Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim has converted a meeting room at city hall into a personal gym that he says allows him to keep fit while also making the daily operations of his office more efficient and welcoming to visitors.
The gym, which includes a Peloton stationary bike, chin-up apparatus, weights, resistance bands and exercise mat, is located in what is roughly a 300-square-foot room adjacent to a large boardroom that Sim now calls his office.
“It allows me to actually get to promote health, including my own health — the hours are pretty long here,” Sim said Wednesday in an interview from his office. “If you don't have your health, you can't help your family out and you can't help your organization.”
Earlier this year, the mayor moved out of an area on the same floor of his sprawling third-floor department to the large boardroom, which some previous mayors used as their main office.
In doing so, Sim moved his fitness gear to the adjacent meeting room, which the mayor said wasn’t being used regularly. The table and chairs from that room have since been moved to another area that serves as a meeting space.
“We've actually made things more efficient,” Sim said.
'Ken's mojo dojo casa'
Sim was talking about his gym Wednesday because of a photo of the space that Green Party Coun. Pete Fry shared Tuesday night via the X social media platform. Fry accompanied the photo with the following comment:
“The deeply unserious and absolute absurdity of a civic asset being repurposed as Ken’s mojo dojo casa house belies a very real problem with process, transparency and good governance that we continue to get stonewalled on.”
Fry said in an interview that council received a memo from city manager Paul Mochrie in January that indicated the meeting room in question — known as The Grouse Room — would be used by the mayor and no longer available for meetings.
The memo from Mochrie, which Fry also shared via social media, indicated the large boardroom — often referred to as the ceremonial boardroom — would also be occupied by Sim.
'Assistants left scrambling'
Fry said he was going to ask about the mayor taking over the spaces at Tuesday’s council meeting during debate about Sim adding another $80,000 to his office budget, but was shut down by ABC Vancouver councillors.
“I don't think that's the best use of space for that particular room, and it was better served as doing city business,” said Fry, noting he used the room to meet with a variety of people, including consul-generals.
“The fact of the matter is our assistants were left scrambling trying to figure out what they were supposed to do with meetings that we had booked there. We had to find meeting spaces on the second floor and other floors of the building.”
Fry said Sim should have been more upfront about the purpose of taking over the ceremonial bedroom and meeting room. Fry said he doesn’t have access to the spaces, so he couldn’t look for himself; the photo he took, he added, occurred after a door was left open.
He also noted there is a designated room for city employees in the basement of city hall for yoga.
Sim accused Fry of playing politics, emphasizing again that the move into his new office and addition of the gym hasn’t taken away meeting space.
He also said the gym is open to Fry and other councillors, although Fry said several times during the interview that his security card prohibits access.
Gregor Robertson expanded mayor's office
The new setup, Sim said, frees up more space for visiting delegations and returns the boardroom to its intended use of a mayor’s office. Sam Sullivan, who served as mayor from 2005 to 2008, was the last mayor to use the space full-time.
What is now the gym was where Sullivan’s chief of staff worked.
Gregor Robertson succeeded Sullivan and during his 10-year term from 2008 to 2018 expanded his department, taking over the city manager’s space on the same floor. That’s how the office that Sim initially moved into was created.
Kennedy Stewart also served four years as mayor in the smaller space.
Sim noted he paid for all the fitness equipment for the gym.
“The narrative that councillor Fry is trying to promote is — I'll be generous when I say this — is completely misleading,” he said.
“People across this country and around the world are tired of politicians misleading the public and not focused on their real jobs, which is making lives better for the residents of the City of Vancouver.”
The next civic election is in October 2026. Sim and Fry have both stated they will seek re-election.
