City of Vancouver introduces the Engaged City Task Force

September 24, 2012

Posted by Vancity Buzz | 5 »

Vision Vancouver wants to create another task force, the Engaged City Task Force. It’s aim is to increase citizen engagement. A noble idea, however, can the City of Vancouver do anything to increase the level of engagement in the community? Perhaps, they should start by talking to the B.C. Premier and address our ancient liquor laws. However, at the end of the day it may just be that as the city gets more urban certain members will continue to suffer from what we dubbed “The Vancouver Complex” or social isolation, a problem many face in urban centres.

Vision Vancouver press release:

Vision Vancouver Councillor Andrea Reimer will introduce a motion at the next City Council meeting to create an Engaged City Mayor’s Task Force, which will identify ways to increase neighbourhood engagement and improve the ways in which the City interacts and connects with its residents, as well as meet a key election campaign commitment.

“We’ve seen from both the Vancouver Foundation’s research on social isolation and the success of last week’s SFU Community Summit that there is a big appetite for people to be better connected, whether it’s on an individual level with their neighbours or how they engage with City Hall,” said Councillor Reimer. “Vancouver is a city that leads the world in many ways, and we can do more when it comes to building a more engaged city.”

The Mayor’s Task Force would be comprised of people with particular experience in citizen engagement and community building. Members will be chosen from an open call for applications, with the goal to have the Task Force up and running by December, and to complete its work by next June. The creation of a task force to improve citizen engagement was a campaign commitment made by Vision Vancouver in the 2011 civic election.

The Engaged City Task Force will focus on the following areas:

increasing neighbour-to-neighbour engagement and cultural interconnectedness
increasing literacy on, and engagement with, municipal government processes and budgeting
dentifing ways to enhance how the city engages with citizens, and vice versa

Image: Phanyxx

thepunchline

I think Vancouver is anti-social because of the unnatural immigration of Chinese. Especially the Chinese that come here in terms of financial or social status rather than integrating into society (or at the least my neighbourhood). They are so cold and kept to themselves that most Chinese don’t even like their own people. This is not a language barrier. So I do what is natural in human psychology, I mirror my community.
Alec

To all the people that think Vancouver is an anti-social, anti-fun city…. Get a grip, because you’re probably the no fun socially inept people that are complaining!

I feel that Vancouver is actually a very social city, just with it’s own distinct neighbourhoods! We can look at Strathcona for a prime example of great neighbour to neighbour involvment, community management, and drastic change in its demographic.The West End has been a great community within Downtown for quite sometime now.Mount Pleasant has seen rapid growth in its community engagement.We have Mount Pleasant, Kitsilano, Kerrisdale, Commercial Drive, Hastings/Sunrise, Fraserview, Strathcona, Railtown – and so many more… what we need to do is start seeing the positive parts of all of them and accept the negativeFor example, Downtown Vancouver will always be seen has a vibrant tourism area with luxury shopping, great restaurants, good music etc etc…. We need to remove ourselves from the real housewives / luxury style of Vancouver a bit, and recognize that we can be both! Vancouver has a lot of wealth, and a lot of grassroots as well… there’s no reason why they can’t both work in harmony.This engagement task force will be a great community initiative that will see distinct areas of Vancouver become linked as one.Embrace change, and do your part! Become involved!! So that your city gives you what you want from it.
Maverick

@e3400ea090034074e51e6440232d480c:disqus I think that it’s easy to point a finger at a group of people, but it isn’t just the Chinese. Think about all the ‘localized’ cliques of people that live in areas such as east vancouver, the british properties, and heck – even where I live – kitsilano. They don’t *need* to meet new people, don’t *want* to, and sure as heck don’t give themselves a reason to. The main problem – and the only reason people talk about it so much – is we in vancouver complain about everything. We want stuff to happen but don’t do anything about it. And, when we can’t do something about it and we don’t get what we want, we burn our city down.

No, I’m not hypocrite, I actively meet new people and ‘engage with my neighbours’. Heck, even last night my neighbour spontaneously knocked on my door because I was playing some Pretty Lights and wanted to say “nice tunes”. 3 glasses of wine later, I’ve made a new friend. I’ve found these instances happen more often than not – leading me to believe it’s a few, very vocal (bloggers) that complain about this so called “Vancouver Complex” instead of actually going out – complimenting someone on something random – and spending a few moments with the amazing people in this city.
GigiKT

I agree with you that people need to get out of their comfort zone and meet the locals. Sometimes its more easier than you think. For me, I have a hobby that I really enjoy & I look for it on meetup.com. Surprisingly there’s a gigantic community in Vancouver that comes together every week for this! Best of all, the group doesn’t JUST promote the sport, they promote the fun, friendship, and love from it. No matter what ethnicity, race, culture, color, gender, everyone comes together because they are passionate and love doing.

Sometimes we see the problem but we fail to take a step forward and make the change. I became more proactive than before because one person may not change the world, but a group of people can certainly make a difference. Its a matter of joining like-minded people and contributing to change. Vancouver is a truly amazing city, let’s make this happen.
Fred the Dog

I think people may be more prone to go out, have fun and meet new friends if the weird nanny state thing we have changed. It’s like we are all expected to have the same ideals of what fun is and what makes for good night life. But we don’t. It also feels like the places with money, are there for.people with money. This further homogenizes the options of things to do, either making them unattainable or just outright unappealing. There is so much red tape involved in anything to do with starting a venue that has anything to do with booze. I really do think this attitude is why we have badly behaved public drinkers. Take away the taboo and it’s no longer “cool” to get stupid (Granville on weekends, Stanley Cup riot…). Get the right environment for culture to thrive for all of us, not just the top 40 crowd, the wealthy and the people who go to bed at 10pm, and surely people will come out of theories shells, and god forbid…have fun.

And to those who are antisocial by choice and are happy with it, let them. There are plenty of us who have been dying to go out and have fun around town but just are not seeing the options.

City of Vancouver introduces the Engaged City Task Force

Around Town More Vancouver Happenings

Friends of Vancity Buzz

Contributors

Contact Us