The city has decided a popular Mount Pleasant traffic circle-turned meeting place can continue — for now.
Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer said Julien Thomas can continue to offer coffee in the middle of the traffic circle as part of his community-building exercise dubbed “Gather Round.”
“The challenge is, it’s a pilot project that came through the Neighbourhood Small Grants program through the Vancouver Foundation,” said Reimer. “But nobody thought it through for the next five to 10 years and there’s no policy around it.”
As reported in the Courier last week, Thomas was surprised in January when the city contacted him to say he could no longer organize social activities in the traffic circle on St. George Street along the 10th Avenue bike route. Thomas contacted the Courier because his project had been the focus of a 2013 feature story by entertainment editor Michael Kissinger, which has since been nominated for a provincial journalism award.
In 2012, Thomas successfully applied to the Neighbourhood Small Grants Fund and received $800 towards plants, a stonework mosaic, website and coffeemaker to keep visitors and weekend work parties caffeinated. Thomas sat in the circle most Sundays, offering cups of freshly brewed coffee to neighbours and passing cyclists and pedestrians.
Ironically, Thomas had been a member of the mayor’s Engaged City Task Force where he worked on arts-based civic engagement.
At the time, Thomas recommended an ombudsman p osition be created to help residents navigate the public space committee. The city’s website says the main goal of the task force is to “increase neighbourhood engagement, and improve upon the many ways the city connects with Vancouver residents.”
Thomas said it was just hours after the Courier story appeared online last week that he heard from Reimer who told him he could continue with the project.
“Andrea told me that as soon as she saw the story she called the mayor. I’m happy because the decision flies in the face of everything they’re trying to do,” said Thomas. “I’m so glad she shares my point of view.”
An email to the Courier from the city’s communications department last week said, “The primary intention of a traffic circle is to direct the flow of traffic and a secondary benefit is that there can be gardens located in the circles. For safety reasons, the city does not support people staying in traffic circles for extended periods of time beyond the time needed to garden.” The email added city staff has suggested other areas, such as an adjacent sidewalk, where people can gather and socialize. The city also offered additional plants to fill in the traffic circle.
Reimer said staff was simply following procedure when it notified Thomas to stop activities in the circle. Reimer added, she and the mayor convinced staff to allow Thomas to continue serving coffee until policy around the traffic circle is decided.
“There is no policy framework to support it, to say what’s working and what’s not,” said Reimer. “It’s awkward timing because the point of the Engaged City Task Force is to bring people together and support a much greater use of public space.”
But Reimer added there have been complaints from some nearby residents and the city’s traffic department is concerned about people jaywalking into the middle of the street on such a popular bike route.
“In theory it’s an excellent idea,” said Reimer. “But it’s on an extremely well-used bike path on a slight incline where a serious accident could happen.”
[email protected]
Twitter.com/sthomas10
