Council is back today to finish up some items from yesterday and some other business. First up, a staff presentation on "Mobility + Public Life Response" on reallocating some car space to other uses to support social distancing, outdoor queues, etc.

https://council.vancouver.ca/20200513/documents/cfsc1presentation.pdf

There's a lot here to like and I hope the city finally moves forward aggressively on this (after falling far behind what many other cities have already done), but there's some concerning stuff here to.

It sounds like the the only outreach staff did was with businesses...

And that the only places they're exploring this is where "we’ve been working with the businesses who see this as a benefit to their customers".

That's great and all, but not nearly enough. What about streets like mine, where there aren't any retail businesses?

The sidewalks are too narrow to pass someone w/ social distancing and the streets are still too busy with cars to rely on those, but I guess the city didn't even look at creating any more safe b/c there aren't any retail businesses here.

This sort of cautiousness is why the city has done so little to support safe use of outdoors space. The city needs to do much more much more quickly.

That being said, there is positive stuff here. Staff recognized the risk (and negative consequences) if car use rises as a result of the pandemic. They also explicitly mentioned the equitable aspects of transportation policy, and that COVID, like other crises, has unequal impacts

Staff said they are looking at what other cities have done. Great, we're already 2+ months into this! Isn't that just an admission that Vancouver is no longer a leader when it comes to active transportation and green space? Isn't it a bit late to be "starting the conversation"?

Question time. Cr Boyle asks staff when we can see the sort of ambition we've seen from other cities and how we can ramp up quickly. Great question!

Wow staff's answer is incredibly disappointing. Say something about "we've seen such public support for these initiatives...

Which suggests there IS public support to do this -- so why have they done so little?

But then staff says they are "our ambition is limited by the public appetite for street re-allocation".

Incredibly frustrating.

Keep in mind so far Vancouver has basically done NOTHING. Far less than many other cities.

Staff are so scared of car culture they're scared of their own shadows and unwilling to show any leadership on this.

So staff seem to be saying "we've done nothing because there is no public appetite in Vancouver for reallocating road space from cars to other uses". Really? That's why we've done so little compared to even Toronto?! https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-toronto-introduces-bigger-sidewalks-to-make-room-for-pedestrians-on/

Cr Carr raised closing side streets but staff acted as if it was the first time the possibility of doing something like that had occurred to them.

Just so frustrating.

It really sounds as if active transportation is no longer a meaningful priority in the city.

Swanson now points out that people in the DTES have been pleading to close down part of Hastings for over a month now -- is that something the city is looking at?

The answer is: nope. Too important for traffic. Maybe looking at lane closures, but it was very vague.

Swanson is speaking for me here: as a transit user without a car, I'm reluctant to use the bus right now. (MDG interrupts to ask if Swanson has a question which is extremely frustrating given how much pointless rambling MDG does and Swanson was clearly setting up a question!)

Anyways, Swanson asks about risk of car use rising in the future and how staff are working with Translink on that. Staff talk about remote work lessening car use (?!) and rolling this into the city wide plan (which I'm pretty sure is totally dead for at least several years) so...

Staff have identified 50km of streets to encourage walking and biking. Wiebe asks how much of that is actually reallocating away from cars to other uses and staff clarify that staff are just talking about putting up "slow" signs and stuff like that. So NO actual reallocation.

Yes, Wiebe confirms: the city is not reallocating ANY road space from car drivers to other uses. Not a single km.

What a pathetic failure.

Staff basically say that actually closing a street just takes too long and is too gosh darned difficult.

Wiebe points out other cities (including in the lower mainland) are doing that and staff are just like

wellll

but cars!

Hardwick: "If these are temporary measures, we should be prepared to let the public know for how long this is expected to last."

Her obsession with resisting change leads her to say some pretty silly stuff

Fry is also asking about how to encourage staff to take a more "robust" approach; how much other cities have accomplished, and how they have done so "nimby and quickly".

Staff bring up their inability to set a blanket speed in the city and they need the province to fix that.

MDG is talking about the "very controversial" (according to local businesses) bike lane on Commercial Drive, even though there's a bike lane just a few blocks away.

Staff say they are not looking at any major changes (like new bike lanes I guess?) right now.

The presentation was for council's information only so no vote.

Here's a couple more interesting slides from the presentation:

That's it for the presentation -- after this council will be turning to member's motions held over from yesterday.

Among them one from Cr Dominato which asks staff to "expedite efforts to identify and implement appropriate reallocations of road space" -- very timely!

It really is hard to maintain the "Vision Deep State" conspiracy theory after listening to today's presentation! https://twitter.com/tyler_bryant/status/1260632276926230528

Ok, on to member's motions. First up is Cr Kirby-Yung's motion: "Flexible, Innovative and Expedited Patio Permitting". There are 5 speakers -- the first is in the pub business and talks about how difficult it will be to re-open and how a patio would help

https://council.vancouver.ca/20200513/documents/cfsc2.pdf

Council is back and the online stream is really, really bad -- it's not possible to follow what's going on. The patio motion may have passed or this may just be an amendment to it, I can't say...

Ok we're back and working through amendments to the patio motion. Swanson proposes this one. I definitely support the idea of free public space being available for all, but I gotta wonder how many restaurants will want to run a patio if they have to be open to non-customers...

Cr Carr asked for a ruling as to whether Swanson's amendment is out of order, but it was ruled in order so we'll get a vote.

Swanson says the motion doesn't make anything a requirement, but just asks staff to "look at" how to do this.

The Mayor agreed with Swanson: operative words are just "look at" so he'll support. But I dunno...that last clause seems like it could result in a program some restos might not want to pursue. I guess we'll see! I definitely love the idea of open, common public spaces.

Council seems to agree that the wording in the amendment is harmless and it passes. (In that the amended language was added to the main motion, but the main motion itself hasn't passed yet.)

Aaand dinner time there's a lotta stop and go today!

Dinner's over. The patio motion passed, and now they're on to a motion from Cr Swanson: "Working for More Housing Affordability in the Cambie Corridor". But then some councilors started hearing something on the line and some didn't and it got spooky so they're taking a recess.

Ha! Carr asks q suggesting this motion overlaps with a previous one of hers, which had a similar ask but not just for Cambie. Asks staff how they prioritize given the overlap. City manager tests who is listening with "well depends on which councilor we like more"

His serious answer was that it depends on how a motion from council fits in with other work already underway, etc. But limited staff time, limited resources, and many requests for work from council. This motion would rely on same staff already working on Carr's motion.

The next motion is "Reallocation of Road Space to Support Shared Use During Pandemic" from Cr Dominato.

In case you can't tell from the rest of this thread, I think this is a great motion. Staff obviously need directions to take this more seriously.

https://council.vancouver.ca/20200513/documents/cfsc4.pdf