Younger developers on a September 18 panel discussion voiced frustrations about how the “silent majority” is sidelined from civic decision-making, which has been co-opted by a vocal minority of Twitter users and seniors with plenty of time on their hands.
Apathy is also to blame, according to Wesgroup Properties senior vice-president Beau Jarvis.
“While the silent majority is running around the seawall in Lululemon tights with a latte and toy poodle, we have a very social-media savvy, fundamentalist, vocal minority that is literally hijacking the cities in which we work,” he told Urban Development Institute Pacific Region forum audience.
Jarvis also took aim at a system that caters to a demographic that has more time. Seniors, he said, are "civic minded" and pack official community plan meetings because they have time on their hands while middle-aged and younger people are busy working.
“I mean no disrespect for this,” he said. “It’s really a symptom of the system but the people who show up are literally in walkers and canes.”
Jarvis' concern about seniors' influence in public policy making is that they are less likely than his kids to be around a long time to enjoy smart urban planning.
Holborn Group CEO Joo Kim Tiah, who is developing the Trump tower on West Georgia Street, said he shared a lot of Jarvis’ frustrations.
The 34-year-old then described another frustration: Vancouverites’ preference to focus and discuss social problems as though they are somehow unconnected with the need to create wealth.
“It seems like homelessness and affordability – which are important, don’t get me wrong – [are discussed] but if you don’t have a thriving economy you can’t fix these social problems,” he said.
He said he sometimes wonders why he is working so hard to stimulate the Vancouver economy instead of going somewhere else.
“I think, ‘Why am I doing this? Why don’t I go somewhere else in a different country, where it’s not that they praise you but they appreciate what you contribute to the economy,’” Tiah said.
The other panel speaker, Boffo Properties principal Daniel Boffo, sounded similarly frustrated at how politics stymies development.
“What pisses me off and keeps me up [at night] is how politics plays into our industry,” he said. “We get individuals who are entrenched in their ways.”
He added that much political culture in B.C. is adversarial instead of consensus-driven where people look for common ground.
