GC 2020
657 results found
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9 votes
The majority of existing brown and greyfields in Vancouver fall under existing redevelopment plans.
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Encourage Influential People such as James Cameron (Avatar), to disclose impact of big corporations
on the environment, and encourage change. James Cameron is the Director of the movie Avatar which had a message of how big corporations, Mining are affecting the environment and raping the earth.
4 votesThe Greenest City Action Team is our home-grown influential team, and others are always welcome: http://vancouver.ca/greenestcity/background.htm#team
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Car Free Sundays
Designate one major boulevard (Main, Commercial, Granville, etc.) throughout the city as car free every Sunday. Build on the success of Vancouver Car Free Days in the summer.
35 votes -
Energy Descent Plan
Chair a city-wide committee to create a Vancouver Energy Descent Plan in order to develop a coordinated plan to reduce city-wide energy use by 2020.
10 votes -
mobile community gardens in empty lots
Community gardens could be setup in the gated empty lots around the city. The lot owner could put up a sponsorship sign so they get the free advertising of supporting something helpful to the community. The garden could be setup in a way that it could be moved to another lot when the original lot was eventually put to another use.
32 votesDraft Greenest City Action Plan includes a strategy to increase community garden plots of a variety of scope and scale.
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Improve Neighbourhood Roundabouts to provide for safe pedestrian crossing
Neighbourhood roundabouts are being developed across the city. These roundabouts serve to maintain a comfortable traffic flow for cars and cyclists on residential streets. Unfortunately, due to their design, these roundabouts fail to provide security for pedestrians since there are no visual cues to suggest that pedestrians even have a right to cross the street. In a local classroom survey, grade 4’s exclaimed that they feel unsafe crossing at these roundabouts and I regularly see uncertainty in the eyes and actions of pedestrians crossing at roundabouts.
There are a number of ways to improve this situation. Here are two examples:
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6 votesAll new traffic circles are designed to keep cars and bicycles out of the pedestrian crossing areas.
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16 votes
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Playing Movies Like Avatar, in Major Public Places, showing the reality & impact of big corporations
Making the largest impact in the shortest time, can make the difference. Continue funding Movies like Avatar which expose corporate America's environmental habits, and showing them on large public movie screens and starting change from the top. Companies with thousands of employees and systems, should be forced to change there habits, to reduce there carbon footprint. Public awareness may force the change that might otherwise take years.
4 votesGreat idea, and you are encouraged to suggest it to Fresh Air Cinemas and all of the community organisations that sponsor outdoor movies in the summer, including many of the Business Improvement Associations: http://www.freshaircinema.ca/; http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/cityplans/bia/index.htm
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Create a Senior Citizen's Sustainability Advisory Panel to mobile seniors knowledge on sustainabilty
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…
16 votesThe draft action plans have been informed by over 100 different organizations in the community, and this is a great idea to build on that engagement work by outreaching to a specific demographic in our community.
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Create a "Greenest Block in the City" award - winner gets a kickass prize!
Modelled after Greenest Block in Brooklyn, where every block in Brooklyn competes to have the best gardens and grow the most food - friends in Brooklyn go nuts for this - lots of fun - winning block gets a great prize like street improvements from city - see"http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/presenting_the.php
24 votesGreenest City awards are included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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Green roofs and Living walls
Make green roofs and living walls mandatory or at least implementing a city bylaw forcing people (at least commercial and industrial buildings) to have a minimum of their walls and roofs covered with plants.
39 votes -
2000W society
To be the best, look around at the competition (friendly competition -- the other green cities of the world), and make sure you're at least matching the best policies out there.
For instance a number of cities in Switzerland have put 2000 W mandates in their charter. A "2000 W society" is a nice framing of the common objective of averaging less than 2kW per person. A 1 t (ie per year, per person, of CO2e GHGs in this case) society might be more climate relevant.8 votes -
B.C. Place's exterior should be green!!!
B.C. Place's cement area (exterior) I think should be covered in plants and flowers. I think that would look nice and gives a fresh scent, plus it is good for Vancouver!
16 votes -
Make the free stuff Xchange on 4th and McDonald official.
It's a great corner run by 'Santa Claus', a white earded man who patrols the street for useful 'junk' and leaves it on the corner for anyone to take and 'reuse'. I've found some amazing things there and he keeps the stuff outta the landfill.
Reusing is better than recycling anyday!!
10 votes -
All Jobs Green
Greening ALL jobs through all organizations being required to meet minimum responsible practice standards set out by a government sponsored social enterprise which supports and builds day to day organizational capacity in lighter footprint futures and positive legacy.
22 votes -
Materials Reuse/ Exchange Program
Similar to the Industrial Materials Exchange Program, small businesses and the public will be able to log into a database to list materials (such as packing paper, bubble wrap, shelving units, etc.) that they would like to give away for free before they are forced to throw it away. Using this principle of community-resource-exchange, our company was able to reduce their waste dramatically. The success of such a program will dependent on the promotion of it to the public and small businesses. Maybe a database and already popular site such as craigslist would be interested in a collaborative effort in…
57 votes -
Reduce single day ICBC rates to encourage mixed use transportation
As an incentive to get people out of their vehicles and onto public transit more frequently, we are proposing a reduction in the fees for daily insurance, and a more user friendly alternative of purchasing daily insurance online.
Current daily insurance rates cost $25 and require a visit to a local Autoplan broker.
Average annual coverage in 2005 was $1079 or or $2.96 a day.
As a comparison, a person paying for 2 days a week, or every weekend would pay $2600 a year.
For most drivers this cost difference and the need to travel to a broker forces them…
8 votesOutside City jurisdiction, so City’s role is limited to advocacy. The City supports auto insurance schemes that better reflect the marginal cost of driving (i.e. the cost of the next trip), to send better pricing signals to help citizens make more informed travel mode choices.
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Take the buses off Granville and turn it into a City square like europe with patios (and drinks)
Granville street is a compromise that doesn't work. Having buses on the street won't allow a city square to develop (and connect to Robson Square to create an epicentre of community activity downtown - in much the same way it is in many european cities). The buses / dedicated cars need to stay off Granville and the restauranteurs and bars should be able to extend their patios onto the street. Street performance and parades should be encouraged within the area north of Smithe. Compromising creates a lose-lose situation, though delivery trucks, etc. could be allowed to pass between 4am-10am. At…
92 votes -
bike elevator
Bike elevators are used in Norway to assist with steep hills - used much like a T-Bar on a ski hill. Place them in a few strategic areas to increase bike traffic (and reduce cars!).
See http://www.trampe.no/english/ for an example.19 votesBike escalators are an interesting idea that may make sense elsewhere in the region (e.g. urban bike routes with a very steep, extended incline). The City of North Vancouver has expressed interest in the past in this idea for Lonsdale Avenue.
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Encourage all businesses to roof with solar panels.
Ways of doing this could include government subsidies for new buildings going up if they build the roof/walls exposed to the sun with solar panels. Or, the company could use the energy it generates instead of having to pay for electricity from other sources or receive a reduction in taxes or something if their building provides power for the city's grid. This could also apply to houses, but I say businesses because I was thinking of skyscrapers due to the fact that they are so exposed to the sun most of the time.
41 votes
