This past week, City Council passed an important motion that we wanted to share with you. It relates to the (re)naming of both the plaza next to Queen Elizabeth Theatre (usually referred to as QE Plaza) and the recently redesigned North Plaza at the Art Gallery, (which, in addition to “the North Plaza” has had a few other names over the years, including Centennial Plaza, and Old Courthouse Square).

Naming and renaming are powerful symbolic acts that can play a role in strengthening the goals of reconciliation between settler and First Nations cultures. Vancouver is not alone here. Whether retitling streets or buildings previously named for proponents of racist policy (Ottawa), supplementing colonial place names with their indigenous parallels (Toront0), or adding indigenous place-based symbols to city flags, municipalities (and other levels of government) across the country are taking a step forward. These are pivotal gestures – part of many such acts that will need to take place over the next few years and decades.

The Vancouver Council motion, approved unanimously, calls on the City to work with Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, and other partners (including Civic Theatres, and the Province of BC) to explore indigenous naming opportunities and other forms of commemoration. With a landscape of First Nations place names that was largely overwritten by successive waves of colonial settlement, the opportunity to re-introduce these indigenous names as part of reconciliation is timely and important. The VPSN commends the City for this important step.

Meanwhile, the Park Board will reconvene on October 11 to consider a similar motion around Siwash Rock – the Chinook and French etymology of which ties it to the English “savage.” You can read more about this motion, and share your thoughts with Park Board Commissioners here.

If you haven’t stopped by to see the pre-walk zombie gathering, consider taking a peek. It’s a bit of good natured fun. The zombie apocalypse – and its local, more celebratory “walk” – is nothing if not an adventure in the use of public space.

Vancouver zombies are generally a peaceable bunch, using the afternoon to animate some of the key gathering spaces in the city, and bringing a colourful bit of grotesquery to some key downtown streets and spaces. Unlike the movies, Vancouver zombies have also been known to smile and laugh, use smart phones, and contribute to the local economy by purchasing vast quantities of face paint and weed. Many of them will even be kicking off this years walk with something truly west coast: Zombie Yoga. Don’t stretch too hard or… Oh god. Lost an arm.

(As a side note to the designers out there, it’s possible that the North Plaza’s current bark-mulch groundcover is only truly successful during this event. It’s an especially suitable treatment, given that, like the zombies that trudge upon its surface, it has a bedraggled look and speaks a bit to the idea of decomposition. We shall have to see if the zombies are as enthusiastic about the space after it’s redesigned.)

On a perch. Zombies gathered in the North Plaza. 2012.

The connection between zombies and public space runs pretty deep indeed. To wit: you’ve probably seen how this plays out in the movies: zombies roam, while the rest of humanity engages in a cycle of fleeing, finding refuge, fleeing again. Much of it looks, from the comfort of the theatre seat or sofa, like a prolonged parkour exercise. A most recent example: handsome Brad Pitt in World War Z, racing down the streets of one urban environment after another. An earlier film, 28 Days After, showed much the same thing. In both these films we learn that the zombies can also engage in a good bit of free running. Inevitably, of course, some of the living are lost to twisted ankles and gangs of pouncing, biting undead.

To that end, you may be pleased to learn that questions of zombies and public space are covered in at least one text dealing with life in a post-apocalyptic world: Max Brooks’ The Zombie Survival Guide. The book is reassuringly subtitled “complete protection from the living dead.”

For those planning to not be bitten/get infected/roam, a text like this should, in theory, help to navigate the tricky days ahead. Regrettably, the utility of Brooks’ text is a bit mixed; the advice is sometimes uneven, the underlying assumptions perhaps, at times, a little suspect.

For example, a section specifically identifying public spaces, goes through a list that includes, in this order: office buildings, schools, hospitals, police stations, retail stores, super markets, shopping malls, churches, warehouses, piers and docks, ship yards, banks, cemeteries, capitals and city halls. Truly a hodge-podge of buildings and spaces – some of which are very much privately owned and administered.

Kind of beautiful. Not unlike that scene in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. Photo: Matthew Grapengieser.

If there is a redeeming quality in this list, perhaps its that it highlights the ‘greyness’ that exists between public and private, with space that’s used by the public often being read as the same thing as public (as in, publicly owned and operated) space. It’s a common definitional challenge that comes with the term, though take note: if you’ve seen Dennis Hopper’s megalomaniac performance as the head of a private (and very) gated Pittsburgh community in director George Romero’s (2005) Land of the Dead, you’ll know this blurriness of “public” disappears quickly when the zombies actually start to gather.

The shopping mall angle is an interesting one. Much of Romero’s earlier (1978) film Dawn of the Dead actually took place in an enclosed retail plaza. It featured a fine, if none-too-subtle critique of consumer culture.

Francine: What are they doing? Why do they come here?

Stephen: Some kind of instinct. Memory. What they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.It’s what they know. Its what they’re used to.

Fair point, Mr. Brooks. There have even been a few legal challenges that have advanced the notion of shopping malls as spaces that contain elements of publicness. You can even thank the late Jack Layton for pushing the idea that malls could be sites for political expression. (Layton, to be clear, is not a zombie, though some might say he does a good job of inspiriting the federal NDP – which probably isn’t a bad thing given the recent resurgence of their Liberal counterparts).

Most critically though, Brooks’ “public space” chapter does little to speak to streets, plazas and most greenspaces – something of an omission given the happy haunting grounds occupied by Vancouver Zombies, and their outright prominence in urban environments.

This is not to say there aren’t lessons to be distilled. We learn, for example, that cemeteries (the one urban greenspace mentioned) are actually not that bad for seeking temporary refuge (it being harder than you may think for people six feet under to escape their graves).

…And if by some miracle, a corpse did come to life inside its coffin, would it really “rise from the grave”? To answer this question, one must ask another: how?

How indeed! Brooks’ book does deserve some kudos for its important myth-busting work.

We learn, likewise, that buses and armoured vehicles may sound like good ideas, but aren’t all that readily available. SUVs, trucks and cars are also given a bit of a rough ride: not all are equipped for the sort of rugged escape that might be needed. Gas and mileage issues, he notes, can also be a real problem (and frankly, everyone knows that at least one of your party will perish at the gas station).

One possible solution? The bicycle!

The common vehicle is fast, quiet, muscle-powered, and easy to maintain. Add to this the additional advantage that it is the only vehicle you can pick up and carry if the terrain gets too rough. People using bicycles to escape from infested areas have almost always fared better than those on foot.

This latter point is a decent one to emphasize, as it speaks directly to the additional value of separated bike lanes and bike infrastructure. For the grumblers still out there, take note: there are dividends in this stuff that you haven’t even contemplated.

Zombies make their way down Robson to Denman. Photo by Matthew Grapengieser.

Of course, the real challenge that comes in The Zombie Survival Guide is this: cities in general take a bit of a drubbing. Or as Brooks rather bluntly put’s it: AVOID URBAN AREAS (emphasis his), and later, writing more poetically, “within [city] boundaries will be a maelstrom of unspeakable chaos.”

It’s tempting to view this as excessive hyperbole – a bit of sneaky city-bashing. Apparently, though, there are hard numbers to back this directive up.

No matter what your chances for survival are during an infestation, they will undoubtedly drop by 50 if not 75 percent when traversing an urban area. The simple fact is that a place inhabited by more living will have more dead.

On top of this, there are additional perils: marauding ruffians, friendly fire from living zombie “hunters”, and – take note engineers – the reality that hard concrete surfaces may not muffle footsteps as well as soft ground. (To which we add: hope to hell that the Zombie apocalypse doesn’t happen during the rainy season, as the schlopping noise of people marching through muddy greenspaces isn’t going to be helpful either).

Perhaps this is the urban dwelllers last stand. Ultimately, though, the “just get out of the city” advice isn’t helpful – or at least not where Brooks leaves it (which is to say, as an idea, stranded). The directive lacks rigour given our demographic reality – i.e. that over 50 percent of the world lives in urban areas. Moreover, like the suburban flight of previous generations, the idea of escape has some deeply embedded class and social justice dimensions that deserve to be unpacked. Who gets to escape, and how? Some better analysis of the urban condition – not to mention survival advice – in the event of a zombifying plague is clearly needed. Scholars of urban resilience and/or disaster management, please take note.

For the moment, rest assured, the Vancouver zombies you’ll encounter today promise to be better behaved than in the films. There’s no immediate need to cross the bridges to the hills of North and West Van, no call to activate our emergency routes or push across Boundary road into Burnaby. We are safe for now. Repeat. We are safe for now.

The Zombie Walk. An all ages, opportunity for the un-dead to reclaim the streets! Photo: Tom Magliery.

UPDATE: The original survey deadline has been extended by a few days. It now closes on November 12, 2012.

The City of Vancouver has just launched a survey to gather input on the future of Block 51 – the area bounded by Hornby, Georgia, Robson and Howe. The survey looks at the possible expansion of Robson Square (creating a pedestrian-only space on the segment between Hornby to Howe) as well as the future of the north plaza of the Art Gallery (also called Courthouse Plaza or Centennial Plaza).

We’d encourage you to take a few moments to fill out the questionnaire – and to send it along to your various contacts and networks.

You can access the on-line version here: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/Block51/

Here’s a few more notes from the City’s announcement:

Please take a moment to fill out the survey. Let us know how you would like to see 800-block Robson Street and the Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza used in the future, and whether you support the permanent closure of 800-block Robson Street to create a pedestrian plaza.

Your feedback will be given to the designers of the Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza, and the feedback regarding 800-block Robson Street will be included in the report to Vancouver City Council.

If you could please help us out by sharing the survey link with your networks, via email or social media, it would be greatly appreciated. And if you are tweeting, please add the hashtag #Block51 to your tweets.

Survey link: http://fluidsurveys.com/s/Block51/

City webpage: http://vancouver.ca/block51

The first round of the City’s “Block 51” consultations took place on Monday and Wednesday of this week. Both events explored the future of Robson Square and the north lawn of the Art Gallery, doing it up with a program of activities that included presentations, slide shows and collaborative drawing exercises. Appropriately enough, the two evenings took place at the VAG – in a room overlooking the south end of the Gallery.

The VPSN was proud to be an event partner for these two events. If you weren’t able to make it out, the following will give you a quick run-down on what you missed.

Monday’s event, subtitled a “A Look Back,” started with opening remarks by Councillor Heather Deal and then featured a screening of the 1973 NFB film, Chairs for Lovers (along with popcorn!). The short film details the efforts of architect and illustrator Stanley King and his pioneering work in participatory urban design – and focuses in part on his work with Robson Square.

But the screening was more than just history, as it served as a means to introduce an older, (but just as energetic) King to the audience. King and the staff at his Co-Design firm have been responsible for some pretty cool work over the past four decades.

(A side note – the film helped to provide some context about the opportunities and challenges that the public wrestled with in helping to create a vision for Robson Square. As a way of showing that some of the discussions that are taking place today aren’t new, check out 15:35, where, standing in the midst of the massive parking lot that sat to the south of the old Law Courts, two of King’s 1973 student designers exchange the following words:

First speaker: We should close off the streets

Second speaker: They’ve done it in Seattle

Third speaker: What about all the cars? I just don’t understand what will happen to the cars…

Following the movie, a panel discussion ensued with Bing Thom, Alan Bell, Nick Milkovich – three members of Arthur Erickson’s original Robson Square design team. The trio took turns reminiscing about some of the planning and design ideas that went into the original concept. Ideas that included:

• Closing the 800-block off to vehicle traffic
• A lively sub-grade area (where today’s ice rink and UBC are) that would feature retail and transit services along side government services
• A large reflective pool on the north end instead of fountain

With the panel discussions complete, the evening switched gears yet again and King was given the floor to review the co-design process. Attendees broke into small groups, each with their own graphic facilitator. Ideas for the possible uses attached to the Block 51 spaces were explored and rendered in full colour.

You can see a few of the vignettes here:

Wednesday’s event was bannered under the heading “A Look Forward.” Councillor Andrea Reimer presented welcoming remarks and the event was MC’d by Vanessa Richards. (Those of you who rocked out at our karaoke kiosk events this past summer will remember Vanessa as our charming karaoke host).

Speakers included:

• John Atkin (who gave an overview of the changing shape of the north plaza);
• Lon Laclaire (the City’s Manager of Strategic Transportation, who presented on Olympic transportation planning and the connection with Robson);
• Jenn Sheel and Krysztina Kassay (City Engineering staff who administer the Viva Vancouver program – and who spoke on their work with the 800-block of Robson)
• Heather Forbes (VPSN Chair – who gave an overview of some of the Network’s activities on Robson Square – and the larger search for a public square in Vancouver)
• Matthew Soules and Joe Dahmen (designers who produced the 2012 Pop Rocks installation that ran along the 800-block)

The evening concluded with another round of drawing, similar to that used with Monday’s participants. And as with the first evening, there was something really cool about seeing the co-design process in action. First and best, it was an approach that energized attendees. Participants were still going strong at 10pm, and probably would have stayed longer had the option been there.

Secondly, it was largely an optimistic exercise. Perhaps it was because there were a good number of younger folks in the room, but the dialogue felt devoid of the cynicism that often colours consultations. And this isn’t to say that the various issues associated with the potential redesign of Robson and the north plaza were omitted from the conversation (they weren’t). It’s just that they weren’t the starting point for the conversation.

Not bad for a couple of greyish fall evenings: some good friendly, collaborative dialogue about two important public spaces. All said and done, the public life that was animated in the various discussions that took place looked pretty darn bright on Monday and Wednesday.

Given the subject matter, doesn’t this square nicely with the future of Block 51?

Coming up…

Next up on the Block 51 consultation program is a survey – which will be made available sometime next week.