Between The Bridges – June 12

June 16, 2-3:30 pm  - Needs and services
This conversation will focus on what kinds of support people actually need and want. Suggestions so far include simple everyday help like changing light bulbs, compost runs, grocery shopping, and minor home repairs. More complex asks could include transportation to appointments, tech help, friendly visiting, and coordination of home care. This discussion could also identify some of the supports we already have in the community, such as neighbours helping neighbours, and professional service providers.   

June 23, 2-3:30 pm  - Organizational Structure 
Is a non-profit cooperative the best idea for what we are talking about? What models exist that we could learn from? Should we begin with an informal group or network and build towards a cooperative or other legal structure? This conversation will help us think through the practical steps of building something sustainable without having to reinvent the wheel. Some particular knowledge or research could be beneficial here.  

June 30, 2-3:30 pm - Outreach and participation
The final conversation of this first set will consider how to reach out to and include community members who could benefit from and contribute to a mutually-supportive community-oriented support system. We will need ways to reach across buildings, groups and communication styles. This conversation will explore how to invite people in, how to keep the process accessible and how to build a living network of neighbours.   

Come and join the conversation, or send us a note with your questions and ideas to *email is hidden, JavaScript is required*.

Meetings with Municipal Candidates
Last weekend RePlan staff and Leadership Group members gave a tour of the neighbourhood to members of the Green Party of Vancouver, including their mayoral candidate, Pete Fry, and City Council candidates Bridget Burns, Annette Reilly, and Stephanie Smith.

RePlan continues to reach out to municipal candidates. In the fall, all parties will be invited to our traditional Conversations with Candidates sessions - stay tuned for details!

Australian Co-op Leaders Tour
Nancy Hannum, Chair of RePlan’s Co-op Working Group, and Robyn Chan recently gave a tour of the neighbourhood to eight members of the Australian Co-operative Housing Alliance. In collaboration with the Co-op Housing Federation of BC (CHFBC), the tour showcased the six co-ops in False Creek South. The Australian delegation was particularly inspired by the urban design of our community, and the uniqueness of the Greater Vancouver Floating Home Co-op, the only floating home co-op in the world.

Read more about the Alliance’s visit to Vancouver on the CHFBC blog: https://www.chf.bc.ca/co-op-principles-crossing-oceans-highlights-from-our-australian-visitors/ 

Community Housing Trust Annual General Meeting and Film Screening
The False Creek South Community Housing Trust will host its 2026 Annual General Meeting on Monday, June 15. All members in good standing are welcome to attend!

Following the business portion of the meeting, we’ll be hosting a special screening of the film Rabble Rousers (run time 83 minutes), a documentary about the first community land trust in New York, and the community that came together to resist gentrification. 

Not a member yet? There’s still time to join before Monday’s meeting. Annual memberships to the CHT are $25/year, and all proceeds directly support CHT staff and their work: https://fcs-cht-membership.raiselysite.com/.

Next week RePlan is continuing to host information sessions for strata owners, with a Town Hall to follow on June 23.

Strata Lease Working Group Information Session
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 
7:00-8:00 pm

Meeting is ONLINE ONLY, please email *email is hidden, JavaScript is required* to receive the registration link.

Strata leasehold owners are invited to attend a webinar with the Strata Lease Working Group - a group of FCS residents who have been investigating the lease extension offer from the City of Vancouver, and their lawyer. The working group will outline the reports they’ve commissioned, their concerns about the lease modifications required by the City as a condition of the lease extension, and suggest potential next steps.

*

RePlan Strata Town Hall
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 
7:00-8:30 pm
Sitka Square meeting room

The RePlan Strata Town Hall will take place online and in-person. Please choose a registration method below:
To register for In-person
To register for Online
 
We want to hear from strata residents. 

RePlan is inviting all strata leasehold owners to a 1.5‑hour hybrid session to provide an overview of RePlan’s work and activities, outline current issues, and share how strata residents’ concerns can be relayed to City Council candidates and City staff. We’re interested in your experiences living in False Creek South, and with existing leases and extensions. We want to hear what’s working, what isn’t, where are the gaps, and everything in between - before the City brings forward a proposal to reshape False Creek South in early 2027. Your perspective and concerns as strata leasehold owners will shape how this community responds.

Lots of blooming is on display at Charleson Community Garden – and it is not only the garden that is blooming. Grades 3 and 4 students at False Creek Elementary School, under the direction of teacher Jennifer Misquitta, maintain the plot in the garden. Aspiring gardeners, the students are also talented budding artists who contributed their own original acrylic paintings to decorate one wall of the garden shed.

Zenon Samila is a member of the Charleson Community Garden.

False Creek Friends Society is taking a new tack. Since our founding in 2021, FCFS has been centred around a call to establish False Creek as Canada’s first National Urban Marine Park. 

As exciting as this vision of False Creek has proven to be for many people — conjuring an imagination of lush shorelines and wildlife — for others, it is problematic. Not only does the word “park” carry some significant colonial baggage, it also often brings the discussion into the endless weeds of implementation. We’ve learned that this debate shrouds the broad consensus that the Creek could be so much better than it is today.

Other frameworks have been suggested and elaborated: IPCAs, MPAs, environmental personhood and more. But the problems are similar: by starting with any pre-defined framework, we have put the cart before the horse ie, the critical open questions: What do the many communities of False Creek need? What are the characteristics of its best and brightest future? The "cart" is the most appropriate framework to achieve these needs.

So, instead of continuing to beat the drum for a top-down solution, we are evolving our strategy towards supporting a bottom-up process. Our organization’s role is to convene (and inform) community and collectively articulate the healthy and equitable future of this important urban waterway. 

Putting it another way, our work is to facilitate a [sea]grassroots movement in False Creek. This process of conversation, people, ecosystems, and communities will flourish together in stewardship, reciprocity and care for this shared place.

Our website is still catching up with this pivot. Expect new FAQs and more details before too long.

*email is hidden, JavaScript is required*?subject=Question%20about%20the%20[sea]grassroots%20thing&body=" target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;">Help us articulate the most FAQ important answers by asking us a question.

About the Baeside restaurant at Stamps Landing, Pernilla Ahrnstedt writes:

Just walked by ’Babe’ Side and saw the proposed new structure. For a restaurant in one of the most pleasant areas in Vancouver, this design is aggressively hostile and so out of step with what is around it. I am writing my two cents worth to CoV, and I hope that some of you will too.

All events are weather permitting and benefit from volunteers to help with setup (arrive one hour before the event) and cleanup (immediately following the event).

SATURDAY AFTERNOON MUSIC
Every Saturday, 2-4 pm until the weather turns in September

June 6 - Thank you to David Rabinovich for a wonderful afternoon of music!
June 13 - Jeff Oster - Contemporary and smooth jazz from Grammy-nominated flugelhorn and trumpet player.  "Miles Davis meets Pink Floyd". 
June 20 - LuiFox Gutierrez - Singer-songwriter drawing on Latin traditions, a Granville Island regular returns to the Square again.
June 27 - BrockHouse Big Band - 18-piece ensemble playing classic tunes, plus Latin and jazz standards and big band arrangements of contemporary popular music.
July 4 - Delo Daryaa - A mix of covers and originals drawing from blues, rock, jazz, funk and more.
July 11 - Joshua Minsky - Singer/songwriter specialising in French chansons, blues, jazz, Brazilian, reggae and funk
July 18 - TBA 
July 25 - 12 pm - 5 pm - IRISH DAY! - live Irish music and Irish dancing as well as Irish treats and beverages from the IRL portable pub

*

GAMES DAYS 
Sunday, June 14, July 12, August 9 and Sept 13

Bubbles, board games, giant Jenga, and more will be available in the Square all day!
Bring your family favourites to share with others. Donations can be dropped off at the Convivial Café

*

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY/FATHERS DAY/SUMMER SOLSTICE
Sunday, June 21, 1 pm - 4 pm

Maps and other displays about the First Nations' history of the area.

Take a bit of time to play a variation on Snakes and Ladders. Instead of snakes, the game features Sinulhkay - a two-headed serpent of the Squamish people. Titled "Walking in Good Relations", the game provides an opportunity to learn and discuss facets of First Nations heritage, challenges and ways of being. (The game is available to play anytime at Convivial and will also be available on Games Days.)

1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Music from our neighbourhood favourite, Jon Dron
Free Afternoon Tea at Convivial Cafë

1 pm and 2:15 pm - Cycling Without Age: Community Rides from Leg-In-Boot Square. Check their website for information and booking:  https://cyclingwithoutage.ca/vancouver/

*

Watch for upcoming details on: 
July 1 - Canada Day
TBA - 50th Anniversary Disco Party

Phil Dubrulle, Diversion Coordinator of the City of Vancouver’s Solid Waste Program, has advised the Neighbourhood Association’s Sustaiinability and Resiliance Committee that the City will present the third of its four Zero Waste Ambassador Training Workshops on Saturday, July 11, 2026.

Details here: 

The False Creek South Community Housing Trust has launched a survey to learn how it can support the longevity and stewardship of co-ops in the neighbourhood.

Open to all co-op members, Boards, and committees, the survey asks co-op members to think about the potential benefits (or drawbacks) of collectively doing some of the overlapping work that each co-op currently does on its own. Then, based on member responses, CHT staff will develop the next stage of the project, including deep dive workshops, and interviews.

The survey is anonymous and is open until Wednesday, July 15. To get a link, please email *email is hidden, JavaScript is required*" target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #007C89;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;">*email is hidden, JavaScript is required*.

The desert formerly known as Pond

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: