Monthly Archives: March 2012

Metro Vancouver’s economic growth has bypassed the City

March 9, 2012 By in Metro Vancouver, Planning and Development Tags: , 3 Comments

The City of Vancouver is undoubtedly the business, cultural and touristic heart of the Greater Vancouver region. However, its dominance as an employment centre is slipping steadily.

This is not news. The figures below date from 2006.  But judging by online conversations – relating to the function of the new Port Mann Bridge, for example – there are still  people who believe that all traffic on regional roads is bound for the City. The fact is, however, that increasing numbers of City dwellers  travel to suburban municipalities. To take the extreme case, job growth in the South-of-Fraser subregion has been nine times as rapid as job growth in the City over the past generation. Put another way, the City was home to half the jobs in the region in 1981; by 2006, the figure had dropped to 31 per cent. Continue reading →

How much is your public library worth to you?

March 5, 2012 By in Housing, Real Estate and Property Taxes, Urban Life and Local Government Tags: , , 1 Comment

In a 2004 opinion survey by the Fraser Valley Regional Library, 88.4 per cent of 2,000 respondents judged their local library to be “a vital part of the community.”

The Government of B.C. reports annually on library costs and library use.  The latest report shows that about 45 per cent of Metro Vancouver/ Fraser Valley are library cardholders. This number does not measure active users, but it testifies to widespread  good intentions.

In 2010, local governments in Fraseropolis spent an average of $41 per resident on public library operations, or a total of $106.6 million.  Local government contributed more than 85 per cent of library revenues; fines, provincial grants and private donations made up most of the rest. Continue reading →

Four best practices in civic engagement

March 1, 2012 By in Urban Life and Local Government Tags: 2 Comments

Municipal services in urban British Columbia are a bargain compared to what they would cost on the private market.  For less than $2,000 a year, a representative household in Burnaby or Richmond receives police protection, fire protection, street operation and maintenance, sewer and water hookups, orderly development, park maintenance  and numerous other benefits.

However, the role of municipal government is under-rated — a result, in my view, of often unpopular decision-making processes and poor communication.   Public discourse is dominated by complaining, organized and unorganized, about government’s cost and lack of accountability.   Electoral upsets over budgeting or management  questions are common enough. Three Fraser Valley mayors were turfed in the November 2011 elections.  In Maple Ridge, a mayoral challenger with zero background in community affairs tapped a generalized sense of anti-local-government outrage and took 40 per cent of the vote.  Continue reading →