[caption id="attachment_9641" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Walking the streets of Marpole. Photo courtesy of Ren Thomas."][/caption] [Editor's Note: We are happy to present the first of a three InDepth Features covering a trio of special Jane's Walk neighbourhood tours around Marpole, Grandview-Woodland, and the West End. These were organized as a unique partnership between the City of Vancouver, Museum of Vancouver and Spacing Vancouver, in light of the ongoing Community Plan process currently happening in each important district. This will be followed by podcasts of the tour, if you missed the Walks, and a final dialogue event on June 19th. Stay tuned for more information.] This year, the City of Vancouver will be starting community plans for three neighbourhoods: Marpole, the West End and Grandview-Woodlands. In addition to the usual open houses and community meetings, the City has been using its new Public Engagement Division (within its Communications Department) in innovative outreach. On May 6th the City, Museum of Vancouver, and Spacing Vancouver partnered with local residents and designers to hold walking tours of the three neighbourhoods as part of Jane’s Walk. The Marpole walk was hosted by landscape architect and urban designer Margot Long, and local resident Jo-Anne Pringle. Lil Ronalds, the City planner working on the Marpole plan, and City Councillors Heather Deal and George Affleck also attended. [caption id="attachment_9643" align="alignright" width="360" caption="Some of the residential streets within Marpole have significant tree canopies. Photo courtesy of Ren Thomas."][/caption] One of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, Marpole is economically and socially diverse. Primarily a residential neighbourhood, it is bounded by 59th Avenue, Ontario Street, the Fraser River and Granville Street. This massive area is intersected by several major arterials—including Oak Street, 70th Avenue, and Marine Drive—which contribute commercial and industrial land uses, but have also led to physical and social barriers within the neighbourhood. The legacy of streetcar routes and a branch rail line from Steveston to Vancouver are also evident in the existing land use and street patterns: the Metro Theatre being the last reminder of a thriving commercial hub generated by the interurban rail line.

[caption id="attachment_9495" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Image courtesy of Wikipedia."][/caption] We’re a group of West End renters interested in building a web site and undertaking related activities to provide information to BC renters. In order to make sure the site meets a wide range of needs, we need input from apartment renters in Vancouver. So we’re holding a series of focus groups to present the ideas and get feedback on the proposed web site, its content and other potential services and activities. Would you be interested in participating in one of these focus groups?   CONTACT US! bcrentersgroup@gmail.com 604.696.9454

[caption id="attachment_9500" align="aligncenter" width="271" caption="Image courtesy of Erick Villagomez."][/caption] Sunday, May 13, 11 am - 3 pm - Grandview-Woodland Open House - Mother's Day Edition We'll be having a fun, family-friendly Open House at the Waldorf Hotel.  Drop by and join us for face-painting, button-making, asset mapping and more.  We'll have an assortment of Waldorf 'bits and bites' to snack on (brunch specials also available), the awesome sounds of Joaquin Gonzalez Cardona, guitarist, and an opportunity to learn more about the community planning process and how to get involved. Takes place ...

The City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) announced today that students from CityStudio have undertaken work on an innovative project  -  The Orphaned Spaces Project  - that will greatly enhance the city’s neighbourhoods. The primary goal of Vancouver’s Orphaned Spaces Project is to provide increased access to nature by manifesting the potential of an otherwise underutilized piece of City property.  CityStudio students, Victoria Veidner, Martyna Purchla, Becky Till and Jaclyn Bruneau spent their spring semester mapping the entire Grandview Woodlands neighbourhood. “When Deputy ...

Vancouver has a rich history of urban planning and, this spring, the City of Vancouver is launching three new Community Plan processes in Grandview-Woodland, Marpole, and the West End neighbourhoods. A fourth neighbourhood planning program, for the Downtown Eastside, is also currently underway. When completed, these plans will provide clear but flexible frameworks to guide change and development in these established neighbourhoods over the next 20-30 years. As such, it's worth increasing our awareness of the processes currently occurring and what it means for the future of the city. One of the most significant aspects of the Plan is that it is happening in older, settled neighbourhoods facing increased development pressures. The existing community plans for these areas were developed in the 1970s and 80s. Given the dramatic changes in Vancouver since that time, the existing plans clearly do not reflect the communities’ current challenges including issues around affordable housing, demographic changes and land-use. A unique aspect of the new Community Plan is that it combines features of both the Community Visions process—used between 1995 and 2010—and the older Local Area Planning process—used between 1974 and 1995. This combination will facilitate addressing complex issues ranging from community-wide concerns about traffic, safety, and street level issues to sub-area plans relating to changes in land-use, commercial issues, and improvements to the public realm, as a whole.

  “When have you had your most engaged life experience?” asked Janet Moore and Duane Elverum. A rapt audience sat in silence for ten seconds. “No one ever says they had their most engaged experience in a classroom, or at a computer,” Elverum said. “Typically it's when they've been connecting their passion with their work, often it's outside, they're often sharing a struggle with others, working with people to accomplish something they couldn't otherwise.” Two years ago Moore, Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University's Centre for Dialogue, and Elverum, Assistant Professor in design at Emily Carr University, asked this question at a Vancouver Design Nerd Jam in Vancouver. They envisioned a collaboration between the City of Vancouver and postsecondary students, allowing students to work on long-term real-world projects. The idea quickly gained traction at the City, which had just launched its Greenest City 2020 Action Plan. Greenest City Planner Lindsay Cole asked Moore and Elverum to present their idea to the Mayor's panel. With strong support from the Greenest City team, CityStudio was launched in September 2011.

The Next CoV Community Plans - Terms of Reference Administrative Report dated March 7, 2012, will be considered by Vancouver City Council’s Standing Committee on Planning, Transportation and Environment at its meeting on: DATE:    Wednesday, March 28, 2012 TIME:    9:30 am PLACE:    Council Chamber - Third Floor, City Hall The agenda for the meeting and the relevant report can be viewed at: vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/councilmeetings no later than the Friday preceding the meeting.  Hard copies will also be available upon request at that time. If you wish further information on this matter, please contact Matt Shillito ...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="East side of Commercial Drive - 1700-block - in 1936 (VPL 23618 part)"][/caption] Jak King knows a lot about the history of Commercial Drive. In his recently released The Drive: A Retail, Social and Political History of Commercial Drive he does a great job of outlining a detailed history of the Drive — focusing on the area from Venables to 7th Avenue in the period between the early 1920's to 1956. Having read every issue of the Highland Echo — Commercial Drive's weekly newspaper (which ran from 1936 to 1969) — Jak has documented change through a detailed construction of the people, stores, buildings and curiosities that shaped the 'backdoor' of Vancouver. His book also highlights changes in technology, the important creation of a transportation hub, as well as the formative people and interesting events that saw Commercial drive through the beginning of the 20th century. These early events truly cultivated this unique and often autonomous Vancouver community. This was recently followed by The Encyclopedia of Commercial Drive - a 558 page collection of all businesses and business owners along this well-known street up to 1999. Both books are the first of a series by the area resident on the history of the Drive that tells a story not often heard in our future-foreward city. Spacing Vancouver contributor David Peacock recently had the wonderful opportunity to sit down with Jak to talk about his book in a cafe on the Drive that he certainly knew a long back story on. ••• Spacing: The Drive details so much change in ownership from the 1920's through the 50's, does this constant rebirth reflect a bigger societal value in the neighbourhood? Jak: I think that the one thing that we've really maintained is the fact that our stores here are small, and they are generally locally managed. There are chains here — there is the Starbucks here, the Safeway here, whatever else — but essentially most of the stores here are small and locally managed. That's something that has come through history and has been retained. I think that does add to the friendliness of the neighbourhood, and to the fact that we have survived some pretty rough times here. I am a little concerned about the fact that 30 years ago we had a dozen restaurants here and today we have 94. In many ways that's a good thing, making it a very friendly neighbourhood. But what bothers me is that there are 86 businesses that are no longer in existence, that have been taken over by restaurants. I would hate us to become just a foodie neighbourhood. We used to have a lot of furniture stores, appliance stores, more shoe stores, and now we have almost nothing but restaurants for the last 20 years.

[caption id="attachment_7049" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="1st Avenue, Olympic Village Site Looking North, Vancouver 2009. Image courtesy of Leslie Hossack."][/caption] One of the most talked about sites in Vancouver’s recent history is the former Olympic Village. From the Olympic celebrations to the eco-sustainability of it’s infrastructure to the cost overruns and lingering public debt, the site has been the subject of more coverage than any other neighbourhood in recent memory. But for all this talk, unless you live or work nearby, or jog or cycle around this corner of the seawall, few Vancouverites actually visit the site regularly. Even fewer have spent as much time over the past several years as photographer Leslie Hossack. "Vancouver’s Village 2008-2011: Constructing a Village, Creating a Community” is a photography show by Leslie Hossack documenting the construction of the Olympic Village on Southeast False Creek. It is now on display at the City of Vancouver Archives Gallery on Kits Point. Hossack’s photographs document the recent past of a part of Vancouver with a long history. Before colonization, False Creek was well used by First Nations’ for hunting and fishing. For much of the 20th century, it was a hub of industrial activity. As industry left the city core, a sea of parking lots took over the site. Today, as residents move into the condos and apartments originally built for the Olympics, and businesses open up, the Village on False Creek is emerging as a vibrant community.