A safe, green, clean, and fun Vancouver for all
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.
To be a safe city, we’ve got to prepare for the possibility of a natural disaster, or even a riot like the one we’d all love to forget. We need to better plan for emergencies before they happen. In my conversations with our first responders, one of the things that have come to my attention is that four out of five of our police officers live outside our city boundaries. This concerns me. I’d like to see what we could do to make sure that our first responders can live where they work, where we need them the most.
Like all politicians, there are some issues that I’m more concerned about than others. I’ll be frank about that. One thing that I especially want is for our city to be more inclusive. Let’s not forget that Vancouver is the best place in the world for some of us but not for all. We can do better to make sure that everyone in our city has a safe place to sleep at night, a safe haven when need be.
I’d like to champion neighbourhoods where shopping and gathering places are within walking distance, especially for our seniors. I helped negotiate the building of a grocery store at a housing development in my own neighbourhood in the Fraser Street area so I’ve had some personal experience with this already.
We’re a city that loves to sit outdoors when the sun shines and we have some of the best outdoor festivals in the world. I am committed to supporting our arts and culture community and small business owners to strengthen this proud tradition.
If elected on November 19, my job will be to ensure Vancouver is safe, clean, green, and fun, and hopefully, a little more affordable too.
Mike Klassen is a Non-Partisan Association candidate for Vancouver city council. Klassen is a former vice chair of the Vancouver City Planning Commission, husband, father, and proud advocate for his Fraser Street community. He runs a communications consultancy, and formerly worked in the region’s dynamic video-game development and film industries. He was born in Vancouver and grew up in the Killarney neighbourhood. You can follow him on Twitter at @MikeKlassen.
