Vancouver mayor Ken Sim talks public safety, homelessness as the city gets ready to host FIFA 2026 – BC | 24CA News
The 2026 FIFA World Cup can be bringing all eyes to Vancouver as town will develop into one of many host cities within the expanded 48 crew event.
While we’re nonetheless three years out, Global’s Julie Nolin had a dialog with Mayor Ken Sim about what town is doing to prepare for the worldwide occasion.
Here’s a full transcript of Sim’s interview.
JULIE NOLIN: Here we’re three years away from FIFA. How will we get Vancouver prepared for the world stage?
KEN SIM: Well, we now have conversations about FIFA on a regular basis and all the pieces we are able to do to make our FIFA successful. We’ve labored with totally different ranges of presidency, with sport internet hosting on the City of Vancouver, however we additionally talked to the neighborhood. How many lodge rooms do we’d like? How will we get eating places up to the mark? How will we make our neighborhoods safer, extra vibrant, be it the Granville leisure district or revitalizing Chinatown? These are all of the issues that may kind of lead in the direction of having a really profitable FIFA 2026.
JN: Last week I used to be doing the Granville district story and town eager to do extra to make {that a} safer space together with revitalizing it for companies and leisure. So, that’s only one piece of this this puzzle. What else can we be doing to advertise security? And to create that atmosphere right here?
KS: It’s multifaceted. So, there isn’t one little factor, it’s a group of lots of various things. So, after we had been elected to workplace, one of many issues that we talked about was public security, and so hiring 100 extra cops and 100 psychological well being staff collectively to triage you recognize, a really tragic scenario proper now, however that’s solely the beginning. We should get to the foundation reason for why individuals are within the difficult conditions they’re in. That goes to psychological well being, addictions and folks experiencing homelessness. So, coping with these root trigger challenges as properly, along with that, it’s getting extra individuals on the road. And so, what does that imply? Well, you must give them a cause to wish to come into these neighborhoods, and they also should be safer, however they should be vibrant as properly. So, profitable artwork installations and music and vibrant patios and eating places and neighborhood occasions. You can’t do one or the opposite. It’s a mix of a bunch of various issues.
JN: How will we deliver the enjoyable again to town after we’ve developed that no enjoyable moniker?
KS: I do wish to stress how massive FIFA goes to be as a result of the conversations I nonetheless hear on the road are like: ‘Oh, FIFA that’s going to be good.’ No, it’s going to be large. Imagine the Super Bowl. There are about 115 million viewers, and folks perceive it. People in North America perceive the Super Bowl. A preliminary recreation in World Cup has a viewership of about 350 million individuals. There are 211 international locations across the planet which might be following each single recreation. This is a Super Bowl on steroids. And we’re most likely going to host not less than 5 if no more of those occasions. The complete world goes to be Vancouver and the buildup to the occasion goes to be superb. And then the spin offs after are going to be vital.
JN: I do know you bought to go to Dubai proper across the time you had been elected. And what did you be taught out of your journey to see that occasion?
KS: I bought to expertise firsthand what it’s prefer to be in a metropolis that’s internet hosting the World Cup. And it’s not like something I’d ever skilled earlier than. I lived in London, England when World Cup was occurring in France, and it was lights out. This was at an entire totally different degree. And I had some preconceived notions of what the World Cup might imply to the City of Vancouver. And I used to be fully unsuitable. It’s method larger than what I assumed. I assumed it was simply a chance the place an area business might have a fairly good run main as much as the World Cup. This could possibly be our launch pad for the imaginative and prescient of what Vancouver goes to appear to be over the following 30 years and we are able to leverage a World Cup to amplify that message throughout the planet.
JN: What else are you excited about to assist town develop into the long run?
KS: This is a chance for everybody within the metropolis to step up and contribute to the material and the way forward for our metropolis. We’ve been very clear that we wish to interact your entire neighborhood and we’re going to crowdsource our options. So, if you take a look at what’s happening in Chinatown, or Gastown, for instance, or the Granville leisure district or what’s happening with dashing up allowing, we’re really bringing individuals from across the neighborhood to assist us with the Mayor’s Budget Task Force. Those are people in the neighborhood. I really like town, and that is my metropolis however this [also] isn’t my metropolis. This is our metropolis. And so, residents for the primary time in a very long time, they really have a say in reshaping the long run. So come on down and assist us with it.
JN: Thank you a lot, Mayor Sim in your time with us in the present day.
KS: Thank you for having me. And by the way in which, you possibly can simply name me Ken.
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