Raul – hi, btw –

Not sure it’s fair to call out Gregor – he’s only been in office since the 8th of this month! And in that time, he’s pulled together funding so that First United is offering shelter to 150 ppl a night, and I believe 3 other places have been opened including one that allows pets and most recently a place that allows shopping carts. These accomplishments are probably literally saving lives every night.

In addition, the very first thing he did was create the emergency team to deal with this – results per above. The team includes heavy hitters David Eby and Judy Graves which bodes extremely well.

Nancy,

Hi back

I think it’s perfectly fair to call out Gregor. He’s only been in office since the 8th but he made it his full platform to solve homelessness. So, yeah, he’s only had the actual power invested in him but he should already have done stuff. Stuff like what Steve Jagger, Gillian Shaw, Yam de la Pena, etc. did. That is, go out on the streets himself.

I am away in Calgary, otherwise I would have taken to the streets myself, and I’m not Vancouver’s mayor. The talk has to be talked but also the walk has to be walked. Helping people sleep warm at night should be a shared responsibility for ALL citizens of Vancouver, IMHO. Simply out of a sense of duty. I know many people will disagree with me, but I do my bit.

And, Gregor happens to be as well a citizen of Vancouver. So, I think my calling him out is perfectly fair. I was also calling for every citizen of Vancouver to help. Not everyone will heed my call, and not everyone will agree with me, but that won’t stop me from asking them to help.

I think it’s really inhuman to have spent 200 million dollars restoring Stanley Park and to have the degree of homelessness we have in Vancouver.

I believe in Gregor as much as you do, Nancy, I think. But that doesn’t stop me from asking him to commit himself to do stuff on the ground.

Think about it – it took TWO deaths for the emergency responses to kick in. It shouldn’t have.

well, I’m not here to defend Gregor particularly …. but … how do you know he *hasn’t* done stuff on the ground? And absolutely giving out warm clothing is a good, caring, humane thing to do — but if Gregor spent his Sunday afternoon instead (or whenever. or all his time) negotiating with landlords and signing agreements and rearranging budgets so that today a new place to sleep is available, do we judge him?

Oh, my dear friend Nancy

The last thing I am is naive, particularly in public policy affairs. *If* he has done more, he will flaunt it, that’s for sure. Or, as we call it, “engage in public relations”. I saw him in person at the unveiling of a plaque to recognize the contributions to the rehabilitation of Stanley Park. I fully expect him to hand out blankets himself and even with his family in tow. He IS a good guy, and that’s why I think he WILL. All I am doing is reminding him that I am expecting him to do it.

If he’s done more (and I fully expect him to do more), we WILL know about it. In the press, on Twitter, etc.

I am not judging him, I am haranguing him to get down to action. You know ME, Nancy. You better than anyone know that I am a man of my words and a man of action. That’s what I want from Gregor too. I ask him not to tell me how I can help (as he did in his speech) but to SHOW ME with his actions how to help.

That’s what Yam, Adam and Corinna, Steve, Kye, David, Gillian, Janice and you did with VancouverTweetupHeatup. All I am asking is for Gregor to join in similar efforts.

I am a researcher, Nancy – you know that – give me the empirical evidence that he HAS indeed done stuff on the ground and I’ll acknowledge. In the mean time, I think it’s perfectly fine for me to write on my blog about what he NEEDS to get done.

I fully support him, as I said above. Even despite his tremendous faux pas with social media and the Fake Peter Ladner twitter account. Even when I didn’t even get a reply from his social media team regarding said faux pas.

But one thing I am not, and will never be (and this, you know as well), is someone who lets anybody off the hook easy. I never let MYSELF off the hook easy, why should I lower the standards for anyone else? Particularly, someone who got elected to defend our interests and protect us?

you.da.best Can we respectfully agree to disagree on this one? I totally know you are committed to public engagement, and to *action* on issues we both share as values. You’re probably right – if he’d done some action on the ground we’d likely see it all over the press (although the idealist in me likes to hope that he would do it deliberately on the qt as a gesture of humilty). Where we disagree, I think, is even if he’s *not* on the ground as we think of it, I’m happy with him simply doing the stuff you and I cannot do – reshape policies, broker deals that are getting places open, fast, etc. To me, *that’s* what he needs to get done.

ps: I don’t know about the Stanley park money. Was that something his new council did? Or from the previous one? How much? I agree – upkeep of parks (or buildings of stadiums on waterfronts… grrrr. but bygones) doesn’t come close in priority to ensuring citizens have a roof over their heads and some basic nutrition and clothing.
pps: I’m probably off the grid now til early new year. Feliz Navidad! xo

Agreed. Let’s respectfully agree to disagree

See you in the New Year!