The ThunderBlogs

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.

Temporary

No Stopping

September 25th

Traffic lights flashing green. East Broadway meets Prince Albert Street.  Rain, rain, rain.  A banner hangs from the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House.

Harvest Festival

Saturday, September 25th

It is the eve of the festival and the house is buzzing with activity.

The front entrance is plastered with community bulletins: Job opportunities, volunteers needed, community events, UBC research projects.

Three computers.  Free internet.  One man admits that he started coming here because of the complimentary phone.  He volunteers on occasion, helping out where he can.

The house is a welcoming and inclusive space.  “People don’t look at you funny here,” said a young Aboriginal man.

Posted behind the front desk is a giant whiteboard:

Date: Friday Sept 24^th 2010

Time:               Group:

9-12                   FDI

10-12                 Seminar Mandarin

10-4                   Mahjong

10-12                 Vietnamese Seminar

11:30-1              In Pleasant Care

1-3                      Line Dance

3-6                      Teen

6-10                    Pre-Teen Dance

The whiteboard accurately reflects the diversity of the visitors here.

Children and caregivers button up their coats.  Family drop-in time is over and the East Hall is being converted into a dance hall.

Seniors pour in the front door as noon approaches.  One woman picks through the shopping cart full of free bread.

Free loaves of bread are available to visitors on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Women rush in and out of the kitchen.  Lunchtime is fast approaching and people are lingering outside the dining hall.  There is talk about line dancing and the Harvest Festival.

The festival is an annual event thrown by the neighbourhood house.  Block party.  Live bands.  Workshops.  Cake walk.

The house is an important gathering place for the community.  An alternative to city community centres, the house connects people from diverse backgrounds through a variety of activities and programs.

Volunteers are hopeful that people will come inside this Saturday to see what the house is all about.

Owned and operated by the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC, the house has served the community of East Vancouver since 1976.  It is one of eight neigbourhood houses in the Lower Mainland.

For more information visit www.mpnh.org

Budget cuts, language differences, and poverty are at the heart of why children from Vancouver’s oldest residential neighbourhood have been found to face the most challenges to receiving a successful education.

According to a report published in the Sept. 22 edition of The Vancouver Sun, children of the Strathcona neighbourhood have the highest percentage of “developmental deficiencies expected to impair their early learning and possibly their entire learning experience.”  The report, conducted by the University of B.C.’s Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), stated that 58.5 per cent of Strathcona children face developmental deficiencies that range from communication to health challenges.

The same day the newspaper published the article, one of Strathcona Community Centre’s child support workers sat on a bench outside of the centre, watching over dozens of children dash after one another around the playground, dangle from monkey bars and push one another on swings.

The centre is physically connected to Vancouver’s oldest elementary school, Lord Strathcona, a big red brick building located just outside of Chinatown.  A total of 55 children from the ages of one to five, including Lord Strathcona kindergarten students, make up the community centre’s daycare program.  According to Julie Brassard, the program’s coordinator of six years, this number had been going up until this year when the centre had to double the program fees from $120 to $225 due to provincial budget cuts.  Something that only magnified the problems the children in the area face.

“There are language issues for sure,” said Brassard.  Strathcona is one of Vancouver’s most culturally diverse neighbourhoods, with over 29 cultural groups living in the area, the main ones being Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Jewish.  But poverty is also a major issue.  Even with a breakfast program which serves 150 families, “kids come up to the kitchen asking for food because they are still hungry,” said Brassard.

“How can you do well in school if you don’t eat every night and roam from home to home?” said Deborah Carter, as she leaned against a railing, watching her five year-old daughter play with the other kids outside the centre.  Carter also said Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) as well as other hyperactive disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) make it harder for children in the area to develop the means to learn properly.

“I hate to put it on money and resources, but I think the needs are known and if the resources were there we could work toward meeting the needs,” said Brassard.

An emergency preparedness workshop was held at the Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre Wednesday, drawing an audience of only two people.

Robert Trowhill, a volunteer with the Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program, set and organized tables and chairs for ten guests.  “If we had had a 7.0 in Afghanistan or something, the room would have been full,” said Trowhill, “otherwise it goes on the back-burner because it might not happen for 200 years.”

Two attendees eventually found their seats.  “This is the earthquake one,” one woman queried.

“My name is Robert, I’m a volunteer with the city of Vancouver,” said Trowhill as he fiddled with the overhead projector and began his presentation.

The program is governed by the city’s Office of Emergency Management.   This particular class was one of six such workshops taught several times per month in community centres around Vancouver.

The woman in attendance furiously scribbled notes as Trowhill delivered his presentation.  She was hanging on his every word.

Trowhill volunteers his time for the program, as well as with Vancouver Emergency Social Services and the Vancouver Emergency Community Telecommunications Organization.  “I decided some time ago that the citizens of vancouver live in a high risk zone, which everyone knows, and that it was important for me to help them understand some of the small things they can do to prepare for a high risk event,” said Trowhill.

He is the picture of preparedness.  Clad in a long, yellow and black raincoat, its pockets filled with items one would not ordinarily expect to find in a coat pocket.  One bottle of water, one can of diet cola, one LED headlamp, a small baggie containing an assortment of crayons and a small card containing a list of out-of-area emergency contacts, were amongst the treasures in Trowhill’s coat.  It was, in a manner, an emergency “grab and go” kit, of the type that this program urges people to assemble for themselves.

The city, according to Trowhill, is well-prepared for any pending disasters in comparison to other Canadian cities.  “I think Vancouver is in one of the higher risk zones in canada for disasters and I think the city understands that and is taking steps.”

“Stuff happens, expect the worst, plan for the worst and hope it doesn’t happen.  There’s nothing like having a plan B,” said Trowhill.

The smiles of the children who gathered in the playground in front of the non-profit Strathcona Community Dental Clinic reveal the state of the province’s deteriorating dental coverage for low-income families and families on welfare: there are often gaps where teeth should be or shaved-away pointed spikes where you would expect a rectangular toothy grin.

“20-30 years ago, provinces had dental coverage for people 18 years and under.  In the 70s there was a dental plan that covered students.  In Quebec, children under nine years old are covered. But in B.C. you need a university student plan, a government plan, a plan through work,” said Stephen Leary, the Executive Director of Strathcona Health Society who works at the dental clinic.  Now, the only thing enabling the children of low-income families (families that earn $29,000 dollars or less each year) and families on welfare is The healthy Kids Program, which also has been cut back with Gordon Campbell’s 2010 budget.

Among other various amendments, the 2010 budget cut back the program’s previously-covered, twice-a-year check-up to once-a-year, as well as put a limit on what services dentists can perform that are considered insured, such as the number of x-rays a dentist can take. This may not seem like much, but when you include cutbacks on school supplies, unpaid-for school trips and lunches, HST and the Air Care in BC which targets cars with poor emission-ratings, “low-income families are taking the hit on so many fronts, the burden builds up so high that dental is the last thing on the list to pay for,” said Leary.

A painted mural of cartoon characters with smiling teeth, colorful fruits and healthy vegetables greets you upon entrance to the clinic.  A series of plaques listing the donors who help keep the clinic in business hang on the wall of the waiting area.  Pictures of children with tooth decay and neatly lined up pamphlets with reminders of the benefits of proper dental care rest on the front desk.

“The concern is the long term effects of the changes,” said Peter Lam, one of the regular dentists at the clinic who tends to the over 1500 active patients from families with various income levels.  “A lot can happen in one year, between a checkup.  That is what we are worried about.  Preventative care is always better than treatment.”

A ten year-old boy, who preferred not to be named, was dropped off by his father for a cleaning.  When asked why he comes to the dentist, he said: “because it makes you look good.”

Do not underestimate the importance of this response, Leary would say.  “It’s a weird thing: you’re whole body is covered [by insurance] but not this mouth of yours and if you cannot prevent that root canal, what employer is going to hire someone with missing teeth in the front of their mouth?”

Though physically located in the upscale neighbourhood of Kerrisdale, Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre greets a much wider audience than might be seen strolling past the fine art stores, exclusive boutiques and five dollar lattes just two blocks away on West 41st Avenue.

“It’s not uncommon for us to see a homeless patient and a stably employed patient in the same day,” said Mark Haden, an addiction specialist and the supervisor of the addiction services program at Pacific Spirit. Haden explained that the health centre’s service area stretches from Oak Street to the University of British Columbia, resulting in a demographically diverse patient base with a wide range of health needs showing up at the Kerrisdale location.

Administered by Vancouver Coastal Health, the centre provides a variety of services at little or no cost to eligible patients in an attempt to address many health needs in one building. Informational leaflets, both in English and in some cases Mandarin, touching on everything from diabetes care to tips on how to quit smoking cover the walls of the waiting room.

According to Haden, all VCH community health centres offer addiction services that prescribe to a comprehensive, five tiered approach: prevention work with youth, counseling for families, individuals and couples, methadone, needle-exchange programs and at-home detox programs. Quoted in an article published on endprohibition.ca, Haden admitted that there were concerns amongst the community about the safety of the needle exchange program, but “that needle-exchange service has been in place for more than six years and I can honestly say that we have never had any of our fears materialize.”

While the needle-exchange program at Pacific Spirit is not highly used in comparison to the numbers at some of the other community health centres, Haden did say that figures vary anywhere from five exchanges a month to upwards of 30 exchanges.

Some might wonder just how far the walk from West 41st Avenue to 2110 West 43rd Ave. really is.

For more information on services and locations, visit Vancouver Coastal Health’s website at vch.ca.

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.”

Beneath the Cambie Street bridge, at the junction of two sidewalks, an abstract art instillation attracted the attention of two passersby.  The Garde-Temps, a french phrase meaning time-peace, silently recorded its surroundings.  The composition of LEDs was strung together in a shape resembling a large bowling pin.  The object intermittently flashed with light, and bewildered its visitors.

“This artwork is a vessel for the distorted appearance of the place and the passersby,” wrote Tania Ruiz Gutiérrez, the Paris-based artist commissioned by the city to create the installation. “Its surface alternately shows images captured by the nearby close circuit thermal camera and a series of pre-programmed patterns obtained by transforming these images.”

The visitors were unaware of the object’s purpose or abilities.  They stared, briefly questioning its meaning.

Without a label of explanation, Gutiérrez’s work went unappreciated.  As they left, the vessel logged their movement and heat signature with its seeing-eye, unbeknownst to them.  Its tiny diodes illuminated in a sweeping motion, mirroring their image as they walked away, bidding them a silent farewell.

Meanwhile, at the end of the walkway, another thermal innovation went unnoticed.  The passing traffic on the bridge overhead produced a dull thumping noise as the tires rumbled across the concrete slab sections.  The deadened noise softly punctuated the silence of this otherwise vacant, concrete jungle, hidden beneath the bridge.

Steam billowed from one of five tall smoke stacks protruding from a building shrouded in the shadows of the bridge.  A colourful placard affixed to a bridge standard established the building’s purpose.

The Southeast False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility provides space heating and domestic hot water to the budding community, including the Olympic Village development, by utilizing a highly efficient sewage heat recovery system.

Southeast False Creek, though, currently consists of more abandoned buildings and vacant land than residential buildings.  The span of property between the Neighbourhood Energy Utility and the Olympic Village, the site of this future community, is a barren wasteland of un-development.  It is scattered with the remnants of a heavy-industry past.  Yet at its peak, the utility will service up to 16,000 residents in the area, when they do arrive.

Until then, the dominant feature of the community skyline is a rusty, corrugated metal quonset, the remains of Vancouver Machinery Ltd., established in 1968.  The decrepit shell of the building is framed by the slick lines of the Olympic Village, forming a distant backdrop of great contrast, and an equally distant hint of things to come.

Crystal Mall, despite competition from a towering mall just across the street, Metropolis at Metrotown, survives going out of business, as locals easily spend $200 on a single shirt.

A Chinese sales associate, Suzie Xiao, explains that the culture clash in Asia actually proved conducive to business.  Most of her clients where she works, Sophia’s Boutique, a fashion retail store which caters to women in their 20s to 30s, are Japanese, Chinese and Korean, who all like to splurge on clothes and shoes.

According to China International Business, the highest spending market are the affluent young, urban professionals have no dependents, and fair an average of 20 years younger than the wealthiest consumers in U.S. and Japan.  But Xiao explains it differently: inflation rates for housing are so high in China, that young women are making up for the not being able to afford luxurious homes by wearing high fashion.

The rich smell of Chinese herbs and ginseng float through the air in the lower level market of Crystal Mall.  Mothers and seniors swarm around, squeezing firm taro roots and workers wearing dirty aprons rigorously cut Chinese winter melons behind the counter.

On the upper level, young women with perfectly straight doll bangs and studded tops walk elegantly into purple-walled boutiques lined with zebra carpets.  As Love As, a boutique that sells brand name Japanese clothes and shoes, recently sold over $5000 worth of products to just two Chinese international students.

Xiao handed me a $24 magazine whose front cover featured three Japanese women with chestnut wavy hair in over-the-shoulder sweaters and underwear, explaining that Asian women like to emulate their fashion.  One of their knitted tops hung near the front of As Love As, with a sales tag dangling from it marked $238.

Both Xiao and the store owner of As Love As said that they do not need to do advertising, as word-of-mouth marketing works well within the tight-knit Asian community.  Most of their clients are also international students, who do not have any siblings due to the one-child policy in place in China, so parents can afford spoiling their them.

On the other corner of Sophia’s, closing sale signs are taped onto the windows on Nancy Szeto’s retail store, I.N. Club.  Having compared her business to the successful younger stores nearby, she simply said, “things are different.”

With the elders sticking to the tried and proven products of Chinese herbal medicine and dried fruit, and the younger women selling luxury items, Crystal Mall is a microcosm of the intergenerational gap of Asia’s plain living back in the day and its competitive Westernized lifestyle of today.  But nowhere else in Metrotown can one find bubble tea for $2.75, not even in China.