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Authors: <\/em>Patrick Condon<\/strong> & Colleen Hardwick<\/strong><\/p>\n Vancouver\u2019s success as a global city has spawned housing prices that rise farther and farther out of reach of city wage earners. Tied to that process has been a question of whose arguments hold more sway at city hall, those of everyday citizens or the real estate industry.<\/p>\n There was a time when citizens were far more influential in Vancouver\u2019s planning, an era we\u2019ll revisit later in this piece as we make the case for honouring the spirit of those times.<\/p>\n But the 2008 ascendance of the Vision Vancouver party marks a moment when the city government swung away from encouraging strong neighbourhood influence on planning decisions to acceding to the argument of the housing industry. Which was that building much more housing, with less regard for what local citizens would advise, would produce a plethora of social benefits \u2014 notably, more affordable housing.<\/p>\n Vancouver\u2019s current mayor and council have moved even further in this direction, with anti-citizen arguments boldly pronounced, rationalized by the housing crisis. Mayor Ken Sim provides one example after real estate industry voices suggested removing a decades-old policy on view cones. He was inspired to assert<\/a>, \u201cWe don\u2019t have a view crisis. We have a housing crisis,\u201d suggesting taller towers equalled cheaper housing.<\/p>\n Behind his assertion is the assumption that housing prices would go down if we let the real estate industry build what is marketable, at whatever height is economically viable, wherever real estate developers decide.<\/p>\n