Leadership that transformed downtown
It’s hard to imagine downtown Vancouver without Charles Gauthier guiding, nudging and cajoling us to be our best. For 30 years, Gauthier has led the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, and by extension he has led all of us to be contributors to a vibrant community.
“When I started, the association was small in every way — a small staff, a small budget and a small mandate,” Gauthier says.
“I knew we had to do something of significance but I also knew it had to be the right thing. So I spent the first six months just listening to members, to elected officials, to citizens. From there, we worked to transform downtown Vancouver into the live/work place it is today.”
In addition to working with city planners to create a livable downtown, the rest of the plan emerged, which included securing continuing funding, working to make the city safe and clean, to open up public spaces and to support public events.
Gauthier says, “it included reimagining the city of the future. We worked with SFU Public Square and developed a blueprint for Vancouver 2040.”
Recently, Gauthier announced he will step down.
Charles Gauthier of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association joined us for a Conversation That Matters about once again reimagining Vancouver in the COVID -induced safety state.
See the video at vancouversun. com/tag/conversations-that-matter. Conversations That Matter is a partner program for the Morris J. Wosk
Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University. The production of this program is made possible thanks to the support of viewers like you. Please become a Patreon subscriber and support the production of this program, with a $1 pledge at goo.gl/ ypxyds