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November 7, 2008
Few Jews seeking votes
Information on advance polls is at jfgv.com.
PAT JOHNSON
On Nov. 15, when the votes are counted in municipal elections across British Columbia, members of the Jewish community will be watching the results to see if the small number of Jewish candidates have had success.
In Vancouver, longtime architect and urban planner Michael Geller, a former president of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCC), is seeking a city council seat on the NPA slate. On the same slate is Marty Zlotnik, seeking a second term on the Vancouver Park Board. In Richmond, Howard Jampolsky is seeking to win a place on council in the city with British Columbia's second-largest Jewish population.
Geller is known to Vancouver Sun readers as a frequent commentator on urban affairs and as a diarist who shared global observations during a year-long, round-the-world trip last year. Though he says he has never waded into politics before, Geller is a familiar face in the planning field. Originally from Toronto, he came to the West Coast in the 1970s as a senior official with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), a federal body that was once a major player in the housing market.
"In '75, I was made the CMHC special co-ordinator and project manager for what was then the largest city project in Vancouver, the redevelopment of the south shore of False Creek," Geller told the Independent. "It was a very significant project. Most people were sure it was going to fail because it was housing in an area that was historically industrial and the concept of downtown living and waterfront redevelopment 30, 35 years ago was still relatively unheard of. A city planner resigned because he thought it was so inappropriate that families with children would be forced to live in that location."
The successful integration of medium- to high-density residential in former industrial areas with extensive social amenities like parks and community centres is now known in planning circles as the Vancouver model or Vancouverism and is observed enviously by cities worldwide.
Before his worldwide travels last year with wife Sally, Geller, who was recently admitted to the College of Fellows of the Canadian Institute of Planning, oversaw the creation of UniverCity, a "sustainable urban community for 10,000 people on Burnaby Mountain" that doubles as a hub of student life for Simon Fraser University. When that major project was completed and Geller had seen the world, he returned to Vancouver looking for new challenges.
"After coming back from taking a year off, I got involved as a volunteer with Gerry Zipursky, the former executive director of the JCC, working with a small group in the Downtown Eastside," Geller said. "The group was trying to act as a broker between the residents and the community organizers, city hall and the real estate planning and development community. We would sit around wondering how we could convince members of council of the merits of what we were trying to do, which was to create a local planning office down there, to create a new governance model, a new entity that would act like a community trust or a community development corporation that would bring all the parties together and come up with a common vision that would allow that area to be, if you like, redeveloped – but in a way that would still respect the needs of the local people, so it would be predominantly a low-income community, but it would have market housing and it would become – a word that both Peter Ladner and I have used, which is a pejorative word to many – a bit more like a healthy, normal community."
With his experience in city planning and other issues, Geller said a number of people encouraged him to run for mayor.
"I have enough sense to know [running for mayor] was not something that was feasible," he said. But he was open to ideas.
"About every seven years, I have done something different in my life, and so this was something I thought I would try," he said of running for city council. "I've had no involvement in politics. I've never even been a backroom guy."
Geller has also helped redevelop other major urban communities, including the Steveston waterfront, the Port of Montreal and Market Square in Saint John, N.B. He has seen through developments, including a predominantly Jewish seniors complex in Vancouver, Oak Gardens, between 42nd and 43rd on Oak Street.
"When it opened, it was 100 per cent Jewish seniors, my father was one of them," Geller said. "He had a wonderful life. He was one of the few single men in the building, with about 40 single women."
In his career as a developer, he has partnered with leading Jewish families in the field, he said.
"I'm proud of the fact that I've worked with Segals, Belzbergs and Wosks – I like to think that I had an ability to pick very good partners," said Geller.
As a Jewish candidate, Geller said his association is a point of pride for his party.
"The fact that I am from the Jewish community is seen as an example of the diversity of the NPA this time around," he said. "I was a little bit reluctant at the very beginning about running for the NPA because it did have this sort of historic association as a more right-centre party, private club, Shaughnessy blue-blood – and I know as soon as one talks about this, some people get their backs up – but the reality is, it's not like that anymore.... I am, if you like, an openly Jewish candidate in this election – and I'm openly NPA.
"But I hope that no one will not vote for me for either of those reasons," Geller said, laughing. "There's other good reasons for not voting for me, but those aren't them."
Just to the south, in Richmond, another businessman, Jampolsky, seeks a council seat.
"I have a great respect for municipal government. It's not a stepping stone for me," said Jampolsky, who has run unsuccessfully for nominations at the federal and provincial levels. He notes that he served 17 years as a director of Vancouver's NPA, demonstrating a commitment to local government and issues.
"I understand the municipal system and I think I know what is needed to keep a city moving ahead, growing a city and protecting the taxpayers," he said. "Part of my platform is to halt development until we put the necessary resources and development into our infrastructure – that would be another bridge over the north arm of the Fraser River to ease traffic congestion."
To create more affordable housing, Jampolsky would pressure the federal government to annually depreciate rental buildings at 10 per cent, rather than five per cent, to encourage more rental construction, increasing the supply of rental stock and the availability of affordable housing.
Jampolsky, whose small business designs and implements remote-control systems for water utilities, is on the regional board of Canadian Jewish Congress, as well as the Richmond Kehilla Society, and has many affiliations outside the Jewish community, including being a former member and vice-chair of the Richmond Intercultural Advisory Committee and the current chair of the Richmond Airport Noise Citizens Task Force.
Jampolsky is critical of the regional transit system, noting that he's calculated there are more flights to Calgary from Richmond than No. 2 Road buses on a given day.
The only Jewish candidate seeking re-election is Zlotnik, who is seeking another term on the Vancouver Park Board on a platform of continuing programs for inner-city kids and more all-weather playing fields. Zlotnik, who has been the board's finance chair for three years, oversees a budget of $100 million, which, he noted, is greater than the budget for the city of Kelowna.
Zlotnik cited the massive post-Olympic redevelopment of False Creek as a major issue facing the city and the park board.
"It's a big opportunity," he said. "We want to have False Creek as something that is user-friendly and also environmentally friendly."
Zlotnik's platform also includes ensuring that 2010 Olympic legacy buildings "actually work after the Olympics," discussion of a redeveloped Brockton Oval and a linear park along the Canadian Pacific Railway right-of-way.
Zlotnik sees accessibility for all, especially children from lower-income families, as key to preventing social problems in future.
"Parks and recreation are all about making sure that access is available to all," he said.
For those for who will not be able to vote on Nov. 15 because it is Shabbat or because they will be out of town, options for advance voting are provided on the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver website, www.jfgv.com, courtesy of Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific Region.
Pat Johnson is, among other things, managing director, programs and communications, for the Vancouver Hillel Foundation.
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