Sim opted not for specifics, but for rhetoric.
“Look, we’re up to the challenge,” he said.
“We put it out there, and now that it’s out there, we will develop the plan. We’ve built incredible things in this city and this province before. We’re talking about building a world-class city.”
There it was: those three magic works, used to invoke any number of things that the city should or shouldn’t do over the decades, as big as the Expo or Olympics and as small as an
Ultimate Fighting event or 10-kilometre run.
Lest there be any confusion about Sim’s boosterism, he doubled down.
“Vancouver is going to be the best city on the planet. That’s what we’re striving for. So I think it’s okay to be bold.”
But when Bula pointed out that he hadn’t answered the question about whether he would hire more staff or put more money to advance the pace of development, Sim pivoted to the need for the city to have the right workflow and questions in place.
“Let’s define what the problem is, let’s look at the workflow,” he said.
“So I can’t answer your questions in detail, but [what] I can tell you is we’re going to define the problem, and we’ll provide the adequate resources to make sure that plan happens.”
Sim’s response showcased two of the key aspects of being Mayor of Vancouver.
On one hand, there’s the boosterism,
the slogans, and giving people in your city vision and confidence and direction.
On the other hand, there’s the specific policies, the staff direction, the ability to navigate complex bureaucracy and competing interests to make a politician’s priorities reality.
We’ll see whether Sim can navigate that aspect of the job over the next three years.
But about the only guarantee is whenever “that plan happens,” Vancouver will still be debating whether it’s a world-class city or not.
