How Vancouver's Waterfront Became so Boring

okay yes it's an aggressive title so I want to back up a little bit and start by saying that Vancouver's Waterfront is perhaps one of the most celebrated waterfronts in the world it's an epic 28 kilometer path called the sea wall that stretches around the downtown Peninsula all the way to kitsolano if you ask most residents they'll probably tell you that it's the Crown Jewel of the city or something in fact this kind of Waterfront is becoming more and more popular in cities around the world just take a look at Dubai's Marina even the railings look similar perhaps your city has something like this too a nice walking path by the sea but I want to make the case to you that waterfronts like this are actually a bit problematic foreign [Music] if you ever stop and think about it like literally try stopping and thinking on the sea wall you might find it a bit awkward this Waterfront isn't meant for much other than walking there's walking by yourself Walking With a Friend walking with a dog but it's all just walking well they're cycling too but you get the point with a few exceptions like Granville Island at the convention center most of Vancouver's Seawall is dedicated to a path which has a ton of parks maybe a handful of restaurants but not much else and a lot of it is frankly underused case in point cultural Harmony Grove Park a patch of grass with trees with a few benches I guess one way to create cultural Harmony is to make a park so boring everyone agrees not to use it and then there's this park that's literally called existential alley I think the name speaks for itself I could point to countless other examples the Vancouver Seawall is kind of boring when I see all these unused spaces and some of the most Prime real estate in Vancouver I can't help but think that there's a missed opportunity here other City waterfronts frankly make vancouvers look like a snooze Fest just look at Porto's Riverside restaurants Thailand's floating markets oslo's Waterfront pools and Coney Islands Beachside amusement park and general chaos but one of my favorite examples is actually here in Canada the Halifax Waterfront it has businesses buskers restaurants concerts a two-story beer garden and so much more right next to the harbor these waterfronts are more than just places to break in your latest pair of yoga pants they're places where you feel like the whole Community is coming together you can really see the difference between Halifax's Waterfront and Vancouver sea wall at night at 9 30 PM Halifax's Boardwalk is still bustling this is clearly a destination at all times of the day but Vancouver Seawall at 9 30 PM is basically shut down it's like the city doesn't want anyone to be out here after Sunset there's no lighting and very few people it's a no man's land so why isn't Vancouver's Waterfront more like Halifax well at first I thought the answer was obvious you know as vancouverites always obsessed about staying fit and healthy maybe this is the Waterfront you create if you want to look good in spandex but that's not actually the reason you can still have a great walking and jogging path while also having businesses restaurants and other attractions by the water the two are quite compatible the real reason why Vancouver's Waterfront is so empty is actually something a bit more political people in Vancouver have actually tried to change parts of the Waterfront before in 2001 while coal Harper was under construction the BC Restaurant Association proposed turning it into a mecca for fun and food but the proposed plan was ultimately rejected by the local government the result yeah a walking path by the sea in 2002 the Vancouver Park Board set out to develop this restaurant next to kids beach and the result raucous public meetings a petition against the development and a lawsuit that went all the way to the BC Supreme Court why would people hate restaurants so much well a reporter covering the backlash at the time wrote that the opponents believed it would despoil a magical Beach led to Bear swelling in the public place caused light and noise pollution and increased traffic congestion you see some very vocal people especially those who live next to the seawall actually don't want it to become too busy in fact there's a long history of people opposing all kinds of activities on the sea wall for example bikes yeah it might be hard to believe now but in the 1970s cycling on the Seawall was made illegal in one year police handed out over 3 000 tickets to these two-wheeled criminals One Park Board commissioner even wanted to start ticketing joggers another example volleyball in the early 2000s plans were made to create a set of volleyball courts here in the grass next to Sunset Beach in Vancouver's West End what's not to love about that well of course nearby residents protested that too their concerns included knowings more competition for parking and dust their preference a more passive and ecologically sound Park environment the courts were never built I think a writer for the Globe and Mail in 1980 described it best thousands of citizens living in apartments in the city's West End regard the park as their private backyard but as much as I'd love to blame this all on the nimbys that's not the only thing at play here the more I learned about this issue the more I realized that there's actually a very pervasive ideology to blame as well one that has shaped cities all across the world for centuries it turns out there's a lot of Park planners and policy makers who actually want public spaces with not much else to do other than walking and to understand why we have to go back in history I want to quickly take a break here to thank urban area there are non-profit organization that works to educate and engage the public on urban planning issues I actually got the original inspiration for this story after attending one of their City debates called commercialize the sea wall you can watch a full recording of that debate on their website all right now back to the video the oldest part of Vancouver Seawall is the section around Stanley Park which was built in 1918. the city had recently established the park after destroying the indigenous Village of hoihoi as well as other communities stealing the land from people who had lived there for thousands of years and they were running into a problem the park was being eroded into the ocean so a decision was made to build a wall around the park to protect it then this guy was like wouldn't it be cool if it was also a walking path and the first part of the sea wall was built but this walking path wasn't just a neat idea it was part of a larger movement at the time people were pretty desperate to get out of cities this wasn't the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution where many cities were often polluted and noisy that led to a design movement in the 19th century planners like Frederick Olmsted began designing Urban Parks specifically to help people escape from the city into nature he once wrote the enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it tranquilizes it in yet enlivens it one of his most significant projects was arguably New York Central Park 843 Acres of landscape Gardens with sprawling walking paths this park and others like it had a huge influence on the design of public spaces all over the world and soon most cities had a version of their own the formula take a large chunk of land fill it with Lawns and Gardens connect them with walking paths maybe sprinkle in a questionable Monument or two that will probably have to be taken down later and voila you have your Escape From the City Vancouver was no exception to this trend but its own twist on the concept was the sea wall this walking path overlooking the ocean was designed for Citizens here to Escape From the City into nature people loved it and this built the political will and expectation to continue the seawall All Along The Waterfront at the time the rest of Vancouver's Waterfront was mostly industrial but in the latter half of the 20th century these areas gradually redeveloped creating neighborhoods like Falls Creek South Yale town and Olympic Village as these lands redeveloped the public looked to the success of the Stanley Park Seawall as inspiration for what should go into these new developments which was you guessed it a walking path but that wasn't the only Force at play here for developers the most profitable thing to build next to this walking path weren't businesses or restaurants but luxury townhouse apartments so that is what ended up being built row after row of multi-million dollar Waterfront residences today that has led to a distinctly quiet and non-commercial Waterfront in Vancouver we have have a 28 kilometer Waterfront path that mostly consists of parks and luxury housing now I'm not here to tell you that one kind of Waterfront is better than another ultimately the best use of public space is a very nuanced issue in some places there probably is still a very fair argument for creating a refuge from pollution and noise just like the 1800s but in other places that might not be the best use of public land in Vancouver we have some of the best air quality in the world but the city does have a well-documented loneliness problem at the end of the day this is a subjective question that differs for each person what is the best way to use these bases and what societal needs do we want them to fill but increasingly I don't think we're asking these questions at all in cities like Vancouver and across the world this walking path by the Sea formula has become well a formula a cookie cutter idea that gets plopped into a waterfront regardless of context or the needs of people living there at best it's a safe and offensive idea at the end of the day a city's Waterfront is a very important defining feature of a place and it's worth thinking critically about what we want that space to look like maybe we could try thinking outside of the path yeah a running in back she used to tell me a little like snack yeah running it back the running it back she wanna save [Music]

Channel: About Here

Views: 607,022

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Id: 7EYf-S5yTEk

Length: 10min 41sec (641 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 14 2023