Last night there was an excellent attendance at the ZOOMed Grandview Woodland Area Council AGM.
I gave a presentation on the GW Community Plan, which seemed to be well received, and there was a good level of discussion about what GWAC should be doing over the coming twelve months.
Nine Directors were acclaimed for the 2021/22 year, including three who were not on the Board last year. The turnout for the meeting, and the level of debate that went on, augurs well for the organization.
I urge all residents of Grandview Woodland who are interested in the future of our neighbourhood to at least get yourself on the GWAC mailing list and, if possible, to attend — online — their monthly meetings. You will learn much and I am sure many of you have valuable experience to contribute.
Local artists open their studios on the first Saturday of each month for you to visit and, hopefully, to buy some of the wonderful art works and crafts that they make available.
This month, on 6th February a wide range of Grandview and eastside artists are involved. For details check out the First Saturday website.
This month’s meeting of the Grandview Woodland Area Council (GWAC) is on Monday 1st February starting at 7:00pm. It is, as usual these days, a ZOOM meeting.
The main topic this month is the tent encampment on Strathcona Park, its impacts and possible solutions. The discussion will be led by Katie Lewis, secretary of the Strathcona Residents Association.
The next Grandview Woodland Area Council (GWAC) meeting is on 7th December at 7:00pm, to be held on ZOOM. The discussion this month will be about the latest proposals for a huge set of towers at Broadway & Commercial on the Safeway site.
If you are interested in the LONG history of the development proposals on this site, please see this thread.
At lunchtime today I was walking down the Drive collecting material for tomorrow’s Changes on the Drive post. The wind was constant, viciously cold, and strong. So strong that one of the trees in Grandview Park fell over and completely blocked the Drive just a few minutes after I passed by.
Select image for a clearer view.
As you may be able to see, it brought down power and transit lines but, so far as I could see, there was nothing underneath — which is a blessing.
There was a small demonstration by First Nations at Grandview Park at lunchtime. The speakers used screechy megaphones which made it hard for me to understand what was being said. However, their signs called for Canada to be “Shut Down” and for the RCMP to be disbanded.
I saw no police there but, when the protesters decided to form a parade and march north on the Drive there were suddenly whole fleets of cops on motorbikes and push bikes. As the parade marched away, I thought the number of police was about the same as the number of protesters and, while they didn’t interfere in the time I was watching, it seemed an over-reaction to say the least.
The October meeting of the Grandview Woodland Area Council (GWAC) will be a ZOOM meeting on Monday 5th October at 7:00pm.
It will be a form of open mic affair for the GWAC Directors to listen to residents’ opinions. According to an email from a Director:
“[W]e’re approaching this meeting as an opportunity to hear from our members about the issue of housing and development in Grandview, in particular as it intersects with the current homelessness situation in the neighbourhood.
We’ll start with a bit of summary discussion about the current pressures on the neighbourhood, providing some background regarding the tent encampment situation as well as some of the current housing proposals in the works: the non-profit rental project at 1766 Frances, the fully market development project at 2300 Charles and the proposal for social housing on the Britannia site; then we’ll offer the members a chance to share their views regarding when and if the community plan should be relaxed for a project providing community benefit and what housing is the right fit.
The goal of the meeting is to hear from our membership to inform the direction GWAC should follow on these issues.”
I’m sure some divergent voices will be heard on these issues. I wonder if any of the Vancouver-Hastings candidates will join us?
I just received an email from Britannia Neighbours announcing that their always wonderful annual East Van Garden Tour set for June 21st has been cancelled this year due to the pandemic. And that got me wondering about some of the other festivals and gatherings that we have become accustomed to on the Drive.
Car Free Day, one of my real favourites, scheduled for July 12th, has been converted from a street festival into an online event. Not sure how that’s going to work.
On June 6 we are supposed to enjoy the 25th annual Stone Soup Festival on the Greenway. There is no indication on their website, but it seems highly unlikely that will be going ahead.
The following weekend — June 14th — is the scheduled date for this year’s Italian Day. Once again there is no news on their website, but a huge gathering of that kind doesn’t seem feasible at this point.
In previous reports I have noted that Triple A Grocery at 1626 Commercial was boarded up and probably closed. However, today it seemed to be open again, which is good news. Hope it is permanent.
On the other hand, Storm Crow Tavern at 1305 Commercial is closed and not coming back. The owners posted on Facebook:
“The Tavern already had many challenges, such as an expiring lease in an aging building slated for redevelopment, and the coronavirus, for us and many other small restaurants, is a fatal blow while we’re already down.”
They will be keeping on with their Alehouse on Broadway, and the Manor in Toronto.
This weekend I received a useful email from Fet’s Whiskey Kitchen at 12340 Commercial Drive reminding me of the extra safety regime they had put in place at the restaurant to protect customers.
Today, in another email, they announce they have decided to close indefinitely as a precaution.
“In light of the clear and strict recommendations of Canadian and provincial health officials for social distancing, we were compelled to act swiftly and decisively to help combat the spread of COVID-19. Along with the collective governmental and societal efforts to contain this pandemic, we hope that this decision contributes to bringing us closer to putting this behind us, getting our people back to work, and once again fully enjoying the relationships that we’ve nourished over the years. Aside from public safety our highest priority is to ensure employees are looked after. As we await details on emergency government relief funding, we will be making every effort to properly assist our employees through this crisis.”
I didn’t hear anything about restaurant closures in the BC Health Officer’s press conference this morning, so this action by Fet’s is purely voluntary, and I applaud their community spirit.
The People’s Co-op Bookstore — Canada’s oldest continuing bookstore — will host a book launch on Wednesday 11th March. The launch is for Lisa Robertson‘s The Beaudelaire Fractal.
“Robertson, who now lives in France, was a big part of Vancouver’s poetry scene in the 1990s, when she was part of the Kootenay School of Writing collective, and for a time operated Proprioception Books. She is the author of numerous fantastic books of poetry, including The Weather, Debbie: An Epic, 3 Summers, and Cinema of the Present.”
The bookstore is at 1391 Commercial, opening time is 7:30pm, and admission is free!
The Annual General Meeting of the Grandview-Woodland Area Council takes place on Saturday 7th March at 2:30pm in the Canucks Family Room at Family Place (at the far north of Grandview Park opposite the play area).
GWAC is the oldest and most active Area Council in the City, holding public meetings each month. Most meetings feature an interesting speaker or group, and offers residents a space to air their thoughts and comments on issues of importance to our neighbourhood.
Have you ever thought of running for the GWAC Council? The AGM is where the Council is elected each year. Come along and vote!
This year’s AGM includes a fascinating talk by our own historian, artist, and heritage expert Michael Kluckner:
“Over 90 years ago Vancouver hired Harland Bartholomew & Associates to create Vancouver’s first city-wide plan, providing a template for the ambitious young city that was poised to amalgamate with two neighbouring municipalities to become the modern City of Vancouver. Automobile-oriented transportation and industrial growth were priority considerations … Kluckner will explore what was implemented, what worked and what did not, and track more recent changes in legislation and development, such as the vision for False Creek, condominium living and the push for compact communities in both the city and the region.”
It’ll be fun and useful. Hope to see many of you there!
The Annual General Meeting of the Grandview-Woodland Area Council takes place on Saturday 7th March at 2:30pm in the Canucks Family Room at Family Place (at the far north of Grandview Park opposite the play area).
GWAC is the oldest and most active Area Council in the City, holding public meetings each month. Most meetings feature an interesting speaker or group, and offers residents a space to air their thoughts and comments on issues of importance to our neighbourhood.
Have you ever thought of running for the GWAC Council? The AGM is where the Council is elected each year. Come along and vote!
This year’s AGM includes a fascinating talk by our own historian, artist, and heritage expert Michael Kluckner:
“Over 90 years ago Vancouver hired Harland Bartholomew & Associates to create Vancouver’s first city-wide plan, providing a template for the ambitious young city that was poised to amalgamate with two neighbouring municipalities to become the modern City of Vancouver. Automobile-oriented transportation and industrial growth were priority considerations … Kluckner will explore what was implemented, what worked and what did not, and track more recent changes in legislation and development, such as the vision for False Creek, condominium living and the push for compact communities in both the city and the region.”
It’ll be fun and useful. Hope to see many of you there!
BC’s newest and most exciting political party — the BC EcoSocialists (further left than the NDP and far greener than BC Greens) — are celebrating their founding with an All-Star musical extravaganza and fundraiser at WISE Hall this Friday.
Geoff Berner’s fine klezmer band headlines a great local line up, the fun and games begin at 7:30pm, and a donation at the door of up to $20 would be a wonderful help.
“It’s going to be a wonderful celebration of independent music and most of all, the birth of this new party, which we see as part of a larger Ecosocalist movement that is sweeping the world. We hope you can make it down to be part of it. Because it’s going to be a heck of a good time!! And you can say you were there when it all started.”
One of Canada’s foremost novelists, poet, playwright, critic, and historian, the prolific George Bowering will be in Vancouver for the launch of his newest book.
“Writing and Reading gathers essays and criticism issuing from one of the most productive word processors in the country over the past decade or so. All over the map in terms of content, style, and even length, a remarkably consistent perspective emerges from these thirty-one pieces, one that places reading at the centre of any writer’s practice.”
And not just in Vancouver but at our own People’s Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial. The launch begins at 7:30pm on Friday 21st February and admission is free. A good one to mark in the calendar!
One of Canada’s foremost novelists, poet, playwright, critic, and historian, the prolific George Bowering will be in Vancouver for the launch of his newest book.
“Writing and Reading gathers essays and criticism issuing from one of the most productive word processors in the country over the past decade or so. All over the map in terms of content, style, and even length, a remarkably consistent perspective emerges from these thirty-one pieces, one that places reading at the centre of any writer’s practice.”
And not just in Vancouver but at our own People’s Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial. The launch begins at 7:30pm on Friday 21st February and admission is free. A good one to mark in the calendar!
The next meeting of the Grandview Woodland Area Council is on Monday 3rd February at 7:00pm. The speaker this month is Vancouver City Councillor Colleen Hardwick.
The only urban planner on City Council, Colleen has been an active opponent of the City’s planning policies and processes. Moreover, against vigorous opposition from City staff and their minions, she recently managed to get Council to approve the establishment of an independent Auditor General’s office to ensure that, over time, that Vancouver tax payers get good value for the decisions made by Council.
Colleen is a keen proponent of a City Plan to rationalise development in our growing metropolis. However, she wants to make sure that the people of Vancouver have more say in the future than the tenured staff at City Hall. In furtherance of this,
“Colleen plans to visit every neighbourhood within the boundaries of the City. In each case, she will meet with organizations within neighbourhood boundaries including but not limited to residents’ associations, BIAs, community centers, heritage, and faith-based groups to take a detailed look at where to best accommodate growth of approximately 1,000 new dwelling units per neighbourhood over the next decade.”
Note that this meeting is scheduled to take place in the Activity Room above the Britannia Ice Rink.
The next Grandview Woodland Area Council (GWAC) meeting is on Monday 6th January. The speaker this month is developer Michael Geller, a highly opinionated user of social media and radio talk shows.
Erica Lagalisse will be talking about her recent book, Occult Features of Anarchism: With Attention to the Conspiracy of Kings and the Conspiracy of the Peoples, tonight at the People’s Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial from 7pm to 9pm.
Erica Lagalisse is an anthropologist and writer, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE), and board member at The Sociological Review. Lagalisse’s doctoral thesis,“Good Politics”: Property, Intersectionality, and the Making of the Anarchist Self, explores anarchist networks that cross Québec, the United States and Mexico to examine contradictions within indigenous solidarity activism and settler “anarchoindigenism”. The comparative work also throws into relief the idiosyncracies of university-educated Anglo-American leftists, and draws on anthropological, feminist and critical race theory to show how they have preempted the black feminist challenge of “intersectionality” by recuperating its praxis within the logic of neoliberal self-making projects and property relations.
Posted by jakking 
