{"id":32773,"date":"2018-11-13T10:36:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T18:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=32773"},"modified":"2019-06-28T09:39:35","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T16:39:35","slug":"so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/","title":{"rendered":"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Guest author: Patrick Condon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fresh from being elected mayor by voters deeply worried about Vancouver\u2019s widening gap between the property rich and everyone else, Kennedy Stewart offered his basic take on the problem:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would really like to get away from the housing crisis as fast as we can, and get on to the growth side of things,\u201d Stewart told Business in Vancouver Oct. 29. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m most looking forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he\u2019s really looking forward to is the growth side of things? Did the new mayor miss the lesson of this election? The Vision council and mayor were rejected because of their misguided faith in the power of growth, and of the housing market, to solve all our problems.<\/p>\n

Green Party, One City, and COPE candidates on the left ran on platforms that to a lesser or greater extent rejected Vision\u2019s blinkered faith that markets, properly incentivized, could deliver affordable housing. Meanwhile, on the political right, doctrinaire free market enthusiasts like Hector Bremner, who called for a complete deregulation of housing markets, received a vanishingly small vote.<\/p>\n

Even Ken Sim, the nearly victorious NPA candidate for mayor, knew enough to soft pedal market-based housing solutions, opposing Vision\u2019s city-wide duplexing strategy, proposing instead allowing additional rental units in any Vancouver principal residence. His approach was compatible with that of left-of-centre councillor elect Jean Swanson, who sees this as a way to both add rental supply and preserve existing affordable suites.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just gotta get this housing thing going,\u201d Stewart told Business in Vancouver, by which he means delivering on building 85,000 housing units in a mix of non-profit, rental and market housing he\u2019s promised over the next decade.<\/p>\n

How will he get that done, everyone now logically wants to know. It seems Stewart clings to a belief that should have been more deeply probed and challenged during the campaign \u2014 that city hall can leverage private investment to solve the housing crisis. It\u2019s a faith in the market, and growth, that Stewart inherits from Vision. And it has a name: neoliberalism.<\/p>\n

The dogma of hands-off growth<\/p>\n

The laissez-faire economic approach known as liberalism held sway in the West until the Great Depression crashed the global economy. Then followed a half-century of so-called Keynesian faith that major government investment in public works and programs, public housing, industrial regulation and the job security provided by unions, were critical tools for achieving a more equitable, stable society. Such policies, named for economist John Maynard Keynes, had a pretty good run till about 1980.*<\/p>\n

During that half century governments basically agreed that they should intervene when markets failed in crucial areas such as housing. But all that began to collapse roughly around the day in 1981 Ronald Reagan stated: \u201cGovernment is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the 1980s on, political leaders in Vancouver (like most of Canada), in keeping with the newly ascendant neoliberal economic dogma, abandoned any attempt to house all Canadians in the belief that an unfettered housing market could do a better job of it. Well, here in Vancouver we can now clearly see how that\u2019s working out.<\/p>\n

No one could claim Vancouver, during those decades, lacked for \u201cgrowth.\u201d As condo towers bloomed like dandelions across the urban landscape, however, the relative condition of the local wage earner got worse. Growth has enriched property flippers, land owners, developers, and real estate agents, even insurance companies, since home owners are constantly looking for cheaper home insurance options<\/a>. Growth has included a flowering of tech jobs in the Vancouver region, but even workers in that celebrated sector haven\u2019t seen paycheques to match the cost of renting or owning appropriate homes for raising families.<\/p>\n

The \u2018foundational economy\u2019<\/p>\n

In giving his inaugural address yesterday, Stewart had another opportunity to make clear he understood Vancouver\u2019s affordability was being destroyed by market failure, and could only be restored by a level of government investment and intervention beyond any current level in Canada. He spoke eloquently of the challenge:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequences of our housing crisis ripples out into every part of our civic fabric,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who you are or where in this city you go, the stress of unaffordability hangs over Vancouver, stifling its creativity and energy and promise of opportunity. But it doesn\u2019t need to be this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he avoided the neoliberal nub of the problem.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s not too late for Stewart and certain council members to receive the message they were given on election day. Rather than speak grandly but vaguely of \u201cgrowth,\u201d may I suggest they pledge to build and shore up Vancouver\u2019s \u201cfoundational economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do so is to reject growth that does not serve the kinds of people who live and work in Vancouver \u2014 or who want to live and work here \u2014 but who are being driven out by unaffordable housing prices. We need a concept of growth which recognizes that most of Vancouver\u2019s jobs now, as well as 85 per cent of its expected job growth, reside in the broad category of \u201cservice jobs\u201d \u2014 teachers, nurses, orderlies, yoga teachers, accountants, lawyers, bus drivers, baristas, lab technicians, computer repair, etc.<\/p>\n

When Stewart finishes off his Business in Vancouver interview by declaring, \u201cI just gotta get this housing thing going,\u201d he raises two questions. What exactly does the new mayor mean by \u201cthis housing thing,\u201d and how big a Keynesian role must government play to get it \u201cgoing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Until those terms are defined, Vancouver\u2019s new mayor risks being heard to speak merely some new inflection of a too familiar language \u2014 the one called business as usual.<\/p>\n

*This article originally appeared in The Tyee<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Patrick Condon<\/strong> is the James Taylor chair in Landscape and Livable Environments at the University of British Columbia\u2019s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and the founding chair of the UBC Urban Design Program.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest author: Patrick Condon Fresh from being elected mayor by voters deeply worried about Vancouver\u2019s widening gap between the property rich and everyone else, Kennedy Stewart offered his basic take on the problem: \u201cI would really like to get away from the housing crisis as fast as we can, and get on to the growthContinue reading “So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32774,"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":[11230,11232,24,6670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-features","category-housing","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSo Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019 - 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\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019 - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Guest author: Patrick Condon Fresh from being elected mayor by voters deeply worried about Vancouver\u2019s widening gap between the property rich and everyone else, Kennedy Stewart offered his basic take on the problem: \u201cI would really like to get away from the housing crisis as fast as we can, and get on to the growthContinue reading "So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-13T18:36:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-28T16:39:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Spacing\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/\",\"name\":\"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019 - Spacing Vancouver\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-13T18:36:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-28T16:39:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":667,\"caption\":\"Newly inaugurated Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart: \u2018I would really like to get away from the housing crisis as fast as we can, and get on to the growth side of things. That\u2019s what I\u2019m most looking forward to.\u2019\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Vancouver\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Vancouver Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492\",\"name\":\"Spacing\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Spacing\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/author\/spacing\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019 - Spacing Vancouver","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019 - Spacing Vancouver","og_description":"Guest author: Patrick Condon Fresh from being elected mayor by voters deeply worried about Vancouver\u2019s widening gap between the property rich and everyone else, Kennedy Stewart offered his basic take on the problem: \u201cI would really like to get away from the housing crisis as fast as we can, and get on to the growthContinue reading \"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Vancouver","article_published_time":"2018-11-13T18:36:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-28T16:39:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":667,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Spacing","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Spacing","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/","name":"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019 - Spacing Vancouver","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg","datePublished":"2018-11-13T18:36:48+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-28T16:39:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/11\/Kennedy-Stewart.jpg","width":1000,"height":667,"caption":"Newly inaugurated Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart: \u2018I would really like to get away from the housing crisis as fast as we can, and get on to the growth side of things. That\u2019s what I\u2019m most looking forward to.\u2019"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2018\/11\/13\/so-kennedy-stewart-truly-loves-the-growth-side-of-things\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"So Kennedy Stewart Truly Loves \u2018The Growth Side of Things\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/","name":"Spacing Vancouver","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Vancouver Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/bc6338271b83f53fb0543fb2c217c492","name":"Spacing","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/95dd3193db27d80b922996e7d9e26493?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Spacing"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/author\/spacing\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33422,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32773\/revisions\/33422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}