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!