You may have noticed in this issue of the Courier that we have not one, but two stories about residents’ associations suing the city.
First off, there’s the Mount Pleasant Residents’ Association, or RAMP, which has filed a court petition against the City of Vancouver “in a bid to quash the development and building permit granted to Rize Alliance properties for its Rize tower project, which it’s christened The Independent.” Surprisingly, the lawsuit has nothing to do with the criminally high levels of audacity it takes to name a 21-storey condo tower with 257 residential units The Independent. The reason for the lawsuit, according to RAMP, is that “plans for the project significantly differ from what was approved by council more than two years ago following a lengthy public hearing.”
The other lawsuit against the city involves the Community Association of New Yaletown, or CANY, suing the city over a development next to Emery Barnes Park.
Needless to say it’s been the Summer of Lawsuits in Vancouver, which doesn’t sound nearly as sexy as the Summer of Love or the Summer of Sam, if you ask us.
Residential groups, upstart political parties and community centre associations have been a litigious bunch this year. Whether it accomplishes anything remains to be seen, but we’re certain the city can expect more lawsuits to come. Here’s what we’re anticipating:
• A group of aggrieved Marpole residents — is there any other kind? — sue the city for granting a business licence to a soon-to-be-gyrating strip club, but mostly they’re just annoyed that the club won’t be called The Mar-Pole.
• Mayor Gregor Robertson is taken to court for his questionable DJ skills, with rumours persisting that he in fact “hand synced” all of his DJ sets — and worse, played a Maroon 5 track.
• The Association of Real Simple Eaters, or ARSE, takes the city to task for its restrictive rules regarding food trucks, namely preventing ARSE president Dusty Slats from operating his Hungry Hungry Honda, in which he sells blocks of discounted cheese from the back of his fragrant 1987 Honda Accord.
• Canucks mascot Fin sues the park board for formally banning whales, dolphins and porpoises kept at the Vancouver Aquarium from having sex with each other. “Where am I supposed to go now to hook up?” Fin writes in his lawsuit. “The Roxy? Come on. I’m a lonely, single man in an orca costume for Pete’s sake.”
