Lawyer Bob Kasting considering run for Vancouver mayor
Bob Kasting fought city hall and won. Now the lawyer is being asked to run for Vancouver mayor in the fall election.
“The way it’s been put to me is, ‘You do nothing or you do something.’ And I am interested in doing something. That exact something hasn’t quite crystallized,” Kasting told the Straight in a June 27 phone interview.
Kasting represented Kitsilano resident Megan Carvell Davis in a legal action that forced the city to scrap an unpopular plan to carve out a bike path in Hadden Park.
He’s now counsel for the False Creek Residents Association in a new court action questioning the city’s authority to allow commercial use of land zoned for a park.
A lawyer for almost 40 years, Kasting is familiar with the workings of government. He was a member of the community advisory council of the University Endowment Lands, and he also worked for the Justice Department of the Northwest Territories.
When The Electors’ Action Movement held its revival launch this year, Kasting was one of its invited speakers.
Tina Oliver was an opponent of the now-abandoned plan for a bike path at Hadden Park. The former assistant to ex-mayor Philip Owen said that she’s among those encouraging Kasting to challenge Mayor Gregor Robertson.
Oliver told the Straight by phone that people who want to see Kasting become mayor share one thing: “a common belief in good government, a respectable and honest government”.
Jak King, a Grandview-Woodland community advocate, recalled that Kasting asked him what he thought. “I said to him I have no idea what his politics were but he has an extraordinarily good background,” King told the Straight by phone.
Although King doesn’t know yet if he’d support Kasting, he is impressed with the lawyer. “He’s incredibly intelligent. He’s got a very fine mind. And I think, like a very good judge, he has very good reasoning skills. So, as a mayor, I think he wouldn’t be bad.”
Although Kasting hasn’t decided if he will run, he said he is aware of how residents feel about city hall. “I’ve been involved with a lot of neighbourhood groups that have expressed an awful lot of dissatisfaction with the way they’re being bullied,” Kasting said.
Comments
5 Comments
Richard
Jul 3, 2014 at 12:51am
Hope he has the courage to come to the Seaside Greenway celebration this weekend and tell all the families and others trying to cycle on the current dangerous path or on busy Arbutus why he fought against the improvements using legal intimidation.
We need bright people who can work with others to find solutions not those who resort to confrontation through lawsuits.
Page Turner
Jul 3, 2014 at 8:13am
When the results of "community consultation" fall on deaf ears.
Lawsuits are all that's left to have majority resident preferences HEARD.
Shame that.
Start listening and ACTING on community input and end lawsuits.
Simple. Or should be.
mike
Jul 3, 2014 at 9:43am
He would be a good choice, anyone but the current bunch of non-responsive, do what we want regardless of public opinion. bicycle crazy sheep who blindly follow the leader, MOONBEAM. Like to be named best city to get rid of a mayor.
lilly
Jul 3, 2014 at 12:00pm
public opinion---but what kind of public? ...most of the lower mainland communities want to restrict density/development because theres "already" too much vehicular traffic. So let's get rid of Mayor A because he promotes cycling. Doesn't really matter. Eventually, none of us will be able to get around unless we do so on bikes, use more transit, and restrict vehicle use. It doesn't matter WHO is mayor.... Moonbeam, Kasting, your uncle Steve, a monkey from the zoo, eventually the use of vehicles in the city is going to be reduced, whether you like it or not.
Jane
Jul 3, 2014 at 1:17pm
Mayor Robertson has hi-jacked the City by selling out to Developers and covering it up by masquerading as 'green'. Fact is, the out-of-control high-rise building construction in the West End and at the north end of both bridges blocks the views, the sunlight and increases density to the extent residents are trapped, unable to access the bridges without excess delays. It's incredible that effective public transit solutions do not accompany this massive increase to the downtown resident population. This City needs efficient public transportation. Less than 10% of the population is cycling to work. It is ridiculous & insulting to expect that everyone can do so. Next thing he will be privatizing Stanley Park. Bets are out that it will be closed to vehicular traffic. Your grandmother, or children, or you… will no longer be able to enjoy the scenery unless on a bike. Point Grey Road? In any other major City this hi-jacking would cause a riot. Have you noticed Gregor Robertson's street is now closed as well?