Due to a strike at my University out east, I have had the pleasure to come home to Vancouver 2 weeks early for the holidays. While being re-aquatinted with my "bro-skies" and the city that I love, I just so happened to pass the corner of Davie and Burrard St. where the former Shell gas station has been transformed into a community garden.
Now of course, all biases aside, I think its a fantastic move by the developers and the community to do what they have done. No where else in this country would you see a plot of land at a busy downtown intersection, which in reality probably made condo developers drool, turned into a garden for city slickers to plant their pre grown flowers from Home Depot. But for God's sake, don't plant any food. All environmental cliches aside, its a unique thing. Its something that will hopefully keep Vancouver on top of their game.
side note: I can't help to think that it was done make up for the 70 trees that the city hacked to preserve the view from QE park over the summer that pissed off all the local tree huggers (myself included). That being said, I accept the community garden as a token of your apology, but I'm still pissed about the Gateway project (That rant will be saved for another day).
1 comment:
Now, we all know that mine and Chris' favorite topic is New York, but it's only because we love it so much. But, I can't help but think about New York when reading your post. The one thing I noticed we don't have enough of in Toronto is boxy little parks in unsuspecting places. Turn any corner in New York and you are bound to meet a lovely intersection of grass and park benches, which are usually occupied by the very old or the very young. I find myself wondering where the children go on hot summer days, whether it's with their nannies, friends or parents. Is Toronto that child-unfriendly or have they concerned themselves too much with going green that they forgot to take it literally?
Queens Park is hardly the place for it as it is surrounded by speeding cars and lacks tranquility that is usually expected of these city escapes.
On the other hand, I know two gas stations on the island of Manhattan. Now, I'm sure there are more, but these are the two most accessible from where I commonly visit. So...New York has more cars, more people, more parks, less gas stations while Toronto has less people, less cars, less parks and more gas stations.
I need to check the stats on this. I'm heading to Wikipedia right now.
Post a Comment