Monthly Archives: April 2012

B.C. police boards and community engagement

April 9, 2012 By in Crime, Urban Life and Local Government Tags: 2 Comments

Of the 28 municipalities in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, 22 are served by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under a  federal-provincial-municipal contract. Six  cities have local police departments governed by citizen boards.  We’re talking about Abbotsford, the City of Vancouver, West Vancouver, Port Moody, Delta and New Westminster.

The latest B.C. Government survey of police operations finds about 2,040 Mounties  doing local policing in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley District compared with 1,940 city police.  There’ve been recent concerns about the RCMP on several scores; the city police departments and their citizen boards offer an alternative model for organizing and governing police services. Continue reading →

Will success transform Commercial Drive?

April 4, 2012 By in Planning and Development, Urban Villages Project, Vancouver, City of Tags: , Leave a comment

Aside from ethnic enclaves, Vancouver’s Commercial Drive area may be the most distinctive urban village in B.C.’s Lower Mainland.  But its funky, quirky nature attracts visitors, and the visitors attract developer interest, and the developer interest may eventually erase the street’s one-of-a-kind character.

Once a largely Italian district, The Drive morphed during the 1980s into a resolutely downmarket ghetto for artists, thinkers and social activists. When the provincial New Democratic Party was ejected from government in 2001 and reduced to two seats in the legislature, Commercial Drive formed the centre line of the NDP’s remaining strength. Continue reading →