“New Urbanism has been so successful that it has a lot of dinosaur DNA. The honchos are on board — you’ve seen them here. They want us to join them. Do we want to run among the dinosaurs, or among the mammals? I want to be is among the mammals.” – Andrés Duany, in “New Urbanism for the Apocalypse“

Is it time for a new new urbanism? Just as cities, state agencies and nongovernmental groups across North America incorporate neotraditional approaches to (re)-building walkable, public and people-oriented communities, some of its key founders are calling for a reboot.

Andrés Duany and James Howard Kunstler spoke at the 18th Congress for the New Urbanism last year. Fast Company covered the event, critically rendered in the article “New Urbanism for the Apocalypse“.

It’s an excellent summary of new urbanism, its growing influence, and the new rejection and re-imagination by its founding fathers.

Here’s the gist: It’s time to get ready for the collapse of complex systems (cities, food, energy, government, etc.) brought on by a series of converging crises well-described by writers like Kunstler, Tainter or Canada’s Thomas Homer-Dixon. Duany’s response is a new new urbanism, an agrarian urbanism.

Agrarian urbanism, [Duany] explained, is different from both “urban agriculture” (“cities that are retrofitted to grow food”) and “agricultural urbanism” (“when an intentional community is built that is associated with a farm).” He was thinking bigger: “Agrarian urbanism is a society involved with the growing of food.”

His idea is to produce an intentional community organized around growing food, organized by the homeowners’ association. A “market square” replaces the strip mall, complemented by education and services for the local food economy. Duany imagines these communities employing “Hispanic laborers”, repurposing an economic underclass from ornamental landscaping and golf course maintenance to productive cultivation.

Kunstler’s collapse thesis lays the ground for this new style of urbanism. Peak oil, climate change, financial instability, and the probable weakening or collapse of familiar institutions, like national governments and welfare systems, compels some alternative path.

From Kunstler, in Fast Company:

“I have a harsher view of the situation we are actually in,” he informed the audience, before declaring that “techno-grandiosity” and “organizational grandiosity” will not be enough to save us from the Long Emergency. “Farming, at one level or another, is going to be your occupation.” Walking through historical forms of agrarian communities — plantations, prison farms, hippie communes and Soviet collective farms among them — he dismissed vertical farming as impractical and dense cores like Manhattan as impossible in the coming age without oil.

I am critical of Dunay’s approach to Kunstler’s (and other’s) collapse analysis, especially as it concerns public space and democracy.

The agrarian urbanism imagined by Duany (or at least as described in Fast Company) brings many of the likely factors of collapse into his response. Today’s income inequality and our broken labour system will find a new home in a world dominated by this sort of feudal homeowners’ association. Consider the problems of a landless, economic underclass employed by strata councils and condo boards in food production in a world with scarcer food and energy. Such a system might address the “food problem” but could make worse our inequality crisis. Alongside current and future problems in the real estate sector we should be very cautious in imagining how property relations are structured a decade or two from now. Do we imagine our families in the homeowners’ association meeting or toiling in the quinoa crops of the former strip mall?

It’s possible, of course, that this system doesn’t end up being all that different from what we now have — only a few of the pieces and goals get moved around. The money to pay for the new farming class is already available in developers’ landscaping budgets, Duany says. It seems conventional enough: switch your ornamental grasses to edible crops, “re-landscape for the apocalypse”. True indeed, but his proposal imagines the collapse of banks, industrial agriculture and the nation-state. What is the role of community here? Of democracy? And could agrarian urbanism end up as a new “road to serfdom” while society restructures in the absence of cheap, available oil and stable global trade?

As Kunstler notes, agrarian urbanism — or urban agriculture or urban farming or what have you — will take many forms. There are spaces for community farms, and feudal condo boards and stable city-states in the post-oil, post-collapse world they imagine. Already urban agriculture is undergoing an explosive blossoming of creativity, entrepreneurship and humanity. We should look there for inspiration, not to the destructive and uncomfortable system of migrant and rights-less labour in California, Washington or British Columbia.

I’d rather see a food system built around public space, community, and stewardship than one that duplicates some of the worst aspects of the current social and economic structure.

If we are imagining responses to the collapse of our current system is Duany’s conception of agrarian urbanism really the best answer? Surely, if Duany can do no better, than we must.

Mike Soron is a VPSN volunteer and an Urban Studies graduate student at Simon Fraser University. Follow him on Twitter.

There were many highlights, but as a public space geek (if you’re reading this, consider yourself in my company!) I was particularly pumped about the stories Shirley Chan shared about the role food played in the activism that the Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association carried out -with legendary success!- many decades ago when their rich neighbourhood was threatened by misguided and destructive urban renewal plans. I was also pumped when Devorah Kahn noted that it was only very recently that Farmers Markets were designated as legal uses of public space. Up until that point, we were all being a little badass for buying our radishes from these markets, and that is a pretty awesome feeling.

Herstory Cafe offers events like this on an ongoing basis, so I highly encourage going to one of their future events. Another event I wholeheartedly suggest you check out if you are interested in food and the connections it facilitates in the community is The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project Harvest Party. This local group harvests the unwanted or underutilized fruit from private and public fruit trees and redistributes it to community groups that use it to feed and educate people in our community without reliable access to good, healthy produce. It’s a pretty cool project, and it should be a cool event. Matthew Kempshaw from Environmental Youth Alliance – another wonderful local group – will be speaking on local food security and local musician Corey Hawthorne will provide tunes for the night. It all goes down on Thursday, November 4th, from 6:30-9pm at Rhizome Cafe (317 E. Broadway). It should be another great night for food and fun in the city!

Mary Hale canning herring for BC Packers
City of Vancouver Archives – CVA 1184-59

Among the many interesting events coming up in the next few days is this one — looking at the historical connections between women and food in Vancouver. Organized by the City Women’s Advisory Committee, the event takes place next Tuesday evening (Oct 26). 

Here’s the press release:

Women and Food: A Vancouver Historical Perspective
Celebrating Women’s History Month at City Hall

Join Herstory Café for an evening of historical insight into the role of women in the food industry of Vancouver. Hosted by City Council’s liaison to the Women’s Advisory Committee, the event is scheduled for October 26 from 7 pm to 9 pm in Council Chambers at Vancouver City Hall.

In recognition of Women’s History Month, the evening will involve a series of guest speakers, each with their own perspective on how women of diverse backgrounds have played a defining role in the history of food in Vancouver.

Through the production, cultivation, distribution, preservation and sharing of food, women have influenced the development of local businesses and industrial growth in Vancouver. Despite war times, tough economic times and other defining moments of Vancouver’s history, food-related activities of women supported the well-being of families.

Women have played an especially important role in BC’s canneries, particularly when men were dispatched to war. Some women were even taken from school to ensure fresh, frozen and canned foods were readily available.

In 1948, a celebrated local icon, Vie Moore, opened what became a well-known restaurant in Hogan’s Alley at the heart of Vancouver’s black community in the East End. Vie’s Chicken and Steak House, famous for southern fried cooking and blues music, became a gathering place for people with diverse backgrounds from all over the city. Her eatery provided many jobs for women before it closed in 1975.

The panel of local speakers on Oct. 26 will share historical accounts, memories, traditional knowledge and experiences from the perspective of First Nations, Indo-Canadian, Black, and Chinese communities. Speakers will also present on topics such as sustainability, labour, the service industry, farmer’s markets and community gardens. Guest speakers include:

• Andrea Reimer, Vancouver City Councillor
• Cease Wyss, Squamish Nation Artist and Filmmaker
• Meeru Dhalwala, cookbook author, chef and co-owner of Vij’s Restaurant
• Tracey McDougall, granddaughter of Vie Moore, owner of Vie’s Chicken and Steak House
• Edith Turner, Gulf of Georgia Cannery
• Shirley Chan, CEO Building Opportunities for Business
• Devorah Kahn, previously Food Policy Coordinator for the City of Vancouver and former Executive Director of Vancouver’s Farmers Markets

Info on speakers and their presentations is available at www.herstorycafe.ca

More about the Women’s Advisory Committee can be found on the City’s website.

Earlier this summer the VPSN’s Animating Public Space Design Charette brought the winners of the Where’s the Square ideas competition together to generate ideas about how to activate a downtown space. The event built on the WTS design competition to devise ways to have fun in public space.

Celebration = people + place

As part of the VPSN’s overarching mission, Feeding Vancouver’s Soul has the goal of generating a concrete example of an animated public space in Vancouver. The result will begin to articulate what constitutes a successful public space and how we can plan for better public spaces; and raise awareness about the need for a grand gathering space in Vancouver.

Why food?

As the name “Feeding Vancouver’s Soul” indicates, food goes beyond the physical. Vancouver is home to a unique food culture that emerges from the cultural diversity and fusion. In addition, shared eating is both a universal and bonding experience.

• Sociability – The presence of food enlivens space and encourages interaction
• Unity – Food has universal appeal and embodies the variety and integration of our diverse cultures and communities
• Abundance – Demonstrate the wealth of local food and local food culture we have access to while supporting local business

The event will celebrate the diversity of Vancouver’s cultures, communities, and neighborhoods. In addition, sustainability will be incorporated into the event through composting, recycling, and waste reduction.

Get Involved!

A lot of help is needed to prepare the grant application, plan the event, and put it on! Email Caroline [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca to find out more…

A new poll from Angus Reid Public Opinion found 60% of 1,003 Canadians, and 69% of British Columbians support the move. Forty-five percent believe banning large-format retail will help smaller, local stores; 45% also find a fast food ban will encourage healthier eating. A bit more than a third of respondents think such moves would be rights infringing, in both cases.

As the study points out, however, while Canadians support the move by a 3-to-1 margin, most aren’t so eager to see a ban implemented in their own city.

In Vancouver’s case, the existing street food ban reminds us that urbanites don’t get to eat and shop wherever they like already. “Rights” in this area are already “infringed”, (assuming such a thing should be called a right). But from the perspective of the study, almost any regulation could be considered “rights infringing.’

What do our readers think? Would a wider ban be positive for Vancouver, or would it take us away from the liberalizing pro-street food path we’re currently on?

(PDF of the full study).

- By Mike Soron

With Olympic crowds animating city streets and venues, there has been a steady rumbling of Olympic-sized appetites roaming in search of food and drink. Despite all the foot traffic, the culinary options that have been set up as part of the 2010 Games are a bit of a mixed (feed) bag to be sure.

On the one hand, restaurants in the vicinity of Olympics crowds – that is, in the downtown core – have been largely able to capitalize off of the influx of folks. Others located outside the immediate core area – in Gastown, South Granville and elsewhere – are claiming a loss of business.

Then there is also the food that the Olympics have brought to town. Here the Games have managed to infuse the city with a range of culinary elements. For example, if you’ve got the time, a one hour line will get you all the carbo-loading you need: the Swiss house on Granville Island has nightly cues for fondue, the German pavilion has Atkins-friendly beer and bratwurst, the Dutch huis out in Richmond rocks out with a healthy mix of Heineken and techno. There’s also been been a push for “Canadian fare” as Jenn Laidlaw notes in a recent article in Beyond Robson. (Where she reports on her experiences with mussels and Solomon Gundy, Ill take this opportunity to give a shout-out to the Ontario pavillion for featuring some of the Province’s finer micro-breweries as part of their showcase).

But one thing that’s surely been missing is any real amping up of the street food scene. The new food options that have come with the celebrations have largely, with the exception of some of the Yaletown market spaces, been found off the streets and behind pavillion gates. And this has been one of the big suprises, because in many ways – with projection art, ziplines, light shows and sculptural installations – there has been a tremendous (and well received) effort put into enlivening downtown public space. So why don’t our street food options also reflect this?

In a way, its a rather striking omission. Our Street Vending Bylaw (#4781), licensing requirements and related health regulations haven’t kept up with the times. This is hardly a new observation. While we’ve have (collectively) taken strides with the introduction of the oft-talked about Japadog (itself set up because the City wouldnt allow its owner a license to sell crepes on the street) we lag way behind other urban centres in terms of having any options other than tubes of nitrate-infused meat sawdust, delicious as they are.

As one Globe writer article lamented, “it’s still incredibly sad to think that in a city as cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse as Vancouver this [Japadog] is the only remotely interesting street food around.”

Street food in Vancouver is waiting for its renaissance. Thankfully, a better tasting set of options could soon be on its way. City staff will be reporting back on a motion by Councillor Heather Deal (first introduced in March 2008) that seeks to increase the choice of street food possibilities. Change may be on the horizon (and grill!) as early as spring of this year.

In this respect, the good news is that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. There are lots of precedents on which we can draw. In fact, if you look at the very successful temporary food operations that are available during events like the Vancouver Folk Fest – a wide variety of venders, healthy food options and low-waste, composting-friendly measures – and you can see that the vending possibilities are already in place with current city operators.

And there are inummerable examples of successful street food programs from elsewhere in the world. My favourite examples of street food vending come from south of the border in Portland. Here, small trailers replace carts. Check out following examples. The first comes from SW 3rd Street and SW Stark in the downtown area.

Here’s a second example, not too many blocks away, at 5th and Oak:

In both cases, the trailers are located on private parking lots but front on to the city sidewalk. Each contains over 20 different vendors selling an almost equally diverse array of street food. The trailers themselves are metered off of a City utility pole, and have running water and a clean working environment to cover off sanitation and broaden the cooking options. What do you get in addition to the hotdogs? Try kebabs, pasta, skewers, vegetarian wraps, tacos and quesadillas, burgers, soups… and the list goes on. (You can also read more about the Portland experience at the Food Carts Portland blog.)

The great “case studies” that are available to Vancouverites can also be supported with some decent principles that speak to the value of street food vending. The good news goes beyond just providing more food options to hungry visitors and residents: street vending helps to enliven public space, bringing more people outside and on to the street. Such vending tends to be easier on the wallet as well, which is always nice. And the economic benefits flow the other way as well – as vending also provides jobs and enables opportunities for small and micro-business entrepreneurialism.

Heather Deal herself is excited by the opportunities that are now upon us. When I asked her about the impact of the Olympics on street vending of this sort she was quite forthcoming in her response:

“We’ve seen an explosion of different types of food available in pavillions and in the open marketplaces in Yaletown and at the Plaza of Nations. It would be a real shame to see us return to the very limited street food we’ve traditionally had available. We can use our Olympic experience to help us appreciate what is possible.”