Pause the Plan rally

Mer Montadore (left) and Carol Volkart at the Nov. 23 Pause the Plan rally at Vancouver city hall.

When Mount Pleasant and Dunbar Met: What I learned at the Broadway Plan Rally

By Carol Volkart

Why go to a Broadway Plan rally on a grim November day under threatening skies when you don’t even live in the Broadway area anyway?

Because, crossing Twelfth on the way to the City Hall rally site with your “Dunbar (hearts) Livable Neighbourhoods!” cardboard sign tucked under your arm, you might just happen to meet Mer Montador.

Unlike me, Mer has not spent the last couple of years overdosing on Vancouver civic politics, writing furious missives to two successive councils, and waging war against a merciless densification drive that is making our city ever-uglier, ever less green, and ever more expensive.

While I’d spent the last two weeks thinking about and promoting the rally – aimed at persuading City Council to pause and rethink the tower-promoting Broadway Plan – Mer had noticed a poster somewhere and thought she’d check it out.

Mer’s apartment building at 14th and Quebec doesn’t (yet) have a rezoning application sign out front, but every time she steps out of her front door, she’s surrounded by the reality of the Broadway Plan.

Within a two-block radius of her place, there are seven rezoning application signs for 20-storey towers that would replace a variety of low-rises housing people just like her. People who, like her, have sometimes lived in their homes for decades, and whose rent is currently affordable. How about $1,300, for example, for a livable ground-floor one-bedroom unit?

Mer has wondered where all her neighbours will go when their homes are torn down to make way for this:

-At 254 East 12th Ave., a three-storey apartment (next to Cavell Gardens retirement home at 12th and Sophia) will be replaced by a 181-foot, 146-unit tower.

– At 310 East 14th Ave. at Sophia, a three-storey building will be replaced by a 204-ft. tower, with 138 units, 20% of them below market rentals.

– At 270 East 13th Ave. a three-storey building will be replaced by a 203-ft. tower.

– At 215 – 229 East 13th Ave. one house and a three-storey apartment will be replaced by a 212-ft. tower.

-At 25 & 55 East 12th Ave, there will be two towers at 204 feet plus a 5- or 6-storey building in between, covering almost the entire block.

– At 45 East 16th Ave., a 184-ft. tower that would be commercial on the ground floor, with 20% of the units below market.

Mer wasn’t the only Mount Pleasant resident who showed up at the rally because of all the blue and yellow development signs popping up in the neighbourhood. Another participant  who turned out to live close to Mer said she too came because of all the signs and a curiosity about what was going on.

To me, the lack of consultation and information about the dramatic changes to their neighbourhood was stunning. What happened to city consultation and engagement with residents? What happened to local media informing people about what was happening to their area and why?

To both Mount Pleasant residents, it was news that there’s a CityHallWatch website that keeps detailed track of what Vancouver City Council is up to. And that there’s a civic political party, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, that believes residents should be consulted about changes to their neighbourhoods. So when the clipboard guy came around, both welcomed the chance to sign up for a more informed future.

An impressive, lively and varied speakers’ list, moved briskly along by emcee Theodore Abbott, filled the novitiates in on the main issues.

Experts like architect (and Dunbar resident) Brian Palmquist set out what the Broadway Plan has done and is expected to do in future. Architect Sean McEwan described alternatives to towers such as the successful 12th and Arbutus housing development. UBC Prof. Patrick Condon explained how years of building record supply in Vancouver hasn’t decreased prices, but instead given us – as the crowd who had heard this before chanted along with him – “the highest housing prices in North America.” Thomas Kroeker, a 19-year-old UBC geography and economics student, said data disproves the industry-funded narrative that increased housing supply leads to lower prices. “This simply does not happen.” He also attacked city councillors for silencing and ignoring citizens while listening intently to the developers who financed their election campaigns. It’s time to  take back our power, he said, “and show developers that they are not entitled to our city.”

Those affected by the Broadway Plan included Teresa Alfeld, who described the anxiety of tenants like her who have been told their apartments are being demolished for towers, with no certainty of what happens next. And Bhavna Solecki, who led the residents of 5455 Balsam to fight for better treatment from their landlord Larco, which is building another highrise next door, described the drastic impact of the housing crisis on seniors.

A key theme throughout was lack of consultation with residents, and a growing sense that our elected representatives do not listen to the people they supposedly serve. The point was underlined when Abbott noted that all council members, senior city staff and all local MLAs had been invited to the rally. Were any present? he asked. There was silence for a moment until someone raised a hand. It turned out that Vancouver-Quilchena’s Dallas Brodie, a Conservative MLA who happens to represent Dunbar, was the only elected official who came to hear what residents had to say.

As the rally ended, rain began pouring from the clouds and the crowd scattered under umbrellas. Soon after, I got an email from Mer. “I’m very glad to have met you and been part of that crowd,” she wrote. “I will look into and support TEAM for a Livable Vancouver and thank you for your input and insight.”

Thank you, too, Mer. You made a dark November rally worthwhile.

Holding the sign in front is Bhavna Solecki.

Pause the Plan rally at Vancouver city hall.

Brian Palmquist speaking, Theo Abbott on the left.

Teresa Alfeld describes theBroadway Plan’s impact on tenants.

UBC Prof. Patrick Condon says more building doesn’t lead to cheaper housing.