Lisa Helps

  • On Business and City Business

    A number of people in the business community have asked me to spell out both my values and my intentions for business and the economy, should I be elected Mayor of Victoria. Three foundational convictions The following three statements summarize my beliefs and convictions, based on my local experiences with small business start-ups at Community Micro…

  • Building Better Bridges – Why I Voted Against the Johnson Street Bridge Project

    The Johnson Street Bridge replacement project is the talk of the town these days. This past weekend at the Phillips Backyard Weekender people were sipping great local beer and fretting over the potential cost increase of the project. Others said that at a weekend cocktail party, guests had grave concerns about who will pay if…

  • Moms Like Us

    A month and a half ago, I had a call from a group of moms who all have adult children who live with mental illnesses. I met with them at City Hall rather than at my regular coffee shop location because they wanted privacy and confidence. They had come to ask for my help to…

  • Downtown Victoria – Our Harbour, Our Heart

    At an early February Planning and Land Use Committee meeting, Councillor Pam Madoff arrived with a stack of reports of past harbour visioning exercises that was many inches high. She said they’d been sitting on her bookshelf since they’d been written, some dating back to at least the 1980s. She lamented that after countless hours…

  • Downtown Victoria – Breakfast with Robert Jawl

    I had the pleasure of attending the Urban Development Institute’s Under 40 breakfast event on Friday morning. Our host and guest speaker was Robert Jawl of Jawl Properties. Jawl Properties built the highly acclaimed Atrium Building at Blanshard and Yates. And, they’ve got two more leading-edge projects in the works. First is a LEED Platinum office development at Douglas…

  • Staying Focused, Or How We Get Things Done

      This past Thursday, at its Governance and Priorities Committee, Council met to review the City’s strategic priorities for the remainder of the 2013-2015 budget cycle. But it was also an opportunity for councilors to bring forward projects they’d been working on, that didn’t fit easily into our regular meeting business. Marianne Alto put forward…

  • Shape Your Future Victoria

    Last fall, Victoria West residents of McCaskill Street and surrounds gathered to cut the ribbon on the beautiful mural depicted here. This group of neighbours came together and turned a bramble-covered, graffiti-laden concrete wall into a thing of beauty. How did they do it? Meeting neighbours they didn’t know, food, drink, conversation, collaboration. And a…

  • Sewage Treatment: CRD Residents Deserve a Better Plan

    Two weeks ago, I was invited by Andrew Weaver to be part of a three-person panel at a Public Forum on Sewage Treatment. In front of a standing room only crowd at the Oak Bay Rec Centre, it was clear to me how much passion and anxiety there is about sewage treatment in the CRD.…

  • City of Victoria Stormwater Utility – A Primer

    In 2014 the City of Victoria will be rolling out its new Stormwater Utility. Modeled in part on a similar utility in Kitchener-Waterloo, the utility will remove the portion of money that comes to the City from residents and businesses from the property tax bill (about $4.5 million per year). Instead, people will receive a…

  • The Future of Crystal Pool

    An article in today’s Times Colonist outlines Councillor Ben Isitt’s vision for Crystal Pool. Tonight he’s bringing his vision to Council in a motion calling on city council to affirm the “public ownership and operation” of any Crystal Pool replacement. His touchstone is a motion made by the previous council in October 2011 that “supports retention of…

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