Vision Vancouver, which holds all but one of the seats on city council, says it’s committed to a new queer community centre.
Councillor Tim Stevenson says the city is “actively engaged” in finding ways to help “bring a community centre to fruition,” but is aware that there is “more than one constituency” interested in having a new centre.
Stevenson says the mayor and other city officials want to meet with both Qmunity and the working group that recently began envisioning a new multi-purpose centre.
“There doesn’t seem to be any reason not to include all of the voices,” he says.
“In fact we would see it as very detrimental to try to move ahead with something from our point of view until we did find a way that all the voices were accommodated,” Stevenson told Xtra West Oct 19.
“I’m hoping no one will decline because all parties are interested in what the city has to say in this because we’re the ones that are finding the space,” Stevenson adds. “So I would think it would be incumbent on everyone to want be at the table and to want to be a participant in finding a way forward.”
He says an invitation will be sent out to both parties and “it’ll be up to them to decide whether they feel that they want to do that. We don’t want to choose; we want them to find a way themselves to bring about change.”
Qmunity executive director Jennifer Breakspear says she wasn’t aware of the proposed meeting but would be open to attending. “This is the first inkling I’ve had of such a thing, so I would need more information about who is calling such a meeting and what it’s about,” she says.
“I’m kind of stunned,” says Steven RodRozen, a member of the new working group pushing for a multi-purpose centre. “It’s a great, great, great outcome in my eyes. There are a lot of people that want to come to the table and this gives and creates the shared opportunity for everyone to come together and unite behind the grand vision.”
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