Granville, Robson Square among key areas to be activated for public:

Back by popular demand, the City of Vancouver’s VIVA Vancouver program kicks off this summer, transforming street spaces like Granville and Robson Square into inviting temporary public spaces where people can stop, sit and relax, hang out with friends and meet their neighbours.

“Building on the success and popularity of last year’s family-friendly program, VIVA Vancouver will once again re-imagine our streets in innovative new ways,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “We know there’s huge demand from the public to get out and enjoy our public spaces, and to do it in new and creative ways.

“Building strong business and community partnerships is an important objective of the VIVA Vancouver program, and I want to thank all of our partner organizations who will help bring our streets to life this summer.”

The free program capitalizes on Vancouverites’ love of the outdoors by promoting a culture of walking and spending time outside in vibrant urban settings across the city. VIVA Vancouver provides people of all ages with opportunities to enjoy themselves all summer long through new pop-up plazas, pop-up decks, and pedestrian streets featuring local arts and culture. VIVA Vancouver differs from car-free days that are one-day, large-scale events.

VIVA Vancouver and its key partners, the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) and TransLink, are working with several other local community and business organizations to deliver an exciting program.

“We’ve learned you can’t just ‘build it and they will come,’” says Charles Gauthier, Executive Director of the DVBIA, of Granville Street. “VIVA Vancouver has been a great partnership to actively manage the street as a temporary public space. We look forward to another great summer.”

Temporary public spaces and activations planned for this summer include those listed below. VIVA Vancouver will continue to work with communities and business organizations to add other opportunities throughout the summer.

• As in 2011, downtown Granville Street (between Smithe and Hastings streets) will be transformed into a pedestrian corridor with full road closures on weekends. Between June 23 and Labour Day (September 3), VIVA Granville will feature community events and other unique activations for people to enjoy.
• The 800-block of Robson Street, between the Provincial Law Courts and the Vancouver Art Gallery, will become a temporary pedestrian plaza with full road closures every day between June 23 and Labour Day. It will include a unique seating installation called Pop Rocks.
• On-street murals will be painted on the asphalt in Marpole, West End and Mt. Pleasant, with help from community members. This is being done as part of the community planning process in the West End and Marpole and supports Mt. Pleasant’s existing Community Plan.
• Livable Laneways market series, featuring local art, live music and food returns to Mt. Pleasant for three Saturday evenings: July 21, July 28 and August 4.
• Parallel Park, a pop-up deck, will remain in place in Mt. Pleasant at E. 14th and Main. A new pop-up deck, called Hot Tubs, will be introduced in the South Hill area.

VIVA Vancouver encourages sustainable and active transportation by creating safer and more interesting spaces for walking and cycling. It aligns with Vancouver’s Transportation Plan and Greenest City 2020 Action Plan objectives.

Visit VIVA Vancouver to learn more about what’s happening across the city this summer!

“As Vancouver and cities across Canada face the challenge of an aging population, we need to be ensuring that seniors receive the support they need to remain strong and healthy members of our families and our communities,” said Mayor Robertson. “This motion will help the City of Vancouver to better identify seniors in crisis and provide the best possible assistance to residents with dementia and their families. I hope it will receive unanimous support from City Council.”

Currently, one in eight Vancouver residents is over the age of 65, and one in eleven Canadians over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia. Cities such as Toronto are developing policy for front-line city staff who regularly interact with seniors, helping them identify the signs of dementia and trained to provide assistance as needed.

The motion calls for the City to examine ways it can improve its support for seniors in coordination with a number of its departments, stakeholders and partners, before reporting back to Council. These include (but are not limited to) social development staff, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, the Seniors and Disability Advisory Committees, the Park Board, the Alzheimer’s Society of BC, and Vancouver Coastal Health.

“As a leading non-profit organization providing support, education, better dementia care and research funding to find the cures of dementia, we are encouraged by this proposed motion,” said Jean Blake, CEO, Alzheimer Society of B.C. “It is reassuring to know that our community leaders in Vancouver are seeing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia as an important issue, to know that there is co-operative leadership in ensuring the families impacted by dementia are supported, and we hope to see this occur in every B.C. community.”

To read the full motion from Councillor Tony Tang, please click here

Affordable housing consistently ranks as a top concern amongst Vancouver residents, and re:THINK Housing seeks to generate big, bold and innovative ideas for new affordable housing.

“Affordable housing is one of the toughest challenges we face in Vancouver, and we need fresh, bold thinking in terms of how we build affordable options for the people who live and work in our city,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “This competition is an important step to getting dynamic, maybe even controversial ideas into the public realm and hearing directly from our citizens.”

Building on the success of the re:CONNECT ideas competition, in which the City fielded concepts for the Viaducts and False Creek Flats, re:THINK Housing will solicit ideas for site-specific locations in Vancouver, as well as smaller, replicable solutions for neighbourhoods throughout the city.

Applicants may submit proposals for public or private land in two categories: Building Bold, and Vibrant Neighbourhoods. Each proposal must explain how affordability will be maintained over the long term without government subsidy. It should also include ideas on how a project would protect and enhance green space; integrate with neighbourhoods; and be financially viable.

Winners will be selected by a five-member jury from the Mayor’s Task Force on Affordable Housing and the public will be able to vote online for their favorites in early July.

Winning submissions will be announced in late July, and a total of $8,000 in prize money will be distributed to the winners as selected by the jury. All winners will see their ideas published in Spacing Magazine.

As part of the new community planning processes and in support of re:THINK Housing, storytelling nights based on the theme “There’s No Place Like Home” are being held in three Vancouver neighbourhoods. The events, which are free and open to all Vancouverites, aim to inspire, entertain and motivate thinking about housing and community. The first one was held Tuesday night in Marpole, and two more are upcoming:

• Grandview-Woodland:  Friday, May 11, 7 – 10 pm, WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac Street 
• Register at:  gwplanlaunch.eventbrite.ca
• West End:  Thursday, May 10, 7 – 10 pm, Denman Theatre, 1737 Comox Street
• Register at:  westendplanlaunch.eventbrite.ca

>> For more information on re:THINK Vancouver, please visit vancouver.ca/rethink

In a 9-1 vote today, Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vancouver City Council passed a motion for city staff and the Vancouver Economic Commission to report back on the benefits and risks of a proposed pipeline expansion, and develop a bylaw that would protect Vancouver from the immense costs and risk of potential oil spills in or near our harbour.

US oil giant Kinder Morgan has announced $5 billion plans to twin their TransMountain Pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby, which would result in a fivefold increase in oil-tanker traffic through Vancouver. This would force at least 25-30 large oil tankers through our harbour every month (300-360 tankers arriving and departing every year).

The risks are obvious and enormous: a worst-case scenario oil spill would have disastrous consequences for our local environment and marine habitat, not to mention the potential for major job losses resulting from lost tourism and other economic activity.

As one of the City’s first steps in what will be a long process, staff will prepare a bylaw to ensure that Vancouver taxpayers and small businesses aren’t left on the hook for billions of dollars in the event of a worst-case oil spill in or near Vancouver harbour.

The maximum liability funding from industry for clean-up and damages in the aftermath of an oil spill in Canadian waters is just $1.33 billion.

This is despite the $3.5 billion costs since 1989 of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and the alarming costs of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which are estimated to be approaching $100 billion.

Closer to home, studies have estimated the potential cost of an oil spill on BC’s North Coast at between $5.2 billion and $22.7 billion – and the economic damage from a spill near an urban centre such as Vancouver would be substantially higher.

The motion passed today reflect’s the Mayor’s view that Vancouver should take every possible action to protect our taxpayers from the risks and costs of a worst-case crude oil spill.

Click below to see the Mayor’s original motion (before one addition in Council today), and please take a moment to share this post and spread the word:

Oil Spill Protection Bylaw

Recent Oil Tanker Traffic Through Vancouver:

2007 – 37 tankers
2008 – 42
2009 – 65
2010 – 69
2011 – 32

2017 – 300-360 tankers (Kinder Morgan estimates)

By

Around lunchtime on July 24, 2007, a construction crew working near the Barnet Highway in Burnaby accidentally punctured an oil pipeline operated by Kinder Morgan.

A geyser of thick crude oil shot into the air spraying houses, trees, cars and people – and sending 70,000 litres of oil spilling through the storm sewers into the waters of Burrard Inlet. That oil affected 17 kilometres of shoreline; animals from migratory birds to sea stars and barnacles were heavily fouled.

As oil spills go, that’s considered minor.

Today, Kinder Morgan wants to nearly triple its pipeline’s capacity. Its $5-billion proposal will see a tanker passing in and out of Burrard Inlet almost every day – a four-to-fivefold increase in oil-tanker traffic through Vancouver’s narrow harbour.

For Kinder Morgan, the benefits are obvious: a dramatic increase in the amount of oil they can move to market from the Alberta oilsands project.

But for Vancouver, it’s hard to find any upside. And in a city where our reputation as a beautiful, clean destination is a huge competitive advantage, it’s far too easy to find enormous danger.

A single accident with one oil tanker could cause irreversible devastation — to our ecosystem, to our economy and to our international reputation.

Our city is bounded on many sides – and in many ways defined – by shoreline: from the working harbour, to Stanley Park and our world-famous beaches, to the world’s largest salmon-bearing river — the Fraser.

That helps to make our city beautiful for its residents, and irresistible to tourists. It’s part of what brands us around the world as a green and livable city. And our shoreline supports a rich web of life. Now drop 10,000 deadweight tons of oil — a modest-sized tanker’s cargo — into that web.

Critics might call this fearmongering — but given what’s at stake with even a minor spill, it’s irresponsible to not consider this scenario.

Think of images beamed worldwide, showing oil-fouled seals, herons and Canada geese on the crude-blackened sand at English Bay and Kits Beach. The damage to Vancouver tourism and our destination brand would be exceeded only by the toll on our local marine habitat.

As Vancouver’s mayor, how could I ever support allowing a single, polluting industry — especially one with nearly no jobs in this city — to put Vancouver’s thriving economy and global reputation at such serious risk?

I can’t imagine doing that — creating enormous risk to tens of thousands of local jobs in tourism, hospitality, development and clean technology, and undermining our success in the world’s fastest-growing industries in the green economy.

Yes we already have oil tankers, but they are focused on local markets. Unfortunately that oil is shipped to California to be refined, and then shipped back to B.C. — minus the jobs our local refineries once had. This activity wiped out B.C. refinery jobs and continues to put our environment at risk with every oil tanker.

But Kinder Morgan is proposing massive crude oil exports that bypass local refineries, magnify the risk to our economy and environment, and ignore Canada’s long-term domestic oil needs.

This is all happening against the backdrop of an abrupt weakening of the federal environmental review process. Which means Kinder Morgan’s proposal will face far less scrutiny, and our communities will have much less time to give it the hard looking-over it deserves.

That’s why we’ve been advocating a broad, intense consultation by the National Energy Board. And it’s why we’ve called on Ottawa to bring local governments to the table, along with firm guarantees that industry must bear 100 per cent of the risks and costs of a spill.

We’ve seen what oil disasters look like, at a small scale in Burnaby and a large scale with the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

If we don’t want to see history repeated on Vancouver’s shores, we need to speak out now.

These grants will support a diverse variety of institutions and programs, ranging from festivals, theatres, museums, galleries and arts facilities to programs supporting visual and media arts, music, dance, and arts education.

“Vancouver is proud to support such a robust and diverse offering of cultural programs in every corner of our city,” said Mayor Robertson. “These cultural programs and institutions support the growth of Vancouver’s vibrant creative economy and the jobs it develops and sustains, and they help us better understand and express our unique character and history as a city.”

The grants will support 164 organizations across Vancouver.

For the full report to Council with details on individual grants, please click here:
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20120417/documents/cfsc2.pdf

Last night at a Public Hearing, Mayor Robertson and City Council also approved a development project Drake and Howe which will create 10,872 sq. ft. of new artist studio space. $850,000 has also been secured for operating costs at this new affordable and fully fit and finished arts space, which is anticipated to support the work of at least 20 Vancouver artists.

For further details on the project, please click here (pp. 7-9):
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20120327/documents/p3.pdf

Following several nights of public hearings on the project, Mayor Robertson and council directed staff to make several changes to the development based on concerns from the public about the size and shape of the building. Prior to a development permit being issued, the building applicant must work with staff to:

•  Reduce the size of the front of the building on Broadway;
•  Improve the pedestrian experience on Broadway in front of the building;
•  Create smaller scale and expression on all facades.

Mayor Robertson, in his comments to city council today, laid out three reasons why he was supporting the project:

• It fits with the Mt Pleasant Community Plan: the location of this development is at Kingsway and East Broadway, which is one of just three sites identified by the community plan for a taller building. It doesn’t set a precedent for the rest of the neighbourhood in terms of height or density.

The Mt Pleasant Community Plan was developed over two years starting in the summer of 2008, and was approved by city council in November 2010. You can read it here: http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/cpp/mountpleasant/pdf/MPcommunityplan.pdf

• It supports transit-oriented development: Building taller buildings with higher density at transit hubs is a key part of how we build a greener city. Main and Broadway is a future location for rapid transit out to UBC, and it makes sense to build a taller building at this location.

On east tenth, one of the busiest bike routes in the City, car traffic will be reduced by converting the street to one way, and installing a separated bike lane. As well, the ground-level retail in the development is to be a large food co-op.

• It secures major investment in the arts and affordable housing. By building a taller building at one of three designated sites in Mt Pleasant, the City gets the following community amenity contributions:
• $4.5 million in money for community-based arts in Mt Pleasant
• $1.75 million for affordable housing in Mt Pleasant

It’s important to remember that under the current zoning, the developer could build a 150 foot building, with no amenities – no money for arts, no funding for affordable housing – without having to come to city council.

Instead, with the project passed by council today, the city gets a major housing development that supports transit, invests $4.5 million for arts and $1.75 million for affordable housing in Mt Pleasant, and allows City Council to give direction over the size and form of the building.

The unique feature of the Fund is that it will actively involve the entire community in Vancouver’s greenest city goals, by supporting ideas generated and implemented by the community.

Over the next four years, the $2 million Greenest City Fund will support youth-led initiatives, neighbourhood-based projects created by residents, and green programs developed by charitable organizations.

“It’s not easy being green,” said Gord MacDougall, Chair of the Vancouver Foundation Board. “And it’s not easy becoming the world’s greenest city. It takes effort. It takes a willingness to try new things. Sometimes it even takes a bit of extra money. Most of all, it takes the commitment and involvement of the entire community.”

“With this Greenest City Fund, we not only team up with the Vancouver Foundation, we also get to collaborate with residents and community organizations on our goal to become the greenest city in the world,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Our aim is to stimulate green innovation, encourage local solutions, and build new community connections, and I’m thrilled that the City is teaming up with the Vancouver Foundation to make this project happen.”

The Fund is the result of a March 2009 report developed by the Greenest City Action Team. That report made a series of Quick Start recommendations, including the creation of a fund that would enable the City to combine its resources with other organizations and individuals to support community-based green projects.

Vancouver Foundation, Canada’s largest community foundation, offered to partner and contribute an equal amount to launch the Fund. The Foundation will also administer the grants with the help of community advisory committees.

The Fund will support projects that address one or more of the following Greenest City Action goals:
• Local Food: Increasing local food supply
• Climate and Green Buildings: Reducing energy use
• Green Transportation: Enabling active transportation
• Zero Waste: Increasing composting, re-use and recycling
• Access to Nature: Increasing the urban forest, creating habitat and natural spaces
• Clean Water: Conserving drinking water
• Green Economy: Supporting social enterprises and greening businesses

The funds will be allocated in three separate granting programs:
• Greenest City Generation Green Grants (for youth)
• Greenest City Neighbourhood Small Grants (for residents)
• Greenest City Community Grants (for charities).

The Greenest City Fund will officially launch on April 25.

Find out more at:  www.vancouverfoundation.ca/greenestcity

“This new housing project will provide safe, supportive housing that is desperately needed for some of our most marginalized women in Vancouver,” said Mayor Robertson. “This is the kind of creative housing partnership we need in Vancouver, and I’m hopeful that City Council will unanimously support it next week.”

The housing will be managed by Atira Women’s Resource Society, which provides counseling, legal advocacy, addictions recovery and employment training. The City investment will finish construction on a 12-unit affordable modular housing project; project sponsors include BC Hydro and MC Quarters, who have provided four of the modular units. One of the units from BC Hydro was named ‘The House of the Future’ due to its energy efficiency, and was on display during the 2010 Winter Games.

To read the council report, click here:  http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20120417/documents/a5.pdf