Between The Bridges – March 16

Five years ago – March 2019 to be exact – Between The Bridges first appeared as “The voice of False Creek South”.

That might have seemed arrogant for two 8”x14” sheets of paper folded in half, printed on both sides in black and white - but it was a start. The next four issues, published monthly in print and glorious colour, were gloriously expensive to produce. Our sixth issue in October 2019 made the shift to a much more affordable online-only format.

In the fateful month of March 2020, the pandemic introduced new pressing needs and BTB shifted to a weekly, text-only Special Covid-19 Bulletin, concentrating on stories like “Neighbour Helping Neighbours” to provide info on resources, help keep local businesses alive, and lift spirits when handwashing and social distancing were all we had – that, and each other.

From March 27 to June 5, 2020, Between The Bridges published 11 Covid Bulletins weekly. As pandemic life normalized, publication shifted to every two weeks. But in 2023, like all volunteers trying to balance the desire to be current and relevant with the desire to have lives, the editors landed on the current workable three-week publication schedule. (However, our schedule must dipsy-doodle around long weekends and other vagaries that life throws at everyone).

Five years after that timid beginning, we admit that Between The Bridges is just the echo of the real voice of the community: the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association.

The Association began in 1976 when the mostly young residents set out to build a community on fill from the Creek that buried its polluting industrial past (that itself had buried another past). Urged by the City to take the lead in day-to-day needs around a new school, new transit, new buildings, new everything, they created a neighbourhood association funded by the Creek’s residential enclaves and governed by their named delegates.

Forty-eight years later the Association, unique in this city and beyond, exists essentially unchanged to this day with a line item in the annual budget of every co-op and strata on City land and several on freehold, and monthly delegated meetings that continue to influence what happens here. When the Association says it speaks for the community, it speaks for the community.

With this, our 74th issue, Between The Bridges happily acknowledges our five years of existence. But in 2026, when the Association celebrates False Creek South’s 50 years – won’t that be a party!

During one of my recent volunteer teaching sessions in Lisa Mitchell's Grade 4/5 class, the students learned how Musqueam artist Susan Point uses spindle whorl imagery in her artwork.

Coast Salish women traditionally used a spindle whorl to spin wool into yarn. The spindle whorls were often decorated with images of animals, plants, and humans. Point's love of nature is obvious in her creations. The students were asked to design spindle whorl images based on their own feelings from living on the land known as Senakw - a place that we all love to be! 

ANOTHER UNANIMOUS MOTION FOR FALSE CREEK SOUTH
Robyn Chan, RePlan Project Manager

On Thursday, March 7 Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung put forward a motion to Vancouver City Council entitled The Future of Co-op Housing - A Path to Delivering More Co-op Homes in Vancouver. The original motion (linked here) included three items directly related to False Creek South:

RePlan immediately reached out to city councillors, the Co-op Housing Federation of BC and others to learn more about the implications of the motion and the potential for friendly amendments that would embed RePlan principles of community engagement, retaining existing affordable housing, and beginning development with vacant land.

Following a positive and productive meeting with Councillors Kirby-Yung, Brian Montague, and Mike Klassen, and the Mayor’s policy advisor, Mellisa Morphy, RePlan sent a letter outlining the community’s commitment to an affordable, mixed-income community, noting several amendments that would strengthen the motion (linked here) including:

At the City Council meeting on Wednesday, March 13,  Councillor Kirby-Yung amended the motion to reflect the changes requested by RePlan, resulting in unanimous Council support.

Councillor Klassen moved an additional amendment, also, unanimously approved, which called for a staff report on options to deliver age-friendly housing in partnership with the Province and Vancouver Coastal Health.

The full motion as amended can be found here, with amendments highlighted.

What’s next? RePlan will follow up with City Councillors, staff, and CHFBC to determine next steps. Stay tuned for a community Town Hall in April where we will share updates and plans for 2024.

Sole Food Urban Farm is a social enterprise with a mission to empower individuals by providing jobs, agricultural training, and inclusion in a supportive community. It is also our neighbour.

Located just on the other side of the Cambie Bridge on the corner of West 1st Avenue and Crowe Street, the farm was founded in 2009 on several underutilized parking lots elsewhere. Its vision was to transform these lots to farmland, while training and employing Downtown Eastside vulnerable residents. 

Subsequently, the farm moved to its current location, relocating its greenhouses, shed, and large containers with trees and plants.  (Yes, farming in containers:  that’s how you grow food on asphalt).
 
Heather Farmer, Sole Food’s Program Director, reports that “2024 marks Sole Food's 15th year of operations! 

“With the community's support, we’ve helped hundreds of folks simply by providing a safe space, a sense of belonging, and access to living soil to grow food for their community.”

Want to be involved?

Sole Food is offering shares in its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. This is via subscriptions with a few tiers including picking up a weekly box of fresh produce during the summer. Lots of shares still remain and sales will stay open until the program begins in May (or until sold out). 

This season the program will be more accessible to the community, with four different price tiers for full shares, 3 different share lengths, payment plans, and a flexible market pick-up. CSA pick-up days will be paired with an onsite market open to the public on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

When I first became a Sole Food CSA member a couple of years ago, I loved biking over to pick up the weekly produce box. I enjoyed the variety and quality and the in-person interaction with the farm staff, as well as knowing I was supporting the mission and eating a zero food-miles meal.
 

More information is available at www.solefoodfarms.com/csa. For market info, go to solefoodfarms.com/markets/. Email any questions to *email is hidden, JavaScript is required*. 

Yael Stav is chair of the FCSNA’s Sustainability and Resilience Committee

About Naming Rights - And Wrongs, Issue #73,  Dean Nicholas Rossmo (Alder Bay Place) writes: 
 
This is the first time I've read the BTB entirely.  That is due to the Convivial Cafe Invitation and Sharon Yandle's very funny article about acronyms.  Thank you for your work.  I look forward to the next issue.

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Mary Ungerleider (Yaletown) writes:

Hooray for abbr. Congratulations on a JWD (Job Well Done) on the FUC article in BTB.  Charles and I LOLd. 

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Daniela Elza (False Creek Co-op) comments: 

I loved reading your piece on frustration with acronyms. 

I am working with a publisher on my poetry book that emerged out of the work on housing in the community, mostly as a way to keep sane and remember the poetry of home. And I have to do a glossary section in the back to explain and elucidate some of the acronyms which come into the fray. :-) 

I am hoping to dedicate this book to the community and the hard work that goes into sustaining and protecting affordable homes. So I very much enjoyed your play with them too. 

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From John Cooper (Olympic Village):

I live in Athletes Village Co-op, a short walk from London Drugs, and I read your newsletter to see what is happening in False Creek. I informally try to improve the effectiveness of our co-op’s recycling program, which includes trying to find how to recycle things like flimsy plastic.
 
I tried collecting plastic in our co-op’s recycling room and then taking to London Drugs large green garbage bags full of plastic. I quickly overwhelmed their collection capacity and then noticed their sign saying, “The recycling program is for products purchased from their store.”

So the alternative is to take it to Vancouver's waste disposal facility on SW Marine Drive. I have a vehicle but try not to drive unless absolutely necessary. Large bags of plastic are awkward to carry on my e-cargo bike or on transit. Bottom line, I don’t collect large amounts of plastic anymore.

There must be a better way.

A bit of a hike still awaits anyone walking west on the seawall trying to access the eastern part of Granville Island. 

The short timber bridge that once connected the seawall to the False Creek Community Centre has been unconnected since December 24 when the little snow plow that couldn’t, did something else instead. Driving over that bridge created what the City’s Street Design department calls “significant damage”,  resulting in no access.

Relaying concerns from the community, Neighbourhood Association president Wendy Herdin learned that the City is presently working with the Park Board and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), manager of Granville Island on behalf of the Government of Canada. The City is now “determining next steps”. 

Urgently needed: citizen scientists to help study the marine life of False Creek, No experience necessary. Families are welcome.

False Creek Friends is looking for volunteers to help study Dungeness crab in local waters. This crab, officially known as the Metacarcinus magister, is an important species in the Salish Sea. So important that it is the focus of a Hakai Institute study involving 40 communities. This is the third year False Creek Friends has been a partner in the research.

Volunteers learn to use a light trap to attract water creatures. These creatures are then observed and counted before being shipped to Hakai scientists. Every two days, volunteers check their traps for Dungeness crab larvae. Volunteers photograph and count the larvae they find. They then clean their traps and put them back in the water. 

The light trap study is part of Hakai’s “Sentinels of Change” initiative. This initiative studies significant and potentially harmful changes in the marine environment. It also seeks to learn whether humans are at fault for these changes.

Dungeness crab larvae are known as important early indicators of the health of the Salish Sea. The crabs are one of the first groups affected when rain carries excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (the principal driver of climate change) into the oceans. This turns the water acidic. The acid in the water attacks the delicate bodies of these tiny crabs, developing a kind of marine leprosy.

For volunteers, this research opportunity is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics experience all in one – otherwise known as a STEM adventure for all ages. They never know what creatures they might find in their open trap. 

To volunteer, or learn more, email Maggy at *email is hidden, JavaScript is required* or complete the signup form at Become a False Creek Light Trapper! and mark your calendar for the one-hour orientation on Saturday, March 23.

The False Creek Community Association is looking for new community members to join the Board of Directors.

This Board of volunteers operates in partnership with the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation to provide recreational, educational, and social activities and services to residents of and visitors to the False Creek and Fairview communities. Directors help to ensure the Centre remains focused on delivering a safe, healthy, and dynamic environment for all patrons.

Monthly Board meetings last approximately two hours and members are encouraged to volunteer to sit on one other committee dealing with specific matters. These committees also hold approximately two-hour meetings once a month.

The only requirements to become a board member are to have a membership (free) with the Community Association, to have a One Card, and either to have taken a program at the Centre or be a member of one of our affiliate groups.

Our Annual General Meeting on May 14 via Zoom is where we will elect our new board. If you’re interested, please email *email is hidden, JavaScript is required* by April 14.

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”. Signed articles reflect the views of their authors. For details go to: