Pete Fry – Vancouver City Councillor

This is my personal website – if you need help or want to contact me in an official capacity, please visit my Councillor page on vancouver.ca for details or email pete dot fry at vancouver dot ca.

Will the winds of political change bring a breath of fresh air for Chinatown?

June 2, 2017 VANCOUVER, Archive, CHINATOWN, HOUSING, URBANISM

At issue: the re-zoning proposal for a new large scale condo development in the fragile heritage neighbourhood. This latest in a series of rejected applications by Beedie Developments for the block next to the Chinese Classical Gardens and Cultural Centre has been met by resistance every step of the way. Chinatown advocates are right to be concerned; after years of neglect, recent big block condo developments in the name of renewal have radically transformed the neighbourhood. Read More

Last Call for Chinatown

March 30, 2017 VANCOUVER, Archive, CHINATOWN, URBANISM

Tomorrow, Friday March 31st is the public’s last opportunity to provide feedback on the City of Vancouver’s disastrous new planning policy for Chinatown before the proposal goes to City Council. The Chinatown Economic Revitalization Update and Development Policies being proposed by the planning department favour big developers and development in the fragile heritage neighbourhood and will cause permanent and irreversible damage to historic Chinatown.

There are a lot of concerns with the new planning policy, but the literal and figurative big one is large lot assembly. Typical Chinatown lot sizes are 25 feet wide, the new plan would allow assemblies of up to eight lots, for 200 foot frontages.

On Vancouver’s new logo

February 23, 2017 VANCOUVER, Archive, art + design, VANPOLI

The City’s new logo is not a lot of things.
It’s not inspiring, it’s not reflective, it’s not exciting, it’s not very good — but at $8,000, it’s not a rip off.

I’m not at all suggesting this was money well spent — it’s not. Of course the actual cost of implementing this logo across the city’s print collateral, web presence, social media, mobile apps, signage, et al will cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands (at least) of dollars. It’s a bizarre priority for a city with so many real priorities like affordability and housing and homelessness.

Remembering Joe Wai: Architect, Activist, and Placemaker

January 13, 2017 VANCOUVER, architecture, Archive, CHINATOWN, URBANISM

Remembering the late Joe Wai who designed some of our city’s best loved Chinatown places, including the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens, the Chinese Cultural Centre, Skwachàys Healing Lodge, and the Millennium Gate. Along the way he was a driving force behind the preservation of Chinatown and renewing it’s many heritage buildings and facades, and he led the campaign to see Chinatown designated as a National Historic Site.

Naming the new school: Crosstown vs Cumyow

January 6, 2017 VANCOUVER, Archive, CHINATOWN, history

With the naming of the new elementary school in North East False Creek, it seems the debate is still raging and petitions are being circulated after the interim appointed Vancouver School Board decided to go with Crosstown rather than honouring Chinese Vancouver pioneer Won Alexander Cumyow

CN to significantly increase train traffic through Strathcona between port and flats.

January 4, 2017 VANCOUVER, Archive, community safety, trains

CN just informed that as of yesterday, they’ve increased traffic on the (Raymur) Burred Inlet Line from zero to six scheduled trains a day.

This means disruption of at grade crossings, more transportation of dangerous good through our community, and a lot more noise…

Year In Review: When you’re chewing on life’s gristle, don’t grumble, give a whistle!

December 31, 2016 VANCOUVER, Archive, history, popculture, pretty much everything else

2016, what a stinker of a year —right?

Trump, Brexit, Aleppo, record-breaking climate change and biodiversity depletion, geopolitical uncertainty and upheaval, bigotry and intolerance, fake news, an unstable and untenable local housing situation, growing economic disparity, close to 1,000 dead in the overdose crisis gripping our province, the pipeline, Site C — the list goes on!

The Buck Stops with Trudeau

December 29, 2016 VANCOUVER, Archive, climate change, environment, VANCOUVER

Shipping 900,000 barrels a day of tar thinned with solvent through the Salish Sea is NOT the kind of Real Change Canadians voted for.

New Seattle Tiny Home Project: affordable homelessness solutions?

December 23, 2016 VANCOUVER, affordability, Archive, HOUSING

Seattle’s is a model similar to Portland’s Dignity Village, which I visited in 2014 and advocated for as a possible solution here. Volunteer labour and faith based groups played a huge role in helping to build these temporary intentional communities, and the results were profound: once they had temporary housing, the average resident was able to find stable permanent housing within 6 months.

Progressive forward-thinking transit oriented development.

December 19, 2016 VANCOUVER, Archive, HOUSING, transit, URBANISM

in Greater Vancouver, transit oriented development is not seen as a driver of building of affordable housing, in fact it’s been quite the opposite: In Burnaby we are seeing wholesale demovictions of communities with affordable housing bulldozed to make room for new less affordable towers, In Vancouver, where T.O.D has been employed (Marine Drive and Oakridge) proposed developments offer an abysmal portion of affordable housing, but tremendous condo sales and presales.