Lenny Zhou (周楠) | Ep. 3: Safe on Our Streets
https://youtu.be/KKqD33782hc
(Transcript from the episode's English subtitles; speakers not labelled. Host: Sarah Yu.)

[0:00] The woman who collected bottles
If City Hall were to do just one thing, it should be making our residents feel safe walking down the street. Over these four years in office, what has been especially memorable for you? Any little stories like that? Wow, so many. Actually, I think the most memorable thing for me is talking with residents. For example, one time I was really moved. It was at a seniors' home in Chinatown, talking with the seniors. One of them told me, in tears, back when I'd just taken office, she made a living collecting bottles. Every morning she'd go collect bottles, then sell them to cover her living costs. She told me that one morning, she got up early, out the door at 7, collected bottles all day, and on her way back, in the Downtown Eastside, she ran into some people, probably drug users, who came at her waving weapons, knives and such, forcing her to hand over the bottles she'd collected all day. So with no choice, this old lady just handed them over. But with no money, how could she live in a seniors' home? Yes, the Downtown Eastside has some provided for low-income seniors, seniors' homes. So at the time, I was really moved. She was crying her eyes out, and told me, feeling so wronged, how after a whole day's effort, an old woman had collected these bottles, only to have to hand them over that evening. It was such a pitiful thing. But around last year, when I saw her again, she also felt that public safety was getting better. So she told me she could finally go out and collect bottles without worry, and get on with her own life at the seniors' home. So that really moved me, because it's true: the policies we make can affect everyone in the community.

[1:27] Random street attacks
So, over the next four years, what are your future plans? Right. I think the key thing for policy going forward is still public safety. Public safety has gotten better over the past while, a lot better. When we first took over, back then, in 2022, on Vancouver's streets, on average, every day, there were five random attacks. Random attacks. That's really frightening. So anyone could become the victim of a random attack like that. That number has now dropped to under one. Under one is still quite a lot. I want to get that number down to zero.

[1:56] A 0% property tax increase
I saw a news story saying that this year, Vancouver really did manage not to raise taxes. Yes. This year, Vancouver's property tax increase is zero. And we managed it without cutting any core services. We achieved a zero property tax increase. We did all of this with our residents' wallets in mind. This year, out of over a thousand cities in Canada, only three had a zero property tax increase. But Vancouver is the biggest. For a city of Vancouver's size, we're the only one.

[2:22] Renovation permits
Actually, another way City Hall supports small and mid-sized businesses is cutting red tape, making the city more efficient. And this is something we've been doing over the past few years, right? Like, over the past four years, we've cut 2,000 different regulations of all kinds, rules for small and mid-sized businesses, over 2,000 pages. I heard that before, say you wanted to rent a place and then renovate it, you had to get through City Hall's... the City of Vancouver's approval for the renovation. Very long waits. A year or two. How long does it take now, roughly? Right, the exact numbers now... as I recall, for renovation permits, you should be able to get one within three weeks. Three weeks. Within three weeks. Because you cut over 2,000 pages. Over 2,000 pages. And we use technology to speed up the approval process, right? Getting the approvals department to focus more on customer service, rather than creating hassles for them. You'll be using some AI assistance to help with approvals. AI assistance. It's interesting: before, approvals were all still on paper. When I went over to the approvals and planning departments to take a look, it was all rolls and rolls of paper. At least now it's all online. And the next step is to use AI tools, to have AI help us review the whole approval process and speed it up.

[3:24] Why downtown has no freeway
I used to go downtown a lot too, since I went downtown for school. And I'd often see those big buses. They're actually really big and wide, but the roads are very narrow. And I'd see the cars up ahead. Actually, whether you're driving a regular car or whatever, you're right up against the bus, maybe just a few centimetres apart. So dangerous, driving like that every day. And I feel like, with Vancouver's roads, is there any chance of widening them? Vancouver is one of North America's few big cities with no freeways downtown. Because actually, the space to build them isn't enough either. Actually, the earliest, the very early immigrants were also opposing Vancouver's freeway project. Why? Damaging the natural environment? The environment was one issue. The other was the damage to all of Chinatown, which would be huge. At Dunsmuir, there's a viaduct right downtown, the stretch from Chinatown into the city centre. That viaduct, our old Chinese community, back in the '70s, opposed it together, so it was never completed. Of course, just imagine: if back then the freeway had been built, all of downtown, a lot of buildings might be gone. The impact on Chinatown would have been huge. So these are some issues from Vancouver's history. So in downtown Vancouver, Dunsmuir Street is actually an unfinished viaduct. If you know the history, it's a really interesting bit of history. But this was also our old Chinese community fighting for their own rights. I'd like to say thank you. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Focus Media. Thank you to all our viewers. Thank you, everyone.