Unlike the policies of former Mayor Sam Sullivan to ticket the homeless, of which Mike Klassen was a supporter, the City of Vancouver is a different place under new leadership these days.

Mike Klassen of CityCaucus and NPA “fame” has claimed that Mayor Gregor Robertson “blames” a rookie cop for a inappropriate ticket to a man sleeping in a tent.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Here is the VPD’s explanation of the incident:

Vancouver – A by-law ticket issued to the occupant of a ‘red tent’ in the 300 block Main St on April 22 will be cancelled. The ticket was issued by a newly graduated officer who had not yet been briefed about the Vancouver Police Department’s policy of deferring enforcement and management of people camping or tenting in City parks or on sidewalks to the City of Vancouver.

Steps are being undertaken to ensure that all new members will receive refreshers on all current VPD policies.

-30-

Constable 1920 Lindsey Houghton
Media Relations Officer
Community & Public Affairs Section
Vancouver Police Department | Beyond the Call

The City of Vancouver has initiated a distinct departure from the days of Sullivan’s infamous “Project Civil City,” where the homeless were targeted and ticketed by the police, under the direction of the NPA Mayor and Council.

Gregor Robertson has simply echoed the comments directly from the VPD, where a rookie officer was not entirely aware of the new approach being taken IN TANDEM by the City of Vancouver and the VPD to treat people on the streets with respect and compassion rather than as criminals.

Mike Klassen has expressed his affinity and association with the NPA, past and future.  He was a huge backer of Sullivan during the time where Project Civil City became the main focal point of tackling the problem of homelessness on our streets.  He is also someone who uses complete creative license with his editorials.

The fact is that this Mayor and Council have outlined a strategy to eliminate street homelessness by 2015, and are well on their way towards doing so.  This is not only about opening shelters, or securing commitments for longer-term housing options, but just as importantly, changing the attitudes shown to people living on the streets by the powers that be.

This is a political directive that echoes the Vision Vancouver approach to politics: governing with a heart.

Nowhere does Klassen comment about the policy of ticketing the homeless.  In fact, he conveniently glosses over it in favour of trying to create a conspiracy where none exists.

So, until Klassen addresses the issue at hand, and specifically references his opinion on the practice of ticketing the homeless in the name of “public order,” then his words serve as little more than empty attacks against a potential future political opponent.

]]> http://civicscene.ca/a-false-and-misleading-headline-by-npa-supporter-mike-klassen-as-per-usual/feed 0 http://civicscene.ca/agenda-implementation-is-not-a-hands-off-proposition http://civicscene.ca/agenda-implementation-is-not-a-hands-off-proposition#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:30:13 +0000 Jonathan Ross http://civicscene.ca/?p=3039

This image demonstrates the way some feel that City of Vancouver staff need to act when implementing the agenda of a democratically elected government.

I read the comments for this posting by Frances Bula and laugh.

Are we to believe that the previous Vancouver City Manager Judy Rogers was somehow apolitical when, as an example, she distributed a confidential memo to staff that accused the unions of using the 2007 civic strike to defeat the NPA in the next election?

Regardless, the recommendations that come from staff are only as good as the direction the Council chooses to ultimately head towards – a position that Gregor made very clear during the 2008 campaign:

“Staff are there to provide information and not to make decisions…that should be left up to those that are elected by the people.”

The same applies to the issue of street homelessness.  Gregor Robertson campaigned on ending it by 2015 as his number one issue during the election – no surprises there.  And, as the map in the linked article demonstrates, those were the results that the Vancouver electorate returned in the ballot boxes.

So you’ll forgive me if I also scoff at the criticisms of a man who presided over the Mayor’s office during a period where street homelessness increased by 37 per cent in spite of promising a reduction of 50 per cent (yes…clearly a pipe dream).  Oh yeah, and a former provincial cabinet minister and his “blue chip law firm” got contracts for consulting on the initiative (half of the budget is reported by the Tyee to have been spent in the first year).  The initiative I am referring to – Project Civil City – brilliantly demonized the homeless and the mentally ill by using law enforcement to ticket people without a permanent address.

Truth be told…the Council years under Larry Campbell were far, far worse.  But then again, they aren’t there beating the drums against an agenda that the voters of Vancouver overwhelmingly endorsed.

There is an agenda with regards to targeting homelessness.  The people of Vancouver overwhelmingly embraced the party that advocated it as their number one priority.  NIMBY neighbourhood minorities that support this intent as long as it doesn’t involve their piece of paradise will never be appeased no matter how much consultation is engaged in.  The Mayor is making sure that he is living up to his campaign commmitment, and the majority of Vancouverites understand the importance of tackling one of Vancouver’s most systemic problems.  Tangible efforts both in terms of shelters and more permanent housing arrangements are coming on line quickly.

Tough issues are always going to be controversial to those who do not support change that impacts them personally.

Political leadership is about mitigating these narrow interests and staring them down in favour of leaving a lasting legacy for Vancouver’s downtrodden populations.

Enough said

Sam out and about with his wife Lynn Zanatta.

I failed to comment on Sam Sullivan’s launch of his “Global Civic Policy Society” (GCPS) last week, so I’d like to delve into the topic.

After reading this Vancouver Sun article on the endeavour, these were the points that stuck out for me:

• GCPS is “a new non-profit organization mostly financed by one mysterious out-of-province patron.”

• GCPS “appears to be a one-man band”

• Sullivan is pursuing the ideas that were largely rejected when he was Mayor:  “How to achieve denser communities (EcoDensity, anyone?); how people can live together in dense communities (Project Civil Society); and how drug laws can be created to treat addicts as disabled patients, and not as criminals (his ill-fated Chronic Addiction Substitution Treatment program).”

• Sam’s role is still muddled – “Sullivan’s new gig seems somewhat ill-defined — and as quixotic and idiosyncratic as the man himself.”

• Sam is funded well – he has backing to have a swank launch “luncheon at the Pan Pacific Hotel,” to “travel to Singapore to check out that city’s attempts to become a greener city,” and to have an “overall annual income [that] exceeds the $120,000 he made as mayor,”

• According to Sam, “I’m just making it up as I go.”

• The promotional materials state that “Global Civic was founded by Sullivan when he was mayor.”

What all of this adds up to for me is one crystal clear fact: it’s still all about Sam, just as it was when he was Mayor.

First and foremost, I have to give Sam credit.  To secure such financial backing from one individual means that someone clearly has a lot of faith in the former Mayor, and as a result of that faith, Sam has been able to carve out quite a nice gig for himself over the coming years.

That being said, this initiative is hard pressed to be characterized as anything but a self-indulgent exercise in political catch-up.

First, I find it completely disingenuous for Sullivan to claim that he is trying to keep GCPS “mean and lean” when he is drawing such a salary and spending money on exploratory trips to Singapore.  What he means is that he is trying to keep the operations without staff so that he can enjoy as much as the funding as possible unencumbered by obligations.

Sam doesn’t know what exactly he is going to fill his days with, or who he is going to play “facilitator” for, or even what his end goals are (the concept of exploration seems to be the key concept here at this point), but apparently this is supposed to be the big news that people were supposed to be waiting for after it was announced on the City Caucus website some weeks back.

But even after being rejected by his former party because of his personal affinity for his own ideas, and after having neighbourhoods show plenty of opposition to his concept of EcoDensity, and after seeing politicians, academia and social activists horrified with the CAST program, and after having Project Civil City roundly rejected as a mean-spirited and antagonistic way of dealing with social problems such as homelessness, Sam continues to fight his own personal battles under the guise of advancing public policy.

I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy it.  This is a man who hasn’t come to grips with his defeat (but with all due respect, he did deserve to fight the 2008 election).  And now with financial support, he is going to be able to advance the ideas he never got a chance to finish.

But that’s the thing with democracy, whether manifested within a political party or as an exercise in securing the will of the people – it isn’t always neat and or convenient.

So again, I commend Sam for his ability to link up with such a fantastic way to earn a living.  In fact, I am even enviours to some extent.

But can I take what Sullivan produces seriously beyond the rantings and findings of an embittered former politician who has a huge chip on his shoulder for being political wronged?

Absolutely not.  And neither should and of the public, quite frankly.