The Elementary School was vandalized the night after the first meeting. The neighbourhood association expressed that the school is often vandalized, and that this was unconnected to the planning process.
The document handed out by those demanding refurbishment:
Before I recap the meeting, I thought all would be interested to learn this factoid about gross fiscal and environmental mismanagement. For those not familiar with the area, there is a small waterfall and pond near the Laurel Landbridge; those who have been in Charleson Park will know the one I speak of. It turns out that the water which feeds this feature is potable water!! It's been a couple weeks since the meeting, but if I recall the numbers correctly, the city is spending roughly $60k a year on this!
With that said here's my experience from the second of the FCS workshops, which was on Sustainability. This post is late, but it is still in before the City's official minutes. As I've said previously, I was functioning on little sleep at this event. I also heard that some of the city staff were as well. Hopefully the city got a better experience out of this than I did, because my table was a rather rough one.
Like the previous event, there was about 60 people in attendance, and the demographics skewed even older, with only about 4 individuals who could pass for younger than 50. The tone started much like the other event, with an open hostility to change. During the introduction, one woman from the FCS neighbourhood even stood up and demanded that all those who lived outside the neighbourhood (including the neighbouring areas) should raise their hand to show the residents of the area who they were. Unfortunately, the city staff were clearly caught off guard by this, and did not handle the matter well. The result was that this person/group got their way and roughly 10 people felt pressured to comply. Not only did this create an atmosphere of intimidation, but it felt like a way to single people out and dismiss their opinions in advance.
My table was difficult from the start, which began with one attendee handing out the above document to the 3 people at the table she didn't recognise. After part of this preplanned team effort, these four neighbours united to keep the conversation almost entirely about how the most environmentally friendly thing to do would be to simply refurbish the existing units. One person went as far as to say that any other option would just be foolish. I spoke out against this, and was immediately scorned. After the city facilitators had left the table, one of the four even told me that once I had disagreed with them on the refurbishment, they were going to be against anything I would say for the rest of the meeting.
Ideas that were expressed by others at my table:
1) Stop using concrete to construct buildings because it contributes to global warming.
2)To leave the superior timber from the 1970s standing, as timber today is inferior and wood CLT has chemicals.
3)That every road going north from the Fairview Slopes should be converted into a Laurel Landbridge-like structure.
4) As the original retail in the area did not have the density to support it (the retail units were converted to residential units), no new retail should be built in the area.
5)That the marina co-op should be expanded/doubled in size.
6)That the only new land-based density should be housing/care homes for seniors living in the area.
The last is a real doozy for those who hate Vancouver's roads:
7) That 6th Avenue is too busy, and should be converted into a road with just 2 lanes.
I tried to bring up the benefits of adding homes to support retail, the costs associated with building that many new Landbridges, and how important 6th is as an arterial, but was simply blocked out by the majority of those who came to the event with a plan to work together. Unfortunately, it felt that my voice was not only unwelcome at my table, but was met with open disdain. I hope I don't sound whiny, but it was a weird way to spend 3 hours of my time. I cannot urge members of this forum and/or general public enough; it's time to head out to these meetings, and show the city there's support for growing Vancouver in a reasonable manner, otherwise these existing voices that want nothing to change at all will carry the day.
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