On Saturday, May 7th, the Intercultural Community Garden Project will celebrate its Grand Opening on the rooftop of St Paul’s Hospital. This is a project that I have been working on over the past two years as a Director of the West End Residents Association (WERA).
The Intercultural Community garden project is a partnership between the YMCA of Greater Vancouver, Gordon Neighbourhood House and WERA. These community partners have been worked together since 2009 to create an organic garden that brings Vancouver’s diverse community together.
Now, after much success, the garden and its symbolic spade will be handed over to the Downtown Intercultural Gardeners Society (DIGS) in a ceremony on Saturday May 7 on the roof of St. Paul’s Hospital.
The project was funded by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia, to build a more welcoming, inclusive and engaged downtown peninsula by creating and tending community gardens together. In an effort to ensure the garden reflects the population of the downtown peninsula, a minimum of 40 percent of the gardeners are immigrants. More than 50 gardeners are involved in the project on an on-going basis.
Prior to the garden launch, over 120 Vancouverites also participated in diversity training, including intercultural communication and anti- racism workshops.
One of the great joys of participating in this project has been my interactions with Linda Rubuliak who is a program manger at the Y. The idea of an intercultural garden was Linda’s and she approach me to participate in the project. Linda has been a real inspiration to me and I have learned so much from her in this project.
Part of the purpose of the garden is to inspire Vancouver citizens to take ownership of their community’s health. This includes the responsibility of the garden passing from the community partners to the gardeners themselves. ―DIGS is the new non-profit society that the gardeners have formed to continue the work that has begun.
The grand opening event will include a ceremonial “Passing of the Spade” from the organizational partners to DIGS as they take on the leadership of the community garden.
Sandra Thomas story in Vancouver Courier on the gardenS
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“When you have to go you have to go”, this the slogan that I used last summer when as President of the West End Residents Association (WERA), we staged a little event in Nelson Park entitled “Potty Power” to advocate for the replacement of the washroom in the park. At the “Potty Power” event, in a tongue and cheeky way, I gave away little potties to toddlers to demonstrate the need for a washroom in Nelson Park.
Potty Power images
Potty Power Utube
WERA letter to VPB
The need for a washroom as part of the built environment in the public realm is a serious issues that needs to be addressed. In Nelson Park, in particular, there used to be a washroom in the field house. When the park was redevelop in 2007 the field house was demolished and the washroom was not replaced.
Nelson Park is a heavily used park in the West End. Now after the park’s redevelopment there are even more users. There is an enclosed dog park, which is the first in Vancouver and very well liked and utilized. The dog run is surrounded by a community garden. In summer and into the early fall, there is a Farmers Market in the park every Saturday, which is also very popular. There a new plaza in the middle in the park with a water feature and a very well used play structure for preschoolers to enjoy. The park also has a unique and originally designed water fountain that really creates a special sense of “place” (link to fountain video). The park is also well endowed with many benches for folks to sit on. To say the redevelopment of the park has been a huge success is an understatement.
But the one element of the park that is missing is a public washroom. It’s a fact of nature that “when you have to go you have to go”. The need for a washroom in the park is held widely by the residents and businesses in the surrounding area. The Mole Hill Community Housing Society (MHCHS) has had problems with public defecation and urinating in its property, which is directly adjacent to the park. The Dr. Peter Centre at the Thurlow Street side of the park also supports a washroom in the park and so do the Farmers Market organizers and vendors.
At the April 18, 2011 Vancouver Park Board meeting, a staff report will be introduced recommending a washroom be installed in the park (link to staff report ). The report recommends a fully accessible automated washroom from the City of Vancouver’s Street Furniture Program. It is an innovative use of the program for City Engineering and the Vancouver Park Board to partner and improve the public realm of the city by providing a public washroom in Nelson Park. Furthermore, these automated washrooms also have inbuilt design features to discourage inappropriate use.
VPB update Monday 18 April 2011, 11 pm. Board approves the staff report.
Nelson Park was always a beloved place in Vancouver’s West End. With the new attention to the park through its redevelopment it has become increasingly unique and well used. In a larger sense, what makes Vancouver a more livable city is the special and distinct spaces throughout the city that encourage us to walk and explore, to use the public space and interact with our neighbours.
Nelson park staff report on redevelop on VPB website
link to Sandra Thomas story in the Courier story
Ellen Woodsworth’s motion at Council
With the recent earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand the need for a more comprehensive and extensive emergency preparedness plan to respond to natural disasters is very apparent.
While there are agencies such as the City of Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program (NEPP)that are mandated to develop plans with professional disaster response teams and communicate these plans to various communities in Vancouver, a lack of knowledge remains about what the “plan” is when an earthquake does happen.
The West End Residents Association (WERA) was fortunate to have a community member, Randy Helten spearhead a project to increase the community awareness around emergency preparedness by being the community conduit and organizer for a number of workshops in the community centres and neighbourhood houses. Mr. Helten set up an “emergency preparedness” page on the WERA website to promote upcoming workshops and to communicate information about what one needs to know when the big one hits.
Mr. Helten’s efforts were a huge success by increasing attendance at NEPP workshops. With simple tools of postering in the community, posting information on a website and a little bit of earned mediaWestender Story, the community knowledge about responding to earthquakes was greatly increase.
I never went to one of these workshops before Mr. Helten took on the project of being a community advocate for earthquake response, but as a result of his efforts I did finally attend one. My takes-aways from the workshop were:
1. Protect your head.
2. Have enough water and food to last 48 hours without assistance.
3. Have cash on hand, the bank machines are not going to work.
4. Have a radio.
5. Have flashlight, matches and candles
This is all I can remember from the workshop.
Through talking with friends I realized that there is a general lack of knowledge about what folks should do and where to go when there is an earthquake. People are simply unaware of what the community plan is, unlike the citizens of Japan. To me this speaks to a need for more planning at the community level.
At the April 4 Vancouver Park Board meeting COPE Commissioner Woodcock is moving a motion to address the lack of knowledge at the community level in regards to an emergency response. Commissioner Woodcock is just back from New Zealand where she had the unique opportunity to experience an earthquake. Ms. Woodcock knows first-hand how communities respond in an earthquake. This personal experience in New Zealand has led to the motion to resource more planning at the community centres in order to develop a community plan and more effectively communicate it to residents.
The motion:
Whereas Japan is a leader in having organized its citizenry in earthquake preparedness, and Christchurch has organized a Civil Defence Emergency Management plan involving a series of partnerships between City Council, emergency services, community agencies and neighbourhood volunteers for effective emergency response and relief, and were immediately deployed after the February 22, 2011 earthquake, and
Whereas Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program (NEPP) delivers sessions on Family Emergency Preparedness through community centres; while at the same time there is no coordinated Response measures in effect
Whereas Vancouver actively supports volunteers in Emergency Social Services and Amateur Radio through the Office of Emergency Management and the Police Department, however does not have programs in place to engage women’s and disability organizations to address more specific family needs
Whereas there is no single program that consolidates neighbourhood emergency Preparedness with Response teams through the Office of Emergency Management, the Police Department and Community Centres across the City
Be it resolved that in order to provide the most effective earthquake crisis relief, the Park Board work with the City to expand Emergency Preparedness and Response services at community centres, which includes providing tools, training, and support to a network of neighbourhood volunteers.
On Saturday March 26, 2011 at Denny’s Restaurant on Davie St. a demo was organized by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and Migrante B.C. in support of temporary migrant workes.
Filipino migrant workers recruited to Canada under the federal government’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) have filed a $10 million class action suit against Denny’s Canada restaurants in BC, charging the company did not live up the employment contract the workers signed before they arrived from the Philippines.
The lawsuit alleges the workers were required to pay approximately $6000 each to an agency that was recruiting employees for the Denny’s Canada locations in BC operated by the Northland Corporation.
It is also alleged workers did not receive the hours of work, overtime pay, air travel and other conditions they were promised. The suit has been filed in the BC Supreme Court on behalf of the Filipino migrant workers employed at Denny’s from 2006 until the present.
The next leader of BC NDP needs to be a person who has the ability to connect with the community on issues at the grass-root level and who is committed to progressive evidence-based policy development and can deliver results
Adrian Dix is the candidate who has a proven track record of working with community groups and has a deep understanding of what the challenges of progressive policy development are and he has demonstrated a commitment to responding to the critical needs of BC citizens.
Here are a few reasons why I am supporting him.
In my participation with the Save St. Paul’s Coalition I have had numerous discussions with Adrian regarding the need for the renewal St. Paul’s Hospital. Adrian has met with the Coalition and has offered many recommendations as to the most effective methods of advocating for this issue. Adrian has raised the issue of St. Paul’s Hospital in the Legislature as the NDP Heath Critic and his questions have lead to information being accessible to the Coalition that would not have been otherwise.
With Spencer Chandra Herbert, MLA for Vancouver West End, Adrian was instrumental in ensuring that the renewal of St. Paul’s Hospital on the Burrard St. site was in the 2008 NDP election platform.
Adrian has always been approachable to have informal discussions about St. Paul’s Hospital and has supported the Coalition in its endeavors here in Vancouver and at the Legislature in Victoria.
As the NDP Health Critic, Adrian has been a strong advocate for the preservation of the Therapeutics Initiative. The Therapeutics Initiative is a health care innovation from UBC comprising a panel of medical experts who evaluate prescription drugs for effectiveness against cost and make recommendations to physicians through a widely desisimated newsletter. This program saves countless dollars and is a good example where rational progressive policy is effective and costs less. Adrian has been an outspoken champion of this program and is a relentless critic of the BC Liberal attempts to drop this program.
For more info on TI:
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/drug+assessments+taking+wrong+path/3979298/story.html#ixzz18D3Y7JpcSun Article
http://www.ti.ubc.ca/TI website
The City of Vancouver estimates that it spends $28 million per year on policing and firefighting services to help homeless folks. Much of this cost is because the police are being used as frontline mental health workers who are escorting folks with mental health and addiction issues to emergency departments. Many of these folks don’t need to be in such an intensive expensive medical setting. The lack of accessible mental health facilities and services is costing the City of Vancouver millions of dollars.
Adrian Dix has be an ardent advocate for the need of an Urgent Response Centre in Downtown Vancouver to help folks suffering from mental health problems and addictions who require services but do not need the more expensive support of an emergency department at an acute care facility. An Urgent Response Centre in Downtown Vancouver would save the City millions of dollars. Likewise, Vancouver Coastal Health would save funds and would create more efficiencies in Vancouver hospitals’ emergency departments by diverting this group to another source of care when appropriate. Adrian understands that compassionate care of the most vulnerable in society can also be the more cost effective.
Through my involvement with West End Residents Association (WERA) and the Renters at Risk Campaign, the need to reform the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) is an urgent priority. The BC Liberal Party revised the RTA and these changes have made security of tenure a critical issue for all of Vancouver, and in particular in the West End where 80% of residents are renters highlighting how pressing this issue is. The term “Renoviction” was coined in the West End and describes the tactic of landlords evicting long-term tenants under the guise of needing to do extensive repairs only to do cosmetic repairs to get vacant possession of apartments and charge higher rents on the units to subsequent tenants.
Adrian Dix has supported Spencer Chandra Herbert’s private members bill that would give the “right of first refusal” to tenants whose apartments are in genuine need of repair. This legislative intervention is another example of how progressive policy is a solution that protects the rights of tenants while allowing businesses to earn fair returns on investment.
Adrian has made firm commitments to reforming the RTA as Premier of BC and this would be a policy change that would greatly benefit the citizens of the province.
I am convinced that Mr. Dix has the depth of experience, the commitment to work with members at the community level on issues, the understanding of progressive policy development and the tenacity to find solutions that benefit all citizens of BC. This is why I am supporting Adrian Dix to be the next leader of the BC NDP.
At Thursday’s March 3, 2011 Planning and Environment Committee meeting at the Vancouver Park Board, the Vancouver Aquarium updated the Commissioners on their new expansion plans.
John Nightingale, from the Vancouver Aquarium, started the presentation by stating: “we are going low tech”, referring to the scaled-back footprint of the proposed expansion relative to earlier plans.
Last August the Federal and Provincial governments committed a $25 million capital investment in the planned expansion. Mr. Nightingale stated that funders asked the Aquarium to “cut back” the proposed scope of the new expansion.
The proposed footprint of the expanded Aquarium would be 20% smaller than was approved in the original development permit granted by the City of Vancouver. The expansion is being done in a phased manner, with the first phase potentially beginning in September 2011 after the peak summer season.
Mr. Nightingale also reaffirmed the Aquarium’s commitment to upgrade lighting from the number 19 bus loop in Stanley Park to the Aquarium despite not having taken action on this issue for the past four years. Of note, the problem of the inadequate lighting in this area was flagged by Spencer Chandra Herbert when he was a Park Board commissioner.
The Park Board committee was sufficiently supportive of the new concept plan to refer it to the April 4, 2011 Board meeting at Park Board Head Quarters on Beach Ave. There will be a staff report of the proposed expansion posted on the VPB website prior to the meeting.
A Straight article about the funding announcement last summer:Matt Burrows article