Change is afoot for an oft-overlooked area of Vancouver. Since the announcement of the relocation of St Pauls Hospital to the False Creek Flats, the spotlight has been firmly fixed on the area as the city begins to deliberate how to transform it into a new industrial hub. Rebranding the area as The Flats, the city has held six different events, each focusing on a different area of redevelopment: industry and employment intensification, industry and technology, connectivity and transport, urban food systems, culture, and creating great places.

Creating Great Places

I attended the final workshop, ‘Creating Great Places’, held in The Flats at the National Works Yard on National Ave. There was a pretty healthy turnout which I hope was mirrored at other events, with about 40 members of public, as well as a handful of facilitators from the City of Vancouver. The workshop itself was run very well and immediately got people thinking about what they personally would like to see in The Flats. Following that brief brainstorming session, participants split into groups depending on their personal interests and were let loose on giant maps of the city. This sparked interesting discussions over how to create a great place to visit in The Flats, rather than having it be a place solely for coming to work.

Making Connections

The point people seemed to come back to most was ways of making connections to The Flats: both personal connections between people working there, and also more formal connections in the shape of public transit and bike routes. The layout of the area causes some issues with this due to the large amount of rail lines. However, bridges over the train tracks could help forge some of these connections into the locale. In particular, a connection from VCC Clark into The Flats seems to be vital, as it is the closest transit station to the eastern edge; currently it is a long walk around to buildings that you can see from the station. Participants were heavily in favour of making these connections into ‘green connections’, helping fulfil the City of Vancouver’s target for The Flats to be the ‘greenest place to work in the world’. One suggestion was the creation of a green corridor from Strathcona Park to Thornton Park in front of Pacific Central utilising the green space planned for the new St Pauls site.

Emulating Granville Island

Another way to create this connectivity is by utilizing the amenities which already exist in The Flats, creating special places along the walkways akin to ‘Railspur Alley’ on Granville Island. These would help entice visitors into The Flats which would increase foot traffic to local businesses. Ideas for night markets, concert venues and bars were also forthcoming as the lack of housing in the area would allow for ‘noisier’ evening events to occur without the possibility of neighbourhood disapproval.

With Emily Carr moving its main campus to The Flats in 2016 there is an opportunity to build on the existing arts cluster in the area and build a truly vibrant arts quarter for Vancouver. Participants highlighted the need to find smaller spaces to curate art experiences and also utilize dead space between buildings to place art in different spaces. One way to do this could be through the use of local art to create enticing walkways, further increasing the connectivity of The Flats.

Greening and Gardening

A vocal portion of the audience was dedicated to the greening of the area, and specifically the safeguarding of the community gardens in The Flats, specifically Cottonwood and Strathcona. These gardens provide food resources to the city and are a much needed green space as well as an urban refuge for many. There was also talk of potentially day-lighting streams from China Creek Park to False Creek which could provide the area with much needed relief from the threats of rising sea levels and climate change.

The event showcased a lot of exciting ideas for the False Creek Flats as well as a good level of engagement from the local community. The City is now taking the ideas from its six events and will be creating further plans to be displayed at an Open House in September. It will be interesting to see what they draw up, and hopefully will lead to further engagement and ideas from the community to create a vibrant industrial quarter on the edge of Vancouver’s downtown.

The last week in May was Bike To Work Week and, for once in Vancouver, the weather co-operated to bring plenty of people out on their bikes! HUB’s online dashboard boasted over 10,000 participants, 2934 of which were new to Bike To Work Week. As one of those new participants I decided to jot down some of my thoughts on the event.

Aside from the fact that I love riding my bike and getting to be outside on my commute to the office, it’s actually faster for me to get there on a bike than it is to take transit, a fact HUB were touting for much of the week.

From the beginning I was super impressed with the way everything was set up for Bike To Work Week. The HUB website was easy to navigate and very informative in terms of how to log routes, where the celebration stations would be located and how you could win prizes. One of my favourite features was the group and individual stats on the dashboard page as it really put into perspective the benefit of cycling to work. I’d never really thought about how far I cycle in any given week but I was shocked to find out that it’s around 70km just for riding to and from work; those little trips sure add up fast!

Throughout the week I only saw a slight increase in the number of riders on my usual route but, as I rode to the free BBQ on Friday, there was almost a bicycle jam on 10^th Ave. There were so many people out riding! From the buzz I heard from other participants it sounded like there was a definite uptick in the number of people cycling around Downtown and plenty of inter-office competition which can only be a good thing for the state of cycling in Vancouver!

I think the celebration stations are a great idea and a great initiative for an event like Bike To Work Week. There’s nothing like the incentive of a free coffee or free snack to motivate people to stop by and chat on their way to work. Although there weren’t a huge amount of stations south of 10^th Ave, I made sure to detour to stop at one in Mt Pleasant for a coffee, free water bottle and protein square! Although the freebies seem like a small gesture it was definitely appreciated and I know it encourages more people to engage with the initiative as well as enhancing the experience of those who don’t usually ride to work.

The final event of the week was the BBQ in Creekside Park which again was a really well run event. There was a nice range of sponsors there, from bike wrenching stands to free food, raffle tickets and cycling gear. The BBQ line up was pretty busy the whole time but the ladies running it were lovely and patient and it was great to just sit down and soak in the atmosphere on the grass.

Photo from https://bikehub.ca/bike-to-work

In the future I’d love to see Bike To Work Week grow further. It would be great to see increased visibility and advertising before the event. I saw very little local news about Bike To Work Week in the days leading up to the event. It would also be great to have celebration stations more evenly distributed throughout the city to encourage riders south of 10^th Avenue.

In all, I had a wonderful first Bike To Work Week and it’s an experience I’d happily participate in again. Although the gorgeous weather definitely contributed to turnout, if even 10% of the participants decided to bike to work more often we would have a much happier and healthier Metro Vancouver!