A Barrier-Free Community

One of my favourite records as a child was a collection of old cowboy songs. One that has stuck with me started with the following lyrics:

I'm going to leave

Old Texas now

They've got no use

For the long-horned cow.

They've plowed and fenced

My cattle range....

For years, that image of fencing the open range has stayed with me. Fences change everything. They create barriers, close off what was open. They divide and separate, saying "mine" and "yours", or "us" and "them". What really is their value? Even the adage "Good fences make good neighbours" has not convinced me that they always have a benefit. Why do we need them?

I ask myself this question regularly when I see what I believe are unnecessary fences.

I start with the development where I live - Heron View. When it was built in the early 1990s, a fence was installed between the marsh and the rock rip rap. People who have lived here a long time believe the purpose of the fence was to keep dogs out of the sensitive nesting areas of the marsh. Dogs are very disturbing to wildlife and the desire to keep them out of this area is understandable. 

However the fence has been known to cause problems. I have seen turtles swimming back and forth, trying to get through, as well as mother ducks with their brood. While tiny chicks can easily negotiate their way through the narrow spaces of the fence, an adult duck can not. So the ducklings swim back and forth through the fence on one side, while the mother swims its length on the other side, over and over again. Recently an enterprising citizen enlarged a few access points so hopefully the fence will prove less of a barrier in the future.

The Heron View fence at high water - a barrier to turtles and adult ducks.

Parks Canada recognized the impact of fences on wildlife when the Trans Canada Highway was fenced on both sides through Banff National Park. The crossing below is one of apparently 55 similar ones in Canadian national parks. It straddles both the highway, and the fences on either side. Large carnivores like wolves and bears may take several years to get used to the crossing - but they do eventually!

Connecting two sides of the Trans Canada Highway. The highway itself is also a wildlife barrier of course. But the fences installed for wildlife and traffic safety are also barriers. Source: https://www.earthrangers.com/wildwire/risk/caution-wildlife-corridor-ahead/

The same reasons we use fences for wildlife, such as safety and danger, are put forth to justify fences in our pedestrian spaces. Certainly a fence to separate a play area from a busy road makes sense.  

Fletcher Park and the fence separating the play area from Okanagan Avenue 

A fence surrounds the new location of the Shuswap Kids Club. I hope that the yellow rented fence is temporary and is replaced with something more aesthetic. These quickly installed fences are becoming more common around the city.

But are fences always justified? They break up walkways for pedestrians and make direct walking much more difficult. Many fences are based on our concept of "private property", and are designed to provide clarity as to who owns what. 

If we always drive from A to B, fences along property lines such as those in the examples which follow are not particularly problematic. 

However,  if we want to make it easier for people to walk -- which is part of what a sustainable community is all about -- some fences are hard to justify.

I especially question the necessity of fences built around public developments, institutional sites, and those that are high density residential.

This fence serves only to mark a property line, between similar types of higher density developments. 

A plethora of fences. Are they really so necessary?

A hedge grown up around a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. If the fence ever needs repair, the hedge will have to be removed. Given how thick the hedge has become, the fence probably was not necessary in the first place.

For some reason this access was closed and fenced. Pedestrians wishing to get to the adjoining shopping centre or to 5th St. S.W. are now forced to make their way on a dirt path to the Trans Canada Highway and walk along the unpaved side of this busy road. 

While this fence - which is topped with barbed wire - was probably built to separate the houses from the public park, it also makes it much harder for people in the residential community to enjoy the park amenities.

A gate like this one, which shuts but does not lock, allows for at least some access through the fence

Fences are barriers to walking. It is time we take another look at why we have so many in our built up areas, and evaluate whether we need them all.

A  few years ago, I broke a bone in my pelvis and borrowed a motorized scooter for a number of weeks. I gained fresh insight into the challenges to mobility posed by fences, and other impediments to accessibility.

These steps, outside the Prestige, connect on-street parking to the hotel entrance. They are awkward for even able-bodied pedestrians.

Someone else in Salmon Arm wonders about barriers. These words were painted on concrete curb blocks at Blackburn Park. Anyone walking the perimeter of the park has to step over or around them.

One of the more dangerous sections of road for pedestrians in Salmon Arm is Lakeshore Drive, seen below.

This ramped walkway provides a great way to connect Lakeshore Drive to the area around McGuire Lake. However, as the photo shows, there are no facilities for pedestrians who wish to go east on Lakeshore. I have seen people walking while balancing on the concrete edge on the right hand side of the road. And, I have seen them squeezed as tight as possible against the concrete berms on the left.

This section of Beatty Avenue is a popular stretch of road for walkers, as it connects the waterfront to Peter Jannink Park, and to the Narcisse Street railway crossing. Pedestrians - many of whom are from the area's +55 developments and may use walkers or mobility scooters - have to share the roadway with vehicles and bicycles.

This shows the access to the new development of Mount Ida Mews for seniors. It is a puzzle as to why there are no sidewalks here, in this relatively new development. Is it assumed that no one will walk to or from this complex care facility for seniors?

Where the sidewalk ends -- Beatty Avenue. There are many such transition points around Salmon Arm. Mobility challenged people are forced to navigate the drop.

The sidewalk ends, again. This is a relatively new development, built without any requirement for a sidewalk.

Bus stop outside the Fifth Avenue Seniors Centre. The lack of any sidewalk challenges the pedestrian to navigate to the stop, especially in winter with ice and snow. If we want to increase transit ridership, we need to make taking the bus easier!

I would like to see all new developments in Salmon Arm planned for accessibility for pedestrians, including those with mobility challenges. We do have some examples around town -- we just need more of them!

An attractive pedestrian crosswalk downtown, with bevelled curbs for walkers, scooters, and those with strollers.

Another example of a downtown pedestrian crosswalk.

An attractive public walkway near the Prestige Hotel, as seen earlier this year. This is a good example of a private property (the hotel),with a public amenity (the walkway). 

A popular walk around the pond near the boat basin, as seen a few months ago. Barrier free design makes this feasible for people using scooters and walkers.

As we transition our community to one which is less dependent on cars, we need to be aware of the barriers to alternate forms of transport. There is a lot we can do to make travel safer for walking, more accessible, and improve the ease of using public transport.

Big and Bigger

A few days ago Ken and I picked up a hitchhiker on the Trans Canada Highway. He was a young man from Barcelona, Spain, into his fourth month of travelling. He had started in Toronto, and was headed to Vancouver via Kelowna.

Here and there he has been helping out on farms, especially organic farms, through "WWOOFING" This stands for World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, and is a loose network to help workers link up with local organic farms.

I asked him how the reality of Canada was stacking up against the expectations that he had prior to coming here.

The first statement he said was about the consumerism of North America. He knew about this before coming, he said, and his experiences have made it vivid for him. He described this consumerism with the word "bigness" - big malls, big box stores, big vehicles, big consumption.

He also talked of the beauty of British Columbia and the friendliness of the people he has encountered in Canada, but what has stuck with me were those words about our consumerist society.

Our consumption, our North American love affair with cars and "stuff", are contributing to the planet's degradation.

Canada markets our wilderness and our beauty internationally - but then when tourists arrive, they find cars, congested roads, and malls.

We need a different kind of bigness if we are seriously going to tackle climate change. We need big thinking, big willingness to make big changes.

And, we need to find our joy in other ways than going to the mall or buying big vehicles!

I like the approach of my friend Isobel who is focussing on finding the beauty in small things. We can be content with what we have -- right here, right now.

Finding joy in the very small, at home (Photo Credit: Isobel Anderson, with permission)

And, here is an image of a small scene in Salmon Arm's colourful downtown. How could the spirits not be buoyed by scenes like this, at the Ross Street Plaza?

Background is detail from the mural at the Ross Street Plaza.

An Urban Sojourn

While Ken was soaking up the atmosphere at Vancouver's International Guitar Festival on the July long weekend, I was getting a small taste of what Vancouver has to offer a walker. I rambled the waterfront along False Creek's north and south shores, and then spent some time in Stanley Park's rainforest absorbing Vancouver's ideas for sustainability.... its nature.... and a taste of its public art.

The Guitar Festival is held every year in Creekside Community Centre, located on False Creek 

A thumbnail map of False Creek. Creekside Community Centre is on the south-east side. The entire area of False Creek can be circumvented along the water via both pedestrian and cycle paths. I walked over 30 km in two days, including Stanley Park and some doubling back. 

The view looking north east from Creekside Community Centre, with the Telus Science World geodesic dome in the background

Sustainability

Since Vancouver's "brand" is "uniquely associated with being clean, green, and environmentally sustainable", this seems a good place to start this brief tour of my Vancouver experience.

The first night of our stay, in the streets outside our friend's house, we spotted at least five or six car share vehicles, and several bike racks for rental bikes. With apps for phones, using these rental vehicles and bikes is now super convenient and simple.

One of the car share coops with vehicles throughout Vancouver. This one was in the Grandview / Woodlands area. Evo was created by the BCAA and uses Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicles exclusively. They all contain rooftop bike racks, and one-way rentals are encouraged.

I saw these bikes frequently on the streets and cycle paths.

Making the use of bicycles easier and more convenient is a big step for sustainability. I was told that new buildings are now designating more spaces for bicycles and bike storage than for parking vehicles.

A peek through the window of a "Bike Parkade" near Science World

Educational signage - and support services - to help reduce bike theft, one of the barriers to using bicycles. This was at Granville Island Market.

Separated cycle and pedestrian paths makes sense, especially with high volumes of bicycles. I captured a short video of cyclists on the False Creek seawall, Sunday June 30

The interweaving of public paths through private residential areas is reflected in this signage

Sustainability is about more than alternate forms of transport. Alternate building design is another aspect.

False Creek is the site of North America's first LEED Platinum community - the Athlete's Village for the 2010 Winter Olympics. LEED stands for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design", and is a certification system to encourage the construction of energy and resource-efficient buildings that are healthy to live in.

The athlete's village, built on reclaimed industrial land for the 2010 Olympics, took some time to take off after the Winter Olympics were over, but is now a vibrant urban area.

Even though Vancouver is located in a rain forest, recent summers have experienced droughts.

Brown grass in Vanier Park reflects the dry conditions of the past month

Using rain water for flushing toilets makes a lot of sense. Why use treated potable water to flush a toilet?

And, sustainability is also about food security, and protecting ecosystems. In my short two days of walking, I saw ample evidence of this in the few areas I was able to visit.

Workshops being offered by the Grandview Woodland Food Connection group and Britannia Community Services Centre. These focus on various skills associated with food security. 

Signage with direct messaging at one of the beaches. 

Solar panel powering a bike rental facility.

Finally, I will round out this section on sustainability with an image of an unknown cyclist resting, taken as I walked the False Creek waterfront. I, too, lay on one of these platforms for awhile and snoozed in the sun. It was a comfortable, re-energizing rest.

Art and function combine in this wooden platform along the False Creek waterfront.

Nature

While Vancouver is definitely urban, nature and greenery are ever-present.

Even traffic islands are green... and artistic with inlaid tiles

Vancouver's moist, temperate climate lends itself to perennial gardening. Most public flower beds that I observed were planted with perennials.

Besides the greenery of urban landscaping, Vancouver has so many natural areas... oceanside, creekside, and in the rainforest.

The richness of the intertidal zone

Shuswap residents are familiar with creating artificial islands to offset damage of fish habitat, as there is one along the foreshore of Shuswap Lake (Christmas Island). I encountered something similar in False Creek, called Habitat Island. 

Habitat Island was created as part of the lead-up to the 2010 Olympics, and the construction of the athletes' village in South-east False Creek.

Habitat Island, created ten years ago and planted with almost 250 trees, over 20,000 shrubs, almost 3,500 grass plantings.

The intent was to "bring nature back into the city", according to Margot Long, a landscape architect with the firm that designed many of the public spaces in the area. 

Habitat Island has a large inter-tidal zone which provides habitat for starfish, crabs, shellfish and other creatures. The island is densely vegetated, with a variety of different kinds of shrubs and trees. Nearby is a small park that was created as a wetland environment to manage rainwater runoff from the neighbourhood. This adds to the diversity of habitat.

Although called an island, Habitat Island is really a peninsula, even during high tide. People use it in many different ways from how planners envisaged it. Initially there were no trails built on it, but people have now established many little routes.

Margo Long is the daughter of Jack Long, well known in Calgary for championing citizen-driven planning who advocated that “a citizen has a right to plan his environment that is at least as valid as the planner’s right to do it for him.” 

I like the philosophy behind this quote, although I would add that hand in hand with the right to plan our environment is the responsibility to practise good citizenship! And here is a photo to illustrate this:

These three boys dismounted from their bikes, and ran down to the water to pick up some plastic bags blowing loose on the rocks. From positive comments that people made, they were excited to be doing this and getting recognized for their citizenship.

Rainforest in Stanley Park. Vancouver's "brand" -- it does not get much greener than this.

One of the giants that grew in the late 1800's

Another, tamer, form of green.... Charleson Park

Public Art

One of two giant house sparrow sculptures
Artist: Myfanwy MacLeod 

Public art is everywhere in Vancouver. There is so much of it, the City has a registry, and brochures for different areas. All of these can be found at https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/explore-the-public-art-registries.aspx

In this post I am focussing on only a couple of pieces, both bird related.

This is one of two sculptures of house sparrows which inhabit the public space in the False Creek area. The sculptures, created for the 2010 Olympics, were so popular that they were severely damaged from people climbing, skateboarding and riding bikes on them, and had to be completely refurbished.

Refurbishment involved sending them to Calgary for mould-making, then shipping them to China where they were remade out of cast aluminum for greater strength and durability, then shipping back to Calgary for finishing and coating, and finally - back to Vancouver. Definitely a long migration for two house sparrows!

The sculptures were installed in time for the major International Ornithological Congress (IOC) held in Vancouver last August. There is a Shuswap connection to the IOC.

Runaway Moon theatre, near Grindrod, took some of their "raptors" to the IOC, where they participated in a human parade of birds. Here they are in the Shuswap, before heading off to the coast. Photo credit: Runaway Moon theatre

Public art celebrating birds is very appropriate for Vancouver. Much of Greater Vancouver is designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA). IBA's are internationally recognized areas sites that support either threatened birds, large groups of birds, or birds restricted by range or by habitat.  (https://www.ibacanada.com/mapviewer.jsp?lang=en)

Areas bound in orange are designated "Important Bird Areas"

A Great Blue Heron flies in this piece of public art along the False Creek seawall, by artist Doug Taylor. The piece is named Khenko, the Coast Salish mythical name for the bird. The four sails of the piece move with the wind. The artist statement indicates that the work celebrates the return of the Great Blue Heron to the waters of False Creek.

Landscape

Images of Vancouver's waterfront are so common that I don't need to repeat them here. I'll show just a couple to give a flavour of the diversity of scenes that can be observed walking False Creek and Stanley Park.

Scene overlooking English Bay at Stanley Park

Dune grass, beach, and the Burrard St. Bridge over False Creek. False Creek is not a creek at all, but rather an inlet of the ocean.

Another urban landscape along the seawall - this time in Yaletown.

Separating the bike path makes walking safer for people with mobility issues

A creative use of the space underneath the Cambie St Bridge

Playground under the Cambie St. bridge

Urban colour at Granville Island Market

My second day of walking around False Creek was the day before Canada Day. I felt grateful for the opportunity to enjoy so much of what makes Vancouver attractive for lovers of the outdoors and nature.

Yes, grateful to live here!