Community Movie Nights the Way to Go

Last week I attended an outdoor showing of SHREK at Trout Lake Park. The evening was sponsored by my employer Vision Vancouver as a fun community oriented event where people of all ages could come, set up lawn chairs and blankets and take in a night at the movies for absolutely nothing (no $15 Famous Players tickets for this show).

For an hour or so before the show began, dozens of people set up, munched on late dinners, indulged in the concession stand's fare, chatted and otherwise got to know their fellow neighbours. The energy in the park was terrific. Then the show got started. The sound was superior to a regular movie theatre, the screen crystal clear (no scratchy drive-in hear), and the backdrop of a starry night spectacular.

The event was a big success. Several hundred people turned out and like a gravity well in space, the more people arriving, the greater the draw it was for families and kids in the surrounding area to meander over and check out what was happening.

The success of this event signalled to me a real appetite for more movie nights in the park. As an enthusiast of both parks and movies, I think it would be a terrific idea if the Vancouver Parks Board moved forward on this initiative. Imagine how great it would be to have a well known family-oriented schedule of films in parks all around the city throughout the summer. Young and old could come out and sit on the grass and enjoy the parks well into the night when normally everyone packs up and heads back to the isolation of "home sweet home". These showings could also be terrific multi-cultural and independent film showing venues.

If they were popular enough, perhaps the Parks Board could even consider purchasing some of the equipment necessary to put the show on. This would cut costs even further and open the movies up to the community. Definitely a laudable dream and one well within our grasp.

Bike Community Rallies Around Burrard Bridge

This morning dozens of cyclists turned out to make their voices heard on the issue of the new Burrard Bridge Trial Bike Lane.

The new lane protects cyclists and pedestrians with a new concrete barrier on both sides of the bridge. The result means one less lane for drivers heading out of the city. That's got some drivers crabby - particularly those who are dead set on keeping their single occupancy vehicle

commuting, despite a growing belief among the majority of Vancouverites that commuting green is commuting smart.

The trial has happened once in the past and wasn't successful. This time, there's been a huge amount of organizing and enthusiasm from the city's burgeoning cycling community. In addition, City Hall has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into communicating with drivers in order to shift traffic away from Burrard Bridge and on to the underused Granville Street Bridge. Below are some shots from this morning's ride all courtesy of Ariane Colenbrander.

If you haven't had a chance to check out the new bike lane, make sure you do so.

Woodwards to Transform the DTES

Next year, a community may be remade before our eyes.

It's all connected to the Woodwards Project, a new high rise multi-use complex soaring above the derelict buildings of Canada's poorest neighbourhood.

It has been over 6 years in the making and has seen squats by housing advocates who worried about the gentrification of the poor community.
The message was heard loud and clear at city hall and by the developers and architects involved in the building project. Inclusion, not exclusion.

Unlike the soaring towers of glass characteristic of yuppie Yaletown, Woodwards is going to be different. Of the development's 536 suites, about 40% will go to non-market housing. The mix of tenants will range from the urban chic who dine nightly at bistros like nearby Wild Rice, to less advantaged folks, some of whom have just made their way off addiction and the streets.

I spoke with one future resident shortly after he received notice that there would be a space for him. He currently lives at one of the emergency shelters set up by Vision Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. He's a smart and articulate guy with a university eduction and spattering of mental illness that eventually led to substance abuse issues that he's now recovering from. His favorite place to hang out - the library, where he can access the net and read to his hearts content. His luck in landing a spot at Woodwards was not lost on him.

In addition to housing, Woodward will also house Simon Fraser University's new Centre for the Contemporary Arts (a perfect venue for the "struggling artists"), office and rental space for non-profits, as well as retail grocery and drug stores. There's even word that negotiations are going on between the development's large retail tenants and local non-profit Bladerunners, which finds work for street youth and recovering addicts on construction sites and now, it would seem, local businesses.

This new project isn't going to solve homelessness in the city. But it's certainly the right model. The idea of integrating the most vulnerable into our communities rather than ghettozing them is the right way forward. I'm excited and proud to watch the transformation of the neighbourhood before my eyes.

Community Gardens Coming to City Hall

That's right. Gone will be the green grass lawn of city hall. Replacing it will be a beautiful series of community gardens. The move came shortly after the forming of a new green team (not this green team...) by Mayor Gregor Robertson.

The new gardens will be administered by folks in the Fairview community and city staff and will be coordinated in partnership between Vancouver city hall and SPEC (the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation).

The expansion of the new community gardens is a great step in the right direction. However, there's still a ton more that can be done. What about the long BC Hydro rail line that stretches through the west end? Envision with me, the entire route, straight through Kits, Arbutus Ridge, Kerrisdale, and onwards, paved with a cycle friendly "greenway" (to borrow from Copenhaegen, self proclaimed city of cyclists) and lined on both sides with community gardens maintained by the scores of apartment and condo dwellers we're increasingly going to see appear as we densify our city.

That's the dream, but community gardens at city hall is a nice first step.