THE TALK OF THE TOWN

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What Do We Have For You This Month?

Welcome to The Talk of The Town for May, 2022. Scroll through the following features (and click on images to enlarge) to find:

  • Our Lead Story: A five-year tunneling project will see a new water tunnel go under Lost Lagoon.

  • West End News & Notes: Butterflyway update, some well deserved honors, and a fond farewell.

  • Word On The Street: Openings and closings and a major reno at Safeway on Robson.

  • West End Moments: Snapshots of life in the West End / Coal Harbour neighbourhood.

  • Mark Your Calendar: As life cautiously returns to some semblance of normal, music, theatre, and song return.

  • West End Street Names: Most West End streets were named by CPR land commissioner and surveyor L.A. Hamilton. Here’s the story behind Davie Street, which by the way wasn’t named for BC’s first “out gay politician” as some would have us believe.

  • The West End - Coal Harbour In The News: The top stories of April with our community in the news.

 

Our Lead Story

Here’s the plan - click the image to enlarge. (Courtesy of City of Vancouver)

AGING STANLEY PARK WATER MAIN TO BE REPLACED
Tunnelling Planned For Under Lost Lagoon

by Nate Lewis

Metro Vancouver is in the detailed planning stages for the construction of a new water supply tunnel through Stanley Park. The regional service provider has indicated the construction will take place over a five-year period, beginning with some preliminary work in the park in the winter of 2022.

The Capilano Watershed, one of the three major watersheds in the Lower Mainland, primarily services the water use needs of Vancouver, Richmond, and Delta.

The existing water main, built in 1932, distributes that water from reservoirs around the Capilano River to Vancouver by way of a water main running from the Cleveland Dam down to the First Narrows, just east of the Lions Gate Bridge. From there, the water travels through a pressure tunnel underneath Burrard Inlet and into Stanley Park.

However, the existing water main – which typically would last for about 100 years – is nearing the end of its service life.

“In 2016 a major leak occurred near Lost Lagoon,” said Murray Gant, director of tunneling in Metro Vancouver’s project delivery department, “this project is really critical for us.” 

An email written by then Vancouver City Manager Sadhu Aufochs Johnston following the leak indicated that the existing water main under Stanley Park Causeway was “very corroded,” frustrating initial attempts to repair the leak.

Jill Taylor at the community garden overlooking Lost Lagoon.

“Many of us were here when the pipeline broke under the causeway there, and all the rats came running out,” said Jill Taylor, a local resident who lives on Chilco and Alberni in an impressively fenestrated apartment building looking northwest over Lost Lagoon. “Yes, the project needs to happen… of course, it needs to happen. We all need good water,” Taylor said, sitting on a bench above the nearby community garden and public tennis courts.

Taylor’s apartment is directly across the street from the site of the Chilco Street Shaft, one of three tunnel shafts that will be built as part of the project.

“The anxiety level in our building is huge. We have a lot of retired people. We had people who were working from home, we have people who work on contract from home anyway. We know that it needs to be done. We want to make plans,” Taylor worried.  

Initial work – beginning in late 2022 – will prepare the area around the Stanley Park works yard, where the Centre Shaft will be excavated in the summer of 2023. This includes removing a few trees, as well as some abandoned infrastructure in the park, such as an old animal hospital near the works yard. Gant said this is being done at the request of the Park Board.

“Throughout the design, we’ve been keeping our construction footprint as small as possible,” Gant said.

In an effort to reduce the impact on the park, its users, and West End residents, most of the construction activity will go through the Center Shaft. Plans for the other two shafts – on Chilco and on Stanley Park Drive – include replacing the pre-existing valve chambers at those sites. Construction on these sites is expected to begin in the spring and summer of 2023 .The new tunnel will be built at a depth of 45 to 50 meters below ground and will be dug along a new route, passing under Lost Lagoon rather than beneath the Causeway.

Measurements taken by the Stanley Park Ecology Society in 2010 determined Lost Lagoon’s average depth was 1.2 meters. The man-made lake is likely to be shallower now due to rapid infilling. Metro Vancouver has hired Hemmera – an environmental consultancy firm – to do wildlife monitoring within Stanley Park for the project.

Gant said the tunnel will house a new water main that is sized for future growth.

With the capacity to provide 800 million liters of water per day, the new main’s capacity represents an almost four-fold increase over the existing system, which maxes out around 210 million liters per day. This comes at a time of increasing water cycle intensification – caused by climate change --  meaning that “more and more freshwater is leaving dry regions of the planet and ending up in wet regions,” according to researchers at UNSW Sydney.

What does this mean for the Lower Mainland? While these findings indicate that Southern B.C. will have more freshwater available, we’ve also begun experiencing the extreme storms that come along with that intensifying water cycle. Metro Vancouver has no plans to export or share any of this water outside of their regional boundaries, Gant said. He added that a recent study by Metro Vancouver on long-term water supply in the region found that they can meet the water needs of a growing population in the Lower Mainland over the next 100 years.

In addition to increasing capacity, the new water main infrastructure will be seismically resilient. This means it’s designed to withstand and remain operational during and after an earthquake, even a big one.

Back on Chilco Street, Taylor showed off the nearby community garden – pointing out the labels she’d affixed near each plant and tree indicating their species and variety. “So apparently part of the [existing] valve chamber [at the Chilco Shaft site] is underneath the community garden,” she explained. The northern section of the garden – which is home to native plants and a few trees – will be disrupted to make way for construction at the site.

Taylor relayed that Metro Vancouver has told community garden users that the Park Board will be restoring everything to same as or better condition following construction. She’s also taking the precaution of removing rare bulbs from the area for safekeeping.

Emails between Taylor and the project’s community liaison indicate that the garden won’t be impacted until the middle of 2023.

Another bone of contention is a viewing area planned for the Chilco site – built on top of the new valve chamber by Metro Vancouver, at the request of the Park Board. Taylor had been under the impression that the area would be covered. “I think it’s something that should not happen unless they have magically solved the opioid and homeless crisis,” Taylor said.

In an emailed statement, the Park Board said the viewing area will not be covered and will be designed to ensure clear sightlines in keeping with their “Crime Prevention through Environmental Design” approach.

“The viewing area will include a section of green roof and contain a number of seating areas amongst planting on the roof of the building,” their statement clarified.

Taylor expressed other concerns about truck traffic and the proposed traffic pattern on Chilco Street, the safety of cyclists on the Chilco bike route, and general concerns about noise, dust, and pollution from the construction site that will be directly across the street from her building.

Ultimately, it comes down to clear timelines. “He with information is king,” Taylor said, “because we can make plans to organize our lives, so we are impacted less.”

“We've had several open houses and met with resident communities individually, on several occasions, and we'll continue to do that through construction,” Gant said.

“There is no nuance… [in] Zoom sessions,” Taylor opined. “Lovely presentations but very difficult, very different from an in-person community presentation.”

Gant added that although it is a five-year construction window, and it does take time to construct these projects, at the end of that window our water transmission system will be much more resilient.

Related Links:

West End News & Notes

West End neighbors (from left) Regan Halfyard, and Muriel Walker join Charlotte Tarver, a Suzuki Foundation Butterflyway ranger in Earth Day planting.

CHARLOTTE’S BUTTERFLYWAY
Plants To Feed The Pollinators

The Butterflyway project, first reported on in The West End Journal last January, is moving forward, one plant at a time!

Last month’s Earth Day was celebrated by the first planting rollout for Charlotte's Butterflyway at Haro Park Centre with the planting of a variety of native pollinator plants, including red flowering currant, swamp milkweed, service berry, evergreen huckleberry, and mahonia or Oregon grape.

According to Charlotte Traver, who launched the West End initiative, “My belief is that each person must take some action and not wait for Big Brother to solve climate crisis. Yesterday we finally took action in our community with the help of neighbors. What a relief to at last plant a few native pollinators!"

WELL-EARNED HONORS

Derek (Tiny) McArthur

A FOND FAREWELL

A Vancouver gay community legend and long-time West Ender, Derek McArthur (1950 - 2022) — more widely known by his nickname “Tiny” — passed away April 11, shortly after being moved from Haro Park Centre to George Pearson care home. Tiny was a towering presence, well over 6’5” and built like a linebacker. Hence the nickname.

Over the years Tiny was a bartender, bouncer, doorman, and entertainer at several local clubs, and reigned as Vancouver Empress XIII in the LGBT communities drag court. None who were present in those days will ever forget his campaigning in a bright pink tutu and tiny tiara.

“A kind, gentle, and generous soul” is the tribute most often heard in the days after his passing.

The Word On The Street

It’s tough trying to keep up with the openings and closings in the neighborhood these days — so many treasured favorites going out of business and many, though not quite as many, great new businesses popping up. Here are a few of the latest …

Another sign of the times appeared on a Robson storefront last month. (Eddy Elmer Photo)

ANOTHER DOOR CLOSES …
Daniel Chocolates

Daniel Chocolates at 1105 Robson closed its doors for good on Friday, April 22 after a 41-year run as a Robson Street favorite. According to co-owner Monique Poncelet, there were a few reasons they had to shut down. Soaring rents, the rise in local vandalism requiring them to add security to their staff, the decrease in nearby parking for customers, and the COVID-related decrease in foot traffic were all factors in the decision. They will now focus on their factory outlet.

The Archer kitchen team: Chef Mike Linshits, Chef Clement Chan and Sous Chef Fermin Colasi Jr.

ANOTHER ONE OPENS …
Archer Coming Soon

There’s a new restaurant about opening this summer at 1152 Alberni Street (between Thurlow and Bute). It’s called Archer.

The high-end eatery will focus on Pacific Northwest food, highlighting the bounty of our region’s farmers, fisherfolk, and producers, all while celebrating the diverse cultures and flavors of Canada. The regional focus of the menu will be complemented by a similar motif running through the decor.

A sign in the deli section early last month was a sign of things to come.

BIG RE-DO AT ROBSON SAFEWAY

Regular, and occasional, shoppers at the Robson and Denman Safeway local will have noticed a bit of seeming chaos throughout the store lately. Merchandise being where you didn’t expect it, entire aisles vanishing, and where the heck are the bacon bits anyway?

Store manager Bryce Griffin tells The West End Journal that this is just the beginning of a total renovation of the store, scheduled to wrap up this fall. “When it’s all finished we’ll have a bright, shiny new interior for our customers to enjoy” Griffin says.

In the meantime, customers and staff are keeping a good sense of humor about the inevitable confusion, and staff are happy to help you find what you’re looking for — except maybe those bacon bits!


West End Moments

Mark Your Calendar

Entertainment and cultural events and activities are cautiously returning to normal Be sure to follow us on Facebook for regular announcements and updates. In the meantime, here is a sampling of some of the goings-on in May …

  • ART IN THE CITY & POTTERY SALE … The West End Community Centre’s annual Art In The City exhibition and sale returns this May 7 and 8. This is a great opportunity to take in the works of local artists and pick up just the right piece for that space on your wall or shelf. The Exhibition runs concurrently with the West End Pottery Club’s annual sale of works by artists in clay.

  • LIVE AT THE SYLVIA … Live music is back in Sylvia’s Lounge! Every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m. The lineup for May includes: May 1 – Cole Petrone, Accoustic Classics; May 4 – Sarah Osborne; May 5 – Dave Paterson & Stacey Zabolotney; May 8 – Weaver Werth; May 11 – Earth Music; May 12 – 24 Strings, Folk, R&B, Country; May 15 – The Lesley Branton Trio; May 18 – Heather Soles & Miles Black; May 19 – Tamami Maitland Duo; May 22 – Harris & DeBray, Roots & Blues.

  • BINGO FOR LIFE … A weekly fundraiser at The Junction (1138 Davie) for Friends For Life Society. Hosted by premiere drag diva The Unstoppable Connie Smudge, the fun starts at 7 p.m.

  • MUSIC AT ST. ANDREW’S-WESLEY … St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church at 1022 Nelson has brought back their weekly jazz performances, every Sunday at 4 p.m. Starting this month, through to the end of July, the church has opened its doors for a lunch-hour every Thursday from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m. Bring your lunch and enjoy! Updated details here.

  • FUN TIMES AT PARK PUB … The neighbourhood pub at Best Western lus - Sands at Davie and Denman is back with a veritable variety show of comedy, music, and sports throughout the week. For the full story visit them here.

Got an event coming up that should be listed in The West End Journal? Email editor@thewestendjournal.ca with details and photos.

West End Street Names

BRITISH COLUMBIA’S EIGHTH PREMIER, ALEXANDER DAVIE.

DAVIE STREET

Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (1847 - 1889) was the eighth premier of British Columbia, from 1887 until his death. Called to the bar in 1873, he was the first person to receive his entire law education in British Columbia. Davie was first elected to the provincial legislature in 1875 from the riding of Cariboo as independent opposition candidate. He lost his seat in 1877 after a brief stint in the cabinet of Premier Andrew Charles Elliott as provincial secretary and returned to the legislature in 1882, this time from the riding of Lillooet, and became Attorney-General under Premier William Smithe.

He argued before the Supreme Court of Canada in favour of provincial rights, pleading that the province had a right to regulate its liquour sales. When Smithe died in 1887, the lieutenant-governor asked Davie to become Premier but he fell ill within months and left for California to recuperate. In his absence, Provincial Secretary John Robson ran the government on a day-to-day basis, though Davie kept in touch through letters. He returned in May 1888, but his health was in a poor state, and he ultimately died in office. Davie was married December 3, 1874, to Constance Langford Skinner of Maple Bay, British Columbia, with whom he had four children. Davie is interred in the Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria.

A persistent story pops up from time to time claiming that Davie Street being named after Premier Davie was uniquely appropriate because he was believed to be British Columbia’s “first gay politician”. This fact-free tale was pretty well debunked in a 2016 article in Xtra.

The West End - Coal Harbour In The News