Tag Archives: west end

Paul Nixey – Real(istic) Communicator

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Who are you?

I’m Paul Nixey. I live in Vancouver’s West End, and own a scrappy little communications agency called Nixey Communications. We work with non-profits, progressive companies and public figures to help tell their stories, and have a strict no-working-with-jerks policy.

My boyfriend is also named Paul, which is occasionally confusing at cocktail parties. In my mid-twenties, I was a television personality on a ridiculous South Korean game show called ‘SURPRISE!’

What do you do for fun?

I obsess over spelling errors on restaurant menus, watch PVR’d House of Commons Question Period sessions (and lament over why Canada’s is never as good as the UK’s Prime Minister’s Questions), and serve on the Board of Directors at the Vancouver Friends For Life Society.

Friends For Life provides complementary and alternative health services to people living with life-threatening illnesses, and operates the Diamond Centre for Living in the West End. I travel to warm places as often as possible, and sign up for at least one half-marathon each year. I have yet to run a half-marathon.

What is your Favourite Community? Why?

The city! It’s jammed full of people, it’s where arts and culture thrives, and where innovation and ideas happen. In Vancouver’s downtown, you can ride your bike from a meeting in the business district to a coffee shop in the West End, and see ten people you know along the way. I get nervous if I can’t see skyscrapers.

What is your Superpower?

I connect people with good ideas.

How do you use it to Build Community?

As often as possible, I put a bunch of smart people in the same room, and get the hell out of the way. Occasionally, this is an excellent (if accidental) business strategy. Mostly, it’s a way of ensuring that the people around me meet new people who are producing excellent work an helping in their own communities. The lines between the business and the personal are blurring more and more each day; I believe that social networks – both on and off-line – are going to be the community-builders of the future.

My Three Favourite Things About Paul are…

1. He’s didn’t drink the political koolaid. Nixey is a politically motivated fellow. He’s done a lot of work on various campaigns, particularly in Vancouver Centre where he’s worked closely with Hedy Fry and her team election after election. Like many political operatives (oh, I know that sounds dark and backroomish), Nixey is a strong believer in political engagement and the importance of politics in civic society. But he’s also a realist. When a someone does something that pisses him off he’s not afraid to talk about it. No glassy eyed “repeat after the fearless leader’s mantra” here. In my mind, that’s the best sort of person to have on your side. Someone who’ll work hard to get you elected, talk politics late into the night and call bullshit if he sees policy or a party member doing something it/they shouldn’t.

2. His entrepreneurship. Word on the street is Nixey was a bit of a wiz-kid in the Starbucks world (Editors Note: I refuse to buy any Starbucks coffee on the theory that the brand is positioning itself to become the monopoly of all things “coffee shop” by 2020). Fortunately for all us Starbucks-haters, he’s no longer working branding magic behind the scenes. Now he runs his own communications shop doing great work for a handful of amazing non-profit organizations. In fact, his work has been so good that business has increased enough to justify him opening the doors to a new office off Davie Street above the Fountainhead Pub. Starting your own communications shop can be  a risky move. It requires balls and Nixey’s got those. It also requires real skill to manage all the business requirements – things like HR, accounting, business development. It’s impressive and definitely a favorite thing!

3. Sense of Humor. Nixey is one funny fellow. Don’t believe me? Ask the casting director of “Surprise” the South Korean game show he acted on. Pretty sure he knocked that guy’s socks off. Or you can talk to the dozens of Westenders, Gay community members, business clients, Liberals and Visionistas that Nixey connects with on a daily basis.

The Dr. Peter Community

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It’s amazing sometimes to see how a community can rally around an great individual who happens to embody many of the great principles so many of us hold dearly today.

Dr. Peter Jepson-Young is a great example of this. Last week the City of Vancouver (and actor Tom Hanks), honored the 20th Anniversary of  Dr. Peter, who for the remainder of his adult life, educated thousands of Canadians about the realities of being gay and suffering from HIV/AIDS – at a time when both were stigmatized.

The story stretches back to the late 1980s. At that time, Dr. Peter, a recent graduate of UBC medical school, was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. When he was no longer able to practice medicine, he educated the public about HIV/AIDS through The Dr. Peter Diaries, a 111-episode weekly series that ran on CBC-TV from 1990 to 1992. Through the Diaries, he shared his experience with the disease and sought to bring a human face to the pandemic at a time when homophobia and broad discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS were rampant.

The Diaries were so successful that CBC-TV and HBO collaborated to produce a documentary compilation, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1994.

In 1992, Dr. Peter passed away from his illness. Just weeks before his death, however, he established the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation to provide Comfort Care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Today, the Dr. Peter Centre is recognized locally, nationally and internationally for its innovative model of care addressing today’s challenges in HIV/AIDS care.

Despite this work, there is still much to be done to fight against HIV/AIDS in Canada. It is estimated 58,000 people in Canada live with HIV and 30 percent of these people do not know that they have contracted the disease. In BC, several people contract the disease every day. Many of these victims are marginalized people and injection drug users. A large number come from the Downtown Eastside.

As a result, the Dr. Peter Centre now offers a wide spectrum of harm reduction services for individuals living with HIV/AIDS who are actively using substances. These services range from supporting clients who are seeking abstinence-based treatment, methadone management, needle exchange services to supervised injection services by registered nurses.

It’s also created a tidal wave of momentum in both the West End, gay community and in the medical community. These and other communities around the city and country have continued to rally around the Dr. Peter banner and pushed for more effective measures to treat people suffering from drug addiction than the current federal government tact of criminalizing them. As Dr. Peter Foundation Executive Director Maxine Davis pointed out in a recent Globe and Mail editorial, a lot more can be done:

Most of us would not tolerate receiving our health care on the street. Yet, street nurses in Canada’s towns and cities have become necessary because indoor locations have been disallowed by local authorities and, in the case of Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, challenged all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In July, The Lancet called this aversion to true HIV care for people who use drugs “aggressive, state-sponsored hostility.” The leading medical journal called for “enlightened, scientifically driven attitudes and more equitable societal responses.”

In the months before his death, Dr. Peter set up a foundation with a mission to provide care for people living with HIV-AIDS. Today, the Dr. Peter Centre, in Vancouver’s downtown West End neighbourhood, is a quiet icon for what an integrated care model can achieve.

Its this spirit of integrated care that continues to bind thousands of individuals together in a common battle against a ravaging disease. And its Dr. Peter who continues to be the standard on which these forces march forward and who’s vision 20 years ago continues to guide a way for researchers, activists and caregivers today.

Jason Lamarche – The Communicator

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Who are you?

I’m Jason Lamarche. I’m 33 years young and I live in the most beautiful city in the world; Vancouver BC!  The West End has been my home for over 13 years and I live with my black lab Cletus.

What do you do for fun?

Almost everything I do is fun, so that includes things like:

What is your favourite community and why?

Without a doubt it’s the West End of Vancouver. My block has an insane Walk Score of 94 out of 100 which is considered a “Walkers’ Paradise”! The social infrastructure here is amazing. I’ve used the Roberts Adult Education centre to get my high school diploma, there’s all sorts of bus lines to take you to the universities, there are thousands of businesses located downtown so you can walk or bike to just about any job. The people here are positive, encouraging, supportive, inspiring, real, gritty, creative, funny, stylish, etc… The shops here are wonderful, tasty, vibrant, fresh, and affordable.

What is your super power?

Communication.

How do you use it to build community?

I discuss issues in a way that motivates others to get involved in the conversation. Communication is also a great tool to promote positive events that I or other agents of change produce. It’s all about building social capital and fostering strong weak ties so that during moments of truth we have the capacity to react and respond to whatever challenge life presents us with!

My Three Favorite Things About Jason Are…

Commitment: Jason’s a big volunteer. Sometimes, when people get involved with organizations (particularly political ones) they do a couple hours here and there and that’s it. Jason’s the opposite. He’s there at every event, contributing on his weekends and time off, creating dozens of short videos of elected officials and spending as much time doing the political thing as many MPs. Jason’s commitment to political activism (an particularly social media inspired activism) is inspiring and if more people were involved like him, we wouldn’t have such abysmal voter turnouts we seem to be constantly afflicted with time and again.

Wealth of Knowledge on the Issues: Jason gets policy. Be it health care, military spending, immigration, or taxes, if its a federal (or even municipal or provincial) issue Jason will have a well thought out idea of how the government should proceed. Even more importantly, his ideas are nuanced enough to have specific tactics that the government of the day can take. It’s a refreshing change from the usual big picture “this needs to change” discussions, which so often fail to address how a situation can be realistically improved.

He has black lab named Cletus: A) Cletus is an awesome name for a dog B) My family has had several dogs when I was growing up and two of them have been black labs. In short, black labs rock.

–

Masthead photo courtesy of Tequila Partners

Community Building in the West End

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The following is a column by Vancouver writer Jackie Wong – exclusive to the Gumboot! Enjoy.

Vancouver’s growing up. Like a teenager on the cusp of big changes, the city — and people who live here — have lots of questions. What does affordable housing look like? What does livability mean? What impacts will climate change have on how neighbourhoods look, feel, and operate? How will we deal with population growth and density?

As a dense urban neighbourhood where 80 per cent of residents are renters, Vancouver’s West End is often looked upon as a desirable place to live. But what makes it so great? And is it possible for the West End to emerge as a sustainable, livable, affordable leader in Vancouver? What can residents do to optimize change in the neighbourhood and plan for the future?

In efforts to explore intersections and tensions between affordability, sustainability, and livability, the West End Residents Association is hosting an interactive forum this weekend that will feature a planning workshop for residents and a presentation by Brent Toderian, the City of Vancouver’s director of planning. The goal is to encourage progressive and inclusive dialogue about the future of the community. Join us!

Date: Saturday, May 29
Time: 1-3 p.m.
Place: Empire Landmark Hotel, 1400 Robson Street
Admission: Free

West End Community gets stirred up by the City’s STIR program

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Gregor Robertson’s Vision Vancouver party was voted in 18 months ago on a series of great goals: ending homelessness, increasing eco density and increasing the supply of rental housing stock throughout the city, to name a few. To achieve this last objective, Vision pushed the Short Term Incentives for Rental Housing program (“STIR”, for short) through council . Essentially, STIR provides a series of incentives to real estate developers to build rental housing  and encourage projects where up to 100% of new multi-residential rental housing units are secured for the life of the building . The STIR program also waves development cost levies to encourage the building of rental stock.

Before going any further, let me just say that Vision Vancouver’s serious push to make good on its promise to voters to expand Vancouver’s very narrow rental market is commendable. It is true that Vancouver is suffering from a rental shortage and purpose built rentals is a good way to fix that. But, not to the detriment of community and liveability. Ie. not at all costs. In Vancouver’s West End, several proposed STIR projects (tearing down a church at 1401 Comox and putting up a 22 storey building, adding a sixth tower to the Beach towers complex, to name a couple) would do just that.  These projects would entail radical rezonings producing huge increases, population density, traffic, and stress on overstretched amenities. (Incidentially with no development cost levities, dealing with these pressures falls to the taxpayer.)  With no indication coming from council that these proposals will be rejected, concern among West Enders is mounting and neighbourhoods are coming together in a lot of creative ways to voice their opposition.

As this forum is not meant for hopping on our soap boxes, I won’t elaborate how much I agree with neighbour Ned Jacobs (urbanist Jane Jacob’s son) that, on top of everything else, the Short Term Incentives for Rental Housing program,  “offers density bonuses and waives amenity contributions, plus other incentives, in return for market rentals at rates that few Vancouver renters can afford.”

No, no… I prefer to end with showing you in two simple ways how neat it is that our opposition  is bringing out creativity, solidarity and pluckiness in all of us, cementing friendships and neighbourliness along the way. Check it out:

We’re   getting really good at flyers. And, at colours. That’s right, when something incites opposition to the extant that STIR has in the West End, people get creative and let their collaborative skills shine! And with the joys of the interweb, a colourful document like this gets shared around plenty for input before it hits the websites and supermarket bulletin boards near you.

Last Sunday, with barely any promotional effort on my part, about 90 concerned residents, their families and their pets gathered at the foot of the Beach Towers to share their views about the impending 22 story development there.

It was rainy, it was a Sunday and yet they came. Allow me to be grossly corny, and say that the wall created by our umbrellas was a strong symbol of our opposition to a sixth tower at Beach. Too much corn? Yea. I know. Still, it was a beautiful thing.

I can’t represent it in this blog, but the amount of amazing word smithing that has been flying out of West Enders’ outboxes and into the hands of media, city councillors and fellow residents has also been astounding.

My opposition to STIR in the West End started with “not in my back yard” and into a full fledged defense of my community, a rewarding and gratifying experience that goes beyond politics.

Olympic Neighbourhoods – The West End

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Vancouver-westendAs a key media outlet for the 2010 Olympics, the Daily Gumboot is excited to bring you our “Olympics Neighbourhoods” series. Here’s how it works: each week, Managing Editor, Kurt Heinrich, and Editor-in-Chief, John will profile a different Vancouver neighbourhood with a specific focus on things that might interest out-of-town visitors who arrive in The Couve for the Olympics. We will do this between now and the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and the story will be told be the Gumboot’s editors asking and answering the five questions below. These are the straight goods that you can’t get from VANOC, the Ministry of Tourism or the City of Vancouver. Let’s get to it!

1. Where is this neighbourhood exactly, and how do I get there?

JOHN: You know what? Lindsay McKeeman (see the video below) did such a great job that I think I’ll let her walk us all through the colourful journey that is the West End of Vancouver. Here is a map of the neighbourhood. Have fun with it!

LINDSAY: The West End of Vancouver is on the downtown peninsula neighbouring Stanley Park and the areas of Yaletown, Coal Harbour and the central downtown district. Encompassed within the West End is the vibrant Davie Village, or as I affectionately refer to it as the “gaybourhood”, which is home to the city’s gay community and annual Pride Parade held August 1st.  The West End also serves as the corridor to Stanley park, and an entry point to the Seawall.

2. Why should a tourist/traveler be interested in it?

LINDSAY: The West End, while still downtown, offers a close-by residential refuge from the busy bustling downtown business core. In addition this neighbourhood is home to a multitude of restaurants, pubs, cafes and clubs along Davie and Denman streets. If you continue West down Davie Street, you’ll find yourself at the ocean in English Bay. Walk down towards the water and you’ll link up with the Seawall as it snakes along the water to Stanley Park. The Seawall, on a clear day, is one of the most beautiful places to run or stroll, in Vancouver.

JOHN: The laughing statues – created by Yue Minjun – are a must see and you can find them in the Morton Triangle at Davie and Denman. It’s called A-maze-ing Laughter and it will certainly make you chuckle.

3. What good and/or unique things are there to eat?

LINDSAY: Want just a baked potato for dinner? no problem.  How about a baked potato with 40 different topping options? Mr Kumpir has you covered! What if you’re more of a sweet tooth? Again no problem, within the same block of Denman St there are cookie, cupcake, and cream puffs stores to satiate your search for sweets! One item restaurants aside, there are tonnes of cheap Sushi spots along Robson and Denman, including Akira Sushi. Akira Sushi, for what it lacks in esthetics makes up for in its cheap, good quality sushi. Highlights include the toro sashimi, gomae, and black rice rolls! Lolita’s south of the border Cantina, another favourite along Davie Street has super tasty soft taco’s, I recommend the halibut and “oceanwise” ceviche.

4. What can I do for fun in this neighbourhood.

LINDSAY: During the Olympics Vectoria Elevation will be lighting up the night skies over False Creek and English Bay in a myriad of patterns, that you can go online and control and create yourself! http://vectorialvancouver.net/

(I feel like I’ve talked about the seawall and restaurants, but those can be included too)

JOHN: English Bay is the home of the annual Polar Bear Swim (superfun and super cold), and, hey, let’s not forget the dancing. But that’s on New Year’s Day. If you just want to jump in the water when it’s cold, though, that’s cool too.

5. What are your three favourite things about the West End?

LINDSAY:

1) English Bay, and surrounding beaches, including sunset, second and third beach offer up some of the best spots in Vancouver to sit with some food, a bottle of fine wine and watch the sun set over the strait of georgia.

2) People watching. Oh yes, walking up Davie street or running along the Seawall offers some of the best people watching in the city. Whether it be drag queens in full costume or wide eyed tourists taking in the sites, there is never a dull moment in the West End.

Urban Density and the West End get along really, really well...

Urban Density and the West End get along really, really well...

3) Going for a Run along the Seawall. Again, while I feel like I’ve harped on this spot a lot already, I’m still quite new to Vancouver and the West End, so going for a run along the Seawall still leaves me breathless, for two reasons; its beauty, and quite frankly the length of that damn thing! If you’re feeling ambitious, technically you could run all 22km of that beauty!

JOHN: my favourite thing is that the West End is located right next to my home town of Merville! I guess that’s why Kurt put it in…not because he made a mistake. But we’ll get to that next week. I also like the dancing and weaving through pedestrians who walk on the bike path – for shame, pedestrians…

Neighbourhood Stores: Building Community and Fighting Climate Change

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Vancouver Main Street Chinatown

There are a bunch of neighbourhoods in Vancouver that eke vibrant and distinct community. Commercial Drive, Chinatown, Main Street, Kits along the Broadway Corridor, Fraser’s Punjabi Market, the West End’s Davie Village, and Hastings and Nanaimo to name just a few. What makes these areas so interesting and vibrant is the dozens of small retail shops, restaurants, groceries, cafes, bookstores, and bars that line the streets.

In these neighbourhoods people walk to pick up their groceries and the sidewalks tend to be jammed with all sorts of different folks.

I always knew I liked these places because they created an intimate community of urban dwellers. But recently, I discovered another thing that’s neat about these neighborhood shopping areas. They’re also doing their part to fight climate change.

Here’s the reasoning:

According to a number of recent studies, in the late 1970s, the average household drove 1,200 miles a year for shopping. That figure has skyrocketed to about 3,600 miles today. When you need to drive to the big mega-mart or Safeway dozens of kilometers away to buy some groceries, milk, laundry detergent or bread few times a week, it tends to add up over a lifetime. Add to this the general trend of people seeking less and less dense neighbourhoods and your commuting time to the local grocery chain grows exponentially.

But  a of that is starting to change as many young couples begin to embrace a more dense urban lifestyle (sans the backyard and sandbox). When people live closer together, that means more small businesses and stores can be supported. In addition, according to many academics who study travel behavior,  people who live near small stores walk more for errands and, when they do drive, their trips are shorter. More surprising is that small retailers influence how likely people are to take public transit to work. All that walking and cycling can add up to significant emission reductions in the long term.

Intrigued by all this? Check out a more detailed analysis in this great article at Grist. And in the meantime, the next time you decide to cycle over to your local store instead of hitting up the big uber-grocery-mart, give yourself a pat on the back. Your building community and helping the environment, all at the same time.