This Bombardier Flexity light-rail electric streetcar (on loan from Brussels) will be in operation January 21st until March 21st, 2010.
Running from just outside the Olympic Village Canada Line station (on the False Creek side of 2nd & Cambie), it will shuttle passengers to Granville Island and back in style.
For those of you who love transit talk, this bi-directional beauty’s got a minimum horizontal curve radius of 15m, it will run on 1.8km of track (with 150m of dual track so trains can pass each other), maximum speed 70km/h, 105Km motor power, anti-lock brakes, fits 50 passengers (seated) and 128 passengers (standing), and has two locations for bikes or strollers.
I got the chance to sit in the driver’s seat today (along with John) and have all the fancy levers and buttons explained to me. From touch-screens to security cameras, the operators will have full controls at their fingertips.
According to the Bombardier rep, “for us this is an opportunity to showcase the first, 100% low-floor streetcar in North America.” In partnership with the City they’re inviting folks from across the continent to come up and ride the line during its time in Vancouver.
Hat tips to the Downtown Historic Railway for the use of the track for this trail period for the streetcar. Vancouver has a fine 60+ year history of streetcar systems (such as the Interurban) and I’m sure many would like to see this mode of light transit return to our region.
Passenger button to open the doors
The ribbon cutting will take place January 21st at a public ceremony where all are encouraged to come check out the Olympic Line. Starting at 9:30am, you can ride the streetcar and receive a commemorative first rider certificate. Olympians and Paralympians as well as the Vancouver 2010 mascots will be around while live music entertains visitors.
After the ceremony, the Olympic Line will run 18 hours a day (6:30am – 12:30am), 7 days a week, with zero fares. Once the Games are over, the train will be leaving town but hopefully Vancouverites get a taste of what a light-rail streetcar system would be like if restored in our city.
More information:
Follow @2010Streetcar on Twitter for updates.
View more photos of the preview today in John’s Flickr set.
View more photos of the preview today in my Flickr set.
Stephen Rees was there today as well and he has a post up here.
Update March 13, 2010 The streetcar is one of many attractions staying open during the Paralympic Games. Today at 1:30pm Bombardier and the City of Vancouver will celebrate having its 500,000th rider.
Update April 4, 2010 This post has been republished due to a malware attack on my site and as a result comments have been lost.
Update May 18, 2010 From News1130: The Olympic Line Streetcar has won an award from the Canadian Urban Transit Association, after carrying more than 550,000 passengers during the Games, without a single reported problem. The line–which ran along False Creek between January and March–was a partnership between the City of Vancouver and Bombardier. Two streetcars brought to Vancouver from Brussels made more than 13,000 one-way trips during the demonstration project . Daily ridership during the Olympic Games peaked at 25,400.
The giant red “W” atop Woodwards in Vancouver is make a reappearance tonight as it will be lit up for the first time in a decade.
“W” removal in 2006 – Photo credit: cam in van on Flickr
Woodward’s means far more to Vancouver than simply being a defunct department store. Founded by Charles A. Woodward, he opened his first store in Vancouver on Main Street in 1891. In 1903 it moved and expanded to Hastings & Abbott. This Woodward’s building was indeed a fantastic department store complete with the famous “Food Floor” in the basement, it was the first self-serve food department on the continent. “In a day when grocery stores were small, this gigantic emporium was—the right word—exciting” (source).
It was the first major department store in BC to open for business on Sundays and of course what long-time Vancouverite doesn’t remember the $1.49 Day jingle. The first Tuesday of every month was known as $1.49 Day with store-wide deals for shoppers.
The bright red “W” perched on an Eiffel Tower replica atop the store would act as a beacon for retail shoppers. It guided them in around Christmas time as it soon became tradition for families to come downtown just to peer through the frost-dusted holiday window displays. The “W” was as much of the Vancouver skyline as the old Sun Tower and the North Shore mountains.
In 1993 the Woodward’s chain went bankrupt. Across the Lower Mainland Woodward’s stores turned into The Bay or Zellers stores and the iconic flagship location in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver fell into disrepair. For years it stood untouched, boarded up, and in the middle of a “what do we do with this space now” type of battle. Eventually, squatters moved in — they needed shelter and housing and this building was one mighty appealing location for a base camp. In 2003 the City purchased the building from the Province and the wheels started turning.
The building was emptied and demolished in 2006, leaving only a facade of the old structure standing on the corner of Abbott and Hastings Streets. What has been in the making over the last decade isn’t just a building, it’s a community – with Woodward’s at the centre.
Photo credit: VideoVik on Flickr
The new $400 million Woodward’s project includes 536 housing units, 125 non-market housing units (operated by PHS Community Services), 75 family non-market housing units (operated by Affordable Housing Services), Nesters Food Store (who reintroduced $1.49 day recently), London Drugs, and The National Film Board of Canada. There is also a community plaza, and the Simon Fraser University downtown campus with the School for Contemporary Arts.
The W2 Community Media Arts Centre will also take up shop in the community and act as a centre for communication and arts for the Downtown Eastside, “to produce and present new works of artistic significance and social benefit; to empower individuals and communities (young and old alike); and to engage with technology and interdisciplinary artists as producers rather than consumers.”
The Woodward’s “W” rose to the centre of the development last week and this evening it will be lit up once again. It’s no longer a sign of retail and commerce, it’s a throwback to our City’s past, with a hope for tomorrow — building a sustainable community that is already vibrant and ready to shine in its own right.
The lighting of the “W” will take place tonight between 6:05pm and 6:15pm with help from the Bladerunners. Public can come by the Woodward’s plaza or you can catch a glimpse where you can from around Vancouver. The ceremony will also be broadcast live on several local news stations.
For more history, this great little video by the City of Vancouver explains the sort of ‘love affair’ the city has had with a department store.
Update: I stopped by the lighting this evening and took some photos. The inner plaza at Woodward’s was abuzz with performers, media, and people waiting for the monumental flick of the switch on the “W”. I’m trying to look up the name of the funky marching band – they really reminded my of the band we saw at Surrey’s Winterfest last year (March Forth) but with a much more Vancouver Eastside flare. Update: Thanks to the comments I received on the post, the band is the Carnival Band.
I think it’s really sweet that not only is the new complex located at 149 West Hastings (a tribute to $1.49 Day) but Nester’s Market also include the Woodward’s Food Floor in its logo.
This woman was there with her son, a filmmaker who once used the Woodward’s “W” as a prop in a movie he made. She brought it along for the event and was very proud to show it off, including the hole in the letter where a bowling ball (propelled at a high velocity) went crashing through.
Before the lighting, Chief Ian Campbell performed a beautiful blessing with other members of the Squamish First Nation. They granted permission for Woodward’s to be built on this land and so it was important to have them participate in this ceremony.
Staring up at the Stan Douglas installation Abbott & Cordova, which can be viewed inside or outside at the plaza, the crowd counted down from 10 before clapping the “W” to life.
The new Woodward’s complex is truly a part of our City’s history especially when it comes to community building and nurturing the arts. It’s funky, artsy, it pushes a few envelopes (and maybe a few buttons) but It’s just amazing to see it all come back to life.
Vancouver’s Cultural Olympiad has been taking place over the last two years, gearing up for the main event in February 2010, it features performances, art installations, concerts and more.
From January 22nd until March 21st sub-festivals such as CODE and Juste pour rire, will make sure the Cultural Olympiad is jammed-packed with action.
They have hundreds of events taking place in dozens of venues around Vancouver, including outdoor expositions. If you’re not sure what to search for yet in the event listings, here are just a few highlights.
I have a list of free events in my concerts post but here are a few that are compliments of the Cultural Olympiad specifically…
World Tea Party February 12th to 28th and then March 12th to 21st at the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Free with no reservation required (before 6:00pm).
Vectorial Elevation from February 4th until the 28th it will light up the sky above English Bay with patterns submitted by the public. Free with no reservation required, just find a viewing point somewhere and look up.
Art Under Foot view the creation of more sidewalk mosaics February 1st until the 28th outside Sleep Country on Granville. Totally free to stop by and see the artists at work between 11:00am and 4:00pm.
WhistlerLive! concert series in Whistler Village Square including Blue Rodeo February 28th. All ages, no ticket or reservation required.
Kris Krug summed up some of the Best Media Art Installations around town as a part of CODE (Cutural Olympiad Digital Edition).
Spirit of Squamish 2010 Finale Celebration February 27th from 11:00am until 7:00pm featuring local bands and performers including Radio Karma, The Overcomers, and The Paul Coulture-Brown Band.
This is just a small sampling of the variety of events taking place as a part of the Cultural Olympiad. You can check full listings online and search by venue, date, discipline, or municipality.
In the summer heat, sunflowers stretch toward the sky in a plot of land where gasoline and diesel were once poured into tanks. A Shell gas station once stood at Davie and Burrard where the thriving David Village Community Garden now lies. Vegetables and flowers blossom within the yarn-bombed fences of this oasis.
A few years ago I saw a story on the local news where a lot in the Downtown Eastside had been turned into a community garden. After some research I realized it is the old location of the Smiling Buddha Cabaret. The other day when I was writing a post about parks I stumbled upon so many listings for community gardens and didn’t realize we had so many scattered throughout the city.
Vancouver is filled with diverse neighbourhoods and robust communities from the Downtown core, all the way out to Boundary, and down to the Fraser. Our City has always had a legacy of creating public green spaces for all to enjoy and in recent years these have included community gardens.
I made a map below to indicate all community gardens however you’ll wan to visit the City of Vancouver’s Community Garden Listing for full details and contact information.
If you would like to explore several of these community gardens, the City of Vancouver has setup walking tours that will guide you from one neighbourhood to the next.
With assistance from groups such as the Vancouver Public Spaces Network, these are sprouting up all over the place. The VPSN (among other services) helps neighbourhoods get community garden projects underway by providing support when it comes to capacity-building and planning out these spaces. They have handled the administration of the Davie Village Garden (Davie & Burrard), the Yaletown Garden (formerly known as the Onni Garden at Pacific and Seymour), and 15 Oaks Garden (Oak & 15th). You can learn more about all of their public spaces projects on the VPSN website.
There’s also the SOLEfood Inner City Farm campaign that recently raise a community farm near the Astoria on Hastings.
It’s nice to explore and take part in something truly fruitful such as a community garden project. It not only beautifies the neighbourhood, but it brings people together and produces the ultimate local produce. If you have a green thumb yourself it may be a great way to volunteer your time. If not, the next time you’re out looking for a park to stroll through or a flower to photograph, consider checking out your nearest community garden.
As Vancouver prepares to host nations, athletes, media and visitors for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games I’m wondering what everyone will be doing. For the last seven years we’ve been anticipating this event and for at least the last six months I’ve had someone ask me daily, “What will you be doing for the Games?”
When Vancouver welcomed the world for Expo 86 my family would drive in every weekend to check out different elements of the fair; from the monorail to the pavilions each with their unique transportation vehicles fitting the exposition’s theme. As a six year old it was fun for me, I remember rides, mascots, and showing out of town friends and family around — it was always a great time. At that age it was nothing more than a weekly trip into the city with my family to go play around with some of the coolest exhibits I’ve ever seen.
This time around, I’m right in the middle of the action. We live downtown, sandwiched between pedestrian lanes and red zones, and unlike some others, we’ll be staying in town throughout the Games. John’s day job in radio dictates that he’ll be mighty busy and I have been accredited for the BC International Media Centre at Robson Square. The benefit of being at the BCMC for me will be to get news, post updates, and profile athletes, whose talents are the true reason everyone’s converging on Vancouver this year.
It was a post yesterday by John Biehler that made me realize I haven’t even share or outlined my own plans publicly yet. During the Games we’ll get a few Tweetups, meetups and photowalks going through True North Media House (as mentioned in Biehler’s post) and try our best to enjoy the festival-like atmosphere as best we can with friends from around the globe.
My coverage of the Olympics will include much of what I’ve touched on already; public events for all (downtown or in Richmond, Surrey, etc.), hospitality houses, and catching the sporting action among visitors and locals alike in a sports bar or in public viewing areas. Let’s not forget the massive Cultural Olympiad that will also be taking place across the Lower Mainland with entertainment, shows, and performances.
With our calendars being switched around and pieced together on a daily basis I thought I would take a quick poll…
[poll id=”42″]
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games are but 31 days away at this point so it’s time to start making those plans (for commuting, vacation, viewing etc.) if you haven’t already.
If your nation, company, or venue is hosting an event and you’d like to have some independent coverage, the True North Media House and folks like John Biehler are the ones to get you covered so feel free to contact us if you’d like to get some locals out to your events.
From January 22nd until March 21st sub-festivals such as 
