Residents polled about Concord life

[mr.x]

Residents polled about Concord life
UBC evaluation surveys being sent to 3,5000 in False Creek North community

Francis Bula, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007

VANCOUVER - The city's new downtown communities have provoked admiration around the world, along with lots of rumours locally -- especially the one that nobody really lives in them because they're all owned by offshore investors.

Now the people who live in one of those mega-projects are getting a chance to speak out.

University of B.C. planning students are doing a post-occupancy evaluation of the False Creek North community built by Concord Pacific in the past 10 years on the former industrial land at the southern edge of the downtown peninsula.

About 3,500 residents will be sent questionnaires and anyone who lives in the area has been invited to a forum at the Roundhouse community centre on Saturday.

"It's not the kind of evaluation that's done very often because there's not the money typically to do it," says UBC planning Prof. Larry Beasley, the former city planning director who helped shape the area.

"And we have said there are no holds barred. If people tell us, 'They told me I was moving into a community but there's no one here and it's lonesome,' we'll report that. Whatever they tell us is what we're going to report."

The survey questions, designed by the students, will ask people what they think of the city services, their buildings, their units, the shopping, the transportation choices and more.

The Concord neighbourhood will accommodate more than 10,000 people by the time it is fully built out.

It is the result of an intense back-and-forth between the developer and the city planning department, which bargained for amenities such as parks, community centres, social housing, daycares and seawall walkways.

People from around North America come to look at it because it's seen as a model of how to make high-density living work by providing a lot of attractions in the neighbourhood. But it has also drawn criticism for being bland, lifeless and designed in a kind of suburban way that isolates people.

Beasley said the results of the survey will be available at the end of November. The $65,000 cost for doing the survey was covered by money from developers and the city planning department, he said.

Francis Bula, Vancouver Sun



i never knew Beasley was also a UBC prof aside from his role in the Middle East.

[Delirium]

interesting. i wonder if i'll get one. i've been living in a concord building for over 2 years now and i have to say it's fantastic.

everything is here. grocery store, banks, liquor store, doctors office, dentist, travel agency, dry cleaning, restaurants, post office, community centre and a school. all within a 3 minute walk of my front door. and of course the seawall across the street and yaletown just as close. a short elevator down and i have resort style ameneties and a rooftop courtyard filled with a pond and seating to get away from it all.

it's funny because everyone gripes about the uniform look of concord buildings but at the end day, who gives a shit. i don't even notice it. ask anyone who lives here that question and you'd see how irrelevant that really is with respect to livability and convenience. and for a building like mine that is 10 years old, it's looks better than some just constructed. the ongoing maintenance and care they take is exceptional (and really low maintenance fees!)

i also happened to live in cityplace in toronto and the comparison is laughable. it's like night and day. we should be proud of what was built here - especially given that it wasn't too long ago that this area was a barren wasteland.

[djh]

So basically Concord has said to Beasley "I know you're not working for the city any more, but how about you get some keen students to do city planning work for us, and call it a 'study' that they can use for their degree? Then we can take the results and design our next communities better with the results? Hey, we'll give the students, let's say, $60 grand for the trouble, eh? And how about we get this in a month? It's a win-win, right, Lar?"

Can you imagine how long this would have taken to get done via the CoV? And how much it would have cost? Everything would have been at least a factor of 10 (300 days to do, $600k to fund, 10x the staff, 1/10 the efficiency).

Good on the students - I hope they all use it on their resumes to get jobs in Dubai!

[leftside]

I don't live in a Concord building, but I think they've done an amazing job from Plaza of Nations heading west. I've been riding my bike down there for a number of years on the way to Stanley Park and there have been a lot of great changes.

I'm keeping my eye on the developments east of Plaza of Nations and hope they also do a good job along there.

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by djh

So basically Concord has said to Beasley "I know you're not working for the city any more, but how about you get some keen students to do city planning work for us, and call it a 'study' that they can use for their degree? Then we can take the results and design our next communities better with the results? Hey, we'll give the students, let's say, $60 grand for the trouble, eh? And how about we get this in a month? It's a win-win, right, Lar?"

Can you imagine how long this would have taken to get done via the CoV? And how much it would have cost? Everything would have been at least a factor of 10 (300 days to do, $600k to fund, 10x the staff, 1/10 the efficiency).

Good on the students - I hope they all use it on their resumes to get jobs in Dubai!

I ain't a fan of Dubai. You can't build a city from nothing. I hope they put it on their resumes and get jobs in City's around the world that need our help, such as other cities in America, Canada, Great Briton, Europe, Russia, etc. Dubai doesn't need our help, they've got enough.