Pubdate: Sat, 09 Jun 2007 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Frances Bula, staff writer SULLIVAN KEEPS HIS EYE ON THE PRIZE Mayor Knows There's Been Criticism, But Expects His Plans To Show Results In The Next 18 Months VANCOUVER - Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan knows there's been a lot of criticism about his first 18 months in office. But he's not paying attention to that. And he thinks the public won't either, when they see his plans start to show results in the next 18 months. By November 2008, Vancouver will have a minimum of 1,000 people enrolled in a series of unprecedented drug-substitution trials, which will make an immediate impact on crime levels, homelessness, and the city's drug market, Sullivan says. There will be community courts to deal with chronic offenders and a new police chief. The city's bylaw powers will have been strengthened to deal with everything from panhandling to street fighting, and the city and province will be well on their way with a plan to re-open Riverview for 500 of Vancouver's worst cases of mental illness. There will be, if all goes well, 2,400 more units of social housing than there were in November 2005. And, finally, Vancouver will have taken a radical step forward in urban planning by endorsing a policy that says that environmental impact, not livability, is the top priority in any new city development. Those will be the concrete results of his many ambitious initiatives with their catchy names -- EcoDensity, Project Civil City, Inner Change Society -- that were launched in the first half of his term. UNIQUE INITIATIVES "When these start to bear fruit, it will be pretty obvious to people what it was all about," Sullivan said in a Vancouver Sun interview at the mid-point of his term. Sullivan's supporters have to be hoping all of that comes true. Because even they acknowledge that things have not gone as well as could be hoped so far. That's in spite of any number of accomplishments a mayor should be able to brag about. Sullivan has managed to get a wide range of prominent people and groups, some of them not traditionally supporters of centre-right governments, to endorse his unique initiatives. He can and does claim that he's been able to get major housing money from the province and $2 million from the federal government for Stanley Park. In spite of occasional signs of internal dissension that bubble to the surface, he and his party, the Non-Partisan Association, have so far been able to head off an eruption of the kind of all-out warfare that damaged their opposition in the last term and their own party the term before. And he has worked like the proverbial canine. But that's being overshadowed by confusion about his wide-ranging agenda, his insistence on loading every report and communication with an encyclopedia's worth of ideas and goals, and his predilection for thinking out loud. As a result, he's not just getting criticism from the expected sources, like opposition parties, civil-liberties and housing advocates, and city unions. Critics repeatedly make the point that Sullivan is ineffective and full of rambling talk that is leading nowhere. "There are a lot of media releases, but we're no further ahead than we were in 2005," says Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie. "Rather than taking concrete action, he's contracted out city business to others. And when you talk to Housing Minister Rich Coleman, he says his housing buys had nothing to do with the city." What's of greater concern in the Sullivan regime is that it's his own natural allies who have concerns about where the mayor is headed. Bob Ransford, a developer, former Conservative party organizer and one-time adviser to former premier Bill Vander Zalm, says Sullivan is not where a rookie mayor should be at the midpoint. "I don't know if there is a clear agenda. He floats a lot of big ideas for the sake of floating them," says Ransford, who says Sullivan's style is reminiscent of Vander Zalm's and the opposite of the steady, clearly articulated course set by someone like Prime Minister Stephen Harper. EcoDensity "was a very brilliant slogan but then he turned it all over to the bureaucracy. And I think they resented he created that slogan without giving them credit." Ransford says that private conversations he's had with Sullivan lead him to worry that Sullivan is hesitant about following through with his bold plans. Project Civil City is another confusing project, Ransford says. "Other than appointing [former attorney-general Geoff] Plant [as the civil city commissioner], I don't know what it was about." And, says Ransford, Sullivan's approach to federal and provincial governments has been scattergun and, so far, ineffective. "What's he got so far? The 10 hotels are just a Band-Aid solution." Former mayor Philip Owen, who came out strongly in support of Sullivan during the election, also worries about where he is headed. "There's a lot of good things he's suggested and got started, but there's too many of them. There's an awful lot of unfinished business floating up in the air." Former mayor Mike Harcourt is a big fan of Sullivan's EcoDensity plan. But, he says, it's too early to tell how Sullivan is doing because nothing tangible is in place yet and "everything depends on the execution." Former councillor Gordon Price believes Sullivan has set major and solid policy planks in place and they will be followed by tangible results. But even he, like other supporters, acknowledges there's a lack of public enthusiasm for Sullivan. Some blame it on his staff. Some blame it on the media. Some say it's Sullivan himself. He can be boyishly personable one-on-one. He's got a disarming willingness to expose himself in a way most mayors won't, from thinking aloud in ways that make his media handlers cringe to taking a bath onscreen in the documentary Citizen Sam. And he gets standing ovations at gatherings in the Chinese community from audiences enchanted with his ability to give long speeches in Cantonese. But something is not connecting when it comes to his ability to connect to the larger public, which is an essential function of the mayor's job. "He doesn't have the strength or the charisma of mayors in the past," says Price, who is no fan of the cult of celebrity politicians. But if Sullivan is going to succeed, "he has to make himself better liked. Charisma and image count and he's missing that." To Price, Sullivan has mastered the art of being a progressive right-wing mayor in the same way Gordon Campbell did. That's not just a good political tactic that outflanks the opposition but it's the only way to get the public on board with needed social reforms. "It's the right that can more effectively bring in change than the left," Price says. DEVELOPER DISMAYED He has certainly been willing to alienate the developer community -- again, something that only a right-wing government can typically do because, really, where else do the developers have to go? Certainly David Negrin, a vice-president at Concord Pacific and the head of the Urban Development Institute, is not sounding positive these days. Negrin started off cautiously optimistic about Sullivan, although worried that he did not seem to be making any efforts to establish a relationship with the city's development community. In the last month, that cautious optimism has changed to dismay. Negrin says the door continues to remain mostly closed at city hall. That's especially a problem because the city has lost a lot of senior staff, like head planner Larry Beasley and deputy city manager Brent MacGregor, who had the authority to make decisions that the new and younger staff don't. Recently, the council's decision to impose a temporary ban on conversion or demolition of any rental-housing buildings in key parts of the city, without even a phone call to the development community to talk with them about it, was a shock. "The biggest disappointment to us is that he did not work with the development community on the moratorium," Negrin said. Developers, like the political strategists, also remain confused by Sullivan's EcoDensity initiative. At a speech this spring, the city's new head planner, Brent Toderian, asked a room of 300 people from the development industry if they knew what EcoDensity meant. Not a single hand went up. "The jury is still out on it right now," says Peter Simpson of the Greater Vancouver Home Builders' Association. "Not everybody knows exactly what it means. It's just a lot of buzzwords flying around right now." But, Simpson says, the concrete decisions coming out of council are positive and unambiguous. Last month, the city approved a townhouse development at 37th and Dunbar -- a first for that area. That was a clear signal that the NPA council is willing to uphold its support for density in the heart of its voting bloc, in spite of some vocal opposition. "I will give him full marks for that. It's given our members hope and applications are starting to come in when people see decisions like that." If there's one group that's solidly approving of what Sullivan has done, it's the non-developer business community. Bill Rempel of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association says Sullivan has done all the right things. He has moved to make taxes fairer for businesses and focused on the public-disorder issue that is a huge concern. And he's approached those issues with "outside the box" solutions that are different from the usual city reports, Rempel says. "Project Civil City is thinking outside the box. The drug plan, that was a big one to get our minds around. But the mayor has done a great job of convincing us we can improve the quality of life this way and it has to be a holistic approach." Rempel does admit it would be nice if there were more immediate change. But he believes the mayor is taking the right approach by developing his plans and working methodically through them. He has faith that it's all going to come through. So, back in his office at city hall, does the mayor. It's all perfectly clear to him that it's going to work out. SAM SULLIVAN 2005 NOVEMBER - - Sam Sullivan wins against Vision Vancouver's Jim Green by 3,647 votes amid controversy over the role played by independent candidate James Green, who got 4,273 votes. - - Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham asks the RCMP to investigate Sullivan because of media reports that he had helped drug users buy illegal drugs. DECEMBER - - All city advisory committees are terminated. - - The plan to convert two lanes of Burrard Bridge to bike lanes is scrapped. 2006 JANUARY - - City advisory committees are restored after protest from the community. - - Modest-income housing is removed as a requirement from the Olympic village plan and social housing is reduced. FEBRUARY - - Sullivan goes to Turin for Olympics, gets international attention by waving the flag from his wheelchair. APRIL - - Mayor says he's willing to risk his political career to provide drugs to addicts JUNE - - Sullivan orders Falun Gong hut removed from street in front of Chinese consulate. - - Announces EcoDensity initiative at the opening of the World Urban Forum. OCTOBER - - Council agrees in camera to hire Ken Dobell to come up with new strategies for homelessness problem. NOVEMBER - - Sullivan announces Project Civil City, aimed at cutting homelessness, panhandling, open drug-dealing, and public disorder by half in time for 2010. 2007 MARCH - - Sullivan rolls out a series of announcements about a new non-profit agency focused on pushing for a drug-treatment program that would give substitute drugs to addicts. APRIL - - Coun. Peter Ladner's team wins seats at NPA board meeting over Sullivan's team. - - Province announces it has bought 10 Downtown Eastside hotels to be used for supportive housing. MAY - - Former attorney-general Geoff Plant is named as Project Civil City commissioner. VANCOUVER Population in 2006: 578,041 Land area: 115 square kilometres Population density per square kilometre: 5,039 2001 to 2006 population change: 5.9 per cent Number of registered vehicles: 316,954 Number of property crimes in 2006: 49,736 Hectares of parks: 1,298 - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin