Annual New Year’s Day Polar Bear Swim – 1968

Check out the English Bay Pier – not to mention the fantastic swim trunks – in the first image!

For more on the Polar Bear Swim you can check out the Park Board’s webpage here, as well as a VPSN article (and cool word-of-the-day) here.

Images courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.

Curglaff: the shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into cold water.

(This public space ‘word of the day’ comes courtesy of John Jamiesons’s Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808. As reported in Jeffrey Kacirk’s Forgotten English.)

Happy New Year everyone! Looking to get things started with a splash of excitement? Why not start 2016 with one of Vancouver’s most bracing public space events.

The 95th annual Polar Bear swim takes place at English Bay today, January 1st. Registration (if you want to get your name on the official docket) opens at 12:30, and the event itself takes place at 2:30. Last year more than two thousand folks signed up for a chilly, collegial dunk in the Pacific Ocean.

For those that want more than just a quick plunge, there’s the Peter Pantages Memorial 100-Yard Swim Race – named for the fellow that started the Vancouver tradition in 1920. The first three first three swimmers to complete the race and reach the marker buoy will receive trophies.

(Pantages, incidentally, is pictured in the archival photograph above – though we’re not quite sure which of the swimmers he is.)

If you’re thinking of participating, the Park Board offers the following tips for participants:

• Bring supplies to stay warm – a towel, blanket, change of clothes, and warm outerwear
• Do not swim if you have a health condition (e.g. heart concerns)
• Know your limits in the cold water.
• Avoid diving into the water.
• Children must be accompanied by an adult.
• Keep your dogs at home.

For more information, photos and details on last year’s price recipients, check out the Park Board website. You can also download the registration form here.

This story is republished, with modifications. It first ran on January 1, 2014.

On Monday, March 31, the Park Board meeting will be looking at lease extensions for Prospect Point Café and Stanley Pavillion, hearing a presentation on the Stanley Park Cherry Grove Memorial, and considering a proposal for a new community garden at Kingcrest Park, located in the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood. The proposed Kingcrest Community Garden will have 20 allotment spaces, demonstration and pollinator gardens.

Speaking of bees, Park Board Commissioners will have the chance to debate a motion on “The Pollinator Project” – which, if passed, would direct staff to “develop strategies for supporting pollinators in priority Vancouver parks and streets as part of the Biodiversity Strategy and Urban Forest Strategy.”

Also in the meeting, a report on the upcoming 2014 Vancouver International Sculpture Biennale – and a proposal to keep works from the current Biennale in place throughout the duration of upcoming festival. The installations in question are Dennis Oppenheim’s “Engagement”, located in English Bay; Bernar Venet’s “217.5 Arcs” at Sunset Beach; and, Freezing Water #7 by Ren Jun, located at Vanier Park)

There are two other motions on the docket as well. The first relates to the scaling back of Canada Post service delivery. If passed, it would direct the Park Board Chair to “write a letter to the Mayor indicating the Park Board’s concerns with Canada Post’s plan.” The second item will be familiar to friends of VPSN, and is a complementary motion to City Council’s recent move to develop a strategy of no net loss of greenspace.

On April 1, 2014, City Council will be meeting for both a regular session of Council as well as a Public Hearing.

On the morning Council agenda, one item of note for the democratic dimensions of public space: a motion regarding the Federal Bill C-23, So-Called “Fair Elections Act.” If passed, the motion would direct the City (presumably the Mayor) to “write a letter to Vancouver Members of Parliament, the Minister of Democratic Reform and the Prime Minister stating opposition to Bill C-23.”

The afternoon’s Public Hearing is devoted to proposed bylaw changes coming out of the recently passed Downtown Eastside Local Area Plan. Under consideration are amendments to the Downtown Official Development Plan, the Downtown Eastside

Oppenheimer Official Development Plan and the Single Room Accommodation By-law, as well as various sections of the Zoning and Development By-law.

Next day, Tuesday, April 2, 2014, there’s a full agenda for the Planning, Transportation and Environment meeting of Council.

First up, a presentation and discussion on the Mayor’s Engaged City Task Force, and the final report and recommendations that emerged from their work. The VPSN wrote to Council in response to the Task Force’s earlier “Quick Start” report, and will be providing commentary on the final document as well. Stay tuned for that!

Next up, a series of reports on City grants for both Community Services (including neighbourhood houses, service agencies and other groups) and arts and culture organizations. If approved, the City will be investing approximately $6.5 million in operating, capital, project, childcare and rent subsidy grants for over 130 service agencies, as well as an additional $7.5 million in operating and project grants for arts and culture groups.

And to round things out, Council will be considering the Marpole Community Plan – the third of four current neighbourhood-scale planning initiatives. Like the recently passed West End and Downtown Eastside plans, this was also initiated in 2012. There are specific chapters on a number of public space items – streetscapes, parks and open space, public benefits, and more. The VPSN is currently reviewing this document and will be providing commentary to City Council in advance of the meeting. Check back on the blog to read our feedback!

Want to speak to any of these items? To find out how you can share your feedback with Council or Park Board – in person, or in writing – visit the City’s Council webpage.

Curglaff. The shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into cold water.

(This public space ‘word of the day’ comes courtesy of John Jamiesons’s Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808. As reported in Jeffrey Kacirk’s Forgotten English.)

Happy New Year everyone! Looking to get things started with a splash of excitement? Why not start 2014 with one of Vancouver’s most bracing public space events.

The 94th annual Polar Bear swim takes place at English Bay today, January 1st. Registration (if you want to get your name on the official docket) opens at 12:30, and the event itself takes place at 2:30. Last year more than two thousand folks signed up for a chilly, collegial dunk in the Pacific Ocean.

For those that want more than just a quick plunge, there’s the Peter Pantages Memorial 100-Yard Swim Race – named for the fellow that started the Vancouver tradition in 1920. The first three first three swimmers to complete the race and reach the marker buoy will receive trophies.

If you’re thinking of participating, the Park Board offers the following tips for participants:

• Bring supplies to stay warm – a towel, blanket, change of clothes, and warm outerwear
• Know your limits in the cold water.
• Avoid diving into the water.
• Children must be accompanied by an adult.
• Keep your dogs at home.

For more information, you check out the Park Board website.

After a day of odds and ends (translation: rendering some order to my seriously messy apartment), it’s nice to close things with a bit of liveliness and surprise.

I’d forgotten that Tom and Gary had one of their excellent Decentralized Dance Parties scheduled for today. As a consequence… I missed all of it, save for the part that showed up just down the street from where I live.

My loss! the 45 minutes I caught was a pretty good time – and featured everything from Neil Diamond to Meatloaf to some old euro club tracks that were popular when I lived overseas. For those that haven’t hit one of Tom and Gary’s events before, the DDPs are a roving take-over of different spaces. They dj a set and broadcast it on a transmitter, and the partyers that accompany them (on foot or on bike) tune in to the set on their boomboxes. Sometimes it’s a roving affair, while other times it’s contained to a specific (usually) public space. The whole thing has a great symbiotic feel, where the participants really do help to make the event happen. Call it the audience as amplifier, or participatory raving. Fun stuff.

Today’s event started in Robson Square hours ago. I’m not sure how many spots the revellers hit in the intervening hours (one cop I spoke to grumbled that the party had gotten a bit too close to Bard on the Beach… which, if it’s true, would have made for an awkward clash of cultural activities). Nevertheless, at 10:00pm they were in the West End… and at 10:15pm, a happy crowd was gathered at the Inukshuk.

By 10:45 the police had shown up. They were pretty good natured and waited for 11:00pm (when the Noise Bylaw really kicks-in) to pass. It was interesting to overhear the pep-talk they had with one-another before hand – mostly centred on making themselves more visible (by donning reflective traffic-control vests) and determining that it was the Park Bylaw that they wanted to quote (because parks are supposed to ‘close’ at 10pm).

My not-so-good (call it Impressionistic) shot of the VPD gathering on the hill:

For some folks, this was probably too early to end the party. I always oscillate on this issue — because I think the city could use certainly use a more diverse nightlife than it currently has, but because I also think the spaces used for this nightlife ought to be at least somewhat conducive to it. (Partying in front of the Inukshuk, for example, means partying right in front of at least four large residential towers… which invariably will generate some legitimate complaints if things go too late into the night).

We can do better than Granville — there’s no doubt about that. And there’s no real reason we shouldn’t use some of our parks well into the night. But which ones, and where?