Tag Archives: urban design

Jane’s Walking through Vancouver’s Historical Communities

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

— Jane Jacobs, ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’

It’s a simple equation, really: walking + history + people + urban literacy = strong, vibrant communities. This Saturday and Sunday (May 1 & 2, 2010) you can be part of the equation by participating in Vancouver’s Jane’s Walk 2010.

Fun Fact: Jane’s Walk is a Canadian creation that has been exported around the world – today, there are over 400 Jane’s Walks taking place on Earth. And you can be a part of it.

The Vancouver initiative is developed and driven by Think City, which, according to their website, “helps citizens understand the issues facing their communities while developing collective solutions to protect the environment, strengthen local economies, advance democratic rights and ensure access to quality public services.” After all, walking, as our Resident Architect, Stewartworks, will tell you, is perhaps the best method of transportation for properly engaging a community.

Jane’s Walk is all about the ideas of Jane Jacobs – writer, activist, Uncle Sam Impersonator – who stood up for the interests of local residents and pedestrians in opposition to a car-centered approach to planning. The event strives to take Jacobs’ ideas to communities unfamiliar with her ideas, like Phoenix, in order to advance raise awareness for people-first planning and design.  The walks bring people together based on shared interest; some of the best communities have been formed by strangers going for walks.

Recently, I sat down with Jane’s Walks Vancouver coordinator, Kim Fleming, who let me know about the impact this event makes on communities. “Jane’s Walk builds community in a number of ways. Firstly, it gets people out of their cars walking around their neighbourhoods talking to their neighbours! The idea behind Jane’s Walk is that it is a dialogue that happens while you are are on the walk. The tour host is more like a fascilitator who has knowledge around a theme and the idea is to engage interested people and have them share their knowledge, ideas and experiences as well. Walkers get a broader picture of their community and the people who live in it.”

And, in true Gumboot style, I asked Kim to identify her three favourite things about Jane’s Walks:

1. It builds community!(see above)

2. It allows us to discover and re-discover our city through pedestrian focused activities and the use of public space…all public space which includes our sidewalks, laneways, parks, school yards, boulevards etc…

The great surprise in the Olympics for me was the use of public space and the great sense of community that using those spaces built, pride in our community, our city and connection with our fellow citizens. We don’t, in Vancouver, use our public spaces in this way very often and our planning does not factor in the importance of it. But we saw with the Olympics that it is important and what we see with Jane’s Walk, which is all about this, is that Vancouverites have a hunger for it! It is our city after all.

3. Walkability. It’s fun, its healthy, its free! Exploring is fun. Stories are fun! People are interesting. Jane’s Walk is just a starting point. Walkability is a concept that can carry through every time you put foot to pavement, not just on a Jane’s Walk, when you go to the cornerstore think about how it got there, (is there a cornerstore? where would one be if there was….)how is the sidewalk used that you are walking on, who uses it?…

Needless to say, I will be attending a Jane’s Walk on Sunday. And I’m lucky. Because my guide is pretty much the Indiana Jones of Jane’s Walks. His name is Phil Skipper and he will be facilitating a community-minded jaunt around Douglas Park and the South Cambie ‘hood. From Phil, I expect to experience humour, random (seemingly impossible) facts, excellent questions, and possibly coordinated dance off against another tour-group and/or some unsuspecting neighbours. You can register for Phil’s walk by following this link.

Finally, before, during and after the walk take lots of pictures. Later from home, upload your best photos to Flickr and add thinkcity and janeswalk10 as tags. If you have a Twitter account, please update your status with anything of interest you see or learn along the walk. Use #janeswalk10 and #janeswalk before your message. Be collaborative and social – after all, it’s all about community!

Let’s Preserve Vancouver’s Views

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This is my 3rd year in Vancouver and I continue to be bowled over whenever I witness the amazing landscapes which frame the city.  I took this natural beauty for granted until I was informed that our multiple views of the mountains aren’t there by accident. Our fantastic views onto the Grouse, Cypress and Seymour Mountains are not just there by chance – they are the result of a forward-thinking urban planning policy which protects a whole bunch of  “view corridors.” This started with a city planning initiative 30 years ago, when citizens were asked what their top priorities for the city were and preservation of views came out on top.

capacitystudy

By the late 1980’s view protection rose on the city’s priority list as anticipated development around downtown south and north False Creek meant that views of the  mountains from the waters of False Creek could be permanently compromised or entirely lost.  Communities mobilized and progressive individuals in the urban planning office at City Hall took action. After a lot of uphill work, pioneering View Protection Guidelines were issued in 1989 containing 26 protected view corridors.

View Corridors from False Creek

View Corridors from False Creek

The policy protects views of the North Shore Mountains, the downtown skyline and the waters of False Creek from a number of public view points located along the south shore of False Creek, arterial roadways, and from the Granville and Cambie bridges.

According to the City, “In the intervening 20 years a significant number of new buildings have been added to the downtown skyline. The view corridors have had a visible effect on the site location and design of buildings, resulting in the retention of panoramic and narrow views in and around the downtown area.” Check out this walking map and video to explore the view corridors for yourself.

Today, these views and the policies protecting them are coming under threat. The city is conducting a review of the view corridor policy seeing if “ the Council adopted heights limits and view corridors” could undergo changes “to achieve additional development capacity.” The city claims that, with this study it’s 100% behind “the objective underlying the current height and view corridor policies.” Not exactly – this is just window dressing: the purpose of this “study” is really to see which of our views the city could eliminate, paving the way for more downtown skyscrapers: It will “ determine which views the public values most, and work to preserve those views, while possibly altering others.” How noble. Not only does it look like that the vision of Vancouver’s city’s planners will be eroded, the unique harmony between the city and the mountains could be permanently disrupted. Once a view is gone, it is gone. There is no turning back.

So, I have two simple requests:

1)      If you hear from the city and are asked which view you value most, say “All of them”

2)      Tell everyone you know that, or don’t for that matter, that Vancouver’s amazing views have been put there by us and that we need to keep them there.