Author: Chelsea Blazer

The demolition of a Shell Gas Station at the corner of Burrard and Davie was of no surprise to West End residents, nearly two years ago. If any new word has been added to their vocabulary it is urban renewal.

What was peculiar, however, was that in a period of developing the West End by building a series of high-rise condominiums the gas station was replaced by a community garden.

“It is a initiative by the council. They weren’t ready to build their high-rise so they are temporarily using it as a park so that the corporate taxes are less,” said Chris Barber, one of the local gardeners.

Vitally alive today, the garden homes a wide array of flowers and plants while simultaneously encased by a series of towering high-rise buildings and the daily occurrences of downtown.

Outside the garden, cars rev their engines as they drive through the downtown streets while the sounds of hammering and clinking accompany the construction work being done nearby. Kneeling against the entrance sits a homeless man shuffling his jar of change in one hand and grasping a beer with the other.

“May I have some change,” he said, “I haven’t eaten today.”

Ironically, a mere few feet away from where he sits is the garden where food is plentiful and serene stillness monetarily seems possible on the busy streets of the West End.

“There are not a lot of issues considering where it is,” said Barber, “there is actually minimal damage and theft.”

On a recent weekday, tomatoes, not yet ripe, hang from the plant branches while a gardener bends over watering them. A young woman helps a frail elderly women sit down on a bench inside the garden and then continues to serve her lunch. Meanwhile, a tourist couple walks into the garden and stops to take a picture of the sunflowers.

“It’s nice, it builds a sense of community,” said Barber who then described how the gardeners recently got together for a potluck dinner using the vegetables they had grown.

“But also people often come by to just sit and read,” she added.

Sadly, the question still lingers as to when Chris Barber and her fellow gardeners will have to dig up their plants to move on elsewhere.

“They will give us notice when they are going to build and people will scramble to find other gardens,” she said.

But presently, the garden resides pleasantly in the West End without notice of construction, deepening the roots of the community everyday.

Tucked away on a street called Comox parallel to the Davie Village is a small hidden gem of the West End. There operates a quaint Saturday farmers market that unless one lives nearby or happens to saunter across, is difficult to find.

But fear not –the Vancouver Farmer’s Market is a non-profit organization that operates four farmers markets in Vancouver as well as a weekly winter market. The West End farmer’s market in particular draws a dedicated and eager weekly crowd every Saturday afternoon, rain or shine.

Anne Duffy, a friendly elderly woman offering delicious jam samples to everyone walking nearby and chatting easily with her customers. Duffy and her husband have been making jam for 14 years and despite her retirement she tries to sell her jam at two markets a week.

As Anne Duffy’s pleasant interaction with her customers expresses, the experience of a farmers market expands far beyond the shopping experience. Within the crowd, shoppers stop to chat with other neighbors and vendors are busy packing plastic bags full of fruits and vegetables.

Customers stop at each stand to sample the wide array of locally produced products including a woman who offers a bread sample to her child who smiles in delight.

The benefits of the market, however, also reflect on a broader scale.

“We give farmers the opportunity to sell directly to consumers and to maintain a semi-healthy lifestyle. We actually keep 35000 acres of farmland running a year,” said Public Engagement Manager, Shaye Hoobanoff.

“We are also a certified climate smart business. We work with recycling companies and try to be rid of unnecessary waste and packaging,” she added.

So, support for local business farmers, promotion of sustainability issues and community interaction. Sounds idyllic, yes, but over the past several weeks the farmers markets have become the center of heated tensions, which were only recently made easier.

“There are a lot of challenges: finding a place to operate, permits, signage laws,” said Hoobanoff, “we had to pay employers to put up signs indicating where the market was every week.”

A lack of signs did indeed make the market difficult to find.

After a public debate on July 20, 2010, the councils finally approved changes that reduce fees and allow markets to operate on private land, making Shaye’s job and the future of the market more optimistic.

As said by Executive Director Tara MacDonald, “as non-profit organizers of authentic, producer-only farmers markets for over 15 years, we’re thrilled to finally be on the road to legitimacy and long-term security”

EarthDance Day 2010 united hundreds of peace supporters on a recent Saturday afternoon in Stanley Park—literally.

At 4pm, hundreds of hands joined to form a human circle that spread across the field of the Prospect Point Picnic Area. It took only minutes for a huge crowd to gather, fostering a phenomenal energy that stopped several uninformed park wanderers walking by.

The group of passionate and eccentric participants danced blissfully in a circle that eventually coiled into a real live human spiral while tribal drums sounded in the background.

The concentration of this day, according to a press release, is embracing all traditions, recognizing and honoring the diversity of all faiths and cultures. It provides an opportunity for individuals of varying ages and ethnicities to come together and celebrate the demise of prejudices, address sustainability issues and help others in need.

The participants successfully transformed Stanley Park into a creative environment where everyone was welcome. Certainly, tie-dyed apparel and bare feet were the outfit of choice but at closer glance a visible cultural hybrid rendered visible.

Crowds of hippies opened up the circle to embrace a few chicly dressed but curious looking yuppies. Children somersaulted near an elderly woman swaying in the middle. As a group combined, everyone truly brought forth their unique personality creating an atmosphere built on sincere acceptance and understanding.

Yasmina Ramz stood eagerly with her fellow belly dancers waiting to perform on the far side of the circle. Dressed in traditional Middle Eastern belly dance costuming, the four girls appeared excited.

“It is a community building event,” said Ramz, “I have never done anything like it before.”

Across was volunteer Amir Tahmasebi whom represented the Greenpack Canada station.

“We are promoting eco-friendly, entirely biodegradable products,” he said. “The reason is to reach our target of being the greenest city [Vancouver] by 2020.”

It was just one stall among many promoting various causes and activities. Alongside the spiral dance, there was much to do and learn and activities were widely ranged.

While small children colored with their brightly decorated markers adults meditated and hummed at the stall immediately next to them. Meanwhile, expanding from the multi-cultural potluck smells of curry and spices filled the air.

Thankfully for those who appeared as if they could continue to dance without end, the festivities did not finish in Stanley Park. The EarthDance day continued into the night as part two of an all day celebration for peace at W2 Storyeum in Gastown.

The West End of Vancouver is an area of tremendous contrast. It is an area where within minutes one is able to walk directly from an elderly populated diner to Pumpjack Pub, a gay bar only three blocks away.

Yet while initially these unusual images evoke the thought of “contrast,” if one walked through the Davie Village the contrast of the situation quickly fades, and the terms “convergence” and “acceptance” possess more significance.

At closer observation, an elderly gay couple strut contentedly holding hands smiling at a young straight gay couple waiting at the bus stop.

In the heart of the Davie Village, sitting on a bench while acknowledging everyone that walked by sat a 75-year-old man, Gary Resdin. Resdin has lived and retired in Vancouver’s West End with his boyfriend of many years.

“Everyone blends in here: the transgendered, the young and even the homeless,” said Resdin.

When asked about the relationship between the gay and elderly communities he said, “there is a nice flow here. It really does feel safe and civil.”

Elderly gay and lesbian communities such as Gary Resdin have been a demographic group that have been virtually ignored. Programs and events for the gay and lesbian community are fairly common in today’s modern environment but are not often targeted at senior citizens.

Fortunately, Qmunity, the West End’s LGTB Resource Centre, seeks to support older gays and lesbians through a variety of intergenerational activities, illuminating the sexual liberation of the area itself.

Out of an immense schedule outlining a series of activities and workshops held by Qmunity was a weekly knitting club, or as they more enjoyably like to refer to themselves as “The Knotty Knitters.”

The Knotty Knitters are a Sunday knitting club with an overarching goal to advocate support and acceptance for the elderly gay community and generate generational assimilation. As everyone passed around varying colors of yarn while complementing the oatmeal cookies in which one woman had brought in, the atmosphere remained pleasant.

Ranging from the elderly gay man from Nova Scotia to a first-time young Asian knitter, the conversation then flooded with interesting personal anecdotes lasting until the late afternoon.

While the generationally diverse group of knitters sat peacefully knitting and teaching others, the ambience and outlook of the West End’s population became clear: it is not about how old you are, but how you experience your age.