Working Groups

VPSN undertakes a variety of projects and public education efforts. Click on any of the links below to find out more.

 Pattison billboard sign

Corporatization of Public Space

Find out about the VPSN's work on the privatization and corporatization of public space, including our campaign against billboards in residential areas, and our awareness-raising about the branding of the public realm, the sale of naming rights and the sale of public assets.

 

A picture of the Vancouver Art Gallery - site of many political gatherings

Democratic Spaces

Public space is essential for the well-being of civic life. The VPSN's new Dialogue and Democracy project seeks to create spaces to enable discussion, learning and action on key issues affecting the city and surrounding areas.

 

A picture of Tea Swamp community garden.

Greenspaces

The VPSN supports a range of activities designed to green-up Vancouver. These include guerrilla gardening, urban forestry, parks advocacy, community gardens and the reclamation and revitalization of brown-fields, lane-ways and abandoned lots.

A grafitti mural under the Granville Bridge at the foot of Howe Street.

Public Art / City Art

To the VPSN, public art is not only created from the urban environment — photos of the city, images and artifacts of its places and spaces — but it also adds to the environment as well. Public art colours the landscape, defining it as crisply as the painted outline of a stencil.

A picture of a surveillance camera on Granville Street.

Surveillance & Security

Find out about the Network's Surveillance Mapping project, our advocacy against closed-circuit television (CCTV) and our concerns about the increased usage of private security firms to monitor the public realm.

A picture of Waterfront Station.

Transportation

Public space isn't just about places, it's also about movement and circulation. Roads, sidewalks, laneways and paths are one of the most substantive types of public space in an urban environment.  The VPSN's Transportation Working Groups explore issues around the way that people move throughout Vancouver - walking, biking, wheelchair or car - and the way that the city accomodate these different types of mobility. 

A picture of Waterfront Station.

Urban Design

Good public space is dependent on good design. In turn, it the public realm contributes to the overall vitality of the urban environment. The VPSN acts as an advocate for public realm considerations, and is also working on a number of design projects of its own.