Vancouver’s natural beauty is worth protecting. Our children not only need places to play, but also places to enjoy and explore nature. We all need places of tranquil refuge from our busy lives. The animals and birds that help make our city lives enjoyable need places to nest and raise their young.
People and nature in balance is my vision for our parks and recreation system.
With the evenings getting
darker and the air crisp and cool, the lights and displays offer an
exciting and fun way to experience the beauty of VanDusen, under the
spell of Halloween.
Vancouver Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon
October 16 2019
Embrace the Halloween spirit at VanDusen Glow in the Garden, an enchanted stroll through the lit-up display gardens.
Glow in the Garden takes place every evening from October 17 to 27
with three one-hour time slots (5pm, 6:30pm, and 8pm). This year, a new
light show with a wildlife and nature theme has been added to the unique
displays and magical moments suitable for visitors of all ages.
“VanDusen Glow in the Garden is fantastic way to see the gardens,
decorated and lit up to embrace the Halloween spirit, and enchantment of
fall,” said Vancouver Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon.
“With the
evenings getting darker and the air crisp and cool, the lights and
displays offer an exciting and fun way to experience the beauty of
VanDusen, under the spell of Halloween.”
A “hootenanny” spell has been cast
For this year’s theme, the old barred owl has played a Halloween
trick by casting a “hootenanny” spell and making everything glow.
Visitors can help Anna the hummingbird and her friends lift the spell as
they journey through the garden. Kids can collect six stamps at the
Glow zones and redeem them for a small prize at the bootique located
inside the Visitor Centre halls.
Buy tickets in advance
VanDusen Glow in the Garden has been expanding each year since it
began in 2016. Many evenings sell out, so it is recommended visitors buy tickets online in advance.
Online admission prices are $9.50 for children ages 3-12, $11.50 for
seniors, youth and VBGA members, and $13.50 for adults. Children two and
under are free. Ticket price includes access to the Halloween walk in
the garden, participation in crafts, and a scavenger hunt with a small
prize for kids if the hunt is completed.
VanDusen Glow in the Garden is sponsored by Exhibau. VanDusen Garden
is jointly operated by the Vancouver Park Board and the Vancouver
Botanical Gardens Association.
Stanley Park Ghost Train
Glow in the Garden is just one of two spectacular Halloween events
hosted by the Vancouver Park Board. The Stanley Park Ghost Train is in
full swing with a spooky new theme, Alice in Nightmareland.
Visitors to the train will discover things aren’t what they seem as a
teenaged Alice falls down the rabbit hole again. Follow Alice and the
Not-So-White Rabbit through an endless series of stone doors and enter
into a gothic nightmare world of creatures, crypts, and catacombs.
The Ghost Train runs until October 31. Find details and tickets
Following a multi-year effort, last week the Vancouver Park Board approved its citywide parks and recreation master plan. Dubbed VanPlay,
it will guide investment in parks and recreation for the next 25 years.
Vancouver is the only Canadian city—and one of the only in North
America—with an elected Park Board that governs the city’s green spaces.
VanPlay was necessitated by a
much-changed, much-grown city bumping up against a number of challenges
such as equity, population growth, and changing demographics and needs.
For example, despite the fact that
Vancouver has more parks now than it did 25 years ago, the amount of
park space per person has declined by one third due to population
growth. In short, people have outpaced parks.
In the Canadian City Parks Report,
our survey of Canadian park systems released this summer, Vancouver
ranked lowest in average park provision with 2 hectares of parkland per
1000 people (see graph below). While this was low, it was also in line
with other major urban centres like Toronto (2.7ha) and Montreal
(2.4ha), showing how growth and density is challenging park systems
across the country.
Despite falling lower on parkland provision, Vancouver shone in the Canadian City Parks Report, which compiled data, but also surfaced stories about leading practices.
Vancouver showed its dedication in
striving for a progressive park system through policies such as
instituting all gender park washrooms and performing a colonial audit of
the city’s park system.
Vancouver brings that progressive
focus to VanPlay. This is a report that features quotes from Audre
Lorde, an explanation of intersectionality, and a diagram outlining the
spectrum of privilege and oppression.
Vancouver’s focus on park equity
stems from a recognition that the city’s park development has been
historically uneven, creating inequities between neighbourhoods in park
access and quality.
As our cities explode with growth,
it’s critical that we reckon with past planning and patterns of growth
that have created uneven access to quality parks. We know parks provide
multiple environmental, social, health, and economic benefits that
everyone in a city should be able to share in equally. But how do we
know where to invest limited public dollars?
The breakthrough in VanPlay is the
use of geospatial data (a fancy way of saying data that is tied to a
certain location, like income in a particular neighbourhood) to identify
underserved areas where increased investment in parks should be
targeted.
The Park Board is calling these areas Initiative Zones.
Initiative Zones were identified by examining three layers of data:
Park access gaps: Areas
where people are more than a 10 minute walk to a park and/or areas that
are served by less than 0.55 hectares per 1000 people.
Demand for low barrier recreation: The number of residents that have registered for the city’s Leisure Access Program, which provides low-cost recreation access.
Tree canopy gaps: Areas of the city that have less than 5% tree canopy coverage.
Now that this model has been created,
the Park Board can layer other factors over time to reveal more nuance
or target specific policy areas.
These additional layers could include
income, survey data on community engagement and satisfaction, locations
of past capital investments by the city, and demographic data such as
age.
For example, the Park Board shows how
layering on the city’s growth areas can provide further guidance on
where to direct funds. Areas of the city experiencing growth pressures
can often meet parks investment needs through the development process,
whereas areas that are low or no-growth — but may rank as underserved —
don’t have that same opportunity. The report concludes that equity
strategies should target these lower growth areas for public
investment.
As Park Board Commissioner Camil
Dumont told Mash Salehomoum, Park People’s Vancouver Program
Coordinator, at the meeting where VanPlay was approved:
“For
me, this is the ultimate set of goals to inform my decisions. The
sweeping and explicit prioritization of equity in such a monumental
report really makes me proud of the work that we do at the Park Board.”
Of course, data only tells part of
the story — a fact that the Park Board recognizes. The report’s
recommendations include on-going engagement between communities and the
Park Board to assist in interpreting the data and understanding the
lived experience behind it. The Park Board also has plans to make this
data publicly available online through a mapping tool on their website.
It’s not hard to see what a powerful analytical decision-making tool VanPlay could become.
Other VanPlay highlights
Water, resurfaced
Vancouver is a city defined by water.
When I lived there, I loved running along the seawall, or watching
cargo ships unload at Crab Park, or chasing bunny rabbits at Jericho
Beach. Water in Vancouver seems to be everywhere. And yet, as the report
notes, 91% of urban streams in the city have been buried throughout its
history.
As part of the City’s work on
biodiversity as well as creating a city more resilient to the extreme
rainfall events made more common through climate change, the VanPlay
strategy aims to bring more of these streams back to the surface. This
will create more natural habitat, new amenities for people, and also
help manage rainwater during storms.
Streets to parks
We don’t think about it often, but
streets represent the largest amount of public space we have in our
cities—often about a quarter of the entire land area of a city. In
Vancouver, streets represent 32% of the city’s land area, while parks
sit at 11%. That’s a big public space resource for a city struggling to
meet the public space needs of its growing population.
Vancouver is already a leader in
rethinking streets as public space, and VanPlay encourages more of this
thinking with a recommendation to work with Planning and Engineering to
create parklets, street closures, laneway activations and more.
Connectivity enhancers
Connectivity is another big feature
of VanPlay. Vancouver already boasts the longest continuous waterfront
trail in the world (the 28km sea wall that wraps around downtown) and a
burgeoning system of bike lanes. VanPlay hopes to take this further.
An interesting element in the report
is what the Park Board is calling “network enhancers.” These are
elements—like bike repair stations, wayfinding, lighting, and
seating—that bolster connectivity by increasing utility, safety, or
pleasure between destinations.
Perhaps your walk between school and
the park includes a small pollinator garden, a place to fill up your
water bottle and a colourful piece of public art.
We can’t always thread our city
together with linear parks, but we can use these “network enhancers” to
make the experience more enjoyable.
View the full VanPlay report here. You can find Vancouver’s City Profile in our Canadian City Parks Report here.
City-wide extra leaf collection turns your fallen leaves into nutrient rich compost
October 4 2019 –
Vancouver trees are now shedding their leaves in preparation for winter. We be-leaf it’s
time to remind residents about the City’s fall leaf collection program
and the steps we can all take to prevent flooding and keep our streets
and sidewalks safe.
Extra leaf collection weekends
Leaves collected by residents from their property, sidewalk and
boulevard can be put in the Green Bin. Extra Leaves that don’t fit into
the Green Bin can be placed in paper yard waste bags or in store-bought
bins (maximum 100 litres) and set out on these leaf collection
weekends:
October 26 and 27, 2019
November 16 and 17, 2019
December 14 and 15, 2019
January 11 and 12, 2020 (Christmas trees will also be collected)
Residents are encouraged to keep their filled paper yard waste bags
as dry as possible before setting them out for pickup to prevent the
bags from tearing during collection. Leaves set out in plastic bags will
not be collected, including bags labelled compostable or biodegradable
plastic.
Crews will collect extra leaves on either the Saturday or Sunday, but
not both days. To ensure pickup, residents should set their leaves out
before 7am on the scheduled Saturday.
There is no Green Bin pickup service on extra leaf collection
weekends. Residents should set out their Green Bin on their next
scheduled collection day.
Leaf removal from city streets
Starting in mid-November, the City coordinates a city-wide street
cleaning program to remove fallen leaves from streets. Residents are
asked to move their vehicles when temporary “no stopping” signs are
posted so crews can properly clear and sweep their street. Vehicles
parked in “no stopping” zones will be ticketed and may be towed to a
nearby location.
Help prevent flooding
Residents or businesses should never rake or blow leaves onto catch
basins, streets, sidewalks, or bike lanes. Raking or blowing leaves onto
the street or sidewalk can create a safety hazard for pedestrians and
cyclists, can cause flooding and is a fineable offence under the Street
and Traffic By-Law.
Turning leaves into nutrient rich compost
Collected leaves are turned into nutrient-rich compost at the
Vancouver Landfill. This compost can be purchased by residential
gardeners, commercial landscapers, and municipal park boards. Leaves and
other yard trimmings can also be dropped off for a fee at the Vancouver
South Transfer Station located at 377 West Kent Ave North and at the
Vancouver Landfill located at 5400 72 Street in Delta. Find more helpful guidelines on our fall leaf collection program
Residents can get reminders for scheduled pickup days, recycling
drop-off events, and leaf collection weekends by downloading the VanCollect app.
[ You can watch this portion of the meeting here ]
Since first
being elected in 2008, I have had the honour and pleasure to be in involved
with what I consider to be the three greatest achievements of the Board of
Parks and Recreation in its recent history: the renewal of the Joint Operating
Agreements with its Community Centre partners; our commitment to truth-telling,
reconciliation and redress; and now VanPlay, our masterplan for the next 25
years and beyond.
All of these
achievements have come about through the hard work of our staff and our outside
consultants. There are too many to thank individually, but I do want to make
special acknowledgments to: Curt Culbertson of the Design Workshop team; Dave
Hutch, our Director of Park Planning and Development; Doug Shearer, our Manager
of Policy, Planning, and Environment; and especially to Katherine Howard, the
project manager.
This is
truly a great achievement. The final reports show what a mammoth undertaking
this has been. Personally, I am most pleased to see the overarching commitment
to equity.
None of
this, the JOA renewal, our commitment to reconciliation, or VanPlay would have
been possible without the foresight, oversight, and leadership of our General Manager,
Malcolm Bromley. To you Malcolm, to everyone involved, my heartfelt thanks and
admiration.
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation has endorsed the final two reports of VanPlay,
the city’s parks and recreation services master plan. The plan,
developed over the past three years with input from thousands of
residents, stakeholders, partners and consultants, outlines the bold
moves that represent a new way of thinking, with equity, asset needs and
connectivity at the core of Park Board planning and decision-making.
“VanPlay is the map and compass that will guide us as we plan and
grow parks and recreation opportunities for the next 50 years,” said
Vancouver Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon. “More importantly, VanPlay
will give this Board—and Boards well into the future—the powerful tools, lenses and rationale to build an equitable and connected parks and recreation system.”
The approval of VanPlay represents a significant and defining moment
for the Park Board; a commitment to the equitable delivery of parks and
recreation opportunities in a connected, efficient manner which
celebrates the unique history of the land, place, and culture.
The VanPlay strategy will have positive and sweeping implications for
much of the Vancouver Park Board’s day-to-day operations, as well as
park and facility planning. Most notably, three Strategic Bold Moves PDF file (38 MB) (Equity,
Asset Needs, and Connectivity) will enable staff to focus resources,
projects, and capital planning outlooks in a more purposeful way.
Decisions driven by equity
Bold Move 1: Equity provides staff and the Park Board with
tools to begin to address imbalances in the delivery of resources such
as trees, parks, land use and infrastructure. The community and
stakeholders were clear that equity, inclusion, and access are top
priorities for the future, with a focus on increased transparency around
decision-making and priority-setting.
Using the Initiative Zones equity tool, historically
under-served areas of the city can be identified. By focusing projects,
resources, funding, and effort on these areas of the city, over time,
provision will become more equitable.
Assets to meet Vancouver’s growing and changing needs
Bold Move 2: Asset Needs, takes stock of the Park Board’s
assets – which include park space, sports fields, ice rinks, and urban
forests, to name a few, and considers future needs through goal setting
to provide service excellence. Targets provide the ability to measure
goals over time, prioritize investments, and align funding.
A vision for a connected parks and recreation system
Bold Move 3: Connectivity, intends to create vibrant,
healthy communities by encouraging the connection and integration of
parks and facilities with the neighbourhood, the city, and the region.
The connected network will create places to play, exercise and socialize
while providing pathways for the movement of urban wildlife and
rainwater, with direct and intuitive connections for pedestrians and
cyclists of all ages and abilities.
The concept is based on Vancouver’s famous seawall, a pathway that
provides connections with a park-like experience and also reflects First
Nations principles such as a strong sense of belonging on the land,
relationship to the water, and the importance of gathering spaces and
places to heal.
The plan to get us there
VanPlay also includes a Playbook Implementation Plan PDF file (6 MB), which
identifies foundational tasks and approaches for action such as setting
clear policy, supporting effective communication, and building robust
data and mapping resources, which will ease the implementation of the
entire suite of VanPlay recommendations.
VanPlay is the culmination of three years of intensive and
unprecedented engagement with Vancouver residents, stakeholders, park
and recreation partners, staff, Board members and industry consultants.
In all, over 30,000 conversations took place, including more than 4,000
during a tour of the city with a pop-up playground. Nearly 4,000 surveys
were completed, and more than 600 people attended the VanPlay Smart
City talk series to hear dozens of speakers explore potential ideas for
the future of parks and recreation in Vancouver.
In July, 2018, the Board approved the Inventory and Analysis report,
which describes the current state of parks and recreation in Vancouver,
including findings from community, staff, and stakeholder engagement
relating to current challenges and opportunities for the future, and 10 Goals to Shape the Next 25 Years, which sets out aspirational objectives to position the Park Board to respond to challenges and opportunities.
The last parks and recreation master plan was completed over 25 years
ago. Vancouver has changed dramatically in the intervening years, and
this new city-wide parks and recreation services master plan will do
much to enhance long-range planning, policy, and service goals. VanPlay
recognizes Vancouver’s parks and recreation system’s many challenges,
including inequity, increasing and varying community needs, climate
change, aging infrastructure, stretched resources, and ever-shifting
urgent priorities.
– 30 –
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation are stewards of a network
of over 240 parks and a large public recreation system of community
centres, pools, sports fields, golf courses, and street trees. Its
mission is to provide, preserve, and advocate for parks and recreation
services to benefit all people, communities, and the environment. see original post here.
Neighbourhood
Park South—part of 10 hectares (25 acres) of new parks and green space
planned for the East Fraser Lands—is open and already becoming an
important part of the new and growing community.
Located just north of the Fraser River and framed by two low-rise
towers to the east and west and Riverwalk Avenue to the north, the 1335
square metre (0.33 acre) park features platform benches and picnic
tables, as well as robust planted berms composed of native vegetation
and a variety of trees including beech, vine maple, and mountain
hemlock.
Heart of a new neighbourhood
“It’s a modest park, but one that is rapidly becoming the heart of
Vancouver’s largest and last new waterfront neighbourhood that will
eventually be home to 15,000 people,” said Vancouver Park Board Chair
Stuart Mackinnon.
Neighbourhood Park South is part of the Vancouver Park Board’s commitment to create 25 acres of new parks and green space in the East Fraser Lands (also known as the River District).
The parks and green space will link to riverfront trails and connect
visitors to the Fraser River – British Columbia’s longest and most
storied river.
Enhancing access to nature
The greenway portion along the Fraser River will support the Park Board’s Biodiversity Strategy by enhancing access to nature for residents and increasing habitat for local birds and wildlife.
Design and construction of all parks in the East Fraser Lands are
funded through Development Cost Levies. Construction of Foreshore and
Kinross parks is anticipated to begin in 2020.
The site is being developed by Wesgroup Properties and will eventually house more residents than Yaletown.
The Vancouver Park Board has approved the Track and Field Strategy,
a document that will guide short-and long-term investment, management,
and programming at Vancouver's track and field facilities.
The approval of the strategy allows several projects to proceed to
next steps, including the development of Vancouver’s first regulation
competitive track and field training facility at Vancouver Technical
Secondary School and upgrading existing track and field facilities at
Templeton Park and Kerrisdale Park/Point Grey Secondary.
Much-needed roadmap
“The Park Board recognizes the physical and mental benefits of sport
and physical activity among children, youth and adults,” said Vancouver
Park Board Chair Stuart Mackinnon. “The Track and Field Strategy is a
much-needed roadmap for investment in our city that will ensure we have
the facilities and supports in place for people of all ages and
abilities to have access to inclusive, low barrier amenities that
support walking, running, and competitive track and field.”
The strategy was unanimously approved by the Park Board at its
regular meeting on Sept. 30 after hearing from a number of stakeholders
and advisory group members, including Diane and Doug Clement, both
former track and field Olympians who expressed their gratitude for
renewed investments in track and field in Vancouver.
The Clements spoke passionately about Vancouver’s rich history in
track and field, noting the new facility would do much to match the
city’s world-class amenities.
Vancouver-born Barbara Howard became the first black woman to
represent Canada in international competition at the British Empire
Games in 1938. Sixteen years later, Vancouver made headlines around the
world as the site of Roger Bannister’s Miracle Mile at Empire Stadium in
1954. Olympic sprinter Harry Jerome, whose statue graces the Coal
Harbour waterfront in Stanley Park, is one of the city’s best-known
track athletes, competing in three summer Olympics and winning bronze in
the 100 metre in the 1964 games.
Four themes
The strategy, developed in partnership with the Vancouver School
Board, provides a framework and recommendations under four themes:
Design and infrastructure
Access and participation
Programming and cooperation
Management and operations for Vancouver’s 14 existing facilities, and for future expansion
Comprehensive public engagement helped shape the strategy and
included input from more than 4,000 stakeholders. Outreach included
surveys, pop-up events, advisory group meetings, and open houses.
Engagement partners included the Vancouver Field Sport Federation,
Vancouver Sport Network, BC Athletics and the BC Wheelchair Sports
Association, as well as numerous community and varsity track and field
clubs and societies.
Next steps for the strategy include concept plans for the Category A
facility at Vancouver Technical Secondary, and detailed design and
contract award recommendations for the upgrades at Kerrisdale Park/Point
Grey Secondary and Templeton Park.
The following are remarks I made last night at a Special Meeting of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation called to discuss Oppenheimer Park.
No one has a
monopoly on compassion. No one has a monopoly on caring about safety and
security. I believe that every elected representative in Vancouver wants the
best for the residents of the city. I have said that the decisions made by this
Board have been done out of compassion, but I have also said the Board believes
that safety is of paramount concern.
These two
ideas are not mutually exclusive. We can have safety with compassion. The focus
tonight, and for the past months, has been on Oppenheimer park. But it is not
the only park that have tents in it. Commissioners have to see that all parks
are susceptible to camping and many do have campers in them.
Our by-laws
do not reflect this, but the Supreme Court of British Columbia has said that in
the absence of alternatives, camping in parks is acceptable. In a landmark case
in 2015, Justice Hinkson said that that homeless people are allowed to erect
temporary shelters in parkland because of a lack of accessible shelter space in
the city. Hinkson’s ruling struck down a bylaw banning temporary shelters in
local parks. While he did restrict this to the hours between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m.
he said tents were allowed.
More than
anything I want to find safe and secure housing for the people in Oppenheimer
park and return the park to the community as a public space. This is what this
Board has been asking for.
In a recent
interview, Theo Lamb of the Strathcona BIA, said that an injunction would lead
to a quick displacement, and without a thoughtful plan ‘just move people out, moves
them around’. She reiterated that this is not just an Oppenheimer issue,
Strathcona issue, it is a city issue.
Tonight, we
have heard the consequences of not having adequate housing or a plan in place
to find this. The Park Board cannot supply housing and so we ask, we implore,
the City and the province of British Columbia to find safe and secure housing
for not only the campers in Oppenheimer, but to all of the people who are
homeless.
Many of the
people camping in Oppenheimer and throughout the city are indigenous. This
discussion, like all we have at the Park Board, must be done through the lens
of reconciliation. I would like to read something into the record here:
We have endured a lot. Where the connection to cultural
identity has been lost, many Aboriginal people live with a constant sense of
contradiction and compromise. The challenge is trying to live in two worlds,
while currently being ill-equipped to live in either one. But when we are
culturally strong in our world, Aboriginal people are strong living in any
world. The key is being able to control one’s life. It’s about being able to
make decisions over how that life unfolds.
These are
the words of the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould from 2007 when she was the BC
Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
No decision
should be made without hearing from the people in the park. I encourage senior
levels of the police and fire and the City to reach out and have deep and meaningful
discussions with those in the park.
Yesterday I
met with the Mayor and had a robust and frank conversation. We talked about
ways the city could help and how Park Board could be supportive. I am
optimistic that solutions can be found.
City Council
will debate 2 motions next week to address this. I thank them for their
commitment to the residents of the City, those with and without housing. I
commend them for taking the leadership in this. I pray that a solution will be
found that is fair and just to all members of the community and will lead to a
safer neighbourhood for everyone.
