We’ve written before about the City of Vancouver’s 107 taxes, fees and levies on new housing, and how Mayor Gregor Robertson seems completely blind to how his actions (including the ban on natural gas) exacerbate the cost of living crisis in his city.

Well, now we have another example.

Last week, Global BC’s Jill Bennett reported that the City of Vancouver is buying up expensive homes and turning them into parkland. From the story:

A house with a $1.1 million asking price is one of the more affordable homes found in Vancouver, but prospective buyers of the property at 1011 East 45th Ave. have already been outbid.

By whom? The City of Vancouver.

The 106-year-old house backing onto South Memorial Park is one of at least six lots along that stretch of East 45th that were earmarked to become permanent green space. The rest have already been purchased by the city in recent years and torn down.

The house next door, a similar character home dating back to the same period, was sold to the city in February 2015 for $845,000. It has since been demolished and the land is now closed behind a construction fence.

The city confirmed it is in discussions with the owner of the remaining house, which also includes a rental suite, but isn’t saying anything more about the situation.

But in a region where housing affordability is scarce and in which the mayor consistently touts his government’s willingness to solve a years-old housing crisis, why is the city removing perfectly good homes with rental suites for park land?

Look, there’s no question that more parkland would be a wonderful thing. But why is the city spending a fortune to do it, when they already have the ability to demand swaths of free greenspace from developers?

And if the city owns all these homes, why not increase density and put some nice non-strata row homes along there, making it affordable for people?

It’s a plan so out-of-touch with what’s happening in Vancouver that even Premier Christy Clark weighed in: