More often than not, New Year’s resolutions are campaign promises we make to ourselves; something to try for a bit before reluctantly admitting that doing Pilates and balancing the federal budget isn’t really for us.
But we’re suggesting something different this Dec. 31. Instead of making a resolution for yourself, make one for your mayor and council. Because if 2017 was about gathering facts, 2018 has to be about putting those facts to work.
Thanks to a fresh batch of census data, we know our daily gridlock is driven by the 41 per cent of our workforce that can’t afford to live here. We know population, income, and transit use have all dropped in West Vancouver. We know almost half of renters across the North Shore are paying more than they can afford. Other agencies have shown us rising rates of homelessness and the spread of Airbnbs.
Armed with that information, we find ourselves looking at the next 12 months like children marvelling at the possibilities of untouched snow. Instead of quarreling over that odious term: “relative affordability,” our elected officials can pursue rental housing that corresponds with the paycheques of firefighters, police officers, nurses and those other commuters it might be handy to have around in an emergency. Instead of an air of indifference, we can resolve to put bylaw officers on the street to shield our housing market from the ravages of the sharing economy.
Mark Twain once noted that a week after New Year’s resolutions are made, “you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” Twain was right. But 2018 is an election year, which means that if this council doesn’t have the proper resolve, we can vote in one that does.
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