of Vancouver’s Tenant Resource Advisory Centre (TRAC), can understand a landlord’s motivation for increasing rents to maximize profits, but she would also like to see section 23(1)(a) scrapped. “Nobody expects a landlord to be providing free housing or taking a financial loss on his business... [but] this is being misused, and I hope that the government can see that and just get rid of it,” she says. “Just because you’re a tenant doesn’t mean you don’t want security of tenure, the same as a homeowner. It’s a huge upheaval to leave your home, whether you’re renting or owning.”

PHOTO: Spencer Herbert, newly-elected MLA for Vancouver Burrard at 1234 Barclay Street. By Doug Shanks.

A history of violence

THE WESTENDER
November 27, 2008

Vicki Waters spoke publicly for the first time about her experiences with childhood sexual abuse, at a forum on South Asian women and violence at Langara College on November 19. “I didn’t start to do this to sensationalize anything,” she said, “but I decided that someone has to speak up, and the time was now.”

Waters, born Karmajeet Kaur Singh, endured 10 years of brutal sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by her uncle, with whom she was sent to live with at the age of eight after her mother died in an accident. Waters’s uncle raped and beat her until she moved out of the house at 18. Last year, more than four decades after she fled, she brought a high-profile victory case to the B.C. Supreme Court. Yet although she has found a modicum of justice through the court system, she still struggles to feel at peace with herself.

Waters’s emotional account of her experiences was part of a week-long event commemorating 100 years of South Asian presence in North America. It ended on the eve of the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women (November 25), which marks the beginning of 16 days of activism in Canada against gender violence.

Despite the gains toward equality that women have achieved through the years, Sunera Thobani, a professor in the women’s and gender-studies program at UBC, stresses that there is still much progress to be made. “Every year it becomes even more urgent,” she says. “We’re now in the 21st century and we’re still living with violence, not just in the South Asian community but in the larger mainstream society as well. Violence against women continues to remain a constant feature of our society.”

Statistics support Thobani’s call for continuing to empower women with information and support. According to the B.C. Association of Specialized Victim Assistance and Counselling Programs, spousal assault accounted for more requests for victim services during the last fiscal year in B.C. than any other offense. In 2004, it was revealed that 653,000 Canadian women had reported physical or sexual assault by a spouse over the preceding five years. In 2005, 10,273 incidents of spousal assault were reported to police in B.C., marking a nine per cent increase over 2004.

“One in three women are sexually abused,” said Waters to a crowded lecture hall during her November 19 lecture. “Take a look around. Take a look to your right and to your left, in front of you and behind you. You’ve probably seen just six people now. Think of them.”

PHOTO: Sitara Thobani performs Odissi, a form of classical Indian dance, at last week’s South Asian Women on Violence forum, held at Langara College. By Jackie Wong.

Is Olympic top 10 list an insult to you?

THE WESTENDER
November 27, 2008

When VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee) CEO John Furlong made his annual address to the Vancouver Board of Trade on November 13, he unveiled a list of 10 recommendations for businesses that he hopes will encourage the city’s workforce to embrace the 2010 Winter Olympics, one of which is a call to mandate or encourage time off during the Games. But some see Furlong’s recommendations as an affront to the day-to-day realities of working people, not an attempt to support them.

“He must be appealing to somebody who’s not normally a working person,” BC Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair says of Furlong’s list. “The truth is, people can’t afford to shut down their businesses for two weeks. We’re already sacrificing for the Olympics, and I don’t think people should sacrifice more by giving up the holidays that they don’t have.”

Sinclair and his union colleagues are advocating for a new statutory holiday instead of a mandated Olympic vacation — something he sees as an appropriate Olympic legacy that everyone can enjoy for years after the Games. Sinclair would like to see the first Monday of the 2010 Games, February 12, declared a statutory holiday in honour of Terry Fox. “He epitomizes self-sacrifice and competition with oneself, and that’s what the Olympics are supposed to be about,” Sinclair says. “It’s not about making money and Coke sponsorships.”

As part of his efforts, Sinclair is trying to gain the support of local MLAs to help implement the holiday. Jenny Kwan, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, supports it. “It’s good for workers to have a stat day in February. We have a very long month, usually, after Christmas,” she says. Kwan adds that there is a fundamental flaw to VANOC’s mandated-vacation plan if part of its intention is to reduce traffic on the streets. “If the idea is to mandate a person to take time off, and yet the idea for them is to reduce congestion, what happens when the person takes their time off? That they should just stay home and not do anything? That really defeats the purpose of taking time off.”

UBC sociology professor Sylvia Fuller has focused a great deal of her academic work on studying employment. She disagrees with Furlong’s list as a feasible action plan that will inspire positive Olympic sentiments among most workers. “What a great way to make people resent the Games,” she says. “Can you imagine? ‘Sorry, kids, we can’t go camping this summer because I had to take my two weeks of vacation in February, when it rained for two weeks.’ Perhaps it would be nice if you can afford to fly to Hawaii or take a ski holiday, but for most folks it’s not going to be when they want time off.”

Fuller says Furlong’s list fails to recognize the requirements of most people’s jobs, save for the relative few who work in industries where they are equipped to work remotely. “[It] clearly doesn’t account for the realities of people who work directly with the public. You can’t work as a restaurant server at home, or provide essential services that cannot be temporarily suspended,” she says. “Assuming that workers can easily shift their daily hours of work ignores the fact that people typically adjust many aspects of their lives to their work schedules.”

Further to his list, Furlong suggested at the Board of Trade meeting that all Vancouverites should embrace a spirit of volunteerism if the Games are to be a complete success. “If these Games are to live up to their full promise, then a selfless spirit of contribution must prevail through the 2010 Games and beyond,” he said at the Board of Trade address. “These Games are not about a few of us but about all of us.”

PHOTO: Doug Shanks.

Supporters, opposition respond to Vision mayoral victory

THE WESTENDER
November 20, 2008

When it was announced last Saturday night (November 15) that Gregor Robertson would be Vancouver’s next mayor, a group of West End residents jumped for joy, joining hundreds of victorious supporters that packed a ballroom in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, where Vision Vancouver held its election party. “I feel fantastic!” Melissa Mewdell said of the win. “Gregor Robertson is the only candidate that fought for renters’ rights in this election.”

Mewdell lives in the Seafield Apartments, a heritage building on Pendrell Street that was purchased this past summer by a pair of former internet gaming executives. As was previously reported in WE, Seafield residents were told in September that upcoming renovations to the building would render rents so high that current tenants likely would not be able to afford to stay. Since then, those tenants have been making efforts to raise public awareness of what they call unfair ‘reno-victions’ — renovations that are seen to justify mass evictions.

Gregor Robertson met with Seafield tenants during the last weekend before the municipal election to address their situation. “The City can use the tool of scrutinizing and withholding a permit, if necessary, to make sure tenants are protected,” he told them.

Inspired by the help that Robertson and his Vision Vancouver colleagues seemed to offer to their cause, Mewdell and her neighbours spent election day canvassing on behalf of the Vision/COPE team. “We were promoting Gregor Robertson, Aaron Jasper, Heather Deal, Andrea Reimer, Geoff Meggs, and David Cadman,” said Brian Broster, who also lives at the Seafield. “They’ve all helped us.”

To the Seafield residents’ excitement, Vision and its centre-left allies won majority seats on council, the park board, and the school board, leaving the centre-right NPA with one of its most crushing defeats in years. Unofficial election results showed that Robertson finished with 67,598 votes, beating out the NPA’s Peter Ladner by 18,804 votes. Ladner ended the night with 48,794 votes. “We worked very hard; we stayed on the high ground,” Ladner told supporters after the results were revealed. “We never resorted to lies or smears.”

Only a few NPA-ers scored elected seats. Ken Denike and Carol Gibson took the last remaining spots on school board, and Ian Robertson is the only NPA representative on park board. Suzanne Anton held her spot on city council as the NPA’s one remaining councillor.

“I guess it’s safe to say, I’d somewhat seen that coming,” Anton said of Robertson’s victory. “I do congratulate Gregor and his team, but it will be hard being the only NPA. I know Gregor has promised an end to non-partisanship, an end to bickering. By the way, most of the bickering came from his colleagues on council.”

Anton expressed disappointment at not seeing more of her colleagues gain elected seats. “We had people with integrity, principle, and accomplishment,” she said, adding that she would have liked to see councillors Kim Capri and Elizabeth Ball re-elected, with Daljit Sidhu and Michael Geller taking new council seats.

Anton’s priorities for the next three years include the environment, land use, and the Olympics, for which she pointedly noted that Vision has not shown its support. “The Vision councillors have shown no interest whatsoever in the Olympics up ’til now,” she said. “What’s very important to me is that every citizen in Vancouver feels that it’s their Olympics and that they have a part in it.”

Vision board member Am Johal counters that the idea of an Olympics for everyone went out the window during the NPA’s reign. “Over the last three years, that idea of an inclusive Olympics went off the table,” he said. “There’s not going to be a honeymoon period for the new mayor. He really is going to have to jump in and start implementing his agenda in a fairly quick way, because there isn’t really a chance to stop, given the fact that there are so many issues happening in the next 14 months.”

Johal pointed to civil-liberties clash points, the need for a social-housing legacy, and tenancy protection as only a few of the Olympic-related issues that Robertson will need to start dealing with immediately.

Despite the message of unity that marked Vision’s race to victory, one of Robertson’s biggest challenges as mayor will be keeping his council together. “The challenge of leadership is going to be, how do you implement your agenda, and how do you keep the house together over three years?” said Johal. “There’s going to be an incredible amount of scrutiny on the new council — unprecedented in the city’s history.”

PHOTO: Gregor Robertson and family. By Jackie Wong.

Event promotes sustainable sushi

THE WESTENDER
November 20, 2008

Sustainable sushi might seem a straightforward enough concept — especially in a city as sushi-centric as Vancouver — but it can be surprisingly hard to find. After all, products like farmed salmon are less expensive than the ocean-friendly wild variety, and the global economic crisis only makes it seem less desirable for small-business owners to spend extra money on sustainability efforts.

But Emily Jubenvill says it’s now more important than ever to invest in sustainable business models. She hopes today’s (November 20) event at Sushi World Bento Express, at 1258 Robson, will be a step in the right direction. The event, called Pod Mob, is inspired by the San Francisco-based Carrot Mob, a campaign that aims to help educate consumers on supporting businesses that make socially sustainable choices. Jubenvill helped coin Vancouver’s Pod Mob with Boyd Cohen, an SFU sustainability lecturer and the founder of 3rdWhale.com, a social networking site and mobile application company that aims to help consumers make their personal lives and communities greener.

Today’s Pod Mob will ‘swarm’ Sushi Bento Express, whose owners have promised to put 31 per cent of the day’s revenue toward greening initiatives for their restaurant. Vancouver’s Green Table Network has agreed to donate a one-year membership to Sushi Bento Express as a way to provide resources and education on making more sustainable choices in all aspects of its business, including menu items, take-out packaging, and the building’s ecological footprint.

“On the consumer side, it’s about education and knowing what the state of the ocean is and why it’s an issue,” says Jubenvill, who was voted Canada’s Greenest Person by a national 3rdWhale contest this past spring. “You really do have consumer power, and if you go to a restaurant and say, ‘We want sustainable sushi,’ you can make that happen. Pod Mob is a good way to organize that.”

Jubenvill recommends sushi enthusiasts download the Consumer’s Guide to Sustainable Sushi, which is easily accessible online. The guide, compiled by California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium, is a simple resource that can help consumers make sustainable seafood choices. On the business side, the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program helps restaurateurs and food distributors to learn about sustainable seafood and how to use it in their kitchens.

Andre LaRiviere, executive director of the Green Table Network, will be working with the owners of Sushi Bento Express to kickstart the restaurant’s greening initiatives. “The most important thing the Green Table Network offers is the understanding of how to build sustainability into every operational policy or purchasing decision, putting it ‘on the menu’ in every way,” he says. “That’s where real change happens, and what’s needed to foster sustainability across the entire supply chain and support system that every restaurant relies on.”

Current members of the Green Table Network include prestigious local restaurants like Vij’s, Aurora Bistro, and Bishop’s, but greening smaller restaurants like Sushi Bento Express, says LaRiviere, is just as important. “At this level, it’s a very tough business, with very little profit and rising costs,” he says. “It’s important to support efforts to build participation — especially those like the Pod Mob — that offer real support and incentives for small-scale, neighbourhood restaurants to make the change.”

Pod Mob takes place throughout Sushi Bento Express’ business hours, from 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Special events, including an iPhone giveaway, take place 6-9 p.m.

PHOTO: The lovely Emily Jubenvill in front of Sushi Bento Express. By Doug Shanks.

Theatre company anticipates arrival of homophobic church

THE WESTENDER
November 20, 2008

Fred Phelps turned 80 last week, but old age isn’t stopping the self-proclaimed pastor of Topeka, Kansas’ Westboro Baptist Church from continuing his anti-gay crusade across North America, for which he has organized thousands of demonstrations featuring placards bearing such slogans as “God Hates Fags” and “AIDS Cures Fags.”

A November 28 stop in Vancouver appears on Westboro’s picketing schedule. Phelps’s supporters plan to demonstrate outside Commercial Drive’s Havana Theatre, to coincide with the opening night of the play The Laramie Project, about the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. Shepard died at the age of 21, after he was taken to the outskirts of Laramie by two men he met in a bar, who then robbed and beat him, and tied him to a cattle fence. He was beaten so severely that the only areas on his face not covered in blood were those where tears had washed the blood away. Eighteen hours passed before he was found by a cyclist, by which time he was in a coma. He died five days later.

The impending Vancouver arrival of the Westboro picketers became known early this month. Ryan Mooney, the play’s director and the founder of Fighting Chance Productions, was shocked to discover his low-profile staging of The Laramie Project even appeared on Westboro’s radar. “We’re a small company; this is our sixth show,” he says. Mooney has organized a peaceful counter-rally at the same time the Westboro picketers are scheduled to arrive. It takes place in Grandview Park, opposite the Havana Theatre, starting at 5 p.m.

Mooney hopes the counter-rally — which currently shows over 600 supporters on Facebook — won’t get out of hand. “We’ve heard people saying, ‘Let’s just egg these people; I want to punch them in the face.’ This is not what we want to have happen,” he says. “We’re going for a very peaceful demonstration to show that we don’t tolerate this practice in Vancouver.”

Mooney’s production marks the second Vancouver mounting of The Laramie Project in two years, as it was taken on by the drama department at Lord Byng Senior Secondary in 2006. More than 3,000 people saw the Lord Byng production, which drew acclaim from local media and international educators. “It’s the one thing that [fellow drama teacher Carol Mann] and I are most proud of, of all our teaching years. It’s the one project that I will always hold dear in my heart,” says drama teacher Tamara McKay.

McKay and the drama department worked closely with Darlene Braeder, the school principal at the time, to ensure a thorough and lengthy community consultation process that Braeder says strengthened the play’s success. “Any negative reaction was dispelled by the sincerity and the work students did ahead of time,” says Braeder of her students’ work with spreading word of the play to church and seniors’ groups. “They saw, as students, how something that they did could make a difference in so many lives.”

The Laramie Project runs Nov. 26-Dec. 6. Info: HavanaRestaurant.ca.

City must get involved in housing issues, expert says

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson has had to contend with plenty of criticism since he left his seat as NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview to run in the civic election. His critics — including, among the most vocal of them, the NPA — have said his interests in protecting housing and ending homelessness would be better realized through work with the provincial, not municipal, government (“Gregor, go back to Victoria!” was one such barb).

Claire Mahon, however, says city government plays a crucial role in the protection of housing rights, particularly when mega-events such as the 2010 Winter Olympics loom on Vancouver’s horizon.

“If it’s not the municipal government’s responsibility, then whose is it?” Mahon says. “It’s everybody’s responsibility, of course — it’s federal government, it’s provincial government — but it’s definitely city government’s responsibility, because city government is the first port of call.”

Mahon is coordinator of a project on economic, social, and cultural rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, as well as the principal author of a groundbreaking report, Multi-Stakeholder Guildelines on Mega-Events and the Protection and Promotion of Housing Rights, published by the internationally acclaimed Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) in 2007.

Mahon arrived in Vancouver from Switzerland last week to check in on a city which she sees as capable of staging a socially sustainable Olympic Games — as long as resources are allocated wisely.

“The key thing is political commitment,” Mahon says. “It’s a real opportunity for the mayoral candidates and for the City of Vancouver to make sure it’s putting appropriate resources and commitment into making sure that affordable housing and social housing become a reality here.”

While the historical relationship between Olympic Games and social sustainability has been less than perfect (“We’ve seen some of the worst examples of that in Beijing,” she quips), Mahon points to Athens and Sydney as remarkable innovators in terms of leaving a social legacy for its citizens. In Athens, the athletes’ village was built with the intention that it would be used as social and subsidized housing after the Games, and Sydney’s municipal government partnered with the police and the city’s Olympic organizing committee to protect the civil liberties of homeless people during its summer Olympics.

As for Vancouver, Mahon recommends the City work closely with community organizations. Their voices, she says, are crucial. “VANOC and the city council, the provincial government and Canadian government have nothing to lose by working closely with the community organizations and helping to make this Olympics not one that divides communities about how to approach it, but one that unites communities in making Vancouver a truly better place to live,” she says.

The Impact on Communities Coalition (IOCC) is one community group that has not had much success in getting its message heard at City Hall. Founding member Am Johal helped arrange Mahon’s visit to Vancouver, and attempted to get Mahon’s reports adopted as principles by city council in May 2008. “I think it would be really great for Vancouver, and would get multi-party support and take some of the tension out of the Olympic/housing debate,” he said at the time.

NPA councillor Peter Ladner told Johal that he could not put it forward as a motion.

PHOTO: Claire Mahon in English Bay. By Doug Shanks.

Politicians rush to comment on Olympic Village firestorm

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

The Vancouver mayoral race heated up last week — or burst into flames, depending on how you look at it — when mainstream media leaked the City’s controversial $100-million loan to the developer of the Olympic Village at southeast False Creek in an effort to speed up its completion. The loan, which comes from the City’s Property Endowment Fund, was decided upon by Mayor Sam Sullivan and city council at an in-camera meeting held October 14.

Secrecy surrounding the decision sparked debate between mayoral candidates Gregor Robertson and Peter Ladner, who held several dueling press conferences on Friday, November 7. By the end of the day, any theories as to similarities between the two candidates were out the window, with Robertson calling for a public meeting to discuss the loan, and Ladner sensationally claiming that he was prepared to lose the election if it meant saving the project and protecting taxpayers.

“I have a background in journalism. I have spent my whole life trying to get information out to the public,” Ladner told reporters at a press conference late Friday afternoon. “I would love to discuss this with the public, and when I’m mayor, we will release every bit of information about this as soon as the negotiations are completed. Now is not the time to be calling for public meetings. Now is not the time to call for a reconsideration in the middle of negotiations, in a highly-sensitive, multi-million-dollar project with some of the toughest negotiators in the world.”

Ladner called Robertson’s stance on the issue “simple politicking,” adding that his opponent’s treatment of the Olympic Village controversy showed he was not equipped to run the city.

Former NPA mayor Philip Owen sent a letter to NPA supporters on November 10, criticizing Robertson’s handling of the issue and praising Ladner’s courage. (Former COPE mayor Larry Campbell later made a public announcement supporting Owen’s stance, and Mayor Sam Sullivan issued a letter via e-mail.) “Gregor Robertson is not being honest and truthful with Vancouver citizens. All his left-leaning political colleagues for over 35 years, going back to Harry Rankin, have supported the Property Endowment Fund policies,” Owen wrote. “Confidentiality in all real-estate transactions is essential until the completion date, which is after all the lawyers sign off on the transaction. When and if this is done, all the details about the Olympic Village will be made public.”

Owen had a public falling-out with the NPA in 2002, and was defeated from seeking re-election by then-councillor Jennifer Clarke.

“The way it is right now, we are undermining [the development] by having rumours and all sorts of unsubstantiated facts... We don’t know what’s true and what’s not,” Robertson told reporters at a press conference Sunday, November 9. “It’s a simple call for a public meeting to put the financial situation and the loan on the table to discuss what the implications are for taxpayers. If we can get clarity on that, I think we’ll be back on track.”

Robertson was careful to acknowledge the confidentiality clauses surrounding the loan, particularly since the decision to draw from the Property Endowment Fund was determined at an in-camera meeting that was closed to the public. “We can obviously be mindful of what is legal and strategic obligation,” he said. “The fact that it’s a billion-dollar project, with a lot of rumours flying around, warrants having a more open and transparent meeting.”

Meanwhile, COPE council candidate Ellen Woodsworth is calling for clearer guidelines for use of the Property Endowment Fund. Woodsworth and the COPE team recommend city council start a public process that could use an independent panel to develop guidelines for use of the Fund. “The lack of transparency is seriously eroding public confidence in how council functions,” Woodsworth said in a prepared statement.

Whether or not the controversy will inspire more voters to hit the polls on November 15 remains to be seen, but whomever wins the election will be left with the momentous task of repairing fractured relationships of trust between council, city staff, and the general public.

Budget cuts reopen debate on Burrard Bridge, cyclists

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

What used to be a $63-million proposal to repair the Burrard Bridge has been cut to nearly half by the NPA, whose members announced a $33-million plan to improve seismic safety and cyclist infrastructure on the 78-year-old heritage bridge last week.

“We are very concerned about our city’s financial situation in these troubled times, and we want to protect the taxpayer and not leap into a lot of uneccessary spending that we should be careful about avoiding,” said NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner at a press conference on November 3. “We’ve heard that the cost of widening the sidewalk, which is our preferred option, has gone up to $63 million. We don’t think that is financially sustainable.”

Instead of widening the sidewalk or participating in a lane-closure trial favoured by Vision Vancouver opponents, the NPA proposed the construction of a barrier between the bridge’s sidewalk and roadway. “It’s good for cyclists,” said councillor Suzanne Anton, who is seeking re-election this year. “I’m a cyclist, and what you don’t like as a cyclist coming across the bridge is there’s always that fear that you might come over the edge. What we need to do is protect cyclists from that happening.”

Other city cyclists are not happy with the NPA plan. In a Remembrance Day demonstration, members of the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and Friends of Burrard Bridge argued against what they saw as an ineffective barrier plan. Richard Campbell of Friends of Burrard Bridge says it would do more to jeopardize cyclists and pedestrians than it would to increase their safety. “With a narrow [sidewalk] space, it’s going to mean people will hit each other more often,” he says. “This is [the NPA’s] typical lose-lose compromise. Nobody really wins on this one.”

Campbell favours Vision Vancouver’s proposal to remove one lane of vehicle traffic to create two bike lanes — one in each direction — on the bridge’s roadway. “Between more space on the bridge, more people using transit because of the Canada Line, and more people walking and cycling, I don’t think we really need the six lanes on Burrard Bridge,” he says. “It makes sense to give [lane closure] a trial.”

Campbell doesn’t think transit or emergency vehicle traffic will be negatively affected by a lane closure. “As far as transit and emergency vehicles, there certainly could be queue-jumper lanes on Cornwall and Burrard. And emergency vehicles operate fine on [one to four]-lane bridges.”

Kari Hewett, an avid cyclist who is active in the city’s bike scene, agrees. “Vision Vancouver’s position could encourage considerably more cycling usage on the bridge and potentially attract votes to make it happen. I would likely cycle it more frequently,” she says. “For those who cycle, or would like to, I hope they weigh the voting track record of existing councillors against their rhetoric on cycling initiatives and infrastructure.”

Campbell predicts the civic vote from the bike community will not bode well for the NPA. “They’re expecting cyclists to vote for them, but they’re not willing to do anything for cyclists,” he says.

A brew for all seasons

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

Beer isn’t a hug, but sometimes it’s pretty damn close. Luckily for Vancouverites, our local microbreweries know how to craft a truly fantastic winter beer, offering our droopy selves a welcome reprieve from the season’s ambient greyness.

“In the winter, you need something that’s the drink equivalent of comfort food,” says Rick Dellow, who owns the eponymous R & B Brewing Co. with Berry Benson. Combining their experience in the Vancouver brewing industry, the duo built the traditional English R & B brewery near False Creek 11 years ago. Now, their handcrafted brews can be found on tap at restaurants and bars across the city, including Bin 941, the Alibi Room, and the Brickhouse. When WE caught up with Benson and Dellow last week, they had just finished bottling their annual batch of Auld Nick Winter Ale, a dark, heady concoction whose popularity contributes to its short shelf life: it tends to sell out by the end of December. “There are no spices or flavours added, but it has a nice roasty, malty flavour to it; the body of the malt balances the higher alcohol content,” says Benson. “It’s the beer equivalent to Christmas cake,” adds Dellow, who named the beer after an influential Scottish brewer.

For winter beer across the board, boldness and decadence are key. James Walton runs Storm Brewing out of a small space on Commercial Drive, delivering draft to restaurants in his neighbourhood and as far west as Koerner’s Pub at UBC. His previous career in the pharmaceutical industry makes for a mad scientist’s approach to brewing. He recently formulated a batch of pumpkin ale using ginger, mace, cinnamon, cloves, and pumpkins left over from a pie-making blitz. That batch was enthusiastically imbibed at a Storm cask party last month at Dix Barbecue, but Walton’s plan for winter lies in amplifying the richness of Storm’s popular Black Plague Stout. “Usually, what I do is bump the alcohol up a little bit. That makes it chocolatier, rounder, and a little bit thicker and sweeter,” he says. “It adds extra calories for surviving the winter, and extra alcohol to keep you warm at night.”

Over at Granville Island Brewing, the four-year-old Lions Winter Ale is already in liquor stores, and going fast. The brewery has been steadily increasing its batches of winter ale each year in an effort to keep up with demand. “Last year, we had enough that stayed through until late January. Hopefully, this year we’ll have enough to last us until mid-February,” says marketing director Walter Cosman. The beer’s vanilla finish draws from the presence of white chocolate in the recipe. “In the winter season, I think everybody looks to have something that warms their insides, whether it does it mentally or physically,” says Cosman. “Beer plays a role in that.”

The biggest mistake winter drinkers can make? Abandoning beer for red wine, says Colin Jack, who teaches beer-tasting classes with Just Here for the Beer Ltd. “During the winter, a lot of people switch to red wine and think that it’s ‘more appropriate’ for the dinner table. This is the biggest beer faux pas,” he says. “Beer is a great cold-weather drink. Seasonal beers come in larger bottles, perfect for sharing, and the moderate amount of alcohol can help people remain, or become, more festive.”

Jack’s personal predilections lean toward winter beers that use different malt varieties to achieve new flavours, instead of non-traditional additives or sweeteners. As for local bottled beers to take home, he recommends the Nut Brown Ale from Aldergrove’s Dead Frog Brewery, the Amber Ale from North Vancouver’s Red Truck, the seasonal beer varieties from Surrey’s Central City Brewing, the Sasquatch Stout from Chilliwack’s Old Yale Brewing, and Mission Springs Brewing Company’s Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout.

For Jack, the best part about beer — at any time of year — is sharing one with a friend. “Beer is the most social beverage in the world,” he says. “Try not to smile when you’re sharing one.”

West End renters face eviction... again

THE WESTENDER
November 6, 2008

A brother-in-law duo of former internet gaming executives have been making waves in the West End, most notably with the acquisition of four apartment buildings over the last 15 months. Tenants of the Seafield Apartments at 1436 Pendrell St., bought by Jason Gordon and Chris Nelson of Gordon Nelson Investments in July 2008, are now waiting for the eviction notices their new property owners outrightly said they'd receive. "This is my fourth [building] owner in 31 years and I have never felt threatened before," says Wendy Stephenson, who has lived at the Seafield since 1977. "The minute [Gordon Nelson] bought, it was just, 'oh my God.'"

The 14-suite building is 77 years old, and the oldest current resident is 92 years old. The youngest resident will be born in February 2009, the month Seafield residents predict they will be forced to move out if they receive their anticipated eviction notices December 1.

"Renovations are now being used as a way to get people out. That's what's wrong," says Stephenson. "I've lived through a lot of renos. And they were never done as a way to get you out."

Chris Nelson met with a group of Seafield tenants for the first time on September 9, 2008 to tell them his plans for the building. During the meeting, Nelson indicated that Gordon Nelson Investments intended to carry out a litany of renovations including rewiring the allegedly outdated electrical system, adding a dividing wall to living rooms to create extra bedrooms in one and two-bedroom suites, updating the kitchens, and converting the laundry room into a bachelor suite.

According to Seafield residents in attendance, Nelson said the renovations would result in rent increases that would be too high for current tenants to pay.

Since that meeting, Seafield residents have been anxiously waiting for the eviction notices that will effectively force them to leave homes, friendships, and a community that have prospered for decades.

"Effectively, we have become economic liabilities," says Mark Moore, a Seafield tenant who works as a senior lecturer in economics and strategy at SFU. He says Gordon Nelson can technically justify their mass evictions with Section 49(6)(b) of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA), which states "A landlord may end a tenancy in respect of a rental unit if the landlord has all the necessary permits and approvals required by law, and intends in good faith, to do any of the following... renovate or repair the rental unit in a manner that requires the rental unit to be vacant."

Of the RTA, Moore says it contains loopholes that can work against tenants. "Landlords with no moral compunction will find a way to get around it," he says.

When WE contacted Gordon Nelson for details of the proposed Seafield renovations and associated tenant concerns with possible evictions, Chris Nelson was uncomfortable talking about plans. "What I can say is yes, we do own the building," he said. "But out of respect for the 14 individuals and/or families who live there, we're not comfortable talking to the media about any potential plans for the building that may or may not effect them. We have to respect their privacy."

B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman was made aware of the issue through a meeting with tenant advocacy group Renters at Risk and Seafield residents during the last weekend before the provincial by-election. Arthur Griffiths, who ran unsuccessfully with the BC Liberals, was in attendance. Renters at Risk had been trying to secure a meeting with Coleman for 18 months.

Coleman did not return WE's phone call by press time.

Spencer Herbert, the new NDP MLA-elect for Vancouver-Burrard, has spoken with Seafield residents and is now trying to reach Coleman to discuss the Seafield eviction. "I don't believe [the renters] got anywhere with him," he said of the Oct. 26 meeting. Herbert is pushing to implement the Right of First Refusal clause in B.C.'s tenancy legislation, which has already been adopted by Ontario's Liberal government. The Right of First Refusal would allow tenants to return to their apartments after renovations without paying significantly higher rent.

But could implementing of the Right of First Refusal save the Seafield tenants? Herbert says it's only a matter of political will. "If Minister Coleman wanted to do it, if Gordon Campbell wanted to, they could. But in terms of respect for renters, we haven't seen it from this government so far," he says. "The Liberal government could pass legislation this November if they wanted to."

PHOTO: The Seafield apartments on Pendrell Street. By Jackie Wong.

Don't let the bed bugs bite

THE WESTENDER
November 6, 2008

When Maciej Ceglowski stayed in a hotel room two years ago that turned out to be infested with bed bugs, he learned the hard way how little was being said about the tiny nocturnal insects that feast on human blood. “It occurred to me that hotel owners and landlords had no interest in disclosing bed-bug problems to potential guests and tenants, since the problem was so hard to deal with,” he recalls.

Frustrated by the lack of dialogue about what he saw as a widespread problem, Ceglowski, a San Francisco-based computer programmer, launched BedBugRegistry.com with Britta Gustafson. The site enables users to report and search for bed-bug infestations in hotels and apartments across North America. It now contains 3,400 bed-bug reports for 2,100 distinct locations.

Alarmingly, the registry flags more than 100 apartments in downtown Vancouver with infestations dating back to 2006. “Bed bugs ruined my new bed, bed sheets, bags, clothes, and pillows, which I bought when I moved,” writes an anonymous poster from the West End’s Central Plaza apartment at 1160 Haro Street. “This inconvenience has cost me $1,800, furniture, and sleepless nights. Now I don’t have a place to go, and I don’t think I can get my money back.”

Another West End tenant, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared a similar story with WE. She moved into a West End apartment at the beginning of October, and left within her first week of living there. The bed-bug infestation in the building rendered her suite uninhabitable. After getting rid of infested furniture, buying a new bed and sofa, and repeatedly dry-cleaning and laundering all her clothes, she is now short $13,000 from the ordeal.

The widespread desire for anonymity with regard to bed-bug infestations exacerbates and muffles the magnitude of the problem. “We stigmatize victims because it is more comfortable to imagine that their behaviour or poor moral character are to blame for the problem than to acknowledge it is a somewhat random event,” Ceglowski says. “It is much more comforting to think that these things can only happen to dirty people with slovenly habits and poor character than it is to acknowledge our own vulnerability.”

Vancouver blogger Sean Orr agrees. When he found bed bugs in the exposed-brick walls of his Gastown loft last spring, his building’s strata president blamed him for the infestation. “[He] essentially blamed my activism in the Downtown Eastside for the infestation,” he recalls. The bites, anxiety, and stress caused by the infestation was so severe that Orr was hospitalized as a result. “The bed bugs triggered a manic episode, and I ended up in the psych ward at UBC,” he says. After weekly efforts to treat his apartment for the infestation (he received four professional bed-bug treatments and mopped his floors every weekend for three months) and making his neighbours aware of the building’s infestation, Orr was eventually able to contain the problem.

Since it often takes more than one treatment to keep the pests at bay, companies like Vancouver Bed Bug Control are doing good business. Owner Mark Amery charges about $300 to $350 for an apartment extermination treatment. His advice for bed-bug sufferers: Try to prevent the problem from spreading. “The first thing we tell [clients] is don’t throw out the bed, don’t throw out your box spring, don’t go spraying Raid all over the place. It’s just going to make it worse,” he says, adding that transporting infested materials can result in further apartment contamination, as bugs can move into hallways and other suites. Amery also warns against buying used beds and couches, which may be infested with bugs.

The City of Vancouver’s Standards of Maintenance bylaw was recently amended this spring to include the requirement for pest control in apartment buildings, but Carlene Robbins, manager of the City’s Property Use Inspection branch, says staff are still working out the kinks. “All it says is the property owner has to keep their building free of pests, and they have to take such steps as necessary to prevent harbourage and so forth of pests,” she says of the newly-amended bylaw. “At this point, we’re just relying on the pest-control companies to do the best job that they can, and we have to take it from there. It’s a pretty difficult thing to regulate.”

Allan Wasel is the general manager for Hollyburn Properties, a firm that owns 20 apartment buildings in the West End. Bed-bug registry users have flagged four Hollyburn buildings with reports of infestations. (Hollyburn has come under fire in recent years for apartment evictions that tenants subsequently fought in court, arguing that the evictions used illegal loopholes in the Residential Tenancy Act.) “We stand very tight on the Residential Tenancy Act. We follow that, and we follow the letter of the law to a tee,” says Wasel. “I don’t know if you know a lot about Hollyburn, but we’re very pro-active on maintenance.”

Wasel says that most apartment buildings are bed-bug free, but tenants are largely responsible for bringing in the bugs. “Most of the time, [tenants are] the culprit,” he says. “We’re always working on the infrastructure of our buildings, always upgrading... We treat it like a top-notch organization, like the Four Seasons.”

Wasel’s comparison to the Four Seasons luxury hotel chain is unfortunate, as BedBugRegistry.com includes one reported instance of an infestation at the Four Seasons in San Francisco. “I think the site demonstrates how the internet can help motivated strangers pool their efforts in a way that redresses an information imbalance,” says Ceglowski. “[The] reports might restore the balance of power towards tenants and hotel guests.”

Not green enough?

THE WESTENDER
November 6, 2008

Despite all of our low-flow toilets, energy-efficient lighting systems, and environmentally innovative building developments, Vancouver is actually a long way from being a leader in green building practices, and architect Helen Goodland says we’re now more behind than ever.

Goodland is the executive director of the Light House Sustainable Building Centre, a resource centre that provides education and information on sustainable building practices that people can adopt for their own homes. “We’ve been falling behind since about 2002,” she says of Vancouver, explaining that the city was Canada’s pilot for LEED certification (an international standard for rating a building’s sustainability) early this decade, but has since fallen off the rails. “We set off with hope and ambition... and then we got stuck. Our development community didn’t really engage.”

Goodland says Vancouver’s next two years — and, by extension, its soon-to-be-determined city council — will be pivotal in whether the city re-asserts itself as a leader on the international green scene. “If we haven’t really invested heavily in communication, marketing, export strategies, we’re going to be nowhere [in the next two years],” she says. “If the City can elevate its sustainability office into a more front-and-centre component of what the City does, I think they have a really great opportunity to move forward quickly.”

Mayoral candidates Peter Ladner and Gregor Robertson have both listed sustainability as a priority on their campaign platforms, and Goodland sees that as a welcome departure from Sam Sullivan’s recent NPA reign at City Hall. “[Sullivan] really didn’t put sustainability front and centre, not in a really meaningful way,” she says. “Whether it’s Gregor Robertson or Peter Ladner [who wins], they understand what they’re talking about — it’s not just talk. I hope we get vision, passion, and commitment at the elected level, and I hope they will be sufficiently engaged with how staff implement some of the policies. It seems to be that there’s always been a bit of a disconnect between staff and council.”

The disconnect between what City staff brings forward and what city council approves mimics the divide between theory and practice that often blocks the path to fully sustainable living. That’s a gap that the Sustainable Building Centre hopes to bridge by presenting sustainable building options in accessible, commonsense terms. The Centre, based on Granville Island, is open to the public daily from noon to 5 p.m., and boasts a wealth of resources for anyone looking to make their living space more sustainable, from water-saving devices to natural carpet fibres. “We felt that having a place that talked about sustainability in the context of the built environment was a good starting point for all discussions, whether it was around transportation or personal [shopping] choices,” Goodland says of the Centre’s fall 2005 inception. “There didn’t seem to be anybody who could translate the super-nerdy techno-language and jargon into everyday language. Every single thing we do has a green aspect to it.”

Despite the perceived threats that the current economic downturn could pose on sustainable development, which many still see as a luxury, Goodland says it will only spur more people to consider the environment in their building — and buying — practices. “Just as we had flaws in our previous environmental [value] systems, I think we’re now going to find that we’re recognizing some of the flaws in our current economic values,” she says. “If we can be strategic in what we buy — if we buy once and we buy well — as opposed to just disposable buying, I think it’s a good thing. I think a tougher economy is going to make builders differentiate.”

Tough economic times are doing little to hinder business at Vancouver’s Henriquez Partners Architects, which is known for its sustainable building practices and social-housing innovations. “Developers are still walking in our doors; we had one new project two weeks ago, and another one called me today,” says architect Gregory Henriquez, a partner at the firm founded by his father. “The world’s not coming to an end.”

Contrary to popular belief, Henriquez says green buildings don’t cost more than others. The key, he says, is thoughtful planning. “The greenest thing you can do is build a good building that society values and doesn’t get torn down in 30 years,” he says. “I think there’s a new generation of people who understand the importance of this issue, and developers are starting to understand, too. They’re starting to understand that people are looking at long-term maintenance costs. They’re looking at the symbolism of what kind of building they live in, what it means to be part of a larger community of living things.”

Cops in the home?

THE WESTENDER
October 30, 2008

A new partnership has been formed between the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) and 17 government-owned, single-room-occupancy (SRO) hotels in Vancouver, most of them in the Downtown Eastside. The deal, called the Partners in Action protocol, aims to provide a safe environment for SRO residents by assigning beat officers to the hotels. Officers are provided with a description of each hotel and an overview of services available to its low- and zero-income tenants, including life-skills training and mental-health support. In an effort to enhance ongoing communication between hotel operators and police, officers are provided with contact information for the operators, as well as information on potential special needs of hotel residents.

“We are building one-on-one relationships with the non-profit operators and their residents,” said Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chiu, in a prepared statement. “The VPD believes this new partnership will lead to significant improvements.”

However, Downtown Eastside community advocates are weary of what the protocol could mean to the civil liberties of SRO residents. Carnegie Community Action Project organizer Wendy Pedersen would like to see more community development initiatives in the neighbourhood, rather than more police efforts. “Just policing people like they’re widgets is a mistake,” she says. “If people actually have a say in how their building operates, that could be a powerful thing. I would prefer to see resources... spent so people could actually have control over their lives by having some control over their housing.”

Pedersen also says she would like to see more social support in the SROs, to the extent that police presence becomes unnecessary. “Hopefully, they intend to put in enough support so that the institutional presence isn’t needed of the police,” she says.

Pivot Legal Society lawyer David Eby is concerned about the power police could have in the SROs under the new protocol. “We’re concerned about how those officers are going to be used,” he says. Eby reviewed the VPD brochure issued to SRO operators, which he says contains directions that obligate hotel operators to place police interests before those of hotel residents. “We argue that there are competing obligations on the SRO operator to protect the privacy of their tenants,” he says. “I think this police-liaison role could quickly transform into something very different from simply being a contact person to being a police officer who has complete and unfettered access to a building, to go into people’s units on a whim, and that’s not something that is permitted under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Ultimately, Eby worries that the new VPD/SRO partnership will unfairly impinge on the privacy of hotel residents. “Just because you’re poor and live in an SRO doesn’t mean you have fewer rights than someone who lives in a home in Shaughnessy,” he says.

A matter of debate

THE WESTENDER
October 30, 2008

Election buzz is virtually inescapable as Vancouver inches closer toward the November 15 municipal election that will determine the city’s next mayor. Streets are lined with candidates’ lawn signs, the 795,000-member Vancouver Facebook network is inundated with election advertising, and Vancouver’s top mayoral contenders, Peter Ladner (NPA) and Gregor Robertson (Vision Vancouver), are facing off in what are sometimes thrice-weekly debates.

But what do all those debates and campaigning efforts mean to Vancouver voters, who will ultimately determine who gets the mayor’s chair? Simon Fraser University political scientist Kennedy Stewart isn’t sure if debates mean as much to voter turnout as some might think. “Debates will have no real effect on turnout, as very few people attend [them] compared to the number of people who vote,” he says. “What these debates are good for is to force candidates to commit to policy that they will need to implement once elected.”

Both the NPA and Vision Vancouver have released official policy platforms that are available for download from their websites (NPAVancouver.ca; VoteVision.ca). The NPA platform shows a strong emphasis on reducing crime and street disorder, while homelessness and affordable housing are top issues for Vision Vancouver.

Ladner and Robertson have expanded upon these platforms in recent debates, notably at St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church last week (October 22), where a debate about mental health and homelessness was attended by more than 900 people. In a lightning-round segment of the debates, in which the candidates were asked to give yes or no answers to a series of questions, Ladner and Robertson showed clear differences. Robertson came out in favour of hiring a mental-health advocate for the City, expressed support for a third supervised-injection site in Vancouver, and voiced his desire to establish a living-wage policy in the city — all ideas that Ladner said he does not support. Ladner did come out in support of the continuation of Project Civil City, while Robertson did not.

The proposal to introduce a mental-health advocate to the City of Vancouver is one piece of Vision’s policy platform that distinguishes it from that of the NPA. Perhaps this is the ‘wedge issue’ that Stewart says is key to any campaign. “In theory, the trick to winning a two-party election is to, as much as possible, offer exactly what your opponent offers in terms of policies, but differentiate yourself on one main issue,” he says.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the winning candidate will follow through on the policies the public is made to think he represents. “You’ll probably notice a lot of squirming during these debates,” says Stewart. “Their aim is to commit to as little as possible... before the election, so as to leave their hands as free as possible once power is obtained.”

Despite what Stewart sees as the debates’ relative ineffectiveness in getting people out to vote on election day, a number of audience members have, according to NPA sources, come away from the debates in support of Ladner, whereas they originally intended to support Robertson. Stewart counters that most people decide on their vote well before campaign season starts. “The key for both sides is to identify and pull these supporters, not to try to convince them to switch sides,” he says.

Ultimately, Stewart maintains that the well-oiled marketing machines behind each campaign will do more to garner votes than the candidates themselves. “The key to this election will not be who is the shiniest candidate, but rather, which party can get its vote out most effectively,” he says. “This race could be an absolute cakewalk for Robertson, because there are many more potential centre-left voters than centre-right voters in Vancouver. However, if the Vision campaign somehow fails to effectively identify and pull their voters, then Ladner might pull a surprise upset. In other words, the race is for Gregor and his team to lose.”

A plan for urban health

THE WESTENDER
October 23, 2008

As political pundits sharpen their platforms for what will surely be a close and intensely scrutinized municipal election, a little-known international urban-health conference is taking place in Vancouver at the end of the month, and discussion topics there might quietly reveal the keys to pragmatic, sustainable city governance of the sort that every prospective civic politician claims to want to create.

The International Conference on Urban Health (running Oct. 29-31) will be preceded by a workshop outlining the groundbreaking Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities, a 10-point plan for sustainable governance authored by 50 international urban professionals, including Vancouver city-planning guru Larry Beasley. “To make cities sustainable, we need a radical change of mindset, new strategies, and — finally, but crucially — new governance models to support development and foster a new generation of urban leadership,” the plan says. “City planning should be people-centred, rather than design-centred. A city is a constantly evolving organism, and city planning must take a broader perspective than the design of individual buildings.”

“A lot of the issues outlined in the Copenhagen Agenda are things that most cities could adopt if there was political will,” says conference organizer Anita Palepu, who works as a professor at the UBC medical school and is a doctor of internal medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital. “I would say that we have a very progressive social-planning and city-planning department [at City Hall that is] sophisticated and aware of most of these issues. I think what we need is to elect a city council that’s also educated around this and... can actually enact it, make it operational.”

Palepu sees public health — particularly as it pertains to urban spaces — as an increasingly pertinent issue that will require more creative solutions as populations grow in the years ahead. “Most people on this planet are going to be living in cities in the next 20 years,” she says. “There’s huge urbanization happening, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This is relevant [in Vancouver] as well.”

Palepu hopes the health conference, now in its seventh year, will inspire people to rethink urban health and the impact city governments can have upon it. Conference workshops will cover a broad range of health-related topics, from the role of environmental justice in promoting healthy urban environments, to media literacy and advocacy for healthier public policy. The Copenhagen Agenda functions as a centrepiece that draws many of the conference’s key topics together.

“The most important piece [of the Copenhagen Agenda] is people being engaged in their communities and creating physical environments, so they foster social interactivity and community building,” says Palepu.

More information on the International Conference on Urban Health can be found at ICHU2008.com, and a free download of the Copenhagen Agenda is available at http://mm.dk/filer/10principles.pdf.

PHOTO: Dr. Anita Palepu outside St. Paul's Hospital. By Doug Shanks.

Housing advocates press for quick action on wintertime shelter

THE WESTENDER
October 9, 2008

The cold, wet weather that typically begins at this time of year means more of Vancouver’s street homeless will be clamouring for the limited spots in the city’s already crowded shelters, which have been known to turn away more people than they can accommodate. Downtown Eastside community advocates have been researching prospective temporary-housing solutions for the winter, one result of which is that members of the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) found an estimated 486 empty hotel rooms in the DTES they say should be opened up to take in the area’s large homeless population.

“[Homeless persons] in the winter time... die of pneumonia, they die of fires trying to keep warm,” says CCAP organizer Wendy Pedersen, referring to Darrel Mikasko, a homeless man who, after failing to get into a Vancouver shelter, died in a fire while trying to keep warm in February 2008.

Pedersen and her colleagues at the CCAP suggest that the owners of vacant Downtown Eastside hotel rooms agree to short-term leases with the City of Vancouver and BC Housing to upgrade the buildings and manage the hotels as homeless shelters. Based on information gathered from walkabouts in the Downtown Eastside and conversations with building managers and owners, the CCAP found empty units in buildings such as the Dominion Hotel, the Backpacker Hotel, and the Piccadilly Hotel, among others. If the rooms were opened as shelters, they could house about 80 per cent of the estimated 600 homeless people in the Downtown Eastside.

“City council needs an anti-vacancy by-law so that these rooms can actually get taxed for leaving them empty,” says Pedersen, adding that she wants the future mayor and city council to start working on housing the homeless before the November 15 election.

NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner is unsure of Pedersen’s proposal. “We [the City] don’t have those rooms. They’re not my rooms. They’re somebody else’s rooms,” he says of the hotel rooms the CCAP counted as vacant. “You can’t force somebody to lease a room to someone they don’t want to lease to. It has appeal as a temporary stop-gap thing, but if you want to be methodical and thorough and persistent in getting to a long-term solution, [the CCAP proposal] can get in the way.”

Ladner is more interested in long-term housing solutions, and is weary of the City picking up the bill for housing matters that he says burden the entire province and Metro Vancouver region. “I think the City is doing a commendable job,” he says. “This is an impossible situation. Nobody wants to see people sleeping on the street. Why is it always the citizens of Vancouver who have to take all of this on, when we’re doing so much more than the rest of the region already?”

Dealing with issues of temporary housing marks a difference in approach between Ladner and Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson. “Many of these hotel rooms are empty because the owners refuse to maintain them up to code, and people are forced to leave and live on the street,” said Robertson in a prepared statement, rebutting Ladner’s comments on the CCAP proposal. “The City has the power, under the standards of maintenance by-law, to fix them up and charge the costs to the owner.”

In their first public mayoral debate last week, Robertson emphasized the urgency of getting people off the streets this winter, while Ladner stressed the importance of staying on track with the City’s Homeless Action Plan, which focuses more on long-term housing and less on temporary shelter.

Meanwhile, the subject of housing has been voted down from the Vancouver Park Board’s meeting agenda by NPA park board chair Korina Houghton. COPE park board commissioner and NDP provincial hopeful Spencer Herbert forwarded a motion to ask that BC Housing open empty hotel rooms as temporary shelters in an effort to mitigate the large number of homeless people sleeping in parks, thereby straining park board resources. The motion was originally intended to show up on Monday’s (October 6) park board agenda. While Houghton said housing is not a park-board mandate, Herbert argues Vancouver’s parks have become de facto shelters for the city’s homeless. Over the summer, Herbert helped move campers in Oppenheimer Park to the Marble Arch Hotel after their park protests had drawn media attention. “To keep it off the public agenda, it’s a hope that people forget about the issue,” says Herbert. “It shows an abject failure of all levels of government. When the crisis is as bad as it is, to have units sitting empty is criminal.”

PHOTO: Carnegie Community Action Project members. By Doug Shanks.

Downtown Ambassadors’ 24/7 schedule draws mixed reactions

THE WESTENDER
October 2, 2008

Today (October 2) marks the one-month anniversary of the Downtown Ambassador program expanding to 24-hour service. Since September 2, patrollers in bright red jackets have been working overnight shifts from 10:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. The new hours are the result of Vancouver city council’s approval of funding in April to supplement the program’s extension of operating hours from 16- to 24-hour days.

Charles Gauthier, executive director of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA), which co-manages the Ambassador program with Genesis Security, says the 24-hour shifts have drawn largely positive responses, especially from people working overnight shifts in fast-food restaurants and hotels. He mentioned the Hyatt Regency hotel and the Alberni Street location of Tim Hortons as particularly high-traffic areas that benefit from round-the-clock Ambassador access. He says the Ambassadors provide a useful safe-walk service, helping people get to taxis or cars, and they act as a resource for late-shift employees who might feel uncomfortable with a patron who refuses to leave the premises. “To be able to contact someone else is a big relief,” says Gauthier.

Gauthier adds that street people, initially surprised to see Ambassadors on overnight patrols, have welcomed the extra security presence. “There have been positive circumstances where Ambassadors have intervened when street people were harassed by others,” he says. And while the Downtown Ambassador program has been the subject of intense scrutiny by organizations including the Pivot Legal Society, which filed a human-rights complaint in July against the program (along with Project Civil City) for its alleged treatment of homeless and drug-addicted people, Gauthier refutes criticisms that the Ambassadors are doing anything wrong. “It’s getting politicized, but it doesn’t need to be,” he says. “It doesn’t take away from police work.”

Laura Track, a Pivot Legal Society lawyer behind the human-rights complaint, remains concerned about the city’s increased use of private-security services like the Ambassadors program. “This is not an appropriate use of public money,” she says.”They’re using public money to fund private security on public land.”

Track also contends that the recent shift to 24-hour Ambassador service might not come with appropriate training to address circumstances that Ambassadors may be more likely to encounter at night. “These are, in large part, really young people. They’re paid a little bit above minimum wage,” she says.

Track is most concerned with what, to her, seems like a rapid, city-wide private-security transition that has come without much public consultation. “It’s happening without a lot of public debate and public awareness of this off-loading of traditionally public duties — police duties — onto private businesses,” she says.

At a city council meeting Tuesday (September 30), council discussed the possible expansion of Downtown Ambassador services in Mount Pleasant, Chinatown, Kerrisdale and Strathcona, and on Robson Street.

Competition seeks design for new public square

THE WESTENDER
October 2, 2008

For all its urban greenspace and seaside walkways, Vancouver lacks a grand public square that experts say is key to building an economically and culturally sustainable city. “So much of Vancouver’s public life happens at the edge, at the waterfront,” said urban commentator Lance Berelowitz to a 300-person audience on September 23, at the launch of the Vancouver Public Space Network’s (VPSN) Where’s the Square design competition, which aims to find the best design for a new public square in the city. “We shouldn’t see the [public] square so much as an amenity, but as a necessity.”

Berelowitz is a local urbanist and writer; he owns the Urban Forum Associations planning firm and authored the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Bid Book, as well as 2005’s Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination. Of the few places resembling public squares in Vancouver, such as Robson Square and Victory Square, Berelowitz says they’re insufficient, and that the lack of a centralized, well-attended and well-maintained gathering space is holding the city back from reaping the full benefits of public life. “The definition of a city is where people come together publicly to exchange commerce, love, politics,” he said, noting that economic and cultural capital may be gained from increased public engagement.

The Where’s the Square speakers’ panel was rounded out by landscape architect and Order of Canada recipient Cornelia Oberlander, and Vancouver architectural stalwart Bing Thom, also an Order of Canada recipient. “We don’t have spaces for fun,” said Oberlander. “[A public square is] different than sitting at the edge of the beach or at the edge of a seawall.”

Thom agreed with his colleagues. “Where’s the square? What I’m saying is, Why is Vancouver so square?” he joked, referring to the developments along southeast False Creek as contributing to an increasingly bland city. “Certain parts of False Creek are becoming very uniform in terms of the people who are there,” he said. “There’s not that gritty clash of incomes.”

“Public space plays a vital role in ensuring a good quality of life. When done right, public spaces are socially inclusive, unlike other forms of private space,” says Andrew Pask, VPSN’s coordinator. “That means they are open to everyone — young or old, rich or poor — and, in so being, they fulfill the role of a social mixer.”

Pask helped found the VPSN in 2006 with the goal of expanding and improving public space in the city. Now, the launch of the Where’s the Square competition addresses one of the organization’s key mandates. “Lots of people have said, ‘Sure, it would be nice to have a square in Vancouver,’ but the Where’s the Square competition will ask them to go further by defining the location and key characteristics of the space,” Pask says. “We want people to think about real possibilities for the future, and also to recognize that the city is a dynamic, changing entity.”

Official contest rules for Where’s the Square will be announced November 15, with a submission deadline set for March 15, 2009. The VPSN will hold a number of public forums and panel discussions related to the contest between now and then. Full contest details are available at WheresTheSquare.ca.

PHOTO: Members of the Vancouver Public Space Network. By Doug Shanks.

Gay couple refutes politicians’ claims on same-sex marriage

THE WESTENDER
October 2, 2008

Peter and Murray Corren had enjoyed 26 years as a couple when they decided to marry in 1997. They visited a New Westminster notary public office in the hope of obtaining a marriage license. “We saw [the paperwork] had a bride’s name and a groom’s name,” Murray recalls, “so we crossed off the bride’s name and put ‘groom’s name’.. and filled out the application.” When office staff took notice of this, the couple was denied certification because their regulations were such that they couldn’t issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. “Our question was, ‘On what legal basis is this regulation based?’ And they couldn’t give us an answer,” Murray recalls.

That’s when Peter and Murray, then working as a TransLink business analyst and a Coquitlam elementary school teacher, respectively, launched a B.C. human-rights complaint against the NDP (the government in power at the time) for refusing them a marriage license, making them the first couple in B.C. to challenge the right to same-sex marriage. The case went on for years, taking Peter and Murray to the Ontario Court of Appeal, back to the B.C. Court of Appeal, and finally, in summer 2004, to the wedding they’d fought for seven years to have.

Now, Peter, 61, and Murray, 62, are retired and living in Kitsilano. Life is more low-key now than in their media-heavy past, when they were frequently interviewed as high-profile LGBT activists, but they’re not resting on their laurels, especially with a federal election in two weeks.

Murray contacted WE after reading a Sept. 18 article in this paper about openly gay (and former Liberal MLA) Lorne Mayencourt’s decision to run for MP with the federal Conservatives. In response to Mayencourt’s statement that same-sex marriage was ratified under the Harper government, Peter and Murray were compelled to share their personal experiences in dealing with Mayencourt and incumbent Liberal MP Hedy Fry when fighting for their right to marry.

“The Conservatives were against us every step of the way,” says Murray. “For Lorne Mayencourt to be claiming now that the party he’s running for is responsible for same-sex marriage is disingenuous and dishonest.”

Murray added that the Conservative government was left with “no choice but to ratify same-sex marriage because the courts had already done it,” even though the Conservatives had campaigned to redefine marriage as a union exclusive to a man and a woman.

When Mayencourt visited the Correns at their home while they were filing the human-rights complaint, Murray and Peter claim that Mayencourt tried to convince them to accept a registered domestic partnership — which Murray likened to segregation, not equality — instead of a marriage license. (Despite calls and e-mails to his campaign manager, Mayencourt did not respond to requests for a follow-up interview by press time.)

Murray contends the federal Liberals were no better help. “It was the Liberal government we were fighting all along; they were fighting us in the courts, here and in Ontario,” he says.

But Hedy Fry is quick to stand up for an issue that she credits herself for bringing to the federal table. “I take full credit and I am proud of it. I will not have that record of mine impugned,” she says. “ [Murray] is an NPD-er. This is pure partisan politics. Same-sex rights should be non-partisan politics.” Fry lists extensive work with GLBT communities in her riding and across Canada — particularly with national queer advocacy group Egale Canada — in her fight for making same-sex marriage a priority. She also publicly stated her condemnation of the September 27 attack on gay man Jordan Smith, adding that she supports the Vancouver police in prosecuting the act as a hate crime.

Murray and Peter say the only party that supported them through their battle for marriage rights was the NDP. Michael Byers, the federal NDP candidate for Vancouver Centre, says historic facts undermine Fry and Mayencourt’s credibility on championing same-sex marriage. “While Hedy Fry and Lorne Mayencourt were either opposing or not supporting the LGBT community, I was actually putting myself on the front line in the effort to prosecute [Chilean military dictator] Augusto Pinochet,” he says. “In the late 1990s, I was receiving hundreds of hate e-mails and threats because I was putting myself on the line to prosecute a dictator and torturer who had specifically targeted gays and lesbians in Chile. What we’re seeing with Lorne and Hedy is a shocking degree of inconsistency here.”

In response to the Davie Street hate crime this past weekend, Byers issued a media statement claiming that he would personally seek out $20 million in federal funds to upgrade the Centre, a West End LGBT gathering space.

Vancouver Centre Green Party candidate Adriane Carr says the Greens have always supported same-sex marriage. “The Green Party was the first party that actually called publicly for same-sex marriage laws,” she says.

PHOTO: Peter and Murray Corren in their Kitsilano home. By Doug Shanks.

Yesterday's home, today

THE WESTENDER
September 25, 2008

People think they’re ugly. Distinguished by a big front window, a mixed stucco and stone exterior, and a front-side iron fence (sometimes adorned with a white lion fixture at the gate), the much-maligned — yet undeniably ubiquitous — ‘Vancouver Special’ housing type is a fixture in our city’s landscape and cultural consciousness.

Built between the 1960s and ’80s to maximize the building code of the era, Vancouver Specials represented a functional and affordable housing stock whose roomy interior and open, multi-bedroom layout was ideal for large families with multiple generations under one roof. “It was sought after in those decades for working-class, immigrant families,” says Elana Zysblat, programming director of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. “They represented, culturally and architecturally, the new immigrants to the city.”

Given the housing crunch now faced by many Vancouverites, and the relentless push to embrace EcoDensity principles forwarded by Mayor Sam Sullivan’s government, the Vancouver Heritage Foundation is working to re-invigorate interest in the Vancouver Special as a sustainable, durable, and potentially affordable housing option unique to this city. The Foundation held a public lecture Tuesday night (Sept. 23) on the renovation possibilities for Vancouver Specials, and will host a guided tour of a noted Vancouver Special this upcoming Sunday, Sept. 27.

“As reviled as they are in Vancouver, they really serve a function,” says Laura Quilici, who bought a Special with her husband, Scott, last year. The child of Italian immigrants, Quilici remembers her mother’s hatred of the Special style, so she never thought she’d go on to own such a house in her adult life. But she soon realized their great potential for renovation. “They are sort of an undiscovered gem,” she says. “The open-plan concept is really great; they can be redone in billions of different styles.”

The potential for achieving great diversity in a seemingly uniform housing type has captured the imagination of Keith Higgins, a local visual artist who has closely documented Vancouver Specials for the past seven years. (His work can be viewed at VancouverSpecial.com.) “Here you have this expression of the kind of aspirations of people who are not normally in real-estate books,” he says. “That’s very interesting to me.”

When Higgins first began documenting Specials in 2001, people laughed at him. “They thought they were such a ridiculous thing,” he recalls. “They were ugly houses that [people thought] should just be torn down. But they’re such a huge part of the built environment. They’ve been so many people’s homes. They’ve got to be important in some way.”

Higgins attributes the Specials’ bad reputation to various anxieties surrounding the people who came to inhabit them. “Essentially, it’s a mass-designed, mass-produced plan that’s got a lot of variations, going up really quickly and taking over a neighbourhood,” he says. “There’s a lot of class-based anxiety that I think comes into that — that there will be people moving into these big, cheap houses that don’t belong. There’s a lot of ethnic anxiety.”

Despite — and perhaps because of — these tensions, the Vancouver Specials continues to persist as an undeniable part of Vancouver’s history and mythology.

To find out more about the Vancouver Special open house on Sept. 27, visit VancouverHeritageFoundation.org.

PHOTO: A row of Vancouver Specials in East Vancouver. By Doug Shanks.

Tenants’ rights groups map out West End evictions

THE WESTENDER
September 18, 2008

Despite homelessness in the Metro Vancouver area having increased 39 per cent since 2005, and vacancy rates continuing to hover below one percent, the precarious housing situation facing renters and modest-to-low-income individuals often slips under the public radar, making it difficult for people to find support and seek advocacy when faced with eviction or unfair rent increases.

The Renters at Risk coalition and the West End Residents Association (WERA) are looking to turn that around with the development of the new “housing issues map,” a comprehensive visual documentation of evictions and housing issues in the West End dating back to 2001.

“One of the things that surprised me the most when we were going through our eviction process was that nobody tracks this issue,” says Renters at Risk organizer Sharon Isaak, a resident of the infamous Bay Towers apartment building, whose new owners, Hollyburn Properties, issued floor-by-floor eviction notices in fall 2006. Isaak fought the eviction and eventually won her apartment back, but the experience of facing the potential loss of her home has driven her to act publicly as an advocate on the issue through Renters at Risk. “The Residential Tenancy Office doesn’t keep statistics on these type of evictions; they’re not archived or anything. So, it makes it very difficult to get a handle on how big this problem is from the outside.”

Isaak and WERA president Brent Granby compiled the housing issues map and an accompanying compendium (which documents the activity of six prominent property-management companies and their involvement in more than 15 neighbourhood evictions) in the hope that it will help build community capacity to fight ongoing evictions that continue to threaten renters across the Lower Mainland. “This is an important visual document that’s documenting what’s happening in our community,” says Granby. “It’s a community-based solution that helps people help themselves.”

As Isaak and Granby have both experienced firsthand, it’s becoming increasingly urgent for community members to mobilize and help each other when elected officials and government policy offer little in the way of help. “One of the earliest meetings we had with Lorne Mayencourt when he was MLA, we brought up this issue, and he was in complete denial. [Mayencourt] said, ‘I don’t see this happening. I see the [Residential Tenancy Act] working the way it’s supposed to, and the only people who ever come here to deal with this issue is you guys,’” says Granby, adding that those first encounters inspired him and other West End residents to start documenting the housing issues they saw and experienced. “[Current conditions] systematically reduce the capacity of government to deal with this issue. This will be a community document to say, ‘Look, we’re not making this up.’”

Given the large rental population in the West End (82 per cent of households rent), Isaak hopes that the map will be a strong visual tool to hammer home the importance of everyone’s right to housing. “Everybody needs to know that they’re not going to face an eviction notice next month,” she says. “It’s not okay to have a whole group of citizens fearing that they’re not going to have a place to live next year or next month.”

Granby hopes that the map and compendium will be sobering reminders of the impact of failed government policy, particularly with regard to cuts to the federal government’s social-housing plan in 1993. “Without policies, without government getting involved with housing, this is what happens,” he says. “Right now, we’re at a point where we need to re-invest money to develop that policy at a government level to help with housing. It costs way more money for a person living on the street than to give them housing.”

Granby and Isaak welcome anyone concerned with the security of their housing situation to contact Granby through phone or email: 604-716-2824, brentgranby@mac.com.

PHOTO: Sharon Isaak and Brent Granby. By Doug Shanks.