News.
Information about VPSN activities, events, efforts and happenings — and some other items of interest from around the Web, too.
On Saturday, June 26, the VPSN gave a nod to the local Jazz Festival by holding Stick It To the Streets (SITS) - an event that invited residents to grab a pair of drum-sticks and use Granville Street as their instrument. Check out the video, our blog, or Facebook for more details. We've also uploaded a variety of photos from the event to our Flickr account.
Earlier today, the Vancouver Public Space Network sent a letter to Hon. Minister Margeret MacDiarmid, Minister of Education, outlining our concerns about the proposed changes to the School Act. The changes, contained within Bill 20, would facilitate the installation and deployment of CCTV (and related surveillance technology) within classrooms.
The VPSN feels that schools should be free of video surveillance, using this technology only as a tool of last resort and when its use is clearly justified. Research shows that surveillance cameras are ineffective both at decreasing unwanted behaviour and at catching criminals after the event. Furthermore, the technology is also expensive and present a costly and ineffective means of achieving the goals of safer schools.
In our letter, we noted that BC's Information and Privacy Commissioner has been recommending for a decade that school boards have policies governing the use of cameras, and the viewing and secure storage of the data they collect (see Keeping School Safe for Students, October 27, 2000). While some school boards have such policies, they are not required, and we find this very disconcerting. Even worse than allowing surveillance cameras to be used is allowing them without setting any rules to say under what circumstances they may be deployed, how they should be operated, how students' privacy rights will be safeguarded, who has access to the images, and in which places they are inappropriate. The province should either impose stringent standard rules to avoid the possibility of over-use and abuse of surveillance cameras, or require boards to adopt rules that meet or exceed a tough provincial standard.
:: Read the VPSN letter to Hon. Minister Margaret MacDiarmid concerning Bill 20 and the proposed changes to the School Act
:: Read the VPSN Media Release concerning Bill 20 and the proposed changes to the School Act
Check out our latest edition of VPSN Public Space News & Events for the following stories...
VANCOUVER PUBLIC SPACE NETWORK NEWS
- VPSN Operational Planning
- Working Group Changes - Mapping & Wayfinding; Community Composting
- PubliCity 3 - Play and Public Space
- Whole Foods - Thank You!
UPCOMING VPSN MEETINGS & WORKSHOPS
- Tuesday, April 20 @ 630 - Pedestrian Issues
- Monday, April 26 @ 630 - Public Transit
- Monday, May 3 - Community Gardens
- Tuesday, May 4 - Urban Design
- Sunday, May 16 - Parks Issues & Advocacy
PUBLIC SPACE BLOG RECAP
- April 18, 2010 - A National Park for the Flathead Valley?
- April 15, 2010 - Advocating against the corporate vote
- April 6, 2010 - Vancouver Day: the city turns 124
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
- Coordinators positions
- Wednesday, May 5 - Volunteer Orientation Meeting
ENGAGE
- West End Visioning
- Translink - UBC Corridor Consultation
COMMUNITY EVENTS
- Wednesday, April 21 - Active in Action
- Sunday, April 25 - Pilgrimage to Burns Bog
- Saturday May 1 - Sunday May 2 - Jane's Walk(s)
:: You can find the complete stories on the VPSN Public Space Blog
VPSN coordinators recently returned from our annual planning retreat and we're ready to roll for 2010. As a first step, we're pleased to announce some transportation-related meetings coming up later this month as we get going on our various projects.
Pedestrian Working Group Meeting
Tuesday, April 20th at 6:30pm. Location TBD (likely Rhizome). On the agenda will be the pedestrian safety project (previously "top ten most dangerous intersections"), other advocacy work/opportunities, and more. Regular Pedestrian Working Group meetings will be held the 3rd Tuesday of every month.
:: For more information contact Natalie Ethier or Mike Soron - natalie [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca; mike@vancouverpublicspace.ca
Public Transit Working Group Meeting
Monday, April 26th at 6:30pm (Location TBD).
The Public Transit Coordinators are starting a project to engage, research, and advocate for the streetcar in Vancouver. We're hoping to engage the public in a big way with this project, so please bring your ideas!
:: For more information contact Karen Fung or Patrick Klassen - quinn [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca; patrick [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca
In October of last year, the Taskforce was charged with the reviewing issues relating to local government elections and has been gathering input with a view to recommending legislative changes "to improve the electoral process for local government elections across B.C."
Although there are likely a number of issues that such a review could have focussed on (voter apathy and declining participation in elections being paramount among these), the Taskforce was given the task of looking at a specific set of issues first and foremost. These are:
- Campaign finance, including contribution/spending disclosure and limits, and tax credits
- Enforcement processes and outcomes
- Role of the chief electoral officer (B.C.) in local government elections
- Election cycle (term of office)
- Corporate vote
- Other agreed upon matters, (e.g. matters raised in UBCM resolutions such as eligibility of local government volunteers to be candidates)
The text of our letter is excerpted here:
The 2010 garden season is here and our first Guerrilla Gardening meeting of the season takes place on Friday, April 9 - 6:00pm-7:30pm in Kitsilano at 2nd Avenue and Balaclava.
Please come out and join in a discussion of potential locations for guerrilla gardening throughout Vancouver, fun events and creative greening tactics and etiquette. We have some exciting ideas for activities this year and are looking to collaborate with like-minded greenthumbs to help beautify the orphaned and neglected spaces in the city. Bring your ideas and enthusiasm - viva la revolucion!
:: To RSVP/get location details - Please contact - Elaine [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca
From Olympics to Art Gallery moves, from viaducts to pedestrian corridors... Vancouver's public realm is alive with discussion and debate.
VPSN NEWS
• Public Space Network operations: now fortified with even more good ingredients
• VPSN Goes Blog!
• Call for Proposals - PubliCity 3 - Play in Public Space
• VPSN Community Gardens - landscape architects needed; March 22 garden meeting
• VPSN Volunteer Opportunities
OTHER EVENTS
• March 4 - 27 - The New Paradigm: Models, Diagrams, Proposals and Provisions ...
• To March 12 - False Creek, Heartbeat of the City Photo Exhibiton
• Tuesday, March 15, 2-3pm - World Tea Party
• Wednesday, March 24 - Think City / Vancouver Stories
• Friday, March 26 - The Drive to resilience: Commercial Drive
The next issue of PubliCity will be produced in spring 2010. For this edition, we’ll be looking at the connection between ‘play’ and public space. The idea of ‘play’ can be understood in all sorts of different ways and we’re looking for contributions that riff off of this. For example:
- Playing in Vancouver: no-fun city vs. Vancouver-is-awesomeness?
- Play spaces – from playgrounds to street hockey to outdoor chess boards to ?;
- Playful urban design/design that encourages play;
- The ‘rules of the game’ – understanding conventions about play;
- Street theatre, busking, performance artists… and others who play;
- Reflections on the big “O”-lympics and their impact on Vancouver.
With the 2010 Games in full swing, security matters have been a regular feature in local news. We've been receiving lots of requests for the CCTV map we did of the Downtown and Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods. The map can be downloaded here.
For more information on our surveillance camera research, you can all jump to our project webpage.
The Vancouver Public Space Network is making the transition to newer, friendlier web space… and we’re starting with a blog.
Over the next few months we’ll be revamping our entire website. One of the things we want to do, beside provide the great advocacy resources that you’ve come to expect, is allow a bigger space for our many contributors. At the same time, we also want to broaden our reach as well -- providing more information and coverage of the many and various public space initiatives undertaken by other groups, different levels of government and the public at large. The VPSN blog will feature observation pieces, editorials, reviews and artistic submissions from the same team that has been producing both the VPSN ebulletin and PubliCity magazine.
We’re looking to make the process an inclusive one too! If you’ve got something to say about Vancouver’s public realm, or feel passionately about urban affairs in this city, drop us a line and let us know. We’re looking to showcase folks who have an eye for urbanism and some writerly (or artistic) chops to boot.
Enjoy!