City needs to push the envelope to stay on top
Miro Cernetig talks to Larry Beasely
The ostensible reason for the article is that we have moved up another of those best city lists.
These rankings take our attention off the question that’s really at hand: With a million more people expected to be here by 2030, how are we going to stay on the cutting edge of urban planning that’s put us in the livability big leagues?
Larry of course is building not one but two cities in the dessert of Abu Dhabi and
“I’m learning we’re not as far ahead on some of this stuff as I thought we were,” he says.
Which is refreshing. The problem with these rankings is they have gone to our head - or at least to the collective heads of the planners. And upstart furriners like me who keep saying “The Emperor has no clothes” are simply not listened to. But Larry, with his OC and new perspective will be.
The trouble I have is that they think it is about buildings and especially cultural institutions. Which seems to me to reflect the priorities of Marie Antoinnette.
There are some very basic things we need to be doing - and architects are not going to be the most important component of that, neither are the problems or their solutions the exclusive domain of the City of Vancouver. No doubt working for a Crown Prince with few budget constraints is a heck of a lot easier than herding cats, but in a metropolitan area being run (and ruined) by the province, that is what has to be done.
For starters, there is the problem of housing, and the related issues of mental health and welfare. These are basic social problems - and in my mind the quality of society is measured not by its glitzy buildings or cultural institutions, but by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. And right now the only thing that seems to be grabbing our attention is how to conceal the extent of our social policy collapse during the weeks of and around the 2010 Olympics. Lack of affordability of homes to buy is actually the least of it. We are supposed to have free at the point of service for public health, yet people with multiple diagnoses are simply turned away from treatment. We shy away from creating more and better public spaces for fear that the homeless will move in. We cannot buy a decent bus shelter or bench in case somebody finds it a better place to sleep than a doorway. And instead of building more public housing, we simply buy up a few more roach infested SROs, and do a half hearted job of trying to clean them up, displacing more people in the process. And actually destroying some of the best public housing we have, and rebuilding it to provide more marketable homes!
It is not the buildings that are the problem. They simply reflect what we are willing to pay for. And the answer here at present seem to be not much since the land costs so much. But it is the spaces in between the buildings that matter - and in the words of that tired old cliché we have private affluence and public squalor. We devote more space to car parking than almost any other activity. Our streets may be broad, but the sidewalks are mean. And public places where people gather are few and inadequate. And we concentrate on Vancouver - and especially downtown - as if that were the only place worth considering.
And I haven’t even started on our infrastructure. “World class” cities surely need good waste disposal (liquid and solid) as well as reasonable movement alternatives for goods as well as people.
Oddly enough there is no need to “push the envelope” with any of this, the solutions have been around for decades. We have just turned our back on them in our obsession with finance and profitability, as if that is the only way to measure worth. How can we boast of our GDP per capita - when so many of those heads have no pillow?
Hallmark Events & Impacts on Housing
I went last night to the SFU City Program lecture by Kris Olds
He started his research into this issue during Expo86 in Vancouver, and now teaches at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He said he found that Vancouver was still the same as it was then in its approach to the 2010 Olympics.
“Fairplay for Housing Rights” is a significant report (free download of large pdf file) by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) supported by the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN)
COHRE is an NGO founded in 1986 that has followed a large number of mega events. The report is largely funded by Swiss federal money - since the IOC is based in Geneva, the Swiss government is concerned about how its activities reflect on the Swiss. The intention of COHRE is to provide “grounded views and new voices”, so it is not simply a protest movement but rather a way to engage with the promoters of these events and get them to improve their performance. The aim is to “scale up human rights to an international basis”. Dr Olds noted that the record of Olympics at places like Seoul and Atlanta displayed a lack of ethics which was contrary to the spirit of “Olympism”. The approach adopted is “pragmatic but past the status quo”.
Large scale events include things like Worlds Fairs, and even the Miss Universe contest. Any event conceived as a way to put a city on the map. These events offer the chance to “re-imagine the city” and are popular with elites. Typically there is nearly always a debate of “boosters vs critics” - for they become mechanisms for development, a way to consolidate agendas and paths, which tends to set the city on a different course, where catering to the event becomes more important than meeting the basic needs of its citizens. Housing impacts from redevelopment tend to be magnified by these events, with displacement and forced evictions, a rise in housing costs, a reduction in the supply of low cost housing and “cleansing to remove the homeless” (In Atlanta, homelessness was criminalized.) Nearly always there are special measures to deal with minorities and the disadvantaged. For example the removal of Roma (also known as Romanies or gypsies) in Athens or the 720,000 people removed from the Seoul Olympic sites, accompanied by violent repression.
The negative impacts are felt by the poor. But COHRE is concentrating on the clear human rights violations. The right to adequate housing is protected by international law - conventions that the host nations have signed on to. These state that if evictions occur there must be due process. COHRE takes the view that we should not only hold governments accountable but also the ‘organs of society’ which includes the sponsors of events, municipalities and professional bodies that regulate the work done on event sites. All these bodies are required to “respect, protect and fulfill” the obligations to human rights of inhabitants of the impacted areas. While this duty is primarily that of the state it also includes the IOC and VANOC , since they are bound by their stated aims of Olympism as expressed by the Olympic charter and OM Agenda 21. COHRE advocates, monitors and speaks about these issues, moving to a global scale and involving the people promoting events.
The lecture was followed by a panel, and unfortunately the introductions were so hurried that I was unable to transcribe the names and affiliations. The event was organised by the Impact on communities coalition and the panel was therefore representative of that organisation.
Someone from the Pivot Legal Society noted that 800 units of single residential occupancy (SRO) hotel rooms have already been lost and a further 600 are under threat. He noted that there has been an increase in policing, the “Downtown Ambassadors” are essentially private security firms hired to move the homeless out of the area. A community court has been introduced but there are no additional services being provided, even though the aim of the court is to redirect people away from custodial sentences to rehabilitation and so on. CSIS has raided Olympic protesters, and gives them an equivalent status to racist skinheads. There has been a decrease in social housing since the province is not in fact not renting out the units it took over and the lost units from ten buildings and the closure of hotels is due to the idea that they will be renovated sometime, although no plans are available at present.
The next speaker saw that the current failure was part of the international rise of neoliberalism. Decision making, he said, was being shifted away from local communities. “Gentrification” is being portrayed as somehow organic, the inevitable rebuilding of neighbourhoods. This process has reduced ability of existing residents of neighbourhoods (especially tenants) to affect the process.
A young interning architect made a point about the way that the province simply issued contracts to three large firms and contrasted that with the way work on the Millennium Line stations was awarded to a different firm for each. She thought that this was to “consolidate the agenda”. The problem she said was that “innovations are seen as temporary, they don’t get ingrained”. Furthermore when everything is a “P3 back room deal” there is no chance of any public input. She felt that it was significant that there will be no public art on the Canada Line. She saw this as “an erosion of ideas”.
The next speaker said the homeless panhandlers were simply “in the way” - an embarrassment. In fact these public realm issues were the result of failed government policies such as the cancellation of social housing projects. He felt that all the government has done is restart projects cancelled earlier.
The Carnegie Community Action Project is going to organise a “Poverty Olympics” in the downtown eastside
And finally a Geography Professor from UBC said that he has a “4 step model to displace displacement”
By this time I confess that my note taking was tailing off. Petitions were circulated, and email lists compiled, and a film was shown that had been made in Seoul - which I did not stay to watch.
This was quite a departure from the usual SFU lecture format - and the City program seems to be becoming more activist in its orientation. I had chosen this meeting over another at Surrey SFU, and I cannot help wondering if I made the right choice. But at the same time, I do think the Olympics are a distraction - intentionally so - that fits the agenda to press ahead with developments like the widening of the Sea to Sky Highway, the extension to the Convention Centre and the Canada Line, none of which would otherwise stand up to rigorous analysis. ‘We must have it in the bid book,’ they said, ‘if we are to get the games.’ And once they got the games, they had to be built and quickly. But that meant not only do they cost far more than they need to, but the really important bits - what do we need to make our region livable, what should we do first in a long list of needs to move in a more sustainable direction, what do people in the region and the affected areas think - were all glossed over very quickly.
Come to think of it - do Whistler and Vancouver need to be “on the map” - “reinvented” - aren’t we supposed to be “the best place on earth” already? It certainly cannot be about property prices as they are as high as can be now.
Because that is the one “take home” I got from the evening. Housing policy should be about fundamental human rights to habitation. Not property speculation. And Canada has already signed the conventions committing us to that - so why are we mucking about with a two week snow festival?
IOC satisfied housing and road problems resolved
Oh well that’s all right then. The games can go on. Just forget everything that Vanoc and the IOC said about sustainability and legacy and all that environmental stuff. Some of us were cynical enough at the time to think that was just window dressing and the IOC have now shown that we were right.
The games - if it snows - will go ahead and the tv revenues will roll in - and the sponsorships are all sewn up now so there’s plenty of cash and hospitality suites for the fat cats.
Of course, we still face a major housing crisis in the region, but there will be enough beds for the athletes and the tv crews. At least for the few weeks that the IOC actually gives a damn about.
The legacy will be a much faster highway. There will be lots of expensive condos popping up along it for years to come and those people will quickly fill it up and slow it down again. Which is probably a good thing since the only problem with the old highway was the lack of common sense among those who feel themselves to be exempt both from the laws of the road and those of physics.
Oh and the highway might well have a hydrogen filling station on it too. Won’t that be nice. One of the sponsors may well manage to borrow a hydrogen car for a day so they can have a photo op. It won’t be much use after that but it will have served its purpose.
Meanwhile CN will have got out of its commitment to operate the rail line. There may or may not be agreement to keep the odd tourist train running now and then. After all the type of tourist it attracts is not too bothered by the fare. There will not be any kind of real passenger service of course: nothing to offer the now booming population growth of the area any kind of alternative to the Sea to Sky which will still see horrendous accidents and rock falls. And irregular, unpredictable closures. Though they may be able to clear up the mess a bit quicker by relocating some cops.
2010 could have been an opportunity to do better and to showcase to the world how serious we were about it. Instead they are going to see us for what we really are.
Two videos on Cambie Street
I stole the idea for this post from the Livable Blog. You can click the links there or here.
The first video comes from a 24hrs podcast
and the second is from an independent videographer
Report Slams Run-up to Olympics
Report Slams Run-up to Olympics :: News :: thetyee.ca
Not that there are any real surprises here, but the dismal listing of how many promises VANOC and its “partners” have already broken is a useful summary. The overall grade is a D- and the report thinks there is still time to get back to where they are supposed to be. I don’t think so. I think they made promises in order to win the games, and then went and did what they wanted to do. Cynical, underhanded and money grubbing. But then this is the Olympics we are talking about, so only the gullible ever believed the promises. Like the province buying up the SROs: it still got a lot of profit into a few hands in a very short period of time and it provide a feel good photo op for Gordo. But it didn’t really make much of a difference, and nothing like the sort of commitment that is needed to make Vancouver an affordable place to live, where no one has to live in a park or under a bridge.
Whistler to get 20 hydrogen buses
The provincial government pledged $45 million Monday for a hydrogen bus fleet to service Whistler in time for the 2010 Olympics.
The 20 buses will be developed by a private company and are expected to be operating in 2009. The money will also go towards developing hydrogen fuelling stations in Whistler and Victoria.
$2.25m per bus. That would get you at least six diesels or maybe three trolleys. This is an extreme example of what I said recently about alt fuel buses producing a smaller bus fleet.
This of course is not really about transport at all. It’s all about window dressing. Potemkin villages to impress the Olympic visitors. It will not make the slightest bit of difference to air quality or greenhouse gas emissions, but it will enable Gordon to pretend to be green to Arnie and the other governors. (Arnie, by the way is not the ally we had hoped. He is pushing freeways over high speed trains in California but I must not get distracted)
Hydrogen is not a fuel. It is a very inefficient storage mechanism to allow for electric energy to be applied to a moving vehicle. Hydrogen is a by product of all kinds of chemical plants - but that is not clean enough for fuel cells. Tonnes are thrown away by a plant in North Vancouver. So it is made by electrically splitting water apart and then “reassembling” it later. If the electricity is hydro this is pretty well emission free - although damns and even run of the river are not the green things we once held them to be. They have environmental impacts too. But this is a pretty inefficient way of storing electricity. Batteries (which have been extensively researched) basically weigh too much and waste a lot of energy as heat. Capacitors were going to be good, but fuel cells have centre stage right now. And while in terms of energy density they have some a long way, they are still not the silver bullet. Hydrogen being very difficult and expensive to store and lug around. Despite being the most abundant element on the planet.
The plan also involves an additional $34 million to be provided jointly by the federal and provincial governments, for B.C. Transit to operate the fleet over a five-year period.
Just what you would expect. No long term commitment to get more transit service to where it is desperately needed. No money for more transit service for the suburbs, or low income areas, or native reserves, or people with disabilities. Or pockets of high unemployment. Or places where there are jobs but no-one to fill them. These are not governments’ priorities. They just want to do a buck and wing on the world stage for two weeks, and give some more subsidies to businesses that cannot make a dollar in the marketplace.
Manor from heaven |
I will declare my interests up front. I could not care less for organized sport of any kind. I recognize the value of physical activity for all humans, but do not share in the competitiveness, singleminded, drug addled and jingoistic that televised games have become. It is not about fun. It is not about enjoying yourself. It is about crowing over the defeat of others, and nationalistic bent priorities when we don’t get as many medals as some unheard of African ministate. Whoever “we” might be.
There are far more pressing priorities in East London (where I was born and grew up) and the Lower Mainland (where I now live) than hosting a short sports festival.
I used to work two allotments. Growing things is a basic human instinct as much as running and probably just as important in the larger scheme of things. Clearly this is a land use planning and transportation problem. The existence of a set of community gardens - endowed in perpetuity by a gentlemen one hundred years ago and very successful - against a short term wild passion to be seen to be doing something - anything - in a neglected area - preferably with as much tv coverage as possible. Oh, and it’s a pedestrian walkway too. Though one whose width seems staggering. The stuff about security is, as usual, total codswallop. A thin excuse to ride rough shod over legitimate local interests.
The parallels with our situation here are clear. Shades of Eagle Ridge Bluffs - where the cause is even less worthy, the alternatives obvious and the justification about as thin. And what we will see as the Gateway gets going will show as a mild precursor.
I ask my readers to read the Observer article and then follow the link at the bottom to the petition. Not that petitions do any good at all. But we have to stand together. - UPDATE petition closed but site worth a look
City Wants 2028 Olympics
Vancouver and Seattle will join forces to try to attract a post-2010 global mega-event, with a wish list that includes co-hosting the 2018 World Cup of soccer, a world’s fair around 2020 or the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Just when you think it cannot get any sillier … in the same edition Vaughan Palmer is getting inside the mess of the current failure to control building costs - or even get started on actually building venues.
What is it about these events that’s get otherwise sensible people so out of their tree? Wasn’t the Montreal experience bad enough? Why plan around short term sporting events? Why not plan around the needs of the people who are here and who cannot be housed or moved around in any reasonable way? Why not get concerned about the risks of flooding - or the inevitable earthquake? Why not start to deal with the pressing problems of social exclusion (an expression you hear a lot of in the UK but not in BC)? Why is it always the circus, never the bread?
