Programs

May 2011

MOVments
Posted by: Erin Brown John on May 30, 2011 at 3:40 pm

Homelessness. The numbers are in. Initial results from the 2011 homelessness count indicate that street homelessness is down in Vancouver, though there has not been a change across the Metro Vancouver region overall. This is causing some to question whether or not the massive investment in dealing with homelessness over the past three years has had an effect.

The results do however suggest that low-barrier shelters are having an impact and are seeing a higher level of use. While First Nations people still make up a disproportionately high proportion of homeless, the number of First Nations people who are homeless appears to be dropping. Youth are better represented in this year’s count, though it’s hard to say if this is due to an increase in homelessness among youth or a more accurate count.

What will be the future of the Hornby bike lane? Researchers are in the process of studying it’s impacts on the local community. Geoff Meggs says the City did not do a good enough job of communicating the need for cycling infrastructure to Vancouverites.

The City is once again looking for public input about transportation and looking for more ways to get people out of their cars

Viaducts. What’s in store for the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts? re:place looks at the future of the viaducts and offers some suggestions.

U-Pass. Translink is threatening to discontinue the U-Pass program if it continues to lose money to U-Pass theft and fraud. But Stephen Rees reminds us that the U-Pass program was never sustainable in the first place.

Hockey riot. As we head toward the Stanley Cup finals, the Tyee presents an alternative view on the 1994 hockey riot and how we became the ‘no fun city.’

Bike watch. A cool idea via Gordon Price, Vancouver Bike Watch lets riders report road hazards, stolen bikes and collisions.

Affordability. Bob Rennie says Vancouver really isn’t that unaffordable if you ignore the prices at the top fifth of the market.

Image: chris.huggins via flickr

Tags
MOVments, homelessness, bike lanes, viaducts, transit, U-pass, housing, cycling, riot
MOVments
Posted by: Erin Brown John on May 23, 2011 at 3:53 pm

How the internet kills great neighbourhoods. More on the demise of Videomatica and other businesses that give our city character.

Viaducts. re:place continues it’s series about the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts, focusing this week on the present condition of the structure and a photoessay.

Housing. Vancouver’s real estate is now more expensive than New York and London. A new wave of foreign investment and speculation is driving prices up again, and some fear that there aren’t enough high-paying jobs to support the prices.

Industrial Land. We’ve all heard about protecting farmland and the ALR but demand for housing has put industrial land and the jobs that go with it under threat too.

Olympic Village. The deficiencies are being worked on and the units are finally selling. The City has received it’s first payment from condo sales since taking over the project.

Urban gardens. The Vancouver Sun looks at a couple urban gardens and green spaces around Vancouver.

Urban dance. An SFU student is the recipient of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau scholarship for her interdisciplinary work studying the effects of public dance performance in urban spaces.

Tolls on local roads? It’s under consideration.

A pool at Pigeon Park?

Image: Eryne Donahue and Neil Fletcher via the Vancouver Observer.

Tags
MOVments, city planning, housing, viaducts, Olympic Village, community gardens, Downtown Eastside, public space, performance art
MOVments
Posted by: Erin Brown John on May 16, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Cambie Corridor. The City of Vancouver approved development plans for five distinct neighbourhoods along the Cambie Corridor. The plan outlines plans for increased density, design of public space and amenities and integration with district energy systems, biomass, sewer heat recovery and geothermal exchange.

Insite. The fate of Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection site went before the Supreme Court this week. The facility operates under a special exemption granted by the federal government that seems unlikely to be renewed by the Conservative Government. The Globe and Mail provides a summary of arguments for and against and OpenFile has compiled a history of the site.

Usufruct. The word of the day is usufruct. It means using empty lots that you don’t own for farming.

SlutWalk. In spite of the rain a thousand people showed up for the Vancouver SlutWalk yesterday. The walk followed a remark by a Toronto police officer that insinuated that victims of sexual assaults are responsible for their victimization because of the way they dress.

Viaducts. re:place has begun a series on the past, present and future of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts. The first installments look at the past and photos of the original viaduct, built in 1915.

Gondola. No longer idle speculation, Translink is hosting public consultations about the possibility of building a gondola to SFU’s Burnaby Mountain campus.

Bike sharing. The City of Vancouver is looking for expressions of interest into a public bike sharing program, likely funded through sponsorship or user fees.

Image: eych-you-bee-ee-ahr-tee, via flickr.

Tags
MOVments, SlutWalk, public demonstrations, Cambie Corridor, Insite, urban gardening, public space, viaducts, transit, cycling
MOVments
Posted by: Erin Brown John on May 9, 2011 at 4:03 pm

Expo 86 began this time 25 years ago. The Dependent remembers it’s first day.

Online voting. Vancouver city council approved a motion to allow online voting in the upcoming municipal elections. If approved by the B.C. Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, Vancouver will be the first municipality to allow online voting.

Videomatica. The Venerable film rental store, Videomatica will be closing shortly. Since 1983 the store has offered the widest selection of titles in Vancouver but has been suffering from competition from internet downloads. The owners are looking at finding a way to keep their collection available to the public in the future.

Ardea Books and Art is the latest indie bookstore to close.

Goodbye, W2 Storyeum. The Vancouver Film School has replaced W2 Community Arts as the tenants of the Storyeum building. During W2’s tenure the space hosted many arts and cultural events and will be missed in the local arts and culture community. W2 has now moved into it’s space in the Woodwards Building.

The last post. Derek Miller, author of the blog Penmachine succumbed to cancer this week. News of his passing reverberated across the blogosphere and his last post, aptly named “The last post” has had 8 million hits. He will be missed.

Architecture awards. Two buildings by the late Arthur Erickson have been awarded the prestigious Prix du XXe Siècle Award for ‘enduring excellence in Canadian architecture’.

Cambie Corridor. Stephen Rees looks at the difficult considerations surrounding increasing density around Canada Line stations while the Canada Line is already near capacity.

Image: gmcmullen via flickr

Tags
MOVments, Expo, elections, Videomatica, W2 Community Media Arts, Derek Miller, Penmachine, architecture, Arthur Erickson, Cambie Corridor, city planning
MOVments
Posted by: Erin Brown John on May 2, 2011 at 7:16 am

News this week has been unsurprisingly dominated by federal elections coverage, but staying Vancouver arts, culture and history-centric, there was actually a lot of news this week about affordable housing.

We’ve heard a lot about the affordable housing problem from renters and housing advocates, but now the BC Apartment Owners and Managers Association is joining in, calling for new government incentives for purpose-built rental housing.

The remand centre is being converted from a facility to hold prisoners awaiting trial to affordable housing for the Downtown East Side. Council approved rezoning to allow the Coast Plaza Hotel to be converted into rental housing, though no word on exactly when that would happen.

Cambie Corridor. Re:place has an interview with Brent Toderian, Vancouver’s director of planning, about the Cambie Corridor.

One building’s waste is another’s energy. Waste heat from a Vancouver rink is now being used to incubate plants in city-run nurseries and greenhouses, reducing the City of Vancouver’s carbon emissions overall.

Olympic Village. It looks like there’s no end in sight for the situation between unhappy Olympic Village owners and the City of Vancouver.

Bhangra! We’re really excited to be finally unveiling our Bhangra.me exhibit this Wednesday! If you have the chance, check out the City of Bhangra this week and next.

Tags
Bhangra, Cambie Corridor, Downtown Eastside, energy retrofits, exhibits, laneway houses, MOVments, Olympic Village