A City of Strong Communities

Big ideas don’t grow without some pretty good soil. In the case of cities, that soil is made by having strong communities marked by both their engagement with City Hall and by city government’s respect for the community’s contribution.

Over the years we’ve watched citizen engagement erode in Vancouver, in part because of the multitude of pressures on people’s time but also because we’ve had governments that don’t always respect those they don’t agree with. When people’s investment in their community doesn’t have a positive outlet, it’s not surprising that they will find other things to spend time on.

Vancouver has suffered from overly partisan politics for too long. It is time that we take politics out of the backrooms and put decision making in the hands of citizens. Some big steps we can take to build stronger communities:

Neighbourhood Level Democracy through democratically elected Neighbourhood Area Councils (NACs) would go along way to helping provide a direct link for neighbourhoods to city government. NACs could also be responsible for approving local grants as is the case in Seattle and, over time, participate in the development of capital budgets through a participatory budget process. We also need campaign finance reform to ensure elections, and elected offices, are accessible for all citizens.

Bridging the North-South Divide. Although we often talk about east-west divides in Vancouver, the strongest determinant of your access to city services is whether you live north or south of 16th Avenue. Reserving 50% of seats on citizen’s advisory committees for people living south of 16th and establishing a council-neighbourhood liaison system, similar to the existing liaison programs at school and park board, would give a direct voice for those communities in government.

Giving Voice to the Unheard. The three communities that suffer the highest level of poverty are children and youth, urban aboriginals and the mentally ill. We need to provide voices to these communities that meet their own unique engagement challenges. For children and youth, a Council for Children and Families with all the elected officials at all levels of government in Vancouver needs to be convened, set objectives and commit to mobilizing resources at the civic, provincial and federal level behind the plan. Urban aboriginals deserve an advisory committee to provide input on decision before city council. Finally, those suffering from mental illness need a funded, staff advocate at city hall.