Pete Fry

For Vancouver

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  • One-bedroom apartment listings in Vancouver now firmly stand at $2,000 a month

    One-bedroom apartment listings in Vancouver now firmly stand at $2,000 a month

    “The biggest issue is what, as a city, we can do for renters,” said Pete Fry…

    “When I say, ‘increase supply’, I know it immediately triggers that Vision Vancouver, NPA kind-of rhetoric,” he said. Fry clarified he’s not arguing in favour of a blank cheque for condo developers to build anything they want.

    “What we need to do is actually slow the kind of supply that we don’t need and really incentivising the kind of supply that we do need,” he explained. “That is a power that we have at the city level, through the approval and rejection of discretionary rezonings and that sort of thing.”

    Read full article: https://www.straight.com/news/977871/one-bedroom-apartment-listings-vanc…

  • Will voters elect Green Party’s Pete Fry to Vancouver City Council?

    Will voters elect Green Party’s Pete Fry to Vancouver City Council?

    The by-election race for Vancouver’s vacant City Council seat is the Greens’ to lose. And lose they may to the Non-Partisan Association or Vision Vancouver, despite both being well back in the poll.

    NPA support is composed largely of older voters who are more likely to cast a ballot. Vision is well known for its organized get-out-the-vote volunteers, a consistent advantage for the governing party over several election cycles. Either party, currently vying for second place, could upset a race that today favours the Greens’ Pete Fry.

    Currently 38% of decided voters tell us they would support the Green Party, up from 30% in July when the party had yet to name candidate Pete Fry. NPA, whose support has softened over the past month, and Vision now compete for second place (21% and 19%). Support for OneCity, who announced their candidate Judy Graves prior to our July poll, has fallen dramatically (to 5%).

    Currently, over half of Vancouverites (52%) are undecided or will not vote in the upcoming by-election. Even so, our poll’s 48% undoubtedly overstates expected voter turnout. Just 43% who were eligible voted in Vancouver’s 2014 municipal election. Fewer still turned out in 2011 (35%). Turnout to municipal by-elections, such as the October 14th’s council and school board vote, is even lower.

    The by-election race for Vancouver’s vacant City Council seat is the Greens’ to lose. And lose they may to the Non-Partisan Association or Vision Vancouver, despite both being well back in the poll.

    NPA support is composed largely of older voters who are more likely to cast a ballot. Vision is well known for its organized get-out-the-vote volunteers, a consistent advantage for the governing party over several election cycles. Either party, currently vying for second place, could upset a race that today favours the Greens’ Pete Fry.

    Currently 38% of decided voters tell us they would support the Green Party, up from 30% in July when the party had yet to name candidate Pete Fry. NPA, whose support has softened over the past month, and Vision now compete for second place (21% and 19%). Support for OneCity, who announced their candidate Judy Graves prior to our July poll, has fallen dramatically (to 5%).

    Currently, over half of Vancouverites (52%) are undecided or will not vote in the upcoming by-election. Even so, our poll’s 48% undoubtedly overstates expected voter turnout. Just 43% who were eligible voted in Vancouver’s 2014 municipal election. Fewer still turned out in 2011 (35%). Turnout to municipal by-elections, such as the October 14th’s council and school board vote, is even lower.
    The largest group in our poll tell us they don’t know how their neighbours will vote (64%). But among those with an opinion, we glean some insight about how socially entrenched party support may be.

    Half (50%) of NPA supporters believe their neighbours will also support the NPA.
    Just one-third (34%) of Green supporters believe their neighbours will also vote Green.
    Just over one-third (37%) of Vision supporters believe their neighbours will also vote Vision.

    Data table; http://www.justasonmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/COV-BYELETION-AUG-2…

    http://www.justasonmi.com/?p=5391

  • By-election to fill council seat vacated by Geoff Meggs could leave lasting mark on Vancouver politics

    By-election to fill council seat vacated by Geoff Meggs could leave lasting mark on Vancouver politics

    Could Green party activist Pete Fry be Vancouver’s next city councillor?

    Normally, municipal by-elections for council seats are not a big deal, especially when one party will retain power regardless of the outcome.

    But the resignation of Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs creates some intriguing possibilities.

    City clerk Janice MacKenzie has confirmed that there will be a by-election. Expect four civic parties—Vision Vancouver, the NPA, the Vancouver Greens, and the Coalition of Progressive Electors—to field candidates.

    The outcome could have a big impact on the 2018 campaign.

    Let’s say the NPA runs a high-profile candidate like former attorney general Suzanne Anton. She’s a favourite of many in the party. But were she to lose badly, it would harm the chances of the NPA picking up traction—and donations—in advance of the next election in 2018.

    An NPA loss may confirm the party’s status as Vancouver’s equivalent of the provincial Socreds: out of touch with a damaged brand.

    Vision Vancouver is desperately in need of younger politicians after its next-gen candidates were defeated in 2014. But should the party run someone younger—such as Vision Vancouver executive director Stepan Vdovine or mayoral assistant Naveen Girn—and that person were to lose, it would leave the ruling gang looking pretty stale going into the next campaign.

    The Greens could be the big winner if they run someone who wins. In the last election, their council vote split between Pete Fry and Cleta Brown, leaving them with just one making it into the top 10: Adriane Carr. This time, the party has an excellent chance of getting a second member elected to the chamber.

    That, in turn, would boost momentum going toward the 2018 election.

    COPE has been in shambles for a few years, so it would be a miracle if it won a by-election. But you never know what might happen, given the rising anti-elitism and overall frustration about high housing prices. A strong candidate like Lisa Barrett could pull off an upset in a four-way race.

    I’m going to go out on a limb today and make a prediction that Vancouver’s next councillor will be…Pete Fry. But I’ll add this: I won’t be terribly surprised if I’m wrong, given the number of people who will be vying for the seat.

    Keep an eye on this one. It’s going to be fun.

    https://www.straight.com/news/932636/election-fill-council-seat-vacated-…

  • Pete Fry: B.C. election could transform development picture, starting with 105 Keefer rezoning

    Pete Fry: B.C. election could transform development picture, starting with 105 Keefer rezoning

    Will the winds of political change bring a breath of fresh air for Chinatown?
    As news broke Monday of the historic NDP-Green deal to form a progressive government for our province, I was waiting at city hall, one of hundreds of speakers over four days testifying before city council in defence of Chinatown.

    I had managed to steal away from work to attend and speak on the final day of public hearings over the proposed Beedie condo development at 105 Keefer Street. I’m glad I attended in-person. The mood was electrifying and inspiring, the gallery and chambers packed with advocates and activists.

    At issue: the rezoning 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.

    So far, similar large-scale new developments may have succeeded in bringing new businesses, residents, and short-term vacation rentals to the area, but at a cost: the displacement of low-income seniors, affordable residences and businesses, and the continued erosion of Chinatown’s character and heritage.

    On day one of the public hearings, respected neighbourhood activist Shirley Chan lamented that over the last several years, the development decisions by council were not—as purported—saving Chinatown, but in fact they were replacing Chinatown.

    There is a real irony then, that those same development decisions replacing Chinatown may have succeeded in saving Chinatown after all. Opposition to the project has succeeded in rekindling that most intangible aspect of heritage: it has built real community.

    A huge number of speakers appeared before city council to offer comments on an application for a 12-storey building at 105 Keefer Street.
    A huge number of speakers appeared before city council to offer comments on an application for a 12-storey building at 105 Keefer Street.
    The opposition to this development proposal has managed to bring together young people, old people, heritage advocates and housing activists, small businesses and historic clan associations, multigenerational Canadians with deep roots and recent immigrants contextualizing their own sense of belonging in our city. The opposition to this project has brought about something of a Chinatown renaissance, and ignited a passion to save the neighbourhood.

    A new generation of bright, articulate, and inspired Chinese-Canadian youth and allies have taken up the mantle of the 1970s freeway fighters—organizing and advocating, working with Chinatown seniors, and quite literally breathing new life into the neighbourhood. The same neighbourhood that the city council majority and real estate interests had decided was in need of replacement, underperforming and moribund.

    If there were any grounds of justification for council to still approve this rezoning it wouldn’t be for revitalization, but for public benefits. The provision of truly affordable housing as a public-benefit condition of the various recent big block condo developments in Chinatown so far has been pretty minimal: in the low double digits as far as actual numbers of units.

    This most recent application for rezoning to accommodate the Beedie Group’s new 12-story condo building at 105 Keefer Street offered little by way of public benefits: 25 units of seniors rental housing, only eight of which would be at pension rate, and paid for by B.C. taxpayers. The proposal was also to include a cultural amenity space at “below market rate” (which by definition is not necessarily affordable or accessible).

    As most of the opponents agreed, the public benefits fell well short of what the community needs, and the building came at a significant cost to the neighbourhood. It’s too big, and in the wrong place.

    As I went to speak before council Monday, the news that a Green-NDP deal had been struck just moments earlier presented a literal last minute game-changer. Among other things, both parties have committed to increase the supply of affordable housing.

    That will likely mean that begging for developers’ table scraps will no longer be the only route to securing housing for our society’s most vulnerable.

    With a new provincial mandate, the veritable knife through the heart of Chinatown in exchange for barely-there public benefits will seem a lot less attractive to city councillors going into a 2018 municipal election. Looking forward, any suggestion of developer-donor influence should be put to bed by the NDP-Green commitment to ban big money political contributions (over the 11 months of the 2014 civic election reporting period, Beedie Group and their VP Rafii Houta are listed at having contributed at least $65,000 to Vision Vancouver).

    City council will make a decision on the 105 Keefer application on June 13. Those extraordinary record-breaking four days of public hearings have bought councillors a little extra time to see not only the extent of public opposition to this project in support of Chinatown, but also how the political landscape is changing.

  • The Mount Pleasant by-election candidates on rising rents and legalized pot

    What can we do about the impact of rising rental rates in a neighbourhood whose incomes are increasingly unable to support them?

    We need to be ensuring that we are not relying entirely on the market to supply affordable rental housing. I have long advocated that we need to extract more value from the property transfer tax system and the commodification of our local real estate and start investing that. Right now, $1.4 billion in property taxes from last year alone is going into general revenue, but I would like to see it going into housing. I’d like to see property transfer taxes tweaked to address speculators, foreign corporate investors, luxury properties and enhance that revenue by putting it into building new housing and subsidize the building of new public housing and rental housing.

    I would also like to see us start looking towards the model that we see in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba with the renters tax credit. In those provinces, and increasingly in the U.S., renters who are paying high rents can actually declare their rents on their income tax and receive some kind of credit or rebate at tax time. What we see in Vancouver Mount-Pleasant where we have three-quarters of the riding in rent is that an extremely high proportion of them are paying more than 50 percent of their income when the benchmark is supposed to be 30 percent. Obviously there is a disconnect, and we need to insure that housing affordability is made available to the people that live and work here because it is vital to our quality of life and local economy. Vancouverites need to actually be able to afford to live where they work.

    Marijuana Dispensaries abound in the riding. What can be done to integrate them more successfully into the community?

     I’m not sure what you mean by “integrate them more successfully into the community.” I mean, they are what they are, and in the end it’s a business model. I don’t think we can look at how we necessarily integrate businesses like pharmacies or any kind of special dispensaries; they are just a very specialized market. I think that we should enhance and protect bubble zones around vulnerable populations, so I don’t think we should have dispensaries too close to schools or community centers. Of course they should be operating within the scope of the law, and I know that there have been some really top-drawer operations and some that are a little bit shady and we need to regulate, tax and monitor these with the utmost discretion. It is a controlled substance and there is the risk of criminality or whatever might come with it, so I think we need to be on top of that. Otherwise, I would not want to see them more integrated into normal society. I think it is probably fine the way it is, as far as integration goes.

    What is the one policy change you would push for as the MLA for the riding?

    Aggressive movement on housing affordability. That is 100 percent the biggest issue for me. We have a lot of pressure coming on to this riding in particular, a lot of big projects happening, and these things combined bring about a lot of change that risks a lot of displacement. We have the viaducts removal, we have the new St. Paul’s Hospital, we have the Broadway Subway, and all three of those projects are massive game changers for this riding that are going to bring a lot of development and money. We really need to be on top of this housing affordability issue as we embrace these new changes, because if we don’t we are going to displace a lot of people. We will only see our homeless numbers go up, we will see more stress and family dysfunction, and it will compromise the health and well being of Vancouverites. It’s important that we have communities where everybody can live and thrive and socioeconomic diversity is a big part of that, which housing is at the root of.


    Read Full Article: http://vanmag.com/city/mount-pleasant-by-election-candidates/