DRA & DV2020 Election Questions
for a Better Downtown Victoria
Submitted by Diana Smardon1. My central initiatives include affordable housing, drug treatment, approving the use of electric cars, and the revitalization of the E & N railway.
For affordable housing, I would lobby the provincial and federal governments for more funding. Co-op housing, MURBs (multi-unit residential buildings), which give tax credits to the builders of these buildings, and the approving of secondary suites could also help Victoria's housing crisis. Alternative housing options need to be considered. For example in London, old subway cars have been converted into office space and have been put on the tops of existing buildings and are being used as offices with rents of just $30 per week. Victoria could do the same with old buses or other vehicles to create more affordable housing very inexpensively. On Granville Island, students of the Emily Carr School of Art and Design and the University of British Columbia (UBC) created another creative housing option. This student project designed 64-square-foot houses costing only $1,500 each. These types of houses could be built very economically and keep homeless people warm and out of the elements. For more of my policies please visit dianasmardon.blogspot.com.
Victoria needs a safe-injection site like Vancouver's Insite . This model has worked in Vancouver and in European cities and saves lives. The current replacement for the former Cormorant Street needle exchange is a mobile unit. Recently, this mobile unit reported that only 50% of the needles they were handing out were being returned to them. This is a public health hazard: hundreds of potentially diseased needles on our streets, which our children could step on. We need a safe-injection site immediately.
Oak Bay is currently the only municipality in the CRD that has approved of electric low speed vehicles (LSV). London has approved the use of LSV electric cars and has recharging stations throughout the city for drivers of these vehicles. Victoria needs to approve these vehicles and to install vehicle-recharging stations in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The E&N railway needs to be upgraded and to have its route reversed to accommodate commuters from up Island. The E&N could take up to 5,000 cars, which currently commute, off the road.
2. a) I would propose that all city-owned green spaces should be declared parks in perpetuity. Long-range planning needs to happen for parks, it should not be piecemeal or else one by one our greenspaces will turn into building developments and we will have lost the character of our city. The community needs to have more input on policy for saving greenspaces. The Ellis Street Park, which is now slated for a Cool Aid development with shelter beds, had fierce opposition that was overlooked by the city. The city should also include community gardens and should approve of boulevard gardens in its plans.
“Haultain Common” produced 300 pounds of food this year on a small boulevard property on Haultain Road in Victoria. This garden brought a sense of community to the neighbourhood and could feed the homeless and help Victoria have more food security since we are on an Island where most of our food is transported using vast amounts of fossil fuels.
b) A big late night issue is the noise caused by patrons of bars and clubs as they leave these establishments when they close. If pubs and clubs were allowed to be open for later hours, people could disperse at a more leisurely pace rather than being thrown out on the streets in a drunken state. Later hours would reduce the disruption downtown residents face from this noise. Another solution to this noise pollution would be frequent late night transit. Patrons could get home quickly without being a boisterous nuisance for the downtown residents. There should be more public washrooms downtown to prevent the problems that there have been occurring with public urination late at night. Another solution could be to have police in pairs patrolling rowdy crowds after pub and clubs close so that these crowds do not become violent.
c) Police should not carry tasers because they have caused unnecessary deaths across Canada. Too much policing time is spent enforcing vagrancy laws. The police force should be dealing with real criminal activity like high-level drug dealers and shutting down meth labs for example. There needs to be more transparency for the public with regards to corruption in the police force and the firing of high-level police officials. The public should have the right to know if any members of the police force are fired and why (such as former police chief Paul Battershill).
With regards to safety, it would be safer for homeless people and the public if homeless people lived in city-sanctioned tent cities on city-land like in Portland, Oregon and ultimately in affordable housing.
d) All new developments should have “inclusionary zoning” which have been successful in Whistler, Langford and Richmond, BC. This type of zoning requires that all new developments provide 10 to 25% of their units as affordable housing. This could help solve Victoria's homelessness issue. All new building should conform to LEEDS (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, which are the most highly regarded standards for green buildings in the world. This would allow Victoria to become a leading city in combating climate change.
e) For cultural amenities, I would work to bring back Folkfest and other downtown festivals that were cancelled as well as create new festivals to bring the culture and fun of festivals back to Victoria.
f) To improve commercial prosperity, I support lowering business taxes to encourage them to set up downtown in order to fill the many vacant retail locations.
g) For transportation planning Victoria needs Light Rail Transit (LRT), improved transit service and the upgrading of the E&N railroad and the changing of its route so that it can be used for commuters from Langford and the Western Communities.
h) For infrastructure improvements, I will expand painted bicycle lanes to more streets to encourage increased bicycle use. I will also retrofit buildings to be more energy efficient.
i) My budget priorities are affordable housing, drug treatment, and to improve transit service to encourage more transit use.
j) For property taxes, we should increase the percentage of property taxes returning to Victoria for the operation of the city. Currently only 8%, or eight cents out of every dollar is returned to the municipal budget for city operations. This needs to be increased in order for the city to operate better.
3. My plan would provide more funding from the federal and provincial governments to the social services (Cool Aid, Our Place, et cetera) so that they can offer better social services to those in need to improve Victoria's social services and reduce our social problems.
4. a) To keep the non-profit sector strong, the city could work with the School District. High school students currently need a certain number of career experience hours to graduate. Many of these hours come from volunteering. I would approach School District 61 to increase the number of necessary hours per student by 5 or 10 hours each per pupil. Another option would be to encourage these students to use their current number of hours to volunteer at non-profits in need of volunteers. This would increase the volunteer base for non-profits.
Non-profits should also have to be accountable for their spending. I worked for a non-profit for a year, and I know that many of them waste their money in their operations, and should be more financially responsible.
b) To remedy this problem, representatives from each of the 214 non-profit groups should meet together at a conference to examine their duplication of services. The non-profits must come together to determine how to best work together for the common goal of ending homelessness.
5. I have heard of the plans listed in c) and d). I will research these plans and work towards implementing those plans that would make Victoria a more sustainable and livable city for everyone. From what I have heard of the Greenways Plan and the Downtown Beautification Strategy, these would be excellent additions to our city .
6. a) I would monitor the health of downtown retail and services by examining the statistics of the number of successful businesses and services downtown, the number of people they employ, and the revenues they are generating to gauge the health of our downtown.
b) Yes, I'm willing to support more residential density downtown. We should be concentrating our population downtown like London has done. We must reduce suburban sprawl such as the Bear Mountain development and reduce commuting from the Western Communities to reduce greenhouse gases.
c) Yes, I am prepared to take leadership on these issues. More downtown universities and community colleges should be set up to better educate Victoria's population.
I will take a leadership role in providing cultural resources downtown with more free and affordable festivals. I will also make it easier for more buskers and artists to get licenses to work in the city core to improve downtown's cultural atmosphere.
d) If a new Central Library is required, the city can determine whether an existing building or buildings are available and are large enough to house the library's inventory. This approach would be far less expensive than constructing a brand new facility. Using an existing building rather than constructing a brand new facility may be necessary with the looming economic recession.
I do not believe the Art Gallery needs to move downtown. It is currently in a prime location for tourists and locals in close proximity to Government House, Craigdarroch Castle, and the number 14, 11 and other buslines connecting to downtown.
As mentioned in 6 c), I fully support universities coming downtown, we need to better educate our population.
AND REMEMBER, FOR THE CITY OF GARDENS, VOTE SMARDON!
THANK YOU!
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