1. What is your favourite public space in the city – park, plaza, street, community centre, library, etc – and why?
I feel that the most important public spaces are sidewalks. They are essential, social, and flexible spaces that serve every single city resident of all ages. They represent a true co-operative undertaking by city staff (who design, build, and repair) and residents (who sweep, shovel, or report repair needs).
Unfortunately, sidewalks are entirely under-appreciated to the point of being taken for granted, neglected, and even undermined. But attention to brilliant sidewalks, including to the way that buildings and streets abut them, could do more to enhance the city than many a more elaborate project ever achieves.
2. In 2013, Vancouver declared itself a “City of Reconciliation”. More recently it approved its UNDRIP Strategy (2022). What role do you think public space should play regarding reconciliation?
First, I feel that such declarations of universal sentiment are unhelpful to actual advancement of social goals, reconciliation included. They are not true expressions of public sentiment, and therefore, acting on them top-down and in a big way generates considerable pent-up frustration, which in the long run, generates a backlash.
However, to the extent that public space could or should play a role in reconciliation, it need only be accessible and welcoming to all to use on equal terms. If the goal is reconciliation, and not a transfer of ownership or power, then public spaces should foster the intermingling, on equal terms, of people learning to adapt to each other and reconciling in a manner that is bottom-up. Using a mixture of iconography in public spaces would support the principles of access and welcome – including the names and typestyles of public institutions and spaces, which should be practical, as well as legible and pronounceable in a language that we all have in common. This approach welcomes new arrivals into the mix as well.
3. If you could bring one new thing to the Council table on the topics of public safety and wellbeing in the Downtown Eastside, what would it be?
That’s a big question that goes well beyond public spaces! But I think it would be a new thing to examine the shadowy grant-funding ecosystem that actually makes the DTES poverty industry somewhat immune to public governance.
The city, the province, and the federal government all fund diverse services and facilities in the DTES. This is a somewhat unholy alliance that is cumbersome and opaque enough on its own. But the fourth component of the private grant is even more invisible.
if the taxpaying, voting public ever felt that it would be beneficial to decrease rather than increase that funding (which might be rational if funding was felt to be enabling drug use, for example), the flow of private grants could still continue or even increase, frustrating the public’s will, and rendering city council more or less powerless to effect significant change in the DTES.
4. How important is the democratic function of public space to you? How would you ensure public spaces like parks and plazas are accessible and inclusive?
This is a bit ironic, but I think the availability of PRIVATE outdoor space goes a long way to ensuring that public outdoor space is accessible and inclusive to all. When people are forced to move more of their private outdoor activities to a public area because they don’t have their own space, there is more competition for public space and it is easily over-utilized by some, including for inappropriate activities (for example, for dog grooming with resultant debris of dog hair left behind).
Democratic use of public space means (to me) that no one dominates it, or uses it in a way that prevents its use, as intended, by others.
5. What piece of public art do you like the most? How satisfied are you with the City’s approach to public art? Is there anything you would change?
I don’t feel strongly about most of the public art that I have seen, but appreciate these are difficult decisions, and I can live with most of it. I particularly enjoy the laughing figures at Davie and Denman, although I thought they were more charming when surrounded by wood mulch, which harmonized better with the original patina.
6. There are lots of ways that public space planning can support climate-related objectives, including: protecting and planting street trees; initiatives to support walking, rolling and biking; and the restoration and enhancement of local ecosystems. How do climate matters align with your public space priorities?
I do not feel that regulating global climate should be a primary driver of city decision-making, although I do feel strongly that creating a comfortable climate on our streets should be a priority. At our latitude, for 9 months of the year, that mostly means ensuring that people can get some sunshine while they are out on the street, for both mental and physical health.
I am a big fan of trees, but in the city, I advocate for tree turnover because it must be recognized that trees can become too big for urban spaces.
In Stanley Park, however, a different approach is needed. Stanley Park is a forest ecosystem, and as such plays a unique role in the city’s climate and air quality, as well as in its recreational opportunities. The current logging operation in the park seems excessive and counterproductive.
That Stanley Park is being logged while homeowners are denied permits to remove trees, even nuisance trees, is an inconsistency in policy-making that demands further scrutiny.
7. The city’s shopping streets have been hard-hit in recent years – and face further threats under the current ‘tariff war’ with the US. What will you do to support our ‘main streets’ and shopping areas?
There are a lot of factors to blame for the decline in the city’s retail environment, not all of which originate with the city. Recovery will be particularly difficult due to the escalation of on-line shopping for almost everything. Among the things for which I would advocate to enhance recovery are:
- ensure that the city tax burden is rational and minimal;
- reduce the pressure to redevelop small, unpretentious buildings that still house functional businesses;
- liberalize and diversify available means of signage with which businesses can make themselves visible, including in the building permit process;
- stop discouraging or punishing car use, since drivers can do more shopping/business patronage than people using most other modes of travel (for example, enhance parking availability, reduce parking costs, and implement post-use payment, rather than pre-purchase of time, reduce the need for a cell phone in order to park);
- consistently target crime, including shoplifting, with police resources so that retail clerks do not have to double as security staff;
- consider reviving the concept of a paper directory of businesses in the city, delivered to homes in the city as the yellow pages once were.
8. In May 2020, City Council approved a goal of transforming 11% of road space into “people friendly public space.” What are your thoughts on the implementation of this ‘road reallocation’ direction? Would you change anything?
These spaces seem a little contrived and under-utilized (even performative) in some cases; in others, they are an asset. There should be room in the model for local adaptation. And it should be noted that the creation of wider sidewalks (perhaps created with greater building setbacks) that allows for more bench space, for example, might make some road reallocation spaces unnecessary.
A percentage target seems dictatorial. It should be something that local residents can request if it would be good for the area. If not requested, it should not be imposed. (Same with “slow streets”).
9. The City is currently moving ahead with the dissolution of the elected Park Board. How do you think Vancouver’s parks should be governed and stewarded?
I would likely prefer a dedicated Park Board, because the complexity of park decisions requires expertise and interest that is distinct from city governance. But, if this decision is made, then I see a much stronger role for neighbourhood associations in the governance of parks.
10. Creating, maintaining and programming public space takes resources. Does the City do enough to fund placemaking and public space initiatives? Is there anything you would do differently?
Decision-making in the city has acquired a tone of contempt for ordinary people and the lives they want to live in the city, and many public space initiatives contain messages of this nature, both subtle and not-so subtle. Particularly relevant to public spaces is the war on the car. While traffic is not the most sociable of features in the cityscape, (a) driving behaviours can and should be managed, and (b) cars contain people who are going to do things that constitute the daily responsibilities and joys of life, often as a family or with friends, and that being the case, space for cars – including, for example, in Stanley Park – should be respectfully factored in to public space planning.
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