December 29, 2009 - 11:36 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
CivicScene is back in the saddle with a holiday diet and a blogging schedule that once again need a steady regimen.
I have returned to the blogging horse, a little more weighty from no less than three holiday dinners within four days – a condition, I might add, that I fully intend to begin working off sometime today.
Today I am struck by two columns by two of Vancouver’s most respected scribes – Rod Mickleburgh of the Globe and Mail and Allen Garr of the Vancouver Courier – that offer assessments on two of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s most prominent and contentious policy directions over the past year.
There can be little argument with the fact that Vision Vancouver’s victory in last year’s civic election was predicated on a strong commitment to tackle homelessness in addition to a stated intention to create dedicated bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge (the former obviously having a far greater impact than the latter).
So if both of these policies were clearly articulated within the context of an election campaign that returned a decisive victory for the party proposing them, then it is safe to say that a majority of Vancouver’s electorate embraced them as something they were willing to see implemented.
This of course didn’t stop certain members of the outgoing regime from doing their damnedest to work up fervour to the contrary.
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November 16, 2009 - 11:06 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Civic affairs were front and centre in an interesting and engaging forum hosted this past Saturday.
I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into the “Year In Review” forum hosted by previous NPA candidate Michael Geller, largely because I suspected an overwhelmingly NPA supportive crowd would be the only ones to show up.
And, for the most part, I was correct – former and current NPA board members, elected officials and supporters roamed the room, with few Vision or COPE supporters in tow. In fact, one of those former NPA elected officials tried to tell me that the morning remained civil and well-behaved because “the right-of-centre” had been behind the organizing, suggesting that had the “left” been at the helm, chaos and hostility would have ruled the day.
This is exactly the type of comment that I have come to expect from your typical NPA, Quadra-type of supporter. When confronted with the question, I told the individual that having grown up in Marpole/Kerrisdale, I knew first hand that civility was by no means exclusive to her end of the political spectrum.
That bit of nonsense aside, I found the morning to be a fantastic endeavour that could prove to be a model for civic engagement for all parties – assuming, of course, that the pool of interest is widened with future sessions.
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November 3, 2009 - 1:00 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Random observations across Metro Vancouver
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October 16, 2009 - 9:43 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
An editorial that now falls flat on its face.
With the three-month anniversary of the Burrard Bridge bike lane trial having occurred on Monday, and in consideration of how well it has gone, I thought that I would post this humourous email that was sent out back in July by CKNW’s Jon McComb from The World Today to one of CivicScene’s regular readers:
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