“An intimate conversation with Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim”
A BIV event at the Paradox (ex-Trump) Hotel (of the Holborn Group, best-known as purchaser and developer of the Little Mountain site). December 4, 2024 (by Robert Renger)
Why are we here?
“Why are we here?” was the first question from the audience after the conclusion of the Mayor’s on-stage conversation with BIV Editor-in-Chief Hayley Woodin Hastings.
Mayor Sim was taken aback: “I don’t know how to answer that question … How much did they pay to be here? Hopefully you don’t get ripped off because I didn’t answer your question.”
The real estate businessman who asked the question afterwards told the author it was because he felt the mayor hadn’t really delivered on the advertised promise to “discuss specific issues and opportunities related to rezoning and permitting processes, densification and housing supply”.
Be that as it may, following are some highlights from the Mayor’s musings during his hour on stage.
Sim plans to run for Mayor again
“in fact, if we could hit everything that we want to do, I don’t have to run in two years. And so we want to get this done as quickly as possible. We’re not career politicians … That being said, I am planning on running again. Right. And I put that out there because I think people need certainty.”
Vancouver is Open for Business
“my parents struggled … but they strung enough money together to buy a little rancher in South Vancouver. That’s where we live. And so we can create those opportunities. Part of it is creating an environment where it’s easier to build in the city of Vancouver … the other part … it’s about creating opportunity here.”
“That’s why creating this environment where Vancouver is open for business is so important. And that’s why I look at Web Summit. There’s a reason why we flew to Austin, we flew to Houston, we flew to Toronto. We’re waving the flag. We’re playing a support role for groups like Destination Vancouver, the Frontier Collective, and Brenda Bailey from the provincial government.”
Infrastructure
“the big challenge we have, that’s going to affect everyone in this room, is infrastructure. We have a half billion dollar a year infrastructure deficit … Previous administrations to make the property tax increase artificially lower didn’t invest what was required in infrastructure, and so now it’s our day of reckoning, and we have a choice. Do we kick the can down the street and let the next person deal with it, or do we, you know, take the political hit and increase property taxes by one percent a year to address capital? We took the hit because it’s the right thing to do.”
“And so that’s why you’ll see things like sponsorship, like selling naming rights to folks in buildings. That’s been done everywhere. That’s a revenue source. Creating something like the UBC Property Trusts model, they’ve created over two billion dollars of an endowment and it’s growing there. We have the Vancouver Housing Development Office.”
Zoning
If density “makes sense for the city over the next 30 years, we’re going to do it … we’re going to do it faster … if you live near, you know, a subway line and you see an application for a 15-storey condo tower, that’s something I can support … It may not fit in the neighbourhood today, but in 30 years, it’s totally going to fit in the neighbourhood”.
“look at what we’ve done with the view cone and the shadow policies and changing them, we’ve literally opened up 215 million more square feet. What that means in units, over a 30-year period, that opens up another 75,000 units in the city of Vancouver … we pre-zoned 26 village nodes.”
“when I look at Jericho lands … for me personally, if I could wave a magic wand, that would have happened 10 years ago. And we wouldn’t be in part of the challenges we have. And I can tell you a lot of my neighbours are pissed off right now because I live in that neighbourhood.”
Affordability
In response to a question about housing and infrastructure affordability and red tape, Sim said: “We’re not trying to be the smart guys in the room. We’re literally going out to industry, and we’re asking … how do we fix this? What would you do?” He gave the examples of the Stanley Park train and Kits Pool where problems were solved with help from people outside City Hall; “we have so many brilliant people in the city, and they care, but they just wanted the opportunity to step up, and we’re giving it to them.”
Sim also sees attracting businesses with highly-paid employees to Vancouver as an important way to improve affordability. He pointed out that landing Web Summit for Vancouver means “over 40,000 people in the tech space coming to Vancouver … and some of those people are going to fall in love with our city, and they’re going to set their companies up here, and they’re going to be paying high wages.”
That’s going to improve Vancouver’s housing cost to median income ratio: “That 12 point whatever goes down because now we’re dealing with opportunity. Now we’re creating an environment where people can make more money, where they can afford these homes. That’s the other side of the equation”.
Bitcoin
Sim’s reason for suggesting that the City of Vancouver should invest in Bitcoin and possibly gold seems to be as a hedge against inflation.
He pointed out “from 1995 to 2022, the average house price in Vancouver went from $500,000 to $2.43 million, went up 381%. When priced in gold, it went from 958 ounces of gold to 957 ounces of gold.”
“We can have the most fiscally responsible civic government. You can make houses as affordably as possible. And people are going to get lost because they’re getting killed by inflation … I’m actually concerned about the city over the next 30 years. If we don’t address it … we won’t have the financial resources to be able to provide all the services we do, including police, engineering, working in the permitting department, what have you. And so that’s one of the reasons why we’re looking at our team members exploring Bitcoin.”
“I highly encourage people to get educated on it. I’ve been in it for five years. Once you really do your research, you go, oh my god, this is something that can actually, not only save our city, but give people the opportunity to actually be able to buy a home.”
Robert Renger
December 2024
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Robert Renger was the senior development planner for the City of Burnaby and the city’s lead for the planning and development of the UniverCity community at Simon Fraser University. See links to more articles by Robert here: https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/guest-writers/robert-renger/
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And below is the host BIV’s take on the event.
Key takeaways from BIV’s conversation with Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim: Mayor of Vancouver talks public safety, housing and development at BIV event (by Jami Makan) – https://www.biv.com/news/real-estate/key-takeaways-from-bivs-conversation-with-vancouver-mayor-ken-sim-9907679
