Mayor Sam Sullivan and Councillor Elizabeth Ball today introduced the first round of projects approved under the $10 million Great Beginnings initiative announced by BC Premier Gordon Campbell earlier this year.
“The goal of Great Beginnings is to help revitalize four of Vancouver’s most historic neighbourhoods to mark the province’s 150th birthday celebrations,” said Mayor Sullivan. “The City of Vancouver will allocate funds to support projects in Gastown, Japantown, Chinatown and Strathcona.”
“Vancouver is home to some of our most historic neighbourhoods, which are culturally diverse and rich in history, and I’m pleased to see the City move forward with these projects,” said Premier Gordon Campbell.
The program is focusing on improvements to public spaces & private property, arts & culture, community living and civic pride. More than $1.5 million will be invested for the first set of projects which include:
- Lighting & Signage – new neon signs with ties to Vancouver’s past at the Pennsylvania Hotel & the Chinatown Plaza Parkade
- Clean Streets Project – expanded street and lane cleaning to 40 blocks within the Downtown Eastside in partnership with United We Can and the Coast Foundation
- Graffiti Removal & Art Project – expanded mural program & removal of graffiti tags
- Community Gardens – convert vacant lots in targeted neighbourhoods into food production spaces and/or artist-designed community gardens
- Building Improvements & Awning Replacements – funding to restore facades, alcoves and worn awnings on select heritage & non-heritage buildings
- Princess Avenue – interpretive walk for children will includes murals, community markers and a structural children’s silhouette sign
- Heart of the City Festival – expanded capacity with a focus on the 150 year anniversary and the vibrancy of traditional founding urban communities
- Blood Alley community greening in Gastown
Projects will seek to employ local residents in easy to enter jobs. More projects are expected be announced by the end of the year.
– 30 –
Backgrounder: Great Beginnings: Old Streets, New Pride – First Projects
Lighting Projects The Pennsylvania Hotel (412 Carrall Street) is a SRO hotel undergoing a heritage building rehabilitation and conversion. An historic neon sign on the hotel will be the finishing touch to the heritage restoration, while also adding more night-time lighting to the neighbourhood.
The neon sign promises to become a landmark in the DTES opposite Pigeon Park, which has been chosen for improvements in 2009. The Portland Hotel Society is the property owner and developer of the Pennsylvania Hotel.
Neon lights will also be added to the outside of the Chinatown Plaza parkade. In addition, a prominent 5-storey neon sign using traditional neon and/or newer lighting technology is planned for the intersection of Keefer and Columbia Streets. The sign will echo the historic neon lights that were famous in Chinatown and serve as a highly visible landmark for the Plaza, Memorial Square and Chinatown.
The project responds to call in the 2002 Chinatown Vision for better lighting in Chinatown to make it a more desirable night-time stop for shoppers.
The Clean Streets Project
Vancouver is partnering with United We Can (UWC) and Coast Mental Health Foundation (CMHF) to provide improved street cleaning and more recycling.
The collaboration involves UWC crews providing additional street and lane cleaning. This work supplements street cleaning services provided by City forces, while providing job training and income to approximately 30 residents of the DTES. UWC cleaning crews are servicing the DTES, Gastown and Chinatown. CMHF crews are working in other areas including Stratchcona.
Graffiti Removal
Vancouver will work closely with building owners through its Graffiti Management Program to deal with graffiti removal on outside building walls. Assistance will be provided to help building owners with both removal and prevention. An expanded building mural program will help deter graffiti taggers while also beautifying Vancouver.
We will also support a community partnership through the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House at Hastings and Jackson Streets to create a mural and community garden. More mural projects are planned through the Great Beginnings project.
Façade Improvements
While incentives have been available for heritage building façade improvement along Hastings Street, there has been little participation by building owners in the area. A pilot project at 29 W. Hastings Street proposes a different, partnership-led approach to façade improvement.
The UBC School of Architecture has been working with the Central City Foundation and the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective on improvements to 29 W. Hastings, a single room occupancy hotel that will bring back an active use to the ground floor. Funding will be provided to bring natural light to the storefront and improve the building façade.
Awning Improvement Program
Existing store awnings in the DTES will be upgraded to create more positive retail environments. Vancouver will fund 40% of the cost to replace existing awning covers and/or to convert existing non-retractable awnings into retractable ones. The program’s first phase will be administered through the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants’ Association, with further expansion of the program into Strathcona and Gastown BIA areas.
Community Gardens
Based on a garden built on a vacant East Hastings lot near Insite, new gardens will convert public and private lands into food gardens and/or artist-designed community gardens. These projects will involve private property owners working with a non-profit society to turn vacant land into a temporary community garden.
Vancouver will then work with agencies, businesses, and land-owners to establish more community gardens in the DTES by finding appropriate locations, either on public or privately owned land.
Japantown Commemoration Project
The Powell Street area is unique in the DTES for its history and connection to Japanese Canadians. The City’s recent Historical and Cultural Study of Powell Street/Japantown, as well as the Oppenheimer Park Redevelopment Project, have mobilized the broader Japanese Canadian community in celebrating its heritage in the neighbourhood.
Local, regional and national Japanese community organizations, including the National Japanese Canadian Association, Powell Street Festival Society, Japanese Language School, Nikkei Centre and others will partner in planning and executing the project.
Downtown Eastside Historic Neighbourhoods Map Guide Project
Vancouver is partnering with the Vancouver Heritage Foundation to prepare map guides for DTES historic neighbourhoods that are not yet part of the heritage walking tour maps. These guides will help the public find hidden or unknown treasures, while profiling historical research for Japantown, Carrall Street Greenway, and Chinatown.
Princess Avenue Mural Project
Strathcona has Vancouver’s oldest elementary school (built in 1891), and nicknamed “League of Nations” in the 1930s, exemplifying the neighbourhood’s longstanding multi-cultural flavour.
The Strathcona Community Centre and the Strathcona Elementary School will develop an Interpretive Walk project for Princess Avenue. Art-making projects involving children will engage the community in project implementation. The project will run to April 2009 and include up to three ‘green corridor’ murals.
Events and activities are planned for the Interpretive Walk in partnership with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, BC Housing, Union Gospel Mission, Strathcona BIA, local residents and businesses. Some are already under way.
Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival
This project will assist the festival in celebrating the history, culture and people of the DTES. A 2009 ‘best of’ showcase event will feature highlights of the theatre productions from 2003 to the present; work by local performing artists and emerging artists; and a videotape legacy to raise the profile of DTES art and artists. Celebrations will honour founding communities including the Chinese, Japanese, European and First Nations.
The Festival works in partnership with local cultural organizations including the Chinese Cultural Centre, Chinatown Merchants’ Association, the Japanese Language School and Hall, the Vancouver Aboriginal Centre and many more.
Music and visual arts performances as well as forums, walks and talks are also being planned to promote the community’s vibrant history. Indoor and outdoor banners will be designed. A two-year community engagement and capacity building process will end with an original musical theatre exploring identity and home in the DTES.
Blood Alley Community Greening Project in Gastown
Local shopkeepers/owners and residents will help to develop and maintain planter boxes and install a large-scale board game in Gastown’s Blood Alley.
