Category Archive: Vancouver

A safe, green, clean, and fun Vancouver for all

Posted by Mike Klassen on November 3, 2011

Vancouver at dusk

The following candidate profile was posted originally at Straight.com on November 3rd...

Vancouver, I think we can all agree, is one of the most wonderful cities in the world to live. We all love our city and want Vancouver to be safe, clean, green, and fun. We’re proud of the place we live, and want it to be friendly and affordable, not only for the millions of tourists who arrive here every year but for our own families as well. That’s why I’m running for city council and am hoping for voters’ support on November 19.

Over the past three years at the CityCaucus.com urban affairs blog, I’ve listened to ideas from hundreds of our commenters while sharing my views with thousands of readers. I’m familiar with how city hall runs so as a new member of city council, I believe I can hit the ground running. I’m also a practical guy. As a small business owner, I don’t appreciate red tape and I want city hall to be fair and straightforward.

As one of your representatives on city council, I promise three things: Firstly, I will pay careful attention to ensure that we are financially prudent with the tax dollars. Working with other members of council, I am committed to sound fiscal management and, in particular, to sorting out the Olympic Village mess. Sound financial management is imperative so that we can avoid raising taxes and make some progress towards making our city somewhat more affordable.

Secondly, you have my word that I’ll always be listening to you. I’ll be paying careful attention to your concerns just as I have through my own social media interactions.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I want to bring out the best in the great people that we have working at city hall. Everything comes down to people, and we are lucky to have such an amazing city staff. I want to make sure that they have the resources they need to deliver the top calibre of city-making services that has made Vancouver the envy of the world.

Continue reading "A safe, green, clean, and fun Vancouver for all" »

Tagged: community, creative city, safety, sustainability, vancouver

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Where to Be for Free Guide Back for Stanley Cup!

Posted by Mike Klassen on June 2, 2011

No one sings O Canada louder these days than Vancouver hockey fans – see video

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2011

NPA City Council Candidate Mike Klassen has resurrected the popular Where to be for Free guide. Klassen encouraged blogger Daniel Fontaine to resurrect the guide, originally created for the 2010 Winter Olympics, for the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Where to be for Free guide provides a listing of venues that are hosting Stanley Cup events, a description of the venue and event, whether it is free or if there are costs, directions to the venue, if tickets or reservations are required, anything else they are offering like face painting, and a ‘family friendliness’ rating.

“Families helped create the friendly and fun environment that we had during the Olympics,” says Klassen. “We want to help families find ways to participate in the Stanley Cup experience.”

The guide can be found at citycaucus.com/stanleycup.

“This celebration is about the fans and I think it is important to get seniors, parents and kids involved. The guide is a good way to promote fun and safe celebration.” Klassen finished with “I think I can speak for the entire NPA team in saying, Go Canucks Go!”

Tagged: canucks, families, public realm, stanley cup, vancouver, where to be for free

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Krall, Costello, EJ...How cool is that, Vancouver?

Posted by Mike Klassen on February 17, 2009

James Taylor, Sarah McLachlan, Elton John, Diana Krall & Elvis Costello (Vancouver Sun photo)

In spite of all the depressing news about gang shootings Metro Vancouver is facing these days, there is some good local news, such as Diana Krall's event last night raising $2 million for hospitals. It just tickles me that EJ and Elvis were on the same bill, and hanging out in town.

I'll always be the fan, I suppose.

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Hell hath frozen over: Vancouver gets a decent modern music station

Posted by Mike Klassen on November 28, 2008

So many good radio stations have come and gone in the Cascadia corridor that I've practically given up the ghost on anything good happening in this tired old medium. Right now it's a Friday evening, I've got the laptop fired up after watching WALL-E with my daughter, who's off to bed now. I shut off the set and turned on 100.5 Peak FM, an entirely listenable radio station.

I was over at friends last weekend pouring wine down my gullet. They were old college radio vets like me and Stacey. They said you've got to check out this new station. Skeptical, I pulled out my iPhone to find out that in fact the Pattison media group had axed 600AM and upgraded to an FM license.

Continue reading "Hell hath frozen over: Vancouver gets a decent modern music station" »

Tagged: jimmy pattison, radio, vancouver media

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Vancouver votes from its heart

Posted by Mike Klassen on November 16, 2008

Gregor Robertson is Vancouver's new mayor. The city, as it usually does, has voted from its heart rather than from its head. Mr. Robertson evoked stronger empathy than his opponent Peter Ladner, who was strong on the issues but couldn't make an emotional connection with Vancouver voters.

Province newspaper editorial writer Jon Ferry agrees with my assessment.

As someone who likes to balance head and heart politics, I'm a disappointed voter. Today, the people have spoken (albeit in yet another record low voter turnout), and we have 3 years to see how this mayor and council will perform.

Charlie Smith of the Georgia Straight, one of the best analysts on civic politics in print, offers his own views on the NPA's future choices.

Tagged: vancouver politics

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Campaigns that understand Vancouver's multicultural mix

Posted by Mike Klassen on November 12, 2008

There's something that I really like about this video. It's dead simple...a young Vancouver woman sitting at a table. She's clearly reading from some notes so she can sound coherent in her second language English. It's on YouTube on a channel set up by a supporter.

This is the reality of campaigning in Vancouver today. Use the modern tools at your disposal to get the word out, and focus on the voters who get forgotten by mainstream politics.

Tagged: political ads, politics, vancouver east

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When political campaigns go negative...

Posted by Mike Klassen on October 22, 2008

It looks like the civil political campaign promised by all candidates earlier this summer is off. I received this mail piece today (carefully balanced on a couple of pumpkins from my garden -- not yet carved!!). It yells at me that Peter Ladner is a bad guy who hates homeless people. Ugh.

Oh well, believe it if you want. Peter is a pretty nice guy, almost too nice for politics. Are we doing enough to solve homelessness? After you read a few media releases from the province's housing ministry, you wonder if there is any other issue. City Councillor Suzanne Anton attempts to cut through some of the opposition rhetoric.

Vancouver voters get to decide on November 15th.

Tagged: vancouver politics

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Vancouver civic candidates court ethnic voters

Posted by Mike Klassen on October 20, 2008

This video showing NPA Mayoral candidate Peter Ladner touring Victoria Drive alongside City Council candidates David Lee, Kanman Wong and Daljit Sidhu typifies where politics is today in our city. The NPA have always been the political force who have worked best with Vancouver's diverse ethnic communities, as Georgia Straight editor Charlie Smith once described on his blog:

Vancouver has experienced monumental demographic changes since the city hosted the World's Fair in 1986.
[Left wing party] COPE was slow to adapt to those changes, and did a poor job of recruiting candidates from the growing communities of Chinese, Filipino, South Asian, and Latin American immigrants.

The NPA fared much better in this regard. Even though many of those candidates weren't elected--and particulary those of South Asian descent--the NPA paid more attention to multicultural communities in the 1990s.

It's good to see Peter and the NPA keeping up this important tradition.

Tagged: east vancouver, npa, vancouver politics

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