Vancouver

All tours go – Rain or Shine

Vancouver

Think City, in partnership with The Centre for City Ecology, celebrates the legacy of urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs with its second annual Jane's Walk in neighbourhoods throughout the city.

Think City will bring together citizens, activists and Vancouver notables. Join Annabel Vaughan on her tour of the ancient Leqleqi portage, a tour that grew out of a response to the public process around the development of the Carrall Street Greenway. See how Mid-Main has turned into one of the most engaging and walkable areas of Vancouver with Ned Jacobs and Harvey Des Roches. Or hear the history and the facts from the perspective of the residents of the Downtown Eastside, as well as poetry by some of their famous DTES poets, on Wendy Pedersen's tour.

Each guide will highlight the people, places, and public spaces that make that particular community interesting and unique. Sign-up today to host or walk. Space is limited.

http://www.thinkcity.ca/janeswalk2009

Host a Walk: Anyone can be a tour guide, pick any area of the city and be creative. Jane's Walks range from educational lectures to experiential fun – it all depends on you.

Take a Walk: It is easy, fun and free. Sign-up to take a walk and discover something new about the community you live in or a community you want to know more about. Jane's Walk needs volunteers to support the tour hosts, document walks and assist participants. Get in touch to sign-up for a walking tour on May 2 or May 3 or to volunteer.

Contact:
Kim Fleming

604-908-6404

We have our own website at Jane's Walk Vancouver where we will be posting more information about our walks! Please visit us at http://www.thinkcity.ca/janeswalk2009

Little Mountain Housing

  • Ingrid Steenhuisen
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 3:30pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Join Ingrid Steenhuisen, long time resident of Little Mountain, for an insiders take on the history of the Little Mountain area and in particular the Little Mountain Housing Complex, Vancouver's oldest social housing complex which is slated for demolition.

A controversial redevelopment plan is proposed for the new site which will include a mix of subsidized and market housing but not before the empty lot lies vacant for a few years. Ingrid will share her knowledge of the history of this site and the people who have lived there.

WWI and WWII veterans and their families, seniors and disabled were amongst all the early families making this site a fully balanced, mixed-income community from the start. Come and see how well low-income housing was done the first time, and discuss the features which need to be replicated.

Please subscribe to the Little Mountain Housing walk via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page.

http://jw09-littlemnthousing.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Little Mountain area -TBA

Tour guide(s): Ingrid Steenhuisen

End Location: Little Mountain area -TBA

Neighbourhood Little Mountain area

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**The Central Business District

  • Sean Ruthen
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

The theme of this tour is how modern architecture in Vancouver impacted upon the development of this young city. The tour begins with a short history of the CPR in Waterfron Station and its effect on the history of the city. We then proceed to Granville Square to discuss the Gastown 200 Project and Expo '86.

Next to Sinclair Centre and the Marine Building, then up Burrard to discuss Bentall Centre, Park Place, Cathedral Place, Christ Church Cathedral, Hotel Vancouver, Public Library (now HMV), BC Electric Building (now Electra), and Wall Centre. The tour will end at the Law Courts and Robson Square.

Please subscribe to the Central Business District walk via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page.

http://jw09-thecbd.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Downtown-TBA

Tour guide(s): Sean Ruthen

End Location: Downtown-TBA

Neighbourhood Downtown

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Bruce Macdonald Old Mount Pleasant-Victorian Village

  • Bruce Macdonald
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Mount Pleasant is a unique and interesting place for a number of reasons. Mount Pleasant became well established in the Victorian age as a pre-automobile age village within walking distance of major public
transit in a commercial zone. This still makes it one of the most desirable places in the city to live. Most major amenities are within walking distance for its residents, as well as interesting shops, restaurants and coffee shops.

Uniquely situated at the top of a hill, centrally located on the ‘Main’ street and straddling both the west and east sides of the city, Mount Pleasant still has many of the oldest heritage buildings in the city outside of the downtown, many Victorian buildings from the 1890s and even some from the 1880s.

Special Instructions

 This tour will be filmed.

It is the only neighbourhood in the city to have developed around a creek, Brewery Creek, home to a number of breweries, but now home to almost 1,000 artists live/work studios.

Bruce Macdonald has worked in Mount Pleasant, on things to do with the history of Mount Pleasant, for almost 20 years. Last year he researched and wrote a history of Mount Pleasant for the city of Vancouver, turning up some new material and some new heritage buildings. He is also the author of Vancouver: A Visual History.

Meeting Place: Mount Pleasant-TBA

Tour guide(s): Bruce Macdonald

End Location: Mount Pleasant- TBA

Neighbourhood Mount Pleasant

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Walk on the Wild Side

  • Judy Williams
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 1:30pm
  • Walk: 2 hour
open

Explore the flora, fauna, geology, and rich ethnographic and cultural history of 7.8 km along Wreck Beach.

We will hike between Acadia parking lot to, and up Trail 3, Graham's Gully. From there, we will walk back down NW Marine Drive, to the Acadia parking lot. While Trail 3 is not as steep as some of the Wreck Beach cliff trails, it is not wheelchair or walker accessible. Birders may wish to bring their binocs, and proper beach etiquette should be observed, especially with regard to photography. Always ask permission should you wish to photograph any persons on the beach, and absolutely no photography of children without written permission of their parents. Rain or shine!

Meeting Place: UBC-TBA

Tour guide(s): Judy Williams

End Location: UBC-TBA

Neighbourhood Wreck Beach

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible As this will be along a sand and cobble beach and the weather may be wet wear suitable footwear and dress accordingly.

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**CLOSED**Riots, Homelessness and Baseball

  • Michael Barnholden
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

This tour takes you from Victory Square to Larwill Park, to Market Alley and in between – drugs, squats, riots and Vancouver's earliest baseball diamond. Rioting, homelessness and baseball are all connected by being located in the earliest of city centres. Public art and commercial signage compete on some of the oldest buildings in town.

Vaudeville theatres, opium factories, Public library, SRO hotels, restaurants and train stations are all there waiting to be reviewed. Hear the stories and legends behind the facades of early Vancouver when Vancouver went from village to city with the coming of the CPR.

Meeting Place: Downtown Eastside -TBA

Tour guide(s): Michael Barnholden

End Location: Downtown Eastside -TBA

Neighbourhood Downtown East Side

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Vision of the Downtown Eastside with Wendy Pedersen

  • Wendy Pedersen
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 1.5 hours
open

This Downtown Eastside (DTES) tour will visit the most meaningful sites in the area to DTES residents.  Hear the history and the facts from the perspective of the residents of the DTES as well as poetry by some of our famous DTES poets. Join Wendy Pedersen, parent and community organizer in the Downtown Eastside for her vision for a functional, safe and affordable low income neighbourhood. 

Please register for the Vision of the Downtown Eastside walk via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page.

http://jw09-dtes.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Downtown Eastside -TBA

Tour guide(s): Wendy Pedersen

End Location: Downtown Eastside -TBA

Neighbourhood Downtown East Side

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Kits Point for CARPians over 50

  • Eva Wadolna
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hour
open

This tour is a leisurely walk through Kits Point.

This year we will walk the streets of the leafy neighborhood, stop at the Billy Bishop Legion 176, and continue along Kits beach promenade. Discussion will focus on the origins of the area and its transition as well as whether Vancouver and in particular Kits Point, is seniors’ friendly and what could be done to make it better.

We will finish with a coffee or glass of wine, with gorgeous views, at the Watermark Restaurant. (optional)

Eva Wadolna is a resident of Kitsilano and a former community planner. Eva is currently a seniors' housing advisor and retirement consultant, a gerontology student and promoter of “aging in place.”

Special Instructions

Please bring walking shoes, an umbrella if needed, bottled water and $5-10 for coffee or
wine after the tour.

Please register for the Kits Point for CARPians over 50 walk via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-carpians.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Kitsilano- TBA

Tour guide(s): Eva Wadolna

End Location: Kitsilano- TBA

Neighbourhood Kitsilano

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**The RISE: New Mixed-Use on Cambie Street

  • Michael Mortensen
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 1 hour
open

The RISE is a new model of mixed-use transit-oriented development for Vancouver. Located in Mount Pleasant, just steps away from the new Canada Line station at Broadway, the RISE forms part of what is now the third largest retail node in the city.

This tour will explain how Grosvenor mixed large format retailers with smaller local serving shops and services AND a rooftop residential community on a 2.3 acre city block. Our discussion will cover infill, densification, public involvement, urban design,sustainability, and large format retail in urban settings.

Participants will be guided through the development and up to the rooftop where 92 unitsof rental housing have been built around a 20,000 sf intensive green roof and community garden. A variety of units will be open for the tour.

Please register for walks via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09therise.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Cambie -TBA

Tour guide(s): Michael Mortensen

End Location: Cambie -TBA

Neighbourhood Cambie Street

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Stone Path: The History of Andesite

  • Annabel Vaughan
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

If the forgotten spaces in the city are worthy of our collective notice it is necessary that we re-inhabit them.

This walk will take us along Main Street, through Chinatown, into the financial district and up to the Vancouver Art Gallery while tracing the history of a fascinating local building material - Haddington Island andesite.

When Sir Francis Rattenbury chose Haddington Island andesite over a shipment of Koksilah sandstone to construct the exterior walls of the Provincial Legislature Buildings in Victoria, it represented the first significant use of Haddington Island stone in B.C.  Andesite became the favored dimension stone among local architects from the 1890’s until the late 1930’s.

Mapping the andesite buildings of Vancouver provides us with an interesting representation of the city. This stone layer allows us to think whether other insightful patterns can emerge from a new reading of the city. The orientation of the Vancouver street system consists of three intersecting grids that radiate southward from the original shoreline of Gastown along the Burrard Inlet. Almost exclusively, the buildings featuring andesite are concentrated within the banking and office corridors of each of these grids as the economic and administrative centre of the city shifted over time.

While most buildings on the andesite map have retained their original roles as banks, office towers and civic institutions an even more interesting trend in urban rehabilitation has emerged as many have been modified as venues for art and culture. It is as though the solidity that andesite lent to these former financial and civic buildings is now reflected in what has become a more vital cultural and social core of the city.

This walk is based on an article in Vancouver Matters [Blueimprint, 2008] co-authored by Annabel and Rob Brownie.

Annabel Vaughan is an intern architect working in Vancouver. She is a sessional Professor in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia and has been an active voice in shaping the direction of her neighbourhood, Mount Pleasant. She is passionate about understanding how Vancouver has come to be the city it is, where it is headed in the future and how citizen engagement can affect the outcome.

Rob Brownie is a Vancouver educator and writer, with a degree in Urban Geography and Philosophy. He has written articles on art and architecture for Artspeak, West Coast Line and Vancouver Matters. He is a cycling advocate and dabbles in psychogeography.

Please register for walks via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-andesite.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Chinatown TBA

Tour guide(s): Annabel Vaughan , Rob Brownie

End Location: Chinatown TBA

Neighbourhood Chinatown

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Everything began at Hastings

  • Behind Open Doors Art Collective
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Join members of behind open doors arts collective in an exploration of the forgotten areas of Vancouver.  With a keen attention to how Vancouver's stories are remembered, we'll explore the history of New Brighton Park.  This park has a tumultuous history: once a Musqueam clam beach called Khanamoot, the land was sold for 50 bucks and dubbed "Hastings Townsite" -- where it became the leisure destination at the end of the stage coach road from New Westminster.

A trip to the Cannery Restaurant for tea will grant participants access to the restricted areas of the Vancouver Port. Those participants not interested in staying at the Cannery Restaurant can join co-hosts as they exit the surveillance area via the pedestrian overpass to Meditation Park at North Nanaimo and Wall Street. For more information on behind open doors arts collective please visit:
www.behindopendoorsartscollective@blogspot.com

Special Instructions

Please bring money for tea at the Cannery Restaurant if you choose to stay after the walk. 

PLEASE REGISTER FOR THIS WALK VIA THE VANCOUVER JANE'S WALK SITE:

http://jw09-behindopendoors.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: TBA

Tour guide(s): Behind Open Doors Art Collective

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood Hastings-Sunrise

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**In the Footsteps of Jewish Vancouver

  • Molly Winston
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

The walking tour provides information of the historical development of Vancouver's early Jewish community and describes how it has evolved of the years. Rather than concentrating of the architectural development of the area, the tour emphasizes the Jewish people – those who conducted their businesses, fulfilled their social obligations, and actually resided in the neighbourhood.

This tour is provided by the Jewish Museum & Archives of British Columbia.

Meeting Place: Strathcona- TBA

Tour guide(s): Molly Winston

End Location: Strathcona -TBA

Neighbourhood Strathcona

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.Please bring comfortable walking shoes and any necessary beverages. There will not be any opportunities for restrooms along the tour.

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**CLOSED**John Atkin's Strathcona

  • John Atkin
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Despite industrial zoning, freeway proposals and urban redevelopment schemes Strathcona has survived and today can show the city as a whole how livability, heritage and density can coexist in one neighbourhood.  Strathcona is a model for the rest of the city.

John Atkin is an author, historian and heritage advocate who organizes and conduct tours for groups and individuals. John has explored Vancouver like few others have and offers an interesting and offbeat insight into the city's architecture, history and neighbourhoods. He has created, and conducts, a number of unique and popular walking tours throughout the City of Vancouver.

Meeting Place: Strathcona-TBA

Tour guide(s): John Atkin

End Location: Strathcona-TBA

Neighbourhood Strathcona

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Return to the River

  • Terry Slack
  • Sunday, May 3, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

This riverfront tour will tell the wonderful story of the great wild salmon river, the river people and explorers who settled here. It will look at the history of the first salmon cannery on the north arm of the Fraser River and Vancouver's farming history as well as visit a relatively unknown "First Peoples of the Salmon"  village site dating from 400 BC to about 200 AD. Like the River Thames in England, Vancouver's north arm has a very interesting story to tell.

Bring binoculars for the great bald eagles of Tsusnahm have returned to nest next to the historic site.

Please register for the Return to the River walk via the  Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-riverwalk.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Kerrisdale -TBA

Tour guide(s): Terry Slack

End Location: Kerrisdale -TBA

Neighbourhood Kerrisdale

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Gibson Creek including Gibby's Field

  • Dan Fass
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hour
open

Gibson Creek was a major creek in the old China Creek system.  It ran north-south through the middle of Kensington-Cedar Cottage (KCC), from 41st Avenue and Kensington Community Centre in the south to its mouth not far from VCC-Clark SkyTrain station, passing through or by six East Vancouver parks on its way.

This tour goes through or by four of those parks as it traces Gibson Creek along its old course.  Particular attention is paid to where Gibson Creek was joined by another major KCC creek, Davey Creek. This point, known locally as "Gibby's Field," is on three City lots which have never been developed and contains an original piece of creek bed.

The tour starts in Kingcrest Park on Knight Street near Kingsway, close to the original Cedar Cottage, a nursery and market gardens, and brewery (1901) – all dependent on Gibson Creek.  The tour follows Gibson Creek as it crossed under Kingsway and Knight, flowed across the old farm of Moses Gibson (who gave his name to Gibson Creek and Gibby's Field), past Tyee Elementary School and through Gibby's Field.  The tour continues past the site of an old mink farm, Clark Park, Maddams Street, Cedar Cottage Park, and China Creek Park South.  Much of the land along the lower reaches of the creek has been used for non-market purposes: a school, churches, non-market housing, parks and a community college.

Dan Fass is part of the Gibby's Field Subcommittee, a citizen's group affiliated with the Kensington-Cedar Cottage CityPlan Committee, which is seeking to preserve Gibby's Field as a community greenspace (see www.vcn.bc.ca/gibbys).

Special Instructions

Grassy parts, please wear appropriate footwear.

Meeting Place: Kensington-Cedar Cottage- TBA

Tour guide(s): Dan Fass

End Location: Kensington-Cedar Cottage- TBA

Neighbourhood Kensington-Cedar Cottage

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This walk is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** Landscapes of Property in the City

  • Dr. Doug Harris
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Tour Host: Dr. Doug Harris, Associate Professor of Law at UBC

This tour offers an opportunity to consider a diversity of property interests and the impact of those forms of property on the landscapes of the city. This fascinating walk is broad in scope as well as landscape – Kit's Point, Vanier Park, under Burrard Street Bridge, the Arbutus rail corridor, Fisherman's Wharf, and Granville Island. By incorporating these Vancouver landmarks, Dr. Doug Harris, Associate Professor of Law at UBC addresses many of the important and contentious issues we face in an urban context today.

The walk is intended to provoke thought and discussion about the nature of property and about the role of property law in shaping the landscape of the city. Topics of discussion will include: the appearance, disappearance, and reappearance of the Squamish Indian Reserve at Kits Point and the unresolved issue of Aboriginal title; the balance between public interests and private property in the debate over the future of the Arbutus rail corridor; the nature of the condominium and the role of this legal form in the rise of property in the city; and, using the fishing industry as an example, the changing nature of forms of tenure in the context of scarcity.

Special Instructions

We will be walking on gravel, please wear appropriate footwear.

Meeting Place: Kitsilano-TBA

Tour guide(s): Dr. Doug Harris

End Location: Kitsilano-TBA

Neighbourhood Kitsilano

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Bruce Macdonald's Grandview and the Drive Tour

  • Bruce Macdonald
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 2:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Why is Commercial Drive one of the most popular neighbourhoods for people to visit, shop,
relax and live in? It is certainly one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in a diverse
city. It can probably claim to be the most radical neighbourhood in the city, the home of
the first cappuccino machine in Vancouver, of coffee culture, and lots of artists,
musicians and media people, but was 'The Drive' really ranked by Utne Reader as one of
North America's 10 hippest neighbourhoods?

Take a stroll  with Bruce Macdonald through the neighbourhood where he has lived for the
last 20 years, and where he wrote his book "Vancouver: A Visual History."

Special Instructions

Addicted to coffee? You might want to come on this tour.

Meeting Place: Commercial Drive -TBA

Tour guide(s): Bruce Macdonald

End Location: Commercial Drive -TBA

Neighbourhood Commercial Drive

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible

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**CLOSED** Feeding Ourselves

  • Wendy Mendes
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 1:30pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

How resilient is our food system on the west side? What resources and programs are in place to ensure our food security, and where are the gaps in our food system? Join the Westside Food Security Collaborative (WFSC) on this “food system” tour with hosts, Wendy Mendes, urban planner and food systems expert and Spring Gillard, author of Diary of a Compost Hotline Operator.

Visit grocery stores, community gardens including a fruit orchard, a roof top garden and a Green Table accredited restaurant. Talk to a local entrepreneur who has an urban farm venture. Learn about food programs on the west side that cater to vulnerable populations, as well as other initiatives that help increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables for all. Take home at least five things you can do to strengthen the food system on the west side.

Meeting Place: TBA

Tour guide(s): Wendy Mendes, Spring Gillard

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood West Side

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible with the exception of the rooftop garden.

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**CLOSED** Nanaimo and East Hastings Change

  • Barry Morris
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 1:00pm
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Join citizen host Barry Morris for an overview and discussion of the mixed costs and blessings happening as a result of the rapid change and gentrification to the neighbourhood of Nanaimo and East Hastings. How are the changes affecting the local working class population? What is the effect of  the loss of affordable housing? What are the thankful benefits of change? All this and more will be covered on a stroll through this rapidly changing community.

Please register for the Nanaimo and East Hastings Change walk via the  Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-nanaimohastings.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Hastings-Sunrise- TBA

Tour guide(s): Barry Morris

End Location: Hastings-Sunrise- TBA

Neighbourhood Hastings-Sunrise

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** East Gastown

  • Christine Hatfull
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 12:00pm
  • Walk: 1 hour
open

A twelve block radius contains a hub of moss-covered ballast brick SROs, hip restaurants, in-site, and condo-developments; from Main and Hastings Streets, travelling west, downhill and north toward the harbour, amongst Pender, Columbia, Cordova, Carrall, Abbott, Powell, Water, and Alexander Streets.  This part of the so-called downtown eastside contains some of the city`s oldest buildings, newest concepts, poorest residents and most compassionate energy. The contrasts are evident, from three of the worst blocks left on Hastings to the transformations of Carrall and Alexander and suggest what is possible in the light of cultural planning, heritage preservation and increased quality of life and housing.  This little neighbourhood is a genuine historical feature of the city and deserves restoration and increased attention to details which your guide will seek to elucidate.  Back-up materials provided and discussion encouraged.  The tour will end at the north end of Main Street where lunch is easy to find. 

Please register for the East Gastown walk via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-eastgastown.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Gastown- TBA

Tour guide(s): Christine Hatfull

End Location: Gastown- TBA

Neighbourhood Gastown

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** Wandering the Leqleqi Portage

  • Annabel Vaughn
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

This walk traces a thread of Vancouver's story, taking you from CRAB Park on Burrard Inlet to the eastern edge of False Creek.

The ideas behind the Leqleqi portage grew out of a response to the public process around the development of the Carrall Street Greenway. The greenway open houses reduced the street to a series of paving choices, planting patterns and the coordination of street banners, light standards and street furniture. The street was treated as a corporate product that was in need of branding. This deliberate misread denied the rich narrative that had developed over time along this fascinating Vancouver street. One of Carrall Street's most compelling notions is that the history of the city can be traced along its spine.

Block by block, the decades have imprinted their indelible mark along its edges and across its surface. These tracings, sometimes subtle and at other times palpable, create a vivid timeline from Burrard Inlet to False Creek. This walk was originally given as part of the exhibit Territory, a co-production of Artspeak and Presentation House Gallery. Territory was a visual art project concerned with mapping urban experience, civic space and contested terrains. The walks involved navigating real and imagined territories, articulating the notion of the derive, or wandering, as a way to investigate urban environments.

Annabel Vaughan is an intern architect working in Vancouver. She is a sessional Professor in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia and has been an active voice in shaping the direction of her neighbourhood, Mount Pleasant. She is passionate about understanding how Vancouver has come to be the city it is, where it is headed in the future and how citizen engagement can affect the outcome.

Meeting Place: Downtown -TBA

Tour guide(s): Annabel Vaughn

End Location: Downtown -TBA

Neighbourhood Downtown

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** False Creek Public Art Tour

  • Bryan Newson
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Tour Host: Bryan Newson, Project Manager for the City of Vancouver Public Art Program

Public art has become an important and integral piece of modern urban planning in Vancouver. The first artworks commissioned under the City Public Art Program (1991) were installed across from the Roundhouse Community Centre in 1994. Since then, several significant artworks have been installed at nearby sites. This tour will visit artworks exhibiting a broad range of ambition, purpose, and success, but all reflective, in their way, of contemporary public art practice.

How does each art piece relate to the cultural, historical, social or political dimension of the site? How do we as citizens relate to these expressions? How do they contribute to our evolving culture? Join Bryan Newson, Project Manager for the City of Vancouver Public Art Program, for an insiders take on specific art pieces and the importance of art in the public realm.

Please register for the False Creek Public Art Tour via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page.

http://jw09-publicarttour.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Downtown-TBA

Tour guide(s): Bryan Newson

End Location: Downtown- TBA

Neighbourhood Downtown

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** Mid-Main Meander

  • Ned Jacobs
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 11:00am
  • Walk: 4 hours
open

In recent decades the middle section of Main Street has experienced a cultural renaissance as second hand stores and neighbourhood services have been augmented or replaced with art galleries, antique shops, boutiques, ethnic eateries and various one-of-a-kind enterprises. On adjacent streets, heritage and character homes are being lovingly restored and residents are transforming sidewalk boulevards into linear parks, turning Mid-Main into one of the most engaging and walkable areas of Vancouver. The downside of this success, however, is scarcity of affordable business spaces and housing.

The City has selected the area between 16th and 33rd Avenues for “neighbourhood centre planning.”  Concerned that mass rezoning would not be appropriate, the Riley Park/South Cambie CityPlan Committee has called for a “Made-in-RPSC” planning process to manage both the nature and pace of change. This could include zoning for new housing types on select sites or blocks; incentives to expand smaller homes through renovation or infill; “inclusionary” policies to increase the rental supply; live-work; laneway shops; and strategies to make traffic and parking less problematic.

With so much to look at, think about and discuss, we decided to experiment with a Jane’s Walk sandwich – two 90-minute strolls with a lunch break in the middle (choose from a plethora of restaurants and coffee houses near King Edward Avenue). This will allow us to explore Mid-Main in some depth as we consider the past, present and future of these century-old neighbourhoods. 

Special Instructions

Please bring a lunch or money to purchase lunch.

Please register for the Mid-Main Meander walks via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-midmain.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: TBA

Tour guide(s): Ned Jacobs, Harvey Des Roches

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood Mt Pleasant

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** Gordon Price's West End

  • Gordon Price
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Tour Host: Gordon Price, Director, City Program at Simon Fraser University

In the context of Jane Jacobs, this tour of the West End – particularly West of Denman – will explore and examine the urban fabric of this vibrant neighbourhood – from Lost Lagoon to Mole Hill-the streets and buildings, residential and commercial, the open spaces and the people. How has urban planning in this area historically incorporated Jane's ideas? Where have they been ignored?

Join Gordon Price, Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University and former Vancouver city councillor for this insightful look into Vancouver's West End.

Meeting Place: West End- TBA

Tour guide(s): Gordon Price

End Location: West End- TBA

Neighbourhood West End

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Underground Dunbar

  • Helen Spiegelman
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Every spring Dunbar holds a month-long nature festival called Salmonberry Days. We provide guided walks where we learn to identify common local birds, plants, trees, geological features, etc. On this walk we turn our attention to the interface between nature and city.

We will learn about the largely invisible infrastructure that was installed a century ago as Dunbar developed from a wilderness to a neighbourhood. We'll learn to identify the common markers all around us that are part of the sewer and drainage system, water system and other services that we take for granted today.

This walk will be followed by a historical slide lecture presented later in the month by a city engineer.

Please register for the Underground Dunbar walk via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-undergrounddunbar.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: Dunbar-TBA

Tour guide(s): Helen Spiegelman

End Location: Dunbar- TBA

Neighbourhood Dunbar

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** Women of Mount Pleasant Historical Tour

  • Jolene Cumming
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

Who were the women from our neighbourhood's past? Women have traditionally been omitted from historical teachings and their lives were often not documented or publicly celebrated.

This tour will help raise awareness of the contributions of women in making Mount Pleasant the community it is today.

It features over 30 diverse women's stories, including buildings and locations where events took place. The tour begins at the site where the Mount Pleasant Women's Suffrage League attended a mass meeting in 1916 (eligible women got the BC provincial vote in 1917) and includes a self-guided map for future use.

Meeting Place: Mount Pleasant- TBA

Tour guide(s): Jolene Cumming

End Location: Mount Pleasant- TBA

Neighbourhood Mount Pleasant

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED** West End Public Art Tour

  • Aileen Stalker
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 3 hours
open

As Vancouver has evolved, grown in size and sophistication, so too has our public art. Numerous pieces in all dimensions, materials and styles have been added to the first statues, busts and memorials that were originally erected.  We now see public art, in a multitude of forms, everywhere from the tops of buildings to the surfaces underfoot. Public art adds a sense of time, place and understanding to our urban environment.

Join Aileen Stalker (co-author with John Steil of the book Public Art in Vancouver Angels Among the Lions) to find hidden, new and well-known public art throughout Vancouver's West End. Learn about the artists who created these art installations. Find the answer to questions such as "What public art is behind the sheets on the outside of each floor of the Fairmount Pacific Rim Hotel?  What is the real meaning of those golden globes? What would happen if you threw a vase of history out of the 27th floor of a condominium?"

The newly published book Public Art in Vancouver Angels Among Lions will be available at the start of the tour. The tour will end at the Waterfront Station but participants may want to use the maps in the book to explore additional public art while they are in the downtown core.  The book will also be available in your favourite bookstore after May 1.

Special Instructions

This will be a fast paced tour visiting over 40 installations of public art.

Please register for walks via the Vancouver Jane's Walk 2009 page: http://jw09-westendart.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: West End - TBA

Tour guide(s): Aileen Stalker

End Location: West End - TBA

Neighbourhood West End

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is not wheelchair accessible.

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**CLOSED**Through the Middle

  • Joe Thompson
  • Saturday, May 2, 2009
  • 10:00am
  • Walk: 2 hours
open

This walk will contemplate two of Jane Jacob's works, The Death & Life of Great American Cities & Cities and the Wealth of Nations as we consider issues and places such as: land-filling tidal basins for rail-yards; Vancouver's first business, shipping & receiving in this global port; the community of CityGate, density replaces industry; Thornton Park, a forgotten arboretum; the Pacific Central Station; Providence Hospital plans; Hogan's Alley; Chinatown, (with perhaps a stop at Tosi's,) the scent of oriental apothecaries & sidewalk bins of dried stuff; Sun Yat Sen Garden, cherry-blossoms will be prime, introductions to some trees ... if there is time and interest, perhaps a visit to a rooftop panorama ... Two hours gets filled rather quickly. we live in the midst of so many details. This tour will offer an opportunity to savour a few. 

PLEASE REGISTER FOR THIS WALK VIA THE VANCOUVER JANE'S WALK SITE:

http://jw09-joethompson.eventbrite.com/

Meeting Place: TBA

Tour guide(s): Joe Thompson

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood Downtown

Public Transit Directions: TBA

Accessible

This tour is wheelchair accessible.

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