Five mayoral candidates proposed their solutions to an audience of approximately 100 community members at the SUCCESS center on Saturday morning, kicking off the first debate of the 2022 civic election.
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The most pressing issue facing the historic Chinatown neighborhood is the survival of its small businesses amid rising rates of property crime, mugging, street disorder and a homeless encampment in East Hastings.
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Five mayoral candidates proposed their solutions to an audience of approximately 100 community members at the SUCCESS center on Saturday morning, kicking off the first debate of the 2022 civic election.
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“We’re not going to arrest our way out of this,” said incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart of the Forward Together party. “Housing is the only way forward here.”
If re-elected, Stewart said he plans to continue lobbying higher levels of government to fund more supportive housing while launching a 25-employee $5 million non-police service that will respond to local 311 calls for assistance.
“To get professional criminals off the streets, we need to fully fund the VPD, which is what we’ve been doing for the last four years,” added Stewart, chairman of the Vancouver Police Board.
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His opponents, including candidates Colleen Hardwick, Ken Harding, Ken Sim and Mark Marissen, pointed to an increased police presence as the number one way to solve crime in and around the Downtown Eastside.
Sim, who lost the 2014 mayoral race by fewer than 900 votes, was quick to criticize Stewart’s promise of support for the VPD. The ABC Vancouver candidate said that in 2021, the province was forced to overturn Stewart and the city council’s decision to cut its police budget by $5.7 million.
If elected mayor, Sim said “we’re going to ask, on day one, the Vancouver Police Department to hire an additional 100 officers and 100 mental health nurses.”
It also plans to establish an office in Chinatown for municipal involvement.
However, Marissen asked Sim where she plans to find nurses during BC’s shortage of health care workers.
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“It’s a trick,” the Progress Vancouver candidate told the audience. He said more police foot patrols will solve Chinatown’s crime problems.
Hardwick’s group, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver, is proposing to hire a commissioner to conduct an audit before more money is spent on DTES. He also wants retired police officers to work in the security of the DTES, “not drug users.”
“For the record, I voted against the council’s decision to reduce the police budget,” the current city councilman said.
Hardwick criticized Stewart’s approach to Vancouver’s housing affordability crisis, saying policies adopted under his leadership have brought more homeless people to the city in search of “a free place to live” and “free drugs.” . He compared the current situation to “a refugee crisis.”
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Harding, a former police officer, also wants to recruit retired police officers to restore order to the streets of Chinatown. If elected, the nonpartisan associate candidate promised the eradication of the tent city by Christmas.
“This problem is completely solvable, it’s about leadership,” Harding said.
All of the candidates except Hardwick said they support the city’s plan for northeast False Creek, which includes removing the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts.
“We will stop the Northeast False Creek plan immediately,” Hardwick said. “We inherited this plan from Vision Vancouver, which we showed the door to in 2018… Now we want to tear down the overpasses and get rid of the green space?”
Stewart said the viaducts, built in 1972, are full of asbestos.
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“If there is any earthquake, they will crush the SkyTrain, so we must shoot them down. It will free up land that will go toward improving Chinatown, whether it’s (for) parks or senior housing.”
All candidates pledged to implement a subsidy or tax relief measure to help Chinatown’s small businesses.
Sim said he thinks the city should implement an hour of free parking, “that way you have consumers coming in and out” and neon signs with Chinese characters erected by local businesses to promote local culture and attract tourism.
“That’s another great idea from the community,” he said.
Hardwick wants to see “a yellow brick road” that would trace the path from the Port of Vancouver’s cruise terminals, through the nearby Gastown district to Chinatown. He also promises to remove potholes along Water and Houston streets.
“We have to make it possible for people to get here first.”