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.
“Let’s get rid of democracy, so-called democracy, at 12th and Cambie where 11 people in a small dark room make decisions and democratize decision-making at the grassroots,” Louis said.
Elizabeth Murphy, who is running with a new party called Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver, said that her intention is “to bring back real democracy to city hall”. Like Louis, she also called for a neighbourhood-based planning process.
“We’re very concerned about the way things have been going the last two terms—in particular, under the Sam Sullivan NPA in the last term, and then many of the same policies that were brought forward by the NPA have been implemented by Vision Vancouver,” Murphy claimed. “And this has raised a lot of concern in many neighbourhoods. So what we are trying to do is provide an alternative to this.”
