NEWS: Citizens Set Priorities for City Hall

By Think City Staff

What do citizens want from Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vancouver city council? According to a newly released Think City survey of 2,249 residents, Vancouverites want increased electoral powers for neighbourhoods, more bicycle and transit lanes on city streets and more options for affordable housing development.

The survey is the latest initiative in Think City's ongoing Dream Vancouver project that has brought together thousands of Vancouver residents through social media and public events to discuss public policy ideas for the city.

During last fall's election, Mayor Gregor Robertson gave Think City a written commitment that he would support all 15 Dream Vancouver-developed solutions to enhance affordable housing, transportation and citizen engagement in the city. In response to the mayor`s commitment to these solutions, Think City asked Vancouver residents to choose their top priority from a list of five options in each of the three policy areas.

From Feb. 12 to Aug. 24 of this year, Think City mounted a social media campaign using tools such as Facebook, Twitter, email and its web site to reach out to the residents. Out of the 15 possible policy options, Vancouverites said their top three priorities were reforming the electoral system to give more power to neighbourhoods, helping to ensure cars share the road with other forms of transportation and establishing a civic housing authority to develop more options for low- and middle-income people in the housing market.

Although the new city council has taken some initial steps towards these goals, they must keep focused and remember their commitments to Think City and Vancouver residents. During their first ten months in office, the mayor and councillors have made some progress on re-allocating road space to alternate modes of transportation.

City council has designated one lane of road space for cyclists as part of the Burrard Street Bridge trial. But aside from temporary street closures of a few blocks for the Sunday "Summer Spaces" events in four east side neigbourhoods, no significant road re-allocations have been announced. As for the other two policy solutions, the city has yet to outline how it will honour the mayor`s commitments to establish a housing authority or reform the at-large system.

This fall and winter, Think City will be holding three action forums on each of the policy priorities. Our goal is to develop a plan to push for implementation of these solutions between sping 2010 and November 2011. If you would like to take part in these forums, please check our web site for more details starting in October on dates and times.

Top Three Policy Priorities for Vancouver

1. Affordable Housing - The city should create a city housing authority (similar to the model in Whistler) that is responsible for developing affordable housing (this includes rental units, co-ops or units for home ownership).
2. Citizen Engagement - The city should replace the at-large system with another electoral system (e.g., wards, proportional representation).
3. Transportation - The city should reallocate road space currently dedicated to private automobiles to other methods of transportation (e.g., bikes, pedestrians, public transit, taxis).

For the complete Dream 15 Priorities survey results, click here.