A Resilient Vancouver: Mobile Workshops

Visit a farm, stroll our green streets, walk through the infamous downtown eastside and the soon to be famous 2010 Olympic site. Join author Spring Gillard (bio) and other experts in a series of tours that will feature the resilient side of Vancouver along with unique shopping venues. Choose single tours or book all four for a package price.

With any tour registration, receive a one-time $50 coupon that can be applied to subsequent Simon Fraser University (SFU) City Program 2-day courses, in either the Sustainable Community Development program or the Urban Design Program.

Program subject to change. Minimum 15 participants for each tour, maximum 25.
Tours by Garden Heart Productions, gardenheart.ca

Resilient Food Systems: Mole Hill and Vista d’Oro Farms
Monday, October 19: 8:30am to 12:30 pm (4 hour bus tour)

Join us on a discussion of the issues around creating a resilient food system. We begin the day at Mole Hill, a unique urban housing project in Vancouver's West End that includes the restoration of 26 houses, creation of 170 units of affordable housing, a child-care precinct, greenlinks, and a supportive housing and day care program for persons living with HIV/AIDS. We will hear the David and Goliath story of how a neighbourhood battled for years against all odds (and the City) to make this happen. We discuss urban food security and focus on some of the unique urban agriculture aspects of the project.

Next we address the rural issues as we tour Vista d’Oro Farms, a gorgeous, multi-faceted small farm operation. Along with our discussion of the food system and the role of the agricultural land reserve, there will be a wine tasting and a chance to pick up a few tasty souvenirs at the Farmgate Shop. They make their own delicious artisinal preserves like Turkish Fig with Walnut Wine and Green Tomato Garam Masala. Price: $100 plus GST

Resilient Streets: Green Streets and Storm Water Management
Monday, October 19: 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm (4 hour bus tour)

Vancouver has taken an innovative streets design approach to managing storm water and calming traffic. As a result of their Greenways plan, partnerships between the City of Vancouver and the community have blossomed, dramatically shifting the urban streetscape. Join City staff on this tour of green spaces. Visit "country lanes", a sustainable alternative to the traditional asphalt lane; the Crown Street project, an environmentally sustainable streetscape and fish habitat enhancement project. Stroll through wellness walkways; street corner "living rooms"; lush traffic circles and blooming boulevards. Price: $100 plus GST

Resilient Neighbourhoods: Seawall Walk, Granville Island, False Creek, Olympic Village
Thursday, October 22: 1:30 pm -5:30 pm (4 hour bus/walking tour)

In this mobile workshop, we walk the seawall to explore an area of Vancouver that has been revitalized and is now held up as a model of sustainability. We begin at Granville Island, a popular tourist destination, but also Canada’s first mixed use development and rehabilitated urban brownfield site. After a chance to browse in the lively public market we continue our seawall stroll. We see multi-use pathways where pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers happily co-exist, a skate park under a viaduct, easy transit access and other smart growth initiatives like affordable and social housing and cooperative businesses. We tour the future site of the Vancouver Olympic Village during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, another example of old industrial ground clean up and revitalization. We will hear the fascinating story of the initial sustainability aspirations, the community, political and planning processes, the final emerging result and the post-games plan. Price: $100 plus GST

Resilient Cultures: Downtown Eastside, Chinatown, Strathcona
Friday, October 23: 8:30 am to 12:30 pm (4 hour walking tour)

As we walk through the infamous downtown eastside, Canada’s poorest postal code, as well as Chinatown and Strathcona we will see first hand the diverse cultures in this area of the city. We learn how they are working together to make their community more resilient and where the challenges lie. We look at Chinatown business association efforts, community gardens, innovative food programs, a green business zone and a new greenway.
Price: $100 plus GST

Prices
Each tour is $100 plus GST
Package price for all four tours is $350 plus GST

More info
For more information on the tours, contact gardnhrt@shaw.ca

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Green Skyline '09: Tour the future of the built environment
Thursday October 22: 1:30pm to 5:00pm

Walk or bike with us on Cascadia’s third annual tour of innovative green buildings in Vancouver. The tours demonstrate to the public and industry what green design, construction, and operations look like. Green Skyline showcases sustainable building achievements and provides the public an opportunity to see a variety of ways in which buildings can achieve LEED and other high performance standards. You'll be able to take with you a better understanding of innovative green features and systems.
Our tour starts with a visit to the newly built Woodwards building, Vancouver's most talked-about project for its social and environmental sustainability. Then we continue to the recently rebuilt heritage building and city landmark, the Flack Block. Moving further into downtown, we stop at Omicron to see the cost and benefit of green renovations to office spaces. We finish with a tour of the Listel, a green boutique hotel that successfully implemented high performance solar systems for its guests.

Note for Gaining Ground participants: A Cascadia Representative will meet you at the conference centre to walk with the group to the first building and to each building thereafter.

Cost: $20 for Cascadia members, $30 for non-members, $10 for emerging green builders (those under the age of 30) and students.
Register here.