I invited Suzanne Anton to write this commentary piece for my blog about the recent council decision on the social housing project at Broadway and Fraser. As previous news reports have noted, Vision councillors voted to approve this project but on the condition that the 11-storey tower be reduced to eight storeys.

Since the non-profit building this, Broadway Youth Resources Centre, say they have no money for a redesign, it appears that the one optional part of the project, the 24 rental units that were supposed to be part of it along with 103 social-housing units, may be what’s sacrificed.

This is Councillor Anton’s assessment.

The city-owned property at Fraser and Broadway is one of the most spectacular in the City’s entire portfolio.  There’s a breathtaking view to the north, and the 99 B-line stops right in front of the building every couple of minutes.  Excellent public transportation, a major intersection, and a large piece of land: just the right combination for a signature building.

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Developer Ian Gillespie and architect Gregory Henriquez are partnering with Vancity and Habitat for Humanity to build a project that is affordable to people with incomes in the $26,000-$36,000 range, as I detail in my Globe story today.

This is sure to set off another interesting debate about affordability (what is it, what does it mean, are the trade-offs worth it, affordable to who, affordable for how long) and gentrification in the Downtown Eastside (since CCAP and Wendy Pedersen are currently taking the position that anything except for social housing is gentrification, even these kinds of units).

I find this project interesting because of the way Gillespie and Henriquez are puzzling over how to prevent speculation. That’s an ongoing issue in this city — well, in certain parts of the city. There’s no doubt that speculative buying drives up the price of real estate in particular neighbourhoods, which then ripples out to other neighbourhoods. How do you prevent it or slow it down, assuming you want to?

I’ll be looking forward to see the results of this effort.

(Btw, for those not aware, Gillespie and Henriquez are also the team behind the much-debated tower on Comox in the West End.)

So the news about the head of Stats Can resigning is all over the news, in case anyone hasn’t noticed.

And, although I do take this issue seriously (as I noted in a previous post), I can’t help but think: How Canadian. Other governments get embroiled in controversy over call girls, corruption, going to war, expense accounts used for porn or moat repair. And what are we up in flames about? Getting people to comply with statistics gathering.

How delightfully dorky we are. The only time I’ve felt prouder to be a Canadian was when I was travelling one time in North Carolina and the car, through some quirk, picked up CBC, where the top news item was: “There is still no movement on the discussions about the Charlottetown Accord.”

(For those who don’t get my headline, there’s a legend in journalism that the editors at the New York Times had a competition to come up with the most boring headline they could possibly think of. The winner was “Worthy Canadian initiative.”)

Apparently wanting to show that it is listening to the community after all, Vision councillors agreed yesterday that three floors of the 11-storey social-housing project at Broadway and Fraser should be removed.

That comes after 70 speakers showed up over three nights of public hearings a few weeks ago, with many saying that the building just doesn’t fit in with that section of generally one- to three-storey buildings.

Raymond Louie brought in the motion, which I’m told was suggested by planning director Brent Toderian, to reduce the height, with the suggestion that the 103 social-housing units and 24 regular rental apartments be reconfigured.

Unfortunately, that motion comes after the non-profit that will run the building, Broadway Youth Resources Centre, has already exhausted the money that it was given by BC Housing to come up with a design. So it’s hard to see what they can do at this point except just lop the top three floors — the market rental apartments — off and go with only the social housing.

Another example of what’s wrong with the city’s current public-consultation process. This would have been a good idea if it had come before a million dollars was spent on architectural drawings, open houses and more. And now the rental housing will likely disappear. That’s something the community actually wanted, so the project would be more mixed. It’s also something that was going to provide a revenue stream for the new building.

Sigh.

Peter Judd only got named as the head of engineering about 10 days ago, but he’s already moving on his ideas, as this internal memo that “anonymous” sent me shows.

I am thrilled to have been asked to lead our great Department. Before too much time passes I want to take a few moments to share with you my vision for Engineering as we move ahead and announce some key changes.

 The next few years will be a transformative time.

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I just had this internal notice from the city passed on to me:

From: COV Broadcast Server
To: All Staff (COV) – DL
Sent: Mon Jul 19 14:16:17 2010
Subject: COV Broadcast: Announcement of New General Manager of Parks and Recreation (from Park Board Chair, Aaron Jasper and City Manager, Penny Ballem)

With little brush fires of community resistance to new projects breaking out here and there, city council is being kept busy.  The West End is, of course, a major forest fire at this point, meriting its own advisory committee.

In Marpole, where there is a massive project planned for Marine and Cambie, more towers planned for the Safeway lot at Granville and 70th, and just generally more, things are building up.

So Raymond Louie is introducing a motion at council tomorrow that, to help deal with a lot of “misinformation” floating around the community, the city will hold two public events in September. (Sounds sort of like what the city did with the West End in April, as planners were sent out to talk about the rental-housing-incentive program and the specific buildings being proposed through it.)

The problem with all of these meetings, as people who work in community engagement will say, is that they’re coming so far down the road. The later communities get pulled into discussions about projects, the harder it is to convince them it wasn’t all some massive plot.

It’s that time of year and I will disappear in about 30 minutes to the alternate universe of the Vancouver Folk Festival. I might tweet but definitely won’t be blogging or posting comments. I’ll catch up with everything Monday. As always, I’ll be one of those opting for less space and more density near the front of the stage, as opposed to the suburban tracts towards the back.

When Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem started talking about reorganizing the city last year to make it more efficient, I heard a lot from people inside city hall saying saying everyone knew there were things that needed to be fixed, but no one had ever had the jam to actually take action. Too hard to get people to give up their old ways.

But it looks as though some of that reorg is actually happening, as I note in my story this morning. The city’s formerly separate garbage crews (city and parks) are being combined into one over the next couple of months. Next up, getting some co-ordination between 17 different IT systems and seven help desks. Plus more. Who would have thunk it?

No surprises in this announcement, except why did the city spend a few thousand dollars to do a national search when Peter was the obvious candidate. When Dave Rudberg quit as head of Olympic operations, Penny Ballem snapped up Peter instantly as his replacement. That was even after Peter made it clear he wasn’t going to let the VANOC group run roughshod over the city.

Unless I hear otherwise, this seems like good news for the city. Peter is not an outside hire, not some greenie from wherever, but a guy who knows the city inside out and has been unfailingly helpful and thoughtful in all the dealings I’ve had with him.

 (I note that citycaucus is raising dark suspicions that Jerry Dobrovolny was passed over because of his role as the media spokesman during the strike in Sam Sullivan’s administration, but Jerry has been at the city many less years than Peter. Also, without having any inside information, it looks like they have a lot of faith in him, as they’ve put him in charge of all the contentious biking/walking/transportation stuff, where they need someone solid who will carry out their ambitious plans not run passive-aggressive counter-offensives.)

Peter Judd has been appointed City Engineer and General Manager of Engineering Services following an extensive nation-wide search.
The position of City Engineer is an appointment of Council.
Peter joined the City in 1982 and has steadily progressed through the organization, bringing innovation, productivity and safety improvements to all areas of his responsibility. 
 
Peter Judd has worked in almost every branch of Engineering, spending time in the budget and water works sections and as division head to the electrical, sewer and water and streets divisions. He was also an early leader of the sustainability program.
 
Peter has also been a leader at the national level. He helped set up a national committee to establish a regulatory regime for telecommunications providers conducting operations within City infrastructure. The regime, sanctioned by the Canadian Radio and Television Commission, encourages competition in telecommunications while giving cities the ability to manage scarce street space.
 
In March 2009, Peter stepped in as General Manager of Olympic Operations and with spirited and determined leadership, led complex negotiations with the Province, VANOC and other partners and helped guide the Host City to the most successful Olympic Games ever.
Peter Judd succeeds Tom Timm, who retired from the City in April following 32 years of service.