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Robertson off to New York

April 12th, 2010 · 19 Comments

Sam Sullivan used to love to go to Chicago and admired Mayor Richard Daley, perhaps in part because of his imperial powers, but also because of the way he had single-handedly turned Chicago from a rust belt disaster to a thriving urban innovator.

But Gregor Robertson’s favourite city, at least this week, is New York. Apparently he’s off there today, tomorrow and Wednesday to talk to Mayor Michael Bloomberg (wealthy beyond belief, brought in a smoking ban to restaurants and car-free days to Times Square and various other roads), among other things.

Along with that, he’ll be schmoozing more green business types. I, for one, am waiting to see what comes of all this. It’s all been a bit of a mystery, as no one wants to trot out any of these potential future Vancouver powerhouses for interviews until they actually commit to something. So far, Surrey’s announced one deal from all this dedicated green networking, but nothing else definitive so far from the half dozen cities that have been pursuing the new economy.

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  • Chris Richards

    Whatever happened to talking on the phone? Video conferencing? Does nobody have to approve of this expenditure? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!

  • Joe Just Joe

    Too bad our backyard chickens can’t fly otherwise he would’ve be able to get there without having to buy greenhouse credits.
    I’m all for sustainable businesses, unfortunately most of them seem to depend on taxpayer subsidies so they really aren’t sustainable.

  • Glissando Remmy

    The Thought of The Day

    “In New York, Bloomberg bought Himself a Mayorship. In Vancouver, Solomon bought Gregor a Mayorship. Let’s call this trip to New York an exchange, then.”

    In a traditional New Yorker’s sentence, “New York” and “Mayor Bloomberg” are likely to be accompanied by the word “corruption”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E67PYtwkTUo

    (on this link it would be interesting for everyone to read the attached comments…very insightful)

    Is Robertson trying to learn from the best? We already have people from Chicago here, the other major corrupt American city.

    So, watzzup? I don’t know Vancouver. Go figure. That’s your job to find out.

    We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.

  • katey

    Green Business, Definition:

    A business that requires massive tax payer subsidies to operate, a business that cannot function without massive taxpayer subsidies, a business formed by smart eco-grifters to take advantage of do-gooder politicians forcing their greeny religious beliefs on the citizenry’s pocketbook.

  • Chris Keam

    By that definition the defense industry, auto industry, tourism industry, etc, etc, are all ‘green’.

    Green isn’t a religion (NTTAWWT), it’s this crazy discipline called ‘science’ with a smattering of this other crazy thing called ‘math’. When you keep subtracting without regard for the end result, sooner or later you end up at zero. Now zero is a nice round number, but it ain’t so pretty when it applies to food, energy, farmland, and on and on.

    Why do we hate science?

  • MB

    @ katey WRT never-ending subsidies: Don’t forget the agricultural industry, or the airline industry, or the owners of every single private car, or if you originate from the U.S., the banking industry.

  • Dan Cooper

    @Chris R.: As a professional meeting coordinator (though working mostly with poor people, not rich ones), I have to say that phone or video-conferencing is a sad second best when you are building relationships between people not already well-acquainted. Face to face is far more effective.

    Then again, maybe I’m just biased in this because I like New York City. Not that I want Vancouver to become either of them, but if we were to be more like either NYC or Chicago, I’d take the former!

  • spartikus

    Ah, but don’t you see…if the Mayor doesn’t go to New York he’s failing to promote Vancouver during tough economic times.

    If he travels to New York, he’s History’s Greatest Monster[tm]

    If PavCo gets a subsidy, it’s the sober reality of business.

    If a green business gets a subsidy, it’s communism, son.

    We live on the internetz and supporting evidence is optional.

  • MDO

    Mayor Robertson was invited to New York by the Center for New York City Affairs, an urban think tank housed at Milano the New School for Management and Urban Policy. Last night, he participated in a panel discussion (in a series sponsored by Con Edison) entitled Cities Respond to Climate Change: Locating Leadership in an Uncertain World. Stephen Heintz, President of Rockefeller Brothers Fund was the keynote speaker for the event and Mayor Robertson was on the panel with the Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx, the President of the NY State Energy Research and Development Authority and a Research Fellow from the Heritage Foundation. Mayor Robertson offered stories, insights and policy ideas from Vancouver for an audience of over 200 people. A full transcript of the event will be published on the Center’s website in the weeks ahead.

  • Frank Murphy

    Frances — Could I interrupt this chat to point out you’ve inspired another civic politics blog:

    http://www.nanaimocityhall.wordpress.com

    Keeping an eye on City Hall in Nanaimo. We’d very much like your and your readers’ feedback.

  • Frances Bula

    @MDO Thanks for the info about other things the mayor is up to in New York. I didn’t get any information about this part of his itinerary.

  • Glissando Remmy

    The Thought of The Day

    “The power of persuasion is always to be found in the ‘Buy and Sell’ pages of the BS Times”

    I do apologize. After reading MOD’s @ 9 comment I am ashamed of myself. What was I thinking? Was I mistakenly suggesting that Robertson, went to New York to yet again plump up his already tailored resume, make good on his monthly quota of Media Appearances, shake some hands and brush some shoulders with “sellebrities” and maybe, way not, ask for some innocent future campaign contributions? Easy, Paisano!

    That’s why they will never “Wise Guy” me. No filtering system. WHAT-SO-EVER.

    Anyway. By the time MOD finished that paragraph with that pompous title: “Cities Respond to Climate Change: Locating Leadership in an Uncertain World” he/she lost me and my undivided attention for about two good seconds. (BTW. Locating what…Crapmenship? I don’t know of any GPS adaptable for this sort of thing, on the market, but for all of you adult journalists out there to take this at point blank without even at least, blink at the sound of it…is refreshingly encouraging.)
    Then I found out that one of the speakers, was there on behalf of those “Rock’fellas” , ya’ know, that American Brotherhood of integrity, honesty, and respect for other people’s money.

    GETATTOHEER!

    Then I found out that Gregor might have offered stories. That, I believe. Would it be fair to assume that when Our Boy finished his story telling on the City’s backyard lawn remembrance parcels, on his quest for organic chicken in the backyards of all Vancouverites with a backyard, on the pure “grey top” honey production, or on the struggles with the “oh so hard to think of” segregated bike lanes and barricades, the whole audience,they
    were all standing up and cheering in admiration? Only picturing the Seasoned Professionals in the room, wondering: “Who are we kidding. We are never going to get those 5.7 PED credits for this one. Not if the people in the Professional Practice Dept. are “alive” during their lifetimes!” made my day. His finale, so I heard, was done on the “Impossible Dream” from The Man of La Mancha playing in the background.

    Who knows what else is on the Mayor’s agenda? He could be our best and only Municipal Spy in the Big Apple, ever! Agent 604.
    All I wanna’ find out from him, is find out wha’ I wanna’ find out, when he finds it out from where he is supposa’ to find it out! Capiche?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZOlrZNIod0&feature=related

    Yet, despite all that, my gulping, greedy, gobbling, giddy Sicilian Goat asked me “Why is Robertson in New York? What did their respective Conferences, Seminars, Workshops on the Utopia subjects they attended, did to the advancements of Sam Sully-in-the-Van or Peter The Apprentice Ladner careers?” When I think about it, she’s only a Goat, public schooled, no tutoring, great with kids though.
    I said to her. “FUGGEDABODIT! Ask many questions like this and you’ll end up mowing City Hall’s front lawn. Who knows, they’ll milk you too, ya’ know, that Food Sovereignty thing they are also pushing. Siete pazzesco? ” to which she responded “I heard that before!”

    See? My point, exactly!

    We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.

  • Higgins

    Great post as always Glissando! You are by far the more interesting to read commenter (more like columnist by the size of some comments) on any blog I browsed, including this one. Frances, you turn out to be a great catcher of raw talent. Now. What is the business with His Worship in New York, that involve us?

  • Bill Lee

    What could His Mayorness say?
    I’ve always regarded him as a bit of a bobblehead on the lines of Michael Harcourt whom I had to suffer through an hour of babble which he didn’t think through, couldn’t calculate and was just blue-skyed wishes.
    I haven’t found any strong thots from Robertson either. Empty word squibs that sound good on recorded media’s soundbites.
    One day someone will transcribe an unread speech by Robertson and we can parse his thoughts off the cuffs.

    Meanwhile he might visit the MoMA for the Rising waters exhibit on new solutions for a wet underfoot New York.
    ——
    Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront March 24–October 11, 2010
    Architecture and Design Galleries, third floor
    http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1031

    Organized by Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design.
    who blogs about it at :
    http://moma.org/explore/inside_out/category/rising-currents#description
    and was interviewed on Monday and with maps and pictures of the interesting solutions (more blue sky, Sigh! Get on with it!!)
    http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/12/pm-new-york-rising-currents-exhibition-q/

    The New School thing.
    Milano: The New School Events calendar http://www.newschool.edu/milano/events.aspx
    Cities Respond to Climate Change: Locating Leadership in an Uncertain World
    http://www.newschool.edu/milano/events.aspx?id=50409

  • Bill Lee

    Oh, and despite the dozens of blogs that function as events listings in NYC, I haven’t seen anyone blog-discuss it in google.com/blogs search.

    Maybe search.twitter.com for new school climate change?

  • Hans Goldberg

    Most of these posters must love the sound of their own opinions, mostly blather, little substance.

  • Mira

    Of course Hans, Frances readers are not soooo Goldberg as you are. And let me say this, you are full of it. Have a bagel or something, Gawd!

  • Visiting

    Funny stuff in here. And Robertson is your Mayor, right? That bad, huh?

  • Glissando Remmy

    The Thought of The Day

    “For Hans…brevity.”

    Mark my words Herr Hans,
    Best proverb ever,
    One wakes up from drunkenness,
    From foolishness… never.

    Was this concise and of substance to you, then?

    We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.