Author: Kendall Walters

Theft of items from vehicles was the biggest crime issue in Kitsilano from Sept.15 to 21.

In that week, Kitsilano saw only a few crimes. There was one residential break and enter, two commercial break-ins, six thefts from cars – two of which took place in the same area – and no stolen vehicles.

The neighbourhood of Kitsilano belongs to district four in the Vancouver Police Department’s breakdown of the City of Vancouver.

The city is divided up into four policing districts.

The smallest is district one, which includes the central business district, or downtown core, Stanley Park and the West End.

District two is slightly bigger and centres primarily on the downtown east side, including Strathcona, Grandview Woodlands and Hastings Sunrise.

District three is larger still and encompasses Mount Pleasant, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Renfrew-Collingwood, Sunset, Victoria-Fraserview and Killarny.

Kitsilano belongs to the fourth and largest district. It includes Fairview, Riley Park, Oakridge, Marpole, Kerrisdale, Musqueam, South Cambie, Shaughnessy, Arbutus Ridge, Dunbar-Southlands, West Point Grey and Kitsilano.

There’s a reason the district Kitsilano lies in is bigger than the others.

“It’s actually the quietest district in the city,” said Const. Mick Ord, “the largest, but the quietest.”

Ord has been patrolling in district four for four years now. He’s been an officer for 23 years, in Vancouver for seven. Before moving to the west coast, Ord was a cop in England.

He said that Kitsilano’s biggest crime issue is typically property crime. This is due largely, he said, to the fact that district four is primarily a residential area.

Last month, police in Kitsilano tracked down a suspect who had broken into several businesses. The suspect threw a brick through the windows of 10 different restaurants and stole bottles of liquor from inside. The majority of the establishments targeted were on Broadway Avenue, one of Kitsilano’s two major streets.

The most recent available statistics breaking down crime in the four different districts are for July 2010.

Compared with July 2009, District four, which includes Kitsilano, had a six per cent increase in violent crime, a drop of more than eight per cent in property crime and a 15 per cent increase in other crime. In total, crime went down over eight per cent from July 2009 to July 2010.

Citywide, crime dropped nearly seven per cent in the July comparisons from last year to this year.

Kitsilano War Memorial Community Centre’s earthquake workshop Wednesday was punctuated by presenter Matt Boyd telling attendees they should climb under their chairs.

They didn’t, since Boyd was merely explaining the best place to wait out a quake.

Twelve people participated in the first of several emergency preparedness workshops held by the Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Plan. It was entitled Be Prepared, Not Scared. Most of the attendees appeared to be retirees. Other than the presenter, only one man was in attendance.

Boyd asked the crowd what they would do if an earthquake struck during the workshop.

People looked around. Some suggested taking refuge underneath the small table on which the projector sat. Boyd laughed and said that it’d be a lot like Twister if everyone tried to fit under there.

The chairs, he said, would be the best option. He told the audience getting under their chair, making sure their head was protected, and facing away from the windows in case of breaking glass would be the smartest thing to do.

Throughout the presentation, Boyd stressed the importance of preparedness. He encouraged workshop attendees to create “grab and go” bags – which would include a variety of essential items, including food, water, toiletries, a flashlight and radio – for family members.

“We’re three days away from total chaos in the city,” Boyd said. “Imagine if this city had no imported food for a week. Suddenly, it’s the strong survive.”

He said looting is a real possibility in the wake of a major disaster.

“All it would take is for one guy to throw a brick through the window,” he said.

He told participants to set up disaster plans with their families and share earthquake advice with their neighbours,

In the event of a disaster, Boyd said Kits Community Centre would become a shelter.

“As a community, we’re very, very strong,” he said.

If an earthquake were to hit the lower mainland, Boyd said Kitsilano wouldn’t have to worry about a number of the side effects, such as flooding, that would likely plague other areas of the city, like Richmond.

However, he said the area’s proximity to water means that Kitsilano residents may need to worry about the possibility of an oil spill from one of the many colossal container ships anchored in the bay, a concern made all the more relevant by the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Washed-up logs dot the sandy shore as wagging tails bound, dig, dodge and chase their way around the beach.

An organized chaos reigns supreme in Hadden Park, an off-leash dog park in Kitsilano. It’s one of Kitsilano’s two dog parks, and one of 37 in Vancouver.

Tuesday afternoon saw a collection of breeds as varied as their owners gathered on the shore.

Derek Leach threw a ball for his golden lab, Sydney.

Leach’s business attire wasn’t what you’d expect to see at the dog park, let alone one on the beach, yet he looked entirely at home on the driftwood log, tossing a soggy, sand-covered ball for his pup.

“It’s good for the animals to socialize with other dogs and with other people,” he said. “They develop good social behaviour as a result.”

That’s one of the reasons he brings Sydney to the park every day.

Opportunities are limited though: like many other dog parks around the city, Hadden is only off-leash at certain times of day. From May 1 to September 30, off-leash time is restricted from 6 to 10 a.m. and from 5 to 10 p.m. From October 1 to April 30, leash-free time lasts from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“It’d be nice if they had it open all day for the dogs,” said Logan McNeil as he watched his energetic vizsla, Noah, romp across the sand.

Up from the beach, on Fourth Avenue, a friendly-looking chocolate lab sits on one of the waiting room chairs at Kitsilano Animal Clinic. Her name is Violet, and she’s not waiting to see the doctor; her owner, Terry Eisen, is a veterinarian, and Violet spends her days hanging out at the clinic, waiting for Eisen to get off work.

Then the pair hit the dog park, where Eisen takes Violet to get a little sand under her paws and ocean water on her fur.

“It’s her recreation and it’s my recreation,” Eisen said. “One of the things that’s really special about dog parks is it’s not just about the dogs, it’s the dog owners.”

She described dog park users as a close community that works hard to take care of their space.

“The dog beaches and dog parks are way cleaner than any other parks,” she said, adding that people are very diligent about cleaning up after their pets. “We just don’t want to lose what we have.”

The lights dimmed, and darkness enveloped the corners of the pub. Then suddenly, a brilliant spotlight illuminated a corner, making the single stool and microphone that stood on the small stage glint in its harsh glare.

Chatter faded as a man with scruffy black hair and a matching beard took to the small raised platform. He was clad in a dark-blue button-down shirt with patches of a light-blue pattern, which, from afar, resembled the effect of tie-dye.

His dark eyes scanned the audience as he began to speak, introducing the audience gathered in Darby’s Neighbourhood Pub to the weekly stand-up comedy night they had either come to see, or were unwittingly present for.

An unusually busy night, the laughs started on time Tues. Sept. 14, instead of hanging back, waiting for an audience large enough to preclude crickets.

A long succession of comedians ranging from locals to a Much Music star followed. Then the dark-haired man returned.

Sandwiched between a chubby redheaded comedian making jokes about her love life, and a headliner that pulled a joke a second in rants that ran into one another with barely a breath between them, Patrick Maliha spent the majority of his act making fun of a University of British Columbia masters student.

That’s because comedy night organizer Maliha, is a roast comedian. Every time he gets on stage, he singles out a member of the audience, and pokes fun at them.

According to him, people love it. They keep coming back week after week, because, as he’s been told by audience members on numerous occasions, no two shows are the same.

An Ontario native, Maliha got into the laugh business around the time he moved to Kitsilano – 16 years ago.

He said he remembers a Kits before parking meters and Lululemon, though through all the changes he’s seen in the neighbourhood, Maliha said Darby’s has remained the same. A community institution, the pub is undergoing its first renovations in 25-some-odd years.

Maliha said he loves it there because of the crowd: an unlikely mix of students, retirees and everyone in between. He said there’s one pair of 80 year olds that have been to 18 of the last 20 weeks of comedy nights.

Maliha can be found nearly every Tuesday, from 9:30 p.m. on, at Darby’s Neighbourhood Pub on Fourth and MacDonald, in the heart, and the funny-bone, of Kitsilano.

Beneath a leafy canopy, a single table, draped in a red plastic tablecloth, plays host to stacks of ripe produce in vibrant splashes of orange, red, purple and yellow.

Mismatched baskets holding farm-fresh fruits and veggies jostle for space, as residents stroll to and from the Kitsilano Pocket Market, filling up bags with potatoes, peppers and plums.

Rising high above the pocket market at 2325 West Seventh Ave is the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House. Twin windows, featuring panels of coloured glass in earthy shades of blue, green and yellow, peer out of the building’s stately brown brick facade. Wood-paneled doors framed by a carved, dark-wood arch invite community members up the stairs and inside.

Today, however, the focus was outside, on the Kitsilano Pocket Market’s last day operating at Kits House, one of its two homes.

Spring Gillard, one of the market’s organizers, said it all started because of a study conducted in 2007 by Vancouver Coastal Health that found malnutrition was a serious problem on the Westside, especially for low-income seniors.

“We actually discovered some seniors going hungry because there’s no grocery [stores],” she said.

At the market’s other location, on South Granville, Gillard said the only grocery store in the area sold high-end gourmet products, but skimped on the basics.

“The idea of a pocket market is it’s smaller, you can key into really targeted centres,” she said.

Ron Wolfson is a local senior and a regular customer at the pocket market. For today’s market, he rode his scooter to Kits House, his dog Sasha in tow.

Wolfson said he likes the market because it offers a good selection of organic produce at fair prices. He compared it to a farmers market held every Sunday in Kitsilano, which he said is less affordable for him.

Though it has been popular, with approximately 50 people attending each one, the market’s future is uncertain. Organizers have to evaluate the project and determine if there’s a way to create a sustainable business model, said Gillard.

“We’re trying to pay farmers a fair price, but we’re also trying to make it affordable,” she said. “We’re walking a very fine line.”

The project piloted last summer with two test markets. This summer, organizers held 12.

There will be one more market at the South Granville Seniors’ Centre this Friday from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m., officially wrapping up the season.