New Media » CityView

Video. The Neighborhood of Hastings Sunrise

jnarvey — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 06:40:39 +0000

A neat video tour of the East Vancouver neighborhood of Hastings Sunrise by my uber-talented and compelling-as-heck friend, Kevin Spenst. Watch it. You won’t regret it, Vancouverites and wannabe-Vancouverites.

The Middle East Is A Rough Neighborhood As I illustrated in my novel, the Middle East is...

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Stay Classy Vancouver. Photos Of The Day After The Riot

jnarvey — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 06:37:03 +0000

It is the day after the riot in downtown Vancouver following the Canucks loss to the Bruins in the Stanley Cup final. The city has come together, cleaned up most of the mess and shown true civic spirit in the aftermath of a very bad night. Some images I took with my iPhone from Granville Street in the heart of Vancouver.

My Favorite Tweets From The #Canucks #Riot Vancouver may have had the most well-documented riot in the...

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The View From Vancouver

jnarvey — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:08:55 +0000

You can’t beat the view. Here’s my video from the top of Harbour Centre in the heart of downtown Vancouver. YouTube doesn’t quite do it justice — you really do have to be there. But it’s a rite of passage for longtime Vancouver residents and tourists alike.

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I’m Honored, National Magazine Awards

jnarvey — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 07:25:37 +0000

Funny, I didn’t even know I was in the running. Looks like I’ve been recognized with an Honorable Mention by the National Magazine Awards for my articles in Granville Magazine’s EcoDensity Special. Congratulations to my fellow honorees!

If you’re curious about what I wrote that deserved this honor, here are the articles that were recognized for extraordinary awesomeness:

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The Future of Food

jnarvey — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:55:27 +0000

Where will we get our food a few decades from now? Is our current model sustainable? Will we be able to feed the world’s teeming billions? Is “breakfast in a can” the thin edge of the wedge for where we’re headed? Learn more in my feature article in Sharp Magazine, The Future of Food — or even better, actually buy a copy of the magazine at Chapters or some other newsstand

(NOTE: If this topic doesn’t really grab you, check out the magazine anyway. Aliya-Jasmine Sovani’s boobs are practically falling out of her shirt on the next page after my story ends, on page 64. In her feature by Leo Petaccia, “Sharp sits down with MTV Canada’s most infamous host to talk about the merits of social consciousness, the importance of breasts and why we all need to lighten up once in a while”. Worth a look.)

An excerpt from my story:

“Make a better breakfast faster, Batter Blaster!” The tongue-in-cheek jingle is not the only addictive thing about entrepreneur Sean O’Connor’s invention. His waffle mix in a spray can is now in 13,000 stores across North America, including Costco and Walmart, with plenty of accolades and YouTube testimonials by dedicated fans of the product. “Just shake, point, blast and cook,” the slogan goes.

“We believe we’re consistent with the innovative path that led to microwave popcorn, or lettuce in a bag,” O’Connor notes. It’s organic, easy to use and, increasingly, represents the future of how we prepare our food.

There are certainly enough other examples of packaged foods, unrecognizable a few generations ago, that have become commonplace. But as the demand for high-tech foods increases, so does the demand for organics and local food. Once again, we face a paradox.

Is this the future of food?

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Urban Planning Through Deliberate Sabotage

jnarvey — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:30:25 +0000

When a neighborhood’s resiliency derives so much from affordability for the working class, artists and small businesses, should a neighborhood deliberately avoid making improvements? Deliberate sabotage of a community seems rife with risk and the threat of unanticipated blowback.

But for the funky, vital neighborhood of Commercial Drive in Vancouver, gradual improvements will just keep adding to the trend of gentrification that has made home-ownership for lower incomes totally out of reach and made some local business owners concerned about their long-term future. Without more massive infusions of subsidized housing, how can the Drive retain its character as the neighborhood becomes irresistible to Yuppies? My comments in the Granville Magazine blog post, When livability and resilience collide

Can Commercial hold back gentrification? If it can’t, is it possible to retain the neighbourhood’s distinct character? These were the sorts of questions that participants were dealing with at the recent Drive to Resilience forum on envisioning the future of Commercial Drive, hosted by the students in the Semester in Dialogue program at SFU. Those in attendance included residents, local business owners and representatives from various neighbourhood organizations who were guided through a day-long exercise in collaborative problem solving.

Much of what participants discussed revolved around developing more support for affordable housing, help for artists and small businesses, and even programs to support the integration of the area’s homeless and marginal people into composting efforts. In this sense, much of Commercial Drive’s character seems dependent on low rent and subsidies for those with low income.

Ironically, the characteristics that define Commercial Drive may have actually become more pronounced due to the gentrification of areas like Kitsilano, which has sent artists and working-class holdouts fleeing for the Eastside. But in a few more years, rent increases for residents and businesses may conceivably turn the area into a slightly more mellow version of South Granville—with its Le Chateau, Pottery Barn and Chapters stores—sending purists and the area’s poor fleeing for some other as-yet ungentrified corner of the city.

If the consensus from neighbourhood residents and Vancouver-area citizens who make the Drive their second home is to preserve a working class neighbourhood and artist refuge in the midst of a rapidly growing, trend-setting cosmopolitan metropolis, the simplest way to keep rents down is to disincentivise certain yuppie types from moving into the neighbourhood. How to do that without going so far that you actually put the area into decline is tricky.

How Does Commercial Drive Retain This?

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Gimme Shelter

jnarvey — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:03:35 +0000

“Homes, not Games” has been a consistent rallying cry of anti-Olympics protesters. But visitors to Vancouver may not realize that progress on this file has not been utterly lacking. The social housing we’ve built for our most vulnerable may even be a model for other cities around the world to follow.

Here’s an excerpt from my report in Granville on the viability of Woodward’s as a living example of social housing that works:

Of course, since about 2000, Vancouver’s residents and politicians have made substantial efforts to change this neighborhood. Without an umbrella organization to direct taxpayers funds effectively, many projects have seen pitiful returns on investment. But as I noted last week, the Woodward’s building is an example of a project that has provided real benefits to residents—and in the bigger picture, our city.

New Woodward’s resident and DTES-based new media specialist April Smith can’t say enough good things about her new accommodations on an upper floor of the building. She understands the importance of basic shelter to the living conditions of her fellow citizens in the area: “Housing is vital. It can change lives. Certainly changed my life. I went from being homeless to having the best housing I could possibly get.”

She’s not understating the quality of the place. Overlooking the newly renovated neighbourhood and with a view of the water, April has what some people might consider to be a million-dollar view.

The space is smaller than a typical studio apartment, but each room comes with a full kitchen and washroom. Residents have free Internet, phone and cable. There’s laundry on the top floor next to a community lounge and an outdoor space as well.

There’s also the convenience of mixed-use zoning: “To have a real grocery store right underneath you, it’s really good for those residents who have mobility issues. It works out well for me too—I’m trying to be healthier and eat better.”

There’s no question that April and other residents of Woodward’s are now able to live with dignity in a supportive environment. But this improved living condition didn’t come cheap. Not everyone is pleased about the scale of the investment. As one friend who lives in Vancouver South confided in me the other day, “I understand people need housing, but why do we have to spend so much so that they can have views of Canada Place and brand new couches? I mean, do people really have a ‘right’ to live in some of the most desirable real estate in the world?”

Tough questions. But I think our city has provided some balanced answers in the Woodward’s experiment.

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Vancouver is in a Party Mood

jnarvey — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:07:24 +0000

Olympic spirit is transforming the look of Vancouver’s downtown with some very neat public art and some excited onlookers. I took a few photos of the action.

While I was wandering, I noticed a protest in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery for Iranians against the thuggish regime. Very pleased to see these people getting the attention they deserve from the masses out on the streets today.

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If You Don’t Like the Olympics Don’t Come to Vancouver

jnarvey — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:23:05 +0000

At least, don’t try to get here from the USA. You’ll be turned back (like this guy was) by border agents who seem to have been instructed that merely opposing the Olympics is a threat to public order.

Remind me again, who cuts our border agents’ checks: the feds or the IOC?

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Vancouver. City of Contrasts

jnarvey — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:31:28 +0000

As the world descends on Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, I’m feeling awfully proud of my adopted city. With all of the construction finally finished, our outpost on the Pacific Rim can truly lay claim to the title of the most beautiful cityscapes anywhere.

Of course, this is a city of contrasts. We’re not just a pretty place. It’s complicated. A few examples for our welcome visitors:

* Vancouver aims to be the greenest city on the planet by 2020 and we may just be able to pull it off. But if everyone on Earth lived like people here, we’d need four planets to sustain us.

* Vancouver is one of the most livable cities anywhere. It is also home to the poorest postal code in Canada, the Downtown Eastside, where “livable” is definitely a relative term for some of its most unfortunate residents (like Quatchi?). But there’s another side, too; the DTES, one of this city’s oldest neighborhoods, defies stereotypes with a community that is bursting with spirit and compassion.

* We’ve got a mayor who entered politics as a lefty New Democrat after first making it big as a successful entrepreneur and who has since become a… well, someone not quite defined by conventional partisan politics. Which seems to be a bit of a Vancouver tradition.

* Vancouverites (well, probably all Canadians) have a reputation not just for tolerance (which is sort of a pathetic goal, if you think about it), but for being awfully nice, polite-to-a-fault sort of folks. Yet apparently, we need to be reminded about how to smile properly for our guests.

* Our city is a nice, safe place. Except when the occasional maniac killer stalks our citizens. Or if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when the cops show up.

* This is one of the only big cities in Canada where we don’t get ice that stays in the winter. It’s also home to one of the most beloved (and consistently sold-out at minimum $100 a ticket) hockey teams in NHL history.

* For some newcomers to Vancouver who haven’t yet discovered their clique, this place can be cold and unwelcoming. But if you are willing to take five minutes to set up a Twitter account, you can join a rambunctious and eclectic social circle over some locally-brewed pints in less than half an hour.

* Vancouver came on the scene fairly late in the game when it came to settling this continent (well, by people who weren’t already living here for 10,000 years, anyway). Yet we have amassed a unique heritage that is worth preserving; indeed, Vancouver’s late emergence in the modern age was perfectly timed to give us a leg up when it comes to planning and sustaining a city that works.

I hope that visitors to Vancouver will spend some time digging deeper. This is an awfully interesting place to be — even after the Olympics have come and gone.

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