The city has already had to paint over the public art mural it commissioned recently. I guess the assumption was that graffiti vandals would respect the art work and leave it alone. Obviously that was not the case. The city needs more enforcement and should direct more funds for this in the 2021 budget. They spend more on artist in residence and poet than on graffiti removal. There are many sites such as this that are repeatedly targeted and quite predictably. Why aren’t there cameras and frequent control officers/police patrolling these areas? The city has hired upwards of 100 staff members in the past five years to attend to its ideological agenda while continuing to neglect its core functions. And many of the councillors live elsewhere and so don’t have to live with the deteriorating downtown on a personal and daily basis.
But Karmen McNamara, a Canadian triathlete who previously ran for Victoria council, said she does not want Dubow to resign because the city cannot afford another $200,000 byelection. Coun. Stephen Andrew was elected in a December byelection to replace Laurel Collins, who resigned after she was voted MP for Victoria. Dubow, who returned to Canada on Monday, is now quarantining for 14 days in a Vancouver hotel, where he said he’s working on council duties remotely. The City of Victoria confirmed that Dubow is paying for his own hotel costs. “My tax dollars are paying [Dubow] to work in Vancouver and they were paying him while he was on holiday oversees,” McNamara said. “For him to donate to those who can’t afford to travel, who can’t afford to stay in a hotel, those who have been the hardest hit by the pandemic, that is an appropriate consequence.”