Date: Thursday, Nov 19
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Propaganda Coffee, 209 E Pender

Last year, I traveled to Thailand to teach English. This was my second time travelling to Thailand. The first time, I was around twelve years old and only followed my parents around. This time, I observed the locals and their way of life, immersed myself into Thai culture, their tradition, and even attempted to learn some Thai and Burmese language. Thailand is an absolutely beautiful and interesting country, with nearly no traffic stops, no regulation of traffic speeds in suburban areas, and multiple dangerous jay walking experiences.

Rush hour in Bangkok

Lake and field in Chachoengsao,Thailand

Exploring Thailand, I noticed the locals not only make great use of their public spaces, their daily lives actually require the usage of these spaces. The pedestrian streets or empty spaces of land are not only for pedestrian purposes; these streets and spaces are transformed daily into makeshift street vendors and shops selling clothing, accessories, electronics, street food and drinks. One day I went to an open market and thought the whole market was deserted! I eventually found out that these markets only run during certain times of the day and the week. These street vendors either last the whole day or only open during peak hours when workers are on break, as this will generate the most profit. Many times, I also saw locally-owned restaurants transforming the sidewalks by placing various stools and tables onto the open street. The restaurant environment extends and merges into the sidewalk, a way to create a socializing atmosphere. You also see these open air restaurants and street vendors form a bazaar-like setting, where they encircle themselves around many tables and chairs under a great rooftop. Since food is especially attractive to foreigners in Thailand, people also congregate to parks and various other green spaces to enjoy their meals with family and friends.

Restaurants by the pedestrian street

Open market, Chachoengsao, Thailand

The crossover in these public spaces benefits many people, from the sellers and buyers top tourists and the economy. It allows tourists to experience authentic Thai culture through public space uses such as local street food vendors. On the other hand, locals depend on public spaces for income and simultaneously transform the environment into a gathering space for locals, especially to eat, as eating is never done alone in Thailand.

These communal gatherings and street vendors reconstruct the urban spaces of Thailand into communities that are created by the locals themselves, rather than by the government or private sector, touching upon the blurry territory of public space and privatized space. It seems like Thailand is becoming one of the many places where public space is used for the purpose and the benefit of the true public — everyone sharing space for business, enjoyment, leisure, and community.

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.

Photo by Jeremy Lim

Fancy some weekend reading on the Canucks and the impact of the Stanley Cup playoff series on public space? Today’s Globe and Mail contains an article by Frances Bula that looks at celebrations in the suburbs, and the possbiliities for public gathering in communities around Vancouver.

I was interviewed for the piece, along with a handful of civic officials from Vancouver and other municipalities. It gave me a chance to think revisit some of the ways that public space(s) get used during big events like this. (And hasn’t Vancouver been the city for this sort of action in the past 15 months?)

One of the points that seemed most apparent was that there are really two different sorts of activities that can and are being programmed into public space around the Canucks run at the Cip: (1) watching the game and, (2) post game activities (hopefully of the celebratory sort). These two activities generally require different kinds of space, and cities – suburban or not – that want to plan for celebrations, etc of this scale should account for that.

In practice, people want to be stationary for the duration of the game… and afterwards they want to move. Enclosed spaces with screens, etc (square, plaza, pub – a social space, even a street that has been turned into a square) work well for the former, less well for the latter. That’s where the main strip – usually a central commercial artery with a decent mix of restaurants, bars, etc (sources of people to pour into the street) – comes into play. It affords people a chance to do the post-game people-watching, high-five dispensing stroll.

The design of suburbs often means that there are shortfalls in both types of spaces… Many suburbs (at least those ‘classic’ suburbs that people tend to think of), aren’t built to accomodate that sort of activity.

Another challenge for satellite cities: the sort of celebratory spaces required generally work best when they’re downtown, accessible, central to the action, and at a scale that makes them friendly for pedestrian activity. But there’s more to it than that big celebrations, events, tend to draw people downtown to the core of the region. There is always a strong physical and symbolic pull to the ‘heart’ of the action. (This may change as suburbs grow and mature…and there are certainly attempts to create this sort ‘pull’ in Surrey and Burnaby, but the point that needs to be remembered is that downtown draw is about more than just creating a space for gathering).

But what if you can’t get downtown and your suburb doesn’t have a good spot to gather? Where planned celebration spaces dont exist, people will still ‘take to the streets’ and work with what they have (Check out Scott Rd and 72nd in Surrey on many regular season game nights). Social activity of this celebratory sort catalyses a self organizing principle within neighbourhoods, cities and suburbs alike.

And to be sure, even spaces that are designed for gathering/celebration, etc don’t always work well. Sometimes the good design intent behind one purpose-built space falls short when put next to another perhaps entirely different sort of space that just happens to feel like a better spot to cheer the winning team.

:: Click here to read – Frances Bula. Suburbs struggle to find a place to party.

And here’s a picture of the backside from a wayfinding kiosk at another location, if you’re curious what’s on the back…

Wayfinding Kiosk at Commercial and 13th. Photo: Roland Tanglao.

We first mentioned these kiosks last when they first went up just prior to the Games – and remarked on the fact that they were long-overdue in the City. And yes, despite what follows, we’re still glad they’re here.

But upon scrutinizing what’s actually displayed, I found myself grimacing a little. The middle panel with the copious amounts of text under the headline “Mount Pleasant” is a listing of all the businesses in the area, sorted by category (such as “Restaurants”), along with their address and phone number. The aesthetic and presentation of the directory is clearly reminiscent of that used on signs in malls.

I sent and commented on the above photo to Twitter, and received a couple of replies questioning my discontent:

Both valid points, certainly, which encouraged me to revisit why the retail-heavy content felt inappropriate and out of place for me. To expand upon my initial ideas, which I tweeted to Seth from Edmonton, I believe it is because my feeling about neighbourhoods is profoundly different than the one I have for malls.

Whether it’s Main Street or Hunt’s Point in The Bronx, neighbourhoods are, first and foremost, venues of daily life. Their features reflect the sum total of life having unfolded, and continuing to unfold, over time and space. Buildings get old, are vacated, renovated, rejuvenated, modified and, sadly for this and other older districts, burned down; new buildings find their legs in the spaces between older ones. Malls are in many ways the antithesis of this; they are ahistorical in their presentation, focused on birthing the buying moment, unless nostalgia is part of the sell. They reflect the desire to produce a highly controlled and curated environment, which keeps at bay the difficulties associated with weather, multiple modes of traffic, the ravages of time and the challenge of competing interests in limited spaces. They seldom seem to age well, propped up by the building equivalents of Botox.

Wayfinding is undoubtedly an important contribution to the pedestrian experience, for it guides us by helping us form expectations of said experience. We might say a city or neighbourhood is “legible” or” understandable” through the way it is laid out, which helps someone traveling on foot to understand where you are and where you want to go. Malls are laid out and designed with anchor tenants (such as department stores or supermarkets) at the ends of its corridors and certain arrangements to maximize retail frontage values, as well as to expose foot traffic as much as possible to all the stores in between. The mall directory helps you navigate what is typically a non-linear layout. They make sense when you consider that distinguishing landmarks might be restricted to store signage features, or that layout of a mall happens over multiple floors, which can only be accessed by elevators and escalators located in specific spots. Its legibility is certainly challenging to a first-time or infrequent visitor.

Main Street is comparably simpler and easier to understand — it’s a linear corridor in a grid with evenly spaced-out regular intersections. For this reason, the store-directory-as-wayfinding-kiosk almost seems like a bit of overkill. Designed in this fashion, it strikes me that the sign tries hard but ultimately missed the mark; the authors haven’t created a kiosk that gives pride of place to the sort of stuff that would help a visitor discover the essence of the place… just a sector-specific portion of it. Getting to the essence, i think, is the sort of thing that would come with asking a broader question like: what is interesting about this neighbourhood? Not: where can I buy shoes? While retail information has it’s use, a good info post would ideally give you access to details on a range of items: local pointsof interest, bathrooms, community policing, pay phones, maybe a 24 hour eatery… and the sorts of other features that make the neighbourhood different from a trip to Pacific Centre.

Now, to be fair, the kiosk does retain perhaps the most important elements from its use as Olympic wayfinding, such as important transit routes and connections, and it does feature a smaller section on ‘Neighbourhood Destinations’ (out of frame further down on the second picture above). In the Main Street case, it lists landmarks and notable spots like Queen Elizabeth Park and Heritage Hall.

Fundamentally, there is a line to walk between promoting the businesses to make the street and the neighbourhood welcoming and accessible, and providing actual utility to newcomers through the features of the sign. Given that the local Business Improvement Association sponsors the sign, I understand the push. They’re fulfilling their mandate by promoting the shops and businesses along this corridor, supporting the local economy and so forth. All good things. So the issue to me is more about balance in content. Personally, I think show-casing a complete range of community amenities would probably support the local economy more in the long run. (And in the grand scheme of things, this sign is still a step-down in my mind, from the corporate logos gracing the wayfinding signage in the Olympic Village).

No doubt, translating this notion of balance into the design and presentation of the information, while remaining equitable to all businesses, is a formidable challenge. The presence of these information kiosks is good, but the content elements shows signs of needing a bit of a re-think.

The next seven days have another fine assortment of activities. Check out the following update to see what’s in store.

VPSN PUBLIC SPACE PROJECTS & EVENTS

• Friday, June 25 – Interventions Jam with the Design Nerds
• Saturday, June 26 – Stick it to the Streets
• Sunday, June 27 – VPSN AGM and Beach BBQ
• Monday, June 28 – Transforming Broadway – Mt. Pleasant Workshop
• Tuesday, July 6 – Transforming Broadway – Fairview/Kits Workshop
• Great Trees Contest – Support the Urban Forest

VPSN BLOG

• Quieting the roar of the pimped-out motorbike
• Open houses – Help shape the future of three Vancouver parks
• The limits of preserving heritage? The Great Harwood Tulip Tree
• Following up on the Local Government Elections Taskforce

VPSN PUBLIC SPACE PROJECTS & EVENTS

Friday, June 25 – Urban Interventions Jam
One of the local groups that we’ve always been fans of is the Vancouver Design Nerds — a cool bunch of design aficionados that put their talents to good use, coming up with ways to enhance the city and its spaces. Every few months they host a Nerd Jam where participants elevator pitch an idea and the assembled crew jams on the possibilities.

This Friday’s jam centres on the theme of urban interventions – a topic near and dear to our hearts. It starts at 7:00pm and takes place on West Pender. You can find all the details on their Facebook page.

:: Vancouver Design Nerds Facebook Event Page

Saturday, June 26 – Stick it to the Streets

How much music can be made with a pair of drumsticks and the street as the instrument? The Vancouver Public Space Network and friends will be descending on to Granville Street this Saturday to Stick It to the Streets and find out. Bring your drumsticks, spoons, keys, and selves to join a crew of Vancouverites as they move through the street making music with the urban landscape. Will we expect impromptu drum battles? Spontaneous street dancing? Come down and see for yourself! The fun starts at 1:00pm.

For more information, check out out the VPSN SITS webpage or Facebook event page. And while you’re at it, take a gander at the cool promo video we made for the event as well.

Sunday, June 27 – VPSN Annual General Meeting & Beach BBQ

The VPSN isn’t just a grassroots organization – it’s also a registered non-profit. Per the terms of our society registration, we’ll be holding an Annual General Meeting to report out on last years activities and finances, and other cool initiatives. But frankly, we’ll also be using the occasion as an excuse to have a bbq and celebration at Stanley Park at Third Beach. You should come!

:: VPSN Website – AGM Details

Monday, June 28 Transforming Broadway: What would it take to make Broadway a Great Street?

The City of Vancouver is currently undertaking an review of the Central Broadway Corridor – the portion of Broadway that runs from roughly Kingsway (in Mt. Pleasant) to Vine (in Kitsilano). The intent of the planning exercise is to review a variety of land-use policies connected with the street and the surrounding area. What this means in real terms is that we now, collectively, have a very good opportunity to lay down a sense of direction that will enhance the street. So let’s take this chance to transform the city’s great east-west corridor into something fantastic!

The VPSN will be hosting two facilitated workshops that will be focused around a simple question: what would it take to turn Broadway into a Great Street? We need your help to find this out. Please consider joining us on one of the following dates:

Monday, June 28 @ Mt. Pleasant Neighbourhood House
Tuesday, July 6 @ Kitsilano Neighbourhood House
(Correction: this date was originally posted as Monday June 5)

Both sessions will be taking place in the early evening (final times TBD) and snacks and drinks will be served. The events are free, but seating is limited. Please register to get your name on the list.

:: For more information – broadway [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca
:: VPSN Transforming Broadway webpage
:: City of Vancouver Central Broadway Corridor webpage

Great Trees Contest. Send Us A Pic of Your Favourite Tree. Support the Urban Forest Win a Prize!

Each week we give a way a prize to one lucky Vancouverite who likes trees. The process is easy and the odds are good. If you want to participate, all you have to do is send us a picture of your favourite Vancouver tree with a few words on why you feel its so awesome.

We’ve been publishing the submissions we’ve received, along with other neat articles on Vancouver’s urban forest on our Great Trees blog. In the next little while, we’ll also be kicking off our community-based map of the city’s favourite leafy giants.

If you have a chance this week, take a moment to snap a picture of your favourite tree and send it our way! Help us to pay homage to our urban forest.

:: For more information – www.GreatTrees.ca

VPSN BLOG

The following are some of the recent posts from our blog.

June 19 – Quieting the roar of the pimped-out motorbike

Today’s media brings news of two strategies being deployed in the fight against excessive vehicle noise. Both, coincidentally, aimed at the worst (in my humble, patio-loving opinion) of the summertime soundscape offenders – the pimped out motorbike…. [more]

June 17 – Open Houses – Help shape the future of three Vancouver parks

The city wants the public’s feedback on projects going on in three prominent parks in Vancouver: Vanier Park, Mount Pleasant Park, and perhaps most substantively, Hastings Park. Check out the following open houses and have your say… [more]

June 10 – The limits of preserving heritage? The Great Harwood Tulip Tree

Over the years, density bonusing has acted as an important tool in Vancouver’s city-building methodology. It’s a tool with which planners, guided by Council, have used to support the development or enhancement of important public benefits – parks, community facilities, and public art to name a few. Under the process, extra allowable height (“density”) is permitted on a given project, and in exchange for this, developers provide a public good… [more]

June 8 – Following up on the Local Government Elections Taskforce recommendations

The Local Government Elections Task Force delivered its 31 recommendations for improvements to local election on May 28, 2010. Two matters are of particular interest to the VPSN… [more]

SUPPORT THE VPSN

The Vancouver Public Space Network is an all-volunteer, community-driven enterprise that works on advocacy, education and outreach pertaining to the city’s public realm. We depend on your contributions in order to undertake our projects and activities. Looking to lend a hand? Please consider making a donation or signing up for one of our volunteer projects. Thanks!

Councillor David Cadman (COPE) is introducing a motion at this morning’s Council meeting. The text of the motion is rather brief, but the essence of it is that Cadman is requesting that City staff look at the possibility of Olympic-style closures on Robson Street on weekends this summer. Part of the impetus, as we understand it, comes from additional renovation work taking place at Robson Square.

We wrote a letter to Council supporting the motion — and also raising a few points for their consideration. Here’s an excerpt of that letter:

…The Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) offers our support, in principle, for the motion being put forward today by Councillor Cadman. The motion in question, item B.2., calls for the closure of Robson Street, “as per the Olympics, on Saturdays and Sundays, during the summer months.”

Since it’s beginning in 2006, the VPSN has championed the importance of gathering spaces in Vancouver. In particular, our Network recognizes the key role fulfilled by Robson Square and Robson Street – most recently demonstrated by the pivotal role played by the area during the Olympic and Paralympic celebrations.

Our Where’s the Square? Design competition (recently referenced in the Greenest City Action Team’s Bright Green Future report) also helped to identiy the many possibilities for gathering and celebration found in the area bounded by Robson, Hornby, Granville and Georgia.

As well, our correspondence to Council on Thursday, February 4, 2010 (re: Summer Spaces Monitoring and Evaluation) indicated our desire to utilize Robson Street and Robson Square between Burrard and Howe as a downtown Summer Spaces venue. We felt – and continue to feel – that the site holds tremendous potential for a well-programmed gathering area.

For all these reasons, we are supportive of City staff reviewing this site with a view to creating community-oriented street-closures during the summer weekends. However, we do also offer the following comments for your consideration:

• The motion is imprecise as to which areas of Robson are to be considered. Given that the pedestrian areas created along Robson were in some state of flux during the Games (in terms of number of blocks closed and degree of closure), some clarity is needed here. We suggest that the space on Robson that is closed be restricted to an area east of Burrard and West of Granville – and ideally less than this.

• One of the key factors in the success of the Robson Street Olympic closure was the larger communications effort associated with the Olympic Transportation Plan. In order to accommodate any successful closure of Robson Street in the summer time, some effort and resources will be needed to support similar communications work.

• In order for the space to be well-utilized for an “Olympic-style” street closure it will be important to allocate resources to ensure that the site is programmed and animated in such a way that it will draw people as a place to visit. Simply closing the street will likely be insufficient to create a convivial gathering space. Staff consideration of the findings from the Summer Spaces evaluation will be useful here.

• If Council chooses to proceed with this motion, the VPSN would like some clarity about how any initiative on Robson Street would dovetail with the Summer Spaces initiative. We would also like to know if there will be opportunities for the VPSN to be involved, per our Summer Spaces plan, in assisting with the animation of this space.

• Finally, it is our understanding that the motion being considered today has been proposed, in part, because of renovation work being undertaken at Robson Square. We are concerned about the lack of information presently available about the extent of the renovation work, its phasing, and other key details. Additionally, there are a number of Robson Square user-groups that have used on-line forums to note their frustration at a lack of opportunities to provide input into this process. At present, there is far more information on this initiative available on a citizen’s Facebook group than anywhere else – a disservice to the many people who enjoy this site.

• Recognizing that the site in question is under the jurisdiction of the Province, we would like to request that the City take this opportunity to (a) confirm the full extent of the planning and design work currently being contemplated and/or undertaken with regard to Robson Square; (b) encourage the Province to provide this information to residents via its Robson Square web-pages; and, (c) through it’s Planning Department web-pages, provide the same information to residents. While the site may be outside of the City’s jurisdiction, there is an informational role that can be played by the City if the Province is unwilling to take this on.

Thank you for allowing us this opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed motion…

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.”

Car Free Vancouver Day 2010 will once again embrace our town in forward-looking fun and funkiness, on Sunday June 20th – Father’s Day.

Last year’s Car Free Day brought over 150,000 people out to play in the streets, and to change how they see their city. This year we hope to add more nodes and open more space for more people. This is a 100% volunteer organized event, with over 300 volunteers – and we need your input to make this magic happen.

Get involved, get creative, meet some awesome folks, and help co-create the city of your dreams. If you love Car Free Day, please consider stepping up to take a creative leadership role in this event.

Car-Free superstars, please step up now! You can contribute in whatever way turns you on, to whatever extent you feel able.

Some cool organizing opportunities (Pods) at each Fest may include:

• core organizing
• day-of logistics (barricades, eco-pod, setup, etc.)
• volunteer coordination
• volunteer support
• community business liaison
• street performers
• vendors
• non-profit organizations
• street art
• kids activities
• donation collection
• stage management
• communications
• graphics, promotion and merchandise
• community outreach

AND MORE…join a Pod, head one up, or invent your own.

We have confirmed CFVD 2010 Fests on Commercial Drive, Main Street, the West End, and Kits. We’re open to more Fest nodes, so if you are interested in sparking one up in your area, get in touch – we have lots of experience, materials, and contacts to support you.

Hello all, it’s time to reclaim our streets! Just a reminder that the Car Free Commercial Crew will be meeting this Wednesday Feb 17 – details here, as well as dates for upcoming meetings for Main Street and West End.

We’ll be contacting you soon down the road for day-of volunteer opportunities, and things like vending and performing…sit tight. These are primarily meetings to bring new organizers into the mix. So if you are interested and think you might like to step up to an organizing position in some capacity, come meet us and see what you think. This evolving movement thrives on experimentation and fun. We’d love to meet you and share ideas.

West End Car Free Mtg
tba, in a couple of weeks or so
Gordon Neighbourhood House, 1019 Broughton St.
Info: westend@carfreevancouver.org

Commercial Drive Car Free Mtg
Wednesday February 17th – 7pm-9pm
1707 Charles St. (enter through wooden side gate)
Info: drivefest@carfreevancouver.org

Main Street Car Free Mtg
Sunday March 7th from 2pm-3pm
#1 Kingsway (new Library): Room TBA
Info: mainstreet@carfreevancouver.org

Kitsilano
Kits will be doing a mosaic of block parties – for info or to get involved
contact Ross Moster: rmoster@flash.net

Questions: info@carfreevancouver.org

After a raucous morning of anti-Olympic protests in downtown Vancouver that saw newspaper boxes overturned and several windows of the Hudson’s Bay store smashed, an afternoon flashmob event on Robson Street proved to be one of the high points of Day 2 of the Vancouver 2010 Games.

Organized by Imagine1Day.org, the event featured a crowd of several thousand people dancing a synchronized routine to the Martha and the Vandella’s classic “Dancing in the Streets.” Along both sides of the road hundreds of other folks gathered to watch. The enthusiasm was infectious – with dancers spending equal time singing along to the song and laughing at missed steps.

While word about the dance had been making its way around the internet for weeks (along with instructional videos for the routine), the event kept true to the ephemeral nature of flashmobbing: it was over and done in less than a dozen minutes.

Imagine1Day, incidentally, is a charity working to establishing primary education facilities in Ethiopia. It’s not totally clear what the connection between this event and their work is… but that’s okay. Let’s take it at this: a bit of schooling on how to enliven city streets and add a dash of choreographed colour to the otherwise gray asphalt.

:: For more photos and video from the Dancing in the Street event see the VPSN Flickr set.