Every week, we'll send you an update on what happened at City Hall, School Board, and Park Board in the last seven days. Hear directly from OneCity Councillor Lucy Maloney, OneCity School Board Trustee Jennifer Reddy, and OneCity Park Board Candidates on the goings on in City government.
City Council Update:
A Great Week for Pedestrianized Spaces in Vancouver
This week I voted to capitalize on the once in a generation opportunity to convert the wildly popular Granville Street Pedestrian Zone into a Montreal-style seasonal event during this week's Special Council Meeting to extend its operation from 19 July to 5 September.
I’m incredibly proud to have successfully transformed what could have been nothing more than pricey, election-year populism into a real opportunity to harness the incredible public support for the Pedestrian Zone into a springboard to permanently transform the street faster than the disappointingly slow 10-year plus timeframe envisioned in the Granville Street Plan.
My most significant amendment directed staff to develop a three-year seasonal pilot for the Granville Street Pedestrian Zone for the next three summers. This amendment gives Downtown Van BIA and its member businesses the certainty they need to optimise the next two months to explore and plan for the adaptation of the street to a welcoming daytime, family-friendly destination for locals and visitors in addition to Granville Street’s position as a centre for the City’s night time economy.
The amendment gave the motion a longer-term focus and was pivotal for me in justifying the significant investment in the short-term extension of the pedestrian zone.
I moved two other amendments to the motion. I successfully moved an amendment to direct staff to identify measures to reduce ongoing costs of security and engineering. However my amendment to mitigate the impacts on transit riders was voted down by ABC who clearly don’t place as much priority on the convenience and safety of transit users as I do.
My transit amendment would have extended the existing Seymour Street bus priority lane to the Granville Street Bridge ramp, and improved wayfinding signage to help transit riders and visitors navigate between bus stops on Seymour and Howe Streets and the Canada Line and Expo Line SkyTrain stations.
It also would have directed staff to evaluate bus stop locations on Seymour and Howe Streets, the feasibility of installing bus bulbs at the highest-ridership stops on Seymour Street to help with narrow sidewalks and address bus delay on Seymour and Howe Streets during peak periods to improve peak-hour transit reliability.
ABC was unhelpful, as usual
Not unexpectedly, ABC minimised the chance for public input and collaboration across party lines by quietly scheduling the Special Council Meeting on Tuesday afternoon before Wednesday’s Canada Day public holiday, with less than 48 hours’ notice. My Thursday morning was spent scrambling to find out as much additional information as possible to base my vote and decide whether amendments could be made to improve the motion.
We can’t afford to fumble another opportunity
It’s widely recognised that Vancouver dropped the ball on converting Covid-era public space reallocations into permanent liveability improvements. Cities like Paris and New York accelerated their improvements but under Ken Sim and ABC, Vancouver has gone backwards, ripping out the Stanley Park Drive bike lane, the botched pedestrian zones at Yew St in Kitsilano, Water Street in Gastown and the 100 block of Robson Street, and the rejection of the majority of the West End Waterfront Plan.
Granville Street has the potential to become a model for expanding pedestrian areas to other City streets like Robson Street, Water Street and Mainland and Hamilton Streets in Yaletown. If we want to realise Vancouver’s enormous potential, we need to be prepared to take risks, invest and commit to make it happen.
Please support OneCity’s efforts to make this a reality by considering a donation or joining us on the doors.
Have a great weekend and let me know if you have any questions or comments. You can reach me at [email protected] or [email protected].
