• Arbutus Greenway Clean-up (Saturday, April 5; 10am-12pm) - Join in a litter cleanup along the Greenway. Look for the tent setup at City Farmer (2150 Maple St.). Cleanup equipment (gloves, litter pickers or tongs, and garbage bags) are provided, but you are also welcome to bring your own. | Info & Registration
• Chinatown Community Clean-up – Saturday, April 12 (10:15am-12:15pm) – Join in a litter cleanup in Chinatown and keep the neighbourhood looking spectacular! Look for the tent in front of the Chinese Community Policing Centre (44 E Pender St). Cleanup equipment (gloves, litter pickers or tongs, and garbage bags) are provided, but you are also welcome to bring your own. | Info & Registration
• Path to Restoration: A Stewardship Cleanup Event at Nootka & 14th (Saturday, April 12, 2-5pm) - This portion of Still Creek, daylit in 2011, is an ongoing stewardship area for Still Moon Arts. There is a lot of built-up debris that limits access into the forest. Volunteers will be hauling some of the debris out to increase safety and doing some invasive species removal. Still Moon will provide all of the gloves, tools, and light snacks for the day- just bring yourself! | Info and Registration
• Everett Crowley Park Stewardship – Saturday, April 12 (10am—1pm) – Get dirty, have fun and help the environment! Join in this monthly stewardship event and help remove invasive plants, while learning more about the unique history and ecology of Everett Crowley Park. Gloves, tools and light refreshments are provided. Please dress appropriately for the weather and wear sturdy, close-toed shoes. Weather permitting. Meet at the front entrance to the Champlain Heights Community Centre (3350 Maquinna Dr). | Info & Registration

Arbutus Greenway “Option Lands”

We were contacted by a few members who expressed some concern that this would mean that there wasn’t going to be a good link between the northern end of the greenway (currently designed up to W 5th Ave) and the Seawall.

Importantly, one of the primary objectives for the north end of the greenway is to connect it to the False Creek Seawall and Granville Island. The good news is that the approved Arbutus Greenway Design Vision does actually propose routing to make this connection – as illustrated in the map below.

Arbutus Greenway – Northern Extension options

The lands currently in question – known as the “option lands” – were part of the original negotiation with railway Canadian Pacific, and identified as such in during the public engagement process. The initial deal (“Purchase Agreement”) allowed CPR the potential to repurchase these lands if they were ever rezoned. This was seen as a trade-off in an overall negotiation that saw the City acquire the 9km corridor for public use. Without the “Option Lands” incentive, an agreement with CPR may not have been reached, as this formed a key part of the negotiation and meant the City was able to purchase the Corridor for $55m – roughly a third of what CPR had originally proposed.

As we understand it, part of what made this more palatable during negotiations were technical and safety concerns that the existing rail right-of-way was insufficiently wide, and challenged by unsafe street crossings, to accommodate the multi-modal aspirations associated with the greenway. Walking, biking, streetcar and other public realm improvements are meant to be part of the design, and the City engineers and designers wanted a route that could better accommodate these different modes.

Option Lands – Rail ROW looking south from W 2nd Ave

But with the proposed alternatives, the devil (as always) will be in the (design) details. The current proposal would see a (separated) cycling facility and a walking route to False Creek via Pine Street and West 1st Avenue, and potential for a walking route to False Creek and Granville Island under the Fir Street off-ramp. In the future, the proposed Arbutus line streetcar is also intended to link up with a wider streetcar network.

Given that these alternative north connection streets are also currently open to automobiles, and traverse light industrial and commercially-zoned areas, it will be particularly important to ensure a design that properly links the Arbutus Greenway experience to the waterfront (and back again). We would advocate for a design that has a strong pedestrian-primary focus, consistently separated “all ages and abilities” bike routing, clear routing for the future streetcar – and, yes, lots of greenery for the greenway.

Proposed Pine Street route for northern pedestrian connection. (At W 3rd, looking north). Source: Google Streetview.

Given the mix of existing activities and uses that surround the northern extension, the proposed routes each have their own challenges. In order to ensure the best possible array of design options are produced, we would recommend that the City hold off on its plans to de-list the aforementioned Arbutus lands from the Arbutus Corridor Official Development Plan until the design for the northern connection is complete. In the same vein, we think it would be similarly prudent to avoid the rezoning or sale of these lands until this important northern linkage is rolled out.

In the end, the option lands may be a legitimate way to finance – through rezoning and sale – some of the critical public space improvements that are coming with the Greenway. If a better, more inclusive and people-friendly route can be delivered on these adjacent streets, per the Arbutus Design Vision, then we think that’s an acceptable alternative. We know this is something that is a stated priority of the City. But in the meantime, until the northern connection(s) are in place, there’s no harm in keeping these lands on the table in case they are needed.

Cover image: “Option Lands” looking north along the rail right-of-way from W 4th Avenue. Source: Google Streetview

Today is the last day to share your thoughts on the recently revealed Arbutus Greenway design concept. Take this survey to comment on the proposal.

In a series of open houses this spring, the City of Vancouver has revealed the much-awaited proposed concept for the permanent design of the Arbutus Greenway. To see it for yourself, check out the information boards posted here. You can also see an overview in a City-produced video (below).

The concept emphasizes that the greenway is very much a transportation corridor designated for the long-range installation of light rail. Indeed, this was a provision built into the City’s original purchase agreement with Canadian Pacific. The idea, though, is that the eventual streetcar will continue to allow for pedestrian and cyclist use. While reminding us that streetcar installation depends on regional funding that hasn’t yet come through, the concept presentation emphasizes that the City is planning in such a way as to allocate sufficient room for the streetcar for the time in the future when it materializes.

Thematically, the plan divides the greenway into eight highly distinct “character zones,” each with its own flavour drawing on the local characteristics of the neighbourhoods through which the greenway runs. To allow for streetcar development while optimizing present use, the plan spells out both short-to-medium and long-term transportation aspects for each zone.

I’ll get to the different zones in a moment. One remark first, though. All along the way, I’d really like the City to retain the decommissioned utility poles remaining from the train track days. I know there are some mixed feelings about them. Personally, I love their linear geometries stretching into the horizon that give the Arbutus Greenway a frame, reminding us of the railway past and providing a consistent visual motif through the cross-section of diverse environments that the greenway traverses. This urban imagery is more interesting to me than an over-aestheticized or sanitized space would be.

Electric Alley: A concept for the Arbutus Greenway between Broadway and 16th

Here are the zones:

1. Harvest Table – W. 6th at Fir to W. Broadway: Adjacent to the existing Kitsilano community gardens, this area has the design theme of urban agriculture. Edible landscaping, community tables and parks are associated features.
2. Electric Alley – W. Broadway to W. 16th: Right now, this stretch has the feel of a commercial alley. Drawing on this, the City proposes an urban laneway ambience, with overhead frames for installing lights and public art.
3. The Ridge – W. 16th to King Edward: With a name that recalls the bowling alley that used to be there, this stretch offers mountain views to the north. The theme stresses urban ecology, including pollinator gardens and nooks for sitting.
4. Woodland Bend – King Edward to 37th: This includes the so-called “S-curve,” the greenway’s highest point, with places to sit and contemplate the splendid views of the Coast Mountains and the city. Nestled beside the
   S-curve and below its grade is a secluded country lane offering a short detour that’s one of Vancouver’s perfect little secret walks. I happened upon it one day while walking by. In case you’d like to go find it for yourself, here’s what I’ve written about it. 
5. Kerrydale Pass – 37th to 49th: This part passes through the Kerrisdale commercial centre. The City envisions it as the greenway’s major retail and civic hub, with a plaza for gatherings, performances and celebrations.
6. Garden Path – 49th to 57th: Featuring the neighbourhood’s Victory Gardens, this part will celebrate urban agriculture and biodiversity, with a small section at 54th created for socializing.
7. Marpole Meander – 57th to SW Marine: Play and recreation are the themes of this section, with a ping pong table, a bike skills course, a giant chessboard and tables.
8. Lookout – SW Marine to Milton: The kids will love the proposed all-ages two-story lookout tower, sculpturally designed, that will oversee the Fraser River, YVR and Orcas Island. Next to it will be a “nature play” area for children (see lead image).

Beyond these zones, the concept includes proposed extensions on the northern and southern ends to increase walking/cycling possibilities and improve transportation connections.

The City has been collaborating with the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh (MST) Nations on greenway design and development. The concept states that particular attention is being paid to place-naming and visible incorporation of MST culture; wayfinding through signage that includes Indigenous languages and recognizes culturally and historically significant sites; ethnobotany; and commissioning of Indigenous public art.

The road ahead

This proposed design concept is under consideration now. It will go to Council for approval in the summer. An Arbutus Greenway Master Plan will emerge in early 2019, with detailed design and construction to follow.

Stay tuned for more as we hear it!

More information

• City of Vancouver Arbutus Greenway webpage

– The VPSN Team

Exploring Gastown Public Spaces – Monday, November 27

Recently, we had a chance to support the City of Vancouver’s efforts to “Reimagine Gastown Streets” by exploring a number of the neighbourhood’s key public spaces. For us, this is all part of a larger body of advocacy and placemaking work that we’ve done around Blood Alley, the Waterfront Hub, and Alexander Street (to name a few of our projects).

Coming up next Monday, November 27 at 6:00pm, we’ll be holding a small ideas jam with our team to look at developing a comprehensive set of recommendations that we can use in our advocacy work around Gastown.

If you’re interested in joining, please let us know. Email info@vancouverpublicspace.ca for more details.

“Public Space Day” at City Council – Wednesday, November 29

Speaking of advocacy… City staff will be presenting a number of updates to Council next week, including reports on Plaza Stewardship, Special Events, the Viva Vancouver (public space activation) program, Bute & Robson Plaza, and an update on the Places for People work involving the City’s downtown public spaces.

The VPSN will be reviewing all of these reports over the next few days, and we’d encourage you to do the same. And hey, you should let Council know your thoughts. More often than not, City Council only hears from people who don’t like a particular initiative… but we think there’s lots in these programs and initiatives that’s worthy of general comment and commendation! Consider informing the discussion by sharing your feedback!

:: Check out the Council Agenda (contains links to individual reports)
:: Share your thoughts – email mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca

Community Dialogue – Downtown Parks & Recreation – Wednesday, November 29

How would you like the Park Board to provide recreation, such as arts, culture, spaces and facilities, in the downtown core of Vancouver? The Vancouver Park Board is developing Vancouver’s Playbook, a new master plan to guide the delivery of vibrant parks and recreation over the next 25 years. This coming Wednesday, they’ll be holding a dialogue on the future of downtown parks and recreation facilities. The event takes place 6:30 – 9:00pm, at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre. It’s free, but registration is encouraged.

:: Register for Park Board – VanPlay Community Dialogue: Downtown
:: More Info: www.vancouver.ca/vanplay

Places for People Downtown – Public Space Makers – Wednesday, December 6

As part of the Lumiere Festival, the City of Vancouver is hosting a Pecha Kucha-style discussion that looks at how our public spaces function. In particular, the event asks What kind of public spaces do we need in Downtown Vancouver? How can we better support the idea of creating public life in a rainy city?

The event takes place at Jim Deva Plaza (Bute and Davie), 6:00-8:30pm. The VPSN’s Paola Qualizza will be one of a number of presenters – so be sure to check out this exciting event!

Five More Public-Space Related Projects that Need Your Input

The City of Vancouver is in the midst of a number of public-space related initiatives that you may be interested in. Though described in a recent media release as “transportation” projects, the initiatives in question will all have the potential to enhance city streets and neighbourhoods in a number of different ways. Projects include upgrades to the Georgia Gateway, improvements to the Cambie Bridge, the North East False Creek Area Plan, the Alexander Bikeway, and Mobility Pricing.
There are various consultation opportunities under way, and while some of the open house opportunities have passed, there are other ways to share your feedback.

:: Read More – Get Involved: New and ongoing public space initiatives need your input

Recap: Arbutus Greenway Design Jam

October 27–29, 2017 saw the Arbutus Greenway Design Jam, an all-weekend event where 100 Vancouverites met to generate ideas for the permanent greenway. Residents discussed how to enhance biodiversity and access to nature in the city, provide spaces for play and learning at all ages, increase opportunities for public art, and honour the layered history and culture of the area.

Naomi Wittes Reichstein, Arbutus Greenway Project Lead for the VPSN, was there. You can read her write-up on our blog.

:: Read More – Building our city at the Arbutus Greenway Design Jam

Gift Ideas for the Public Space Aficionado. Your ideas?

Every few years we public a list of cool gift ideas for lovers of public space. There’s always an exciting mix of things to be found – and some of the best ideas come from readers like yourself.

If you’ve got something you think we should add to this year’s list, please email us at info@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

Volunteer Opportunities?

Interested in lending a hand with our public space work? Our next volunteer orientation session takes place on Tuesday, December 5 at 6pm. Location details are being finalized, but if you’d like to attend please email volunteer@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

Photo credit: Rain Urbanism, by Matthew Soules

On October 27–29, I was excited to participate in an all-weekend pilot event that was – to my knowledge – unprecedented in Vancouver.

As part of the ongoing consultation with residents on the permanent design of the Arbutus Greenway, the City hosted about 100 participants at Point Grey Secondary School in an intensive process of generating ideas. The City promoted this charrette as a “design jam.”

Divided into small facilitated groups, we spent the Saturday coming up with specific design ideas targeted toward themes put forth by the City. For example, we talked about how to enhance biodiversity and access to nature along the greenway, provide spaces for play and learning at all ages and increase opportunities for public art. We talked about ways of using the space to honour the layered history and culture of the area and how to activate the space without overprogramming or commercializing it. On Sunday the focus shifted from thematic concerns to making recommendations for specific locational stretches along the greenway.

Throughout the weekend, experts on subjects from transportation to sustainability to bird ecology were there, circulating among the tables and providing information to help us comment more knowledgeably. For me, this educational component was one of the Design Jam’s most rewarding aspects.

A particularly exciting component of the process was that each table featured a professional illustrator who drew up design pictures of the greenway to capture our ideas in real time as we talked. Staff taped these illustrations on the walls, and it was inspiring to see how our improvised comments took physical form in these pictorial visions. How much of the input will be put to use remains to be seen.

Transportation vs. recreation

A number of debates that have subsisted about the greenway ever since the City first bought it surfaced at the Design Jam. The most fundamental of these, in my opinion, was the fault line between recreational and transportation visions. While expressing support for public transit in principle, some residents also voiced concern about the impact of streetcar infrastructure on the country lane ambience of some of the sections along the greenway, such as the beautiful S-curve at Shaughnessy Heights leading into Kerrisdale.

At other times, being asked to make recommendations on only limited stretches of the greenway met with pushback. It wasn’t always clear to all participants why some stretches were chosen for feedback while certain others were extracted or excluded.

Who was there

Representation at public meetings can be controversial. For the Design Jam, we were chosen by lottery in a selection process contracted out to an external agency. The City’s goal (as explained in prefatory remarks) was to sample all 22 Vancouver neighbourhoods geographically, with a rough gender balance. The City purposefully overweighted the neighbourhoods along the greenway, as the ones most affected by the decisions being made. Having met those conditions, the City then attempted to counter the fact that the younger generations are often underrepresented at consultations, allotting a high proportion of seats to young adults. A high number of seats also went to seniors. I was uncertain to what extent race and ethnicity had been factors in the sampling.

As a result of these assigned weights, the City ended up underrepresenting the age group of 40–59 relative to population size. This to me presented some potential problems. If the idea was to grant greater weight to cohorts that are typically underrepresented, then I wasn’t sure why the middle bracket received so many fewer seats than seniors, who consistently attend public meetings in high numbers. I also wondered who would speak for children when so many of parental age were missing. Children interact with space much more tangibly and sensorily than many adults, and they need places where they can climb. Partly because of likely parental underrepresentation, I made an effort in my own comments to emphasize the need for design features that would help children play and engage.

What’s next?

From here, the City will proceed to developing a “master plan” for the greenway and will engage in another round of public consultation in the months to come.

All told, the Design Jam was an energizing experiment in participatory city-building. I hope the City will use this pilot as a model for future projects.

If you have comments on our greenway advocacy, feel free to contact Naomi Wittes Reichstein, VPSN Arbutus Greenway Project Lead, naomi@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

Over the past months, the VPSN has been advocating enthusiastically for the design of one of Vancouver’s most exciting new public amenities. Tracing the former CP rail corridor, the Arbutus Greenway stretches 9 kilometres from Marpole almost to Granville Island. Stitching neighbourhoods together over its peaceful yet varied course, it’s designed to accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and eventually a streetcar (it’s great for inline skating too!).

The temporary path is now fully paved, with lane markings to clarify separations for pedestrians and bikers. Benches have also been installed, and there’s a Mobi bikeshare station where the greenway intersects Broadway.

So what’s ahead?

Now that the temporary path is done, the City says it’ll be looking at various permanent design options over this summer, subject to public review: a process that we’ll be following closely. The City projects starting permanent construction in late 2019. Having participated as a stakeholder group in the early consultation, we’re encouraged that the overall vision for the greenway articulated by the City in its public statements and its RFP is consistent with the hopes that we and other nonprofits and individuals have expressed. The City has made it clear in its communications that it wants the greenway to function as an accessible, biodiverse connector of linked places with public art along the way, as well as a destination in its own right.

Where it comes to public art, in fact, you can see a delightful new installation of rainbow-coloured stones lining the greenway between Nanton and 33rd. Earlier in the year, the grade 2 students at York House came forth asking permission to create public art at the greenway. Rainbow Walks on the Greenway was installed in partnership with Vancouver Biennale local artist Toni Latour. If you turn the rocks over, you’ll see inspiring little messages written by the kids in their own handwriting, such as “Smile,” “Count the trees” and “Think about what this space could be.”

All that said, the VPSN continues to be concerned about the lack of safe clarity remaining at a number of the arterial intersections (e.g., 12th, King Edward, 41st, 49th). We urge the City to expedite the creation of more obvious crossings that establish priority for pedestrians and cyclists and deter parking over the greenway. (Update from June 30: A communication circulated by the City announces that next month there will be “finishing touches” made to the West 41st intersection, with “safety improvements at local intersections along the greenway” and “signage to either end of the temporary path to help visitors get to the Seawall/Granville Island and the Canada Line Bridge.”)

For further details on the temporary path, check out our earlier coverage and the City’s video.

Do you have feedback on the greenway? We’ll continue to advocate with the City, so feel free to get in touch with us. You can reach Naomi at naomi@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

If you’ve walked the Arbutus Greenway lately, you’ve probably noticed that the temporary pathway is all paved now. Every time I go on it, I’m encouraged to see it well used by pedestrians and cyclists alike.

Time for an update.

From January 18 to February 15, the City ran an extensive public consultation gathering feedback on what people wanted from the greenway in its final form. The results are now in, and a comprehensive summary and short video are posted online.

The City also issued an RFP for consultants bidding on engineering, landscaping and other work associated with the permanent path. The RFP, which incorporated the results of the public consultation, closed on April 4.

So what’s the upshot?

What Vancouverites want

In the January–February consultation, the City asked residents for input on what would most entice them to use the greenway. Stakeholders, members of the public and City advisory committees were all involved in this process of articulating values.

The City held online Talk Vancouver and paper questionnaires, three stakeholder meetings, three public open houses, three “Pop-Up City Hall” events, a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” and meetings with four of the City’s advisory committees: children, youth and families; persons with disabilities; urban Aboriginal; and active transportation. The City reports more than 4,000 interactions with participants through these activities, including almost 3,000 responses to questionnaires.

Having participated in the second of the three stakeholder meetings (“Transportation and urban design”), I’m encouraged that the values informing the VPSN’s own advocacy for the greenway going back many months are highly consistent with the main objectives articulated by the public in the recent consultation. As reported by the City, the public wants the greenway to:

• be “a high-quality, accessible public space for walking and cycling”;
• be “a safe, comfortable, and welcoming destination with places for gathering, socializing and relaxing” that would be “not just a corridor, but a destination or series of linked places,” with coffee shops, park space and “perhaps outdoor exhibits”;
• connect “to neighbourhoods, parks and other points of interest … as well as the broader transportation network”; and
• offer green spaces: places for finding tranquility, reconnecting with nature, growing food and nurturing ecosystems and biodiversity.

Residents expressed appreciation that the Arbutus Greenway gives access to green space and community gardens. Shown: gate to the Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden from the greenway. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

Consensus was strong, evidently, on the points above. The overwhelming majority of participants expressed interest in using the greenway for walking, cycling and/or enjoying nature. Such being the case, it’s unsurprising that reactions toward a future streetcar were somewhat divergent. While some responded favourably, others questioned the necessity or expressed concern that having a streetcar could detract from non-motorized uses. This ambivalence toward streetcar use – and indeed to the corridor’s overall designation as a transportation corridor rather than a green trail – was consistent with the ambivalence on this point that the VPSN has observed in past meetings as well.

Construction right now

Though fully paved, the temporary path is still under construction. In a newsletter, the City has announced that the following improvements will be made in the coming months:

• pavement marked with separations for pedestrians and cyclists;
• “minor improvements to street crossings”;
• pollinator seeding; and
• benches

Since the first two of these points have serious safety implications, the VPSN urges that they be treated as pressing. With regard to separations, I’ve had feedback from pedestrians who feel threatened by the speed of bikes and have expressed apprehension that the final design could privilege cyclists over pedestrians by giving them more room. Clearly, the sooner the separations are indicated, the better.

As the VPSN has also argued, the confusion at street crossings is an accident waiting to happen, and I’m not sure what scope is intended under “minor improvements.” We reiterate our keen hope that the City will hasten to provide obvious priority for greenway users. Many times, drivers either disregard the greenway or simply seem unaware that it’s even there. At the intersection with 6th, for instance, I snapped this photo of cars parked across the greenway:

Photo: Naomi Reichstein

Toward a permanent design

Meanwhile, the City is moving ahead with developing a permanent design.

Throughout the RFP, there’s a strong emphasis on transportation as a fundamental component of the greenway’s identity. Beyond that, I’m pleased to see that the values expressed at the consultation – and in the VPSN’s own advocacy – figure explicitly in the RFP’s emphasis on accessible use and safety, community connectivity, amenities, focus on ecology, placemaking opportunities and integration of cultural and heritage elements. 

For example, I’m pleased that the RFP places explicit value on attending to neighbourhood variety: “Early discussions with stakeholders and the public have indicated a desire to reflect the distinct character of each neighbourhood along the greenway. With such a long and linear site, one of the design challenges will be the development of features and elements that can maintain a coherent experience within the physical confines of the entire greenway while allowing for uniqueness within distinct sections of the corridor” (p B-9).

I’m also happy to read that the “City’s expectation is that public art [will become] an integral component within public landscapes throughout the City, including the Arbutus Greenway” and that “the City’s Public Art Program will oversee the preparation of the ‘Arbutus Greenway Public Art Plan’ in conjunction with the Arbutus Greenway’s Project Manager” (p B-23).

Paved now, the Arbutus Greenway retains echoes of its railway past with its track-like quality, running behind the little park at 6th. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

Next up

According to the City, various design options will be developed over the summer, and the public will receive further communications in the fall. After seeking public review and evaluation of these options, the City will provide a detailed update on the one preferred.

Do you have any feedback on the greenway? The VPSN will continue to advocate with the City for its design, so please feel free to get in touch with me at naomi@vancouverpublicspace.ca.

Recently I crossed the border for an overnight stay in what is probably my favourite small town in the United States.

Bellingham, Washington. The friendliest human ambience. Proximity to nature. Wooded trails where everybody says hello when passing by. Strong civic pride among committed residents. Highly successful urban renewal placing value on heritage preservation and creative commercial reuse in the city’s two downtown cores of Bellingham and Fairhaven. (Love Port Townsend? Yep, you’d love it here too.) Excellent restaurants, especially if you want your choice of Mexican food. And the best bookstore north of Seattle, Village Books: venue of last summer’s Steampunk Festival and a generous stream of other events before and since.

In fact, in June 2016, Bellingham had the distinction of making the landing page of 24/7 Wall Street’s “50 worst cities in America to live in”: clearly high praise when you consider that New York, San Francisco and Boston also made that list.

Historic Fairhaven, with outdoor cinema. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

I’d visited Bellingham many times before, but this time round I had a fairly specific motive: walking the Bellingham Interurban Trail. Aside from my general fascination with rails-to-trails (because, of course, they’re among the coolest things ever), I wanted to see what this established 6.6-mile railroad conversion could teach us in developing the Arbutus Greenway here in Vancouver.

A forest, a creek, a 50K race

The Bellingham Interurban is a north-south trail along the former right-of-way of a Bellingham–Mount Vernon electrical passenger line built in 1912 and decommissioned in 1930. The railway’s trajectory forms a poignant testament to an era when much work went into building short-lived local trains. Happily for the community, the line earned permanent life through its designation as a rail-to-trail in 1987. It originates in the Fairhaven historic district, passing through the canyon-filled woodlands of Arroyo Park to terminate at Larrabee State Park to the south.

Colours of early spring on the Interurban. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

With some concrete trestle footings as historic remnants, the Interurban has a surface of hard-packed cinder and a number of convenient access points along the way. Here’s a map in case you want to hike or bike it yourself.

For our walk, my co-traveller and I started at 10th and Donovan in Fairhaven and did about half the trail before running out of time and turning back. It was Saturday, March 18, and the Interurban was fairly busy thanks to the Chuckanut 50k race, on its 25th run. Funky little motivational signs along the trail encouraged runners to reach the end.

From Fairhaven, the Interurban takes you along Padden Creek. Submerged under a tunnel starting in the 19th century, the creek has been the subject of a 2015 daylighting project to encourage restoration of the ecosystem, as signs along the Interurban explain. (Interestingly, daylighting has made recent news in Vancouver as well, with the proposed restoration of our own Tatlow Creek.)

Padden Creek daylighting, with trail access. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

The Interurban also takes you right beside Padden’s fish ladders.

A wide, level train bed passing through a variety of plant systems, streams and remnants of old railway embankments, the trail leads into narrower footpaths full of switchbacks running through mossy Arroyo Park. I would’ve loved to continue on and see the train bed pick up again to feed into Larrabee State Park, but that remains for another trip.

Salmon ladder, Padden Creek. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

Bringing it home: The Arbutus Greenway

What can we take from this as Vancouver builds its own railroad conversion?

In the past I’ve spoken of Arbutus as a rail-to-trail, but the visit to Bellingham helped me to appreciate that it isn’t actually one in the true sense. As emphasized both in public forums and in the RFP recently published for contracting work on the greenway, the City of Vancouver purchased Arbutus with the intention of turning it into a transportation corridor accommodating an eventual streetcar. By contrast, the Bellingham Interurban epitomizes the type, as reflected in its listing by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. So the analogy between Bellingham’s pathway and the much more urban Arbutus is far from exact.

That said, there’s a lot we can learn from the Interurban’s successes:

Multipurpose use

The combination of the 50k race and the ecosystemic context provided along the trail (by the signage about the Padden Creek daylighting, for instance) brought to my mind the opportunity to bring together recreational, environmental and educational experiences along Arbutus through events, informative installations, public art and more. At the VPSN, we’ve consistently advocated for such enriched and multifaceted possibilities.

Retaining wall greened with moss and sedum. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

Community

The sense of camaraderie along the trail – with even the most exhausted joggers smiling and saying “Hi” as they passed – affirmed for me the potential of Arbutus to bring people together out of social isolation and into the community: indeed one of the most vital aspects of its value as a public space, as emphasized by some of the greenway stakeholders during the consultation.

Connectivity

A super-important asset of the Bellingham Interurban is the connectivity it creates among different parks and between parks and urban areas. Public space is a network. It’s not just the nodes that matter, but the connections also, and a trail like this – and like Metro Vancouver’s Central Valley Greenway – provides the perfect means. The Interurban stitches the area’s jewels together via neighbourhood access paths that are plentiful and easily attained. Depending on where you live as a resident, you can use the trail to visit a friend in another neighbourhood, visit the Fairhaven historic village centre or take a walk or your mountain bike through the woods. Such connectivity is a principal objective for which we’ve been advocating where it comes to Arbutus, as a means of opening up the city’s green spaces, neighbourhoods and commercial pockets while also getting people out of cars in accessing them.

I’ll plan to course through the Interurban’s southern stretch on my next visit to town.

The Chuckanut is a 50k race, after all. Photo: Naomi Reichstein

We’ve been following closely the latest developments on the Arbutus Greenway, Vancouver’s 9-km rail-to-trail corridor. On February 2, I was excited to attend the stakeholders’ workshop that the City hosted with the intention of formulating a vision for the greenway’s permanent design. Participants included representatives of Vancouver-based organizations involved with green space, human mobility and health, cycling and public consultation, with students of architecture and landscape design also present.

The intention of the meeting was high-level: to formulate overall “vision” and “values” for the greenway’s design, leaving specific recommendations and troubleshooting to further stages. The City kicked off the workshop with a clear emphasis on the greenway’s purpose as a transportation corridor, reminding participants that this formal status was in fact a condition of the original purchase. The long-range intention is to introduce light rail, though as we’ve described earlier, there’s no timeline for that because the streetcar isn’t funded. The City’s reminder was important, though, in framing the conversation.

After the City’s presentation, we split up into two tables to exchange ideas, then came back together for a discussion as a whole group.

With any major city project, residents will hold out a variety of hopes, some of which may be more compatible than others. Around the room, participants clearly agreed that the new greenway should represent a commitment to ecology, with indigenous plants, habitat for species including pollinators, preservation of quiet green space and the opportunity for non-motorized movement. Equally universal was the feeling that the greenway should both represent and enable social inclusion and interaction, allowing people of all ages and mobilities to come together within the community and engage in healthy physical activity in an accessible public space. Participants likewise agreed on what I call the attractive duality between the quiet seclusion available on parts of the greenway and the relative busyness at neighbourhood hubs. People appreciated and expressed the wish to preserve the way in which the greenway traverses tranquil green areas while occasionally coming upon larger gathering hubs interspersed (such as 6th, 41st and 57th), offering variety and interest over its long course. Supported too was the idea of incorporating plenty of benches for resting, plus cultural elements from street art to preserved railway markers.

Unsurprisingly, certain values were somewhat at odds. There was a bit of tension between the vision of Arbutus essentially as a green space needing conservation versus its status as a transportation corridor including a streetcar. One view expressed was that a streetcar could eventually reduce the greenway’s appeal as a walking and bike route and its ecological qualities. Other participants advised that designing with the streetcar in mind should play a role from the start so that improvements made now wouldn’t have to be ripped up and redone later should funding for rail come through.

What you can do

The public consultation is happening now. You can participate by taking the survey and dropping in on one of the City’s open houses on February 9 (tonight) or 11. In March, the City will report out on the results of the consultation, including this workshop.

We’ll keep you posted.

In October, we reported on Vancouver’s unprecedented rail-to-trail Arbutus Greenway project and on the VPSN’s advocacy for making the most of this corridor as a vital public amenity.

If you don’t know the greenway yet, have a look at this little video posted by the City, which includes clips filmed by a person biking the route before all the track got ripped out. It gives you an overview of the pathway’s course.

In detailed recommendations to the City, the VPSN has offered a variety of ideas with a view toward enhancing safety, community ambience, environmental sustainability and placemaking opportunities along the greenway, while evoking its railway heritage and preserving the gardens bordering it.

In the fall, the City indicated in conversations with me and others that the paving of the temporary pathway, including separations for cyclists and pedestrians, would complete by Christmas. Our unusually cold and snowy weather threw a wrench in that plan, keeping the pathway glaciated over several weeks. As a consequence, the greenway has remained paved only on certain stretches.

By now it’s all thawed again. On January 18, Mayor Gregor Robertson and the City’s chief engineer, Jerry Dobrovolny, held a press conference at the greenway’s intersection with 57th Avenue, announcing that paving would restart this week. In my own discussions with the City, I’ve received estimates that the paving should complete by March, along with the much-awaited separations for cyclists and pedestrians. These separations will be piloted in different ways along the path. On some stretches, painted lines will indicate lanes. Elsewhere, the City will create two different paths by cutting a physical strip through the centre of the pavement laid, with a third, mulched path included as well where width allows.

With this return to construction also resumes the citywide public consultation. According to the mayor, the City wants “big ideas” from the public on which design features and amenities to incorporate on a permanent basis.

Crosstalk

In the VPSN’s view, there’s an urgent need to deal with the dangerous lack of clarity at major arterial crossings such as 12th, 33rd, 57th and others. Often no obvious crosswalk or other form of safe crossing exists where the greenway intersects the arterial road.

Greater right-of-way clarity needed at 33rd Avenue crossing and elsewhere

At 12th, for example, an outdated and redundant traffic signal stands at the former tracks that local drivers make a habit of overriding, leaving greenway users vulnerable. Currently, concrete barriers and some signage exist at arterial intersections, but changing drivers’ behaviour calls for more permanent and visible installations. Painted and/or raised crosswalks, obvious signals, paved slopes at sidewalks for cyclists and wheelchair users and more direct connectivity between the greenway and bike lanes would all help to create proper rights-of-way.

Vulnerability for greenway users at 12th Avenue intersection

In conversations with the City, I’ve been told that designers are presently looking at options for improving the intersections and that solutions should be in place by the time the temporary pathway completes, but details are still vague at this point.

Another interesting issue has to do with the gardens lining the greenway. A gardener at one of the City-permitted sites has expressed the hope to me that clear separations will be created to protect produce from theft even as the gardens remain visible to the public. Perhaps low hedges might be a solution in some cases. It’s realistic to expect that the paving of the greenway will mean a rise in foot and cyclist traffic. As this flow increases, there’s a delicate balance to be drawn between allowing the public to appreciate the gardens while protecting the plots from destructive incursion. In the VPSN’s view, these tensions point to the need for a more comprehensive approach to stewardship over the pathway from now into the future.

Speak your mind

There are so many ways you can get involved with this unprecedented opportunity to shape our city. What do you want the Arbutus Greenway to look like?

Weigh in

• Respond to the online survey, open now.
• Visit a hot-chocolate information kiosk on February 1.
• Attend a public consultation on February 4, 9 or 11.

Contact the Vancouver Public Space Network

As communications coordinator and Arbutus Greenway project lead for the VPSN, I’ll be representing the Network at a stakeholder workshop hosted by the City on February 2. If you have any ideas or concerns you’d like me to raise, please contact me before then at naomi@vancouverpublicspace.ca.