Candidate Profile – Andrea PINOCHET-ESCUDERO– #206 – (Vote Socialist)
Top 3 priorities (from City of Vancouver Election webpage)
- Parks and Rec for all
- More neighbourhood pools
- Stanley Park shuttle bus
Platform (from City of Vancouver Election webpage)
Vancouver is overdue for major investments in our social infrastructure, especially our pools and community centres. Quality recreation facilities keep us healthier and build the social connections that help us lead fulfilling lives and care for the environment that sustains us. With housing costs rising, we need affordable and accessible programs more than ever. I will push for doubling the number of pools in the city, and for the restoration of the Stanley Park Shuttle.
2022 Park Board Candidate Questions
1. You’re speaking to a friend from out of town, and they ask for a quick overview of “where things are at” with Vancouver’s parks and recreation facilities. What do you say?
A huge reinvestment is needed for our park and recreation facilities. Our social infrastructure neglected and insufficient, community centres and pools are in need of renewal and too small in size and number for our growing population. In addition, the programming doesn’t sustain everyone who wants to participate. For decades we have underinvested in our crucial public facilities, and in public spaces in general.
To give just one glaring example, there is less ice skating surface in the West End of Vancouver today than there was 107 years ago when the Vancouver Millionaires won the Stanley Cup.
We are overdue to make some generational investments in our public spaces, facilities and programming. We need more outdoor and indoor pools, more community centres, neighbourhood houses, and we need to animate more of our existing public spaces by adding play and leisure features for all ages.
2. The topic of equity features heavily in both VanPlay (the Parks Board Masterplan) and the recently approved Vancouver Plan. What’s your take? Does Vancouver’s park system need to be more equitable and accessible? If yes, what changes would you propose and/or prioritize to make this happen?
I would expand the Leisure Access Program to make to the programs and community centre more accessible. I would make sure this is communicated to people living in Vancouver through social media, bus stop advertising and good old outreach to nonprofit housing, coop housing and schools. I would advocate for safer bike and roll lanes so everyone could use them. I would provide charging stations at parks and community centres for mobility devices. I would add a free shuttle bus to Stanley park to make it more accessible to folks who don’t drive or roll. I would advocate for upgrades and restoration to parks in the south and east of Vancouver, which have historically been underserved compared to the west side of the City.
3. As a general principle, should parks aim to accommodate cycling paths within their boundaries? What are your thoughts on bikes and bike lanes in parks? (Please note: this is not specifically a question about Stanley Park).
We need better bike/roll lane infrastructures in parks, and yes need safe and protected bike and roll lanes so more people can access our parks. Far too many of our city’s “bike routes” are unsafe, with car traffic and often car parking allowed on both sides of narrow roadways. I would like to see a more ambitious effort to catch up to cities like Montreal or many European cities in terms of this multi-modal transportation infrastructure.
4. What role, if any, do you see the Park Board playing in responding to the needs of people experiencing homelessness/houselessness and encampments?
Park Board should work with the city to house people, we need to create relationships with people through peer and outreach programs that assist people housed in parks to find housing. VOTE Socialist as a party believe that housing is a fundamental human right. We should have far more accessible, dignified public washroom in our city parks, as well as other simple amenities that benefit the whole community, whether they are housed or unhoused. I would push for more charging stations and water fountains, as well as more food security hubs where at-cost healthy local food could be made available for those in need. The Park Board has the power to add food and beverage services and facilities in more Parks and I would push for these powers to be used to advance the city’s food security goals.
5. Should Vancouver’s parks and recreation facilities play a part in supporting climate resilience or ecosystem restoration? If yes, how?
Yes, absolutely. The city has been behind in meeting its goals to expand the overall tree canopy and we should look at our park space to see where trees can be added. As a Park Commissioner, I would work to add add more natural wild greenery friendly to wildlife and pollinators in parks, in consultation and harmony with Indigenous planting principles whenever possible.
By adding more local community centres, pools, and rec centres, we will also reduce the need for families to drive like they are now. Local community centres should prioritize parking for disabled people and for bus drop-off, with minimal public space used as parking lots. The current model of building “destination” community pools and centres like Hillcrest is not a climate-friendly model.
Finally, our public parks and recreation centres can be used much more broadly to play an education role. We can add a lot more educational signage about climate change, and we can provide programming and free meeting space for youth and other community members organizing for climate action.
6. Is having a Board of Parks and Recreation the best way to govern and manage Vancouver’s park system? If yes, why? If not, what would you propose in its place?
I believe in participatory democracy, so I think we should always be looking to add democratic oversight in more areas of society. An elected Park Board is worth having, but it has to be taken care of and it has to be in touch with all communities. In Vancouver, on Indigenous territory, we have a responsibility to expand co-management of our Parks systems with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh.
7. What, if anything, do you think the Park Board should do to support/facilitate community activation/events and stewardship of park spaces and facilities?
As a Park Commissioner, I would advocate for the Board to hold many of its meetings in public spaces throughout the City. This would be a strategy for increasing local resident engagement with the Park Board. I would also constantly be spending time in local parks and asking users how the elected Board could help to scale up local festivals, events, and other community parks and rec uses.
Vancouver should be a city in which our public spaces are constantly animated with music, culture, public education, and other means of promoting conviviality and community. I would advocate for adding small amphitheaters to many public publics and other public spaces, using accessible and ecological design principles. “Bard at the Beach” need not be the only place where people can go to watch Shakespeare and other plays. We could use our public parks to provide year-round “Bard in the Yard” style event with schoolchildren and youth who use our community centres for recreation.
On this note, I would provide free youth access to all community centres during summer months and Spring break, and advocate for a vast expansion of free or low-cost youth programming such as late-night basketball, introductory music and arts programs, and much more.
In line with these efforts, there is also a lot more that we can do to connect our public school and students to their local parks, community centres, and other recreation facilities. No child should complete Elementary School without having had access to free swimming lessons – this could be implemented in cooperation with the School Board.
8. In the past few years, the Park Board has taken steps towards reconciliation, decolonization, and co-management with MST First Nations. Would you continue this work? If yes, how?
Yes, I would support and continue this work. This work is at the heart of reconciliation and I would support land back policies.
9. If you could make changes to one park in the city – which park is it, and what would you do?
So many parks need to be redesigned and updated, I am not sure I could just pick one. Many parks in the south part of Vancouver are long overdue for upgrades and it is unfortunate that all the attention around Park Board in recent years has been focused on Stanley Park.
10. Is there anything else you would like to share about yourself or your platform?
I am an advocate and I lived in poverty growing up. One of the main reasons I am running in this election is to make Vancouver park and rec more equitable. My advocacy for the free Shuttle bus around Stanley Park, for example, is informed by my experience growing up raised by a single mom who never had a car. Our only of getting to Stanley Park at all was by bus.
Biography and Contact
Biography (City of Vancouver Election Webpage)
As a Health Employees Union member and frontline worker, I see everyday the benefits of leisure programs. As a parent I know the importance of accessible, quality recreational facilities. As your Park Commissioner, I will fight for working-class and lower-income residents to have full access to our Parks and community centres. I would be honoured to serve as your advocate.
Contact
Email: andrea_pinochet@hotmail.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreapinochet
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pinochet_andrea