Dear Vancouver,
I want to love you, I really do. You are indeed awesome in a myriad of ways, and people around the world admire you and rush to your embrace, as I do every time I return from travels, but we need to have a talk my dear.
We’ve been through so much, you and I, and I’ve defended you when others described you as cold or aloof. When the Stanley Cup riot happened, my heart broke. And when I read reports of you being lonely and isolated, I began to seriously worry about you and our long term relationship. I knew I had to do something before it was too late.
You have so much potential dear Vancouver, but you are young and overly confident. You’ve had it good for a long time and I worry about how you might react during an emergency or if faced with economic misfortune. You’ve had a good run, but as you mature it’s time to look ahead.
I am only one of your admirers, so when a group of 22 Vancouverites from a variety of walks of life were convened to explore this, I recognized an opportunity to get involved and make a positive contribution to the city I love, so I volunteered.
We spoke with so numerous individuals and groups who genuinely care for you as much as we do. We all admire your many community centres, wonderful neighbourhood houses, passionate non-profits, fun arts festivals, and terrific culture events. But it became quite clear that we need much more for you to reach your potential.
We listened for hours as your other admirers offered ideas about how to improve the planning process and use technology to support involvement and communications. It became clear that through better access to public and community spaces and neighbourhood events, we could create a more resilient and friendly city where streets echo with friendly greetings of “Hello!” as strangers pass each other in the street and neighbourhoods are abuzz with activity and smiling faces.
We spoke with neighbourhood groups and discovered so many great ideas and events happening, but with little to tie them together or liaise with the city, opportunities were being missed, resources wasted, and people left out—especially newcomers and immigrants. We don’t think we need a ward system, but a better system of representation from each neighbourhood can help create a more engaged city.
We also learned how your development process works and feel you can do better. The more transparent and inclusive you are about planning, the better the result and happier your citizens. Please try to clarify the roles, rights and responsibilities of stakeholders so decisions can be made as a group, openly.
In order to evolve into a world-class city, you must find ways to increase voter participation. Please make the voter registration and voting systems easier for everybody. We don’t care about political parties, but suggest that partnering with post-secondary institutions might increase awareness among younger and first time voters, and ultimately increase participation in local government.
You are a very good listener Vancouver, I’ll give you that. Your 3-1-1 call system, with its numerous languages and services offered, is quite amazing—but people hardly know about it! Please fix this and put more effort into letting everyone know that you are available and willing to help.
And lastly, while it’s perhaps not a priority to concern yourself greatly with the social lives of your citizens, we believe you have the power to create a better environment for connections, discourse, and community engagement.We’d like to see you encouraging more communal dining where strangers can come together to share meals and conversation, or potlucks to bring people together during dreary winter months. This might seem obvious, but believe it could be a first step toward creating a city-wide culture of community.
These are just a few of the suggestions that we feel could help you become a more engaged city. The kind of city I love and want to live in, where a common concern isn’t viewed as something to bitch about, but an excuse to roll up sleeves and work together. A safe and more resilient city, more prepared to band together in times of crisis.
I understand that I alone, nor any one group of passionate individuals, can magically create engagement—that’s up to you Vancouver. You can join us in rejecting the traditional paradigm of two way “us vs them” dialogue in favour of one where multiple perspectives and voices come together to solve problems in the best interests of their families, neighbourhoods, and the greater city.
These are only ideas dear Vancouver. It’s up to you to take action. So take some time to consider these thoughts carefully. No rush, but in six weeks we’re going to present our recommendations to your leadership and ask them to ratify them into working policy so that you can put them to good use. I assure you that no political agenda is behind these suggestions and our intentions are pure. If you or any of your citizens would like to discuss any of these ideas, myself and all of my colleagues are happy to chat further.
We don’t have all the answers dear one. Nor do we expect every suggestion to be effective. It is not a simple process to become an engaged city, but involves a number of relationships: between the city and residents, between neighbours, and between your staff and residents. What we’re suggesting are a few pragmatic ideas about how we can increase the knowledge, trust, capacity, and power of each of these groups.
Thank you for listening. And thank you for being open-minded and not being defensive. I hope you’ll see that all I am suggesting is that if we can spark a new conversation that inspires others to take action, you have the opportunity to become the city we all believe you are capable of; the Vancouver I love and want to live in forever. There is nothing holding you back except your own citizens, and I know they love you too.
A city of love would be a much loved city indeed. And that would be awesome.
All my love,
Mark Busse
Mark Busse is founder and managing director of the strategy and brand design firm Industrial Brand, past president of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada and the host of CreativeMornings/Vancouver. He served Vancouver as a volunteer on the Engaged City Task Force which released its final report on January 30, 2014, after more than a year of work. You can follow him on Twitter at @MarkBusse.
