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Editorial Committee: Evan Alderson, Susan Wright, Sharon Yandle
Production Editor: Robyn Chan
Proofreader: Kathryn Woodward
Contributors this Issue: Clara Salamanca (Creekview Co-op), Susan Dehnel (666 Leg-In-Boot), Zaida Schneider (Heather Quay), Maria Roth (False Creek Co-op), Kathleen MacKinnon (Regatta), Nancy Kirkpatrick (Pacific Cove), Wes Knapp (Regatta)
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Brenda Bailey Visit
CREEKVIEW MEETS WITH CABINET MINISTER
Clara Salamanca, Creekview Housing Co-op
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On March 3, four members of Creekview Co-op had a visit with Brenda Bailey. She is the MLA for False Creek and also the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation.
Brenda understands co-op housing and is very supportive of False Creek South. She doesn’t want False Creek South to lose its open design, mid-rise buildings, co-ops and/or its community feeling. She feels that this neighbourhood is an example of livability that should be preserved while trying to increase the density, where possible.
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Creekview Housing Co-op
Photo credit: Nate Yandle
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She spoke about the importance of infrastructure and its associated development, specifically mentioning the need for a school in Olympic Village. She acknowledged the frustrations of such a long wait.
Brenda sees co-ops as a real solution to the housing crisis in Vancouver. However, she shared concerns she has heard on numerous occasions that there are wealthy people living in co-ops, and has heard the question raised about why wealthy people and co-ops are being subsidized by the City (which for the record is not true!)
We have been hearing these myths for 10 years and we assured her that this is not the case in our co-op. We know what our income bands are and there are no millionaires here!
She also talked about other issues, including the drug crisis in Vancouver. She feels that pathways that can provide stable, affordable, appropriate and safe housing and are implemented with supports are all part of the solution.
She is also in contact with Mayor Ken Sim, and she finds him to be a person who wants solutions.
Every Friday her office issues a newsletter and she offered to include links to articles about False Creek South co-ops. As such, we have sent her the Georgia Straight article as well as the Vancity video so that more people in her constituency are aware of the strengths and challenges in this wonderful neighbourhood. |
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False Creek Elementary
SCHOOL NEWS: REFLECTIONS ON GRADUATING
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“I have learned a lot from great teachers” - Cohen Brooks, age 12
This year is my amazing and final year at False Creek elementary. I would highly recommend FC to any parent who is contemplating enrolling their child into a school in this beautiful community between the bridges. Because I’ve been here since grade three I’ve made many friends. In these four years I have learned a lot from great teachers. I always think that False Creek only hires really nice people.
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Next year I am going to Kitsilano high school, and to be going to a different school has some downsides, one being that I cannot walk to school and be there in three minutes; two, it is very unfamiliar and many more downsides, but upsides too. False Creek has a newly renovated playground as you might know and is super fun to play games like grounders and camouflage. They even went to the extent of adding trampolines! I have made many memories on the old and new playground. Leaving will be sad but I can't wait to see my future in high school.
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“This place has a lot more to offer than we had known” - Ben Toth, age 13
I didn’t always go to False Creek. I went to a different school for kindergarten, but we switched to this school because it was a lot closer than the other one.
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As it turns out, this place has a lot more to offer than we had known. I’m not just talking about the school, but this whole area around Granville Island. These past few years at FC have been incredible. I’ve made friends, played for sports teams, and this year I leave for high school. I won’t look out the classroom window and see the downtown skyline, I won’t walk through the woods to get to school, and I won’t be able to just sit and enjoy the view after school. However, I can still look back on the fun times I have had in this wonderful community. I will always remember.
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ElderShare
CITY SURVEYS 55+
Susan Dehnel, 666 Leg-In-Boot
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Something exciting is happening at City Hall for the 55+ set. The City of Vancouver is seeking community input to inform the City’s first Seniors Housing Strategy and they have contacted our neighbourhood to help spread the word.
“This engagement is being conducted with the help of Happy Cities, a Vancouver-based urban planning and design consultancy, on behalf of the City of Vancouver. Your feedback will help them understand the housing needs of seniors, Elders and older adults aged 55+ living in Vancouver and will help shape policies, partnerships and advocacy actions being developed by the City of Vancouver this year.”
This is a great opportunity to participate in planning our Age-Friendly future. The short online survey and more information on engagement events and activities are available at: https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/seniors-housing.
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The Watery Part Of The Creek
GHOST STREAMS STILL POLLUTING FALSE CREEK
Zaida Schneider, Heather Quay
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What is in the million litres of polluted water dumped every year into the receiving waters of False Creek?
This spring, False Creek Friends Society are working with Dr. Peter Ross of Raincoast Conservation Foundation in his Healthy Waters program, a volunteer-based, rural and urban community science effort, to study what’s escaping from polluted watersheds up and down the Salish Sea – and to find out exactly how we’re mucking things up.
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When European ancestors began turning the False Creek watershed into a settlement, the 15 or so local creeks became a very handy garbage disposal network. Their piss and poop, ash from their wood stoves, farmyard offal - all simply “disappeared” downstream.
"This is how it was done in old London,” Dr. Ross told me. “Our early municipal engineers learned from the old ways.”
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Map digitized and compiled by Paul Lesack, Data Services/Humanities & Social Sciences Division, University of British Columbia Library, March 2011.
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As neighbourhoods grew the creeks were buried underground, imprisoned in storm sewers, but some of the original names still survive. Willow Creek became Willow Street. China Creek is now a skateboard park. Brewery Creek (which indeed was named for a brewery) has now been reincarnated as a liquor store.
These 15 creeks are still there, flowing pretty much continuously. But now, at times, they carry a different noxious load: domestic sewage that escapes into the storm sewers during heavy rains; metabolites from opioids and birth control pills; microplastics from our washing machines. One chemical, a lethal salmon toxin (6PPD-quinone), makes car tires tougher; particles get flushed off the roads into the sewers, into False Creek, and thence into the majestic Salish Sea.
Governments, well aware of the problem, have committed to separating storm sewers from domestic sanitary sewers. But the ultimate solution is still many years and hundreds of millions of dollars away.
We really need to find out what we’re dumping into False Creek now for our own health, to be sure, but equally important, for the health and vitality of our marine environment upon which all life on Earth depends. This is important, meaningful work.
We’re in discussions with the City and with Metro Vancouver and will begin sampling the ghost streams of False Creek. There will be other community activities to raise awareness of “water flowing underground.” |
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BIG BOOST FOR CO-OP OUTREACH
Maria Roth, False Creek Co-op
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The Co-op Authorized Working Group (AWG) is very pleased to receive a $50,000 grant from the Community Housing Transformation Centre ( www.centre.support for a 10-month engagement and mobilisation project. This grant will allow us to greatly deepen our outreach and advocacy on behalf of our housing co-ops in False Creek South.
Seven co-ops are in the group, with board-appointed representatives from Marina, Creekview, Twin Rainbows, Alder Bay, Greater Vancouver Floating Home, False Creek and Heritage co-ops.
For several years AWG volunteers have been meeting and working together towards lease renewal, making sure that co-ops have a strong voice in all discussions with the City of Vancouver.
Most recently, we have been significant contributors to the citywide Co-op Lease Framework (July 2021) discussions, and were integral to the successful community pushback of the October 2021 City conceptual plan that proposed demolishing almost all non-market housing in the neighbourhood. |
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Maria Roth in front of the Greater Vancouver Floating Home Co-op, one of the AWG's seven co-op housing enclaves.
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Impetus for this project includes the intersection of a new city council, a potentially challenging community planning process (which has yet to begin again), unresolved co-op leases and the need to bring new community members into discussions that are now more than 10 years old.
There are three areas of intended work:
- Outreach and inclusion of underrepresented community members, especially those who find it challenging to participate in community planning and decision-making (such as those with young children and newer, younger BIPOC members),
- Support for individual co-op and board workshops on planning topics important to each co-op, leading to multi-co-op conversations about how we can best strategize our collective work going forward, and
- Activities that will allow our community members to positively see themselves, and how they can contribute to a future and equitable False Creek South.
The grant provides all of the funding for delivering these workshops and acitvites, and for a part-time planning assistant to coordinate and document the work we will be doing together. An advisory group now forming within the AWG will reach out to all boards to formalise their co-ops’ participation. We welcome your input!
Further information from Sarah Brown (Community Planning Assistant) by email *email is hidden, JavaScript is required*.
Maria Roth is Co-chair of RePlan’s Co-op Authorized Working Group
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Birds To Mammals
AVIAN FLU TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
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If you were trying to find yet another reason to hate the bird we already love to hate (that would be, of course, the Canada Goose) look no further than a skunk recently found dead from Avian flu in Richmond - not far from here, in the scheme of things.
Whatever avian species was the culprit in that case, wild birds (like geese) can spread Avian Influenza (AI) to mammals. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, infected birds shed the flu virus “in their mucus, saliva and feces” and both humans and pets “can potentially get sick by breathing in the virus or with direct contact with their eyes, nose or mouth”.
Humans can easily avoid Avian flu, but anyone with a dog knows that what Fido likes to do best is sniff. And many dogs can’t resist the taste of goose poop (sorry to anyone eating while reading this).
Along with the current coyote mating/birthing season, Avian Flu is one more reason to leash your dog – and be even more mindful of the world around you both.
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A SAFER SUMMER ON THE SEAWALL?
Kathleen MacKinnon, Regatta, and Nancy Kirkpatrick, Pacific Cove
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Last fall the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association (FCSNA) formed the Seawall Safety Workgroup to investigate safety issues and potential conflicts among seawall users.
Over the years, especially following the 2010 Olympics, traffic along the seawall has increased exponentially and the introduction of micro-mobility devices such as e-scooters, e-unicycles and other new vehicles made this review a priority for the Association.
A Between the Bridges survey of residents found the most serious concern to be the speed of some cyclists and micro-mobility devices. Respondents also pinpointed Inattentiveness, poor signage and and several especially dangerous spots.
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After delegates at the March FCSNA meeting unanimously accepted the report and recommendations, Association President Wendy Herdin joined us in a virtual meeting with three senior members of the City’s Transportation Division. We presented practical and economic safety enhancements, such as repainting the yellow lines dividing cyclists from pedestrians, and asked that some of these more urgent ones be made immediately. We also encouraged staff to develop a community awareness campaign on seawall etiquette and ‘share the path’ rules as has been done in other jurisdictions. (Apparenty, a city-wide campaign is currently contemplated).
Overall, staff responded very positively to our report. David Rawsthorne, Senior Transportation Engineer, agreed that repainting the dividing lines and repairing the buckled area west of the Granville bridge could be placed on work orders. He also said that the dangerous crossing at Anderson Road – the entry to Granville Island – has been a growing problem since he joined City staff some twenty years ago, but finding solutions is complicated by the joint governance of the City and CMHC (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation).
David also recognized that signage pointing commuter cyclists to the bypass route along Commodore, near the eastern edge of False Creek South, is inadequate and needs improvement.
While speed was the main concern of residents responding to the survey, city staff acknowledged that speed is a concern on other bike greenways and that any changes proposed will be made from a city-wide perspective.
We agreed that we will accompany staff on a seawall walk to point out concerns raised in our report and schedule another meeting later in the fall to review progress on our recommendations. Our report will also be forwarded to staff who look at City-wide policy for shared pathways.
The FCSNA’s full report, including survey responses, is available here: http://www.falsecreeksouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/20230401-BTB-Seawall-Safety-Appendix.pdf
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LEG-IN-BOOT SQUARE – A LABOUR OF LOVE
Susan Dehnel, Leg-In-Boot Working Group
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For years Leg-in-Boot Square, despite its award-winning public architecture, cool sea breezes and magnificent view of the mountains, sat virtually abandoned - vacant, literally crumbling; a parking lot for delivery vehicles (despite the no parking signs). But thanks to the City designating it a Pop-up Plaza, and with the partnership of the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association (FCSNA) and Convivial Café, the Square has blossomed into a welcoming, pleasant space for people.
A City-designated Plaza is structured to be volunteer-managed by the neighbourhood in which it exists and to reflect the personality and needs of that neighbourhood.
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We all love Leg-in-Boot, but it requires many little “labours of love” to keep it the wonderful space that it is. Fortunately, a very dedicated core of amazing volunteers (thank you volunteers!) keeps the Square welcoming on a daily basis and also facilitates special events such as the weekly Afternoon Tea, Age-Friendly Workshops, and the summer Saturday “Music in the Square” series.
Given its increasing popularity, we are hoping to double our current number of volunteers. Participating daily, weekly, or even just once – running a project or popping in for a 15 minute contribution – is hugely valuable to the neighbourhood. We will make it work within your schedule and interests.
To Volunteer: Even if you’re not sure in what way you’d like to participate, please drop us an email at *email is hidden, JavaScript is required*, or drop into Convivial and talk to Beth. We so look forward to working with you and promise you a rewarding neighbourhood experience.
To Donate: Another way to participate is through donation. All Plaza programs are free, volunteer-run and donation-funded. As well, special gifts can upgrade the look and usefulness of the Square. Contact *email is hidden, JavaScript is required* or drop off a cheque payable to the FCSNA at Convivial Café.
The annual spring planning meeting: Tuesday, April 11th at 4pm at Convivial Café. Pop in to participate and share your ideas for special events or on-going management.
Please pass this message along to others you think might be interested!
Thank you. See you in the Square!
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What Can We Do?
“CLIMATE CHANGE” NOW “CLIMATE CRISIS”.
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With constant visuals of what used to be “freak” weather - the floods, droughts, storms, heat and cold and the increasing flow of climate refugees in their wake, it’s not surprising if people feel overwhelmed – and helpless.
Carbon emissions are at the heart of the crisis and reducing CO2 is key to any serious remedy. But what can an individual do?
One good answer may be as close as our kitchens and local shops and restaurants. To Yael Stav (Spruce Village), Chair of the FCSNA’s Sustainability/Resilience Working Group, “the most significant actions by far are the ones related to food."
“Switching to LED lights is beneficial. Driving an electric car is helpful, too. But switching to a plant-rich diet is high up on the list: six times the C02 reduction of the electric car action.”
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Golden Temple Soup at Chau
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The reason?
“Animal proteins are a significant driver of climate change, with beef and milk production responsible for most of the emissions within that sector. In the U.S (Canada is probably comparable) the average person could reduce their diet-related emissions by nearly half by reducing consumption of animal protein by 45%.”
Louise and Evan Kligman (Marine Mews) agree and offer up even more reasons.
“Becoming plant-based and not eating animal products frees up to 60% of the world's grain to feed over 900 million people around the world that do not have enough to eat.” And, they add, “it takes about 660 gallons of water to produce one hamburger.”
People with bad memories of sawdust-tasting pretend burgers or dried-out chickpeas back away from the very idea of a plant-based diet. But reducing climate-destroying food choices doesn’t mean everything everywhere all at once. It can be just one step at a time.
For a start, Yael suggests introducing Meatless Mondays (“but you can do better than that”). The Kligmans propose pre-made, plant-based meals from your grocery store’s refrigerator or freezer section. And they all agree that local eateries may well have you asking for “more, please”.
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COFU at Granville Island exit
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LIFE WITH OUR HEAT PUMP
Wes Knapp and Kathleen MacKinnon, Regatta
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Since we installed a heat pump in our condo last summer, many of our neighbours have stopped by to see how it works and ask about our experience. Here are the answers to some of their questions.
How does a heat pump work?
A heat pump is truly an ingenious invention. In winter, it pulls warm air from the outside and moves it inside; in summer, it does the opposite, moving warm air inside our home to the outside while cooling the air inside. This very clear video shows exactly how it works: Heat pumps.
How much does it cost?
We have the simplest heat pump - a one-zone 12000 BTU ductless mini-split system; one unit outside and one inside. Total cost for our heat pump, including electrical work and two City permits was $4270. BC Hydro may return up to $1000 to an owner who removes all other heat sources such as baseboard heaters: Heat pump rebates.
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How do I know what size heat pump I need?
A heat pump can heat and cool 100 square feet with 1000 BTUs. That means a 1000 to 1200 square foot area like ours requires a 12000 BTU heat pump.
How long does it take to install?
Our installation, including electrical work, took approximately six hours.
Are heat pumps noisy?
The noise from our unit is between 30 and 48 decibels. That is considered ‘soft’ or ‘quiet’ on noise-level charts. (Breathing is about 10 db, whispering is 20 db, normal conversation 50 db, washing machine 70 db).
Why bother switching to a heat pump?
There are many advantages beside heating and cooling (and being three times more efficient than baseboard heaters). An inside unit’s air filter effectively filters out dust, dirt, and other contaminates such as wildfire smoke. A heat pump improves the overall air quality by dehumidifying in the summer and not drying the air out like a gas heater does in the winter.
How efficient is it?
It is fascinating to monitor our daily energy consumption on the MyBCHydro web site. We can see and compare our daily usage with nearby residences and have discovered that the greatest variable is the outside temperature. Here’s a typical reading for mid-March 2023.
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We wholeheartedly embrace our new heating and cooling system and encourage neighbours in the Creek to consider heat pumps in their own homes.
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If you’d looked up from under your umbrella last week, you might have wondered why all the sprinklers in Charleson Park’s already drenched sport field were sprinkling away like an aquatic dance show. The reason: just five City employees must ensure the watering systems are in good working order in the City’s 250 larger parks – and well before the next heat dome.
Charleson Park, of course, also contains the school’s playing fields; hence the workers’ hurry to finish the maintenance during Spring Break. As one said, sprinklers are a magnet for children and no grownup wants to face down a kid stampede into a massive outdoor shower.
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CONTRIBUTOR GUIDELINES: ARTICLES AND PHOTOS
Between The Bridges welcomes readers’ contributions of story ideas, events of interest, original photographs, and completed articles relevant to the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association’s goal to “promote an economically, social and culturally diverse neighbourhood with a friendly, positive and vibrant sense of community”. For details go to:
http://www.falsecreeksouth.org/2021/01/between-the-bridges-contributor-guidelines/
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