Vancouver: Outsider Views & Media

[SpongeG]

Bright lights, open spaces

The host city of next month’s Winter Olympics was built by people who love the great outdoors, writes JOANNA ROBERTS


PANORAMIC Vancouver from Grouse Mountain. Photograph: Chris Cheadle/ACP/Getty

WITH SNOW-CAPPED mountains, lush Douglas firs and the sparkling Pacific Ocean, it’s hard to know where to find the best view in Vancouver. But a strong contender must be the panorama from the top of Grouse Mountain. From this spot in Canada glistening skyscrapers are dwarfed by coastal mountains, and sailing boats stand out as white dots against the blue of the ocean.

Getting to see this view, however, can take a bit of an effort. Yes, there’s an easy route up the mountain: just take the gondola that lifts you high above the trees and the pen where film-star wolves go to retire and glide effortlessly to the summit. But if you fancy a challenge (or you’re on a budget) there’s always the 2,830-step trail up the mountain’s southern face.

The Grouse Grind – also known as Mother Nature’s Stairmaster – is a well-worn hiking trail that is equally popular with visitors and with locals, who pop in for a quick “grind” on the way home from work. The wooden steps are packed with people of all ages, some hoping to beat their previous times, others just praying they reach the top.

It’s a punishing ascent, the worst point being the quarter-way mark, which tells you, somewhat unhelpfully, that the remainder of the trail is extremely steep and treacherous.

But if you get into a steady rhythm and pretend not to notice the people who are coming down after abandoning their attempts, then you’ll be rewarded not only with a magnificent view but also with the most welcome cold beer of your life.

It’s hard to escape the feeling that this part of Canada was built by people who loved the outdoors – as befits a city that next month hosts the Winter Olympics.

Granted, Vancouver has a natural advantage. Trees, ocean and mountains are pretty strong basics, and its location in southwestern Canada provides a pleasant Goldilocks climate: neither too hot nor too cold. But it’s the way that nature has been invited in – trees lining every street, beaches by the business district, parks aplenty – that shows this green and pleasant city owes as much to foresight as to serendipity. From the beginning Vancouver’s expansion has been guided by the desire to avoid urban sprawl and maximise green space.

The result is a lively and relaxed metropolis that works with its surroundings rather than fights against them. Despite being in a city of more than 500,000 people, you never feel far from the great outdoors.

The jewel in the crown is Stanley Park. Jutting into the Pacific at the western tip of the skyscraper-dominated downtown district, this old military base has been a public park since 1886. A bike ride around the nine-kilometre sea wall, with the trees on your left and ocean on your right, pausing frequently to coo at racoons or for a quick dip in the icy sea, is one of the most pleasant ways to spend a sunny afternoon.

Although no trip to Stanley Park would be complete without seeing the totem poles and the beaches, don’t overlook the wooded interior, which is crisscrossed with paths ripe for exploration. A stroll around the Lost Lagoon is a less hectic option than the sea-wall circuit, which is always a hive of activity. Lunchtimes are particularly busy, as office workers slip out of their suits and into their Lycra to jog, cycle or roller-blade around the park.

Hyperactivity is rife among Vancouver’s residents: even after dark the streets come alive with people taking their dogs for a speedy power walk. A clue to the source of their energy comes from the Thermos mugs that seem to have been grafted on to people’s hands.

Coffee shops are Vancouver’s public houses, with the venues (and, presumably, the customers) buzzing well into the night. With Seattle just down the road it is perhaps inevitable that Starbucks is ubiquitous, although it has healthy competition in Vancouver’s own Blenz chain, as well as numerous independent outlets.

If it’s more traditional public-house refreshment you want, there’s plenty to be had. In Vancouver alcohol tends to be consumed with food, music or both. Local beers, particularly from the Granville Island brewery, are available in most places and are tastier than the better-known Canadian brands, and Canadian wine is surprisingly good.

Food is generally excellent and good value, although we made the mistake of overordering, forgetting about North American portion sizes.

With plenty of diversions it’s easy to become cocooned downtown, but it’s worth making the effort to explore farther afield. Take the ferry across False Creek to Granville Island, to see its brewery, craft shops and food market, then carry on to upmarket Kitsilano and, arguably, the best beach in Vancouver. If you’re interested in aboriginal heritage, then from here pop along to the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology, which houses an extensive collection of First Nation artefacts.

And a whole section of tourismvancouver.com is dedicated to “gay-friendly Vancouver”, which proudly announces that the city has the largest gay population in western Canada.

Thanks to efficient public transport, getting around is spectacularly easy. One ticket lets you travel anywhere within the city limits, and a journey can often be a highlight in itself. A ride on the elevated SkyTrain gives an overhead view of the city, while heading north towards Grouse Mountain means a trip on the SeaBus, which provides a magnificent sea-level vista of downtown Vancouver as you zip across Burrard Inlet. However you choose to spend your time, it’s easy to see why Vancouver has repeatedly been named the world’s most liveable city. Beautifully located, good value, great food, friendly people . . . I’m not going to argue. But then I guess it was planned that way.

Jump to it

More than 5,500 athletes and officials and 10,000 media people will be heading for Vancouver and the Whistler ski resort, which hosts this year’s Winter Olympics, from February 12th to 28th, and Winter Paralympics, from March 12th to 21st.

Whistler, one of the world’s top ski resorts, is about a two-hour drive from Vancouver. Quite a few sports events, such as figure skating and speed skating, as well as something called ice-sledge hockey, will be held in the city. Olympic buses will move people back and forth.

...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...261511941.html

[CBeats]

this article's kinda confusing. it talks about beaches and the grouse grind, but then it mentions the "icy waters" of the ocean. and the olympics are in the winter...

[Pinion]

Ah yes the famous hyperactive Vancouver residents...?

Did she see some people high on meth or something? Ireland must be super boring (actually have heard that).

[SpongeG]

its to drum up tourism not just for the olympics - post olympics - thats one of the points of the games

[ckkelley]

A very flattering article. I suspect this to be the standard fare, unless it rains for the entire 17 days.

[SpongeG]

does anybody remember February 1991? we had a freak week of warm weather - its hit like +20c people were on the beach in shots an no shirts?

imagine if that happenned agan - haha - if I recall it was just after valentines day like around the 20th

I remember UTV - before it was (City) did a report from wreck beach and it was pretty warm

[jlousa]

Strange I clearly remember that winter having one of the coldest few days I ever experienced here, although I can't remember when it took place (sometime between (Nov 90-Feb 91).

[SpongeG]

i love reading about the city from outsiders

Vancouver is high adventure in all seasons

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With its multicultural sophistication and population of 2 million representing all parts of the globe, this city on the far west coast of North America is an ideal spot to host next month's 2010 Winter Olympics.

But there's much more to do and see in Vancouver beyond what the Olympics will bring. It's a youthful city with many Asian and Indian storefronts and more bicycles than automobiles. Trendy neighborhoods offer adventuresome shopping and excellent people-watching from the many sidewalk cafes. A 5.5-mile recreational trail ringing its famous Stanley Park offers breathtaking views of the waterfront. History abounds, with displays dedicated to British Columbia's native people, and in museums, ethnic neighborhoods and a classical Chinese garden. Just a few miles out of the city there are mountain tram rides, recreational sports and encounters with wildlife.

Downtown, the Olympic clock in the square outside the Vancouver Art Gallery has been counting down the seconds to the 2010 Games, which kick off Feb. 12. The city is poised for the big event. Hot spots such as Canada Place, the convention center, with its distinctive five-sail roof line, and BC Place, where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held, are scattered throughout the city.

On our trip here last summer we talked with a lot of locals, and when they heard we were from Pittsburgh their immediate comment was "Sidney Crosby." He is well known in this hockey-centric city and will be playing for Team Canada in the Olympic Games.

Rounding the peninsula at English Bay, we were startled by our first glimpse of the Inukshuk, a large, rugged stone cairn along the water's edge. This monument was constructed for Vancouver's Expo 86 but is based on the ancient tradition of the Inuit people of the Arctic who stack rocks as guideposts in the vast tundra. There is another inukshuk on Whistler Mountain that resembles a human figure with outstretched arms. The symbol has received a contemporary graphic interpretation and is the emblem for the Vancouver Olympic games. It is called Ilanaaq, which is the Inuktitut word for "friend."

After arriving in Vancouver, our first order of business was to rent a bicycle from one of the many vendors along Denman Street to explore the 1,000-acre Stanley Park. The park opened to the public in 1888 and is named after Canada's first governor general, Lord Frederick Stanley -- the very Lord Stanley who lent his name to the cup the Penguins brought home last year. A statue of Lord Stanley stands in the park.

The park is the backyard and playground for a city dense with skyscrapers and high-rise apartments. Visitors can walk, bike or inline skate along the scenic seawall outlining the bay and the rainforest of towering Douglas fir, hemlock and cedar. Traffic -- separated in pedestrian and bike/skating lanes -- moves counterclockwise along the seawall, which is wise: The sharp, blind curves can lead to collisions without this courtesy. Along the way you can view the totem poles from First Nations people, a statue of the Girl in the Wet Suit created by Elek Imredy (not quite Copenhagen's Little Mermaid), and Vancouver Aquarium.

I was particularly intrigued by the many small temporary cairns constructed along the shore by visitors, no doubt inspired by the inukshuk. Many statues and memorials dot the trail, and the Lion's Gate Bridge soars overhead connecting Vancouver to the ski and mountain territory to the north.

In the city's bustling Chinatown, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden offers a quiet, tranquil sanctuary. Named for the first president of the Republic of China, it is the first full-scale classical garden constructed outside of China.

A team of artisans and gardeners from the Chinese city of Sozhou spent a year constructing the garden using materials, tools and techniques from centuries past. All of the architectural materials were shipped from China, from the roof tiles to the woodwork, the limestone rocks and even the courtyard pebbles.

The garden reflects the philosophy of yin and yang. Light is balanced by dark straight lines contrasting with curved -- opposite, yet essential to the whole.

The garden had several magnificent examples of penjing. A forerunner to bonsai, penjing is an art form that involves not only the gnarled, artfully pruned branches and leaves of miniature trees, but also the use of rock to create a landscape in a container.

Our guide commented that while Japanese gardens aim for perfection, Chinese gardens strive for balance, and the evidence was in every plant, rock and courtyard stone. Koi responded to a gong gently rung over the jade green waterways for a feeding that was gentle and respectful -- as was everything about this exquisite garden.

In our travels, we always look for a museum and a market. In Vancouver, the market has to be the Granville Island Public Market. Located on a peninsula under the Granville Bridge, the market clusters vendors together in a wonderful bevy of produce, fish, cheeses, baked goods and restaurants. An international crowd gathers for lunch and a view of the small aqua buses that shuttle visitors across False Creek. We had an inventive meal of clam and corn chowder, served up in ceramic soup tureens with a puff pastry topper. Gift shops and galleries abound with First Nations crafts. Several modern craftsmen were using power tools to carve elaborate totem poles.

The breathtaking Museum of Anthropology on the campus of the University of British Columbia was a jewel on a misty, cool Vancouver morning, and the highlight of our trip.

Here are the artifacts of the coastal First Nations people -- totem poles, dugout canoes, carvings and ceremonial dishes -- housed in a magnificent post-and-beam, glass-enclosed Great Hall designed by noted Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. Work by Haida artist Bill Reid, especially the stunning "The Raven and the First Men" crafted from a 41/2-ton block of cedar, is a must-see. The massive carving depicts the Haida story of the origins of man. The wise and powerful but tricky Raven has discovered the first humans in a clam shell on the beach and is coaxing them out of it with the promise of a prosperous life.

Outside the museum, two Haida houses have been re-created, including a longhouse and 10 totem poles.

The completion of the museum's multimillion-dollar renewal project will be celebrated Jan. 23-25. New facilities and exhibits have expanded the museum's global collection and research as well as its extensive collection of artifacts from the northwest coast of British Columbia.

...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10010/1026596-37.stm

[Hed Kandi]

Did this really need its own thread?

[Conrad Yablonski]

I'm a newcomer here maybe I'm missing something but what's the point of a C&P of this kind of fluff/crap?

[SpongeG]

maybe we can make a sticky for fluff

i've found out some interesting stuff never knew about the city thanks to these articles

no one is forcing you to look anyway

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by Hed Kandi

Did this really need its own thread?

point out a thread wherre it can go

instead of whinging about it

[trofirhen]

Although that was just your usual tourist junk, a thread like this is often the traditional "kick off" for a discussion and debate. People make statement, others agree, disagree, and raise further points of their own that it can evolve and get interesting. Please don't give up totally. Check back every couple of weeks. It might turn interesting.

[raggedy13]

I'm with SpongeG in that I love reading outsider views of Vancouver, so naturally I don't have a problem with these types of threads. I find the 'General Discussion' section is a good place for them since it is not an especially heavily used part of the forum anyways.

But with that said, we could always make a single thread to post these sorts of articles in, if people feel it is necessary. Either way, at least some people enjoy and appreciate these types of articles so there needs to be a place for them in some form.

[officedweller]

Article posted over at Price Tags:

latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-vancouverism12-2010jan12,0,3186139.story

latimes.com
Vancouver engineers its own urban dream
The city imposes notions of sustainability in its decisions on what, where and how to build. Still, it's not quite the utopia.
By Kim Murphy

January 12, 2010

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada

William Rees spent much of his childhood on his grandfather's farm in the province of Ontario. What struck him once, after a day of working in the fields, was the sudden realization that everything on the dinner table -- the chicken, the milk, the carrots -- he had helped produce.

"I was only about 10 years old, and I have no explanation to this day, but I felt as if the ground had fallen beneath me. I was sinking, sinking, deep into the earth," Rees said.

When he moved to Vancouver, he took that sense of "connectedness" with him, and never forgot it. With 75% of the globe's 10 billion people in 2050 expected to live in urban areas, they had better -- if they are to survive -- find a similar sense of connection, Rees figured.

He and one of his students at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in the 1990s pioneered a way of measuring the connection between human population and its consumption of resources. It's known as the "ecological footprint." Ominously, Rees found that the 2.2 million people who live in the Vancouver region would need an area 57 times larger than their own city to sustain them. Indeed, if everyone on Earth lived as people in Vancouver did, Rees calculated, it would take four planets to keep them alive.

That message resonated, and it changed Rees' adopted city. To a degree probably unmatched anywhere else in North America, the city of Vancouver has tried to impose notions of sustainability in its decisions on what, where and how to build.

The result has come to be known as "Vancouverism," an urban motif of public transit instead of freeways, a low-carbon energy infrastructure and gleaming high-rise condominium towers in sunlit, walkable neighborhoods laced with urban parks.

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games next month provide a showcase for how Vancouver is trying to evolve. A $1-billion development that houses the athletes' village generates up to 70% of its power from converted sewage, and the vaulted ceiling of the Richmond speed-skating venue emphasizes that most renewable of resources, wood.

Over the last 20 years, Vancouver has managed to more than double the number of people living downtown while also reducing its carbon emissions per capita to the lowest levels of any big city in North America. The central city has refused to allow a single freeway and recently began to further tighten the noose around automobiles, closing lanes on crowded streets in favor of buses, bikes and sidewalks.

The city has hit up developers to build parks, recreation centers, libraries, day-care centers, and open, public waterfronts to a degree almost unknown anywhere else.

When other cities were erecting warehouse-style retail outlets in the hinterlands, Vancouver built its Costco right downtown -- the first urban Costco in the world, with four 40-story residential towers rising from the top. There's a boutique Home Depot not far away and a Safeway that squats on a second floor, above smaller street-level shops.

The 1908 Woodward's department store building is being revamped into a mix of high-priced condos, housing for the homeless, a contemporary art institute, grocery store, drugstore and day-care center -- all on a single city block, topped by a mini-replica of the Eiffel Tower. "Be bold," said a sign erected at the site, "or move to suburbia."

"We've become the North American model that you can't ignore," said city planning director Brent Toderian. "We're the only North American downtown to have opened a new elementary school -- think about it -- and we're about to open another one. And it's not because we're all utopians here. It's a willingness to have vision, and then back it up with regulation and willpower."

But the new Olympic athletes' village -- a lower-slung eco-village with narrow, European-style streets and green-planted roofs that hardly resembles the city's famous high-rises -- demonstrates the degree to which Vancouver planners have discovered shortcomings in their own magic.

Forests of glass high-rises are a bit monotonous, many residents now complain.

The new downtown is also a victim of its own success: the condos with the good views are so sought-after that they often cost several million dollars. Even the cheaper studios routinely hit $350,000. How can young families afford those kinds of prices?

The city recently suspended new condo conversions in some areas until job centers catch up. The region's top four employers are various agencies of the government -- troubling in a region that long ago shut down most of its resource economy, such as logging.

With downtown housing costs so high, the suburbs have grown relentlessly. For every new downtown resident, four others have moved to the vast, Orange County-like expanse of the Fraser Valley.

And then there's the traffic: Without freeways, auto commuters are confined to endless queues until they hit the Trans-Canada Highway outside the city. Transit use is high and getting better, but riding in from the far reaches of the Fraser Valley, 35 miles from downtown, can mean one or two long bus trips before reaching the first rail station.

"If you look at the real numbers . . . you'll discover that Vancouver's share of growth uptake in the region is actually diminishing as a proportion," said Lance Berelowitz, who edited the city's Olympics bid package and wrote the book "Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination."

Much of the sprawl gets blamed on the 21 municipal governments outside Vancouver. Metro Vancouver, a council of regional governments, has walled off agricultural lands from development and attempted to funnel suburban growth into a series of half a dozen mini-urban centers up and down the Fraser Valley. But the council rules by public discussion and consensus, often a useless combination compared with the lure of new tax revenues from office parks and strip malls.

Planners say the regional city centers won't get off the ground unless they bring to the table the same spirit of Vancouverism that inspired downtown's rejuvenation, including allowing a powerful government to twist arms to enforce a new social vision.

That means forcing developers to spend money on recreation centers and parks, promising them extra stories on the top of their buildings if they agree. Meanwhile, neighbors need to be reassured that the effect of the high densities will be offset by the new day-care centers and green spaces.

It also means using public financing -- loan guarantees kept the Olympic village from imploding during the economic downturn -- and sometimes mixing millionaires and immigrant welfare recipients in the same building. Public agencies and private developers often wade into the same project, each financing their own parts.

"There's a kind of social ideal that is pretty fundamental to Vancouverism, and it's an important difference between Canadian cities generally and American ones --the role that government agencies play in engineering the mixing of people," said Trevor Boddy, curator of the exhibition "Vancouverism," opening Friday in the new Woodward's atrium.

Not everyone has been enthusiastic about the government strong-arming new density.

Many Vancouver residents see it as another excuse to hand the city over to land developers. The promises of perks in exchange for density don't always materialize, critics say, such as when neighborhood recreation centers are overcrowded and there aren't enough buses to serve residents who've been lured out of their cars.

"The idea of ecology, sustainability and so on have been used to justify an exaggerated increase in density. But none of the eco-part has really been paid attention to," said Alicia Barsallo, whose east Vancouver neighborhood is slated to triple in population.

The near-in suburbs, some already ripe for urban renewal, may prove an easier sell. Surrey got on board with a project that re-imagined a shopping mall in a run-down part of town.

Vancouver architect Bing Thom, a Hong Kong immigrant, sent in a team that punched out the roof and perched a new campus of Simon Fraser University on top. The mall and the school are connected by walls of glass, an intricate structure of vaulted wood and a giant atrium. The whole project was developed by a government-owned insurance corporation, which also built an office tower next door for its new headquarters.

Several other financial institutions have moved in. Students use the mall food court in lieu of a cafeteria. University computer labs look out through glass walls over shoppers sipping coffee. Surrey liked the result so much that it scheduled the first-ever performance of its new symphony orchestra in the atrium. The project won top prize at an international real estate development competition in Cannes, France.

"Vancouverism has got nothing to do with built form," Thom said. "It's much deeper than that. Vancouverism is a spirit of thinking about the future, and by that I mean thinking: Whatever you do, look twice. Listen twice. Speak once."

kim.murphy@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

[Delirium]

this bit made me laugh:

"topped by a mini-replica of the Eiffel Tower."

i guess no one told him about the W part

[NetMapel]

I like LA and all, but I don't trust anything they say in regards to urbanization and sustainability

[mrjauk]

I think all of these types of stories--about Vancouver and written by foreign journalists, or that appear in foreign newspapers, journals, or broadcast media--should have their own thread. Call it something like Outside Media writing about Vancouver, or something like that.

[officedweller]

Good idea - I couldn't find a thread to post it in so I had to create one.

[flight_from_kamakura]

nice to see that they're doing their part to have vancouver in the people's minds a month out.

if you start a foreign views thread, it might be worth including eastern canada in that one.