UBCx Cures a Symptom, not the Disease

These are my speaking notes on a motion to urge the provincial and federal governments to build the UBC Skytrain Extension (UBCx) past Arbutus to the university. This motion was the result of an advocacy campaign by the UBC Alma Mater Society and passed unanimously, with the only amendment being to add a clause to lobby the federal government.

Again, a clip will eventually appear here. This is the link to my comments on the Council livestream.

UBC is strange. Well, its location is strange, I’ve never been a student there so I can’t say how strange the actual university is.

In most cities, the main university is surrounded by cheap apartments. McGill University, where I did my undergrad, has the infamous “McGill Ghetto” right outside its gates, for example. These neighbourhoods provide an affordable – if not high-quality – starting home for students transitioning from dormitories to their own space, with easy access to campus for their classes.

UBC does not have that. UBC is surrounded by the most expensive real estate in the country, filled with houses that would be unaffordable even to professionals with a six-figure income, let alone 18-year-old students just starting their careers. And this is not an unfortunate coincidence, or a quirk of the free market – these neighbourhoods are zoned almost exclusively for single family homes. It is illegal to build apartments or affordable housing there.

So what’s a poor student to do if they can’t live on campus anymore? Well, live on the other side of town – and take transit to school.

Which brings me to the 99. Have you ever tried to ride the 99 westbound at peak hours? If you can get a bus, which isn’t a guarantee, you’ll probably be packed in elbow to elbow with as many people as can fit. It’s like riding the Tokyo subway – except Tokyo has almost 60 times the population of Vancouver. We just choose to cram our 60th of the population onto a single transit route that’s the busiest in North America.

I have a “joke” about this. My “joke” is that every elected official in the city should be forced to ride the 99 at peak hours until we get the SkyTrain to UBC. Because those cramped busses are the direct result of policy failures at every level of government. The provincial and federal governments failed to prioritize this important transit route, yes, but the municipal government has also failed to address the zoning laws and apartment bans that would make it easier to live close to school – the same zoning laws that have, say it with me, put us into a housing crisis.

So I urge Council to support this motion. But let’s also take a good, hard look at why so many people need to travel so much distance to get to school in the first place.