This City Life

Activating Public Spaces

But, it’s not just about having more public spaces – it's about activating them. Imagine a public square with giant chess boards, live music, or pop-up markets. These kinds of events draw people in and create opportunities for spontaneous connection that might not happen otherwise.

You can build a great public space, but if there is no programming, people won’t come. North Vancouver’s Shipyards is a world-class example of how to design and activate a public space - with a massive waterpark (which transforms into a skating rink in the winter); gorgeous waterfront views; Adirondak chairs; giant toys and games; an ice cream shop; restaurants; breweries; a stage playing live music; regularly programmed events including movies, night markets, and yoga classes; art galleries; a public market; hotels; shops; public transit; and a seawall - all within 100 metres.

In comparison, when I visited Robson Square, Vancouver’s central public space, during the pandemic there was nothing going on except one tent trying to illegally sell marijuana baked goods. You can guess where most people would rather spend their time.

Third Spaces: More Than Just Coffee Shops

While discussing the benefits of walking and enjoying public spaces, Peg and I got on the topic of "third spaces." These are places that aren't homes or workplaces, but rather community hubs where we can gather, relax, and connect with others. Think of your local coffee shop, library, or even a dog park. These spaces are essential for fostering those spontaneous interactions with our neighbours that we may have lost during the pandemic.

Urban planning best practices suggest that every home should be within a 5-10 minute walk to a park, but we don’t talk about the importance of being able to easily walk to a coffee shop or corner store.

“I grew up in an apartment above a grocery store in Calgary. We had people buying groceries there, but also sitting on the deck or stairs eating popsicles and enjoying drinks. It became a gathering spot in my neighborhood, but I never thought about how important it was to have those places until the pandemic shut so many things down.”

Many cities are recognizing how zoning bylaws limit the ability to build these third spaces in residential areas. This includes Vancouver, which has streamlined the permitting process, offering micro-business licenses and creating flexible zoning regulations to allow for more mixed-use developments that include housing and ground-level shops or cafés.

Safe Streets and Small Interventions

When people can safely use streets for active transportation like walking and biking around their neighborhood, they are more likely to get out of their homes and cars to interact with their neighbors, support local businesses, and socialize outdoors. Sometimes, the simplest interventions to make our streets safe, like crosswalks, four-way stops, bollards, and lighting, can have the biggest impact.

Peg shared a story about her relatives visiting from Bogota, Colombia, who were amazed to be able to walk safely under Vancouver’s overpasses. It's a reminder that even details like well-lit walkways and wide sidewalks give people a sense of security and encourage walking.

We also spoke about how small, low-cost interventions such as adding more benches in our public spaces can build community. “One of my favorite episodes of the Alone Together podcast was about benches. They are special because they’re not just a place to sit, they’re spots available to anyone - that availability turns benches into opportunities for connections.”

“Benches are bridges between those eager to chat, and those wanting to just listen," said Peg. "When we sit on a bench, we’re indicating we’re part of a world that maybe we feel too lonely or afraid to fully participate in. Benches give us an opportunity to be engaged in our surroundings, whether it's observing from the side or opening up a chance for conversation.”

What Can We Do?

Rebuilding our connections in a post-pandemic city doesn't have to involve a lot of effort. Here are a few ways to start:

Support local businesses: Visit that new coffee shop, browse the farmers market, or check out a local art show. These activities help keep our communities vibrant and promote spaces for us to gather.

Get involved: Go to those local events in your community, or even volunteer to help organize one. Lobby your local government for safer streets and better public spaces. You might be surprised at how quickly you can connect with others who share your interests.

Start small: Organize a neighborhood gathering, strike up a conversation with someone on the bus, or simply offer a friendly smile to a passerby. Even if that means, you know, checking in on our neighbours, asking if someone is doing ok. These small acts of kindness can go a long way in building a sense of community.

Curved, private seating areas or gym equipment where girls can face each other.

Seating areas with shelter from sun and rain.

Hammocks for relaxation and quiet time.

Stages for performances and tree logs for seats and stepping stones.

High spaces for hanging out and climbing.

As a young girl, I would have loved to have any one of these spaces at a local park or gathering place to hang out with my friends. Cities and communities have spent too much time focusing on sports fields and playgrounds, and not enough time designing public spaces for youth to just hang out.

As you can see by the proposed designs, it's not even that complicated or expensive to create these public spaces. It just takes a willingness of communities to recognize that these spaces matter and are lacking, especially for girls.

There's nothing like it in the City of Vancouver, even though there were plenty of opportunities to design a similar space with the Olympic Village, Coal Harbour, even downtown in the redesigned Robson Square. But, Vancouver proves time and time again that it cares little for young families and would prefer to keep things segregated and quiet. That way, we can all ride bikes, stare at the ocean, and not be distracted by play, activity, noise or anything suggesting fun.

Designed by local architectural firm DIALOG, The Shipyards was recently rewarded for its spectacular, people-centered design. In 2021, it received top honours in the ‘Excellence on the Waterfront Awards Program’ from the Waterfront Centre. The Centre was established in 1987 in the United States to recognize top-quality waterfront planning, design and development work from around the world.

According to the Mayor of North Vancouver, Linda Buchanan, "The Shipyards was designed to bring people together."

And it has been remarkably successful in doing so.

What were their priorities for the space and how was this reflected in the design?

When we embarked on this project over ten years ago, we knew that the number of youth experiencing homelessness was rising in Vancouver. We were turning away young people who needed our services, and knew we had to significantly increase our capacity to serve these youth.

One of our top priorities was to ensure that when young people asked for help we could say yes. Yes to a safe place to sleep, receive counselling or take a shower.

Some of the young peoples priorities were clean bright spaces with natural finishes, the ability to open windows and get fresh air, spaces where they could be outside without leaving Covenant House and ensure there was as many beds as possible while still providing privacy and in room washrooms.

Some of the new, innovative services the increased space will make possible include:

An art studio and dedicated space for our incredibly successful Art Therapy program.

A classroom and computer lab, to encourage learning and provide youth with a sense of community while working towards their goals.

A meditation and movement studio, which will allow for more embodied therapy sessions and respite from stressors.

An incredible gym and the exercise room.

These facilities will give youth a safe and productive environment to work through challenging emotions and build healthy habits.

What are your hopes for the new space?

Our hope for our new space is above all else provide crucial supports to young people aged 16 to 24 who have fled physical, emotional and sexual abuse; those who have been forced from their homes; those who have experienced human trafficking and those who have aged out of foster care with no supports.

To have a real impact on the young people at Covenant House Vancouver, we must first show them that – unlike so many of the adults they have encountered in their life – they can trust us to guide them and support them with unconditional love and absolute respect.

The work we do with youth at Covenant House is holistic – it involves formal services like counselling, case management, and housing support, but it also involves the food we serve, the conversations we have, the space we operate in, and the informal activities we participate in together. 

Each one of these elements is an opportunity to build a relationship – because relationship building is crucial and at the heart of what we do here. 

Every time we sit down to share a meal with a young person, or work side-by-side with them to create a piece of art, or even lose – badly – to them at a video game, we build a little bit more of a relationship, and gain a little bit more of their trust. And trusting relationships are the foundation for real change.

These bottles appear to be very old, even though there's no date printed on them. This particular brand was one of UDL's 'flagship brands', which was advertised as early as 1929, and continued to at least 1940.

I decided to take one of the bottles to the Sons of Vancouver Distillery for a tasting back in May to share this rare bit of Vancouver whisky history with the next generation of distillers.

Things went without a hitch! The cork was carefully extracted, and the precious fluid ounce was shared among a half dozen 'official whisky history tasters'.

First impression upon uncorking the bottle - it still smelled very much like whisky. While there was some significant evaporation, we weren't sure if all the alcohol would have evaporated. Considering the bottles came from the hot climate of Reno, Nevada, it's more likely the water would have been prone to evaporate before the alcohol. So this drink was probably considerably stronger than the original spirit. And indeed, the whisky had great strength!

I could taste flavours from the old oak barrels, perhaps with a pleasant bit of menthol and other subtleties mixed in. The contents of the mini bottle were quickly consumed, and the memory of UDL was once again shared around the table.

But since I had been sent four of these bottles, two of which still had contents inside, I sent the other bottle to one of Canada's top whisky experts, Davin deKergommeaux. Davin has written the book on Canadian whisky...twice actually (author of Canadian Whisky and The Definitive Guide to Canadian Distilleries), and he's writing a third volume that delves even deeper into Canada's whisky history. Davin enthusiastically described it as 'a wonderful whisky', and he will be writing more about it in his forthcoming book.

It was a great personal thrill to finally witness the uncorking of an original UDL bottle. Yet more proof that our local whisky history is not entirely lost, and perhaps the best is yet to come.

Figure 1. Who plays outside according to gender and age (Source: Playing outside: who, where and what?)

When it comes to why girls play outdoors less, Helleman found that public spaces are often designed to favour boy’s preferred activities. For example, his research found that boys and girls could be found equally playing in playgrounds and natural areas with bushes and shrubs, while the sports fields and lawns were dominated by boys. 

The most important activity for girls was climbing, hanging or balancing. The second most important was 'doing nothing': relaxing, hanging out, sitting, watching or talking to other children. Boys were mainly engaged in ball sports.

“If you ask municipality officers what kind of places they provide for the older kids and youngsters, you’ll probably hear that they have several football pitches and skate parks. Due to a lack of user research, they won’t know these facilities are dominated by boys,” said Helleman.

“Research shows that girls only play at places where they feel welcome and in spaces not claimed by other groups, such as boys or older teenagers. Especially girls older than nine years, who don't feel comfortable at what they call ‘boys places’.” 

I remember this acutely as a young girl. It’s the reason why I switched from co-ed to girls physical education class in Grade 9. In co-ed class, we had to play team sports where the boys dominated and wouldn’t pass the ball to girls. It was boring and demoralizing. When I joined girls PE, I got to learn self-defense and choreograph dance routines. I never forgot how to properly punch a guy in the face if he tried to attack me, which is much more confidence-building than being ignored during a soccer match.

So, where does this leave public spaces and how do we design them better for girls? According to Helleman there are several ways, including prioritizing safe walking and cycling access to parks, and public safety considerations like better lighting, good sightlines,  paths with no dead-ends and locating facilities for teenage girls in well-frequented areas.

Helleman also makes some specific design recommendations on how to create public spaces for girls:

Allocate equal space for play equipment and sports fields - Make play areas big enough to facilitate play by both boys and girls. Terrain for play equipment (such as slides, bars, swings, climbing structures, sand boxes, water places) should take up as much territory as the area for ball games.

Think less in large, mono-functional play areas. Smaller places at one play space prevent girls from being marginalized, which can happen in big open spaces. Create more defined places in a play space with different play types and play activities for all generations and for people with different skills.

Create chill out areas. Besides playing, girls like to chill out. Create places and attributes where you can sit together face to face, hang out, socialize and chat are loved by many girls. That’s why a basket swing or hammock is chosen most often by girls as a place to play, sit, meet and chill.

Offer a bigger variety of play opportunities. Girls stay longer in play areas when there is a bigger variety of play opportunities. Therefore, provide a varied play area that is diverse in color, height, surface, materials, features, activities, and attributes. This offers possibilities for play as well as viewing, seating, and chatting options.

Include materials and places for creative play. Loose parts, including natural materials (sticks, branches, leaves, stones), moldable materials (sand, clay, chalk, water), and man-made objects without obvious play purpose (tyres, crates, ropes) provide opportunities to explore and engage in imaginative and constructive play, which girls like. Another way to stimulate imagination and creativity, is by making places for dancing, moving and (making) music.

Add natural elements (such as trees, bushes and water) that are accessible and playable. Nature often makes gender differences smaller. And perhaps even more than boys, girls are looking for adventure and places to experience, explore, investigate and use spaces for their own purposes (adaptability).

Connect to more gender-neutral forms of play, such as climbing and building. But also in terms of sports: so design a skate park with skate ramps and hills of different heights suitable for roller skates, stunt scooters, bicycles and skateboards, rather than a few very high half pipes that mainly attract male skateboarders.

And finally, make girls part of the planning and design process. “To incorporate the wishes and needs of children - and girls in particular - it is necessary that they have a serious role in the planning and design process,” said Helleman.

136,000 homes needed in the next 10 years

The City of Vancouver’s first-ever Housing Needs report found that over the next 10 years, it is estimated that 136,000 households will need housing suitable for their family size and income. This includes the unmet needs of existing residents in about 86,000 households, including:

- 77,000 households living in unaffordable, unsuitable, or inadequate housing, 

- 2,000 people who are homeless, and

- 7,000 people living in SRO situations.

Meanwhile, the City of Vancouver is proposing a large increase in density - up to 5,000 homes around the new Broadway Skytrain line stations - and current residents are out in front of city hall with picket signs complaining the towers are too high.

There is no doubt that many of Vancouver’s single family neighbourhoods are lovely, peaceful communities full of tree lined streets and beautiful gardens.  But, they are literally dying because no young family can afford to live in them anymore. 

As an example, my Dad’s former colleague sold his home in Dunbar for over $3 million and moved to North Vancouver (still a destination of choice for families but also becoming unaffordable). He said he was the last person actually living in his neighbourhood and most nearby homes sat empty after being purchased by foreign investors.

Is “gentle density” enough at this point?

The Broadway Plan is a radical departure from current Vancouver planning policies because it proposes high rises near the city’s beloved single family  neighbourhoods on the west side. These are areas where housing is out of reach unless you have two robust six figure incomes, a healthy savings, or wealthy benefactors.

For years, Vancouverites have touted the idea of building more “missing middle” or “gentle density” housing forms to increase housing supply in Vancouver’s single-family neighbourhoods. This includes laneway housing, duplexes, townhomes, and mid-low rise apartment buildings. 

The problem is, these housing types (with the exception of duplexes and laneway homes) aren’t being built fast enough or are only being built on busy arterials. The privileged, single-family home owners of Vancouver won’t allow them anywhere else. 

In a CBC interview from 2017, Vancouver architect, Michael Gellar, said that if Vancouver wants to introduce more density into the city, it can be done without transforming the city into an endless row of high-rise towers. According to Michael, even though low to mid-rise buildings won't achieve the very high densities of high towers in a concentrated area, overall across the city they could achieve much higher densities.

This idea of gentle density across Vancouver is now being promoted by those against the Broadway Plan.  The problem is, that because of Vancouver’s long history of bowing to opposition to density in single-family neighbourhoods, it may be too little too late for this proposal.  

It took the city four years to create the Vancouver Plan, which is basically a position statement on allowing gentle density in single family neighbourhoods. But, it has no concrete plan on how to deliver this housing. Also, I would argue that we are so far behind on building gentle density, that given our track record of slow permitting processes and NIMBYism, we may never build enough homes fast enough to address Vancouver’s affordability crisis.

Creative solutions to density face challenges

Last month, Bryn Davidson, founder of Lanefab Homes, shared on Twitter his designs for the “Fab Plex,” a 6 unit development that could be built on a typical Vancouver single-family lot (pictured above).

“The ‘Fab Plex’ are six stacked flats with big balconies, a shared roof deck, and a large green space at the back,” said Bryn. “The units are all accessible, and there is very little excavation/concrete required.  Also, the basic footprint can work for 3 to 8 storeys, so it's a built form that can evolve as the city densifies.”

Whether or not local residents would support this type of density in their neighbourhood remains to be seen, and city planners told Bryn that providing sewage capacity for this type of development is complex.

“Big projects can pay to upgrade the sewers for the whole block, but a six plex can't afford that, so the sewer constraints start to limit what is possible with incremental density,” said Bryn. “My hope is that we can get around the sewer constraints by maintaining a very water permeable site with no underground parkade.“

When I asked him about next steps, he said that they would have to see if the “positive tradeoffs” (accessibility, green space, unit size, energy efficiency) are enough to offset “the inevitable anxieties about something that looks like a little apartment building, and has blank party walls on the property line where it would be adjacent to existing single family houses.”

"You can't help but be inspired," he says. "You are going to see more of these buildings being built because they're going to be built in locations where you can't get approval to build high-rises given current community attitudes."

Vancouver at a crossroads

I have profiled many families who chose to live in cities and written article after article on how to build a family friendly city and how Vancouver falls behind in this arena. The city continues to attract young and retired people, while families leave in droves. 

I’ve watched many friends move here in their 20s and leave as soon as they got married and had children. I don’t blame them. Finding stable housing, affordable licensed childcare, and schools can be near impossible. 

There are many creative design solutions to add homes to single family neighbourhoods. But, none of these solutions are possible until we change our attitudes about preserving single-family neighbourhoods (where families no longer actually live) and build more homes, whatever the form.

Vancouver’s landscape of predominantly single-family homes

Apparently I am not the only one. 78% of people surveyed for Phase 3 of Vancouver’s citywide plan agree that Vancouver should have a range of housing options in all neighbourhoods, particularly in areas with low density. These are majorities over 70% that want all forms of dense housing in the city’s predominantly single-family neighbourhoods:

 - Over 80% supported low-rise apartments up to six stories, multiplexes and townhouses in areas that are mostly single detached homes; 48% said mid-rise up to 12 stories are acceptable.

- 77% supported rental housing options on smaller, local roads within neighbourhoods.

 - 68% agreed all neighbourhoods should have housing options through increased heights and density for those who make less than $80,000 a year.

 - A majority of respondents indicated a preference for density to be spread out with more 6-12 storey buildings distributed throughout rapid transit areas, versus concentrations of over 12 storeys closer to stations.

Housing types according to the City of Vancouver

Unfortunately, none of these homes are being built fast enough. The process to develop housing in Vancouver and neighbouring municipalities is so slow, it’s become a provincial and federal issue. A report jointly commissioned by the federal and provincial governments in August 2021 identified municipal government policies as a major barrier for improving housing affordability and supply in Metro Vancouver. 

The study’s authors recommend the provincial government enact statutory time limits to every stage of the property development process. According to Urbanized journalist, Kenneth Chan, the report also suggests more transparency on city staff’s pre-application process, which was a step taken by Vancouver City Council this past spring after it discovered city staff had put in limbo 70 pre-application rental housing proposals since 2020. 

Amidst growing criticism that slow permitting processes are partially to blame for the housing crisis, the City of Vancouver says it’s made progress in clearing its massive backlog.  According to a recent City of Vancouver release, review time per application for single-family, duplex, and laneway homes have been reduced by 75%, leading to a 300% increase in applications processed.

Duplexes on Vancouver’s westside, sold for almost $3 million each.

This will not lead to a significant improvement in affordability in Vancouver’s housing market, since it only applies to duplexes, single-family, and laneway homes. What is really needed is not just new homes replacing old ones, but more homes in varying densities. 

During the pandemic, people left Vancouver in droves. According to the recent census, Vancouver’s population declined for the first time in 40 years. After decades of steady growth, data from Statistics Canada shows Vancouver population in 2020 at 700,015 but in 2021, it dropped to 693,235, a difference of 6,780. 

I personally know at least 5 families that left for smaller, more affordable communities during the pandemic. Many were renting in the city and were able to purchase a home elsewhere. They wanted to stay, but could not afford to. Families who were renting were constantly being evicted every 1-2 years from owners who wanted to sell. This is not sustainable if you have children in a school-catchment. 

These were hardworking families with good jobs that could have been stayed valued members of our city. But they were not valued, because Vancouver couldn’t offer a stable home for them. We can’t afford to lose more families. So let’s get on with it and build more homes.

In her new book, There are No Accidents, journalist Jessie Singer argues that this predisposition to blame human error and accept the old adage that "accidents happen" is not only misguided, but insidious. It covers up the systems that enable accidents.

Singer's book includes a tragic personal account of how in 2006, her best friend, Eric, was hit by a drunk driver while riding on a bike path in New York City. The driver was convicted of DUI and vehicular manslaughter. Nine years later, another drunk driver killed a cyclist on that path. Two years after that, in 2017, a truck driver deliberately plowed into the spot where Eric died, murdering 8 people and injuring 12.

According to a review in Washington Monthly, after Eric’s death, Singer was livid that some accident inspectors focused on his not wearing a helmet. But she pointed out that Eric was hit by a car going 50 miles (80km) per hour. As a result, donning a helmet would not have mattered. Multiple deaths on that same path proves the weakness is in the design.

Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are at an all-time high. They are also the leading cause of death for children in Canada. Most are preventable, and yet these media reports never examine how to hold governments accountable for measures like lowering speed limits, increasing pedestrian cross walks, deterring traffic through residential neighbourhoods, adding bollards and separated bike lanes, and reducing lane size so that neighbourhood roads look less like highways.

We place the onus on the victim to not get murdered by 3,500 lbs of steel. How often do police and local car insurance companies proudly launch pedestrian safety campaigns where they hand out reflective vests and flashlights and warn pedestrians to "make eye contact" with drivers. Tell that to a 5 year old, or to this crossing guard who got hit saving a child's life while a car barrelled through a cross walk without stopping.

This is what hero police officers do! North East Police Officer Annette Goodyear saved a student from harm’s way early this morning. pic.twitter.com/efpgjqucuO

Even this story focuses on the victim. Who was the driver? We rarely hear whether the driver was speeding, distracted, or even drunk. In most of these cases, it is highly likely that one or all of these is true, because your likelihood of seriously injuring a pedestrian or cyclist is pretty slim if you are obeying the rules of the road. And if that is not the case, there is something wrong with those rules and they need to be changed.

Either way, a person shouldn't die while out for a walk or a bike ride and have this accepted as an unpreventable accident. We need more cities and communities to get serious and invest heavily in Vision Zero policies and infrastructure. I fully agree with Singer’s hypothesis that every accident is preventable. And changing the narrative starts with how we frame car crashes in the media.

*Note - In this post, I initially referred to car crashes as “car accidents” and a thoughtful reader pointed out that they should be called “collisions” or “crashes.” Even I was predisposed to call them accidents. According to the US Department of Transportation: 

“Changing the way we think about events and the words we use to describe them affects the way we behave. Motor vehicle crashes occur "when a link or several links in the chain" are broken. Continued use of the word "accident" implies that these events are outside human influence or control. In reality, they are predictable results of specific actions.“