AI slop, Californians, and bogus 'translators': Vancouver council went off the rails this week

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Alejandra Siciliano told council about discrepancies in how the plan could affect Vancouver’s east and west sides. Someone with the same name was identified last year “as a Unite Here Local 11 canvasser” in a news release from a coalition including Unite Here.

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A speaker named Veronica Coronel, who said she lived in southern California, cautioned Vancouver council that approving the villages plan would lead to vacant storefronts and the removal of trees. Someone with the identical name was identified as a Unite Here union representative earlier this year in the Westside Current, a Los Angeles-area news outlet.

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Finally, a woman named Cristina Melendez said she was calling from Los Angeles. She said she had never been to Vancouver, but she would like to go one day.

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Melendez told Vancouver council on Wednesday night that she opposed the village plan.

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“Is there a funding source and completion date for every sidewalk, crossing, plaza, park upgrade, childcare space, library improvement, and community facility?” Melendez asked. “How much will development cost levies, utility levies, or possible future amenity cost charges contribute? What happens if those revenues are lower than projected?”

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After Melendez finished her impassioned plea, Montague asked if she could explain what development cost levies are.

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Melendez was silent for a few seconds, and then coughed.

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Montague asked who provided Melendez with her speaking points, to which she replied: “If I’m being honest, I put my points or the concerns I had into AI (artificial intelligence), and AI told me how to make it sound better.”

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ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung asked whether Melendez was affiliated with a hotel workers’ union, which Melendez denied.

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But a LinkedIn profile created in 2023 for a Cristina Melendez in Los Angeles lists her as “political canvasser” for Unite Here Local 11.

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Reached by phone Thursday, Unite Here Local 40 president Zailda Chan acknowledged her union had asked U.S. allies to phone into Vancouver council this week.

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She sees nothing wrong with that, and said none of the callers were compensated in any way.

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“It was purely out of empathy and solidarity for common hardships that hotel workers are facing across borders,” Chan said. “It’s not unusual for us to talk to workers who share a common struggle, and for them to feel empathy and actually want to help and show their solidarity. … When workers are helping each other across borders, it’s not foreign interference.”

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Workers throughout history have often shown solidarity across borders in times of “moral injustice,” Chan said. “People opposing the war in Iraq … people opposing the genocide that’s happening in Palestine, people all throughout the world across borders talking to one another, marching and going to the U.S. embassy, going to different locations to voice their discontent. So how is this different? We’re saying that nobody can afford to live.”

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Chan opposes the villages plan because it would expedite “four- to six-storey market residential towers” around Vancouver without real affordability requirements, she said. “We need affordable housing, not more out-of-reach market housing.”

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But Unite Here opposes more than just the villages. The union scheduled a rally Thursday outside Cty Hall to oppose Holborn’s four-building proposal, which features Vancouver’s tallest skyscraper and includes 1,546 market homes, 237 social housing units, and a 920-room hotel.

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Zailda Chan, president of United Here Local 40, seen in a file photo from 2021. Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG

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“Our main demand is really we’re calling on council to pause all major hotel and luxury development approvals until Vancouver voters have had their say” in the October election, Chan said. “Is this council going to prioritize affordability for residents and workers in the city? Or are they going to prioritize the profit interests of billionaire developers? That’s what it comes down to.”