Between The Bridges – January 28

What makes a decision a milestone? And which events, actions or decisions in 2021 city planning could we consider historic or transformational? 

These were the questions Vancouver City Planning Commission asked last Monday night as part of their annual Planning Milestones Year-In-Review workshop. The Commission invites interested members of the public to come together and discuss which planning decisions made over the last year should be considered milestones.

The Planning Commission, one of the City of Vancouver’s citizen advisory bodies, is made up of a diverse group of volunteers who contribute their lived, professional, and educational experience. They provide advice to City Council and staff on planning-related issues and convene public workshops and events like Monday’s.

Up for discussion on Monday night were several big topics, including the City’s new Sustainability Bond, which will fund environmentally and socially sustainable initiatives and projects; vacancy control in Single Room Accommodation, which aims to protect housing for low-income tenants; and, most importantly, City Council’s decision to significantly amend the Real Estate department’s recommendations for the future of False Creek South.

The Planning Commission had previously declared the 2017 False Creek South Collaborative Planning Process a Milestone. Perhaps, now cautious of being too enthusiastic too early, participants debated about whether the City Council decision was transformative in and of itself, or whether the transformation would come later. However, in the end the group unanimously agreed that City Council’s rejection of the staff report, as well as the impact from the extraordinary public turnout, counted as a significant Planning Milestone.

Up next? The Planning Commission will host a panel event featuring local experts who will discuss the chosen Milestones, and maybe make some predictions for 2022. Stay tuned!

Cambie Bridge

If you bike or walk across the Cambie Bridge, be aware that current repairs have shifted sides. The east side is now closed (temporarily). West side is open.

Leg-In-Boot Square 

When a City work crew started digging up a small area of Leg in Boot Square, hopes were raised that it might portend a Plaza enhancement as promised by the City – perhaps a new water supply. But apparently we should expect just the replacement of a damaged light stand here, not a new installation. Improvements will be coming, however!

If Winter Comes…

…can spring be far behind?

What followed was a back-and-forth debate about the same issue raised by Wes: Are these itinerant boats damaging everyone’s enjoyment of the Creek? Or does that complaint disguise a battle between the poor and the privileged? Another question: does framing the issues in this way detract from protecting False Creek itself? Inevitably, the debate moved on to whether these boaters are polluting the Creek, with many ensuing ideas about how to deal with that.
 
Very often in social media opinions flourish and facts are few. But in this case, one participant, commercial boat operator and social activist Morgane Oger, referenced a study she’d authored three years ago, adding, “Let’s address the REAL sewage problem in Vancouver rather than implicitly blame liveaboard boaters by providing solutions to nonexistent problems.” 

The main source of Creek pollution, she claims, is the City of Vancouver and, specifically,  its use of False Creek as a major dumping ground for sewage from elsewhere. 

In response, one person wrote that he is “pretty sure one of the outflow areas is just off of Stamps Landing. I remember seeing it sort of bubble up there at low tide during a heavy rain.”

Yuck.
 

A neighbour reported that when a Park Board employee completed the installation of a second ping pong table under the Cambie Bridge he turned to the watchers and said: “That should go into Between The Bridges!”

We are nothing if not obedient, so here it is in all its glory, just waiting for more table tennis aficionados like this couple who braved the last snowstorm to play.

… that in 1886, the first civic election in the newly-incorporated City of Vancouver returned one mayor and 10 councillors? And if that number sounds familiar, it should:  it’s the same number as today.

Since City Council’s October decision endorsed continuing affordability in False Creek South, and 2022 is an election year (the actual date is October 22), many here have become much more tuned in to civic politics. Check out what 11 elected representatives presided over in the late 19th century, compared to now.

At present there are close to 700,000 people in Vancouver. At incorporation in 1886 there were fewer than 38,000, a number that historian Daniel Francis in Becoming Vancouver (Harbour Publishing, 2021) notes was pretty close to the number of chickens. And city limits then were defined as Alma Street east to Nanaimo, and Burrard Inlet south to 16th Avenue. 

There was another difference as well: Unlike any other sizable Canadian city, Vancouver voters choose a mayor and councillors “at large”, that is,  from among ALL the candidates, city-wide. But in 1886 those 38,000 citizens and their chickens were governed through a ward system wherein the mayor was elected at large with two councillors (then “aldermen”) elected from each of  five wards.

Something to reminisce about this October as you try to navigate through that sea of names on your ballot.

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: