What We Will Miss This Summer

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.

It looks like being a long quiet summer.

 

Good News — and Bad — for the Drive

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.

 

Many thanks to Ferry Seagull for the heads up.

The Virus Strikes The Drive

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.

Another Date For The Calendar

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!

GWAC AGM Tomorrow

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!

GWAC AGM This Saturday

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!

Come Party With The BC EcoSocialists

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.”

A George Bowering Event

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!

A George Bowering Event

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!

Councillor Colleen Hardwick at GWAC

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.

GWAC Meeting: The Developer Speaks

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.

Anarchism on The Drive — Tonight!

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.

As always, the event is free!

Turnbull/Saklikar Reading: November 23

Former Vancouverite Chris Turnbull returns to town for a reading with Renee Saklikar at the People’s Co-op Bookstore on Saturday, November 23.

Chris Turnbull is the author of Continua (Ottawa: Chaudiere Books 2015; Picton: Invisible Publishing 2019) and [ untitled ] in o w n (Vancouver: CUE Books 2014), one of a trio of poetry books alongside work by Heather Hermant and angela rawlings. His chapbook publications include Shingles (Vancouver: Thuja 1999); continua 1-22 (Ottawa: above/ground 2010); and The Great Canadian (Buffalo: Low Frequency Press 2015), which combines images from Turnbull’s site-specific rout/e project and text from Rawling’s forthcoming echolology. Undertones, a collaborative chapbook with text/artist Bruno Neiva, is emerging with Low Frequency Press in 2019.

Renee Saklikar is the author of Listening to the Bees (2018) and children of air india (2013).  She recently completed her term as poet laureate for the city of Surrey.

The launch is a free event at 1391 Commercial Drive, and gets underway at 7:30 pm.

Nomado’s 50th at People’s Co-op Bookstore

Quoting the People’s Co-op Bookstore email:

“Come and celebrate local literary publisher Nomados’s 50^th — chapbook, not anniversary — at the People’s Co-op Bookstore on Thursday, November 14.

Nomados authors Joanne Arnott (Pensive and beyond), Renee Rodin (Ready for Freddy) and Fred Wah (Articulations) will be reading at this event. Nomados chapbooks, bookmarks, photographs, and refreshments available.

The event gets underway at 7:30, and admission is free.”

The People’s Co-op Bookstore is at 1391 Commercial Drive.

Next GWAC Meeting: Discuss Broadway & Commercial

The next Grandview-Woodland Area Council (GWAC) Meeting is on Monday, 4th November, and the topic will be the current proposal to build huge towers on the Safeway site at Broadway & Commercial.

 

The proposed towers are significantly taller than allowed under the hard-fought GW Community Plan, and one of the questions has to be — did we waste four years on the Plan if it is simply to be ignored by every developer that comes along seeking greater profit?  Do the views of the residents of GW actually matter?

A brief history of the site’s development can be found here.

There will be a number of interesting speakers.  But most importantly GWAC needs to hear from YOU.  As usual, the meeting begins at 7:00pm and takes place in the Learning Resources Centre under Britannia Library.

 

 

Story Telling On The Drive

 

Local award-winning storyteller Jo Dworschak will be hosting a storytelling event she calls Rackle at Cafe Deux Soleils at 8:00pm on October 30th.

She hopes this will be monthly event, featuring a number of local story tellers.  It is a great venue for it.

Roger Farr at People’s Co-op Bookstore

Next Wednesday, 16th October, at 7:30pm Roger Farr will be launching his new book at People’s Co-op Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive.  As per their flyer:

“It ain’t no Lonely Planet guidebook.  Roger Farr‘s I Am a City Still But Soon I Shan’t Be … The nine-part, book-length travelogue takes the reader through the streets of Vancouver, New York, Berlin, Siracusa, and Nanaimo, exploring the sites of capitalism’s domination of the urban subject. It’s Farr’s first book since IKMQ (2012), a finalist for the Dorothy LIvesay Prize, and should help allay the concerns, of some, that what he writes isn’t really poetry at all.”

As always, this is a free event and everyone is welcome.

Next GWAC Meeting

Michael Tregebov at People’s Co-op

Update:  I got the date wrong.  This event is tomorrow, 4th October.  Sorry about that!

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East Vancouver’s homegrown progressive publisher, New Star Books, is hosting a reading and meet and greet next week with author Michael Tregebov:

“Our own, modern day, Jewish-Canadian Balzac will honour the West Coast with his presence at the end of the week. Michael Tregebov, pen and skates in hand, hand to his chest, his voice loaned to the CBC for three shows and counting (Weekend Morning, The Next Chapter, and Here & Now), will be in Vancouver to spiel and schmooze about his third and newest novel, Shot Rock: the tale of Blackie Timmerman and his curled and curling troubles.”

The event takes place on Tuesday, 8th October at 7:00pm at People’s Coop Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive.

“Expect shtick, curling sticks, and Trotskyite (-ist?) undertones. As well as sundry copies of his novel, available to purchase.”

Michael Tregebov at People’s Co-op

East Vancouver’s homegrown progressive publisher, New Star Books, is hosting a reading and meet and greet next week with author Michael Tregebov:

“Our own, modern day, Jewish-Canadian Balzac will honour the West Coast with his presence at the end of the week. Michael Tregebov, pen and skates in hand, hand to his chest, his voice loaned to the CBC for three shows and counting (Weekend Morning, The Next Chapter, and Here & Now), will be in Vancouver to spiel and schmooze about his third and newest novel, Shot Rock: the tale of Blackie Timmerman and his curled and curling troubles.”

The event takes place on Tuesday, 8th October at 7:00pm at People’s Coop Bookstore, 1391 Commercial Drive.

“Expect shtick, curling sticks, and Trotskyite (-ist?) undertones. As well as sundry copies of his novel, available to purchase.”