Vancouver Development History Part IV: 1973 – Present TEAM (The Electors Action Movement) was a political organization that won Vancouver City government in 1973. Just prior to the vote, the new NPA Mayoral candidate was caught up in a scandal causing the NPA vote to implode. Although the TEAM vote remained less than was historically required it was enough to elect a Mayor and 8 Councillors. From 1952 to 1973, the most respected voice in City Hall was Gerald Sutton Brown, born and raised in Jamaica, responsible for Britain’s second largest city through World War II, he brought a British Commonwealth approach that was very different from US cities. His West End, Vancouver Special and high density residential on the industrial waterfront with public walkway does not have equivalents in the US. He ensured city development responded quickly to market forces so the price of housing remained affordable. TEAM candidates were among the academic and managerial elite of the city and they brought about such a sea change in Vancouver history that we can consider we are still in the TEAM Era. Their first acts were to fire Sutton Brown and downzone the West End and they introduced processes to ensure there would be no more loss of single detached house neighbourhoods. They brought this approach to Metro Vancouver and rejected numerous reports from economists and the real estate industry warning this would lead to rising house prices and other dysfunctions. Today there are less people living in most residential neighbourhoods than in 1973, even while many of the smaller old houses were demolished and replaced with much larger ones. TEAM brought new direction to Vancouver by supporting a federal Just Society LIP Grant for people living in low income SRO hotels around the downtown.… Read More »The TEAM Era