I'm a "Vancouverite"... sure i've lived elsewhere, but the majority of my life has been spent in this city. All of my childhood. there are so many things that i love about Vancouver, the ocean, the mountains, the fresh air, the unique neighbourhoods, the history... and so many of its wonderful landmarks
Tonight, the corporation of the city of vancouver resorted to what I and many have been fearing for some time. In order to save face and cover up the severe mis-management perpetrated by its current and recent leadership, the city is implementing deep cuts... two wonderful amenities are going to be a distant memory this time next year. The Bloedel Conservatory, with all its awe-inspiring plants and animals, a tropical gem in the middle of our less than tropical rain-forsest... gone. The petting zoo at stanley park, one of the last pieces of the long history of family attractions at one of the city's oldest... gone.
Both of these places hold a special place in my heart... its sad to know that my daughter will probably never to get to experience these places for herself, barring some sort of funding intervention, or a serious reversal of thinking by city council. That of course will not happen, city council cannot overturn the decision of the parks board without instead cutting funding from something else... but what's left to cut?
Sure, some of this can be blamed on the recession... let's face it, municipalities invest taxation revenue and rely on the returns. But vancouver's funding dilemma's are largely due to systemic mis-management and very poor fiscal decisions, dating back to the time of former mayor Larry Campbell and the terrible decision to virtually empty the reserve funds in order to subsidize the now infamous millenium development (aka athletes village) on some ridiculous notion that the city should be nearly doubling the quota of sub-market affordable housing in this, one of the most expensive undeveloped pieces of property left in the city. Fast forward to current Mayor Gregor robertson, just prior to his election, in a selfish political move, exposing a move by the city to shore up its risk in the millenium development, which effectively destroyed any leverage they had against the failing developer.
Its hard to believe what should have been such a promising revitalization of south east false creek has turned out so badly. Not only has it not delivered on its promised affordable housing, recreation facilities to be included have never materialized, and now... it ultimately has contributed to the closing of two more community amenities, and possibly will be the driver of what may cost dozens of civil servants their jobs.
On a side note, anyone remember that multi-million dollar mound, aka "the island" that the city built on the south side of false creek to the east of cambie street bridge? No? well its not memorable... but had they not built that worthless pile of seagull shit, they'd have the money to fix the roof on the conservatory, and continue to operate both the conservatory and petting zoo.
Its about time that archaic local civic management gets a shake up. Vancouver would be a good place to start.
