Neal Yonson

Keys on Campaigns: How to Win and Get Off My Lawn, Not Necessarily in that Order

By Neal Yonson ⋅ January 18, 2012 ⋅ 9 comments

The campaigns that are happening now suck. Awhile ago some nerdlinger decided that good graphic design was the same as good communications and now you get garbage posters that don’t even tell you why they’re qualified to do the job. Web campaigns are important, absolutely, but they’re lazy and generally only good at tapping into people that already know you, rather than reaching out beyond your core community.

Gage South: Campus Planning With No Plan

By Neal Yonson ⋅ November 24, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

Gage South is a standard example (not an exceptional one) of how there’s no coherent plan in place for dealing with issues arising from UBC’s land use planning. Students have known this fact for years and are getting exhausted by it. It is encouraging that the Board of Governors finally seems to be catching on.

Board Committee Unwittingly Endorses Housing in Gage South

By Neal Yonson ⋅ November 23, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

By approving this amendment package as presented, the board committee also endorsed putting 310,000 sq. ft. of housing in the Gage South area. Certainly, this wasn’t their intention. Board members didn’t seem aware that this was one of the major implications of their decision on the Wesbrook Place amendments. But when you put the cart before the horse, as both the board and C+CP are fond of doing, things like this are bound to happen.

Request Denied, Again

By Neal Yonson ⋅ October 26, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment

This ruling effectively exempts from accountability under FIPPA, public bodies like universities, which conduct some of the public’s business through wholly owned and publicly funded subsidiary operations.

Bye-Bye MacInnes Field?

By Neal Yonson ⋅ September 21, 2011 ⋅ 3 comments

C+CP has been working towards a new aquatic centre on MacInnes Field, outside of the “Area Under Review” process. The site they’re pushing for severely restricts the options that can be discussed by the working group and the public. It hinders efforts to come up with innovative solutions for all stakeholders. Hiding behind a consultant’s report makes it far more difficult for the broader community to comment on the options and the issues. Basically, everything they’re saying they don’t want the process to represent.

Gage South Petition: UBC Starts to Respond

By Neal Yonson ⋅ September 20, 2011 ⋅ 4 comments

Anyone even remotely familiar with UBC decision-making knows that a decision isn’t made at the time the decision is made. It’s made well before the decision becomes official, and usually before public consultation occurs. Based on everything that was happening behind-the-scenes, we believed that the *actual* decision point for Gage South was coming up fast.

Dear President Toope

By Neal Yonson ⋅ September 19, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments

Dear President Toope, would you like to sign my petition?

The Campaign for an Academic Gage South

By Neal Yonson ⋅ September 12, 2011 ⋅ One comment

We believe the “Academic” designation for Gage South is sensible and puts the academic mission of the university first. It’s a university – core land should be recognized as such and we would rather not see UBC’s land grant squandered in unfortunate ways.