Imagine a place where you spend a heck of a lot less time in your car and a heck of a lot less money on real estate.
If you listened to Mayor Gregor Robertson and his ruling Vision Vancouver council this year, they would have you believe that place is Vancouver.
Maybe not now, but one day.
Two major policy initiatives driven by Robertson's crew this year centred around building affordable housing and aiming to get more people walking, cycling and riding transit.
In a year where council wasn't wrapped up with a Stanley Cup riot or Occupy Vancouver or trying to get re-elected, the business of city hall in 2012 was a policy wonk's dream.
Sure, there was much alarm bell ringing by council to stop the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard base and to halt a proposed increase in crude being pumped down Kinder Morgan's pipeline from Alberta to Burrard Inlet.
Wiping out the sale of shark fin soup and even getting the hockey-playing mayor to write the NHL and its players' union to get the boys back on the ice occupied some of council's time, too.
And, yes, there was the predictable jousting between councillors and all those amendments to the amendments and point of orders that remind the voting public why "glamorous" and "job" are not two words often strung together when describing the work of a civic politician - although Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs did attempt to get himself a higher profile as a provincial politician but failed to win the nomination for the NDP in Vancouver-Fairview.
If anything this year, council was topical. Spend five minutes talking to most grownups in this city and inevitably the conversation turns to real estate prices, the increased cost of everything and traffic congestion.
Robertson co-chaired his own task force with Olga Ilich, a former provincial Liberal cabinet minister and developer, to examine ways of creating affordable housing in Vancouver.
What the task force and council settled on, so far, was a plan to allow a maximum of 20 projects such as new row homes, townhouses and duplexes to be built one-and-a-half blocks from arterial streets and near major transit routes. They all must be 100 per cent rental or sold at 20 per cent below market prices.
The city is also looking for builders to construct up to 500 units of affordable housing on six city-owned properties considered underused.
The homes are aimed at single-income earners with a $21,500 annual income and household incomes reaching $86,500.
For many in this city, owning a car is also cost prohibitive. The release of the city's 2040 transportation plan shows council wants to provide more options than the automobile for residents.
The goal is to have two-thirds of all trips in the city to be on foot, by bike or on transit by 2040. Improvements to sidewalks and more bike routes and lanes, including the $5.4 million Co-mox-Helmcken greenway, are part of the plan.
But the key to the city achieving its goals is a subway system running from the clogged Broadway-Commercial transit hub west to the University of B.C. The estimated cost in 2008 was $2.8 billion.
The city is counting on the subway to be built because, as the city's director of transportation said in October, there is no backup plan to move people along the corridor.
Council closed out the year by approving its operating and capital budgets for 2013. It equates to a two per cent tax hike.
Unlike previous budget go-rounds, the approval of the $1.1 billion operating budget and $258 million capital budget came without much protest from the public.
Bring on 2013 when a lot more people are expected to weigh in on what council should do about moving or renovating the Vancouver Art Gallery.
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