Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver

International speculation distorting Vancouver house prices, needs limiting measures
Yolande Cole
November 4, 2011
Straight.com

Independent city council candidate Sandy Garossino believes international speculation may be pushing up housing prices in Vancouver.

As part of her civic election campaign, the candidate is seeking to have the city examine whether what she says is the distortion of housing prices at the top end of the market due to international speculation is driving up costs throughout the region.

“When people feel like they’re choking on their housing costs, it’s because they are,” she told the Straight by phone. “These costs are way out of line, and they’re driving people out of the city and we’re losing talented people from the economy.” Continue reading →

Who’s at the Vision Vancouver fundraiser tonight
Jeff Lee
November 2, 2011
Vancouver Sun

I’m at the Vision Vancouver fundraiser tonight at the swanky Westin Bayshore. Nearly 900 have turned out for this and the demographics are wide.

There’s the predictable; NDP Leader Adrian Dix, a Vision Vancouver member, sitting with pal Geoff Meggs. There’s the normal cut of unions, lefties and the like. And a table for the GLBTQ community, the Farmer’s Market crowd and social welfare groups. Linda Solomon of Vancouverobserver.com is also here sitting behind me. COPE candidates are also here, along with members of the city’s Filipino, Chinese and South Asian communities. Continue reading →

Fledgling party denounces developer donations

Andrew Fleming, Contributing writer
November 3, 2011
Vancouver Courier

His name may not be familiar to some readers but Randy Helten plans on being the next mayor of Vancouver. Helten, the founder of civic watchdog websites CityHallWatch.ca and MetroVanWatch.ca and the former president of the grassroots activist group West End Neighbours, is making his political debut with the newly created Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver (NSV), a party also running four candidates for city council. Continue reading →

Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver attracting donations, candidate Terry Martin says
Matthew Burrows, November 1, 2011
Straight.com

A city council candidate with Vancouver’s emerging Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver slate has claimed that cheques are rolling in from a variety of sources, even the pocketbooks of possible Non-Partisan Association supporters.

According to Terry Martin, those in attendance at the October 25 council candidates meeting organized by the Shaughnessy Heights Property Owners Association and Arbutus Ridge Concerned Citizens Association voted with their voices and their wallets.

“The applause level was four or five times [higher] when we spoke,” Martin said, referring to the meeting at the Hellenic Community Centre. “When I spoke for one minute—I wasn’t even on the panel—halfway through speaking, the room was applauding. When I sat down, a woman turned around and handed me a cheque. Another person sitting beside me—I’d never seen this guy before in my life—handed me a cheque for another $100. At the end of the meeting, three more people gave us cheques for $100. And several people asked how they could volunteer.”

Link to article and comments

Could Gregor Robertson lose the 2011 Vancouver mayoral election?
Charlie Smith, October 31, 2011
Straight.com

Last week, I ran into NPA mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton at the Loden Hotel’s third-anniversary party.

At the time, she insisted that she is going to win the November 19 mayoral election against the incumbent, Vision Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson.

On the surface, Anton’s claim sounds absurd. Robertson still enjoys a high personal-approval rating. And in 2008, he trounced the NPA’s Peter Ladner by almost 20,000 votes. Continue reading →

Is Randy Helten Vancouver’s Ralph Nader?
Michael Aynsley, October 31, 2011
Openfile.ca

Last week, Suzanne Anton insisted to Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith that she will become mayor after Nov. 19; however, many polls suggest otherwise.

An article in the Straight points out that for Anton to defeat Robertson, the mayor would have to lose 15 percent of the votes he won in 2008.

The piece suggests that a strong third party candidate can go a long way to split votes and divert support from an incumbent.

The last third-party mayoral candidate to win more than 10,000 votes was former NPA councillor Jonathan Baker, who ran in 1996. Helten would probably have to improve on that, because he’s certain to take some votes away from Anton, as well as any votes he pries away from Robertson. Continue reading →

COPE’s Tim Louis may vote for Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver
Carlito Pablo, October 28, 2011
Straight.com

Candidates on the combined council slate of the ruling Vision Vancouver and Coalition of Progressive Electors should start asking themselves one question.

Who among them may lose the vote of maverick COPE council candidate Tim Louis?

That’s because at least one of the nine other council candidates in the Vision-COPE alliance potentially may not be among the ballot choices of Louis.

Louis has indicated that he’s eager to work in council with Terry Martin, one of the four council candidates of the new electoral group Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver. Continue reading →

By Carlito Pablo, October 27, 2011

Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver may endorse candidates running with the Coalition of Progressive Electors, but the upstart group won’t be doing the same for any candidates with COPE’s senior electoral partner, the ruling Vision Vancouver.

“I believe that we will be endorsing the entire COPE slate,” Terry Martin, a council candidate with NSV, told the Straight in a recent phone interview. “Their policies really agree with ours in most ways: community-based planning and respecting the opinions of the people of Vancouver.” Continue reading →

NEW NSV team at Vancouver City Hall, Oct 24, 2011 – History in the Making

Read more or comment

Bethany Lindsay, Oct. 24, 2011 3:21 PM PT
ctvbc.ca

A new political party is elbowing its way into Vancouver municipal politics, promising to limit the power of real estate developers.