The Vancouver Public Spaces Network was formed in 2006 and its goal is to, “preserve and celebrate public space as an essential part of a vibrant, inclusive city.” The VPSN has campaigns regarding public vs privatized spaces, public art, security, democratic spaces, green spaces, and the corporatization of public spaces.
The network holds monthly meetings and over the last few months they’ve been running a contest called Where’s the Square — a challenge to design and propose the next big public space for all to enjoy within the city of Vancouver urging participants to help find Vancouver’s missing plaza.
Public squares form the heart of many great cities around the world. When well-designed, they provide a central location for accessible, year-round activity – whether these be as straightforward as eating a bite of lunch, catching some sun, or playing a game of chess, or as elaborate as community celebrations, concerts and political rallies. Public squares are engines of cultural and local economy, as well as the spatial realization of democratic principles.
Submissions were accepted until March 20th, 2009 and the winner will be announced in May. “The VPSN is pitching it as an ideas competition: to bring out some good public square ideas into Vancouver’s consciousness,” said Dustin Quasar who designed a public space for the competition along with Julie Miller and Darcie Frederick. Their idea was Lantern Park — a new concept for Thornton Park at Main Street between National and Terminal.
“I was inspired to enter by the fact that Vancouver is missing a big urban public square,” noted Dustin. “We chose the park at Main St Skytrain because of it’s large size and central location. In spite of these, it’s vastly under-utilized. It was a fun project imagining the varied features that could re-vitalize this space for all of Vancouver.”
Some may argue that Vancouver already has quite few public spaces such as Victory Square, Robson Square, or even the stone plaza adjacent to the new convention centre (although it is seriously lacking foliage). However, VPSN believes we need something much larger and many agree — you can see from Vancouver’s lack of inclusion on this list of “city squares by size” around the globe that something is obviously missing. (Link via The Weekly Gumboot). Even our neighbouring cities are building squares and public gathering spaces such as the revitalized Holland Park in Surrey.
Dustin says, “The art gallery area is what we use, but it wasn’t designed for that purpose, and it’s just too small to fit large gatherings. I’ve been to rallies there where people were squished in like bugs. Vancouver’s still a relatively young city, we still have opportunities to create a large urban gathering space.”
The same kind of idea was brought up at Interesting Vancouver last summer where Roy Yen noted that we are starving for community gathering places – in the public realm (not just on Facebook).
As for the Where’s the Square entries, there’s no guarantee that the VPSN winning design or concept will come to be but Dustin said he’s hopeful that even if their public spaces plan is not chosen or put into place immediately, that it can be realized and implemented in phases. “The area right by Main St Skytrain is badly in need of some touch-ups. Even simple things like better wayfinding signs at the skytrain exit would improve the area considerably. The larger aspects of our plan (amphitheater and roof over much of the park) are the real juice, but would require more investment.”
Short-listed designs will be revealed at a public event April 28th, check out the VPSN site for more information about the network, and the Where’s the Square competition.
I recently handed over a microcredit gift certificate to Chris Walts (of The 49th Parallel) since he pinged me on Twitter and seemed to have a cause in need of this donation. The following was written by Chris so he could share a bit more about his campaign with my readers…
What would you do to save the world? This question has been rattling around in my head for years now, but until recently I didn’t really have an answer. Now however, it seems so simple: whatever I have to. The reason this answer resonates so strongly with me is it allows for the complexity of the problem and the intricacy of the solution to be united in a maxim that even a child can comprehend and implement. This answer doesn’t judge, and doesn’t make you feel bad for only doing ‘as-much-as-you-can’. Instead, it allows for everyone to define what it means to him or her while still stressing just how dire our situation is.
“Whatever I have toâ€, for me, exists on a couple of different levels. At its most basic, it means remembering cloth bags when I grocery shop, recycling, taking the bus, and doing whatever else I can do to make my life more sustainable. It also means recognizing that life is not lived in isolation, and that my actions directly impact people all over our world. It means seeking out worthwhile ideas, and helping to nourish and spread them when I get an opportunity.
It is via this long-winded introduction that I want to talk about what I am undertaking this summer. I could have perhaps led with the last sentence, but then I would have come across as just another person asking for money for a pipe dream project to save the world, and I believe it is much more than that.
This summer I am joining up with 25 other Global Agents for Change, and we are riding our pedal powered bikes 4000km from Amsterdam to Istanbul to raise money and awareness for microcredit. Each rider is responsible for raising at least $3000 to put towards Global Agents for Change’s microcredit fund. I should explain that the $3000 we have to raise does not cover trip expenses, those all come out of our own pockets, it goes directly through Global AFC to the people on the ground who need it.
For those people that don’t know what microcredit is, microcredit is small trust based loans to the working poor. Instead of simply giving people money, an actual loan agreement is reached on terms that make sense to the borrower, and once the money is paid back, it can then be lent out again to another person in need. For those people who might be slightly jaded about the process, the repayment rate is over 95% and the person who came up with the idea, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel peace prize in 2006.
So that, in a nutshell, is my pitch as to why you should help me support this extremely worthwhile cause. In my opinion it is one of the best current sustainable solutions being proposed to a very complex problem.
On a person level however, what I am looking forward to most about the trip isn’t even the actual countries that we are going to be riding through, although I think they are going to be incredible. What I love most about the organization Global Agents for Change is that every person involved with it truly cares about making a positive lasting impact on the world. So much so, that most people involved are volunteering 15-20 hours a week on top of their day jobs. Getting to ride alongside of these inspirational young people for two months is going to be one of the best conversations / thinktank experiences of my life.
Please help me reach my fundraising goal by donating.
Thank you,
Chris.
Based on the best-selling book (and blog) by James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, the Food Network’s new series, The 100 Mile Challenge, is testing the lifestyle habits of families in Mission, BC. I recently did a write up about the show for E!Online and soon after started counting my own food miles.
Photo credit:
Roland on Flickr
“The production of food has gone crazy in our world,” noted Smith in the series opener that aired Sunday, April 5th. “I mean you’re getting strawberries from California when there are strawberries you can grow in your backyard, lettuce from China and you can grow lettuce in your backyard. That’s a really redundant impact on the environment.”
The “100 Mile” concept involves only consuming food that was grown, harvested, or produced within 100 miles of your home. This cuts back on environmental impacts from things like packaging and shipping, while also helps you explore local business. They call it the “100 Mile Diet” although it’s more like a movement.
For the documentary-style TV show, MacKinnon and Smith head to Mission, BC to enlist community members in the challenge and the series then follows six families closely for the 100 days of the challenge. Things the Mission families can’t eat during the 100 Mile Challenge include coffee, rice, tropical fruit, avocado, soda, beer, olive oil, sugar, peanut butter, and basics like black pepper and salt.
Local markets are praised as being excellent resources not only for locally-grown food but also for inspiration, recipes, and community support and discussion.
Markets in the Vancouver Area
Ambleside Farmers Market
Burnaby Farmers Market
East Vancouver Farmers Market
Granville Island Market
Vancouver Farmers Markets in the West End, Trout Lake, Riley Park, and Kitsilano
Lonsdale Quay
Surrey Farmers Market
Robson Public Market
… and there is an extensive list of markets on the BC Farm Market Directory
The 100 Mile Challenge television show will air Sundays until May 10th, following all 100 days of the challenge in Mission, BC.
I love this time of year in the city. The grey and dreary winter days are behind us and although the rain still showers down every few days (or for a few days on end) it just makes everything so lush, green, and full of life. Walking up from Burrard SkyTrain the other night I noticed the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, which reminded me of the festival.
The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival began in March (running until April 24, 2009) and includes haiku installations, photo contests, bike and trolley tours, and tree-gazing walks at various parks around the city.
just a petal
the mountain vanishes
into pink air
– 2009 Best of BC Haiku winner, Jill Stanley
Today there is a ‘tree talk and walk‘ in Stanley Park at 3:00pm and there are three more events this coming Saturday, along with the final activities next week.
Brief history of cherry blossoms in Vancouver:
In the early 1930s the mayors of both Kobe and Yokohama presented the Park Board with 500 Japanese cherry trees for planting at the Japanese cenotaph in Stanley Park honouring Japanese Canadians who served in WWI.
By the 1950s, many trees on city streets, were being removed and replaced because of problems with roots and canopies, and the move away from the large, long-lived trees of earlier plantings intensified.
In 1958 three hundred more cherry trees were donated by the Japanese consul, Muneo Tanabe, reported in the newspaper as “an eternal memory of good friendship between our two nations.â€
In 1961 the Park Board hired its first full time arborist to handle public inquiries and to develop a system for recording the planting, pruning and removal of trees.
In 1967, Yoshino Cherry trees came to Vancouver as a gift from the Japanese city of Yokohama. They beautify Cambie Street between West 41st and 49th Avenues. [source]
By the time the Park Board completed its first comprehensive street tree inventory in 1990, nearly 36 percent of the 89,000 trees on city streets were represented by trees of the Prunus genus—the flowering plum and cherry trees.
2005 The Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Society is established as a not-for-profit charitable organization, inspired by the age old Sakura festivals of Japan.
Check out the cherry blossom viewing map if you’d like some inspiration for your next stroll, or photo walk. The map also outlines the type of tree, in which neighbourhood they are located, and if they are currently in bloom.
Should you take any digital photos while you’re out and about on a blossom photo walk, feel free to add them to the Miss604 Flickr Group and I’ll showcase some on my site at the end of the week.
This coming Thursday I’ll be out at Dublin Crossing in Surrey for the Tech Valley Social Club‘s Meet and Tweet event. It will be a chance for those East of the Fraser to get together, chat, discuss, mix, mingle, and hopefully learn a bit about social media during a quick talk I’ll be giving.
Where Dublin Crossing Pub [Google Map]
When Thursday April 16, 2009 from 5:00pm – 8:00pm
The event is totally free and hopefully those interested in Twitter, or already using social media for personal or business use, will be able to join us for this conversation. I think it’s great to have an event like this outside of downtown because our region is filled with so many industries and a large percentage are based in the Fraser Valley. Feel free to RSVP online and we hope to see you there.
