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Woodward’s an invitation for us all to experience a historic social re-integration

Bob Ransford
Sun

The big red “W” -a rebuilt Vancouver icon on its Eiffel Towerlike base — marks ground zero for the rebirth of a real community in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The Woodward’s development, topped once again with the rotating “W”, is a model for modern urban regeneration, demonstrating the mix of uses, urban-design detailing and intentional diversification required to make a real neighbourhood with a real sense of community.

Many have taken issue with me in the past when I have suggested that the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood isn’t a real neighbourhood today.

Some of my strongest critics on this issue have been from among that small group of activists who believe that the disadvantaged deserve their own neighbourhood. They argue that their community’s identity is based on a strong culture.

No doubt a culture does exist in the neighbourhood. But there are some who constantly try to constrain the bounds of that culture so that it only embraces one class and celebrates poverty as a symbol of class struggle, resisting any change that suggests the kind of social integration that makes communities diverse, complete and strong.

Woodward’s pulls at those constraints. It pushes the bounds, not only those embraced by the protectors of the class struggle, but also those bounds self-defined by people outside the neighbourhood who see nothing but misery in the Downtown Eastside.

With its mix of high-end and moderately priced condos, its 225 units of social housing for families and the hard-to-house, all planned as part of a mixed-use development with a university mini-campus and cultural facility, pharmacy, grocery store, bank, coffee shop, dentist’s office, sandwich shop and a pub, Woodward’s has ignited the rebirth of what was once Vancouver’s city centre.

I spent a couple of hours walking through Woodward’s the other day, hanging out in the public space and shopping there when most other Vancouverites and our onslaught of Olympic visitors were preoccupied with the fun zones throughout the downtown. It was relatively quiet there, but welcoming.

That’s when it dawned on me that it’s not just the housing and the mix of commercial and educational uses at Woodward’s that are already helping make the Downtown Eastside a real neighbourhood.

The real key to Woodward’s success is its public spaces and the way they are already beginning to instigate the kind of social interaction that is needed for all of us to know each other and understand how we all fit together in the Vancouver we all cherish.

The inviting public realm and the generously scaled public gathering places in the Woodward’s project are the places that will welcome people of all means, all cultures, all backgrounds and from all parts of the city, night and day, encouraging the kind of social interaction that builds real community.

For the last few decades, the Downtown Eastside has lacked well-designed and well-maintained public places that attract a diverse people and make them feel welcome, comfortable and safe. Litter-strewn sidewalks on busy thoroughfares fronted by boarded-up, decaying buildings are not places people want to hang out — unless you have no other choice or unless you are a dope pedlar preying on those who have few choices in life.

Woodward’s has spaces that will attract people — all kinds of people — and those are places where people will once again feel comfortable in this special part of Vancouver.

One of the most impressive and welcoming spaces is a well-proportioned atrium tucked between three main buildings, protected from the weather, but designed to feel very much like an outdoor plaza. The space feels comfortable because of its generous but contained size, its abundance of natural light, the engaging public art and the active retail areas that front on a space protected from the rain, but open enough that it feels like a street.

There are other well-designed public spaces in the Woodward’s project, like the courtyard on which the SFU Contemporary Arts Centre faces, and the new Cordova and Hastings Street frontages.

I discovered something profoundly ironic when I visited the “Downtown Eastside Connect Centre” in the Woodward’s project the other day.

The Connect Centre is a drop-in display centre targeting the international media in town for the Olympics. The Centre showcases the many partnerships that have been built and the investments made by the provincial government, City Hall, Vancouver’s corporate community and more than 30 non-profit groups to address quality-of-life issues like housing, social services and economic development in the Downtown Eastside.

Among the exhibits and information displays at the Connect Centre was one that advertised a so-called “living library”. The library, operated by the non-profit agency Atira Women’s Resource Centre, offers 30-minute appointments with select residents and workers from the Downtown Eastside (the “books”) to engage in dialogue with visitors to the neighbourhood (the “readers”) to openly discuss prejudices and stereotypes and to tell their stories. It is a contrived way for people of different social classes and different backgrounds to get to know each other.

The irony was that this artificial attempt at facilitating social interaction — the kind of interaction that occurs naturally in diverse neighbourhoods — is being advertised in a space within a new neighbourhood centre that has the potential to encourage much more authentic and real social interaction.

Bob Ransford is a public affairs consultant with Counterpoint Communications Inc. He is a former real estate developer who specializes in urban land use issues. E-mail: [email protected]

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Granville Street venue spruced up by $3-million renovation, offers live performances

Malcolm Parry
Sun

EVERYTHING ABOUT IT IS APPEALING: So wrote Annie Get Your Gun composer-lyricist Irving Berlin in his show-stopping song, There’s No Business Like Show Business. It was certainly appealing to one-time civil litigator Dick Gibbons and the Whistler-based Gibbons Hospitality Group in 2005. That’s when they paid $3 million for downtown Granville Street’s shabby Vogue theatre. Their plan was to enhance the 1941-built theatre’s Art Deco style while redeveloping it as a 1,000-seat supper club like New York’s Tao or the Buddha Bar in Paris.

That dream foundered after three years of effort, when the group failed to acquire a liquor primary licence to match the many bars and clubs that surround the Vogue in Vancouver’s so-called Entertainment District. What it received was a restricted licence to serve from an hour before to an hour after live performances, but not past midnight. This is in an area where most facilities operate for up to three hours longer.

“The plain message that came to us from the city of Vancouver was that they wanted the Vogue to operate as a live theatre,” Gibbons said Tuesday. “So, we said: ‘Let’s do what they want, and upgrade it beyond anyone’s expectations.'”

That entailed a $3-million renovation, of which about $2 million has been spent already. Half went into sound, lighting and high-definition digital-projection systems. A total plumbing upgrade (including doubling washroom capacity) and what Gibbons calls Vancouver’s most fuel-efficient boiler cost $400,000. Purpose-woven Art Deco carpeting was installed and earlier fixtures renovated, including a long-painted-over chrome strip above the proscenium arch. Nine dressing rooms were renovated, along with offices for visiting production staff. A bar-equipped green room is nearing completion.

Outside, only minor tasks remain to restore the Vogue’s canopy and iconic neon sign. Walls will soon glisten under buff paint.

As work goes on, a half-dozen stage shows have sold out since July, and Gibbons said the annual budget for talent is $1 million. Productions will step up April 13, when the Burn The Floor show goes on for eight performances.

During the Olympics period, footsore folk pay $20 to watch the daylong Canadian Talent Showcase which, under agreement with the CTV network, includes hockey games projected brilliantly on a 42-foot screen.

“We’re not getting any handout from the city or government,” Gibbons said. “We’re going to operate profitably as a business enterprise without taxpayers’ money. But we do expect some modest cooperation from the city of Vancouver and the province when it comes to issues like [liquor] licensing.”

As for operating profitably, Gibbons has a rule. “We own all our real estate,” he said of the group’s 500-seat Longhorn Saloon, 330-seat Buffalo Bill’s club and 500-seat Tapley’s Pub in Whistler. That’s where Gibbons and wife Colleen moved in 1994, when son Joey and daughter Erika were ski-racing there. Joey and brother Matthew — a former 100-point centre with the Chilliwack Chiefs junior hockey team — later set up the London Tap House chain in London, Hamilton and Toronto, Ont. Including land, those facilities cost $2.5 million, $5 million and $6 million respectively. The group also owns Port Alberni‘s 50-room Hospitality Inn, which Gibbons Sr. built at age 30.

Still, owning a theatre and playing impresario is a different game entirely. As Irving Berlin also wrote: “Even with a turkey that you know will fold / You may be stranded out in the cold / Still you wouldn’t trade it for a sack o’ gold / Let’s go on with the show.”

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Olympic fans can virtually ski the runs of Whistler-Blackcomb, take a run on the bobsleigh course

Gillian Shaw
Sun

Google Street View has taken to the slopes with the launch Tuesday of Google Snow View, taking viewers on a virtual tour of Whistler-Blackcomb and the Olympic runs.

With the Google Street View camera mounted on the back of a snowmobile, photographers toured the runs of the ski resort, capturing images that are being shown on Google’s newly launched website for the 2010 Olympic Games, google.com/games10.

Photographers also took to the winding bike trails and pedestrian streets of the mountain resort with the camera mounted on Google’s Street View trike.

The virtual tour was part of a lineup of online tools and website features for the Olympics showcased by Google at an event Tuesday at Vancouver’s B.C. International Media Centre, which was attended by Premier Gordon Campbell and Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed.

You don’t have to be at the Olympics to take a virtual run down Whistler’s bobsleigh course, thanks to enhanced 3-D imagery Google says it will have ready in time for Friday’s opening ceremony. All nine Olympics venues are available in 3-D and you can see them in Google Earth’s 3-D buildings layer or see the collection in Google’s 3-D warehouse.

Google’s tool kit for Olympic fans also includes special Games-time search results and its website for the 2010 Games has a transit trip planner for Vancouver/Whistler, including a timetable of events.

While the Olympics tools have been up and running since January and in some cases earlier, Google officially announced the launch of its website for the Games and the online tool kit this week.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Traipsing through a bevy of sunny, sandy Shangri-Las

Anne Georg
Province

As winter clenched its icy grip around Calgary, I despaired. No amount of friendship alleviated my malaise. I needed to escape. I daydreamed about hammocks, warm tropical evenings and meeting new friends. While surfing the web, I found a last-minute deal on a direct flight to Huatulco, Mexico.

I acted. I booked the flight, packed my bags and drove to the airport on a cold, dark morning, listening to radio reports warning of an impending winter storm. I didn’t have time to plan. Within six hours, I disembarked into sunshine on a hot sunny afternoon. I walked out of the airport and caught a public bus north to the newly minted city of Puerto Escondido.

When the 16th-century Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez was asked to describe Mexico, he is said to have crumpled up a piece of paper and set it on the table. I was reminded of that on the serpentine Highway 200 to Puerto Escondido, which runs through the steep Oaxaca coastal hills.

I took the first reasonably priced hotel I found on a long stretch of beach called Zicatela and walked along the strip, enveloped in the sensuous tropical evening.

Restaurants offering an array of cuisine line the beach, each with its own music. Salsa, reggae, hip-hop and jazz collided in the evening air, creating a cacophony of musical genres.

I chose a simple outdoor eatery, sat at a table on the beach, kicked off my flip-flops and enjoyed the sound of the surf crashing onto shore.

I ordered a whole fried fish and a beer and made small talk with my friendly waiter.

My spirits began to lift. Puerto Escondido is known as Mexico’s surfing capital and Zicatela is the reason. I don’t surf, but I knew several small, protected coves ideal for swimming lie within a 20-minute walk of the town. My favourite beach was Carizilillo, where I whiled away a couple of afternoons, hanging in a hammock in a palapa (a thatched-roof, open-sided structure), drinking coconut water, eating fresh shrimp cocktails and taking frequent dips in calm turquoise water.

Another of my favourite beaches was Roca Blanca, a short bus trip north of Puerto Escondido. Miles and miles of undeveloped beach extends to the north and to the south. Once again, I found a hammock in a palapa, and bodysurfed in the moderate waves with a handful of Mexican tourists.

One morning, I forfeited a couple of hours of beach time and explored the market in the centre of Puerto Escondido, enjoying the sights and smells of the abundant produce that comes from the nearby hills.

Evenings were never dull.

I stumbled across a friendly little bar on Zicatela called the Rockaway, where I mingled with the expats and other travellers. Friday night we danced salsa around the swimming pool to a live band that regularly plays there.

Puerto Escondido is home to an emerging international music scene. Sunday night the promise of more live music took me downtown to the Adoquin, Puerto Escondido’s main tourist strip.

A pedestrian-only zone in the evenings, it features shops selling Mexican crafts, and more pizza places than taco stands. I bought my enchilada dinner from the women selling typical Mexican fare on the street.

Street food can be risky in Mexico, but I trusted these hospitable vendors, who wore pristine white uniforms and served food from sparkling clean tabletops. Then I went across the street to the tiny, funky Congo bar where I met some of the Rockaway regulars.

We grooved to edgy roots music played by a young Argentine musician passing through town. A decent local band backed him up.

The next morning I travelled south about an hour by public bus to San Augustinillo, a village comprising a couple of streets running along the ocean sprinkled with numerous small hotels and restaurants. I discovered that most of the Oaxaca coastline is exposed, offering excellent surfing conditions; but it can be dangerous for swimming.

After checking into a hotel, I found a slice of beach protected by rocks where I frolicked and chatted with fishermen and the occasional tourist passing by.

I awoke before sunrise the next day and walked along the deserted beach, meditating on the beauty of the morning and my vanishing despair.

With only a couple of vacation days left, I set out by cab to go the short distance to Zipolite, Mexico’s best-known nude beach and another surfer’s paradise. A string of modest low-rise hotels catering mainly to backpackers straggles along the beach.

I stayed at Lo Cosmico, a collection of rustic bamboo huts and simple, clean rooms built on a rocky hillside overlooking a small cove. I prefer a private bath and hot water, but I made an exception here because of the hotel’s charm. Hammocks hang in every room and in the common area. The owners are friendly and helpful.

I lounged in the various hammocks for hours, reading and chatting with the owners and the guests, talking philosophy, and swapping travel stories and personal histories. Evenings I enjoyed inexpensive, exquisite gourmet dinners at El Alchemista. I’d settled into my own version of a Corona commercial.

The morning of the seventh day, I took a public bus heading into Huatulco. The wide, manicured boulevards were eerily empty. Tourists stay in resort hotels in the several coves of Huatulco, which are separated by rocky hills.

I couldn’t see all the beaches in the short time that remained, so I took a boat tour that cruised along the coastline, revealing numerous small beaches, mostly undeveloped. We stopped at two of them, swimming and snorkelling in the warm, clear water.

I arrived at the airport in the nick of time. Sand pebbled between my toes and sea salt stiffened my unruly hair.

My despair had cowered and slunk away, tail between its legs, vanquished by the pleasure of my spontaneous escape.

IF YOU GO

– Public transportation runs frequently and costs a fraction of cabs, also ubiquitous. Be prepared to barter with taxi drivers. Where to stay:

– Puerto Escondido: Mayflower Hotel and Hostel, between the Adoquin and the town’s principal beach.

– San Augustinillo: Hotel Punta Placer, on the beach.

– Zipolite: Lo Cosmico, at the far northern corner of the beach.

Where to eat:

– Puerto Escondido: El Cafecito, on Zicatela.

– San Augustinillo: El Secreto, on the main street.

– Zipolite: El Alchemista, on the beach, just below Lo Cosmico. Where to have fun

– Puerto Escondido: Bar Rockaway, on the Zicatela beach strip; and Congo on the Adoquin.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Jeff Lee
Sun

Looking for the address of one of those three German Olympic pavilions, the beer-fest one in the parking lot or the one in Stanley Park? Want to know where Park & Rides are in Richmond? Trying to find the International Olympic Committee’s invitation-only marketing club?

The Vancouver Sun has created an interactive Google map containing just about every Olympic location and event you could want.

Official 2010 competition and non-competition venues, sponsor houses, Canadian federal, provincial and city pavilions, celebration sites, Park & Ride lots, Olympic Bus Network locations, free bicycle valet services, media facilities, road closures, Olympic pedestrian malls, cruise ship services, and the obligatory SkyTrain, Canada Line and WestCoast Express stations.

We even listed the location of the three RCMP cruise ships, safely ensconced as they are behind security fencing. We’ve also linked useful websites to many of the map pointers, such as event schedules for each of the Olympic venues and programming information for celebration sites.

The map is so complex that Google apparently can’t handle all of the information on one page; many of the transportation services have spilled over to a second page.

And we’re still looking for more. If you have tips on events or facilities we’ve missed, e-mail [email protected].

You can access the map at www.vancouversun.com/olympicmap.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Frank Luba
Province

Call it Burrard Bridge Bike Lanes Brouhaha, Part 2.

On Thursday, Vancouver City Council will consider whether a bike lane should be installed on the north side of the Dunsmuir Viaduct.

The controversial Burrard bike lane reduced the lanes available to motorists on the bridge. A release Sunday from the office of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson suggests Dunsmuir will be different.

“The bike lane would be created by recon-figuring the existing barriers, and would not remove traffic lanes,” said the release, which included Robertson’s enthusiastic support. The new bike lane would open after the Olympic Games conclude.

“We know from the Burrard Bridge that, when we separate bike lanes from cars with protective barriers, more people cycle and it reduces the risk of injury or accidents,” said Robertson. “We need more protected bike lanes in Vancouver and the Dunsmuir Viaduct is the logical next step.”

Coun. Suzanne Anton doesn’t oppose the Dunsmuir project, but she pointed out it’s not accurate to say traffic lanes wouldn’t be removed.

The lane proposed for bikes was blocked several years ago for construction in the area and never returned to motorists, explained Anton.

“The challenge in the downtown is there aren’t a lot of separated [bike] routes,” said Anton.

A staff report on the Dunsmuir lanes also suggested they should be connected with their equivalents on Burrard by a downtown network of protected lanes.

The budget for the Dunsmuir project is not to exceed $300,000, according to the report.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Andrea Woo
Sun

Vancouver city council will vote Thursday on whether to construct a separated bike lane on Dunsmuir Viaduct.

The project would cost $300,000, with funds coming from the 2009 streets basic capital budget, according to a report by the city’s engineering services department.

It would be installed on the north side of the viaduct and be created by reconfiguring existing barriers.

No traffic lanes would be removed.

“We know from the Burrard Bridge that when we separate bike lanes from cars with protective barriers, more people cycle and it reduces the risk of injury or accidents,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson, an avid cyclist, in a statement released Sunday.

“We need more protected bike lanes in Vancouver and the Dunsmuir Viaduct is the next logical step.”

City staff have recommended installation before the Olympics’ closing ceremony, as the viaduct will be closed until March 2, due to security requirements.

A six-month trial would allow for monitoring through three seasons, a range of weather conditions and special events, stated the report.

Coun. Geoff Meggs, who is on the city’s bicycle advisory committee, said the proposal would provide a stronger link to the downtown core — an area city council hopes to eventually upgrade as well.

“Right now it’s pretty challenging for anybody except the very confident cyclist,” said Meggs. “We’re going to ask staff as well to take a really hard look at how we can improve the downtown core with some separated lanes.”

The Burrard Bridge bike lane trial began July 13. It was originally scheduled for six months, but city council voted to extend it until after the Olympics.

A survey conducted in September found that 45 per cent of 310 respondents supported the continuation of the trial, compared to 21 per cent who were opposed and 28 per cent who were neutral.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Steve Whysall
Sun

It’s easy to get carried away when you get out in the garden with a pair of loppers and start slicing chunks off your trees and shrubs.

This is the time of year gardeners get back into the garden in earnest and start cleaning all the decaying remnants of last season out of borders and beds and begin to snip away with pruners.

The danger, however, is that we can get addicted to the power of snipping and slicing and end up doing more harm than good.

The key is to always keep in mind why you are out there doing this in the first place. The goal in pruning is always to make a plant healthier, shapelier, more attractive, more productive.

What you are there primarily to do is remove ugly, dead branches or ones broken by heavy snow over winter.

You’re also there to rejuvenate by clipping in a way that promotes healthy new growth or restores the plant to a beautiful, shapely, manageable specimen, without damaging its natural form.

This sounds straightforward enough, but you’d be surprised how many people, mostly inexpert gardeners, get carried away and somehow zone out in a crazed clipping frenzy. When they come out of it and step back, often all that is left is a horrible, misshapen, hobbled tree or shrub.

There is a rule in pruning that you first need to wander (walk around the tree or shrub and look carefully), then ponder (think about what you might do, and if necessary, get someone to pull a branch to one side to give you a better idea of what the plant will look like afterwards) and then prune (cut, but do it the right way, cutting close, but not into the collar without leaving awful stumpy bits that poke out and tell everyone an amateur did this).

In many ways, pruning is all about controlling and redirecting the flow of sap and opening the way for growth in the way you want it to go.

It’s a bit like being nature’s traffic cop — stopping sap from flowing one way, waving it on here, slowing it down there.

Remember, if you remove all the lower branches of a tree, you are giving sap permission to race unimpeded to the top of the tree, where it will fuel masses of new growth.

If you cut to a bud pointing out on the left, you are asking nature to produce growth in that direction. Cut to a bud on the right, and you are forcing growth that way.

So it’s important to think about where the growth will happen once you have made cuts.

Unless you have significantly reduced the root system, the tree or shrub will always seek to produce growth above ground equal to its structure below ground.

Not everything requires the same attention.

Buddleia, for instance, always needs to be cut down to size because it is such a rigorous grower and will rebound from a hard clipping, even if it is cut close to the ground.

C-type summer-flowering clematis, which you will find is already showing new growth, can also be dramatically clipped back to within a few feet of the ground, if needed.

Roses are best left until you see the yellow flowers of forsythia in bloom, when you will easily see new buds swelling and where the dead and diseased stems are.

The basic rule of when to prune something is to know when it flowers. Then you can decide whether you want to sacrifice a few blooms and prune before it flowers or wait to prune it until after it has finished flowering.

Generally, it is recommended that spring-flowering shrubs be pruned after they have flowered, but some experts think this is not always practical because it is harder to see the branch structure of a shrub once it has leafed out.

Deciduous trees are pruned while they are dormant, usually in January and February, before the sap starts to flow and when the frame structure is easily visible. This is the time to open up the canopy to allow in more light and better air circulation. It is also the time to consider strategically removing a branch here or there to allow more light in to flower beds or lawn areas that will do better with more sunshine.

Sometimes pruning is not the answer at all. For instance, if a large rhododendron has been planted below a window, it will forever be wanting to grow and block the view. Why fight nature? Better to lift the plant and relocate it to a spot where it can thrive and fulfil its genetic coding.

Here’s a guide to how to prune some popular plants.

– Clematis: Most summer-flowering clematis can be pruned back to within a few feet of the ground. Exceptions are B-types such as Nelly Moser. (For a complete list of B-type clematis, go to www.homeofclematis.com.)Early-spring flowering varieties should be pruned after flowering.

– Wisteria: Lateral and side shoots can be nipped back to two or three buds. After it flowers in July or August, snip them back again to four or five buds close to the main branch.

– Buddleia: Prune hard down to the main frame or lower in February.

– Fruit trees: Prune out dead, diseased and damaged branches and open up the canopy to allow in more light before buds begin to swell in March.

– Mophead and lacecap hydrangeas: Cut stems back to a pair of fat healthy buds in early March. Take out weak, spindly stems to improve the shrub’s basic framework.

– Roses: Prune hybrid teas and floribundas when you see the yellow blooms of forsythia in March-April. Reduce the size of bushes by a third to a half, cutting back to a healthy outward-facing bud. Prune climbers, cutting laterals back to main canes. Trim shrub roses back by a third.

– Rhododendrons: It is better to move a large rhodo to a roomier spot. But if pruning is the only option, do it over three years, cutting a little each year after it flowers.

– Cane fruits (raspberry, blackberry, loganberry): Remove old unproductive canes to make way for new ones. Cut autumn-fruiting raspberries to the ground, remove only old canes of summer-flowering ones.

– Bush fruits (gooseberry, blueberry: Prune in March when buds can be seen. Cut for shape and to promote vigour. Keep the centre of the bush open to allow good air circulation. Prune again in summer to restrict growth and maintain shape and structure.

– Grape: Prune shoots in February back to one or two strong swollen buds. Routine pruning in summer involves shortening excessively long shoots.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Stay on track with streetcars

Jon Ferry
Province

As Sophie Lennox-King got set Wednesday to try out Vancouver’s new Olympic streetcar service, along with her two-year-old niece Maika, I asked her what exactly it was she liked about this back-to-the-future form of transportation.

Well, the Vancouver designer told me she’d recently moved here from Toronto, so she was used to streetcars. Taking one was better than riding the subway because you could see what was going on outside, she said. And it was smoother, more comfortable than the bus.

Then, she added, as the Dal Richards jazz band played in the background outside the Canada Line’s Olympic Village station, “it’s more romantic.”

Lennox-King is right. Streetcars, which hark back to those golden days when Vancouver had an extensive electric streetcar network, are way more romantic than most forms of public transit. Which is why I believe that, despite their eye-popping expense, they’ll catch on again in Vancouver. Not everything comes down to dollars and cents.

Take the Olympics. On a strict accounting basis, I’m sure they make little sense. But the day we win our first gold, no one will admit to having been opposed to them . . . at least until the bills start trickling in.

Talking of which, much of the informal chatter at yesterday’s official opening of the trial service between the Olympic Village Station and Granville Island was of how Whistler resort owner Intrawest was broke and of how that might impact the Olympics. The weather was also, well, blah.

The electric streetcar, however, seemed to lift everyone’s mood. Hundreds lined up to test the gleaming Bombardier car.

New Westminster courier driver Atti Torok, 46, told me he was the first member of the public to climb aboard, after waiting since 4:30 a.m.

“It was great, it was very smooth, it’s very quick,” he said. “It’s a nice ride to Granville Island, and it would be a shame for the city not to expand that.”

And that, of course, is the multimillion-dollar question. The Olympic streetcar will run 18 hours a day, but only for the next couple of months. Then the two cars have to go back to the Brussels Transport Company and the land of chocolates, waffles and beer. So what happens then?

Does the old 1.8-kilometre track, which just cost $8.5 million to upgrade, get mothballed again? Or is this the start of a streetcar revival?

It’s obvious where the streetcar should go now — from the Olympic Village station to Gastown and Stanley Park, via our own newspaper building at the foot of Granville Street. But I’m not waiting at the curb just yet.

In Toronto in 2004, construction of 6.8 km of the St. Clair streetcar track was supposed to cost $48 million and take three years. More than five years later, it still isn’t finished and the price has reportedly ballooned to $105 million.

When it comes to romance, though, what’s a few million bucks?

I’m up for it, as I was for the Olympics. But just how much desire is there among other Vancouver-area taxpayers?

Judging by Wednesday’s enthusiastic turnout, more than you’d think.

© Copyright (c) The Province