People like to talk.
Which is a good thing when you’re a journalist looking for a story.
Over the past year, I listened to a lot of people talk about issues concerning the city.
I also read many reports.
Much of it was related to city hall, politics and policing.
The election campaign, of course, generated a bunch of copy.
I lost count of the number of stories I wrote, but I quoted hundreds of people, some of whom were repeat customers and others first-timers.
The sheer volume of stories has made it difficult to choose the best quotes; frankly, there are some people who are quote machines and could fill this column from top to bottom, while others I can only paraphrase.
What to do?
I decided to pick just one quote from each month of the year.
Be warned that not all are worthy to be emblazoned on a T-shirt, but the words articulated by the person do connect readers to what was making news in Vancouver at the time.
So here we go…
January
For years, critics have questioned the size of the Vancouver Police Department’s budget.
The city’s independent auditor general, Mike Macdonell, announced in January that his office will begin an audit of the VPD in 2023.
In doing so, Macdonell noted the department represents more than 20 per cent of the city’s total $1.7 billion operating budget
“This makes it particularly important that the police services demonstrate fiscal accountability and transparency. This audit will examine the framework used to demonstrate the quality, adequacy and cost effectiveness of the Vancouver Police Department.”
February
The operator of an illegal Airbnb rental property in Vancouver broke down in tears at city hall as she argued unsuccessfully for a licence to operate her business to help pay for a $6,000 monthly mortgage and feed her son.
Hao-Hsun (Mona) Lan was before a three-council member licence review panel because of a history of non-compliance with the city’s short-term rental bylaw involving her house on East 28th Avenue and at a recently sold triplex on East 31st Avenue, according to details presented by city staff.
“I needed money to pay for my legal fees…I'm battling with my ex-husband on custody battles. In 2020, when COVID hit, I had no choice but to operate the business because I have to feed my child.”
March
The new 25-cent fee that all licensed food vendors in Vancouver must charge customers on disposable cups remains in effect despite a move by four city councillors to have it scrapped.
Council voted 7-4 to keep the fee after Coun. Rebecca Bligh unsuccessfully attempted to amend a clause in a series of recommendations by city staff aimed at reducing the use of disposable cups and having businesses accept and adopt reusable cups.
“At the end of the day, we've got multinational chains collecting millions and millions of dollars — with zero accountability — right out of the pockets of the people that live in our city,” said Bligh, who requested in January that staff take a second look at the bylaw. “That's what this has created. So we're not saying don't do it, we're just saying let's do it a different way. And if council can't get around that kind of common sense, I think it's disappointing.”
April
A retired judge tasked with reviewing a high-profile case where a Heiltsuk First Nation man and his granddaughter were handcuffed in 2019 outside a BMO branch in Vancouver ruled two Vancouver police officers committed misconduct by “recklessly using unnecessary force” in arresting the pair.
Brian Neal said in a 69-page ruling released by the Heiltsuk nation that constables Canon Wong and Mitchel Tong arrested and handcuffed Maxwell Johnson and his then-12-year-old granddaughter without reasonable and probable grounds.
“In the result, two vulnerable persons of Indigenous heritage were exposed to unnecessary trauma and fear, and left with a serious perception of unfairness in their treatment at the hands of police,” Neal said.
May
A Vancouver police-led experiment conducted for 18 months in select neighbourhoods that focused on ordering homeless people, drug users and others to stop occupying entrances to businesses and apartment buildings became permanent and has gone citywide.
The Vancouver Police Board approved the extension and expansion of the “trespass prevention program,” which operated from September 2020 to February 2022 in Chinatown, the downtown business district and the West End.
The program saw 581 business owners and apartment building managers sign a contract that authorized police at any hour of the day to access their properties if an unwanted person had for example set up a place to sleep in an entrance way or was participating in such activities as drug use.
Sgt. Steve Addison, a VPD media relations officer, said the program was not an enforcement tool.
“As much as some people want to say this is police picking on poor people, or police doing street sweeps, it’s not that. We're certainly not suggesting that anybody who's camping out in front of a business or in an alcove is a bad person. They have fallen on hard times and they're dealing with some pretty serious stuff, and they need some help.”
Added Addison: “And just because we're showing up and asking them to tidy up or maybe slide over a bit, there's not an implication that they're a bad person or they're a criminal.”
June
A lifesaver and a game-changer.
That is how Ndidi Cascade described what finding an affordable place to live in Vancouver with a separate space to create art has done for her.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Cascade at a news conference, where the City of Vancouver officially opened 30 homes and a large production space for Cascade and other artists in a new building in Mount Pleasant. “I feel like I have not felt this kind of stability in my life ever. Growing up in a single-parent family and being pushed from home to home and renovictions — it's been chaos, and living in Vancouver is not easy.”
July
“I must ask the question: Why are we here?”
That’s how Bert Hick opened his remarks to city council as the consultant for the Fountainhead Pub, whose owner Michel Duprat was seeking to expand the popular gay bar at 1025 Davie St.
The request from Hick and Duprat was to knock out a wall in an adjacent vacant building (formerly Mailbox Plus) to increase the inside capacity of the pub from 111 patrons to 255 and the patio from 36 to 64.
The policy essentially boiled down to this: If another bar with a class three licence — in this case, Numbers Cabaret across the street from the Fountainhead — is within 100 metres of a bar seeking to expand its operation, then it does not align with the city’s distancing requirements.
Unable to knock out the wall and expand, that would mean the Fountainhead would need a separate business licence, a separate “good neighbour agreement” and have to run a separate business next door, even though it’s the same business.
“What we're talking about is merely an increase in capacity for a neighbourhood pub that's been in existence for over 20 years that has an impeccable record,” said Hick, the president of Rising Tide Consultants. “I would also like to suggest that council give serious consideration to instruct staff to get rid of this antiquated, ludicrous, ridiculous policy that no other city in the world has. I mean, do I need to be a little clearer as to how I feel about this policy? It is absolutely asinine, quite frankly.”
August
The question posed to Geoffrey Bordas, who stood on a sidewalk in front of a tent he pitched near the corner of Columbia and East Hastings streets, was this: When was the last time he had a place to live?
His answer: “Six or seven years ago. That was in Vernon.”
That’s when the 37-year-old former chef was renting a house with his wife. At the time, he was employed at a local Best Western hotel before moving on to cook at a camp in Alberta.
He later operated his own food cart, selling sausages and perogies. He called it G.B. Express and set up outside nightclubs, at baseball games and at car shows to gain customers.
“Within six months, I put my competition out of business,” he said proudly.
Then his life took a turn.
He said it involved a falling out with his wife over money, followed by a fire that destroyed the house he lived in. With little money and no job, he eventually found himself on the streets, where he developed an addiction to drugs.
Bordas ended up in Abbotsford before continuing on to the Downtown Eastside.
“I know it’s a monster,” he said of his addiction. “I know it's had an effect on my life and I want to be done with it. I never wanted this, but here I am.”
September
Stanley Q. Woodvine was on the phone with a reporter talking about the discovery he made on a sidewalk near city hall: a two-page list of what appeared to be donors to Mayor Kennedy Stewart’s party, Forward Together.
The find attracted the attention of local and national media.
It also created a buzz on social media and raised questions around finance and conflict-of-interest rules from some of the candidates and parties challenging Stewart and his team in the Oct. 15 election.
“That was a reporter from the Toronto Star,” said Woodvine after finishing his call.
Seated in a coffee shop on Broadway, with a view of his bicycle and belongings outside the window, Woodvine said the attention had been unexpected since he posted the donor list Sept. 13 on Twitter.
“I’m amazed with the coverage,” he said. “All I did is go, ‘Look, I’ve found these weird pieces of paper — what are they?’ This is a rare example where social media just simply outdid itself.”
October
Ken Sim accomplished a feat Oct. 15 that no other challenger had achieved in the past 42 years of Vancouver municipal politics — he knocked a sitting mayor from his throne at city hall.
Not since Mike Harcourt beat Jack Volrich in 1980, in what newspaper reports at the time considered an upset, has a candidate toppled an incumbent.
Sim, a 52-year-old businessman with no political experience, ended Kennedy Stewart’s re-election bid in convincing fashion.
“I'm really proud of what we've been able to accomplish and I'm actually sad to be giving up the mayor's chair, although you know administering points of order and a million amendments every meeting, I'm not going to miss that too much," said Stewart from a ballroom at the former Trump hotel on West Georgia Street.
November
Ken Sim officially became Vancouver’s new mayor.
In an elaborate ceremony at The Orpheum Theatre, where an audience of 1,100 people celebrated the Rosemary Rocksalt Bagels’ co-founder’s achievement, Sim was sworn into office along with 10 city councillors.
“You can’t lose, if you never give up,” said Sim, repeating his mantra several times in a speech that was similar in tone and in content to the one he delivered election night after he ended Kennedy Stewart’s bid for a second term.
Sim came within 958 votes of becoming mayor in 2018 as leader of the NPA. Since that result, he has refused to characterize it as a loss, but a learning that he carried with him to help create A Better City Vancouver, which now forms the majority at city hall.
December
More than 20 rental housing advocates lined up at city hall to call for council to support councillor Christine Boyle’s push to add non-profit, co-op and social housing — some up to 12 storeys —in every neighbourhood in Vancouver.
Council heard from citizens representing business, non-profits, co-ops and faith communities, along with long-time renters, a university student and a leader of a women’s organization who urged the ABC Vancouver majority to support Boyle’s motion.
Boyle’s motion called for rental housing up to 12 storeys in zoning districts already approved for six-storey buildings and to allow additional height and density in other areas for co-op, non-profit and non-market housing.
“There's no one silver bullet, but this may be as close as we'll get,” said Boyle, whose motion passed with amendments. “Delegating final approval to staff for housing we know we need reduces risk, it reduces costs and increases the chances of receiving senior government funding and brings more homes online more quickly.”
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