Beautify pedestrian ways to attract more walking, with:
- rainbow / sparkly sidewalks in high traffic areas
- sidewalk canopies: tree overhangs, resident-owned PV
- incentives for merchants to beautify their sidewalk area
- neighbourhood identity expressed by residents' design for sidewalks
- textured pavement to define pedestrian areas, or neighbourhoods
- "pedestrianscape" that allows the pedestrian to explore a delightful journey as the travel past varied points of interest along their walk
- sidewalk cafes, laneways pubs / cafes / restaurants
- separate lanes for pedestrian, wheeled traffic: rollerblading & skateboarding, bikes, cars
- buffers between separate lanes of traffic: trees, plants

At one time there were an estimated 100,000 salmon and sea-run trout spawning in the more than 50 creeks and streams that spread across Vancouver. As the city grew they were buried beneath pavement and landfill, or were crowded out by development so that salmon could no longer spawn within them. One by one our streams were lost.

Amazingly Musqueam Creek survived and today is Vancouver's only remaining wild salmon stream. What does that mean? It means the Musqueam Creek Coho salmon are wild having spent their entire lifecycle in the wild, originating from parents and grandparents and great grand parents that were born in and spawned in the wild, stretching back for thousands of years.

Further, salmon are a keystone species in our coastal temperate rainforests making the Musqueam Creek ecosystem the most biologically diverse area in the City- that’s more species of fish, birds, insects, plants, fungi, lichen and mammals than can even be found in Stanley Park!

If we are going to be the greenest city our world than we must make room for the extraordinary variety of life- the species and ecosystems, that grow and interact with each other in our city. To do this we must save Musqueam Creek, now and for future generations. For more information visit www.mecsweb.org.

From waterfront station tunnel underground to YVR then the line would follow parallel to highway 99 and then follow the I-5. Traveling an average speed of 250 km/hr you could reach YVR in 3 min at 4.10$, the border in 14 min, Bellingham in 23 min at 29.00$, Everett in 46 min at 58.00$ and finally Seattle in 57 min at 71.63$..... Imagine the possibilities of being able to travel to from downtown Vancouver to Downtown Seattle in just under an hour. Not only would this create green jobs, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it would also show Vancouver leading the green revolution.

Six 2000 square feet single family houses can fit on two existing 33 x 120 foot lots. The alleys are narrow streets and the streets become narrow streets to maintain green space. The density supports local amenities that you can walk or cycle to. The increased amenities provide more local jobs. It means you can get what you need locally without a car. Connect these neighbourhoods with effective public transit which is started by permitting these neighbourhoods around sky train stations and bus loops. Laneway housing is part of this solution. Design the neighbourhood as if you had not cars. It was done for millennia before cars. Give it another go.

Not sure that more degrees/planners is gonna make much difference...need solutions now...I say learn from the Cuban urban food production experience - they turned to the knowledge of all the seniors in Havana who knew how to grow food as most grew up in rural areas prior to revolution and then migrated to cities. WIthin 6 months, local seniors were teaching ourses at universities while the food geneticists and experts were in teh classroom learning how to do things without oil/fertilizer. There are many seniors in Vancouver who know how to grow food, fix machinery and make the most of materials - mobilize this knowledge by connecting them to youth via CoV advisory panel/process and let the learning flow...