Dan Fumano: Vancouver mayor pledges to bring ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ to city hall

Vancouver’s new mayor isn’t declaring war on the sun. But in a public appearance Thursday, Ken Sim said he doesn’t want concerns over shadows to stand in the way of building a more economically and culturally vibrant Vancouver.

Addressing an audience of real estate and business professionals in a downtown hotel ballroom, Sim used an anecdote about sun and shade to illustrate how he wants his administration to break from an overly rigid adherence to policies.

The plans for the new Vancouver Art Gallery had run into trouble, Sim said, because “a corner of the building that might be a few feet higher” was “creating a shadowing issue for a couple of hours for a couple of days of the year.”

“I don’t want to live in a city where we are going to stop an anchor, amazing project because of a few hours of shadowing,” Sim said at a luncheon hosted by the Urban Development Institute, an association representing B.C.’s real estate development industry. “That’s absolutely crazy. How do we get to yes?”