Traffic is among city council candidate Vladimir Krasnogor’s top concerns, and he’d like to see the City take a fact-based approach to solving gridlock by analyzing traffic patterns.

Born and raised in Sapperton, Gerry Liu would like to see more support for residents’ associations in New Westminster, a new state-of-the art community centre, and would oppose a waste-to-energy incinerator in our community.

The economy, transportation, affordable housing and environmental considerations are on Dr. David Noshad’s mind. Noshad believes younger citizens need more attention by city council, that increasing the city’s revenue by other means than taxes is the best way to fund needed improvements, and would hire consulting firms to provide scientific analyses of complex issues to help council make more informed decisions.

Betty McIntosh says she is ‘friendly to all’ and would continue to listen and work for the people in New Westminster. She supports continued social media outreach via councillors and City staff, and would like to see City staff propose new ways to improve efficiencies in government.

Council candidate Susan Wandell shares her ideas to improve New Westminster, including more support for the arts, reaching out to disenfranchised communities, attracting light/green industries, and asking the electorate to guide spending priorities when they vote at each election.

Jonathan Cote admires what he calls New Westminster’s ‘incredible sense of place.’ If re-elected, Cote would like to improve economic development by attracting new industries and commercial office space, improve residents’ participation in public consultation, and reduce truck traffic through the city.

New Westminster’s infrastructure deficit is a big concern for incumbent councillor Lorrie Williams. She’d also like to see planning begin for a new sports complex in the city.

Council candidate Gavin Palmer wants to see more of what he calls a ‘can do’ attitude among City staff, more support for Residents Associations and an approach to civic management modeled after private enterprise, reducing subsidies and moving to a user-pay a fee-for-service approach.

Taxpayer representation is the civic issue that is most personally meaningful for John Ashdown, a small business owner who would slash taxes, designate truck-only routes and sees the 400,000 cars that pass through New West every day as an opportunity for our local retailers.

‘Traffic flows, rat running, gridlock morning & night’ are among the issues that matter most to New Westminster city council incumbent Bob Osterman.

Despite having no formal political parties in New Westminster, there is a clear schism between two opposing groups in the city: the powerful New Westminster & District Labour Council and the upstart electors’ group Voice New Westminster. Neither group defines itself as a “party” and yet the political discourse in this town is profoundly shaped by these two forces.

A constant source of frustration and conflict in New Westminster, traffic is one of the most heated issues in our city right now. This is the second in a series of posts highlighting responses from New Westminster Environmental Partners’ mayor and council candidates’ survey focusing on environmental issues.

New Westminster Environmental Partners, in partnership with Tenth to the Fraser, asked all the mayoral and council candidates about environmental issues. NWEP has each candidate’s complete answers on their website, and we will be publishing highlights from the responses over the next week or so. We will begin with the mayoral candidates’ takes on sustainability: how to define the term, local successes and missed opportunities.

It’s been with a keen interest from the perspectives of both a New West kid and that of a Realtor I’ve watched a positive renewal of many a New Westminster neighbourhood. Everyone operating within the city, visiting, or just driving through, has made note of much change. A while ago I had the opportunity to sit down with Mayor Wayne Wright and chat about this growth. Today I’ll share a few thoughts from my perspectives and conclusions from that meeting.
As a New West kid I grew to know downtown as …

In an homage to ‘silly season’ shenanigans, we’re co-sponsoring an upcoming New Westminster all-candidates’ event that will feature a comic along with the candidates. We’ve teamed up again with NEXT New West and New Westminster Environmental Partners to co-host Fun & Politics, an non-traditional, informal all-candidates’ mixer aimed at encouraging younger voters to become more engaged in city politics.

At the first all-candidates school board trustee debate of the 2011 civic election, hosted by the New Westminster Teachers Union, emcee and Left Coast blogger Stacey Robinsmith had a bit of last-minute shuffling of tables and chairs to do. As he shoved the last one into place he quipped, “That’s CUPE work, sorry everybody!” Stacey got a good laugh for that zinger, but his little joke also reflected one of the contentious questions of concern to the (unfortunately somewhat sparse) crowd of union folk, council and mayor candidates and political axe-grinders.

At the first all-candidates meeting for the 2011 civic election in New Westminster, Bob Osterman took me to task for making fun of his ugly election signs.

Back in 2009, I wrote a guest post on Tenth to the Fraser entitled, “Taking the plunge into community involvement”. I’m hoping at the end of this post I can convince one of you to take the plunge. It’s a topical subject, with Briana’s recent New West Wednesday’s topic asking about people’s involvement (or not) in their local residents’ associations. Commenters are discussing their experiences and I’d have to say mine’s been overwhelmingly positive, which certainly makes me a bit sad about moving away.

The latest flavour of the month is the voter turnout. I don’t believe changing the electoral system will address the issue of voter apathy. Whether its electoral reform, electronic balloting, or what have you, none of those things address the core reason why we have 55 to 60% voter turnout for elections. To me, it has everything to do with the way elections are portrayed by the media in Canada. Where ever you choose to get your information from, you see the area of politics constantly under attack.

Given the recent shenanigans in Ottawa, I was disappointed to see the Globe & Mail, the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers all endorse Steven Harper’s Conservatives. In New Westminster, the Tenth to the Fraser editorial board endorses the NDP.

For a second month in a row NWEP and Tenth to the Fraser will be teaming up to host a special Election Edition of the popular New Westminster Green Drinks. The event will be held on a special night, Monday May 2nd (election night), from 5:30-late at The Heritage Grill Back Room, New Westminster.

The all-candidates event co-hosted by New Westminster Environmental Partners, NEXT New West and Tenth to the Fraser went swimmingly tonight, with seven out of the eight candidates representing the Conservatives, NDP, Liberals and Greens showing up to mix and mingle with local voters.

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s New West Wednesday about first impressions of the city. In honour of the upcoming federal election and the all-candidates meet & greet happening today at La Rustica, this week we’ll talk politics. Specifically: what do you vote for?
Note that I did not say who, though if you want to reveal your choice you’re welcome to do so. What I’ve got in mind is a few steps before you put a name to your vote, when you work out what issues truly matter …

Rather than set up a typical all-candidates meeting full of speechifying and, well, politicking, Tenth to the Fraser, N.E.X.T. New West (a networking & social club for young professionals in the city) and New Westminster Environmental Partners have teamed up to organize a special non-partisan Green Drinks – Election Edition meet & greet with candidates. The event will be held on Wednesday, April 20 from 6-9pm at La Rustica, 228 6th Street. All residents are welcome to join us.

TransLink has been undergoing a “service rationalization” process for the past year. This is part of a complete service review the Provincial government has mandated before any consideration is given to approving other revenue streams for TransLink. Until now, this has been a fairly abstract concept when it came to transit services on the road, however as we are about to learn, “rationalization” means cuts to basic services in New Westminster.