![]() ![]() So from that perspective, we're doing what we said we were going to do. I don't know what the number is, but it's definitely over 20 - might be 26 or 27 things - that we've implemented so far. We had a 94-point plan that we put out there. Overall, I think we've achieved a lot of things that we said we were going to do. Well, I would assess the team's performance. How would you assess your performance since inaugurated Nov. It’s now been six months since you were sworn in as mayor. 7, 2022 at The Orpheum Theatre before a crowd of 1,100 people. ![]() The following is a condensed and edited version of the interview. ![]() We’re focused on the priorities, and we want to make sure we do it the right way.” “And the lens we look through is kindness and empathy, sustainability, scalability, environmental resiliency and reconciliation,” Sim said. His current four priorities: speeding up the permit approval process to eliminate the housing construction backlog, revitalize Chinatown, business advocacy and mental health and safety. The biggest spot on the office walls, however, goes to a large white board near Sim’s desk, where he has outlined the work ahead. “The reason why we have these pictures up here, is we don't want to forget our history,” said Sim, who has also personally paid for duplicate signs of street names where he grew up in Vancouver - Alamein, McSpadden and West 62nd Avenue, to name a few. Sim, the son of Hong Kong immigrants, answered that question - again - and more in an interview Monday from his office, which features old photographs of Chinese railway workers, passengers aboard the Komagata Maru and a Pride celebration. The story recently attracted the attention of The New York Times, with a report posted last weekend with the headline: “Did China help Vancouver’s mayor win election?” Sim was visibly angry, saying, “if I was a Caucasian male, we're not having this conversation.” That demeanour was tested in March when answering reporters’ questions regarding a report in The Globe and Mail suggesting China had an influence in his victory in October. Sim, who prefers casual shirts, jeans and sneakers over suits and dress shoes, comes across as an easygoing politician who prefers to be called Ken instead of mayor, or his worship. In a move celebrated by community advocates in the Downtown Eastside, Sim proclaimed March 11 as “Smokey D Day,” honouring mural artist Jamie Hardy as a “bridge builder” between the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown the mayor hosted a get-together in his office’s boardroom for Hardy, where AC/DC played on his turntable. ![]() Outside the council chamber, Sim has told a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade audience that Vancouver is “open for business again” and that he sees a not-so-distant future where the city gets its “swagger” back. Or requesting legislative intervention from the provincial government to ensure a controversial Kitsilano housing project geared for a mix of homeless people and low-income residents gets built and doesn’t get stalled by a court fight launched by a neighbourhood coalition. Neither was opposing a separated bike lane along Broadway. Hire more cops, hire more firefighters, approve funds for mental health workers, improve conditions in Chinatown, adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism - all of it promised while knocking on doors, making phone calls and talking to media.īut a 10.7 per cent property tax hike? An unprecedented escalation in clearing the sidewalks of homeless people from East Hastings Street? Scrapping the city’s status as a living wage employer? So, as Sim said from his office Monday, voters shouldn’t be surprised by his party’s moves. In that short time, he has steadily shown Vancouverites what he believes in, what he opposes and what a leader of a super majority at city hall can accomplish when a party doesn’t stray from its agenda or caucus.ĪBC Vancouver’s playbook has been its 94-point platform, which it rolled out in its successful campaign last fall to take over city hall from an independent mayor and a council frequently described by critics as dysfunctional. Mayor Ken Sim has now been on the job for six months. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |