Past Planning Director Brent Toderian just tweeted this article from the Vancouver Sun:
Toderian said in his term as planning director he tried to start a new citywide plan but could not get past “obsolete” local neighbourhood plans that have only made the problem worse.
“I did my part when I was director and didn’t vilify them but fundamentally they are dysfunctional planning mechanisms. They are recipes for inaction. They are both inflexible and unclear,” Toderian said.
Perhaps in reference to his own trouble under the Vision Vancouver administration, Toderian also decried the replacement of what he called “competent failure” for a get-it-right-first attitude at City Hall.
“I think one of the things cities lose when the budgets get tight and pressures are high and maybe morale is shifting at City Hall is the loss of that creative edge. I worry that City Hall is losing that willingness to experiment, that willingness to take risk … that idea of embracing it and not being afraid to fail. I think there is an increasing fear of failure, which I have seen in the middle and lower ranks at City Hall. It is not their fault, it is a product of a lot of pressure.
“So how do we foster a culture in our city hall that applauds what I call “competent failure”, that thing where failure is just before you succeed. I think that is a culture Vancouver has had in the past, certainly at City Hall departments, and I worry that it is under threat right now.”
Oh well, no one’s going to accuse him of being “too postive” anymore. And he was the nice guy. Wait ’til you read the remarks of Ray Spaxman and Larry Beasley.
