New app invites users to explore city’s past and present
Posterity and preservation are two of the central themes behind a newly-released app from the Vancouver Public Library that aims to link multiple generations of Vancouverites.
Launched last week, Explore This Vancouver offers residents and visitors a chance to tour the city in an interactive manner complete with photos and stories from yesteryear, told by the people who were there.
The first tour in the collection is called Chinatown Stories: A Narrative Exploration. It offers first-hand insights into what it was like to grow up, work and live in of one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods.
“It’s a neat way of discovering cool, little places to eat in Chinatown now, but also a little glimpse into the past,” said Kay Cahill, the library’s manager of digital services and former cycling columnist for the Courier. “It really builds up this picture of how Chinatown itself has changed.”
The app is free, and users download their tour of choice to their mobile phone. Clips begin with scene setting and introductory text, and provides users with information around where to start their tours. From there, users put on headphones and listen to the tapestries of storytelling unfold – memories of past businesses, landmarks, eateries and other destinations are recounted.
“You actually get to hear the community voices as you make your way down the street,” Cahill said.
Cahill said plans are afoot to expand the tours in the coming months, and it’s expected the next one on the docket will explore the West End.
The app is available for download via Google Play or the iTunes store.
–John Kurucz, Vancouver Courier
Massive algae bloom puts Howe Sound in the green
Visitors to Howe Sound have been seeing green recently, and it’s not due to envy.
Microscopic algae are reproducing rapidly, lending an emerald colour to the waters of Howe Sound, according to Jessica Schultz, manager of the Howe Sound research program with the Vancouver Aquarium.
“This is a little bit unusual because this is a different type of algae that we don’t normally see around there.”
While the colour is reminiscent of the dive tank at the Rio Olympics, the algae is non-toxic and presents no health risk, according to Schultz.
Ocean acidification is the likely cause of the green bloom, which is more common on the west coast of Vancouver Island, according to Nicky Haigh, a researcher with the harmful algae monitoring program at Vancouver Island University. “What people have been seeing is — with increased acidification – more of certain coccolithophore [algae] species.”
The pale, chalky colour in the sound is caused by the coccolithophore’s limestone-like shell, Schultz noted.
Schultz wasn’t certain if climate change is responsible for the verdant wave.
“It’s possible because we haven’t seen it before, but it’s also possible that it’s something that just happens on a longer time scale,” she said.
–Jeremy Shepherd, North Shore News
