This is a good chance to introduce Mike Andersen – the Sightline Institute’s new writer on municipal policy, with a focus on housing and transportation. Mike comes by way of Portland (“news editor of BikePortland.org; writer for the pro-housing coalition Portland for Everyone; and infrastructure staff writer for PeopleForBike”) and will ideally be doing a lot more coverage of Vancouver (BC if not WA).
Here’s an intro – an insightful Sightline overview of our civic elections here in Metro:
A sample:
Outside Vancouver, meanwhile, British Columbia may have just seen the closest thing in years to a revolt against housing growth by suburban voters.
The trend wasn’t universal or uniform. Pro-housing candidates easily defeated loudly anti-housing ones in North Vancouver and across the strait in Victoria, while anti-housing challengers won in the smaller suburbs White Rock and Port Moody. In Richmond, whose new Skytrain line has brought the region’s latest surge of suburban condo towers, the longtime mayor cruised to re-election.
But Burnaby and Surrey, two large cities to Vancouver’s east and southeast with 20 Skytrain stations between them, both handed big victories to mayoral candidates who promised a “moratorium” (Burnaby) or “pause” (Surrey) on new housing.
Thanks for such a nice shout-out, Gordon! I remain a BC amateur but I’m trying to get up to speed. If I successfully say anything useful, it’s probably thanks to eight years of checking in on Price Tags.