The first part of this conversation between two friends, one in Vancouver, the other in White Rock, started here. And continues here:
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VANCOUVER FRIEND:
I didn’t mean to suggest for a minute that your position isn’t completely understandable, just that it illustrates the challenges of winning support from people in regions poorly served by transit.
In LA they learned that every part of the region had to benefit to get expect support. There would certainly be something on the referendum for Surrey. You’d probably feel differently if there were something in it for White Rock.
One of the successful referendum campaign slogans was “Everyone benefits from public transit.” Which is true– employees getting to work, other people not driving to clear the roads and reduce highway spending (which is paid for by people all over the province who never come to the Lower Mainland), the goods consumed in all parts of the region that are trucked through other parts of the region– slower or faster depending on car traffic etc.
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WHITE ROCK FRIEND:
As far as I can see the only thing that Vancouver wants from Surrey/White Rock/Langley is our money to pay for it. We get nothing out here. And the only things we get are tolled.
They finally opened a new ER at Surrey and already there are people in gurneys in the hallway. Do you know what they call a hallway in a hospital out here? An Alternative Care Facility. They build a building and then don’t have the money to staff it.
Before we spend billions more than the billions that are being spent on the new bridge to accommodate the Mcquarrie Docks and the new Kinder Morgan Terminal which Vancouver doesn’t want but is okay to put on the South Fraser, we need to take care of some other priorities. People out here are sick and tired of being taken for granted and being seen as anything but a cash cow to feed Vancouver. If it is for Vancouver then it is okay to use other people’s money, but if it is for regular people who can’t afford to live in Vancouver then it gets tolled.
What you are setting up here is a class struggle between the haves with all of the money who can afford to live in Vancouver and those who struggle to provide for their families and can’t afford to live in Vancouver. The reality is that over the last decade there has been a shift and very few people out this way need Vancouver for anything…other than maybe a Canuck’s game. But even then people out here can’t afford that.
How can you spend billions of dollars on yet another subway when people out here don’t even have buses? In Vancouver they talk about buses driving by full. Out here we would just like to have buses.
My personal prediction is that you are setting up for a Class War and my sense is that the masses are ready for a revolution!
Interesting to see the typical suburban view laid out honestly like that. It’s going to be a damn tough sell to get these people on board.
I guess the problem is that yes, ultimately people in White Rock should pay more for their lifestyle.
The pro-transit side can try to hide this fact and throw in better bus service to Surrey or something, but if we are to expand transit, then things will inevitably get more expensive for people in cities that don’t use transit. If we are going to reduce automobile use, then we need a mixture of carrots and sticks (sticks ideally paying for the carrots).
The problem isn’t that living in Vancouver is artificially expensive, it’s that living in the suburbs is artificially cheap. We’ve heavily subsidized the suburbs in a variety of ways. It’s going to be damn difficult to claw back those benefits, and nearly impossible with a referendum. Maybe we can fool the suburbs into taxing themselves, but its highly unlikely.