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Good morning,
Nate back with you today. It’s holiday season and I spent last week on a bicycle trip through coastal Washington State. It was an exhilarating handful of days, with hot weather, gracious hosts, and a blessed lack of mechanical issues.
What stuck out most (besides how keen our friends down south are to strike up a conversation with you) is the night and day difference that cycling infrastructure makes in the enjoyability and safety of your ride.
Over the 300+ km trip there were some excellent stretches of quiet country roads and separated bike paths — the Discovery Trail in particular was a dream to ride — where I found myself relaxing into the ride, enjoying the scenery around me, and stopping for water and coffee at conventionally located amenities like farm stands and Indigenous cultural centres along the trail.
Unfortunately, to get from point A to point B, there were also areas with little to no cycling infrastructure. These were highways with six-inch shoulders (which would disappear altogether at points), and huge trucks buffeting you as they passed a foot or two away. These were deeply un-relaxing moments where it’s not hyperbolic to say you could easily die if you didn’t stay on the straight and narrow.
All this to say, bike infrastructure is not only incredibly important for safety (especially for younger, older, and newer riders) but also for the overall experience of biking – regardless of whether it’s on a tour or your commute.
Today, we’ve got an update on the feud between the park board and city council, and more on the heat wave we’ve all just been through.
Let’s get to it!
— Nate Lewis, Vancity Lookout
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WEATHER
Wednesday: 28 🌡️ 15 | ☀️
Thursday: 24 🌡️ 14 | ☀️
Friday: 24 🌡️ 15 | ☀️
PARKS
More drama between the city and park board
A cyclist on the Beach Avenue bike lane near Stanley Park, October 2022 / Nate Lewis
What happened: The park board voted 4-3 to not approve city council’s plan to reconstruct Morton Park and open two-way traffic into Stanley Park along Beach Avenue, instead opting to shift $10 million of that money to other items from the ill-fated West End Waterfront Plan, which was voted down by the ABC-majority council in May.
Those other items included renewals of the English Bay Bathhouse and Alexandra Park, and a new playground, cafe, pavilion, and skatepark near Sunset Beach, according to commissioner Scott Jensen.
You may recall, as city council was shooting down the West End Waterfront Plan for being an unrealistic “fantasyland,” Morton Park and Beach Avenue was the one section of the plan council decided to preserve. You can read more about the background of this brouhaha, and its implications, in Vancity Lookout, The West End Journal, and Urbanized.
Jurisdiction battle: While the city has jurisdiction over the road space on Beach Ave., the plan — which the park board rejected — would require park board approval because its scope includes changes to park assets including Morton Park, and English Bay Beach Park.
What it means: The city could go ahead and take out the bike lane on Beach to allow two-way traffic. However, that would likely come at a considerable political cost if they didn't have park board cooperation to move the bike lane onto the walking path and the walking path into the park.
Mayor Ken Sim took the park board vote as an opportunity to bash the board’s “irrational decision” and argue his case for the city taking control of parks and recreation.
Vision Zero Vancouver, a prominent road safety group, called Sim’s comments “completely disingenuous.”
“What [the park board] accomplished last night was the reallocation of $10 million from pointlessly moving the existing bike lane two meters east to spend it instead on parks and recreation within the West End, which is their job,” Vision Zero spokesperson Chengyan Boon told Vancity Lookout.
Meanwhile: Park board commissioners voted in favour of general manager Steve Jackson’s recommendation that the park board take a multi-million dollar haircut in an “update and recalibration” of their three-year capital plan.
However: While Jackson recommended a $16.3 million cut, commissioners asked city council to revise that reduction to $11.5 million, to fund other recently passed projects.
The mid-term update is a part of the city’s budgeting process that provides an opportunity to adjust the three-year capital plan (this current plan runs from 2023-2026) to “reflect the city’s fiscal reality” and guide yearly budgets.
“Numerous challenges continue to affect timely and cost-effective delivery [of projects, including] high inflation, the tight labour market, and supply chain issues,” according to a park board report.
Context: It’s been noted by Jen St. Denis in the Tyee, and elsewhere, that since taking over maintenance of community centres, ice rinks, and pools from the park board in 2009, the city now has a deferred maintenance bill of nearly $350 million.
The park board funding decision also requested that city council commit $347 million over five years to an “emergency restoration fund” for the purposes of covering those deferred costs.
Details: Projects that are being deferred to future capital plans (2027 or later) include plans for new parks at Little Mountain, Alberni and Nicola, and the Pearson Dogwood site on Cambie, located across the street from Langara Golf Course.
Redevelopment and expansion projects at Delamont Park in Kits and Yaletown Park have also been deferred until 2027 or later.
Meanwhile, development of East Park, the temporary name for the new park project near Science World in Olympic Village, will proceed, but with a 25% reduction in funding.
At the West End and Britannia community centres, a significant amount of money is also being shifted from renewals, redevelopments, and upgrades (down $21.8 million) to “urgent maintenance,” (up $19.5 million).
Additionally, funding in this capital plan for the renewal and expansion of the Raycam Community Centre in Strathcona was cut by $31.8 million.
Projects that would get significant funding immediately include Kits Pool, turf upgrades to Andy Livingstone Park near Chinatown, a new turf and fieldhouse at Moberly Park in South Vancouver’s Sunset neighbourhood, and a new spray pad at nearby Ross Park. The total cost for these, and other, priority projects is $51.3 million.
Meta budgeting: In a bit of irony that was not lost on park board commissioners and Vancouver Twitter, the Beach Avenue plan would cost about $16 million in total — approximately the same amount originally proposed for excision from the park board’s capital plan funding.
However, that number seems to be more of a coincidence than suggesting a direct relation between the funding decisions.
City council, which has final say on the park board’s budget, will vote on the 2023-2026 Capital Plan Mid-Term Update later this month on July 23.
VANCOUVER NUMBERS
📉 -7.5%: The year-over-year decrease in Vancouver’s asking rental prices, according to a new report. Vancouver still has the most expensive rents in the country, followed by Burnaby. [Rentals.ca]
⌚ 4 minutes: The amount of time it took for a U.S. couple to have their valuables stolen while unloading their bags at a short-term rental in North Van. [Global]
🚫 15: The number of types of plant-based milks recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, due to listeria contamination. The drinks were predominantly Silk brand but also included some Great Value products. [CBC]
WEATHER
Heat wave round up
What happened: Tuesday was another scorcher in Vancouver, with temperatures reaching upwards of 32°C in South Van.
Who’s affected: We’re all experiencing the consequences and pleasures of the heat wave to different degrees. While some people have the tools to adapt to the hot weather with minimal inconvenience, others are impacted more significantly at home, work, or in transit.
People at higher risk for heat-related illnesses include the very young, the very old, those with chronic illnesses, those without a home, people who aren’t able to cool their living space, and people with low incomes, according to Health Canada.
People who are pregnant are also at higher risk for problems relating to heat exposure, according to City News.
Neighbourhood discrepancies: Residents in the Downtown Eastside are speaking out about the effects of the heatwave in their community, pointing to a lack of shade and tree canopy in the neighbourhood, and limited shower and water access, according to CityNews.
Health Canada’s guidelines also identify people who work or exercise outside or in an uncooled building as being particularly at risk for overheating.
For example, cooks working in already hot kitchens are, in certain circumstances, facing working conditions in excess of 40°C. Workers are entitled to tell employers they can't work in extreme heat, under their right to refuse unsafe work, according to WorkSafeBC.
Global context: Worldwide, this past month was the hottest June on record (since 1850) and marks the 13th consecutive month of record-breaking worldwide temperatures, according to the climate agency Copernicus.
A similar worldwide hot streak occurred in 2015-2016, according to the agency.
Good news: One ray of good news locally is that the no-swim warnings at Ambleside and Sunset Beach were lifted as of Monday, with high E. coli levels dropping back to normal readings. With the limited number of outdoor pools in the city — which we covered on Monday — beaches are some of the most popular spots to cool down.
Another piece of good news is that we’re on the tail end of the heat wave in Vancouver today. It seems set to break tomorrow, with temperatures forecasted at a more reasonable 24°C for Thursday.
DREAM HOME
This place is simply absurd. It’s got five bedrooms, an elevator, pool, wine cellar, a huge patio, and, crucially these days, air conditioning. And don’t even get the listing agent started on those panoramic views.
It might cost even more than you’d expect… and unfortunately they’ve only included one photo for us looky-loos. 🥲
House of The Week is a home selected by the Lookout team and is not a paid advertisement. All ads are labeled as such. If you’re a realtor who wishes to feature your home in our newsletter, please contact our sales team.
THE AGENDA
🧑💼 Josh White, Vancouver’s new chief planner, now occupies one of most powerful positions in city governance, but it’s also one that’s seen an unusual amount of turnover in the last ten years or so, according to this column by Dan Fumano. [Vancouver Sun]
⛺ After occupying UBC’s MacInnes field for over two months, pro-Palestinian advocates have dismantled much of their camp. “We decamped on our own terms… Campus organizing did not begin and will not end with this encampment,” organizers wrote on social media. [CTV, People’s University for Gaza at UBC]
🥵 The Hudson’s Bay store in downtown Vancouver and other locations across the Lower Mainland were closed on Tuesday due to “strain” on their air conditioners caused by the heat wave. [Vancouver Sun]
🚣 It feels like most people in the Lower Mainland the last couple of days are heading to some body of water to cool off, but it’s important to play it safe. Police in New West had to rescue a man in an inflatable dingy who was being swept away by the current. [City News]
🏔️ The bodies of three mountaineers who died climbing Atwell Peak near Squamish have been recovered. The mountaineers were reportedly experienced but challenging weather conditions set in during their climb, which also hampered rescue efforts. [CTV]
🐛 A Vancouver homeowner is ticked off about insects in a boulevard tree outside his house. Apparently, a specific type of tree — planted by the city — is known for attracting large numbers of aphids, which fall all over the place and secrete a sticky substance. However, the park board says the bugs aren’t harming the trees, and they don’t remove trees for nuisance issues. [Vancouver Sun]
⚽ It was a bittersweet day for Canadian soccer fans, as Canada’s men’s team fell 2-0 to Argentina in the Copa America semifinal. It was Canada’s first ever appearance in the tournament of American giants and they exceeded expectations, performing well enough to place higher than the United States and Mexico. They’ll play in the third place game on Saturday. [Canadian Premiere League]
🏕️ Feel like it’s impossible to secure a summer campsite, with everything booked months in advance? Well last year, BC Parks introduced a feature that would allow users to get notified about cancellations. But, before that, a Vancouver couple had taken matters into their own hands and created a similar service. Unfortunately, these services and others like them seem to have only increased the competition [BC Gov News, Campnab, Vancouver Sun]
ARTS
Theatre
Bard on the Beach carries on their summer season with performances of Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, and The Comedy of Errors throughout the week and weekend.
Something for the kids! Frozen, the musical is now in town, with shows at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre until July 21. Tickets $47 - $108.
Music
Dance the day (and night) away to indie dance, disco, techno, and house music at Problem With The Sun this weekend. Tickets start at $15.
Catch the classical vocals and daring sounds experiments of Arushi Jain, Sheherazaad, and Piu at the Indian Summer Arts Festival. Tickets start at $40.
Movies
The Rio is hosting the Vancouver premiere of Indian 2 — a Tamil action drama and sequel to the 1996 blockbuster – with two showings on Thursday, July 11. Tickets for kids (15 and under) $17, adults $24.
Art
ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS features 17 provocative self-portraits of artist Martine Gutierrez portraying a multitude of idolized women. The Canadian premiere of this exhibition is presented by Polygon Gallery. Opens July 11. Free admission.
Watch Lil’wat master carver Jonathan Joe at work up in Whistler at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre. Visitors can watch Joe’s story pole take shape as part of the Salish Summer Carving Series. Begins later this month, on until September. Admission $25.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
A lucky beachgoer spotted a whale’s spout out in Burrard Inlet. You can watch their video of the moment here.
COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS
This review of the ThunderVolt, Playland’s newest rollercoaster, is a hoot. But the real question remains unresolved: is it better than the ol’ Corkscrew? [Georgia Straight]
Our team at the Lookout ate a lot of meals in this year. Here’s the best so far of 2024.
A big donation to Ballet BC means their professional dancers will get pay increases and full year contracts, dubbed a rarity in the industry [Stir]
This cyclist’s climate action awareness ride from Mexico to Whistler sure puts my little tour in perspective… Impressive! [VIA]
Seeking inspiration for next weekend’s club ‘fit? Look no further than this Shakespeare adaptation. [Stir]
Overwhelmed by heaps of fruit in your yard? This grassroots project may be able to help [Georgia Straight]
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GAME TIME
Google Maps
Presumably packed these days, this parking lot is one entry point to a number of popular river spots. For today’s Vancouver Guesser, can you name that area?
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