Yesterday via Twitter, Rebecca Bollwitt of Miss 604 and I conducted a bit of a social media civic engagement experiment at City Hall as we moderated a chat with your mayor, Gregor Robertson. Lighting up the hashtag #GregorLive, we encouraged you all to tweet questions which we pitched at him and then he answered, along with a blog that Rebecca maintained in realtime.
Photo: Miss604 on Instagram
You can view the full transcript right HERE in case you missed it. Below are a few of the highlight questions and answers for me. While it was a fun interview we did touch on a number of real issues that affect Vancouver and were given the mayor's immediate thoughts and insights on them:
Question from @paulwittal: “When will Vancouver finally have a public bike share system?”
Mayor Gregor's Answer: “Vancouver public bike share pilot at Velo-City conf this summer, and hopefully operational within a year”
Question from @Phanyxx: “Do you feel that height caps on new condo dev’ments are stifling Vancouver’s growth or is that practice beneficial?”
Mayor Gregor's Answer: “We need to be thoughtful about building heights, consider community amenities and protect view corridors”
Question from @RobbieDrizzle: “What is the city doing to foster and promote high tech start-ups and entrepreneurship in Vancouver?”
Mayor Gregor's Answer: “We have most entrepreneurs per capita than any city in N America, and a digital media powerhouse” & “We’re updating zoning for more office space and tech hubs @VanEconomic working hard on local econ growth”
Question from @SaveonMeats about what kind of meat the mayor eats
Mayor Gregor's Answer: "I don’t eat meat, but do eat sustainable seafood. I used to raise venison, chickens when I was a farmer”
Question from @econgroupltd: “How do u feel the creation of a National Housing Strategy + coordinated strategy on affordable housing would support u locally?”
Mayor Gregor's Answer: “Nat. Housing strategy would be a big help, we need more support from both Fed. & Prov. governments”
Question from @ZuluRecords: “Hey gregor! we hear your DJ skills are amazing would you like to spin some tunes for RECORDSTOREDAY 2012 @zulurecords 04/21/12”
Mayor Gregor's Answer: “Congrats on winning best record store in the country! Thanks for the props, I’ll try my best on the DJ front.”
Photo: VanMayorsOffice on Instagram
Big thanks to Gregor for his time and hospitality in his office, and to Lara Honrado and Braeden Caley at the Mayor's Office for making this happen with nary a hitch! Again, check out all of the dialogue HERE and stay tuned as we hope to do it again sometime in the future.
