The Vancouver Park Board will be closing Stanley Park to all vehicles starting Wednesday, April 8, 2020 in an effort to reduce the number of people in the park and to enable physical distancing. It is the latest in a series of measures the Park Board has taken in recent weeks to reduce the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic to the public.
Park Board Will be Closing Stanley Park to Vehicles
Causeway Will Remain Open
The closure will be carried out Wednesday morning and will remain in place indefinitely. It will be implemented via physical barriers and signage at key access points to the park, supported by Park Rangers and the VPD. Digital traffic signs on Georgia St, English Bay, and the Stanley Park Causeway will alert motorists to the closure. The Causeway will remain open.
Reducing the Number of Visitors to the Park
Despite the closure of all parking lots in Stanley Park more than a week ago, visitors have still been observed travelling by car to the park, particularly on sunny days, and parking illegally on the road.
Closing Stanley Park’s roads will reduce the daily number of people in the park and open up space for cyclists and pedestrians from the neighbourhood.
Once the closure is implemented, the Park Board will be encouraging cyclists to keep a safe physical distance from pedestrians by moving off the seawall and using the adjacent Stanley Park Drive, which will be free of traffic.
Access Available to Emergency Services, #19 Bus, and Staff
Emergency services, the #19 bus, and Park Board and City service vehicles will still be able to access the park.
There will also be limited access for key tenants and leaseholders via checkpoints at the Georgia St roundabout, facilitated by Rangers and Park Board staff.
Access will be provided to staff of the Rowing Club, Yacht Club, HMCS Discovery, Prospect Point, and Stanley Park Ecological Society.
Protect Yourself and Others
Vancouver is among cities with the densest neighbourhood populations in Canada, and residents rely on park spaces for fresh air, much like a backyard. It is paramount that everyone shares the spaces and uses them safely.
Always maintain a safe physical distance of a least two metres
Use parks and beaches for a short break to exercise, not to socialize
Visit during less busy times (mornings, late evenings, or when it’s cloudy or damp outside)
Access neighbourhood or community parks and do not drive to destination parks and beaches
Keep dogs on leash when walking, unless using an official off-leash park
Refrain from touching shared surfaces and be vigilant about hand-washing
Consider wearing a cloth (non-medical) face mask when exercising vigorously or accessing public spaces
Stay home if you’re sick, especially if feeling cold or flu-like symptoms
UPDATE May 22, 2020: Starting this morning, Vancouver Park Board staff will begin reopening the majority of parking lots at parks and beaches, with the aim of having lots open by Sunday, May 24.
Parking lots were closed in mid-March as part of the Park Board’s overall effort to:
Support physical distancing
Reduce crowding at destination parks and beaches
Encourage use of neighbourhood parks
The reopening over the next two days of public parking includes 7,000 stalls at beaches and parks across the city, including the roadways at Queen Elizabeth Park. The reopening follows careful planning and consideration by the Park Board and is in alignment with the BC Restart Plan. Parking at beaches and parks is also vital to ensure there is equity of access to these spaces, particularly for residents with mobility challenges.
Pay parking and enforcement will be in effect at the pay lots and visitors are urged to keep a safe distance from others of at least two metres while exiting their vehicles and visiting beaches and parks.
It’s about the time of year when I would be writing about Easter egg hunts, bunny yoga, and tulip festivals. COVID-19 has shifted every aspect of daily life and many are still trying to find simple pleasures, and ways support local businesses. Cue Maan Farms Drive-Thru Easter complete with to-go breakfast served by the Easter Bunny.
Maan Farms Drive-Thru Easter
Dylaina Gollub Photography
The Easter Bunny will dancing and delivering berry crepes, coffee and berry lemonade to vehicles. After picking up breakfast to-go, everyone is invited to drive through the farm to see the goats in the field. There is no need to exit your vehicle at any time.
Maan Farms Goats Dylaina Gollub Photography
When: April 10-12, 2020, 8:30am to 12:00pm Where: Maan Farms (790 McKenzie Rd., Abbotsford) Tickets: $10 per person, available online
Dylaina Gollub Photography
Another innovation is Maan Farm’s Mama Maan’s Drive-Thru for wine, fresh or frozen meals, such as butter chicken and chickpea curry bowls, samosas, and desserts, such as Brown Butter S’more Cookies. Orders can be placed online for curbside, no-contact pick-up everyday between 12:00pm and 6:00pm.
When I was growing up in Surrey, Chilliwack to me meant three things: Flintstones Bedrock City, swimming at Cultus Lake, or driving past the Trans Canada Waterslides on our way to summertime a BC camping adventure.
In 2007, I made my first friend from Chilliwack, Mr. Duane Storey. He introduced himself to me at the Northern Voice blogging conference and we became fast-friends. At the time he lived in Downtown Vancouver but a few years later her moved back to his hometown. John and I would spend weekends with him, with walks along the Chilliwack River followed by backyard barbecues. Duane also came with us to meet WP Kinsella when he did a reading (and signed my copy of Shoeless Joe) at The Book Man in Downtown Chilliwack.
About a decade later, John’s nephew visited from Iowa and proposed to his fiancé in the Fraser Valley, that was followed by a photoshoot at the Chilliwack Sunflower Festival. From the old Minter Gardens to the Chilliwack Tulip Festival, corn mazes, the mountains, trails and lakes, it really is a beautiful place.
I never realized it until today, since it’s Duane’s birthday and I have it top of mind, that I have some pretty stellar memories of Chilliwack. As such, and after my digressive introduction, it’s today’s #604Corners photo feature:
Chilliwack History
From the City website: “The Township of Chilliwhack was incorporated in 1873, the third oldest municipality in British Columbia. The City derives its name from the Halq’eméylem word “Ts’elxwéyeqw” which elder Albert Louie, of Yakweakwioose, talked about it meaning ‘as going as far as you can go upriver’ in reference to travelling by canoe up the Chilliwack River sloughs leading to Soowahlie. Halq’eméylem is the traditional language of the Stό:lō (People of the River).“
Bard on the Beach is cancelled for 2020 due to the risks and unpredictability of the COVID-19 pandemic. Western Canada’s largest Shakespeare festival has announced that while it will not be presenting a season this summer, their intended program will be presented in 2021.
Bard on the Beach is Cancelled
The Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival was scheduled to run from June 10 to September 26, 2020 in Vancouver’s oceanside Vanier Park, where the signature annual event has been staged for the past thirty years.
“Our team has spent the past month in an intensive exploration of what might be possible for our season, given the impact of COVID-19” said Founding Artistic Director Christopher Gaze and Executive Director Claire Sakaki in a joint statement.
“Our first focus throughout has been the safety and well-being of our patrons, our staff and volunteers, our donors, sponsors and partners, and the greater community we serve and entertain. It has now become clear to us that if we stage a Festival in the Park this summer, we won’t be able to ensure the health and well-being of all those people who would gather together at our site and in turn, be in contact with others. And so, we have made the deeply painful decision to cancel our Season. We know the impact it will have on so many people we care about – and we are heartsick about that – but we are sure that we are making the responsible and necessary choice.”
The Festival’s 2020 lineup featured Shakespeare’s beloved comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing in repertory with his epic historical drama, Henry V, both on the BMO Mainstage. The Howard Family Stage in the Douglas Campbell Theatre was to host two contrasting productions: Love’s Labour’s Lost, a restaging of Bard’s 2015 hit Jazz Age production, and Paradise Lost, Erin Shields’ critically acclaimed modern take on the battle between good and evil. The Season also included a variety of special events, from orchestral and opera concerts to the popular Bard-B-Q & Fireworks nights.
Over three decades, Bard on the Beach has grown to be a signature event on Vancouver’s summer entertainment and tourism calendar. The not-for-profit festival draws over 100,000 patrons each season, including many thousands of young people who attend subsidized School Matinee performances. Over two-thirds of Bard’s eight-million-dollar annual operating budget comes from ticket and ancillary sales, generated over its four-month run, and the organization annually employs almost 300 administrative and production staff and artists.
Says Sakaki “We know that the cancellation of our full slate of over 200 performances will have a significant financial impact on the livelihoods of the people who rely on us for a large portion of their annual income – as well as on our organization. We are deeply troubled by those facts. But we believe we must make the decision to cancel – and make it now – for the safety of all and for the longer-term financial health of our company.”
Patrons who had bought 2020 tickets and ticket Packs will have the value of their purchases honoured through a range of options including 2021 ticket credits, charitable tax-receipted donations, and full refunds.
On April 6, 1886 Vancouver was incorporated. Historian Chuck Davis writes: “The ceremony was delayed when it was discovered no one had thought to bring paper on which to write down the details. Someone had to run down the street to the stationery store! The ceremony was held in Jonathan Miller’s house. The population of the city was about 1,000.”
Photos of Vancouver in 1886
September 1886 – City Archives# CVA 1477-419.
From the momentous occasion on April 6th, to the Great Fire on June 13th, and beyond, thanks to the City of Vancouver Archives we can take a peek at our town back then. For more dates of note in 1886, I reference Davis’s History of Metropolitan Vancouver:
1886, Foot of Granville Street. Archives# CVA 1477-415
May 15, 1886 Lauchlan Hamilton began to survey what would become Granville Street. (Hamilton named the street for the Colonial Secretary of the time.)
May 28, 1886 Vancouver’s first fire department, Volunteer Hose Company Number One, was formed.
Before the fire (Tremont House in White) Maple Tree Square 1886. Archives# CVA 1477-413
Morning after the Great Fire in 1886. VPL# 1094. Photographer / Studio: Devine, H.T.
July 13, 1886 Vancouver city council passed by-law No. 258 to regulate the use of bicycles, which must henceforth not exceed 8 mph.
Tremont House rebuilt on Carrall Street between Cordova and Powell Streets, erected after fire. Archives# SGN 123
July 26, 1886 The first inward cargo to the port of Vancouver arrived: tea from China.
October 1886 The city council of newly-born Vancouver (a name chosen by CPR president Van Horne) induced the CPR to build shops, stores and other terminal facilities on the north shore of False Creek for which the railway received 20 years of freedom from city taxes on the property. The result was the English Bay Branch and Drake Street yard.
Cordova looking west from Carrall, 5 weeks after the fire. Archives# Str P7.1
Also in 1886 The Oppenheimer family (food wholesaling) built a warehouse that today is home to The Warehouse Studio. It is the oldest brick building in the city.
