Dear Editor:
Re: Mayor Calls for Reinvigoration of WV, March 12 news story.
In what may have been an early and soft kickoff to the 2018 mayoral campaign, West Vancouver Mayor Mike Smith let loose with some calculated “free thinking” at his Mayor Mike Unplugged presentation to the West Vancouver Chamber of Commerce (March 8).
Mayor Mike managed to savage pretty much everybody from the current council members to the provincial government without actually offering any solutions to the wrongs he identified.
Let’s be clear, the mayor understands this municipality and has a clear vision for what ails it. He detailed two classes of problems and came close to identifying those holding back solutions – but pulled his punches in every case, never naming names or offering alternatives.
And he is correct in identifying the big issues. First is a toxic mix of an aging demographic of residents in combination with rapidly rising property values. The result is the people needed to keep the district running and energetic for the future – the teachers, firefighters, police, municipal staff, shopkeepers, trades people and young families that keep any society safe and functional and vibrant – can no longer afford to live here; the rest of us, too old or disinterested to pick up the slack.
That leads to a host of issues affecting everything from the viability of our schools, the selection of shopping, restaurants and nightlife, to growing traffic issues and our safety in the event of a major earthquake.
The mayor’s solution is more development, particularly more affordable housing options, including rentals, which ultimately means more density. He clubbed the rest of the council members for holding the required development back (not necessarily true) as well as calling out a variety of unidentified NIMBY groups who rail against anything being built that changes the current landscape.
However, it must be noted that the major developments the mayor has recently supported, such as the Grosvenor and Sewell’s Horseshoe Bay projects, are not what anyone could call “affordable,” quite the opposite. With the notable exception of the Hollyburn rental expansion, it is hard to identify anything council under this mayor has done that has worked to encourage development of higher density, low-rise, lower cost housing.
Admittedly council cannot be held responsible for the types of projects developers bring forward, but surely they are responsible for creating the environment to encourage development of the kind we need. And as he pointedly illustrated, major developers laugh out loud at the concept of West Vancouver being open for business.
The mayor’s second target of the evening was the provincial and metro governments, who for political reasons have been obstructive in many respects to initiatives that might help the district. In this category Mayor Smith includes things such as transit inequality, the decades-old lack of action on the low road connector to North Vancouver, and the lack of action on the sewage plant. (Also included in this category would be the mayor’s laundry list of unfair taxation, but these seemed mostly to be small thorns in the side, nothing that would change life in the district.)
On the larger issues, the mayor was pretty clear he felt we were ignored by the provincial Liberals because our votes are already secure for these ridings, meaning there was no pressure for the governing party to spend any money or political capital in this corner. You don’t have to buy votes when you already own them.
True as that may be, Mayor Mike did not unplug himself enough to offer alternatives. Does he think we should vote NDP to send a message to Victoria that we too have needs? Does he think that would actually help?
By the end of the evening, including softball questions from the floor, the mayor was completely successful in identifying some very real issues for West Vancouver and equally successful in sidestepping personal responsibility or hard recommendations for solutions. Local politics at its best.
Tom Dodd
West Vancouver
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
