by Nate Lewis

Nate Lewis here again, filling in over the winter as our regular scribe Jacqui Birchall migrates to warmer climes. I’ll be touching on the politics of parks this month, in light of the recent municipal elections in Vancouver.

Will the wrong way soon be the right way again?

NEW PARK BOARD PROMISES SWIFT CHANGE

A Better City Vancouver swept to power in the city’s October election. ABC’s wildly successful campaign included the election of six Park Board Commissioners: Scott Jensen, Laura Christensen, Marie-Claire Howard, Angela Kate Hear, Jas Virdi, and Brennan Bastyovansky

With only one other commissioner on the board – Tom Digby of the Greens – ABC firmly holds the balance of power on Park Board. All seven commissioners are first-timers.

The new members of the Park Board will be inaugurated to their elected positions on November 7. However, ABC began communicating plans through the media just a few days after votes were counted for a significant change to Stanley Park Drive.

ABC Commissioner-elect Scott Jensen said on CKNW 980 that all of the temporary bike lane barriers installed along Stanley Park Drive during the pandemic will be removed in early November, while the Park Board plans an “engineered solution” for two lanes of traffic and a permanent protected bike lane.

In the meantime, cars will be able to use both lanes of Stanley Park Drive while the elevated portion of the Seawall will be re-opened to cyclists, according to Jensen.

A group of cyclists and bike lane users are calling on the Park Board to keep the separated lane in place until the new design is ready to implement. Lucy Maloney is an independent cycling and transport advocate, a downtown parent, and organizer of Love the Lane.

“What we want is that they leave the separated bike lanes in over winter,” Maloney said, adding that the seawall is closed at times in the winter, for scheduled slope stabilization and maintenance to the cliffs around the Seawall and potentially for more unexpected and extensive repairs to the path itself, like those following the king tide event last January.

“People who come to ride on the seawall don't want to be mixing it with fast moving drivers that close pass them around Stanley Park Drive,” Maloney asserted. Leaving the bike lane in place over winter gives casual cyclists an alternative safe route she added.

While cyclists can continue to use the road, as many riders did before the redesign in 2019, they’ll be without the protections they enjoyed throughout much of the past two and a half years. The separated bike lane has opened up Stanley Park Drive to people who are not necessarily fit, confident cyclists, Maloney said.

Newly elected Green Party Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby plans to attend the Nov. 6 Love the Lane ride and encourage other commissioners to join him.

“It means you can go for a really pleasant bike ride with your friends and there’s room for the road cyclists to pass. That’s why people love the lane,” as her catchphrase goes.

Love the Lane organized a celebratory ride around Stanley Park Drive on October 30 in anticipation of the temporary lane’s removal. The ride was postponed by the organizers until November 6 due to heavy rains over Halloween weekend, which could topple weakened branches and trees along the route.

More on the condition of trees in the park further down in the Notebook.

Commissioner-elect Digby said he plans to attend the event and has been promoting it on his social channels. Digby said he spoke with some of the incoming ABC Commissioners about the event in hopes that they would attend as well.

“I am optimistic that the legitimate mobility issues that have been identified in the current bike lane configuration can be resolved by well informed site specific modifications, and, more importantly, a renewed commitment by all park users to due care and civility,” Digby said in an emailed statement.

“I believe Stanley Park must be open for equitable access to all users,” he added.

Jensen also said Beach Avenue will be reopened to vehicle traffic, restoring all parking that was restricted by the temporary bike lane. Maloney feels there’s not a good understanding of the access that cars currently have in the park.

“People aren’t aware of the current configuration… the fact is that the car parks are open and you can actually drive anywhere in the park that you could before COVID,” she said.

On accessibility, Maloney was hesitant to speak on the wide range of infrastructure needed to allow people with disabilities to take full advantage of Stanley Park. However, she drew attention to the ongoing Stanley Park Mobility Study as the mechanism to properly address those varied needs.

“It’s not just about bike lane or no bike lane,” she said.

“I'm sure that improvements can be made [to the current bike lane, but] there are a lot of inaccessibility issues in the park that are not going to be solved by an extra car lane.”

For example, the gates along the seawall cycling path, like the ones at Lumberman’s Arch splash pad and underneath the Lions Gate Bridge, can make it challenging for users of non-standard bikes like recumbent bikes, hand-cycles, cargo bikes or bikes with trailers to use the seawall route.

The Stanley Park Mobility Study is expected to produce a report including their findings and public and stakeholder input sometime this winter.

One of ABC’s stated priorities during the campaign was to “undertake a full audit of all operations, finances, and facilities,” of the Park Board and place a freeze on fee increases for park facilities.

Some of the party’s other election promises for managing parks are to create a fund to fix non-functional and outdated infrastructure, make it easier to get a permit to use parks for events, performances, and sports, make the alcohol in Parks program permanent and launch a pilot program to allow drinking on some beaches.

“ABC’s election platform was strangely quiet about Stanley Park,” Digby noted on Twitter.

ABC’s platform, including their priorities for Park Board, has been deleted from the party’s website since the election. The party did not make any commissioners available to speak with The West End Journal for this story and ABC’s communication team did not reply to a list of emailed questions regarding vision for and management of Stanley Park.

Trees on the north western edge of Stanley Park are looking particularly brown after a summer of drought and a Looper MOTH infestation. (*Nate Lewis Photo)*

DYING TREES STILL AN ISSUE

Meanwhile, dead and dying trees remain a major issue in Stanley Park.

In a video posted by the Park Board, their acting manager of urban forestry Joe McLeod said the Park Board is concerned with browning trees in the Park. He also expressed concern for Stanley Park’s trees, citing the combined effects of drought and an infestation of Hemlock Looper moths.

As TWEJ’s Lucas Pilleri wrote in September, the brown and defoliated trees around the park are caused by extended summer droughts and Hemlock Loopers, an insect that feeds on conifer needles.

The Hemlock Looper is native to the region, McLeod said in the video, and is on an approximately 15-year cycle. “Every 15 years there is a real outbreak of this particular species of insect that impacts Western Hemlock, as well as other species such as Douglas Fir and Grand Fir, to a lesser extent,” he said.

The city, represented by the Park Board, has launched a request for proposals to obtain a consulting service for Stanley Park forestry initiatives. The city’s request is specifically asking for multi-disciplinary consultant teams with expertise in urban forest assessment and management planning to provide an assessment and mitigation response plan for Hemlock Loopers and wildfire risks in the park.

This request for proposals was launched in early October. This summer was the third year – and worse, by some accounts.-- of the Looper moth outbreak.

NEWS & NOTES

The Stanley Park Causeway was repaved last month. Crews worked overnight to create the least possible disturbance to traffic coming in and out of downtown. While it makes for a smooth ride to and from the Lions Gate, be aware that permanent traffic lines have yet to be painted.

Make sure to stay in your greenlit lane!