WUF - Sustainability for Vancouver

Cross-posted to my "personal blog, but I thought I would open it up for discussion here...

Ever since I attended the World Urban Forum last week, ideas have been spinning through my head about what we can do differently and how we can make it better in Vancouver. Our city was touted as a world-class example again and again during the forum for its sustainability measures, urban planning and desgin, so that's great! We must be doing something right. I still think that there are some things that need work though. I should also say that I'm really out of my element here, I work in technology and I'm very interested in sustainability and social change, but I'm still very much at the steep end of my learning curve. This is my 2 cents, feel free to enlighten me or elaborate as you see fit.

Housing:
We MUST have affordable housing. The housing situation in this town right now is ridiculous, to the point where I am thinking about moving simply because it seems like I may never be able to afford to buy a home in this city. And then there are people much worse off than me who need housing, so that's an issue. I really don't know what to recommend except that I see the Downtown Eastside as a problem, but West Van is just as much of a problem in that people are isolated in class ghettos. So I guess my suggestion is integrated affordable housing. Now that the Woodward's building condo's sold out so fast, a lot of the seedy DTES hotels are selling out, hoping to make big money. So do tear them down then, and build some decent affordable housing for people.

Food:
I was thinking not too long ago how blackberry season is coming up, and all of the places that I used to go blackberry picking. Now they are gone and it feels like nothing grows in this city, but that's not entirely true. There are a few very successful community gardens around town, but how about some more of them? How about a community garden with a farmers' market attached? I've been over to the Trout Lake farmers' market a few times this year and it's so great, but it is also insanely busy. So that's good, people are in to buying locally grown food. Now make it easier and more convenient. There are so many vacant lots around East Vancouver, it would be perfect to put them to use growing things. Even like in the above photo, where a UBC demo is showing how grow things vertically on a fence. That would work really well.

Or, if not in vacant lots, then we need more green roofs. I've only just realized how many we do have, but seriously, a new condo goes up every day, every one of them is a new opportunity to build a better, greener building, and also to put a rooftop garden on it. I guess that could have gone in the housing section.

Urban Planning and Design:
I just finished reading Dream City not long ago, so it was interesting to see how the city was built up and the different ideas that influenced the city along the way. All in all, I think we do well in urban planning. The peeps at Worldchanging can explain it better than me.

But anyways, what I think we need are more pedestrian areas. Granville Street always seems to be the area of choice when people start talking about pedestrian malls, but it doesn't really work for me. It doesn't strike me as that interesting and I also think it is useful for the busses to have their own stretch of road. Instead, I think all of Granville Island should be car-free, as should Yaletown. I am so sick of the giant SUV's trying to drive down Mainland, and there is never any parking on Granville Island anyways, so just get rid of it, make more parking on the outskirts and a shuttle if need be.

What else? I love the sea wall. The sea wall is the perfect piece of public space for Vancouver.

Transportation:
OK, first of all, WHY does the Skytrain stop running at 1 AM on the weekend? That is just so short-sighted.

I'm not going to complain too much about the transportation, because I drive an SUV, but in my defense, I don't drive it that often. I walk a lot, and I take cabs a lot. I take the Skytrain if I'm going to Commercial Drive, but I never take the bus because the system doesn't work for me. I almost never find myself going somewhere that a bus can get to easily and I think that's a major flaw. It also irks me that I invariably have to drive out to the suburbs, because to take the Skytrain and then a bus all over the place does not work well. I don't have too much to say about the Canada Line. I think we need it so I'm glad it's going in even though it's awfully disruptive.

Also, if the aquabus ran more often and cost less, it could be a viable commuter option instead of something that tourists mostly take.

I think that's it for now...I'll try and update if I have any more ideas.

Some links for sustainability in Vancouver:
Sustainability Now
City of Vancouver: A Sustainable City