Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods seeks audience with Gregor Robertson
The Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods has yet to obtain an appointment with mayor Gregor Robertson.
A day after the November 15 election, the group representing 25 community associations across the city issued a statement that it appreciates the mayor’s apology during the campaign acknowledging that he has made mistakes.
The group also stated that it will contact Robertson’s office to set a meeting at his earliest convenience, with the aim of easing tensions between neighbourhoods and city hall.
Coalition co-chair Fern Jeffries related that she has phoned the mayor’s office a number of times since that time.
According to her, she has been told that Robertson is “not yet available, but maybe sometime in the new year”.
“We are not looking for any kind of major confrontation or anything,” Jeffries told the Straight in a phone interview.
“We thought it would be appropriate, given his apology and promise to work in a more collaborative style… that it wold be helpful to meet with a small delegation to talk about how we might develop a better working relationship between our associations and the city,” she added.
The coalition was formed in 2013 following an outcry from residents over the city’s process of coming up with new community plans to deal with future growth in the Downtown Eastside, Grandview-Woodland, Marpole, and the West End.
“Every single community group comes to our meeting with issues and examples of how the planning department failed to give citizens a real voice,” Jeffries recalled. “We don’t care if you live in a rented place or whether you’re an owner. Whatever it is, we believe that residents should be engaged in how the city responds to growth and development.”
According to Jeffries, all her group asks is an hour of the mayor’s time.
“We think it’s a reasonable request,” she said.
Jeffries plans to place another call to the mayor’s office on Monday (January 5).
Comments
7 Comments
James Blatchford
Dec 31, 2014 at 3:45pm
Fern Jeffries: all politics; all the time.
Save Vancouver
Dec 31, 2014 at 4:43pm
What? Now that Gregor has been (inexplicably) re-elected as mayor he's all of a sudden not so sorry about steamrolling over neigbbourhoods? What a surprise, LOL.
MT. P.
Jan 1, 2015 at 9:39am
Moonbeam is doing what he does best - IGNORING THE PUBLIC. He only cares about how much money he can get from developers and allowing them to destroy neighbourhoods.
Realist
Jan 1, 2015 at 10:24am
Gregor was never sorry about steamrolling over neighbourhoods. Polling indicated that an apology might improve the chances of re-election. The ploy worked, and now it's back to "business as usual" with a closed City Hall and pre-made decisions of council.
Nelson1000
Jan 5, 2015 at 9:23am
Welcome to Vision's version of "we can do better."
RealityCheck
Jan 6, 2015 at 1:16pm
When are they finally going to realize that they're $25,000 short of what it takes to meet with the mayor.
Rank amateurs!
kitskris
Jan 24, 2015 at 6:08pm
Coming to a neighborhood near you, Gregor and his sidekick Geoff Meggs to ease all your worries about densification in the name of a "progressive environmentalist's" view of the city. They are convinced that there will be a million or more new residents in Vancouver and its absolutely necessary to build to match their vision of what Vancouver should look like. The question is where in the name of common sense did they come up with data that indicates a fraction of their forecasted growth rates. Simple demographics dictate that there will be a population decrease in BC(and Vancouver) without an incredible increase in immigration from outside Canada. In-migration within Canada is not a factor of growth or urbanization so population growth here and in the rest of Canada has to rely in massive increases in immigration. Now I have no problem with immigration, but it is impossible to imagine that Vision can have any impact in that area given its not within their sandbox. So I guess its becoming much clearer that they are really in the pockets of developers who don't really worry about population growth but are simply interested in "ownership" of new development wherever that comes from. Meena Wong seems to have put her finger on the issue in trying to address non-resident, unoccupied ownership of properties in Vancouver. For a group of social democrats that should not believe in property rights, that is if they are actually members of the NDP, Robertson and Meggs sure seem to be close and cuddly with the developers like Bob Rennie and Peter Wall who are definitely not social democrats!!
So when they come calling in your neighborhood to sell their snake oil ideas, continue to give them a welcome that will send them packing. Remember that our neighborhoods still rule in thie city!!