Yesterday I was one of 25 speakers to address council on the recent high-level review report on NorthEast False Creek. For video of all the remarks, click here. My own comments begin at 1:19:17 and run through to 1:31:45.
Madam Chairwoman, Mister Mayor, Councillors, Fellow Speakers and Honoured Guests:
My name is Sean Bickerton and I am speaking today in response to the North East False Creek High Level Review as a resident of Tinseltown, a member of my strata, a member of the Keefer Community Group and of the False Creek Residents Association.
I address you today with respect for the offices you hold, and appreciation for your public service and the personal sacrifice demanded of those who accept the burden of public office. You are often called on to make tough choices for the rest of us, and the choice before you today is one of those.
Twenty years ago, Concord Pacific won the privilege of building out the entire EXPO lands as one contiguous development, subject to delivery of a number of public amenities, including Creekside Park and a continuous 35′ wide seawall.
And they did an amazing job of most of that development, creating an award-winning community in the process.
But as we are looking at a new proposal from the same developers today, it’s worth remembering that their original plan for the EXPO lands would have created many separate enclaves of balkanized private lagoons cut off from the downtown and from each other. Thankfully, city planners intervened, and Yaletown, with all of its spectacular waterfront, has been fully integrated into the rest of the city, its pedestal-style buildings making Vancouver famous as a world leader in modern urban design.
Sadly, though, the original promises to the City of Vancouver have still not been kept and Creekside Park still isn’t built. To the contrary, it’s covered with asphalt leaching pollutants into False Creek. And the seawall is nothing more than a narrow strip of crumbling pavement, bordered on one side by a rusting junkyard of environmentally hazardous construction equipment, and on the other by rusting razor wire and chain link fence. It is, to put it kindly, an eyesore.
The original concept for Creekside Park has long been approved by councils and park boards of all party affiliation after years of consultation with local residents and planners. It will be a splendid, gateway destination park welcoming nearby communities in the International Village, Chinatown, East Vancouver, Citygate and the Downtown Eastside. Families and visitors will also come from all over the city to relish the natural setting, see the spectacular open views of the water and skyline, and to take advantage of the many recreational opportunities this unique waterfront site offers.
Surprisingly, asked to try and speed up delivery of this long-delayed landmark park, Concord has instead proposed building a new row of condo towers right across the same land, literally cutting the park in half and stretching it out along the waterfront instead.
“What difference does the shape make if the overal amount of land is the same?” you might ask.
Please judge for yourselves. (At this point in the speech I employ a rectangular piece of cardboard, a piece of tape and a pair of scissors as visual aids).
If we start out with the original plan for our multipurpose waterfront oasis, (holding up the large rectangular piece of cardboard), cut it in half and tape the ends together like so, we still end up with a large block of land that could make a good park.
So far, so good. So what’s the problem?
First, we have to leave room all along the much longer waterfront section of the now sideways park for the 35′ seawall. So let’s just cut away a strip for the seawall, like so.
Now what the diagrams don’t show is that the Carrall Street Greenway will be extended south right to the water’s edge, dissecting the park in two. And Abbott Street will also be extended to the water, further slicing up the park into a series of narrow, lozenge-shaped strips. So what is the community left with after twenty years of asking politely, Madam Chair?
Unfortunately, scraps! That’s what the community is left with … scraps.
The people of the area deserve better and I know that we can do better. I urge you to reject this report, and to reject Concord’s attempt to “reshape” our park right out of existence. The community has been asking politely for twenty years now. That was more than enough time to remediate any soil, so the time for that excuse is long past. Please do what is necessary to ensure that Creekside Park gets built as planned and promised to the area’s residents for the past two decades.
Twenty years ago, Concord Pacific promised to build Creekside Park as a destination gateway park welcoming East Vancouver and the DTES to the False Creek waterfront in exchange for the rights to develop the old EXPO lands as one contiguous development. Later, they also gained the right to add another 2600 units to the development, with no other commitments than to fulfill the existing obligation to complete the seawall and build Creekside Park.
Today, they are trying to renege on that commitment, proposing instead to build a row of condo towers along the waterfront, with a narrow strip of three small lozenge-shaped parks in front so the new owners have a place to walk their dogs.
In writing about this subject, I feel obliged to disclose that Concord was one of the largest donors to my electoral campaign last year. Nonetheless, I sincerely hope they supported my candidacy because I am committed to doing everything possible to make this area a better place to live for everyone here. And for me, that means helping to ensure that Creekside Park gets built as promised.
As a member of the Steering Committee of the False Creek Residents Association (FCRA), as a resident of this area, and as someone who loves this city, I am diametrically opposed to this proposal.
If you, too, care about green space in this area, or Vancouver’s parks, please show up tonight at the Vancouver Park Board hearing at West Point Grey Community Centre, 4397 West 2nd Avenue, on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 7:00 pm.
And if you can’t make tonight’s meeting, please show up to City Council’s Planning and Environment hearing on the Northeast High Level Review on Thursday, Oct 22 at 2pm at City Hall. I’ll be speaking on Thursday, joined by many other members of our community intent on seeing Creekside Park completed in the next five years. Please join us!
Below is an open letter from the FCRA Co-chair that lays out a bit of the contentious history for this too-long delayed park:
An Open Letter To Mayor Robertson & City Council from the False Creek Residents Association from our co-Chair, Patsy McMillan:
To Mayor and Council/Park Board
re: HLR report for NEFC
Your Worship and City Councillors:
After having spent several hours at the consultative group meetings and having done
considerable research into the report before you I would like to remind you of the numbers involved and the history of the situation. Numbers never lie and we can only learn about what is in the future by looking at what has happened in the past so that we can move forward in a way that best exemplifies the concept of Vancouver being one of the most livable cities in the world.
First, the ODP for North False Creek which was established in 1990 required the developer, Concord Pacific, to deliver 4 parks to the City of Vancouver ( David Lam Park, George Wainbourn Park, Cooper’s Park and Creekside Park) in exchange for development permits for 7,650 residential units. Over the past 20 years Concord Pacific has been given increased residential density to 10,000 units plus 100,000 sq. ft. without increasing the park per capita investment in the community so that they are now at a net loss of 6 acres of park space not including the undeveloped 9.06 acre Creekside Park. The developer has also at several stages asked for the complete dismissal of the unit cap number so that they can continue to build without providing any further amenities including those already contracted.
Further negotiations between the City, the Developer Concord and the Provincial Government ( Utility Design Agreement) allowed the developer to wait until the last of their land was developed so that the contaminated soils in Lot 6C could be moved to the future park site. If you calculate this remediation according to the George Wainbourn park remediation costs for “special waste” this would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $33 – 66 million. Is the land, 6C, in it’s present commercially zoned tax rate equal to that expense or should the land be swapped for a more viable, less toxic city owned site that would provide Concord with a better return on their
investment, save the BC taxpayers the cost of the soil remediation and create a land base for a memorable waterfront park on the north shore of False Creek?
Second, the two surveys conducted by the planning department staff over the past several months at public open houses indicate that 68% – 75% of all the respondents are not in favour of the re- configuration of Creekside Park from a large square usable space to a long linear unusable and disconnected strip of land, half the depth of the original park space which would be cut through by the Carrall St. Greenway as well as Abbott St and the Georgia St. Walkway ( proposed) and the same number of respondents were not in favour of the increased density to 4 million sq ft. or 7200 more residents when we are already without commensurate amenities and services in NEFC. If you compile the density figures you will see that what is being proposed is a 9 FSR or nine times the land mass. In the dense and noisy West End it is only a 1.5 – 4 FSR and overall in NFC it is 4.5 FSR. So we are looking at double the amount of density that has already been allowed in NFC and at least triple the density in the West End over a much smaller area with no further amenities.
At what point in the increased densification of the downtown area of Vancouver do we become one of the world’s most unlivable cities? By changing the noise by-laws, changing the per capita green space target ratio and by possibly voiding the Mt. Seymour view corridor if the developer is allowed to build condo towers along Pacific Blvd. from Abbott St. to Quebec St. you will allow the livability of Vancouver to be seriously altered forever. This is a total betrayal of the existing residents of the area and the overall taxpayers of Vancouver who may or may not be aware of what is being proposed by this report. The report talks about the “ landowners” who are really the land developers. The land owners aka residents of the area are not in favour of this increased density and they have said so on numerous occasions as well as stipulating this in the HLR survey.
The HLR report before you speaks repeatedly about the “ re-shaping of Creekside Park”. As a member of the consultative group I can tell you that this only came up in the last couple of meetings as the planning dept. knows that the consultative group, to a member, was against this plan. Not one of the members polled was in favour of this change to the ODP. The Creekside Park size and shape was approved more than 20 years ago after extensive public consultation and input. Every City Council and every Park Board since has adhered to this plan.
In June and July on 1995 Concord Pacific tried to have the Unit Cap removed but the council and the park board of the day would not allow this to happen with the Park Board feeling so strongly about this that many of the Commissioners attended the City Council meeting to uphold their mission statement “ to provide, preserve and advocate for parks and recreation services to benefit people, communities and the environment”. The Park Board and its elected Commissioners will hopefully continue to speak out in favour of what is good for the City of Vancouver and not what is good for a specific developer whose only concern is how much money they can make and not the city that has enabled them to do so.
There has been extensive park design plans approved by both City Council and the Park Board after hours of public consultation and community input. The large acreage park between Carrall St and Quebec St. is what the community of Vancouver needs in order to bring the east side of Vancouver into False Creek and to provide an open public realm for the families and children who come to False Creek as their only option for a chance to experience this open water way. By allowing the re-shaping of Creekside Park from the large plot allocated now to a linear space running beside the seawall walkway, broken up by Carrall St and Abbott St., you will essentially deny the children, youth and families from the east side of Vancouver this important experience
and you will allow a developer to build condos along Pacific Boulevard which will possibly void the Seymour Mountain View Corridor to the remainder of Vancouver taxpayers not to mention the legal ramifications to those taxpayers if the purchasers of the Millennium Water project decide to sue the city real estate dept. for false representation if they had purchased a suite with a mountain view that no longer exists.
I am imploring you to look at all of the facts, to take note of the HLR survey results that indicate an overall lack of support for this proposal and to make a decision based on those facts as well as the history and the future of what the residents want for the City of Vancouver.
Patsy McMillan,
Chair, Citygate Intertower Community Group
Co-Chair, False Creek Residents Association
Member HLR Consultative Group
To Mayor and Council/Park Board
re: HLR report for NEFC
Your Worship and City Councillors:
After having spent several hours at the consultative group meetings and having done considerable research into the report before you I would like to remind you of the numbers involved and the history of the situation. Numbers never lie and we can only learn about what is in the future by looking at what has happened in the past so that we can move forward in a way that best exemplifies the concept of Vancouver being one of the most livable cities in the world.
First, the ODP for North False Creek which was established in 1990 required the developer, Concord Pacific, to deliver 4 parks to the City of Vancouver ( David Lam Park, George Wainbourn Park, Cooper’s Park and Creekside Park) in exchange for development permits for 7,650 residential units. Over the past 20 years Concord Pacific has been given increased residential density to 10,000 units plus 100,000 sq. ft. without increasing the park per capita investment in the community so that they are now at a net loss of 6 acres of park space not including the undeveloped 9.06 acre Creekside Park. The developer has also at several stages asked for the complete dismissal of the unit cap number so that they can continue to build without providing any further amenities including those already contracted.
Further negotiations between the City, the Developer Concord and the Provincial Government ( Utility Design Agreement) allowed the developer to wait until the last of their land was developed so that the contaminated soils in Lot 6C could be moved to the future park site. If you calculate this remediation according to the George Wainbourn park remediation costs for “special waste” this would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $33 – 66 million. Is the land, 6C, in it’s present commercially zoned tax rate equal to that expense or should the land be swapped for a more viable, less toxic city owned site that would provide Concord with a better return on their
investment, save the BC taxpayers the cost of the soil remediation and create a land base for a memorable waterfront park on the north shore of False Creek?
Second, the two surveys conducted by the planning department staff over the past several months at public open houses indicate that 68% – 75% of all the respondents are not in favour of the re- configuration of Creekside Park from a large square usable space to a long linear unusable and disconnected strip of land, half the depth of the original park space which would be cut through by the Carrall St. Greenway as well as Abbott St and the Georgia St. Walkway ( proposed) and the same number of respondents were not in favour of the increased density to 4 million sq ft. or 7200 more residents when we are already without commensurate amenities and services in NEFC. If you compile the density figures you will see that what is being proposed is a 9 FSR or nine times the land mass. In the dense and noisy West End it is only a 1.5 – 4 FSR and overall in NFC it is 4.5 FSR. So we are looking at double the amount of density that has already been allowed in NFC and at least triple the density in the West End over a much smaller area with no further amenities.
At what point in the increased densification of the downtown area of Vancouver do we become one of the world’s most unlivable cities? By changing the noise by-laws, changing the per capita green space target ratio and by possibly voiding the Mt. Seymour view corridor if the developer is allowed to build condo towers along Pacific Blvd. from Abbott St. to Quebec St. you will allow the livability of Vancouver to be seriously altered forever. This is a total betrayal of the existing residents of the area and the overall taxpayers of Vancouver who may or may not be aware of what is being proposed by this report. The report talks about the “ landowners” who are really the land developers. The land owners aka residents of the area are not in favour of this increased density and they have said so on numerous occasions as well as stipulating this in the HLR survey.
The HLR report before you speaks repeatedly about the “ re-shaping of Creekside Park”. As a member of the consultative group I can tell you that this only came up in the last couple of meetings as the planning dept. knows that the consultative group, to a member, was against this plan. Not one of the members polled was in favour of this change to the ODP. The Creekside Park size and shape was approved more than 20 years ago after extensive public consultation and input. Every City Council and every Park Board since has adhered to this plan.
In June and July on 1995 Concord Pacific tried to have the Unit Cap removed but the council and the park board of the day would not allow this to happen with the Park Board feeling so strongly about this that many of the Commissioners attended the City Council meeting to uphold their mission statement “ to provide, preserve and advocate for parks and recreation services to benefit people, communities and the environment”. The Park Board and its elected Commissioners will hopefully continue to speak out in favour of what is good for the City of Vancouver and not what is good for a specific developer whose only concern is how much money they can make and not the city that has enabled them to do so.
There has been extensive park design plans approved by both City Council and the Park Board after hours of public consultation and community input. The large acreage park between Carrall St and Quebec St. is what the community of Vancouver needs in order to bring the east side of Vancouver into False Creek and to provide an open public realm for the families and children who come to False Creek as their only option for a chance to experience this open water way. By allowing the re-shaping of Creekside Park from the large plot allocated now to a linear space running beside the seawall walkway, broken up by Carrall St and Abbott St., you will essentially deny the children, youth and families from the east side of Vancouver this important experience
and you will allow a developer to build condos along Pacific Boulevard which will possibly void the Seymour Mountain View Corridor to the remainder of Vancouver taxpayers not to mention the legal ramifications to those taxpayers if the purchasers of the Millennium Water project decide to sue the city real estate dept. for false representation if they had purchased a suite with a mountain view that no longer exists.
I am imploring you to look at all of the facts, to take note of the HLR survey results that indicate an overall lack of support for this proposal and to make a decision based on those facts as well as the history and the future of what the residents want for the City of Vancouver.
Patsy McMillan,
Chair, Citygate Intertower Community Group
Co-Chair, False Creek Residents Association
Member HLR Consultative Group
The Non-Partisan Association is holding its Annual General Meeting tonight at the Vancouver Museum, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, B.C. (same building as Planetarium), bottom floors. Click here for a map.
Registration begins at 5:30 pm
Nominees to the Board of Directors have been acclaimed.
Members will be asked to vote on a motion to lower the NPA membership fee. Please see your official notice for details. Members current as of September 14 are eligible to vote.
After a bitter, divisive leadership battle and what can only be described as an electoral rout last November, some are questioning the relevance of a political party forged in the heated ideological battles of the 1930s.
Our new Mayor and his Vision team seem to be tackling our tough economic challenges and demonstrating competence in managing the major projects underway. They have shaken up a city hall that frankly needed it, and have brought renewed energy to the table, building on the extensive environmental and housing accomplishments of the previous NPA administration.
By contrast, a once-powerful NPA has been soundly rejected by the electorate and reduced to rump status at all three levels of civic government.
How did the longest-standing political party in Canada fall so far?
Stated simply, we lost touch with the voters of the city. To some, we appeared arrogant, believing we were the natural ruling party of the city and entitled to hold the keys to City Hall. The voters didn’t take kindly to that assumption.
Second, we failed to exercise good governance when the Athlete’s Village was allowed to morph into a city-backed development, turning the city into a de facto developer and greatly expanding the outsized role the city already plays as the largest land-owner in Vancouver. True, this was partly due to lame-headed decisions taken by previous councils, some run by those now pointing their fingers, but we should have done better, ensuring transparency of decision-making in the process.
So, why should anyone care about the NPA today?
First, because we are not your father’s NPA. The new NPA Board is a young group of diverse community leaders committed to acknowledging past errors and completely rebuilding our party as a progressive force in city politics. We are diverse ethnically, by gender, by sexual orientation, by socioeconomic background, by philosophy and by occupation. In short, the new NPA is representative of the city we seek to help govern and we are actively working to reach out and renew our ties to every community in the city.
Second, because our dedication to keeping big-party politics out of City Hall trumps ideology. We are committed to taking the best ideas from all perspectives and finding pragmatic solutions that help bring the city together. It was the NPA that created more social housing than any previous administration – more than 2,000 units. And it was an NPA council that made Vancouver’s environmental building standards the highest in North America.
Third, because we are committed to finding and backing the best strong, independent candidates, expert in crucial areas of the city’s responsibilities. Strong, independent candidates don’t have to vote in lock-step with their party, which has become a disappointing pattern under Vision. The voters and the city are cheated when policy is decided in secret. A diverse council of strong candidates will provide a thorough airing of ideas and projects that will produce better policy and permit much greater transparency of decision-making.
Unfortunately, instead of learning from the NPA’s mistakes, Vision was in such a rush to get their hands on the levers of power that they immediately started making the same errors.
The in-camera meetings they lambasted during the campaign? They have held as many secret, in-camera meetings since taking office as the NPA ever did.
Vision now controls the Mayor’s seat and 9 of ten votes on council. Yet regular order is ignored and long-standing rules and council traditions are regularly broken to silence Councillor Anton’s lone voice of opposition. Isn’t council supposed to debate the issues?
Vision appointed politically-connected backers to every seat on the Board of Variance, which hears appeals from developers and has the authority to bypass zoning regulations. Yet when one of their own appointees complained that rules were being broken and secret meetings condoned, he was immediately fired, raising a cloud over the integrity of the city’s planning process.
While our opponents seem to be offering the city a future Vision of never-ending partisanship, the new NPA offers a completely non-partisan vision for the city’s future. It will fall to the voters of 2011 to decide which holds the most promise.
After one of the most spectacular summers in memory, something … or rather someone … is in the air …
Ana Maria Martinez singing with Placido Domingo for President Clinton
First it was one of our website clients – grammy-award-winning Soprano Ana Maria Martinez. For those of you not familiar with her artistry, Ana Maria graces the cover of September’s Opera Magazine and appears regularly with the likes of Placido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli.
Not long ago, Steve Tyler of Aerosmith fell off a rainy catwalk above a stage at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.
According to the BBC, a storm had knocked out their sound system: “They were playing Love In An Elevator and no one could hear them any more.” Apparently after about a minute, Steven Tyler came out to entertain the troops, dancing in a storm high on a catwalk overhead the audience.
Anything to save the show …
But then, “during a spin, Steven lost his balance and fell into the audience, hitting his head on a railing as he fell. He was airlifted to hospital and thankfully, everything turned out fine.”
Last Friday, Conan O’Brian was taping a stunt with Teri Hatcher when he fell backwards and hit his head, suffering a mild concussion. A rerun was aired, and Conan was released from hospital only to joke about his next stunt: “Tune in tomorrow when Eva Longoria pushes me down an elevator shaft!”
That same day, September 25, the North West Florida Daily News reports that: “David Ott, former conductor and music director of the Philharmonic of Northwest Florida, had just finished conducting the debut of his new opera, “The Widow’s Lantern,” for the Pensacola Opera.
“All the lights were off, and I went back to get my score. … I stepped onto what I thought was the floor (of the orchestra pit) but there was nothing there.”
Ott fell 14 feet into the basement below the orchestra pit. “All I could think was that I was falling into hell,” he recalled with a grim laugh. “I was so glad when I hit because it finally stopped. It was the best of times and the worst of times,” Ott quipped. The conductor was seriously injured but is now recovering well and expects to be back conducting and composing soon.
The show must go on!
In many years of producing concert tours for Columbia Artists, I remember heroic efforts by artists prevailing through illness, personal crisis and force majeure weather in order to arrive, ready, willing and able to perform at the next theatre. On one tour a bad storm left us short-handed, so I drove the St. Louis Symphony’s instruments overnight across the Appalachians in a blizzard I’ll never forget. Dozens of tractor-trailers were strewn helter-skelter across the freeway and I was the only thing moving that night. But the orchestra made their Lincoln Center concert.
The show must go on.
Here in Vancouver, we are more privileged than many realize to have such a spectacularly gifted troupe of performing and visual artists in our midst. Many cities around the world would give anything to have an award-winning orchestra, or a theatre community or recital series as extraordinary.
Our community of artists prove time and again their greatness and their devotion to the public. They are literally falling all over themselves to give everything they have in order to enlighten, amuse and move us.
In just five months, thousands of the world’s greatest athletes will be gathered inside BC Place from every corner of the globe, all of the world’s nations standing together, waiting to compete peacefully on a global Vancouver stage.
Imagine, if you will, the opening ceremonies for those 2010 Olympic Winter Games, with tens of thousands of spectators from more than a hundred countries waiting expectantly in the stands for those first electrifying strains of the Olympic fanfare. Picture the sight of that massive crowd, packed to the rafters. Think about the billion-plus viewers watching on TV and online for the lighting of that ancient torch, symbol of Athens, cradle of democracy.
Now imagine that … but without any music. Without any musicians. Without any lighting or choreography or dance or movement. Without costumes, sets or decorations. Without performance of any kind – no one to entertain or enlighten us. No text or symbolic meaning, no poetry, no actor’s soaring rhetoric … nothing.
What are we left with? A cold, dark stadium of athletes standing in silence listening to politicians give speeches. As much as I love politics, that has to be one of the more depressing and Orwellian sights one could imagine.
Yet that is the world we seem to be contemplating as we start to face the real costs of a worldwide financial crisis triggered by the profligate greed of financiers not satisfied with just fleecing the world’s consumers.
Here in Vancouver, the effects are just starting to be felt as governments at all levels slash support for the arts.
Canadian $20 bill
To give credit where it’s due, the federal government got into the act first, demeaning the arts and its contribution to Canadian culture during the last election campaign. According to The Toronto Star:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has sparked a culture war in the federal election campaign with a claim that “ordinary people” don’t care about arts funding.
Under fire for his government’s $45 million in cuts to arts and culture funding, the Conservative leader yesterday said average Canadians have no sympathy for “rich” artists who gather at galas to whine about their grants.
“I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren’t high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I’m not sure that’s something that resonates with ordinary people,” Harper said in Saskatoon, where he was campaigning for the Oct. 14 election.
These comments caused a great hue and outcry, and audiences jammed all-candidate forums to discuss the arts and their importance to a country overwhelmed by a commercial culture to the south that is oblivious to our values, history and our place in the world.
Some went so far as to question how it’s even possible to assert Canadian sovereignty without a unifying culture that makes us that very thing – Canadian. Compounding irony upon irony, this question is actually inscribed on our Twenty-Dollar bill, in the words of Gabrielle Roy, one of Canada’s many internationally-celebrated writers: “Could we ever know each other in the slightest without the arts?” Nonetheless, Mr. Harper’s government was re-elected, and the cuts went ahead.
Surprisingly, the City of Vancouver joined in. As a longtime advocate for the arts, I was proud to take part in a civic election which confirmed the broad and unanimous agreement among all three major parties of the centrality of the arts to a healthy, vibrant society, and the unique importance of the arts to Vancouver’s emerging economy.
Device Sun
The party I ran for, the NPA, has a long history of strong support for the arts. The last council increased arts funding significantly and undertook a number of creative new initiatives. These include a new program of cultural tourism, the new post of Vancouver’s own Poet Laureate, public art programs, the international Vancouver Art Biennale now underway and Vancouver 125 – a cultural celebration of Vancouver’s 125th birthday in 2011.
The NPA also conducted a highly-successful, inclusive and consultative city-wide review of arts programs to streamline and reduce administration costs for granting programs while increasing funding. The NPA also approved a $150,000 study in an effort to help save the Pantages Theatre project.
Our main opponents during that election, Vision, agreed with our assessment of the arts’ centrality to a liveable, economically-vibrant, creative city. According to Gregor Robertson:
A world-class city needs to foster artistic creativity, and attract innovators from all sectors around the world. It’s time we ditched the red-tape, ‘no-fun city’ label and embraced a culture of creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation, to help our artistic and small-business sectors thrive in a competitive economy. Together, we will make Vancouver a creative capital in North America.
Vision campaign literature stated: “A successful city … invests in talent. It has the courage to reward creativity and celebrate innovation.”
Now, it wouldn’t really be fair to say they’ve done nothing for the arts. As their campaign literature proudly notes: ”Vision openly opposed arts funding cuts in the 2008 federal budget.” And I suspect they’ll make a show next week by ‘openly opposing’ the arts funding cuts in the new provincial budget as well.
But the motion we’re sure to see passing the next council criticizing the province will accomplish nothing more than reducing the arts to a political football useful only to those interested in scoring points against the BC Liberals. It will do nothing to provide leadership on the arts sector now so sadly lacking, and worse, it won’t do anything to put their money back where their mouth was during the campaign.
Incredibly, the Mayoral debate sponsored by the Alliance for the Arts between Peter Ladner and Gregor Robertson was actually billed as a debate about Gregor Robertson’s new plan for the arts. Unfortunately, we now know what his real plan was. But before the election, here’s what the Mayor promised:
Based in part on those campaign promises, Vision won a resounding political victory which presented a unique opportunity to bring the entire city together in a united effort to address the many challenges our city now confronts.
Instead, the Mayor appears to have emulated the Pythonesque political lunacy of Yes Minister, adopting Sir Humphrey’s motto: “In Defeat, Malice. In Victory, Revenge.” He could have dealt with the international financial crisis now rocking our world by seeking a broad consensus on the best way forward. But our Mayor chose to use the crisis and its impact on the Athlete’s Village to launch an attack on the already-defeated NPA, politicizing a situation resulting from mandates imposed by three different administrations. As a result of tactics like these, our City remains divided at the very time we face some of the most serious challenges in decades.
How do those challenges affect the Arts sector of our economy? That brings us to the Province. Last in, but taking the biggest kick at the can. I’m completely sympathetic to those elected officials handling our Province’s finances at a time of financial crisis and fin-de-siecle, epochal global change. Their first obligation has to be ensuring the province’s families have healthcare and education along with the other crucial services relied on by all.
Vancouver Conference Centre
But in recent years, we have spent billions of taxpayer dollars on infrastructure projects, including the spectacular new Conference Centre which was, ironically, built on land long promised for a public concert hall. Businesses have received millions more in tax reductions and direct subsidies. Hundreds of millions more are scheduled to pay for the new roof of the soccer stadium, a subsidy to benefit the private owners of the BC soccer franchise.
Yet once visitors get here for their conference, won’t they want to take in a play or a concert, the way tourists do in every other major city on earth? Who will be left to perform in our new retractable-roof stadium?
In general, tourism to Canada is sadly crashing, dashing our fond hopes for all those green, tourism-related service jobs. The aquarium I love is not enough. What will attract the tourists of the future to come here?
In the past two and half years, I’ve seen great artists perform in Vancouver that I was never able to afford in New York. During a recent performance by the Jerusalem String Quartet, I spoke to a woman who had flown all the way from Japan just to hear that performance! A friend who operates cultural tours in Europe tells me that business is booming. Why can’t we bring those tourists here?
Our vibrant arts economy has made Vancouver an international leader in film, music, game design and other related fields. Yet, according to the Globe and Mail, the provincial Arts Council budget is being reduced from a paltry $22 million – already one of the lowest per-capita in Canada – to some $2.2 million over the next two years. A 90% reduction.
I’m sorry, but that’s not a budget cut. It is a knife-edge applied to the throat of the arts in this province and inimical to the kind of province I want to live in.
In addition, two factors have combined to make the impact of what amounts to an all-out assault on arts funding even worse. The first is the way it’s been done, in what I can only describe as an irresponsible ‘now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t’ funding debacle:
Arts groups may get grants from two sources provincially – the BC Arts Council, and the Gaming / Lottery fund. There are strict conditions and they are reviewed by experts in each field.
Last March, the BC Arts Council announced it’s budget had been cut nearly in half, from $19 million to 11 million.
Within a month however, grant recipients were then told that they would get a supplemental grant from the Provincial budget surplus to make up most of the lost arts council funding.
Then all the Gaming funds were frozen, leaving many staff working unpaid over the dry summer months and hoping for a reprieve this fall.
In late August, arts groups then received three different letters – from the Arts Council, the Minister of Culture and from the Gaming Commission saying that they would receive their grants, but the monies would be paid through the Gaming accounts with restrictions making it harder to use the funds.
Then, recipients of the usual annual Gaming grants, who had been waiting since May to learn their fate, were told that they would receive no funds this year from Gaming grants.
A few days later, 534 groups who had previously received letters from the Gaming fund advising them of a multi-year commitment of funding, were told that, despite the freeze, they would actually receive their Gaming funds this year as promised.
That still left the majority of arts groups, those with no multi-year commitments, with no Lottery funds this year.
Confused? Consider how difficult it is for these cultural institutions to plan for the next week, let alone their usual five-year window.
Where does this leave the arts groups in Vancouver? Internationally-celebrated gems like the Vancouver Art Gallery or the Grammy-award winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra? This year, now that the dust has settled, many are OK. But next year, they face the prospect of a 92% cut in Provincial funding in the very year the world will be coming to our doors expecting to celebrate our cultural diversity.
The second factor aggravating this crisis is the timing. On top of severe government cutbacks, Arts groups are already taking it on the chin thanks to our new Great Recession:
Individual donations are holding, but trends are worrying because of the economic environment.
Business sponsorships for the Olympics are dropping like flies. Can you imagine what business support for the arts is like in this environment?
Ticket subscriptions – the financial lifeline of all arts organizations – for the largest institutions are doing OK, but are a challenge for smaller groups. People are buying tickets, but to fewer events and buying cheaper seats, so overall revenues are down.
The foundations where most well-run organizations keep their endowments have taken a severe hit, facing arts groups with the devil’s choice of going without endowment income this year or having to dip into principal to maintain their budget.
And finally, the fact that the province waited until after the election to tell these groups they weren’t getting anything this year leaves many arts organizations in the red with no time to balance their budget before the end of their fiscal year – for most, the end of August. That unavoidable deficit will now make them ineligible for funding from the Canada Council and other granting agencies this coming year, setting in motion a cascading devastation to the arts sector that will unfold for years to come.
Where is the leadership we need? Our core arts institutions in the City of Vancouver are in crisis. To preserve their viability and badly-needed contribution to our economy and the city’s livability, there must be a non-partisan arts summit that brings together the Arts Alliance, the Vancouver Board of Trade, all three levels of government, arts organizations, granting bodies and foundations to work out a plan to help these core cultural assets survive until the economy recovers. Above all they need predictability and stability.
The Enlightenment happened centuries ago, but it is not, as some think, a fixed event in history that automatically innoculates all subsequent societies forever more. The commitment to Reason and Science, the Arts and Democratic ideals, to the Enlightenment itself, must be renewed by every civilization, each generation, by every person in fact, one individual at a time.
At the moment, those prospects appear to be dimming in the City of Vancouver.
Last Wednesday, August 26, just after noon, a mother and her baby were run down by a truck as they crossed Expo Boulevard at the intersection with Abbott Street here in Tinseltown. The mother is recovering in hospital with serious injuries, but tragically, her two-year old daughter was killed.
The driver of the tow truck, like much of the traffic in this area, was just passing through, turning right onto Expo from Abbott. He’s been questioned by police and released as they continue their investigation. “Police go to a lot of tragic situations, but there are very few that impact you like the death of a child,” Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness told the Vancouver Sun.
That impact is being felt throughout our neighbourhood, from Paris Place all the way to Citygate. A member of our Keefer Community Group is also a young mother and was horrified to witness the accident while out walking with her beautiful girl.
She told me she can’t get the accident out of her mind: ”We have crossed that street many, many times and have dealt with the large amount of traffic and aggressive drivers. Just a few weeks ago while we were out on a walk I counted the number of vehicles that went through solid red lights at that exact corner…. my total was 5.”
The child that died had already touched countless lives – she was known to many in the community – and this needless accident has touched thousands more. With effort, this tragic death might have been avoided. With action now, future accidents can be prevented.
We’ve seen a dramatic increase in the population of this neighbourhood. Firenze, Espana and Woodwards have added six new, high-rise towers to our community along with thousands of residents and greatly increased pedestrian and vehicle traffic. The Skytrain Stadium station also brings thousands of pedestrians to our area every day as they commute to work, go to the movies at Tinseltown Mall, buy groceries at T&T Market, eat at the many great restaurants or to watch games and concerts at BC and GM Place.
The increased population and swarms of visitors is great for local businesses. It has also added to the city’s coffers through development permits and a large increase in the tax base. But the city has done nothing to accommodate the new residents, drivers and throngs of visitors despite repeated requests by area residents.
I spoke to the City’s Traffic Department on behalf of the Keefer Community Group months ago about these concerns. I pointed out the greatly increased foot and car traffic in our area and the way drivers are racing through Abbott Street as the artery of choice connecting Pacific and Expo Boulevard to all points north, east and west. I expressed very real concern about the serious potential for a pedestrian accident based on many near-misses I’ve witnessed myself.
The mother from our community group also wrote City Hall: “I have sent two e-mails off to the city and spoken to one employee about the lack of a crosswalk at Keefer Place and Taylor street…no stop signs and not even a painted crosswalk. It is a busy street that people use often to get to a well-used bus stop and to Andy Livingston Park. So far I haven’t had an e-mail returned or actually spoken to a person in the correct department…I will keep trying.”
What is the traffic plan for this area? Where are the traffic calming measures necessary to ensure the safety of our residents, given the dramatic increase in traffic?
Where are the signs on Expo warning cars of the pedestrian crossing at Abbott? Where is the crosswalk on Keefer Place at Taylor allowing residents safe access to Andy Livingston Park?
We also need to solve the bottleneck created by the offset parking entrances to Espana and Paris Place between Keefer and Pender on Abbott. And there should be a crosswalk there as well, to accommodate the constant thread of pedestrians racing across the traffic to get to the mall.
Like many other neighbourhoods in the city, Tinseltown is going through growing pains that have been ignored for too long. Local community groups know our area’s problems best. If the City would start listening, we could work together to address the very real livability issues in our area and make the entire neighbourhood safer.
In Tinseltown we’re still waiting, as families across the area mourn a little girl who fell victim to the traffic racing heedless through our crowded streets.
Donations can be made to the Kazama family victim’s trust account at any branch of Coast Capital Savings. Police are asking witnesses to the accident to call the collision investigation unit at 604-717-3012.
A mother and her daughter were struck by a tow truck at Abbott Street and Expo Boulevard on Wednesday.
Photograph by: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Sun
A two-year-old girl is dead after a tow truck struck a mother and her toddler while they were crossing the street in downtown Vancouver.
The accident happened at the corner of Abbott Street and Expo Boulevard in front of General Motors Place shortly after noon on Wednesday. Police say the truck was turning right onto Expo Boulevard when it struck the mother, who was pushing her child in a stroller.
The child died at the scene.
The 32-year-old mother was taken to hospital with serious injuries. As of Wednesday evening, she was in stable condition and expected to survive.
“Police go to a lot of tragic situations, but there are very few that impact you like the death of a child,” said Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness. “When you’re a first responder — whether you’re police, fire, or ambulance — you’re not prepared for something like this. And if you’re a parent as well, it resonates deeply with you.”
It was unclear whether the mother and the toddler were in the crosswalk when they were struck, or who had the right of way.
Police covered the baby carriage and toddler with a white blanket before the body was removed around 3:30 p.m. The truck, a white Ford F750 with a 21-foot flat deck capable of towing two cars at once, remained at the accident scene Wednesday afternoon.
A phone number posted on the side of the truck reaches a voice mailbox for a man who identifies himself as William Mah.
The phone number is also included in online classified ads listing the truck as for sale. One classified ad, posted Tuesday, says the truck is in “excellent condition with maintenance and servicing up to date.”
Reached Wednesday afternoon, a man who identified himself as Mah’s father said his son, who owns a towing company, was admitted to hospital on Wednesday.
In 1994, a William Mah was dismissed from his job as a coach cleaner with Via Rail after two incidents of alleged sleeping on the job. An arbitrator’s ruling over a subsequent union grievance held that Mah is a diabetic, and that the condition was impacting his work performance. The ruling noted Mah was running an auto towing business while working for Via Rail.
Police would not confirm whether Mah was driving the truck when it struck the woman, but said the driver is cooperating with the investigation.
“At this stage, it’s way too early to say if we are looking at charges or anything like that,” McGuinness said. “We need to go through the investigation first and learn all the facts.”
The crossing where the child died runs between GM Place and a condominium construction site.
Jordan Kryzanowski was in his condo across the street when the accident happened. When he looked out his window and saw a baby carriage flipped over in the street, he was immediately concerned for his wife, who was out with their two boys, ages one and four.
“I just heard all the ambulances and fire trucks,” he said. “I called her and I said to myself, ‘Pick up the phone, pick up the phone.’”
His wife, Rejoice Kryzanowski, was down the street from the accident when it occurred. She said drivers in the area often don’t pay enough attention to pedestrians.
“My heart goes out to the family today, but it shouldn’t have happened. It sends chills,” she said. “[Drivers] have put a stop to this. In crosswalks, slow down.”
ICBC claims statistics show that there have been roughly 60 motor vehicle accidents at the intersection between 2004 and 2008. Twenty-five of these crashes were considered severe casualties, which means they resulted in injury or death. ICBC would not say how many of these accidents were fatalities.
The remaining incidents involved property damage.
A preliminary look at city statistics shows one pedestrian accident and about 100 motor vehicle accidents at the intersection over the past eight years, said Jerry Dobrovolny, an assistant city engineer.
“That isn’t unusual for downtown,” Dobrovolny said of the numbers. “We are taking a closer look at that data obviously because of the situation.”
Police have charged former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing…
Twenty three years ago, when I left Vancouver for New York, EXPO 86 was just about to begin. A year later, Concord Pacific began the transformation of False Creek North from an industrial wasteland into a modern, vibrant, award-winning community – one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in North American history. In the process, their pedestal-style buildings helped redefine urban planning around the globe and garnered wide-spread praise for our livable urban core.
False Creek Seawall (credit to theonesIlove.wordpress.com)
If you visit the City of Vancouver online, you can see page after page of bright, glossy photographs of pristine seawall and fulsome praise for the noteworthy development. They also list all of the amenities promised by the developer in return for the opportunity of developing the Expo lands as one contiguous project.
Fast forward twenty-two years to today, unfortunately, and the story starts to lose its lustre, because many of the promised amenities have not been delivered. The promised 35-foot-wide contiguous seawall is still not complete. Instead
of the long-promised Creekside Park, we have a Concorde Pacific showroom and acres of asphalt rented out to the highest bidder. Adding insult to injury, Concorde has operated an illegal junkyard right on the water’s edge, with acres of wire fencing and razor wire surrounding rusting metal forms, filthy shipping containers stacked two high, and junk and debris as far as the eye can see.
It’s hiding in plain sight, right next to BC Place and GM Place – two of the most important Olympic venues. Is this really the view that Concord Pacific wants visitors to take away with them? Do they really want their brand associated with a junk heap? The False Creek Residents Association has been trying for years to get them to clean up the area, but it remains covered in garbage decades later.
Regardless of whether the developer cares about the damage done to their brand every day people run, walk and cycle past this eyesore, the City and VANOC should care greatly because it will become one of the iconic images of Vancouver the world round if it’s not taken down soon.
If news reports are to be believed, the police are handing out an unprecedented number of tickets on the Downtown Eastside, in what critics allege is an effort to “clean up” the area before tourists arrive and see the squalid living conditions of some of the city’s less fortunate.
Perhaps they should turn their attention towards the illegal junkyard destroying views, polluting the water and blocking waterfront access right at the gates to the Olympics themselves. People have been asking nicely for years.
On Sunday, Tom and I walked over to Gastown to check out the blocks of spectacular hogs and other two-wheeled denizens on display for the Gastown Show and Shine
Sadly, though, the original promises to the City of Vancouver have still not been kept and Creekside Park still isn’t built. To the contrary, it’s covered with asphalt leaching pollutants into False Creek. And the seawall is nothing more than a narrow strip of crumbling pavement, bordered on one side by a rusting junkyard of environmentally hazardous construction equipment, and on the other by rusting razor wire and chain link fence. It is, to put it kindly, an eyesore.
First, we have to leave room all along the much longer waterfront section of the now sideways park for the 35′ seawall. So let’s just cut away a strip for the seawall, like so.
Twenty years ago, Concord Pacific promised to build 
Last Friday, Conan O’Brian was 
I’m sorry, but that’s not a budget cut. It is a knife-edge applied to the throat of the arts in this province and inimical to the kind of province I want to live in.
Where does this leave the arts groups in Vancouver? Internationally-celebrated gems like the 
of the long-promised Creekside Park, we have a Concorde Pacific showroom and acres of asphalt rented out to the highest bidder. Adding insult to injury, Concorde has operated an illegal junkyard right on the water’s edge, with acres of wire fencing and razor wire surrounding rusting metal forms, filthy shipping containers stacked two high, and junk and debris as far as the eye can see.
Pacific wants visitors to take away with them? Do they really want their brand associated with a junk heap? The False Creek Residents Association has been trying for years to get them to clean up the area, but it remains covered in garbage decades later.
If news reports are to be believed, the 
On Sunday, Tom and I walked over to Gastown to check out the blocks of spectacular hogs and other two-wheeled denizens on display for the 