ABC Vancouver is acknowledging that more details about the $4.75-million plan to keep five blocks of Granville Street car-free until Labour Day will be required in the weeks ahead.
“Without question, there has to be public accountability and transparency on the costs,” said Coun. Mike Klassen.
“Because this is a pilot, we have an opportunity to learn from it. And I think that’s exactly what the intention is, is to come away with the kind of data that will help us to understand how we can make sure we can keep this affordable, and how we can establish this at other times of the year.”
Last week Vancouver city council voted to extend the car-free pilot on Granville Street, which has been the site of street parties throughout the FIFA men’s World Cup, until Labour Day, instead of its original end point of the tournament final.
Council was told extra internal costs for sanitation, engineering and other services would be $2.1 million, and that the Vancouver Police Department needed $1.4 million for security and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) would need $1.25 million for events and activities with no football games on the schedule.
But a week later, when CBC News asked the DVBIA for a breakdown of external costs, it said in a statement that it is “currently finalizing plans … and will have a better idea of what that will look like later.” To a similar request, the VPD said, “Generally, the VPD does not disclose the details of operational deployments.”
When asked if they would like to elaborate why the VPD was unable to disclose details of funding requests outside a standard budgetary process, a spokesperson said, “We don’t have a cost breakdown because the security planning is still underway.”
(Ethan Cairns/CBC)
Could become a mayoral election issue
When council was asked to approve the plan in a special meeting called with two days notice, councillors Rebecca Bligh and Pete Fry — both running for mayor this year — voted against it.
Bligh says she isn’t opposed to the pedestrianization plan but she has concerns about the rollout — and the cost.
“If we were to recognize the value of that $5 million across our city to support festivals, [it] would create months and months of fun city vibes, not just [seven] weeks in a very small area of our city.”
She also criticized the level of information provided in the plan.
“There were no details,” she said.
She said the DVBIA has done a great job of programming the street, but added it has also faced challenges, including “unfettered graffiti” that has to be cleaned up and damage to temporary fixtures that animate the street.
She said the city should focus its investment on the long term Granville Street revitalization plan.
“When the world goes home and the games are over, what is different about Granville Street that didn’t exist before the World Cup was here?” Bligh asked.
She said extending the event seems like “painting the facade without fixing the foundation.”
(Ethan Cairns/CBC)
Focus on spaces for people: urban planner
Brent Toderian, former chief planner in Vancouver and international advisor on city-building and urbanism, had urged the city in June to continue the pedestrian pilot.
After the council vote, he agreed to help advise the DVBIA on the extension.
Toderian said street pedestrianization — and whether North American cities can pull them off like elsewhere in the world — is one of the great debates in city-building.
He said the success of the Granville Street program shouldn’t be measured by trying to replicate the crowds and celebratory atmosphere of World Cup game days that were “hyper-fueled” by the energy of the games and influx of tourists.
That kind of vibe doesn’t transfer to normal life, Toderian said.
Instead, Toderian said pedestrianized streets need a variety of activities to draw crowds and make them stay, including possibly having retailers on the street in the same way as patios from restaurants.
“The street becomes an extension of their business and they become incredible champions for this idea,” he said.
And when it comes to security, Toderian said the goal is to hit a “Goldilocks level of policing.”
“You have to address issues of security and safety … but you can overdo that and it can kill the vibe,” he said.
Klassen acknowledged that the on the fly nature of the planning for the seven-week extension was a risk, but that “a majority of council decided that the risk was worth it.”
“Overall, I can hear that the public is pretty excited that we’re moving forward, we’re continuing this,” he said.
“There’s absolutely no reason at all that we cannot direct staff to come back with an accounting of how the money was spent, and, and their ideas, maybe a first draft of ideas on how they can reduce those costs, and then come back with a more formulated plan for future potential closures.”
A cyclist rides down Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. (Ethan Cairns/CBC)