What can Vancouver learn from the Bronx?

WestEnder
April 9, 2009

The bamboo bath towels, vegan-cupcake boutiques, and green architectural innovations that have, for many, come to symbolize environmental sustainability in consumer culture might make it seem as though going “green” is only for the rich and privileged. But the economic and cultural oppressors that buttress a sustainable upper class can be exactly what prevents less affluent communities from moving up, says Majora Carter.

Carter, who was born, raised, and continues to live in South Bronx, one of New York City’s poorest neighbourhoods, founded environmental advocacy group Sustainable South Bronx in 2001, through which she has spent the better part of the decade working to make environmental sustainability a guiding principle toward urban renewal, particularly in impoverished communities such as her own. As a result of her work, which encompasses improving public health and building local economies through developing green jobs, she has received numerous accolades, such as the prestigious MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and being named twice by the New York Post as one of the city’s most influential women. She is now president of the Majora Carter Group, a green economic development and consulting firm.

Carter paid a visit to Vancouver last week. On April 2, she was the keynote speaker at Sustainability 2.0, a green living expo presented by the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (BIA). That same day, she spent the afternoon on a walking tour of the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona with Mayor Gregor Robertson, City of Vancouver staff, Strathcona BIA staff, and WE.

When asked about the popular suggestion of a scorched-earth approach to revitalizing Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside — that is, moving people out of the problematic neighbourhood and starting over again — Carter smiles, shakes her head and laughs. “They say the same thing about the Lower Ninth Ward [of New Orleans],” she says. “Hearing stuff like that is just based out of pure ignorance, frankly. The real question is, how do we ensure that the community gets better, and that [residents] are not automatically pushed out to make room for wealthier people? That’s the problem.”

The economic and social plights of poor communities goes hand in hand with environmental degradation, says Carter — a point she’s been working to bring to the forefront of public discussion through Sustainable South Bronx and the Majora Carter Group. For example, the South Bronx sees high rates of childhood obesity, childhood asthma, and generally worse public health than other New York neighbourhoods, partly because of its position as an environmental dumping ground, and other socio-economic factors that drive high crime and poverty rates. For reasons such as this, Carter says, land-use policy and public health must be examined together if history’s mistakes are to be avoided in the future. “We’re a part of an ecosystem — all of us — and it’s not dependent on your race, class, ethnicity, or anything like that,” says Carter. “The development of jobs and, in this day and age, green jobs, is an important step in the right direction to support the quality of life of people, and to really empower them to think about the life of their own community — that they don’t have to move out of it to live in a better one, that they can actually be part of the change that is occurring.”

Getting people involved in greening initiatives such as community gardens, green roofing, and sustainable entrepreneurship is essential to building pride in a community and improving quality of life for those who live in it, Carter says. “You’ll find that the poorer people are, the more disconnected they are, the more likely they are to feel put in a situation where they feel they should be forced out [of a neighbourhood]. If things are changing for the better, they shouldn’t automatically feel as though they’re not going to be there to experience it and enjoy it.”

Members of the Strathcona BIA are working on several initiatives to create a more inclusive community that integrates and validates its intersecting populations of entrepreneurs, artists, and low-income people. Toby Baruzzuol, vice-chair of the Strathcona BIA, is spearheading several community-building projects he hopes will help fulfill his vision for Strathcona’s future. “Rather than saying it’s going to be a business area or a low-income community, we want it to be a unique community that celebrates the diversity that we have here,” he says. “Sustainability is that framework that can really celebrate the environmental, the economic, and the artistic.”

Placing an environmental lens on the Downtown Eastside, a neighbourhood that is often defined by its poverty and large homeless population, can be key to improving the social and economic progress of its residents, says Mayor Robertson. “There’s huge opportunity here in the Downtown Eastside, because there’s been so little attention on the local economy and how it best serves the neighbourhood,” he says. “If we can grow an economy here that’s truly connected and contributing to the community, there’s opportunity created by what others see as chaos and problems.”

Robertson is quick to add that any economic change in the Downtown Eastside must be respectful and inclusive of its residents. “Everyone agrees that there needs to be a profound change — change that serves the community, not just comes in and exploits the community,” he says.

Carter admits that green jobs are not the panacea for all that ails communities like the Downtown Eastside, but they can be a step in the right direction for reducing public-health costs and environmental burdens. “It’s the kind of thing that we’re hoping we’ll see more of, especially now, in this environmental and economic climate,” she says. “If we think about it as an opportunity to develop greener capacities for everybody, then everybody saves and gains, which is a beautiful thing.”

PHOTO: Gregor Robertson and Majora Carter. By Doug Shanks.

Report may better protect renters, aid homeowners during Olympics

WestEnder
April 9, 2009

Virtually from the moment Vancouver won the Olympic bid in 2003, there has been discussion about tenants’ rights prior to and during the Games — particularly protection against eviction by landlords who seek to profit from deep-pocketed tourists.

Today (April 9), a Vancouver city staff report will go before council that aims to reconcile potentially conflicting goals concerning Olympic housing and accommodation that were set out by the Inner City Inclusive Commitment Statement (ICI Commitment), which pledges that Games partners will work together to ensure that the 2010 legacy directly benefits inner-city communities.

The ICI Commitment includes provisions for Games partners to ensure that residents are not involuntarily displaced, evicted, or faced with unreasonable rent increases during the Games, but it also discusses the need to provide as much alternative temporary accommodation as possible for Olympic visitors and workers, such as opening up homes and apartments for tourists. According to information from the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) obtained by the City, roughly 80 per cent of the 12,000 available rooms in Vancouver’s downtown have been booked.

But some landlords in the city may wish to make greater profit from renting apartments or portions of their homes to visitors during the Games, making existing tenants more vulnerable to involuntary displacement through eviction. As such, the City of Vancouver’s staff report calls on the Province to amend the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) to prohibit evictions for issues such as renovations between September 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010. (However, tenants can still be evicted for failing to pay rent.)

Secondly, the report calls on the City to relax a zoning and development bylaw in order to allow homeowners to rent out units for a period of less than 30 days, which could make way for other forms of temporary accommodation during the Games outside of the city’s packed-to-capcacity hotels and hostels. The hope is that the ICI Commitment’s mandates to both protect tenants and provide temporary accommodation will be met without the negative social impacts that housing advocates have feared would be an inevitable side effect of the Games.

If the report is approved by council, home and building owners who want to rent more than one bedroom during the Olympics will be required to apply to the City to operate as a bed and breakfast, at a licensing fee of $150. The estimated $150,000 generated in licensing fees will offset approximately $150,000 needed for additional legal tenancy resources made available during Games time. The City has also asked for the Province to establish a Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) downtown or along Broadway for the year before and after the Games period, in order to provide additional information and advocacy for tenants.

“What is being recommended is not huge,” says Martha Lewis, executive director of the Tenant Resource Advisory Centre (TRAC), who will speak at council in support of the report. “It acknowledges the seriousness to tenants, who could lose their homes for a two-week mega-event.”

Lewis says making changes to the RTA as mandated by the provincial government is simply a matter of political will, but she’s unsure if tenants’ rights will become a strong election issue across the province. A group of West End renters has established a political tenancy website, RentersFightBack.com, in an effort to connect tenant issues with the May election. “I think it’s really important that Gregor Robertson and the [city] councillors are behind renters, but I really hope that translates to pressure on the provincial government,” says Renters Fight Back co-founder Christine Ackermann. “We need all of our government on-side, at all levels.”

Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert lauds the intentions of the Vancouver City staff report, but is concerned that Vancouver City Council is attempting to resolve issues he says the provincial government should have already handled. “Council seems to have to be trying to do the province’s job,” he says. “The fact that the [report] calls for this [residential tenancy] legislation to be done by September — looking at the BC Liberals, they have very rarely come back to do legislation in the fall.”

A representative from the provincial ministry of housing and social development did not return WE’s calls by press time.

Provincial report asks government to recognize addiciton as disease

WestEnder
April 9, 2009

Approximately one in 10 people in B.C. suffers from some form of addiction or dependence, and 30 per cent of people diagnosed with mental illness will also have a substance-abuse disorder in their lifetime, according to a report released by the B.C. Medical Association (BCMA). Given these statistics, the report calls on the provincial government to formally recognize addiction as a chronic, treatable disease. Such a designation could pave the way toward better treatment, says Dr. Shao-Hua Lu, a BCMA addictions psychiatrist and the lead author of the paper.

Dr. Lu says one of the most significant barriers to treatment is the public stigma surrounding addiction, which can be tackled through more focused medical research. For example, he points out, cancer in the 1950s and HIV in the 1980s were highly stigmatized, but research and public education have helped to decrease those stigmas and, by extension, increase access to treatment. In many cases, addiction continues to be perceived as the result of personal failure or individual shortcomings. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s 2008 National Report Card on Health Care, only about half of Canadians think of drug addiction, alcoholism, or gambling as mental illnesses, despite extensive medical research that shows strong links between mental illness and addiction.

“One of our hopes is that by offering treatment and creating treatment, the stigmatization associated with addiction will correspondingly decrease,” says Dr. Lu. “One of the most devastating elements of addiction is it’s insidious, it’s shameful, and people don’t talk about it. So, [addicted] individuals accumulate loss upon loss until it’s too late.”

Trish Walsh supports the arguments presented in the BCMA report. She is the executive director of the InnerChange Foundation, a Vancouver organization that supports research, public outreach, and advocacy for drug addictions and concurrent disorders. Walsh and the InnerChange Foundation have submitted proposals to the provincial government to call for an addictions-based centre for excellence, modelled after organizations like the BC Cancer Agency. “There’s huge gaps in the system, and part of the reason for that is, traditionally, health-care systems — including Canada — have focused separately on either mental health and addiction,” she says. “Patients are left with two incomplete treatment models.”

In addition to fragmented, often expensive, and hard-to-access addiction treatment, the BCMA report includes provincial statistics that demonstrate the degree to which addiction afflicts people across the province — not just in the Downtown Eastside, which is often perceived as B.C.’s hotbed for addiction and mental-health issues. The report suggests that between 2,000 and 4,000 people who are homeless and have a severe addiction or mental illness live in the Downtown Eastside, out of an estimated 11,750 in similar situations across the province. Meanwhile, 33,000 British Columbians are estimated to have a serious dependence on illicit drugs, and 120,000 have a high probability of alcohol dependence. An estimated 120,000 British Columbians have a moderate gambling problem, while 31,000 have a severe gambling problem.

“B.C. physicians are treating patients with addiction on a day-to-day basis already,” says Dr. Lu. “We’d like to see individuals treated no differently than any other disease.”

Closed-circuit TV funding approved for the Olympics

WestEnder
April 2, 2009

Vancouver City Council voted last week to accept a grant from the provincial government which will be used to fund a controversial closed-circuit television (CCTV) system for use during the 2010 Games.

The $435,161 grant is said to be enough to cover the full cost of a mobile, temporary CCTV system to help ensure public safety and event management during the Games. The Vancouver Integrated Security Unit — the organizing body responsible for Olympic security, led by the RCMP and consisting of members of the Vancouver Police Department, the West Vancouver Police Department, and the Canadian Forces — will also kick in $2.16 million for the procurement, installation, and monitoring of cameras during the Olympic period. Cameras will be installed in high-traffic areas such as the Granville entertainment district, cruise-ship terminals, and live venue sites.

All councillors present at the March 26 meeting voted in favour of CCTV funding except councillor Ellen Woodsworth, who echoed the concerns of local civil-liberties and public-space advocates who felt excluded from the decision-making process. “We’ve made it clear since 2004, 2005, that we’ve requested that there will be public meetings with the BC Civil Liberties [Association], Vancouver Public Space Network, and other organizations to review these concerns prior to proceeding with initiatives such as CCTV,” Woodsworth said shortly after the council meeting. “Now we’re being asked to go ahead and get the money to implement this, and then at some unforeseen time in the future, these [consultation] meetings will take place. But that’s not good enough.”

Members of the volunteer-run Vancouver Public Space Network (VPSN) have been following the debate surrounding CCTV in Vancouver for years. “We’ve reviewed studies on the efficacy of surveillance technology, its economic and social impacts, as well as the privacy issues that are associated with it,” VPSN director Andrew Pask told council. “The justification for its deployment needs to be supported by sound and empirical research... To the best of our knowledge, this has not been undertaken.”

Pask was also troubled by what he believes has been a lack of effort to inform the general public on the arrival of a CCTV system in Vancouver’s public spaces. “We are concerned that there will be little opportunity for the public to be informed of this, or to have an opportunity to voice any concerns that they may have,” he said. Proving his point, the CCTV funding issue appeared as a late-distribution item on an already packed morning council-meeting agenda. Pask was among three people who spoke at the meeting, all of whom expressed concern that the seemingly temporary establishment of CCTV in the city would eventually lead to a permanent surveillance situation.

Kevin Wallinger, director of the City of Vancouver’s Office of Emergency Management, who will handle the deployment of the CCTV system, maintains that the Olympic security cameras will not be here to stay. “The city has a responsibility for securing live sites, as well as what’s referred to as the ‘urban domain,’ which is all the areas outside the official Olympic venues,” says Wallinger. “The cameras [will] be brought down or removed following the Games.”

Wallinger told council that the deployment of CCTV over the Olympic period will be “specifically for emergency management.” Plus, he said, the public will be informed of CCTV monitoring sites. “There will be signs posted in all areas where CCTV cameras will be recording,” he said.

But public desire for the permanent implementation of public-surveillance systems like CCTV could be influenced by the recent rash of shootings and gang violence throughout the Lower Mainland, says Micheal Vonn, policy director of the BC Civil Liberties Association. “It is always politically expedient to point to something as a panacea... In particular, at a time when the public — and we could say this is happening right now — is very concerned about a perceived increase in violence and looking to the government to ‘do something,’” she says. “There’s a high level of emotionality around this when people are afraid, and there have been sensational incidents of violence.”

Vonn points to studies such as “Assessing the Impact of CCTV,” the 2005 British Home Office Research Study. The U.K. study suggests CCTV is most effective in places with limited access points, such as parking garages. But, the report says, research on the general effectiveness of CCTV “has painted a somewhat confusing picture.”

Am Johal, co-founder of Olympic watchdog group Impact on Communities Coalition (IOCC), sees the approval of provincial grant money to fund CCTV as yet another failure on the part of Olympic organizers to commit to a proper public-consultation process on issues related to the Games. “When the Inner-City Inclusivity Commitment was signed, there were all of these promises around consultation, but those of us who have critiqued the Games... none of us are at any table, whether it be with the City, the Province, or VANOC, and I think that’s a total embarrassment to the process,” he says. “None of us, who I think have a lot to contribute, are being asked our views or given space to have issues addressed.”

When worlds collide: An innovative UBC program tears down the wall between two very different academic pursuits

WestEnder
April 2, 2009

As community colleges in Vancouver and elsewhere continue to gain ground in the realm of post-secondary education, offering an increasingly broad selection of specialized, real-world degree programs, more senior institutions such as UBC might, by comparison, begin to look a little behind the times. But only from a distance.

A closer look proves the notion of spiritual drudgery that, for many, represents the pursuit of an undergraduate degree is changing rapidly. A prime example is the recent success of UBC’s rigorously non-traditional undergraduate program called Arts and Science Integrated Course (better known as ASIC 200).

The second-year course operates under the amorphous banner of the Terry Project. The cross-disciplinary initiative started over coffee between professors Allen Sens, a political scientist, and Dave Ng, a geneticist. The two were introduced by the UBC Dean of Arts, Nancy Gallini, after she saw Ng speak at the opening of a new laboratory building on campus in 2004. Ng so fully reminded her of Sens, with whom she already had a long working relationship, that she felt certain they would work well together.

“I thought, this is the time to get arts and sciences together,” Gallini recalls of her motivation to introduce the two professors. “We have this responsibility towards our students, because the world they’re inheriting, it’s really in rough shape. There are such huge problems — profound problems — in social, economic and environmental areas... If we’re going to make progress in these areas, we’re going to have to bring together the collective strength from the social sciences, the humanities, the creative arts, the natural and applied sciences.”

Gallini’s desire to impart a functional literacy of arts and sciences to students in unrelated programs was enthusiastically received by both faculty and students. “It was extraordinary; it took off. The students were so engaged and so excited about this interdisciplinary collaboration,” she says. “I have never seen a project embraced so quickly and enthusiastically by students as this one.”

Bridging the gap between arts and science through the Terry Project (its name is derived from the word terra, meaning earth) has also played a role in integrating academic study with real-world, problem-based learning. Much of the coursework in ASIC 200 involves students working in groups to seek solutions to local issues such as homelessness, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and car-free transportation. The coursework may lead students to projects such as writing a grant request to fund more research, public speaking engagements, or generating content for a multi-contributor Terry Project blog.

“A climatologist and a political scientist are going to think of the same topic in very different ways, and each has merit,” says Ng of the Terry Project’s guiding principles. “At the end of the day, if these are big problems worth tackling, it turns out to be really handy — even if you’re not the political-science expert or the climatologist expert — to at least have some grounding on how they’re thinking about things.”

For Sens, who teaches ASIC 200 alongside Ng, one of the most exciting aspects of the Terry Project is its experiential approach to learning, something he expects to see more of in the coming years. “It’s more activist-oriented, it’s more ‘do.’ Students learn by doing,” he says. “If there’s been any shift in learning, it’s the slow realization that learning is a social experience, so you have to make it social. If there’s any new wave that’s coming to education over the next 10 to 15 years, it’s going to be experiential learning: problem-based learning, and getting to work in groups and teams.”

The Terry Project’s non-traditional approach to coursework also engenders tremendous personal growth among students, some of whom are as young as 18. “There’s almost a concerted effort for students to find a passion,” says Ng. “It’s not just day-to-day learning.”

And contrary to the traditional idea that high academic achievement makes for a more enlightened individual, the Terry Project suggests otherwise. “You always get the sense that it’s the people that aren’t getting 100 per cent that have really found a place,” says Ng. “That’s something that’s hard to find when you’re young. That’s what an institution like UBC should be about. There’s all the nuts and bolts of getting your degree... but, more than anything, you’re hoping you’ll build that network and, from that network, you will find something that you are.”

“There’s nothing more satisfying as a university professor than when you see a student that maybe at first was a bit directionless, then, one day, suddenly that spark goes off and this big flame leaps out and they’re off,” Sens adds. “You can just tell that we have ignition. They’re on their way.”

Sens and Ng expect to roll out more initiatives through the Terry Project that ask for public participation, such as speaker events and annual contests. More information can be found at Terry.ubc.ca.

PHOTO: Allen Sens and David Ng in the Michael Smith Laboratories on the UBC Campus. By Doug Shanks.

COVER: What's your type? An in-demand design skill finally makes its Vancouver academic debut.

WestEnder
April 2, 2009

In the not-too-distant past, it was the norm for local junior graphic designers to pack up their lives and move away to study at European graduate schools if they were interested in honing their skills in typography.

Indeed, typography — the designing and setting of typefaces, not to be confused with topography, the study of maps — is an art and skill rarely associated with Vancouver, despite the city’s considerable growth in design and new media over the last several years.

But now, thanks to the initiative of professor Shelley Gruendler, prospective typographers and design enthusiasts can realize their ambitions close to home, with the launch of Langara College’s Advanced Typography and Communication & Ideation Design programs, the first and only ones of their kind in North America.

“There are just no programs that are dealing with where design’s going to be in five years,” says Gruendler, who played a large part in planning the coursework for the programs (the first classes launched in September of last year). “We’re teaching classes that no other program in Canada is teaching. We wanted to make sure that we could be what the students needed it to be, and that’s the advantage of continuing education: We can react quite quickly to the market and to society and what’s happening in the profession.”

So far, the program has been embraced by students as well as members of Vancouver’s growing typography and design communities. Partly as a means of publicly honouring Gruendler’s innovations, Mayor Gregor Robertson will proclaim April 25 Vancouver’s first official Typography Day, coinciding with the inaugural edition of Justified West, a typography conference aimed at bringing together designers and typographers from the western regions of North America.

Starting the Advanced Typography and Communication & Ideation Design programs realizes part of Gruendler’s vision to strengthen Vancouver’s role as a vibrant, creative-minded place. Looking at the city as a burgeoning creative hub, Gruendler says that Vancouver, often lauded for its grand swaths of recreational greenery, leaves much to be desired in the way of nurturing a truly innovative design culture.

“I think Vancouver could be so much more than it is,” Gruendler says. “I think we’re at a point where we could really be leading-edge on a lot of things. I’m talking about more than just the Olympics. I think there’s so many more things going on with the culture of this city. When I saw a Canadian Tire with its hours [posted] in Vietnamese, Chinese, and English — to me, that’s what this city could be. We need to bring more events into this city, so more of the residents of Vancouver can actually see it’s an open door out here.”

That sentiment is shared by 33-year-old Christy Stesky, who is finishing her first semester of the Communication & Ideation Design program. Stesky left her job as marketing coordinator at HappyFrog.ca, an online sustainability directory, to pursue full-time classes at Langara. “I’ve always felt like designers are on the cutting edge of how our culture is developed. Right now we’re going through such a drastic cultural change,” she says. “Just being in the design world, there [are] going to be a lot of different opportunities that arise from the shift in the way our economy’s going.”

Juan Madrigal, 37, is taking classes as part of the Advanced Typography program. He currently works in communications for the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, and as a catalogue designer for Mountain Equipment Co-op. “I finished design [school] more than 10 years ago, and this was a really good way to go back to school. I had been looking for a program like this [for years],” he says. “Being a designer, if you stop your knowledge process, if you stop learning new things, your career’s over.”

With the economy continuing to operate on shaky ground, many of Gruendler’s students have seized the day and abandoned otherwise hum-drum day jobs to take a gamble on exploring and improving their design skills in the Langara classes, which are held on evenings and weekends. “One of our students quit his job of 10 years in engineering to be in our program full-time. We also have students that are doing accounting during the day and are secretly taking [our] classes at night,” she says excitedly.

But just as there are students who are in search of a career change, Gruendler says many of the students in the Advanced Typography program are junior designers who want to improve their game and make themselves more competitive in an increasingly narrow market. “This is a way to really strengthen their skills and make them move up the ladder a bit more to a senior-designer position, and less likely to get laid off,” she says.

Gruendler teaches two of the four classes offered in the Advanced Typography program, and recruited her colleague Michael Hernan to cover the other half. Hernan, a former design director who worked for 12 years in music publishing, fashion marketing, and book design in London, England, moved to Vancouver to work on the Langara program. He says he enjoys the exploratory aspect of his classes. “I’ve got the chance to teach courses where people can try things out,” he says. “At work, they can’t have fun, usually, and I give them the chance to have some fun, try out ideas, because this is the laboratory of ideas. The courses here kick-start the learning process.”

Gruendler is currently conducting in-person interviews for the next class of new students in both programs, which will begin in September 2009 and January 2010. Admission and application details can be found at Langara.bc.ca.

Renters, politicians cry foul over outreach offices

THE WESTENDER
March 26, 2009

For the second time in five months, the provincial government announced the opening of two new Residential Tenancy Branch outreach offices in Vancouver’s downtown, one at 518 Richards Street and another at 390 Main Street. Openings of the same offices were first announced days before the October 29 provincial by-election last year. According to a March 18 media release issued by the B.C. Ministry of Housing and Social Development, the Richards Street office — located in a single-room-occupancy hotel, where it shares office space with BC Housing — will be open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.; the Main Street office, which occupies free space provided by the City of Vancouver, will be open weekday afternoons. The only other Residential Tenancy Branch in the Lower Mainland is located in Burnaby, at 5021 Kingsway Street.

In addition to their unusually limited business hours, the actual functionality of the new Residential Tenancy Offices (RTOs) remains a mystery to those who have tried to access its services, including Sharon Isaak, co-founder of West End-based tenant advocacy group Renters at Risk. “The one on Richards really has no signage, and doesn’t appear to be a functioning government office,” she says, having attempted to visit the office in the past week to inquire about an eviction. “It looks like there should be somebody there, but nobody ever answers [the door].”

Christine Ackermann, who fought an eviction from her West End apartment building last May and has since been an active volunteer with Renters at Risk, encountered similar problems with the new offices. “There’s no activity, there’s no office, there’s no signs, nobody there can tell us anything about it,” she says. “This announcement does nothing to protect B.C. renters, and it’s not even a promise that’s been fulfilled. I invite [B.C. Housing Minister] Rich Coleman to meet us down at that office and show us what [we clearly] must be in error about, if he [has made] an announcement that it’s open.”

A spokesperson from the B.C. Ministry of Housing and Social Development was unavailable for comment as WE went to press, but an unnamed ministry representative provided information about the new RTOs, saying that both the Richards and Main Street locations were already open. Their delay in opening between the October by-election and now, the representative said, was due to renovations to both buildings.

Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert and his staff tried calling the RTOs’ information line to inquire about their status, but found that staff working the phones seemed to know little about the offices. “If the staff doesn’t even know it exists, I don’t know how the public would,” Herbert says. “It’s just another typical public-relations exercise... Just when they’re taking a whole lot of heat about the continued evictions and massive rent increases in the West End across the province, here’s another press release.”

Meanwhile, ‘renovictions’ — eviction for the purpose of renovations, often followed by a steep rent increase — are no longer strictly a West End phenomenon , with the latest publicized case unfolding at 105 East Broadway. Last week, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan instructed her staff to attempt to help an East Broadway tenant who is facing eviction by phoning the Residential Tenancy Branch on his behalf, but their efforts were stymied by what Kwan calls an ineffective phone system. “We were on hold for half an hour, trying to get some questions answered about this situation, then the phone just went dead and we got cut off,” says Kwan. “In terms of the lack of access in getting the information that is required, it is absolutely appalling.”

Information provided at the Residential Tenancy Offices about tenancy laws and the dispute-resolution process is available online at RTO.gov.ca, and by calling 604-660-1020. If and when the new downtown RTOs become fully operational, in-person tenancy hearings will continue to take place at the Burnaby location.

Leave the car at home

THE WESTENDER
March 26, 2009

The City of Vancouver’s ambitious Olympic Transportation Plan makes it clear that driving will not be the most efficient way to get around the city during the 2010 Games, but planners are looking to maximize Vancouver’s pedestrian-friendly geography to take pressure off some of its most popular automobile routes. The following areas will be restricted to pedestrian traffic only from February 12- 28, 2010, between noon and midnight: Granville Street between Helmcken and Hastings; Robson Street between Jervis and Beatty; Hamilton and Mainland streets between David Lam Park and Georgia Street; and Beatty Street between Smithe and Dunsmuir.

“People understand that it’s not business as usual,” says Dale Bracewell, director of Olympic transportation for the City of Vancouver, about the transportation plan. “It’s balancing the needs of Olympic traffic movement, but managing the impact — as best we can — on businesses and local residents.”

Bracewell says the majority of the city’s bike routes will function as usual during the Games, with increased bike parking around live viewing sites and transit stations. “Cycling will be one of the fastest ways to move around for mid-distance trips,” he says.

Kari Hewett, interim chair of the Vancouver Bicycle Advisory Committee, hopes any measures taken to improve and extend current bike routes during the Games will pave the way for improved cycling infrastructure in the future. “Enhanced bicycle parking adjacent to venues and transit stations is planned; if they are well-constructed and effective, and could be made permanent, the expenditure would be very well worth it,” she says.

Hewett would also like the proposed Burrard Bridge lane re-allocation trial, which would restrict one lane in each direction to cyclists only, to stay in place during the Olympics. “Should the... lane re-allocation trial prove to be successful, I hope and expect that the lanes allocated to cycling will remain fully open and used in that capacity,” she says. “It sounds as though there may be plans to revoke this space during the Games, which I believe would be detrimental and adversely affect cyclists and pedestrians using that corridor into the downtown core.”

As for the oft-discussed matter of delivery vehicles being able to access downtown streets during the Games, Bracewell maintains that deliveries will function as usual, even with 24-hour parking restrictions. He says the City and VANOC are also working to ensure that adequate taxi load zones are available at all Olympic venues. “Basically, all the streets, with the exception of those that are security closures, are all still open,” he says. “It’s not business as usual, but it’s not more than that.”

City of Vancouver staff will hold an open house to answer transportation-plan questions from residents and businesses this Monday (March 30) on the Main Floor of the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch (350 West Georgia), 4-7 p.m.

Working through the bad times

THE WESTENDER
March 26, 2009

As the global economy continues its downward spiral, attendant job losses and hiring freezes mean that workplaces are becoming increasingly volatile spaces. A 2008 survey by the American Psychological Association suggests eight out of 10 people consider the current economic situation a “major stressor,” and the Canada Safety Council reports that mental-health claims are the fastest-growing category of disability costs in Canada. Nevertheless, workplace mental illness and its negative economic impact continues to be a taboo subject at many places of employment. Local mental-health advocates want to turn that around.

“Good economy, bad economy, good business environment, bad business environment — we have to be good employers, no matter if the economy is good or bad,” says Lloyd Craig, president and CEO of Coast Capital Savings. “Mental illness in the medical system is still under-resourced, and too few people are being diagnosed.”

Craig has emerged as a leader in addressing workplace mental health for the past seven years, following the depression-related suicide of his university-aged son in 2001. “In the developed world, for people between the ages of 15 and 44, depression is the number-one burden of disease,” Craig says. “At Coast Capital Savings, our number-one drug cost is anti-depressants.”

Craig rates the introduction of a mental-health survey among Coast Capital employees in 2006 as one of his company’s greatest accomplishments. Survey results were shared among staff members, who then discussed them at company workshops. “People were shocked at the extent of people feeling depressed and even suicidal in the workplace,” he recalls. “It’s the first time we got people together to talk about it, and it really was a wonderful experience. It really introduced us to being open about it. If you’re open about it, it eliminates the stigma.”

Craig now regularly gives public lectures on breaking stigmata that can muffle discussion about mental illness, and his company sponsors Vancouver’s annual Bottom Line Conference on workplace mental health, which took place earlier this month. Craig was also named the National Champion of Mental Health for the private sector by Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health in October 2008.

“It’s important to understand that the whole person comes to work every day... If someone has a kidney problem, you can talk about that over coffee. Let’s talk about depression over coffee,” Craig says. “It’s tough [economic] times. Companies cut here, companies cut there. If companies are looking for places to cut, mental health [should be] the last place to cut.”

Dr. Joti Samra, a clinical psychologist and an adjunct professor and scientist for the Consortium for Organizational Mental Healthcare at Simon Fraser University, notes that the companies that fare well in difficult times are those that pay attention to workplace mental-health issues. Among other related publications, Dr. Samra co-authored a manual for dealing with workplace depression in 2007.

“Work is a very important part of life for most of us; we often spend more hours at work than with family or friends,” says Dr. Samra. “As such, work becomes an important vehicle for education and promotion of mental health. Unfortunately, the recession has impacted a number of cutbacks in areas that are seen as ‘extra’: travel, training, and, unfortunately, mental-health issues... [But] not only is addressing mental-health issues of employees the right thing to do, it makes good business sense. Not addressing these issues impacts productivity in a negative way.”

Margaret Tebbutt manages the Mental Health Works program for the Canadian Mental Health Associa-tion’s B.C. division, and regularly delivers business presentations on mental-health awareness in the workplace. Tebbutt uses her personal experiences with depression and anxiety disorder in her presentations, which she hopes will educate employees and employers on the importance of recognizing and dealing with the prevalence of mental illness at work.

“In times of economic downturn, all of us are going to be experiencing distress, worries, concerns. For some of us, that could induce stomach problems, headaches. For some of us, it can induce anxiety disorders or depression,” Tebbutt says. “We know that one in five — and some people now say one in four of us — is likely to experience a mental illness, most likely mild to moderate anxiety disorder or mild to moderate depression.”

Tebbutt’s workplace presentations are offered to businesses of all sizes, and she hopes increased public awareness of mental-health issues will make for healthier, more productive workplaces, especially considering the economic challenges we’re faced with now.

More information on workplace mental illness and Tebbutt’s presentations is available at MentalHealthWorks.ca.