DRA & DV2020 Election Questions
for a Better Downtown Victoria
Submitted by Geoff Young1. Please list specific initiatives and proposals you will put forward to improve the livability of Downtown for its residents.
The social problems in our downtown are beginning to dominate how visitors view our city, whether they are tourists from Toronto or shoppers from Central Saanich.
More and more services are being offered to support the homeless and mentally ill - shelter beds, hot meals, drop-in centres. Yet the problem grows. We can blame other levels of government, but perhaps it is time to look at what we as a city are doing. By trying to bring care and comfort to the less fortunate are we in fact enabling the very behaviours we are trying to change? Are we encouraging people to leave their home communities because of Victoria's services as well as our weather?
We should be asking if, with the best of good will, we are addressing short term needs but making conditions worse in the long term by "warehousing" those with true needs in the parks, streets, squares, back alleys and church halls of the City. Are we simply reducing the pressure for the Provincial government to accept its health care, treatment and housing responsibilities?2. Please state your opinion about, and a corresponding action you would propose that the City of Victoria adopt, on the following issues:
a. Park planning/green spaceParks in the downtown are for people (and for the environment), not for property. We should not be afraid to re-use parks that are no longer needed, and we should be able to purchase land that we want for new parks that work.
b. Late night downtown issues
The entertainment sector is important to the economic health of the downtown, and it's also important that people can live downtown. We have to work out rules that allow both to happen - each side will have to give a bit.
c. Policing and safety
Intimately linked with the issues discussed above under question 1. No amount of policing will solve the social issues, and until they are solved no amount of policing will do the job.
d. Continuing residential development
The newly-built and heritage-restoration residential developments in the downtown will help revitalize the downtown and reinforce downtown's retail and office role.
e. Additional cultural/social amenities
Of greatest importance are a new downtown library and a downtown location for the art gallery.
f. Commercial prosperity
World economic events may hurt tourism for a period, though the lower Canadian dollar should help. City government can provided the underpinnings for the economy. For example, throughout my time on council I have consistently advocated the reduction of the business tax ratio, which I consider is far too high. The disparity is inequitable between similar uses (home offices versus small office buildings, bed and breakfasts versus small hotels) and has harmed business in the downtown. I continue to support any reduction in the ratio that we can achieve.
g. Transportation planning
Massive Provincial government spending on highways around Victoria in the last few years is showing its effects. In downtown Victoria, reduced to only one department store for the first time in a century, vacant storefronts are multiplying. Shoppers are taking their dollars to big box stores near freeway exits, where forests and hillsides have been flattened to make room for parking lots.
Victoria's downtown resisted the effects of this flight to the suburbs for years, but now the signs of struggle are becoming apparent. Downtown problems do not have a single cause, but it is no coincidence that as freeway-exit retail has grown the downtown has suffered - shopping dollars are limited.
The decline in the downtown hurts the whole region. Tourism has been a good industry for Victoria, and turning what is still an attractive city with vibrancy and character into yet another cookie-cutter sprawl is foolish. Those few tourists interested in seeing a once-busy harbour city transformed into a charmless strip mall stretched along a superhighway can visit Nanaimo. Victoria should offer something different.
h. Infrastructure improvements
By far the most important visible improvement is the skeleton of a rapid transit system. "Invisible" improvements to our sewer system are also going to be needed.
i. Budget priorities
The items mentioned under the titles above will give us all we can handle to pay for.
j. Property taxes
Tough re-examination of how we provide and price local services is needed if we are to keep taxes down and keep Victoria attractive to business. We should examine how we can develop under-utilized sites around the inner harbour to increase both the vitality and the tax base of the city.
3. Please explain your plan to ensure that an effective Good Neighbour Agreement with respect to social service providers is put in place to avoid negative effects in the surrounding area.
See my answer to question 1. If a good neighbuor agreement cannot be made to work, we should quesiton whether the down town is the best place for a service provider.
4. The Social Health of Downtown
1.. There are 214 Non Profits funded by the United Way in Victoria. Funding Analysis shows that their volunteer base and number of funders is declining. Many of these Non Profits are charged with providing essential services for the social health of Victoria. Now that the economic climate is weakening these services are more important than ever. How would you work to support Non Profits in the community, and what role do you see the City playing in helping keep this sector strong?
2.. We have a Coalition to end Homelessness, we have a plan, but we don't have all of the organizations working together yet. The new mayor and council will be charged in ensuring that this is resolved or the Coalition will not be successful and the problems will only get worse. How do you propose getting all 214 non-profits to come to the table and work together under the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness to provide a more seamless provision of services to those in need and stop providing a duplication of services and therefore a waste of valuable funding?
I can't agree that just trying to work together is enough - we need a direction. To give that direction, we need more real research about the sources of homelessness - not just the high cost of housing, but also mental illness, addiction, and unemployment.5. Making Plans become Realities
The City planning department, in cooperation with community associations and other stakeholder groups has created some excellent plans to ensure the success and vitality of downtown. Unfortunately some of these plans have been "in the works" for many years without much tangible progress on the ground. In particular we are concerned about the following four plans:
a. The Downtown Plan - The City needs not just to adopt this plan but also to consider how to activate it, fund it, and make sure things come to pass.
b. The Harbourfront Walkway Plan, which would connect the harbour from Ogden Point all the way up to the Selkirk trestle. Two key areas are the Belleville Terminal and the Blue Bridge.
c. An excellent plan adopted in 1992 entitled the Downtown Beautification Strategy which seems to have fallen into disuse.
d. The Greenways Plan which will make our city a more sustainable, walkable and liveable place.
Are you aware of all these initiatives? How will you move these ideas out of the "plans and incentives stage" and towards action and results?
The purpose of these plans is to provide a long-term direction and guidance when funds become available. The healthier is the economy of the City, the more quickly they can be implemented.6. Monitoring the Well-being of Downtown
Much of the progress downtown Victoria has made over the last few years has been the result of a very strong economic climate. There are signs that this climate is weakening, and the question on our minds is, "Have we made enough progress to sustain ourselves over the coming times?"
Are you willing to take a stand in supporting more residential density downtown as part of ensuring environmental, social and economic sustainability in our region?
Yes, have done so. .
