Back in 2011, the City of Vancouver announced its goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. The City’s Greenest City Action Plan 2020 is the roadmap to getting there, outlining 10 goal areas and 15 measurable targets. The original 2011 plan has since been updated, but the core goals and strategies remain.

The plan’s goals go beyond addressing climate and sustainability issues, they recognize the health benefits associated with access to nature and green space: “Whether they take the form of a community garden, a city park, a greenway along your block, or the seawall, green spaces have been shown to benefit our physical and emotional health by reducing blood pressure, cholesterol, and stress. These spaces also contribute to our sense of community by creating places for recreational activities, for children to play, and for neighbours to meet and socialize.” (Greenest City Action Plan Part Two: 2015-2020)

One of the key targets set out in the plan is to have all Vancouver residents living within a five-minute walk of a park, greenway or other green space by 2020. The indicator chosen to measure this is the percentage of total city land that is within a five-minute walk, defined as a 400-metre radius, of a green space. When you measure the five minute access to city’s parks and green spaces, you will get a map that looks something like this:

This City of Vancouver map shows access to green spaces (Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation)

How close are we to meeting this target??

Well, we’re actually pretty close. As of 2014 we’re about 92.7% of the way there! (That is to say that 92.7 percent of Vancouver is within 400 meters of a park, greenway, or other greenspace). This is encouraging. After all, scholarly and anecdotal research suggest that a person’s proximity to a given park relates directly to how much he/she will use it and, likewise, the more parks you have nearby, the more opportunities you have to use a park. But before we celebrate our amazing progress in solving this problem perhaps we ought to ask: to what extent was this a problem in the first place?

The answer: it wasn’t, really. The baseline measured in 2010 was already 92.6 percent.

There are two important questions to ask here: “Is this the best way to measure green space?” and “What counts towards the total of green space?” (In the case of the “Shrink the Pink” map, parks, greenways, community gardens count all count towards the total.)

With respect to the first question, there are many different ways to measure green spaces for planning purposes. For example, Vancouver’s very first city plan—the 1928 Bartholomew Plan —compared the number of park acres to the population of an area. The metric used was persons per park acre. Harland Bartholomew and Associates recommended approximately one acre for every 100 persons in the city. Since then, the method of comparing park area to population has stuck, often used as an informal metric for assessing “park rich” versus “park deficient” neighbourhoods. It’s important to note, though, that the specific proportion that Bartholomew recommended has changed over time.

Looking at area per capita or the inverse, population per unit of area, can give us important information about how many people are served by a certain amount of green space. If you look at the green space per capita (or per 1000 persons) in a neighbourhood and compare it against a larger area, such as green space per capita in the whole city, you can see how one neighbourhood stacks up against one another or the city-wide average. (See, for example, the map below.) This type of tool helps planners and policy makers work towards equitable distribution of green space among the population.

This VPSN map shows the different levels of open space compared with the population of each neighbourhood (VPSN)

As park space per capita metrics typically rely on census statistics, the focus indirectly tilts towards residential population figures. This makes sense on one level; however, the daytime and nighttime population of neighbourhoods can change dramatically depending on employment and other occupational patterns. Or put another way around: isn’t it also important to make sure there are parks and greenspaces near employment centres as well?

The Bartholomew plan also recommends that a neighbourhood park “should be within walking distance (considered to be a half-mile) of practically every person in the city.” This is close to the metric mentioned above regarding the Greenest City Action Plan. One issue with this metric is that it doesn’t measure population density. It doesn’t differentiate between a neighbourhood with high demand for green space (e.g., heavily populated area whose residents live mostly within the prescribed radius from, say, several small neighbourhood parks) and a neighbourhood with lower demand for green space (such as a sparsely populated area whose residents live within the radius of several small neighbourhood parks or even a sparsely populated area with large parks). A recent Park Board study (Parks Provision Standard and Metrics Study: Network-Based Assessment of Access) takes a deeper dive into this issue of green space access in Vancouver. Based on a model that estimates various elements of the pedestrian environment (such as slope, stairs, busy streets, local streets and controlled/uncontrolled stoplights), the study assesses pedestrian access to green space in a more practical and realistic way. However, as noted above, this measure does not differentiate between areas of high and low demand for green space. Equally importantly, it does not speak to quality of green space.

This takes the question of measurement in a different, but fundamentally important direction. Qualitative aspects of green space are a significant driver for the actual use of the space, as well as the health and wellbeing benefits derived from green space. A focus on quality also suggests that it actually doesn’t matter how close you are to green space, or how much of it exists per capita, if the space in question isn’t usable, is poor quality, unsafe, lacking in amenity.

Measures of quality could consider one or more indicators shown by research to produce key health and wellbeing benefits, such as safety, accessibility, noise, biodiversity, aesthetics, recreational space, canopy cover, spaciousness, historical or cultural associations, etc., although these may differ from place to place or even between demographic groups.

The moral of the story, though, is that each approach to measurement reveals different aspects of the park and greenspace “situation” in Vancouver. And as with many things, focusing on a single measure may have its limitations.

What counts?

The second important question noted above is “what counts towards the total?” A lot depends on what you choose to measure and map. The percentage of coverage that I’ve noted above can be mapped out by drawing a 400-metre buffer around these green spaces.

From the “Shrink the Pink” map above, you can see that there are a few stubborn pink areas that are not within a five-minute walk of any green space.

In this “Shrink the Pink” map, green space includes public community gardens, city parks, greenways, and some public school grounds. As you see, it does not include any private green space, leaving the residents of some west side neighborhoods that likely do have access to private green space “in the pink.”

And while some of the City’s greenways such as the Arbutus Greenway [I’ll insert a link here] are leafy, verdant and quiet, not all measure up in quality. For example, the Central Valley Greenway runs from the Olympic Village along First Avenue and then along Great Northern Way, does a slight jog near the VCC–Clark station on the Millennium Line and then joins North Grandview Highway, where it runs alongside the SkyTrain tracks out to Burnaby and beyond. There are certainly lots of very green spaces along this greenway, but other parts of it (such as Great Northern Way) don’t feel all that green.

It is also important to consider green spaces that support a diversity of users and uses. While it is helpful to look at green space in the aggregate (all types compiled—such as the Shrink the Pink map), there should also be an opportunity to measure different types of green space separately. For example, the types of green spaces that serve seniors may be different from the types of green spaces that serve young children. Another example: greenways serve transportation and exercise uses but are not successful as gathering spaces. Some may even consider that the inclusion of greenways that are zoned as transportation corridors towards the green space total may be an overly broad definition of green space.

Lastly, the measure of quality also has its constraints. The broad range of potential indicators points to a difficulty with measuring quality: it is not clearly or consistently defined, is often somewhat subjective, and can pose a challenge for measurement. In terms of a more generalized approach, one potential way around this is to measure user satisfaction. It’s not perfect, and while user satisfaction is a personal measure, it may, nevertheless, help address quality, since quality could be perceived differently from person to person or from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. A number of cities across Canada – and beyond – use this approach, usually administering it through an annual or semi-annual survey.

What’s next?

The Vancouver Park Board recently launched its year-long parks and recreation master plan process, called VanPlay. As part of this, the Park Board has also been looking at the question of park measures and metrics. It will be interesting to see how they choose to tackle this matter, as we’ve already seen, each of the measures identified above has merits and limitations. One way forward is to think about regular updates on a combination of metrics – for example, in a fashion similar to the one employed in Los Angeles County.

This infographic shows different green space metrics applied in Los Angeles County

Still other, more nuanced metrics may be developed – and we’ll look forward to exploring those further if and when that happens.

In the meantime, we would encourage you to get involved in the VanPlay conversation. We’re looking forward to a process that (hopefully) balances consideration of density, demand, quality and user satisfaction as well as access, rather than focusing on one or even two of these measures. You can look forward to more on the VanPlay initiative in our future posts.

We want to hear from you!

We’re running a survey about your use of green and open spaces. We’d love for you to participate by clicking here.

By Brent Toderian and Jillian Glover

With cities seeking to involve diverse voices in city-making to get beyond “the usual suspects,” Vancouver urbanists Brent Toderian and Jillian Glover examine how cities in their region are finding new ways to increase civic participation.

Originally published on The Planetizen and republished from This City Life with permission from the author.

As more people choose to live in cities, local governments find themselves facing increasingly complex issues in city-making. Demands for affordable housing and public transit, tensions around gentrification and density, even connecting the dots between city planning and climate change, are just some of the more high-profile critical conversations our cities need. Solutions can come from many places, but smart cities realize that engaging the broad public in the city-making process leads to better answers and a deeper public ownership of our future.

Faced with this knowledge, cities are struggling to develop new and innovative community engagement methods, including those that embrace new technologies, social media, and collaborative design methods, to better bring the public into conversations on the future of city life. Let’s face it—not all of our engagement in recent decades has been very engaging!

This article’s authors have looked across Metro Vancouver (a region known internationally for its public consultation) for recent best practices and lessons in better community engagement. While some new methods are bringing key services online, others are as simple as changing the location of council meetings or getting people walking and talking in their neighbourhoods. All of these lessons involve moving beyond traditional consultation practices that cities have relied on for decades.

Although lessons can come in many forms, and these don’t necessarily represent the “best,” here are ten lessons from Metro Vancouver that we found particularly worth sharing.

1. Bring City Hall to the Community – When City Hall is difficult to access due to location and service hours, citizen engagement declines. As a result, some Metro Vancouver municipalities are having staff and services set up shop outside of City Hall. Pitt Meadows, for example, has been scheduling City Council meetings at seniors centres and high schools, while Vancouver has proposed a pilot program for a mobile kiosk, or ‘mini-City Hall,’ to make key city services (such as paying a parking ticket or registering to vote) available at select times to neighbourhoods, particularly those with limited transit access. Other cities are simply looking at when they schedule public hearings relative to when their citizens are working – a simple but important element of better access.

Vancouver City Hall / Credit: VPSN

2. When Hosting an Event, Think Beyond the Open House – Cities are making their public engagement events less stuffy and more fun to encourage attendance, especially by families. These events often gather knowledge and perspectives while also presenting enjoyable activities such as entertainment (music, movies, etc.), food, and public speakers. For example, in undertaking a consultation process while developing a sustainability strategy, the city of Burnaby organized an “Environment Festival.” The festival included a farmers market, BBQ, live music, face painting, a bike tour, Kids Zone activities, a guided nature walk, prizes, and more.

3. Bring the Town Hall Online – A online town hall is an event where cities engage citizens via social media outlets such as Twitter or Facebook for a scheduled time period. Users can ask questions, usually to a mayor, and get instant feedback regarding important issues. Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson for example, hosts Twitter town halls on topics such as citizen engagement, homelessness, and housing affordability. The first such Twitter town hall took place days before the Vancouver civic elections, when Mayor Robertson—using the hashtag #askgregor—hosted a high profile virtual town hall meeting at the offices of Hootsuite, a Vancouver-based social media company.

4. Allow Access to City Services via Smart Phones – In the age of mobile devices with apps for everything from grocery shopping to vacation planning, cities are picking up on the trend to make city services available online via mobile phones. When the City of Surrey reviewed its website data in 2012, it found that 30 percent of all visits came from a mobile device. As a result, Surrey developed a mobile-friendly website in addition to several apps that provide information and convenient access to city services such as waste collection schedules, recreation services and locations, and building inspections.

5.Tell Stories – Storytelling can be effective in bringing together a diverse group of people to share experiences in how to improve community. Storytelling can be used to peak citizen interest in an issue and access local wisdom that other methods struggle to access. Storytelling can involve many different kinds of communication—for example, the City of Vancouver partnered with a highly popular monthly “Pecha Kucha” event to launch the Greenest City 2020 Conversation and the TalkGreentoUs.Ca website. The Pecha Kucha event brought together 13 local change-makers to speak on the subject of Vancouver’s effort to become the Greenest City in the World by 2020. It not only had the largest attendance of any city engagement event in Vancouver’s history, but it also particularly brought new people and demographics into the conversation.

6. Map Your Assets – Community Asset Mapping involves informing policies and activities through the creation of a ‘map’ of the community’s resources. The process is intended to mobilize a community to focus on what matters most by identifying and using its assets.The City of Vancouver hosted a cultural asset mapping session as part of a plan to develop a long-term vision and plan for a downtown neighbourhood called the West End. Participants were asked to map and explain the significance of cultural assets. The results from the session helped identify key cultural assets in the neighbourhood as well as ideas and opportunities to improve them.

7. Walk the Talk – The “walkshop” is more than just a neighbourhood tour—it’s a moving conversation, educated and stimulated by looking around. Typically on foot or bike, walkshops allow community members and planners to better understand their neighbourhood together; to document community assets; and to showcase and discuss new and ongoing initiatives. For example, North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto recently organized a bike tour to help citizens discover the city’s new bikeways, highlight cycling improvements, and future initiatives. The City of Vancouver also used walkshops frequently and successfully in the creation of the award-winning Cambie Corridor Plan.

Credit / VPSN

8. Open the Doors to City Hall – ‘Doors Open’ is a successful concept used in cities around the world, and has been growing in popularity in Canada. In each ‘Doors Open’ event, cities provide a behind-the-scenes look at how some of the most popular and well-known venues operate, giving people the chance to look and experience new levels of civic engagement. The City of Surrey recently held its second annual Surrey Doors Open, inviting the public to explore local attractions, venues, facilities, historic landmarks, and parks with self-guided tours and free admission. Activities included an Art Walk, fire truck tours, a Ukrainian lunch, a nature scavenger hunt, the chance to observe a Sikh wedding, and more.

9. Expand Online Consultation – Often, when city governments are consulting on a major issue, interactions are limited to a select group of vocal, often opposed citizens. In an effort to get broader involvement, Metro Vancouver cities like Vancouver, Richmond, and Surrey have launched online consultation platforms that allow citizens to sign up once, provide a bit of background about themselves, and receive regular invitations to provide opinions—online or in person—on important civic issues as they arise. In Surrey,City Speaksis an online consultation forum where community members can participate in surveys, discussions, forums, and quick polls on various topics. Surrey’s goal is to reach 5,000 members by 2014.

10. Let Citizens Get Creative (i.e., Community Art Projects, Photo Contests, Design Competitions) – With photo contests, idea or design competitions and community art projects, cities encourage citizens to get creative when it comes to identifying and addressing local issues. Vancouver has held such competitions to solicit ideas for small scale projects, such as new storm-sewer manhole covers, to broader scale projects, such as alternative uses for the city’s only freeway-like viaducts. In the realm of community art projects, Burnaby invited those who attended its annual Homeless Connect event, which connects people living in extreme poverty and homelessness with essential services. Homeless Connect worked with local quilters to craft a quilt that would “showcase the diversity and need of people living in extreme poverty in Burnaby.” Once completed, the quilt was showcased to the public at the city’s library.

These 10 lessons are just the tip of the iceberg in our survey of new and evolving engagement practices in Metro Vancouver. Not every experiment in better engagement is going to be successful, but it’s important to have an open mind for new tools and more fun! Being creative, interesting, and credible, while also good at listening, are the keys to getting everyone more excited about, and involved in, their city’s future.

Brent Toderian is an international consultant on advanced urbanism with TODERIAN UrbanWORKS, Vancouver’s former Director of City Planning, and the President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism. Follow him on Twitter @BrentToderian

Jillian Glover is a communications advisor who specializes in urban issues and transportation. She is a former Vancouver City Planning Commissioner, holds a Master of Urban Studies degree and writes about urban issues at her blog, This City Life. Follow her @thiscitylifeyvr.

We had a chance to chat with the organizers early in the planning stage and are pretty stoked. They have a great collection of participants lined up and have created a program that touches on the city’s transportation past, present and future.

It’s the first of 4 regeneration events being organized over the next 4 months – each one focusing on a different Greenest City Goal. The other events will be on Zero Waste, Greening the City and Local Food.

You need to register to attend. To do so go to the Eventbrite webpage and follow the steps.

UPDATE. We just got some additional information on the program. Here it is:

Ever wonder about Vancouver rail transit in the 1950s? or the future of automobile ownership? Or wondered what “Active Transportation” was? …. well ….

Elders, Boomers, Xer’s and Young Folk
Tell Their Active Transportation Stories

DETAILS
Wed, Jan 25th, 2012
149 W Hastings, SFU Woodwards
Doors: 630PM,
Show: 7-10PM
Tickets: $5-10 Sliding Scale – No one turned away.
Proceeds: Partial proceeds will be donated to Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition (VACC).

RSVP TO RESERVE TIX
http://regeneration2012.eventbrite.com/

FEATURING AWESOME STORIES FROM:
SHIFT, MODO and the TRANSIT MUSEUM SOCIETY

Be regaled about rail transit in Vancouver in the 1950’s + bus transit in the 1960’s. Be Inspired about a local Pedal Powered Urban Cargo Company. Be empowered by the cooperative ownership of Auto’s.

Finally Andrea Reimer will recap the evening of sharing our city’s past innovations and project forward to paint the Greenest City Vision for how we move our city forward!

This weekend, VIVA Vancouver kicks off across the city, transforming street spaces into people places and giving local residents extra space to walk, bike, dance, skate, sit, hang out with friends and meet their neighbours.

The free, summer-long program will create engaging public spaces and a more vibrant street culture in neighbourhoods across the city through street space transformations and activities. VIVA Vancouver is hosted by the City of Vancouver and many local community and business organization partners.

“Building on the success and popularity of family-friendly open street programs like last year’s Rediscover Granville, people of all ages can enjoy themselves at VIVA Vancouver this summer,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “When the weather warms up, Vancouverites like to get outside in their communities, and VIVA Vancouver will provide more opportunities through new pop-up plazas, pocket parks, and local arts and culture to enjoy themselves.”

Granville Street will also be closed on weekends again this summer. Starting June 25 and every weekend this summer until Labour Day, in partnership with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and Translink, Granville Street (between Smithe and Hastings streets) will be transformed into a pedestrian corridor, playing host to community events and other unique activations for people to enjoy. A highlight for June 25 is a high-energy afternoon of skateboarding competitions and demonstrations; all skateboarders welcome.

On June 26, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Granville Street (between Smithe and Dunsmuir) will be closed to bring the city’s colourful Latin heritage to Latincouver, a fun celebration including food, soccer, music, dancing, games, marketplace and activities.

The VIVA Vancouver model is based on best practices learned from three projects that re-imagined public spaces in innovative ways: Summer Spaces 2009, the 2010 Olympic pedestrian corridors and Rediscover Granville in 2010.

VIVA Vancouver has grown out of these projects with the public’s support. Its three main goals are to:

• create a variety of public spaces for a mix of engaging activities and sojourning;
• increase neighbourhood liveability benefiting residents, businesses, community groups and visitors;
• and, encourage sustainable and active transportation by creating more safe and interesting spaces for walking and cycling, part of the City’s Greenest City Action Plan.

VIVA Vancouver differs from car-free days that are one-day, large-scale events. The program offers a variety of planned and spontaneous activities, including pocket parks, pop-up plazas, and showcases of local arts and culture at various street and laneway transformations all summer-long.

Creating strong business and community partnerships is an important part of VIVA Vancouver achieving these goals. The City of Vancouver thanks all partner organizations who will help to bring our streets to life in creative and engaging ways during VIVA Vancouver.

Visit VIVA Vancouver to learn more about what’s happening across the city this summer.

The weather was pretty decent today, and it got us thinking about greenspace issues. So by way of follow-up, we thought we’d profile one of our Greenest City “likes” … because we think it illustrates an useful lesson on public space planning.

Call this “the tale of two measures.”

When the City’s Bright Green Future Report was first produced, it contained a number of draft goals and targets – one of which was that Vancouverites should have “incomparable access to nature,” and that, specifically, every resident should live within a five minute walk of greenspace. At first blush, this is a captivating – if not ambitious benchmark for the City.

Thankfully, this well-intentioned idea was recently given some important contextualization. Because, if you think about it, merely being able to access nature is not the same thing as having a sufficient amount of it for everyone.

And this is where another, older, standard comes in. For a number of years, the Parks Board has has employed a golden rule in which they target the provision of 2.75 acres of parkland per 1000 people. This is seen as an ‘ideal’ for Vancouver neighbourhoods. Some achieve it (and handily) while others don’t. Those that don’t are deemed “park deficient.”

You can see from the above map how this plays out across the city: eight neighbourhoods are deemed to have enough park space, while 14 do not (note that the West End calculation includes Stanley Park, so the figure would change considerably were it removed). This means that when Parks staff get sufficient capital funding to buy land for parks, they generally seek to create these parks in areas where there is a shortfall.

And here’s the rub: if the 300 meter Greenest City target had been set up as a new ‘lens’ through which matters of park planning were viewed… then some of the most park deficient neighbourhoods might not have fared so well in future planning. In fact, many of them would have looked like they didn’t need any more parks at all!

The reason is that in a lot of the denser Vancouver neighbourhoods there are relatively sizable numbers of residents living in proximity to smaller greenspaces. In other neighbourhoods – particularly those on the west side – there are less people, larger lot single family properties, but a greater likelihood that people won’t be as close to the neighbourhood park. And this means, in other words, that neighbourhoods with substantial amounts of private open space would be seen as a priority for improvement under the Greenest City lens.

Thankfully, when it came time to spell out how the Greenest City goals and targets were to be implemented, City staff reaffirmed that park-deficient neighbourhoods were a priority. And this means that the aim is to provide a good measure of park space for all residents first and foremost and then to work towards the 300 metre measure.

Net result: quantity and proximity are on the radar. A good marrying of targets, as far as we’re concerned!

We were pleased with the overall result of the Greenest City process and are happy that Council unanimously adopted the recent staff report associated with implementing the initiative, its targets and more. Though there have been murmurings on one side of the mediasphere that the targets are too lofty, and on another that they don’t go far enough… we think they strike a good balance between being ambitious but do-able. 

In particular, we’re keen on:

• The re-energizing of active transportation – walking and cycling – as well as public transit… and that the various actions proposed in this area are clearly linked with the idea that Vancouverites need a quality public realm
• Provisions around ensuring park space is created in the neighbourhoods that need it most
• The plan to bolster our urban forest (150,000 trees to be planted)
• A bigger, richer, bolder urban agriculture strategy for the city – that sees local food infrastructure strengthened to respond to the demand for community gardens, orchards, local markets and more
• The many and various initiatives that will make Vancouver a healthier city – reduced waste, better air quality, etc.

But don’t just take our word for it – there’s a good opportunity for you to weigh in on the results. Until the end of February people can comment on the Greenest City plans, come to a Greenest City workshop or host their own workshop at home with friends and colleagues. Details are all here: http://talkgreenvancouver.ca

A final plug: another thing that is great about the Greenest City report – and the whole process so far – is that it has been strengthened by some strong, idea-generating, social media platforms. The collaborative dimension has been interesting to follow in its own right – with people proposing ideas, commenting on new solutions, and engaging in the sort of debate that leaves one wishing that Web 2.0 could be like this everyday. Better still, the City report shows how the different ideas are being woven into the final… a nice twist for those eager to see the notion of civic transparency strengthened. 

• Visit the website (http://talkgreenvancouver.ca) and read the draft Greenest City 2020 Action Plans, watch the videos, comment on the strategies and prioritize the actions. 
• Come out to a Greenest City event
• Co-host a 1-3 hour workshop with the City of Vancouver and your organization (email greenestcity@vancouver.ca to arrange)
• Host your own workshops by downloading the DIY Kitchen Table Conversations kit (http://www.talkgreenvancouver.ca/sites/default/files/DIY%20Toolkit.pdf)
• Join the online conversation on talkgreenvancouver.ca, twitter and facebook

Stay up to date on all the Greenest City news (including the recent City Council decision to adopt the Greenest City 2020 targets) by:

• Add your email to the Greenest City mailing list (add your name in the footer of http://talkgreenvancouver.ca) 
• Like Greenest City on Facebook
• Follow Greenest City on Twitter
• Watch videos on YouTube
• Check out photos on flickr

“I voted” sticker – Photo by Cave Canem

Next week promises to be a busy one at Council – between the regular session of Council on Tuesday and the various Council Committee meetings taking place on Thursday there is a full suite of public space related activities. These include:

• A motion (see below) on the possibility of on-line voting (Tues)
• A motion on calculating available density in the city (Tues)
• A report on expanding street food options (Thurs)
• A report on noise in the city and the efficacy of the noise bylaw (Thurs)
• Discussion on the VAG move (which we mentioned in our previous post) (Thurs)
• Two presentations – likely quite contentious – on building heights and view-related issues (Thurs)
• The draft Greenest City Implementation Plan (Thurs)

The first is particularly timely. Earlier this week a suite of contenders for the leadership of the BC liberals endorsed (some cautiously) the idea of on-line voting. And here’s a chance to consider it at the local level.

For those that have difficulty scheduling a trip to the neighbourhood voting box once every three or four years, this might make life easier. There’s a larger discussion to be had about civic engagement here – and, as much as we like technology, we can’t help wonder if this will do much to get at the core issues behind current voting levels. Then again, if it does a better job of getting residents engaged with the civic contest, that’s a positive outcome.

Either way, it’s an interesting motion and we’re be watching to see the sort of exchange that ensues.

Here’s the text of the motion, which was introduced by Councillor Andrea Reimer:

WHEREAS

1. Less than 35% of eligible voters in Vancouver cast ballots in the last two
civic elections;

2. Voter turnout is considered an important indicator of social cohesion
and vital to a healthy democracy;

3. Research conducted by Elections Canada on voter turn out in the last
federal election found that 57% of non-voters cited time pressures that
prevented them from getting to a voting place in person;

4. Elections Canada will be conducting an online voting pilot in the 2013
federal election;

5. Online voting can greatly improve accessibility by increasing the time
and place options available to voters to cast a ballot;

6. Online voting is used in more than three dozen Canadian municipalities ranging from 44 municipalities in Ontario, such as Markham, ON which piloted online voting in 2003, to Halifax, Nova Scotia which conducted successful pilots in a 2008 general election and 2009 by-election;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the City Clerk report to Council on the feasibility of conducting an online voting pilot in the 2011 municipal elections or, if 2011 is not feasible, what the earliest date for a pilot would be.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world… a crowd gathers for New
Year’s celebrations at Mrs Macquerie’s Point in Sydney Australia.
Submitted by VPSN member Lisa M.

A late year greeting to all of you from the gang at the VPSN. This is it: day 365 of 2010 and we’re a mere few hours away from a brand new year. We hope you’re having a grand time with you various celebrations.

We wanted to take this opportunity to send you out a quick thank you for all your support this past year. 2010 has been an exciting one for us – and a busy year for public space related issues in the Vancouver. We had the opportunity to be involved in a great number of initiatives, and it’s been fun take this holiday period to reflect on the public space ‘scene’ in Vancouver over the past 12 months.

This time last year, Vancouverites of all political stripes were gearing up for the Olympics, planning a range of activities. In addition to some pre-Games advocacy work around Olympic gathering areas, corporate signage and the deployment of surveillance technology, the VPSN also launched our blog during the 1^st month of 2010 – using it to report out on urban issues – starting with the Game’s related transformation of the City. Since that time, we’ve seen our readership grow in leaps and bounds… and it’s been a great tool to connect with residents of the City about civic affairs issues.

2010 was also a big year on the active transportation front. The Olympic transportation plan marked a watershed moment for shaping urban mobility during the Games. But that was only the start! The Vancouver Courier recently declared their ‘Newsmaker of the Year’ to be the bicycle – no small tribute to the many initiatives that have taken place concerning the humble two-wheeler this year. Chief amongst these was the installation of the Dunsmuir viaduct separated bikelane in the Spring of this year and the more recent opening of the Hornby Street separated lane. These weren’t controversy free, to be sure, and yes, the process could have been handled better… but regardless, we feel that they will help to put Vancouver on the path to a more sustainable, healthful future.

Pedestrian issues have also begun to come to the fore and we’ve been working to support these where possible. There been an increasing focus on improving the pedestrian experience, the walkability of neighbourhoods, and attending to issues of pedestrian safety. And with the City focusing on “green mobility” as part of its Bright Green Future initiative and planning to develop a new Transportation Plan in 2011, this positive trend will only continue. Our prediction? 2011 will be to pedestrian issues, what 2010 was to the bicycle. Just watch what happens when the international Walk 21 Conference landing in town in November.

Animating the city’s public spaces has always been part of our strategy to focus attention on the public realm. This year was no exception! In the summer time we transformed Granville Street into a giant percussive ensemble with our Stick it to the Streets event. Later in the year, we were pleased to roll out two of our annual favourites: in September we participated in our third Park(ing) Day celebration – that international day of parking space reclamation (this year we had sites in Davie Village and at City Hall). Then in late October, we had our annual Halloween transit party – a massive costumed take-over of the Seabus. And then in November we managed to get 100 folks together on Vancouver’s coldest, snowiest day, to make a giant ‘ecological footprint’ as part of an international public art project.

In 2010 we continued to wear our advocacy hats on all aspects of Vancouver’s public space policy – from arguing against the deployment of surveillance cameras in schools to raising the alarm over new forms of corporate advertising, from to registering concern with increased fees for community-based events, to taking a stance against the proposal to extend the municipal vote to corporations.

We’ve also weighed in on site-specific spaces as well – we participated in the discussion around moving the Vancouver Art Gallery, developed new community gardens, completed an ethnographic film on Yaletown Park, and focused a considerable amount of resources towards advocating for a sufficient quantity and quality of public space (and other public benefits) as part of the development of Northeast False Creek. And of course there’s another item we’re very excited about: the push to transform the 800 block of Robson Street into a public square (a move that was recently supported by all three municipal parties!)

This was just a sampling of some of the things we were involved in last year. As with all our projects, the aforementioned initiatives gave us the chance to work with fantastic volunteers, amazing community organizations and stellar people in local government, schools and universities and the community at large. It’s an honour for us to be able to collaborate with Vancouver’s many excellent space-makers and urban enthusiasts. 

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VPSN Coordinators also took the first weekend in December to plan out some of our activities for 2011. Here’s a sneak peek of a few of the many things you can expect to see over the next 12 months:

• Where’s the Square II – stay tuned for our summertime animation of Robson Street – with a fantastic food-themed event.
• Vancouver Votes / Public Space Manifesto – 2011 is election year, and as with the last municipal contest, the VPSN will be developing a new manifesto and a number of election related events aimed at putting public space issues on the agenda. 
• Relaunching PubliCity – we’ve had an issue ready to go for a few months now… and we’ll be rolling this out in the first few months of 2011.
• Transforming Broadway – Due in January, our report on transforming Broadway into a Great Street will showcase exciting options for the future of Vancouver’s longest east/west corridor.
• Speaker Series / Backgrounders / Websites – We’ve been developing new backgrounders on public health, parking space reclamation, and greenspaces, to name a few. We’ll also be launching version 2.0 of our website, holding key speaker series events and a range of other open-source materials
• Collaborative ventures – We’ve got some exciting things lined up with the Museum of Vancouver and the Vancouver Art Gallery, and other projects in the hopper as well.

And there will be lots of other stuff coming as well… including all your favourite annual events, parties, film fest activities and more. 

Finally… don’t forget, the first big community opportunity to embrace public space takes place tomorrow morning, January 1, with the annual polar bear swim. Even if you don’t brave the chilly waters of English Bay yourself, the scene is a festive one.

The year begins and ends with celebrating in public space. Happy 2011 everyone! Very best wishes to you all.

Your friends at the Vancouver Public Space Network

The Greenest City Idea Slam came together in a fantastic evening of dialogue, music, drawing and dance. A BIG thank you to everyone who came out to the Fei and Milton Wong experimental theatre.

We’ve posted some of the images of the event on our Flickr page – and you can click here to jump over and take a look.

The event was hosted by the charming and witty CBC radio personality Bill Richardson – whose asides and rapport with the panellists kept the event flowing and a great pace. Things started off with a welcome from Larry Grant, Musqueam Elder, and a poem from Poet Laureate Brad Cran.

Bill got the biggest laugh of the evening with a comment about the City’s push for more cycling infrastructure. “I’m still waiting for someone to make t-shirts that say ‘bike lanes make me Hornby.'”

Joining Bill on stage were Mayor Gregor Robertson, Janet Austin (CEO of YWCA), Paola Murillo (Director Rangichangi Roots and Latincouver), Matt O’Grady (Editor-in-chief, BC Business Magazine), Councillor Andrea Reimer, Cheeying Ho (ED Whistler Centre for Sustainability), Jyoti Stephens (Director of Sustainability, Nature’s Path), Sadhu Johnston (Deputy City Manager), Emily Jubenvill (VPSN’s Greenspaces Coordinator) and Tamara Vrooman (CEO of Vancity).

The evening consisted of a series of four questions that were posed, in turn, by community “champions” Helen Spiegelman (Zero Waste Vancouver), Janet Moore & Duane Elverum (SFU & Emily Carr), Doris Chow (United We Can) and Amy Walker (Momentum Magazine). Topics covered were waste reduction, the idea of a City university, local food and cycling infrastructure.

Two graphic illustrators – Aftan Erfan and Travis Martin – worked on stage to capture the ideas in visual form. (You can see one of the examples of this at the top of the page.

To further liven up the event, we inserted a few variety show elements – including a houseband. This task was taken up admirably by local favourites Maria in the Shower (Todd Biffard, Martin Reisley, Jack Garton and Brendon Hartley).

We also had a series of musical interludes by pianist Veda Hille – who played two solo numbers, and a third collaborative piece with the houseband. The collaborative saw the musicians improvising to a slide show assembled by Jaime Kowal and Ryan Tomkinson – whose Green the City initiative had a call out for photos and images that illustrated the history of sustainable thinking in Vancouver’s past, present and future (and yes, we did sneak a couple of images from the Where’s the Square ideas competition).

The evening concluded with a grand finale. We had some a team of swing dancers (previously seen busking in the hallway as people walked in) come in for the close-out.

As people wandered into the hallway, we had our ever-capable VPSN crew there to greet them. Simon Wong was DJ’ing and a team of VPSN coordinators was on hand and staffing the info table. The artwork from graphic facilitators Aftab and Travis was on display.

All in all – a great evening. Kudos to all the panellists, idea pitchers and performers. And special thanks to Lindsay Cole and Amanda Mitchell at the City of Vancouver, SFU’s stage crew (Heather Lamb, Michael Boucher and Co), and Gord Price at the SFU City program. Last but not least, props to buskers Tyler (guitar) and Camille (juggling) who greeted people on the way to the registration table, and to the fine street food vendors who turned the Woodwards atrium area into a feast of flavours.

Luckily, the VPSN has not one but two opportunities for you this evening.

1. Billboards, outdoor advertising and public space corporatization… Help us map out a strategy to deal with the expansion of outdoor advertising in Vancouver.
   
   6:30pm @ Kafka’s Coffee (on Main st., near Broadway). More info – Stephanie [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca
   
2. Halloween transit party planning. Halloween is just over a month away. Time to hunker down and plan this year’s costumed craziness. Lend a hand, come with ideas!6:30pm @ Trees Coffee – on Granville and W. Hastings (450 Granville St.) More info – quinn [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca

… And while you’re at it, don’t forget to register for the City/SFU/VPSN Greenest City Idea Slam – taking place this Friday, Oct 1 @ 7pm. Hosted by Bill Richardson and taking place at SFU’s Woodwards and featuring an all star cast of experts and entertainers. Reservations required at http://websurvey.sfu.ca/survey/64166248