Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver

VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM 980)

Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson may have called him an effin NPA hack, but it looks like City Hall Watch founder Randy Helten is running for mayor with a new party.

Helten has started Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver.

He says the goal is to take power out of the hands of developers, who make huge campaign contributions to Vision Vancouver and the NPA.

He says, “our group is grassroots and we have a small budget, but we’re working based on a knowledge of what neighbourhoods are concerned about, and we believe that it’s important for elected officials to balance all the interests of the city, not always remembering who gave them the money to get into power.”

Along with Helten, NSV is running council candidates in the November 19th election.

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With less than a month before the Vancouver election, a nonscientific survey has suggested that Mayor Gregor Robertson is not faring well with residents of the West End.

The West End Residents Association website is running an online poll asking the question: Which mayoralty candidate would be best for the West End?

With 115 votes submitted, the winner by a long shot is Randy Helten, who is running with Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver. Continue reading →

Vancouver council candidates call for greater neighbourhood input into decision-making
Charlie Smith, October 22, 2011
Straight.com

At a meeting at Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House, some Vancouver council candidates raised serious concerns about the lack of neighbourhood input into decision-making.

COPE candidate Tim Louis declared that his “number one priority is neighbourhoods”.

To achieve this he called for the creation of neighbourhood councils, which would have a say over major rezononings. Continue reading →

Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver (NSV) enters 2011 civic election race with five candidates (Randy Helten for Mayor)

(Vancouver, October 20, 2011)
Elector organization Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver (NSV) announced today that it will be running five candidates in the November 19 civic  election. Randy Helten runs for mayor, and Elizabeth Murphy, Terry Martin, Marie Kerchum, and Nicole Benson, for councillor positions. Continue reading →

Vancouver mayoral candidate gives up his fiddle in bid to drum out Gregor Robertson
Kent Spencer, October 20, 2011

Mayoral challenger Randy Helten has abandoned his violin lessons this election so he can
take time to oppose Vision Vancouver’s plans to build tall buildings around the city.

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Randy Helten runs for mayor with Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver
By Yolande Cole, October 20, 2011
Straight.com

A Vancouver electoral organization says it wants to bring “real democracy” to city hall as it gets set to make its debut on the civic-election ballot next month.

Community activist Randy Helten is running for mayor with Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver, heading up a slate with four candidates for city council.

NSV’s council candidates are former city and B.C. Housing staffer Elizabeth Murphy; former board of variance chair Terry Martin, who recently sought a council nomination from the Coalition of Progressive Electors; social and environmental activist Nicole Benson; and former B.C. College of Teachers registrar Marie Kerchum.

Helten, who has stepped down as president of the organization West End Neighbours to run for mayor, founded the watchdog websites CityHallWatch and MetroVanWatch. He said the group aims to reform the way the city is being run.

“A city is really defined by the ground that it’s on, and the most important function of city hall is really to regulate land use, because everything else really comes out of that,” he told the Georgia Straight by phone. “The way the city’s running needs to be reviewed by our whole civic society, particularly relating to corporate influence at city hall, and that comes down to campaign contributions and so on.” Continue reading →

“Effen NPA hack” Helten now de facto COPE mayoral candidate
Daniel in Editorial, October 18, 2011
CityCaucus.com

Not a lot of people in Vancouver consider mayoral candidate Randy Helten a household name, but that might be about to change. A former Vision Vancouver member, Helten was the guy at the center of the “effen NPA hack” controversy that caused headaches for Gregor Robertson about a year ago.

If you recall, Helten and a few other community activists presented to Vancouver City Hall about their concerns regarding the pace and scale of development happening in the West End. Once the meeting was over and the cameras were off, Robertson was caught on tape slagging the presenters. He said:

Who are all those f*cking…who are these hacks man? Are they…Are they NPA hacks? You know?

Amazingly, the infamous audio tape/video now has over 56,000 views on YouTube. Continue reading →

COPE’s deal with Vision responsible for rise of Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver, activist says
By Carlito Pablo, October 18, 2011
Straight.com

A mantra has beguiled a faction within the Coalition of Progressive Electors. It goes something like: don’t split the progressive vote in Vancouver or else the Non-Partisan Association will return to power.

And that’s what drove a slim majority in COPE to ratify in June a new electoral agreement with the ruling Vision Vancouver.

That also meant rejecting an offer by the Green Party of Vancouver for a COPE-Green alliance in this year’s municipal election.

And according to community activist Joseph Jones, the refusal by a small majority in COPE to move out of the shadows of Vision was partly responsible for the emergence of the new electoral organization Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver. Continue reading →

By Mike Hager, Vancouver Sun
October 17, 2011

Though the fight for mayor may come down to the two frontrunners, 10 other  candidates – including a self-professed “saxmaniac” and a man who was on the  receiving end of the current mayor’s infamous F-bomb  – officially joined the  race Friday.

Incumbent Mayor Gregor Robertson and his rival Suzanne Anton will be  challenged by eight independents and two candidates from other political  parties, including Randy Helten.

Helten of Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver was part of a group that  were publicly lambasted by Robertson as he unknowingly spoke into a “live” mike  during a community hearing last year. Continue reading →

Randy Helten promises wild ride in quixotic quest for the Vancouver mayoralty
by Matthew Burrows, October 17, 2011, 7:11 PM
Straight.com

The West End shit disturber now running against his arch nemesis, Mayor Gregor Robertson, has one piece of advice for voters.

“Fasten your seat belts.”

Randy Helten, founder of websites CityHallWatch.ca and MetroVanWatch.ca—not to mention the West End Neighbours—told the Straight he had been coy about his candidacy for the longest time, before announcing he would run for the mayor’s job next month.

“The answer to the question, would I run for mayor, was ‘no’,” Helten said by phone. “And it was a sincere no, about less than 24 hours before the deadline at 4 p.m. on Friday, October 14.”

He’s with a slate called Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver along with four council candidates.

“I just considered the whole flow of my life and all the stuff I had been doing for the last 20 years, and I think that…I didn’t see any candidates in there that are going to fix the serious, fundamental problems in Vancouver,” Helten said. “So, for me to be true to myself, I had to do it.”

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