Press + Recognition
How Rainways could restore ‘Raincover’ - Christopher Cheung, August 2023, The Tyee
They buried the creek under St. George Street to make room for roads and houses.
Little waterways like it, fed by rainwater, were once everywhere in Vancouver, flowing down the slopes into False Creek, English Bay, Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River. Over 50 of them spawned salmon.
Over a century ago, as the city developed, all but a few of these creeks and streams have been piped and culverted, hidden underground.
But if you’re at the intersection of St. George and Sixth Avenue in the neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant, walk over to the manhole. You can hear it better in the winter, but even in the summer, the sound is unmistakable: running water.
“You might not see it,” said Rita Wong, a nearby resident, “but it’s still there.”
Wong has been listening to the rush of that lost creek for almost two decades. Together with her neighbours, they’ve been trying to bring it back.
Back in 2004, a master’s thesis on the potential daylighting the creek was written by Bryn Davidson, the local architect who has gone on to be known as a designer of laneway housing.
Over the years, Wong, neighbours and local streamkeepers carried that conversation forward, involving artists and local elementary schools to champion the creek’s return with tours, presentations and a colourful mural stretching down St. George Street for passersby to imagine the water’s path.
Their efforts caught the attention of city staff, but it would take years before any money was committed to the creek.
“Trying to navigate any kind of bureaucracy in government, it takes time,” said Wong. “You have to figure out who’s inside that bureaucracy who understands the value of what you’re trying to do.”
Wong and the others knew what they didn’t want: a plaque in remembrance to the lost creek.
“How could we have something that’s actually functional? That has an environmental logic and purpose?”
In 2013, the City of Vancouver committed to exploring opportunities for daylighting creeks and streams in Mount Pleasant, including St. George Street’s, as part of its community plan.
Then in 2016, city council approved a rainwater management plan, mandated by the province, which evolved into Vancouver’s Rain City Strategy.
Among the aims: restoring urban watersheds and treating the abundant rainwater as a resource in the city that is often dubbed “Raincouver.”
In 2019, the money finally came. The city provided funding to the St. George project as part of its capital plan, expected to cost between $5 and $6 million. Public engagement for the long-awaited project finally kicked off, involving groups as young as elementary school-aged Brownies and Cub Scouts.
The city, however, found that daylighting the creek would not be possible, as sewers and gas lines are in the way.
Instead, a path following the historic creek would be created for rainwater to travel — a “rainway.”
From floods to flows
Urbanized cities like Vancouver are paved with hard surfaces, which are not climate resistant.
Hard surfaces cause urban flooding if there is extreme rainfall. A lack of green spaces creates hot pockets called “heat islands” in the face of weather events like 2021’s fatal heat dome.
Hard surfaces, which make up 55 per cent of Vancouver’s surface area, also mean that the city has a difficult time collecting and cleaning rainwater. This is why green infrastructure that can perform the function of natural ecosystems is needed.
“We have a ton of pollutants that come into our rainwater, mostly off of roads,” said Julie McManus, project manager with the City of Vancouver’s green infrastructure branch.
That rainwater runoff picks up everything from hydrocarbons and petroleum, heavy metals from tires and rooftops, chemicals from fertilizers, bacteria from animal waste and microplastics from aging vehicles and buildings.
“A lot of the time, that is just flushed directly into the Fraser River or into the ocean,” said McManus.
To reintroduce natural solutions, Vancouver has experimented with a number of green rainwater infrastructure projects that other rainy West Coast cities like Seattle and Portland have adopted too, from permeable pavement, tree trenches, rain gardens to vegetated channels called swales. Vancouver is also gradually daylighting a small number of waterways like Still Creek.
But a grand, multi-block neighbourhood project like the St. George rainway will be the “first of its kind,” said McManus, with the first stretch of the rainway spanning Broadway downhill to Fifth Avenue.
Instead of curbs, much of this stretch has gravel for street-side parking, which is frequently washed away by the rain, an echo of the creek.
“You can definitely see how much erosion and damage is done by the rain, and the velocity at which it comes down St. George Street,” said McManus. “It goes to show that we build to try and hide [waterways], but nature takes its course.”
Plants play a key role in filtering polluted runoffs. The city has had great success with juncus effusus, a member of the rush family, as part of its green infrastructure. A hardy “superstar,” the grass is native to B.C., evergreen and creates habitat too.
Participants during the city’s public engagements also voted for the planting of beardtongue, western columbine, wood sorrel and tiger lily, all of which are native pollinator plants that will attract the birds and the bees.
The city is also adding bioengineered soils to help filter out pollutants. New street trees will help keep the rainway cool.
Like the city’s other green rainwater infrastructure projects, the rainway will be able to store the volume of water from extreme storms, 48 millimetres of rainwater every 24 hours, cleaning it before it infiltrates into the ground.
“The core of what we’re trying to do through the Rain City Strategy is set things back as best as we can to their natural state,” said McManus.
As a result, the natural quality of the rainway will require less maintenance than a typical manicured garden.
To make the rainway more enjoyable and interactive, the idea for a path alongside the rainway, accessible to people of all ages and abilities, came out of the public engagement.
There was also a desire to reduce vehicle traffic and street parking. Naturally, there was some opposition to this, but participants overwhelmingly voted in favour of more space for the rainway and less for cars.
“There’s always going to be people who care more about parking than ecological well-being,” said Wong. “But there’s enough people who understand why it’s important and are willing to change their behaviour and make small adjustments in their lifestyle to co-exist with biological regeneration.”
Changing the course?
Construction on the rainway began earlier this year and is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
After that, there are two more potential phases that could see the rainway extended to Kingsway, the headwaters of the historic St. George creek.
The city hopes that the project can serve as an educational reminder about hydrology in “Raincouver” and the need for green rain infrastructure.
McManus credits the St. George group for years of advocacy to get the St. George rainway, the city’s first, underway. There are already residents in other neighbourhoods asking the city about rainways of their own.
A little over half of Vancouver’s area is made up of hard surfaces. The city is aiming to manage 40 per cent of the water that falls on those surfaces by 2050 with green rainwater infrastructure.
“For a lot of people, underground infrastructure is really hard to understand,” said McManus. “You really need that history part to have that message hit home… to let them see how much has changed, how much has been buried and how that is impacting our quality of life.”
Rita Wong knows what that’s like, having grown up in Calgary on Treaty 7 territory without knowing that the drinking water came from the Bow and Elbow Rivers.
Wong these days wears many hats as a poet, an activist and an associate professor of critical and cultural studies at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Water is a big part of all of her work.
“You go and see these places, like up in the Peace Valley that is being destroyed, it really is anguishing and painful to the soul,” she said. “To finally have something good happening, even at this small scale, is so important.”
It might not be an expansive river, but Wong believes this neighbourhood-scale project has a lot to teach urban dwellers about the importance of water in the face of climate change and polluting megaprojects elsewhere in the province.
“My hope is that when something like this happens in the city, that logic and that knowledge helps to shift the larger systems that we’re in. It is possible to change our mistakes. That’s a lot of joy in doing that, taking some responsibility and helping things move in a better direction.”
Vancouver gets $19M in federal funding for rainwater runoff projects - March 17 2023, Vancouver Is Awesome
The City of Vancouver and the federal government announced a joint investment Thursday of more than $36.2 million to improve the city's water quality, increase resilience to climate change and enhance ecosystems.
Mayor Ken Sim was joined at the city hall plaza by Vancouver-Granville MP Taleeb Noormohamed, who was acting on behalf of Dominic LeBlanc, the federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities.
The federal government's contribution is $18.9 million, and the city has approved $17.3 million. The money will be funnelled into the city's so-called "rain city strategy," a 30-year plan to better manage rainwater.
"It's important that we embrace innovative climate solutions that reduce pressure on our city's infrastructure," Sim said. "At the core of the rain city strategy is the use of green rainwater infrastructure, which uses plants, trees and soil to capture and clean rainwater where it falls."
Like many cities, the mayor said, Vancouver contends with polluted rainwater runoff, which goes directly into the city's sewer and drainage systems, and ends up in waterways such as the Fraser River, False Creek, Burrard Inlet and Still Creek.
Polluted rainwater affects water quality, negatively impacts Indigenous food sources, and sometimes leads to no-swimming advisories and beach closures in Vancouver. He added that extreme rainfall can cause flooding, create a safety risk for residents, and damage to infrastructure.
St. George Rainway Project
Part of the money, he said, will be used for an ongoing community-driven initiative in Mount Pleasant known as the St. George Rainway Project. The goal is to re-imagine St. George Street and its corridor and design it to mimic natural water cycles and ecosystem functions.
That means adding infrastructure such as rain gardens, planting more native plants and trees and using boulders and corten steel to create dams that slow the flow of rainwater. Road space will be reallocated to benefit pedestrians and cyclists, and seating areas are also planned for the neighbourhood.
Eighth Avenue and Sixth Avenue traffic circles will be replaced with planted curb bulges.
"This project alone will help filter 10,500 square meters of polluted rainwater runoff per year," the mayor said. "Now, to put that in perspective, that is the equivalent of four Olympic-sized swimming pools."
'Rain city'
Noormohamed, who described Vancouver as "the rain city," said the $36.2 million investment will ensure that the city reaches its long-term goal of capturing 90 per cent of Vancouver's annual rainfall.
"We'll see an improvement in our water and air quality and reduce urban heat, ensuring we're not losing vast amounts of water to runoff and ensuring we're using best-in-class absorbent landscaping to replenish and fortify our groundwater," he said.
Scott Jensen, the chairperson of the Vancouver park board, also spoke at the news conference, noting how it wasn't very often that "we have an opportunity to celebrate how much it rains in Vancouver — but we do today."
"Thanks to this funding, we can confidently say that we can make good use of this rainwater and channel it into some very innovative green infrastructure projects across the city," said Jensen, pointing to the park board's recent approval of rainwater collection and other green-related improvements to Gibby's Field, near East 18th Avenue and Knight Street.
Carbon neutral by 2050
The federal-municipal investment comes as Vancouver continues to fight climate change but is not on track to meet its goal to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 50 per cent by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050.
Vancouver council heard in February from Matt Horne, the city's manager of climate mitigation, accountability and outreach, who identified several factors keeping Vancouver from reaching its targets.
They included the need for changes to policy and zoning, infrastructure upgrades, building code updates, people not shifting to transit, more electric vehicles and chargers, heat pump conversions and reallocating road space for pedestrians and cyclists.
Money to fund the city's $500-million climate emergency action plan is also crucial to reaching targets, with council learning there was a $230-million funding gap in the five-year strategy.
$19 million in federal funding for Vancouver's rainwater runoff upgrades - Kenneth Chan, March 16 2023, Daily Hive
With the frequency of heavy rainfall events expected to rise over the coming decades, mitigation measures for the impacts of climate change are increasingly front and centre for the City of Vancouver.
For that reason, the federal government announced today it will provide the municipal government with $18.9 million towards the City’s Rain City Strategy.
The City is also contributing $17.3 million towards the project, which represents a total investment of over $36 million between both governments.
“With the increase in flood and climate-related challenges—investing in natural infrastructure is a way for communities to use their ecosystems to improve quality of life, reduce pollution, enhance biodiversity, and build resilience to climate change,” said Vancouver Granville MP Taleeb Noormohamed in a statement.
“The Rain City Strategy is an exciting investment in natural infrastructure solutions helping to reduce carbon emissions.”
While the municipal government has emphasized an urgent need to renew and expand its aging sewer system, including separating building sanitary sewage from stormwater sewage, the new funding will go towards expanding natural infrastructure to prevent urban flooding.
This includes the use of water-absorbent landscaping, rainwater tree trenches, the restoration of wetlands and streams, and other ways that capture rainwater closer to where it falls. An ecological process also helps remove pollution from urban runoff and improve water quality.
An example of such an upcoming project that utilizes such natural infrastructure features is the St. George Rainway in Mount Pleasant, which will run north-south along St. George Street for a length of 10 city blocks or about one km. Construction on the first segment of the rainway is expected to begin in 2023.
The recent Richards Street design changes that added an additional north-south bike lane to downtown Vancouver also included natural infrastructure features, including stormwater tree trenches and the planting of over 100 trees and planter boxes to manage water at street level.
Such street designs will help reduce rainwater runoff from hard surfaces to help reduce combined sewer overflows.
“Increasing natural infrastructure in Vancouver has numerous benefits for residents and the species we share our city with,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim. “This investment will contribute to a more livable Vancouver, a stronger future in the face of coming climate pressures, an opportunity to grow our local green economy, and healthier waters in Still Creek, False Creek, Burrard Inlet and the Fraser River.”
2020
City of Vancouver advancing first segment of rainway on St. George Street - Kenneth Chan, November 2 2020, Daily Hive
A long-envisioned rainwater feature in East Vancouver is taking its first steps towards being realized, as the project has just entered the City of Vancouver’s public consultation process.
The concept of a “rainway” along St. George Street was first envisioned in 2008 by a grassroots community group dedicated to seeing its implementation, and it was subsequently included in the municipal government’s 2013 Mount Pleasant Plan Implementation Package.
As first proposed by the group, the Mount Pleasant Plan calls for a stormwater feature along St. George Street between Kingsway and Great Northern Way — a length of 10 city blocks or about one km.
There would be a naturalizing of the streetscape and drainage, including the incorporation of wetlands, with the stream fed by rainwater captured in local streets and sidewalks.
For the municipal government’s approach, there will be a combination of rain gardens, bioswales, and rainwater tree branches, effectively mimicking the natural water cycle.
“These systems capture, store and filter rainwater runoff from hard surfaces, helping to reduce combined sewer overflows, improve water quality, reduce flooding, and enhance climate resilience,” reads an email from the City of Vancouver.
“During heavy rain events, flowing water may be visible in the rainway. During average rain events, water will appear in the rainway as slowly seeping into the ground. The majority of the time, the rainway will be a landscaped feature and no running water will be visible.”
This roughly follows the route of the historic St. George Creek, which was buried underground in the early 1900s to make way for roads and houses.
“The development of a Rainway will require some trade-offs. To create space for the Rainway, some road space that is currently used for parking and/or travel will need to be repurposed,” reads the city’s public consultation materials.
“The Rainway has potential to not only provide essential rainwater management services, but also create a unique blue-green corridor that provides enhanced public space, street improvements, and more greenery and biodiversity to the neighbourhood.”
Additionally, enhanced walking and cycling paths will be created along the route.
Currently, the city is planning to proceed with the northernmost half of the Mount Pleasant Plan’s rainway along St. George Street between East Broadway and Great Northern Way, spanning a length of about 500 metres.
For this first stretch of rainway, the timeline is to develop preliminary design options during Winter 2021, identify a preferred design concept in Spring 2021, finalize a detailed design by Fall 2021, and conduct construction between 2022 and 2023.
2015
101 ways to improve Vancouver - Rebecca Blissett, June 9 2015, Vancouver Courier
Ringing cowbells and cheering on strangers who were out for their morning exercise sounded like good fun so that’s what Robyn Chan and a handful of her friends did Saturday morning along the Stanley Park seawall.
It was one of Chan’s big ideas for her contribution to the Vancouver portion of the 100in1Day festival, which was held for the second time in this city as part of a national community-building movement based around random merriment.
Chan, who is also the project lead for 100in1Day in Canada and works for the local branch of Evergreen, a not-for-profit environmental group specializing in livable cities, is pleased with the way Vancouver has taken to holding individual projects (or, as the group likes to call them, “interventions”) as a way of taking one small action to improve the city.
“It’s really great. The ideas are anything and everything — it’s anything that brings about positive change,” she said. “It’s really a social experiment.”
Residents in Vancouver and in other areas of the Lower Mainland participated by leading their own events that, Chan said, help transform the way people interact with the city. Some had stronger messages than others. Stacey Forrester and
Sarah Foot set up the Admiration Station at the Mount Pleasant Library where the idea was to compliment a stranger in a respectful manner. Others, such as the Silent Disco at Grandview Park where anybody could show up, sync playlists on their phones or MP3 players, throw on some headphones and dance, was about community connection.
Others, still, were historically and environmentally motivated such as the informative walk on St. George Street where a historic stream, one of many paved over as Vancouver grew, still flows underneath. The walk was lead by women who are part of Lost Rivers Vancouver, St. George Rainway Project and the False Creek Watershed Society.
“We want to use rainwater to bring life back to cities,” said landscape architect Sarah Primeau before walking down the street with the group that held long stretches of blue fabric between them to represent a stream.
100in1Day started three years ago in Bogotá, Columbia, when some students were asked to come up with six ways to promote civic engagement. While brainstorming ideas over beer, the students decided to tackle 100 instead, which, miraculously, ended up being 250. The idea spread to other cities around the globe and Metro Vancouver jumped on board with 83 events in different neighbourhoods last year. That figure grew to 105 this year.
It wasn’t just individual participants, either. One of the stations that worked up an all-day buzz was the Kensington branch of the Vancouver Public Library where the mechanical clacking of typewriter keys springing onto paper was enough to stop passersby. Much fuss has been made of the innovation lab and other technological advances at the central library of late, but there’s a tactile appeal to old-fashioned typing which falls somewhere between pen and parchment and letters electronically imprinted on dot-matrix paper.
“We’re promoting high-tech stuff but that doesn’t mean there’s not a place for this,” said Sarah Green, the VPL employee responsible for rounding up the three typewriters outside the library in a temporary living room featuring her own furniture from home.
“People have been expressing all day that they love how the typewriter sounds. It’s using a lot of senses and it sounds comforting.”
Photo from Vancouver Courier
Vancouverites weigh in on False Creek Flats plans. Naoibh O’Connor, May 28, 2015, Vancouver Courier
Water drew Shahira Sakiyama to a City of Vancouver open house Wednesday afternoon, an event which launched the planning process for False Creek Flats. And not the water you get from a tap or a bottle.
“This is the historic site of the old False Creek, so I just wanted to see as this development takes place how they’re incorporating, honouring the historical site of the creek into the development that will be taking place, be it in green infrastructure or historical markers,” she said. “You know, there’s reference here to climate change and so in aiming to be the greenest city, how are they embracing how we’re going to be the bluest city?”
Sakiyama was one of dozens of people who flowed into the three-hour long open house as soon as it opened at 4:30 p.m. Visitors wanted to find out about the city’s plans and pitch their own ideas about what they’d like to see happen in an area that encompasses more than 450 acres.
About 8,000 people work in approximately 600 businesses in the flats, which are bounded by Main Street to the west, Prior and Venables streets to the north, Clark Drive to the east, and Great Northern Way to the south.
Rita Wong, who’s been working with Sakiyama on the St. George Rainway project, is equally interested in the future of the land. Wong noted there are about 50 different buried streams in Vancouver and St. George is one that flowed down into the False Creek Flats area.
“I would love to see reconstructed wetlands, daylighted creeks — you know to be working with water. Shahira talked about climate change and if we’re going to think ahead, we need to have resilient design that works with nature and not against it and is prepared for lots of water, as well as little water. This is a real opportunity. I hope it is a good process,” she said.
Rob Veerman stopped by to check out plans for things like the future hospital, greenways and bicycle routes, as well as how the area will be connected.
Veerman said many Vancouverites don’t know much about the flats because the area is not very accessible.
“Right now, the way I see it, the neighbourhood is really separated by the train tracks and if you, say, want to get from the Great Northern Way campus, the Emily Carr campus, to Strathcona Park, it’s very hard to get there,” he said. “You have to go all the way around Main Street or to Clark Drive just to get around the entire neighbourhood. There’s no way to cross the rail lines right now. So I’m interested in how the city is going to make the neighbourhood into more of a neighbourhood — make it more accessible to people: bikers, walkers, even cars.”
Sarb Mund, who owns Commissary Connect, a commercial kitchen located in the flats, said he’d like to see a central food hub with recycling alternatives.
Other open house visitors posted their thoughts on an 'I wish my flats had' board. Remarks included:
- famers market with commercial processing and eateries
- had a 'special innovation One' where regular zoning and bylaws did not apply — test new venture models/industry
- overpass from SkyTrain
- were more business friendly acknowledged
- revived indigenous cultures and practices
Brian Jackson, the city’s head planner, said there’s a lot of interest in the business community about False Creek Flats.
“They want to see it maintained for jobs. They’re interested in the kinds of jobs we’re trying to attract here, the type of density that we’re going to try to build into the new plan,” he said. “This is 450 acres of prime job space for the City of Vancouver for people who don’t want to be downtown but want to be close to downtown, and who like funky spaces and places that are still in the heart of downtown.”
Jackson said the city doesn’t want to put a strict timeframe on the plan, but it would like to move it forward in about a year. At this point, he said staff are listening to people, trying to understand what the issues with redevelopment are, and what the transportation requirements for the area are.
“We want to connect this area to the rest of the city,” he said.
The biggest challenge, according to Jackson, is keeping people focused on the fact this is a non-residential opportunity to provide job space.
“This is not about more condominiums. This is about the type of jobs that aren’t located in a downtown and looking at green jobs and high-tech jobs, and how we can bring more of those to the city,” he said.
Workshops on various aspects of the plan for False Creek Flats are scheduled for June. See vancouver.ca/falsecreekflats for for dates and more information.
Photo from Vancouver Courier
2014
Vancouver's Lost Salmon Streams Wriggle Back to Life: Residents aim to restore life long buried under urban development. Pauline Holdsworth, 5 Jul 2014, TheTyee.ca
“Max Adrien stands at the corner of St. George and Sixth in Vancouver, looking down the hill towards shipping cranes that peek out of the bay. “This should be declared a Vancouver heritage site,” he says.
He’s standing on pavement that covers up one of Vancouver’s lost creeks. It used to carry spawning salmon from False Creek up to its headwaters at present-day Robson Park. Now, those headwaters are covered over by a playground, but the park still has wet, boggy patches. The forgotten stream bubbles up from time, reminding residents of a landscape that’s long since been eclipsed by urban development.
”You could argue that the creek remembers. Or, we remember,” says Rita Wong, who lives by the lost creek.
You can still hear water in the storm drains, and little yellow salmon are spray-painted on the nearby curb. There’s a mural near the intersection that shows the seven life stages of the salmon. Someone’s written a swirling line of poetry in the sidewalk concrete: listen; the buried stream gurgles its longing to return to daylight & moonlight to nourish ducks, bracken, ferns, salmonberry & you.
This is the St. George Rainway. Adrien and Wong are both part of a neighbourhood group that’s trying to bring the old creek back to life — or at least create a new creek on top of where it used to run. Wong helped start the project when she came across a digitized map of Vancouver’s 50-odd lost salmon streams, and realized she lived right next to one.
”That map is very telling,” she says. “It reminds you of what was here, and it also, I think, poses a challenge in terms of what could be here again.”
Wong doesn’t think she’ll ever see salmon on St. George Street, since the old creek is buried under concrete. But she thinks a rainway, which would collect winter rains to create a seasonal creek, would be a good alternative.
Other once-lost streams have already seen returns. In Spanish Banks, coho and chum salmon have returned to the creek that runs along the west side of the beach and up into Pacific Spirit Regional Park. Salmon have returned, or soon will, to Still Creek, Hastings Creek and Musqueam Creek.
The city plans to one day restore Tatlow Creek along Point Grey Road. There’s even long-term talk of restoring China Creek through East Vancouver all the way from Trout Lake to False Creek through a combination of closed pipes and restored streams in city parks.
One by one, the lines on the map of Vancouver’s lost salmon streams are coming back to life.”
Coho fry ready to try their luck in Vancouver's restored Spanish Banks Creek. Photo by Pauline Holdsworth for the Tyee.
2013
East Side group aims to recreate lost stream with rainwater runoff Vancouver Courier, November 2013
“A community group wants a historic waterway in Mount Pleasant to flow again along St. George Street.
The St. George group and the Vancouver Society of Storytelling are holding a Creek Forum Nov. 5 with students from Mount Pleasant elementary and money from the Vancouver Foundation.
Their hope is to recreate the creek with rainwater runoff along St. George from Kingsway to East Fifth Avenue.
“How are we capturing [rain water] and dealing with it properly in a way that not only enhances our urban environment with green and blue spaces, increases biodiversity and actively contributes to Vancouver becoming one of the greenest cities in the world by 2020,” said Shahira Sakiyama, community liaison for the St. George Rainway Project group.
She notes permeable surfaces, rain gardens or bioswales, such as grass channels akin to those in the former Olympic Village, could collect and filter rain water and take stress off aging sewer lines and the Iona Wastewater Treatment Plant. A biofiltration plant could be established on the False Creek Flats to clean storm water before it enters False Creek. Mount Pleasant’s steep slopes could provide potential for micro hydropower.
The St. George Rainway group, an offshoot of the False Creek Watershed Society, and the storytelling society are collecting survey responses about possible designs for different blocks of St. George that they’ll share Nov. 5. One concept is a woonerf, or a space shared by cars, cyclists and pedestrians, with no one dominant mode — something more common in Europe — with a rainway featuring a wooded boardwalk surrounded by greenery along the field at Mount Pleasant elementary, between Seventh and Eighth avenues.
St. George between Kingsway and 13th Avenue near Robson Park will be closed for the Nov. 5 event. That’s the location of a sinkhole the city repeatedly paves over. That’s where the St. George Rainway Project group wants the headwaters of the creek marked.
Sakiyama said architectural designer Bryn Davidson’s thesis project from 2004 about St. George Creek was a finalist in a city design competition in 2004. Educator and poet Rita Wong discovered his project in 2009 and the pair organized an event with historian Bruce Macdonald in 2010 that spurred efforts to recreate the creek.
Elementary students mainly from Mount Pleasant have learned about streams, created related art projects and a community parade. The St. George Rainway project is meant to be a community-building project as much as it is an engineering project.
Sakiyama said the Nov. 5 event is being held on a weekday at Robson Park from 10:30 to 2 p.m. to make sure it’s a child-inclusive and celebrates the work students have achieved. “Maybe when some of these [Mount Pleasant] students are going to say Emily Carr University of Art and Design at the new campus down there, they could be walking around these ideas that they helped bring to life when they were in fourth and fifth grade asking people in their housing places to sign this petition,” she said.
So far, Sakiyama says, concerns have come from residents who face St. George between Sixth and Seventh avenues and are protective of their parking. She notes planning for a potential recreation of a creek needs to be done now before more hard surfaces are laid down in the redevelopment of Destination Auto near Robson Park, the Great Northern Way Campus and nearby residences and potential rapid transit to the UBC. For the more information about the Nov. 5 events or the surveys, see vancouverstorytelling.org.”
St. George Street Rainway in the City of Vancouver: Community-Scale Project Enhances Resiliency Partnership for Water Sustainability, November 2013
Mount Pleasant Students Become Creek Stewards for St George Creek
Vancouver School Board, November 2013
“A creek once ran from Kingsway to Great Northern Way. It has long since been covered over with asphalt. But that didn’t stop a group of ten Mount Pleasant Elementary students from Grades 5 to 7 from exploring the creek in their lessons about watersheds.
Inspired, the students teamed up with storyteller Naomi Steinberg, the Executive Director of the Vancouver Storytelling Society. Steinberg worked with Mount Pleasant students to present a series of school-wide performances telling the story of the creek. Then the students headed downtown for a nerve-wracking (but very successful) presentation to the Vancouver Foundation.
Despite all this activity, the stewards aren’t done yet. Steinberg says the children are currently working on the development of a series of community engagement charrettes, guided walking tours and the production of a catalogue of writing, statistics and illustrations that they can use at an upcoming Creek Forum. The forum is planned for November 5 on St. George Street between Broadway and 12 Avenue, and will highlight and contextualize the creek’s potential for green design.
The upcoming event is aimed at answering the practical question of how one could design a city block into the headwaters of the St. George Rainway.”