WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE … OR NOT
Why Are We So Mingy With Our H2O Treasure?

By Jim McKnight

Vancouver is a city uniquely blessed by its geography. It sits at the confluence of one of the world’s mighty rivers and is one of the great ports of North America. Vancouver is geographically beautiful as it is defined by its waters; it has water on four sides - Coal Harbour, English Bay, False Creek and the rain above.

So what do we do with our waters? Do we celebrate them, do we praise them, do we integrate them into our daily lives? Well, sadly, and for the most part, the answer is no; we mostly ignore them, shun them and turn our backs on them. We have almost no urban fountains, and those mostly closed, mingy, mean-spirited and clogged with leaves and grime. It is worth noting that Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, a city in the center of the continent, in the middle of the prairies, devotes a whole city block, Sir Winston Churchill Plaza in the center of their city, to a massive water fountain, and in doing so, shames Vancouver. Edmonton has more children playing in this one fountain on one summer day than Vancouver would have over many full years.

So what is the solution? My name is Jim McKnight and I live in the Beaconsfield (corner of Bute and Haro) where there is a mini-park with a public fountain; a fountain sadly forlorn and closed. It is my understanding that there is some talk of re-opening our fountain as a ‘closed-loop’ system: in other words, a cistern will be build adjacent to the fountain and the water re-circulated. Kindly allow me to point out that switching from potable water (directly from the mains) to a closed-loop system means that the City is using non-potable water. Another name for this sort of water is ‘toxic’, or industrial water, of the sort that usually has a skull-&-crossbones attached to it. I would imagine that the lawyers working for the City haven’t opined on this yet, but I can tell you what they will say: ‘Liability !’ Think of the kids playing in the non-potable water and then sticking their fingers in their collective mouths; oh my.

We have no lack of water in Vancouver and conservation would best be handled by higher water fees and by restricting use when our reservoirs are exceptionally low.

Then there are the concerns with climate change and high summer temperatures, cooling points and the dangers of over-heating. Have you ever turned a sprinkler on to a patch of lawn or garden on a hot August afternoon? If you have, you will remember that the air temperature immediately drops by a noticeable amount. Why? Well it’s quite simple, as water is able to hold more heat than air and the water immediately pulls the heat out of the air, thereby cooling the immediate area.

So here is a simple solution to celebrate our waters, to delight our citizens and visitors, and to provide urban cooling points in the summer.

Place fountains mid-block in every block in the downtown core. Design them so their plan area projects one parking space into the road and 1/3 of the width of the sidewalk.

I would also suggest that you form a charitable foundation (I have done so for various arts organizations and you would easily qualify under CRA rules), the City of Vancouver Fountain Foundation, so that citizens can contribute to urban fountains and receive a charitable tax receipt.

To fill Vancouver with fountains is a big, expensive, multi-year project, but if it is funded only at the wish of citizen donations, you, the politicians and administrators will never ‘fall behind’. I would suggest a big ‘Talk Vancouver’ campaign to begin with. Ask local landscape architects to come up with some designs, ask the UBC School of Architecture for same, go to every elementary and secondary school in Vancouver and, finally, open the doors to the citizens of Vancouver.

Design a fountain for us or send us a picture of your favorite fountain in the world from your travels. Set up a 'Fountain’ website and ask the citizens to logon and vote for their ten top favorites, then have the engineering department price them and post the costs. Specify that donations above a certain dollar figure will be thanked on a bronze plaque to be permanently attached to the fountain. Encourage wealthy Vancouverites to ‘adopt’ and fund a specific fountain or site, and watch the wealthy compete for honors and recognition.

Regular city engineering workers will construct/maintain the fountains.

That’s it. Easy-peasy, I’ll even run the foundation pro-bono for you.

The views expressed in “West End Voices” are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The West End Journal or its personnel.