Likewise, people are prone to becoming more disconnected with nature as cities are urbanizing at a rapid rate. People are spending more time indoors, surrounded by man-made environments; thus being in nature is becoming less of a daily interaction.

Everett Crowley Park, Avalon pond

It’s not until recently where being part of CityStudio and learning in the outdoors, has reminded me of my childhood years. I remember how excited I was when I was in nature and being present in the now. I believe being connected to nature has never been so important as we live in rapidly urbanizing cities. Outdoor learning reminds me to treasure and appreciate the abundance of parks and green spaces in Vancouver that contributes to our well being. This stirs up curiosity and a stewardship attitude towards sustaining our natural environment. As I go for morning walks in trails and parks, I love how there is a sense of exploration and discovery of hidden trails. I love closing my eyes and being present in the now, listening intently to different birds singing, and seeing butterflies fly by. The trees that loom above me in every direction leave me in awe of how beautiful they are. I’m so fortunate to live in a city with such a majestic natural environment. It has brought back my child like joy of the outdoors and valuing the greenspaces in our city.

As with these other neighbourhood-scale policy documents, the VPSN wrote a letter expressing our general support for the draft plan but with suggestions for policy refinement, additions and clarifications. Relating to the mission and purpose of the VPSN, the sections we submitted comments on were Places, Built Form Guidelines, Transportation, Parks, Open Spaces and Greening, and Arts and Culture.

There’s a lot of interesting ideas in the new plan – the implementation of which will take place over the next several decades. Among the long list, and with a focus on the public realm:

• A new 10-acre park at the foot of Cambie Street and improvements to several of the current parks;
• Stronger connections along the Fraser River (something the VPSN has been advocating for a number of years);
• Placemaking and public space improvements along the major streets (including Oak, Cambie and Granville), including the creation of new plazas and gathering areas;
• Improved pedestrian and cycling connections to better link the the different neighbourhoods within Marpole;
• Renewal of the Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre, Marpole Place (Neighbourhood House) and Marpole library.

Excerpt from the Marpole Community Plan (2014)

As noted by the City, the next major step is for Council to consider proposed amendments to the Zoning and Development Bylaw at an upcoming public hearing. The proposed amendments would rezone several areas to allow the future possibility of townhouse/rowhouses and 4 storey apartments.

City Councillor Heather Deal was quoted on additional next steps including, the intent for City staff to “update council in five years on implementation of the plan. Consultation processes will be launched on the community amenities.”

[Cityscape view of Marpole] Credit: City of Vancouver Archives; Reference code: COV-S511-: CVA 780-214; Date: December 1976

The Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) will celebrate PARK(ing) Day in Vancouver by reclaiming parking spaces at the corner of 8th Avenue and Cambie Street between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. VPSN volunteers will set up an urban ‘rec room’, offering passersby the chance to read a book, play games, and hang out with friends while thinking about how public space is allocated.

“There are more than 7,500 metered parking spaces in Vancouver, which take up a significant amount of space,” said the VPSN’s Simon Wong. “By reclaiming some of these spaces, we hope to challenge people to re-imagine the possibilities of the urban landscape.”

Community librarian Sarah Green from the Vancouver Public Library’s Mount Pleasant branch will stop by from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. to drop off coffee table books, sign up new members, and discuss user accounts.

Originally invented in 2005 by ReBar, a San Francisco-based art and design studio, PARK(ing) Day challenges people to rethink the way streets are used and reinforces the need for broad-based changes to urban infrastructure.

Since 2005, the project has blossomed into a worldwide grassroots movement: PARK(ing) Day 2010 included more than 800 installations in more than 180 cities in 30 countries on six continents. This year, the project continues to expand to urban centers across the globe.

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About the Vancouver Public Space Network:
The VPSN is a grassroots collective that engages in advocacy, outreach and education on public space issues in and around Vancouver. This includes challenging the increase of advertising ‘creep’ in public places, promoting creative, community-friendly urban design, monitoring private security activities in the downtown core, fostering public dialogue and democratic debate, and devising creative ways to re-green the neglected corners, alleys and forgotten spaces of the city.

For more information, visit www.vpsn.ca

Media contact:
Simon Wong
Vancouver Public Space Network
(604) 780-0279
simon[at]vancouverpublicspace.ca

How would you describe Vancouver parks in general? Abundant? Innovative? Needs mowing?

What does your park mean to you?

Share your thoughts with us as we celebrate PARK(ing) Day on Friday September 16th!

For some people, a park is their “rec room” — a place to read a book, play games, and hang out with friends. Keeping this in mind, VPSN is setting up a little street-side rec room for the day on West 8th Avenue at Cambie Street where you are invited to do all the above and more.

For more information, click here to visit the Facebook Event Page

Vibrant food cart life in Portland: Could food carts revitalize Vancouver's underused parks? / Photo by Christopher Cotrell

I read a great article this morning over at Project for Public Spaces blog that combines some of the best things about life in the city: parks and food carts.

The article, “The Power of Food Trucks to Calm a ‘Turf War,'” highlights an underutilized park in Evanston, Illinois. A chief reason people gave for avoiding the park was that it was dominated by residents of a nearby mental health facility, making it uncomfortable for other groups to use the space.

To encourage people to use the park, the Evanston Parks Coalition rolled out the oldest trick in the book: they lured them with food. They invited a variety of food carts to set up for a one-day food festival, supplied music and entertainment, and sat back as the park teemed with people who had previously avoided it. The resident mental health patients didn’t disappear; in fact, the food and festivities drew them to the park in far greater numbers than normal. But since the park had been transformed into a destination, no one group was dominating the crowd and everyone was able to feel comfortable in the space.

This story brought to mind a great space in Vancouver: the My Own Backyard Community Garden at Commercial and 11th. Before the garden was established, it was an empty lot frequented by drug dealers and other intimidating characters. Today, it is a vibrant oasis of greenery where families tend their garden plots before playing on the new playground across the street. But, interestingly, the “unsavoury” residents who once frequented the space haven’t been pushed out. You will still find the same characters sitting on the concrete dividers, looking out at a beautiful garden rather than a trash-strewn lot. A few years ago, I helped build the garden’s cob shed, working alongside young families, university students, and residents of a nearby substance-abuse rehabilitation centre. We were drawn together in a project to grow food – imagine how many more people we would have brought together if we had food there to enjoy in the moment!

What do you think of this? Should we start stationing food carts at our problematic parks? I suggest we station a food cart at the Commercial Drive entrance to Clark Park. Where would you place a food cart?