[Article] Abu Dhabi steals five senior Vancouver urban planners

[mr.x]

Well this is terrible.....what effect will it have on EcoDensity? If there are people in City Hall that deserve a huge pay hike, it's our urban planners.





Vancouver loses five planners to Abu Dhabi
Resignation of senior EcoDensity planner and others adds to strike-related problems

Frances Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, September 15, 2007

VANCOUVER - Vancouver has lost five planners to the Arab emirate of Abu Dhabi in recent weeks, including the senior planner who was in charge of the city's ambitious EcoDensity project.

That loss, prompted by Abu Dhabi's desire to become a city styled on Vancouver and because of the involvement of former Vancouver planning director Larry Beasley as a special adviser, is bad enough.

But there are reports that other planners, who have not yet officially resigned, have left for other opportunities.

NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton said the departure of planner Michael White, who headed the city's large inter-departmental EcoDensity team, is a "great loss."

"The work being done involved many departments and it was almost a piece of academic work on how to create a much greener city. Michael was the chief planner in charge."

Planning director Brent Toderian confirmed that White had given his official notice this week, on top of four others who had already left.

He said there are unofficial reports of other planners in his 100-person department who have found work elsewhere.

Toderian said that, while some have accused Beasley of recruiting planners from his former department, it's more a case of Abu Dhabi recruiters being attracted by Vancouver's international reputation for good planning and then approaching people who have been mentioned by other planners as good candidates.

He hopes that he won't lose any more people to Abu Dhabi and says that Beasley is in a good position to recommend people from other cities.

He was unable to confirm reports that planners are making three times more in Abu Dhabi than they would in Vancouver, but said the pay is very good and he could understand the financial attraction.

Toderian, at a meeting in Halifax of planning directors from major North American cities, said all major centres are struggling with the issue of a demand for good urbanists. On the plus side, Vancouver has an advantage in recruiting because it is seen as a leader in good urban planning.

Both Toderian and Anton emphasized that the city's planning department is fairly resilient and should be able to cope with the loss.

What is more worrying, said Anton -- echoing what others are saying -- is the impact of the strike on council's wide-ranging agenda.

Shortly after Mayor Sam Sullivan and his Non-Partisan Association were elected, council introduced a raft of new initiatives along with EcoDensity, including Project Civil City, aimed at reducing homelessness and public disorder by half within three years.

Before the strike, those projects had staff working in overdrive to try to come up with plans and policies to make them a reality.

Anton said that staff resignations are one issue, but "what is far more significant is the loss of time from our extremely valuable and extremely professional staff."

The city already had a problem with staff leaving before the strike because of retirements, competitive offers from the private sector and some burnout by people who said the city was just trying to do too much with too few resources.

Now, when employees get back to work, the city will have to cope not only with the lost time and post-strike poor morale, but also with replacement of a significant number of people who have left for strike- and non-strike-related reasons.

In addition to the planners, tradespeople and information-technology specialists who have found other jobs, the city recently lost its chief surveyor to the provincial government and the head of its purchasing department to the University of B.C.

fbula@png.canwest.com

[zonie]

Nooooooooo.... I can't believe they're not even staying to see the EcoDensity planning through to the end.

[Vancouverite]

I've heard they were offered five times their current salary.

[Huhu]

I guess we should start drilling for oil to get them back.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by Vancouverite

I've heard they were offered five times their current salary.

They probably could have wooed them by offering just twice their current salary.

[Vancouverite]

I understand Abu Dhabi wanted to seal the deal before Dubai jumped in and offer them the tallest salary in the world.

[oogabooga]

Originally Posted by Vancouverite

I understand Abu Dhabi wanted to seal the deal before Dubai jumped in and offer them the tallest salary in the world.

[jlousa]

I'm sure the money certainly helped, but i feel some of them left because they felt a sense of accomplishment and wanted to start fresh. While others enjoyed the old team and want to continue working with them, as opposed to the new team that's being assembled. Don't get me started.

[spongeg]

relates to this article

City (Vancouver) needs commitment on culture, former planning director says

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Frances Bula
Vancouver Sun


Monday, September 17, 2007


VANCOUVER -- Abu Dhabi has moved much closer to Vancouver than anyone could have imagined before this year.

It's not just that a raft of high-profile Vancouver planners and architects have been drafted to work at the United Arab Emirates city in recent weeks, including a startlingly high contingent from the city's planning department.

But Vancouver's former planning director, Larry Beasley, has come back bearing the message that Vancouver, for all its successes, has something to learn from this Middle East capital that plans to create a model city by 2030.

This city needs to commit to creating internationally prominent cultural institutions, for one, says Beasley, who gave his first public speech in Vancouver Sunday since he left as the city's planning director last year. He is now a special adviser to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, as well as teaching full-time at the University of B.C.

Abu Dhabi's leaders took the audacious step of petitioning France to have a satellite museum of the Louvre there, Beasley points out. A Frank Gehry design is now in the works. While Abu Dhabi's wealth helps, Beasley acknowledged, it also takes vision and determination to do something like that.

Vancouver's main art gallery, on the other hand, is struggling to find enough money for a new building to replace its too-small space at the former Vancouver courthouse.

"We're not even on the map as far as cultural institutions for a great city," he said in an interview prior to his speech. The city has a great fabric of residential buildings, but it now needs symbolic and architecturally adventurous public buildings to define it.

As well, Vancouver needs to realize that it is not leading the way in the 21st-century push to create green cities, says Beasley. Although it has done well in the past, other cities, like Abu Dhabi, are throwing themselves into that project with much more energy.

"There's a dedication out there to the environment as an urban form-giving principle," says Beasley. "We're still struggling. I used to say Vancouver was at the forefront but I've discovered that this new focus on the environment is happening all over the world."

Abu Dhabi's city plan now includes a 100,000-person development that will be built to be carbon-neutral.

In spite of all this, Beasley points out that Abu Dhabi has chosen Vancouver as the model for its future city for all the other things it is doing right.

Beasley was recruited to be a special adviser a year ago, shortly after Abu Dhabi, one of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates, allowed private land ownership for the first time and a flock of developers with wildly ambitious projects started showing up.

Beasley, working with Vancouver architect Peter Busby's firm and Joe Hruda's urban-planning group Civitas, has developed a concept plan for the city that will take it from its current population of 600,000 to 3.5 million by 2030. Along the way, the Vancouverites have persuaded the local authorities to abandon a freeway on the verge of being built through the city, created a city concept based on neighbourhoods with a mosque at the centre of each one, expanded on its existing core of stately buildings and tree-lined roads, and envisioned a comprehensive transit system that will primarily benefit the city's thousands of foreign workers.

Beasley said the team adapted Vancouver's established and successful city-planning ideas like focusing on neighbourhoods, de-emphasizing the car, and encouraging density in targeted areas.

"But we did not just import the Vancouver model," he said.

Abu Dhabi, sometimes called the richest country in the world, has vast oil reserves, far more than better-known Dubai, another emirate up the coast that has also hired some Vancouver architects and planners to create Vancouver-like developments.

Beasley said he kept reminding them of the advantage that gave them.

"You are the wealthiest people in the world," he said. "You do not have to despoil your environment."

Nor does it have to make do with second-rate help. The emirate has hired five Vancouver planners from the city recently, including the man heading the city's ambitious EcoDensity project, which has alarmed both staff and politicians here.

But, says Beasley, they won't be the last ones and it has nothing to do with him.

It's not surprising that young people would be attracted by both the salaries -- double and triple what they can make in Vancouver -- and the opportunity to do advanced planning work.

"The attitude in Abu Dhabi is that 'If they're from Vancouver, we want them.'"



fbula@png.canwest.com

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...2-d15a6baa7da4

[Vanlaw]

This is a bad blow for Vancouver, and it is very hard to compete with the Middle East right now.

The reason I started looking through these forums last year was to research Dubai/Abu Dhabi/Bahrain and Qatar for a possible move over there. I came very close to picking up and moving (and probably still will in a few years). The salaries are crazy, tax free and other than Dubai (which has become quite expensive and very congested) the quality of living is very high. We just simply cannot compete with tax free salaries (usually paid in GBP), full living and vehicle allowances, way more holiday time than here and return flights home a couple of times a year.

Unfortunately, for all the accolades, Vancouver is becoming unattainable for many. Salaries are relatively low and cost of living way too high. Bad for us, but kudos to those moving. I guess we should be kind of flattered that other developing cities want to be modeled on Vancouver.

[Nutterbug]

May they be replaced with young up-and-comers with fresh new ideas and something to prove, while building on the ideas left behind by those that have left.