{"id":15672,"date":"2012-12-24T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T18:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=15672"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:10:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:10:18","slug":"2012-inreview-wither-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/12\/24\/2012-inreview-wither-vancouver\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 InReview: Wither Vancouver?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As 2012 comes to a closes and our Spacing Vancouver contributors take a well deserved break, we would like to take the opportunity to look back of what we’ve covered over the last 12 months. Each day this week, we will be posting some of our\u00a0favourite\u00a0posts from the past year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wither Vancouver?<\/h1>\n

Originally<\/i>\u00a0posted on July 25, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A selected image from the Spacing Vancouver Flickr pool. Image courtesy of colink.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

[EDITORS NOTE<\/strong>: Lance Berelowitz is one of Metro Vancouver’s important urban critics and thinkers.\u00a0 Each of his writings – be it the poignant commentary on Vancouver’s distorted outward looking public space in<\/em> Metropolitan Mutations or the thoughtful insights in his more recent book <\/em>Dream City<\/a> – demonstrates a perceptive understanding of the local socio-political landscape situated in a larger global context.\u00a0 That is why we are happy to post the following article recently published on his Urban Forum Associates<\/a><\/em> website.]<\/p>\n

Special Feature by Lance Berelowitz<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been more than six months now since the Vision Party-dominated Vancouver City Council fired the City\u2019s last Director of Planning, and still no replacement is in sight. Recently it emerged that Council has reorganized the Planning Department and is in effect eliminating the Planning Director position, instead advertising for a General Manager of Development Services (which will incorporate the Director of Planning\u2019s statutory functions) who will report directly to the City Manager\u2019s office. This is unprecedented. The position is being politicized, presumably to ensure that the incumbent is more directly under the control of Council and more consistently on message with Vision\u2019s ideological mission.<\/p>\n

A source tells me that the City Manager recently called in several representatives of the design and development industries and academia to ask them what they thought the successful candidate needed to possess. An appreciation of development industry imperatives and the approvals processes seemed to be high on the list of key attributes. Having a long-term urban planning vision for the city did not, apparently.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, several high-profile and contentious development projects have been approved or are in the pipeline, including a major new rezoning in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood that Council approved despite widespread and broad-based opposition (including several planning and design professionals).<\/p>\n

The other night, an Urban Land Institute panel discussion brought together three former Directors of Planning (Ray Spaxman, Larry Beasley and Brent Toderian) to talk about where the City of Vancouver is going. All three, to a remarkably consistent degree (and quite independently of each other, according to a source), expressed concern for the city\u2019s future, in general, in the face of mounting issues, and for the future of the City of Vancouver\u2019s planning vision, in particular. One former director, Ray Spaxman, likened the City of Vancouver to feeling as if we are \u201con an Easter egg hunt. Council is rushing off after density, they’re rushing after lane housing, they’re rushing after cycle paths. They’re all rushing after the latest panacea that happens to offer some solution but isn’t.”<\/p>\n

There is a growing sense that this Council is determined to ram certain things through regardless of staff advice, public process, or absent a larger vision (excuse the pun). Or if there is a vision, it seems increasingly ideologically driven, with little room for dissent.<\/p>\n

What’s going on?<\/p>\n

Is Vancouver increasingly just trading on its good looks, as another former director, Larry Beasley, put it? And what happens as the city ages and those looks inevitably start sagging and getting wrinkled?<\/p>\n

Read the full article<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 2012 comes to a closes and our Spacing Vancouver contributors take a well deserved break, we would like to take the opportunity to look back of what we’ve covered over the last 12 months. Each day this week, we will be posting some of our\u00a0favourite\u00a0posts from the past year.   Wither Vancouver? Originally\u00a0posted onContinue reading “2012 InReview: Wither Vancouver?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11232],"tags":[704,423,4917,511,9392,1835,901,9388,5724,1810,398,705,571,9389,903,569,9391,570,214,9393],"class_list":["post-15672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-2012-inreview","tag-brent-toderian","tag-city-manager","tag-city-of-vancouver","tag-development-services","tag-director","tag-director-of-planning","tag-director-position-the-planning","tag-easter","tag-general-manager","tag-indepth-features","tag-lance-berelowitz","tag-larry-beasley","tag-last-director-of-planning","tag-planning-department","tag-ray-spaxman","tag-urban-forum-associates","tag-urban-land-institute","tag-vancouver-2","tag-vision-party-dominated-vancouver-city-council"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n2012 InReview: Wither Vancouver? - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/12\/24\/2012-inreview-wither-vancouver\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2012 InReview: Wither Vancouver? - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As 2012 comes to a closes and our Spacing Vancouver contributors take a well deserved break, we would like to take the opportunity to look back of what we’ve covered over the last 12 months. 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