These wo former competitors have since formed a strong working relationship within City Hall, giving Vision peace within the caucus.

The landscape of BC politics right now is like nothing that observers have ever experienced before.  A Premier has just stepped down, and his party is now at the beginning stages of what should be a hotly contested leadership contest.  The stakes of this race are huge, as the winner becomes the new leader of the province, and the one tasked with pulling the BC Liberals out of the toilet.

Far be it for the ridiculous New Democratic Party to take an advantage of such a situation, as they are embroiled in a partial caucus revolt against their own leader.  The dissidents are determined to push the envelope until Carole James walks out the door, which might happen soon with a leadership review likely coming in the new year.

If we turn our attention to the municipal scene in Vancouver, even the NPA continues to struggle with factions within their party, even as they try to rebuild the organization back into a competitive force for next year’s election.  The recent party fundraiser saw Park Board Commissioner Ian Robertson and his silent supporters draw a line in the sand between them and the Sam Sullivan loyalists, while delivering a speech that showed he was most definitely going to take a shot at being the party’s Mayoral candidate.  Meanwhile, Councillor  Suzann Anton continues to cling to the Sullivan faithful for her base of support, making a showdown between the two an inevitability, and rehashing of all the nastiness that ensued between the Peter Ladner and Sullivan forces back in 2008.  This is of course just the latest episode in a party that for many years has cannibalized its own in the name of personal politics of ambition.

Which brings me to Vision Vancouver.  For a party that continues to grow as a coalition of progressive forces, the caucus has been one of the most peaceful that Vancouver’s civic political scene has seen in several terms.

Philip Owen was deposed by one of his own Councillors.  Larry Campbell hated the majority of his caucus and started his own party.  Sam Sullivan was also taken on by one of his Councillors intent on carrying the party’s banner into battle.

Gregor Robertson, however, has presided over a caucus that is not only personally friendly with each other, but extremely loyal, both publicly and privately.

Raymond Louie, Robertson’s main competition in the 2008 Vision Vancouver Mayoral nomination battle, has been relied upon by Robertson and his crew for his experience and know how of how City Hall runs.  The working relationship between the two is solid and without political backbiting.

And while each member of City Council has their own portfolios, the way in which Councillors collaborate together (Jang and Meggs on Olympic Village and Social Housing, Reimer and Louie on the Greenest City Action Team, Chow and Deal on business development and creative capital initiatives) is a model for political peace.

As an example, what happens when one member of the caucus goes public with their budgetary concerns?  Well, it is an exchange that is handled with respect, class and non-aggression:

“Park Board stretched thin

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
Penny Daflos
11/26/2010

The Park Board isn’t happy about what it has to do to help balance the budget.

Chair Aaron Jasper says after shedding more than one point six million dollars from their budget in the first round, it’s tough to find another million dollars in savings to help balance the budget, “This is really starting to eat into our core operations. We’re asking Council to reconsider that and that’ll be our job. My job as the Chair of the Park Board and my colleagues as Commissioners, to make the case. I would hope Council is open to that discussion.”

Jasper says some public washrooms may have to close and lawns will go longer between cuttings as a result. He adds that in general, he supports keeping property taxes down, but the Board can’t cut much further.

City budget balanced?
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980)
Penny Daflos

11/26/2010

A month after City staff whittled down Vancouver’s 2011 operating budget to 21 million dollars, City Council has squeezed it down to zero.

Councillor Raymond Louie says a spending review found 13 million dollars in savings and they’ll only raise property taxes by two percent to raise the rest along with some service increases.

He’s not sympathetic to Park Board complaints they’re not getting enough money to run their services, “It’s sort of like when you’re running household finances and your income isn’t there to match the service needs of your household; you really do need to rationalize and make hard choices on what’s necessary.”

Louie is confident no jobs will be lost since last year’s budget had similar savings and no one was fired as a result.”

In terms of the internal party workings, caucus peace has been one of the strongest features of Robertson’s reign as leader, which when compared to other political entities, is a real accomplishment in a time of political egos and selfish political in-fighting.

With the NPA likely headed for a leadership showdown between Ian Robertson and Suzanne Anton, the old cleavages that destroyed the party 2 years ago are going to come bubbling to the surface once again.

And in a climate where the NPA as an organization has lost its ability to raise money, attract volunteers and entice talent to be a part of their team, this race could be the death knell for the party’s chances in November, 2011.

I have a feeling that party solidarity is going to give Vision Vancouver a decided edge as civic political forces gear up for next year’s campaign.

Taxis lined up on Toronto streets is a common occurrence as drivers are really struggling under the weight of higher fares and far too many cabs on the road to sustain viable numbers.

This is an important piece from Councillor Geoff Meggs about the taxi industry.

Like I wondered a few weeks back, it is amazing how cab drivers are able to make enough to feed their families:

“Although Vancouver has the lowest number of cabs per capita of any major Canadian city, no one is arguing that taxi driving is a ticket to wealth. Cab driving is made up of long hours of unemployment punctuated by periods of intense activity. A driver sitting waiting for a fare is paying the car owner for the privilege.”

Let me tell you that the Ambassador licenses in Toronto have made driving cab in Toronto a very tough proposition, and rates have risen to the highest in the country.

A similar idea in Vancouver might very well lead to a mass exodus of drivers from the industry, largely because the living offered by the job would not be enough to make the long hours worth a driver’s while.

Meanwhile, there is one company that continues to baffle logic when it comes to their recent moves.

Yellow Cab is pushing for temporary licenses to be issued during the winter months, and have actually bypassed the City of Vancouver in their lobbying efforts.

They are working with the Transportation deputy minister as well as the deputy minister in charge of ICBC to put a proposal together.

The funny thing is, however, that the majority of the drivers within the fleet have absolutely no idea what their executive and GM is doing in this regard.

Talk to any Yellow Cab driver on the road right now, and it is likely that he will say that there is not enough business as things stand now, and new licenses would be very harmful to their livelihood.

But as I mentioned last week, new licenses on the road means more cash in the pockets of the owners/shareholders, rendering the considerations of the drivers largely irrelevant when it comes to the decisions being made by the powers that be.

The Association of Pacific Taxi Owners (APTO) have been staunch in their position that no new licenses are required on the road.

That being said, the APTO have also put in a letter many months ago to the Passenger Transportation Board requesting they look into temporary licenses to be issued for Friday and Saturday nights in the downtown core.

This is a move to address the concerns raised by CTV, which correctly showed the backlog that exists for the hour after people are leaving the clubs on those two nights.

But putting new licenses on the road 24/7 would decimate the industry. A cab owner I rode with yesterday showed me $167.00 of business he had done at 2:30 in the afternoon (he had begun his shift at 4:00 in the morning). Now my quick math once again shows that even an owner is having a hard time making minimum wage within the current economic climate.

Meggs gets it – anything that can be done to improve customer service and satisfaction WITHOUT making the industry’s viability suspect is a move that he is willing to take. Balance must be exercised with an industry that is so fragile.

It’s a shame that the leadership at Yellow Cabs aren’t able or willing to exercise that same kind of approach as it continues to push ahead with its narrow interests.

These kinds of images provided by CTV are deceiving and fail to give the entire picture about the state of affairs within the local cab industry.

Every year around this time, CTV does a story about how the local cab industry is not serving the public well, and how there are not enough cabs on the road.  The latest two installments of this annual series can be found here and here.

But as per usual, their analysis is slanted towards the sensational, and the depth in which they cover the issue is a centimetre deep.

Here are some realities when it comes to the local cab business.

The difficulties that CTV portrays in the above-linked stories represent two hour periods on Friday and Saturday evenings.

There is most definitely waits during these times when the bars of Granville and elsewhere downtown release their inhabitants onto the streets.

But to start drawing correlations about how Vancouver’s taxi woes extend to the rest of the week based on our ratios compared to other cities in Canada is a false analysis.

If you are a driver of a cab – which means you lease your 12-hour daily shifts from one of the owners – you have having a very tough time scraping together enough to support a family.

Before any of these leasees hit the road, their expenses for their shift is about $120.  And, on any day between Sunday and Thursday, these drivers are on average pulling in anywhere between $200-250 per 12 hour shift.  So, on the low end, a driver will make approximately $6-7 per hour, and on a more robust evening of business, might pull down $10-11 an hour.

To make a living wage, these drivers are more often than not working 5-6 days a week, 12 hours a day.  That is of course against national safety regulations for the amount of time a driver is permitted to be behind the wheel, but it is also the only way that these guys can scrape by.

It would be nice for CTV to take a look at a driver on a Monday or Tuesday shift – day or evening – and shadow them for a couple of hours.  Profile how long they wait between trips.  See how they get ticketed by the City for dropping of seniors in a bus lane so that they don’t have to walk too far to reach their destination.  Experience the kinds of trips they receive, and do a running total on how long it takes for them to cover their built-in expenses.  Witness how many out-of-city unlicensed cabs are picking up in Vancouver and taking business away from those legally operating.

But alas, that isn’t sensational enough.  That isn’t likely to rile up the public to make cabbies the target of  complaints and abuse.  Thus, it is unlikely to be covered (well, maybe not – I put out a challenge to local media outlets to examine a different perspective).

Now, within one of the stories linked to above, there was one driver that made an absolute fool of himself, his company and the industry by trying to weasel and lie his way out of a picking up a trip to the surburbs.  I can tell you that in the past few years, particularly with the new Taxi Passenger Bill of Rights, that kind of behaviour is not tolerated, and in this particular case, this driver has been suspended.

But the bottom line is that more licenses on the road at this point in the industry’s fragile state is a recipe for disaster.  I have little doubt that another 100 licenses would trigger a mass exodus of drivers leaving the industry for the simple fact that they would not be able to make a living to support their obligations.

This would be a major problem.  If you have no drivers, you have no taxis.  And as things stand right now, there is not enough business to go around.  That is a fact.

Three of the four major companies in Vancouver – Black Top and Checker Cabs, Maclure’s and Vancouver Taxi – have unified in the Association of Pacific Taxi Owners.  And they speak with one voice in talking about the state of affairs within the taxi business.

Yellow Cabs are the biggest operator, and they as usual are pushing for more licenses.  Why?  Because their group of shareholder/owners are poised to receive financial benefits from every new cab (which costs about $500,000 for licenses on both shifts) that is approved onto the road.  We are talking tens of thousands of dollars for each owner, making their current application to put another 62 cabs on the road transparent and self-serving.

Does there need to be a solution found for Friday and Saturday nights?  Absolutely.  And Councillor Geoff Meggs’ proposed idea to issue partial licenses to the companies for these specific evenings is intriguing.  Yet it is a hell of a lot more complicated than the media is portraying – with ICBC rates needing to be negotiated for such a special arrangement, with the Passenger Transportation Board needing to give its approval, and with distribution amongst all the companies to be worked out.

That being said, a shallow and poorly thought out plan to add more cabs to the road is bound to blow up in the City’s face, and will most definitely cause more problems than it solves.

The next time you take a cab, consider things from the driver’s point of view – it is a difficult job where the people driving work very hard to make their bills.

These guys deserve our respect, not our scorn.

Hair salon owner David Prior, whose salon is on Hornby, should have his views listened to and interpreted free from the hyperbole and rhetoric of bike lane opponents.

In a younger incarnation, I met Laura Jones, the VP of Western Canada for the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses via a job interview.  And, in successsive, years, I have met her at various events and business functions (although I doubt she remembers).  And, just like her husband, she has always struck me as brilliant – one of the power women of the city, and a true thought leader when it comes to economic issues within the province.

And, in that ilk, her column in this morning’s Province is quite compelling.  The CFIB’s membership is strong, and as is usually the case with the business community, Hornby have stuck close to the script and banded together to give 92% disappoval to the Hornby bike lane (EDITOR’S NOTE:  Although Jones makes reference to “several hundred businesses on Hornby,” she never actually mentions what the CFIB’s sample size for the survey was, and how many returns she got back from the 300 originally sent out).  The comments that Jones presents are also quite powerful in conveying her message.

Regardless, where I take issue with the piece is with the hyperbole, a tendency that seems to engulf those that take issue with the bike lanes.

Here are the statements that I’m curious about:

“There is no plan to evaluate the business impacts of the Dunsmuir project.”

“According to the city, costs to small businesses don’t count.”

“The city hasn’t bothered to ask Hornby businesses what their sales losses might be or outlined any business-related criteria for evaluating its pilot.”

“It’s simply not part of the calculation to determine whether the project should proceed.”

Now I understand that Jones has spoken directly to many of her members that reside on Hornby, several of which are likely upset.

Nonetheless, that in no way seems like a foundation for declarations like “There is no plan…small businesses don’t count…hasn’t bothered to ask Hornby businesses…simply not part of the calculation…”

I know for a fact that city staff have been talking to Hornby businesses for months, and that individual requests have even been accomodated based on feedback from these face-to-face meetings.

Certain businesses, for example, have had their loading zones expanded to mitigate the creation of the bike lane.  Hotels have also had their areas for diembarkment increased so that bikers and vehicles leaving these venues can exist harmoniously.

I also know that Councillor Geoff Meggs has gone tirelessly up and down Hornby, business by business, to speak to people directly.

Furthermore, I know that both the CFIB, the Board of Trade and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association have all been told by the City that a business impact evaluation will most definitely be a part of the metrics that are examined after the trial is over.

What it seems as though Jones is pushing for, or indirectly asking, is what kind of compensation is the City going to offer Hornby businesses to offset their losses?

Well, let’s be clear about one thing…the losses that businesses incur often have nothing to do with what the topic their “hardship” gets into the media about.

I point out this letter from the September 15 edition of the Vancouver Courier:

“To the editor: Re: “Dunsmuir Street bike lane receives mixed reviews,” Sept. 10.

It is difficult to take seriously Michel Blais’s claims that the Dunsmuir bike lane contributed to the failure of his gallery and Frenchies restaurant on Dunsmuir Street. Mr. Blais has had, at various times, a gallery on Howe Street, a gallery and Frenchies on East Hastings, a Frenchies on Commercial Drive and a Frenchies at Howe and Helmcken, all of which are long gone. It seems that factors other than the bike lane just might be the cause of Mr. Blais’s troubles.

Mathew Kirchner, Vancouver”

In the same vain, I have often wondered about the owner of Appleton Galleries, who claimed that the fact that vehicles could no longer turn right onto Hornby when coming off of the Burrard Street bridge onto Pacific was forcing him out of business.

As I have stated many times before, I am curious about how many made commuters who previously turned right onto Hornby were a) going specifically to check out Appleton Galleries b) parking close by and randomly deciding to take a stroll for shopping in the area (which to be charitable is limited in those few blocks) and are c) no longer going to patronage the gallery because of the traffic change.

Something about that claim never quite rang true for me, just as Mathew Kirchner questioned statements like this from Blais of Frenchies:

“Blais owns Frenchies, a restaurant that specializes in French Canadian fare such as smoked meat sandwiches. He opened the restaurant and neighbouring Michel Blais Gallery in January.

Blais said he closed the gallery this week because he didn’t sell one piece of art, including paintings from several high-profile Quebec artists. Paintings ranged from $3,000 to $40,000.

He believes the bike lane contributed to the gallery’s demise. And, he said, business at Frenchies is down about 20 per cent since the lane opened in June.  “Who the hell is going to ride a bike here and put a painting on their back?” he said, noting he rarely gets cyclists in his restaurant.”

Well, let me ask you this Mr. Blais:  how about the fact that you charge $12.95 for an 8oz smoked meat sandwich, when a few blocks away you can get a nice Dunn’s smoked meat sandwich on a beautiful pice of focaacia bread at Costco for $4.95 (and as a smoked meat fanatic and connaisseur, I can say that those Dunn packages from Costco are the closest thing you are going to get to a true Montreal smoked meat sandwich in this city, in my humble opinion)?

Businesses that use the bike lanes to cover up potential weaknesses in their own business model make this debate murky.

I understand that what Jones is talking about in her column is important.  In fact, it is very important, and no decision to continue with the Hornby, or Dunmuir bike lane trials should be made without those kinds of issues carefully considered.

But let’s stay away from the hyperbole and tenuous examples of business failure to get a point across, as it does no one any good when it comes to supporting a sound, detailed and broad evaluation process.