Residents, shop owners point out that there are a lot of factors — such as hills — that affect access to areas
Doug Ward
Sun
Some streets will close near the Hillcrest Olympic curling venue. Photograph by: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
Olympic street closures look straightforward when sketched out on a map.
They get complicated once the needs of the people who live and work there are considered.
Just ask Wilfred Vacheresse, who lives with his family on Midlothian Avenue, near the Vancouver Olympic Centre/Vancouver Paralympic Centre at Hillcrest Park, which will house the curling events.
A long stretch of Midlothian will be behind a security perimeter and closed to traffic from Feb.1 to March 2.
“On paper, road closures look easy,” said Vacheresse. “But in terms of access for residents, there’s a lot of subtleties involved.”
Initially, Olympic parking officials told Vacheresse that his family members could access their house from the back.
But Vacheresse’s 16-year-old daughter Danielle is blind due to complications from a brain tumour. The rear of Vacheresse’s property slopes down, making access from the back very difficult for his daughter, who uses a wheelchair.
“The Olympic planners originally saw this area as a place they could close off because on a map everything is two-dimensional. They hadn’t appreciated that there is a big hill here.”
The dilemma of rear access for the Vacheresse family was resolved once Olympic officials decided to issue permits to residents on Midlothian to drive and park on their street adjacent to Queen Elizabeth Park during the Olympic period.
But Vacheresse is worried about how the medical supplies for his daughter will continue to be delivered twice weekly to the house by courier companies.
He also wonders how the closures will affect nurses who help his daughter and some seniors on Midlothian with Alzheimer’s disease.
Not that Vacheresse wishes the Olympics would go away. His daughter has actually benefited from Olympic dollars. The sidewalks around Hillcrest Park are now wheelchair-accessible, making it far easier for her to wheel over to Main Street or to visit nearby friends.
Dr. Wei Lee, another Midlothian resident, said she can live with the closure so long as she has a permit to park on the street. “I hope they allow us to drive back and forth to work. I’m okay if they give us a pass. I need to get to the hospital in Burnaby.”
Lee is confident that people who want to visit her will be able to gain access from behind her home.
“We are trying to cooperate with the Olympics. We have nothing against the Olympics. I’m sure the Olympics will make the rules reasonable to go back and forth.”
There’s more angst downtown on Abbott Street, where parking will be prohibited between Expo Boulevard and Keefer Street. Here the issue is economics.
“They are closing this entire block for parking, which is a significant issue for us,” said Klay Kaulbach, owner of the du Jour clothing boutique.
“There won’t be parking for our Vancouver clients.”
Nikki Nguyen, a makeup artist at Ignite on Abbott Street, said: “We are concerned about whether we are going to lose business — definitely. Most of our clients live in the area but they do drive here.”
Ben Stevenson, a clerk at the Crossroads Liquor Store on Abbott Street, said: “I don’t imagine there should be any less business than there is now. If anything, there should be more.”
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