GC 2020
657 results found
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Granville bike/walking corridor
Granville street was happily car free for years. Cars fluidly use Seymore and Howe for accessing the Granville St. bridge. Let's eliminate the road and parking on Granville St. and replace it with a two way bike path, gardens/parks, public gathering areas and outdoor eating. Having an alternative transportation area in the core of our city will be a strong symbol of our goals.
5 votesThe Rediscover Granville program was a big success in 2009, and the City will be looking to continue and build upon this work in future years. More broadly, the draft Greenest City plan will include directions to explore pedestrian-only and pedestrian-priority streets in the downtown core. Potential locations will be identified at a later date (e.g. as part of the transportation plan update).
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Put the Blue into Green: Encourage Abundant Groundwater flow:
to have a credible green policy, Vancouver must include water in the planning. Sound water policy would include Encouragement of Abundant Groundwater flow: We must use less concrete and asphalt in our infrastructure in favour of ground water permeable aggregates. The city should prohibit asphalt use for parking lots and drive ways. There are many excellent alternative materials that are water permeable. All traffic calming barriers (i.e. traffic bulges and traffic circles) should have open, soil and indigenous plant filled centers. At the moment, the type and abundance of boulevard plantings is limited because our boulevards are essentially deserts. Surrounded…
5 votes -
incent green vehicles with free street parking
all green, fuel efficent cars should be given or allowed to purchase for a very nominal amout a barcoded parking decal to allow them free 3hr street parking in Vancouver. Fines if incurred to be automatically billed as agreed to when decal is purchased
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Daylighting
I've frequently suggested that fibre optics would be useful to daylight culverts in instances where it's impractical to open them up immediately. People are using this method to bring natural light into their living rooms, why not into culverts. Is there something that prevents this method, I've been suggesting it for years. For instance, there are thousands of yards of creekbed that are inaccessible to salmon in Pacific Spirit Park because of the length of the culverts crossing Marine Dr. and yet this method has never been employed.
5 votes -
A Comprehensive Odour Management Plan
A comprehensive odour management plan is needed for the 'greenest city'
Our neighbourhoods smell of a rendering plant throughout the summer and very little action has occured over the decades. A truly green Vancouver would smell nice on warm days and we would then be able to open our windows and cool our houses with the breeze.
5 votesCity of Vancouver will support Metro Vancouver in its efforts to address this.
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5 votes
This is addressed by the planned green renovation strategy which will require upgrades to all buildings during the time of renovation, and also by the building labeling program which will require mandatory disclosure of energy performance and eventually mandatory performance standards.
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Reduce funding for car-friendly infrastructure
There are two sides to encouraging more people to leave their cars at home (or not buy one in the first place): 1) make alternative modes of transportation cheap and efficient 2) make driving more inconvenient and costly. I suggest that the city of Vancouver set a goal of progressively decreasing the percentage of the budget set aside for expanding and maintaining roadways for automobiles. The money that is saved should go directly towards affordable housing near the city center, better transit, and more bike paths. Once more people have switched to alternative modes of transit, existing roadways could be…
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Introduce shared streets
Granville Island is the closest thing we have in Vancouver to a shared street, where pedestrians, bikes, and cars are free to mix at low speeds. Side streets in Yaletown, Gastown, and other areas would benefit from this concept. New Road in Brighton is but one of many examples.
5 votesThe Draft Greenest City Action plan will include directions to explore pedestrian-only and pedestrian-priority streets in the downtown core. Potential locations will be identified at a later date (e.g. as part of the transportation plan update).
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Car-free Sundays for Stanley Park in the summer
Far more pedestrians and cyclists use Stanley Park in the summertime than drivers. Sundays should be car-free.
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Variable Property Taxes based on FSR
Many SF homes built in the city today have huge footprints. Real estate economics shouldn't govern the size of homes. Reward existing homeowners and new home builders by allowing property tax discounts for greater green space surrounding their homes. Smaller homes with larger proportion of the land landscaped in trees or gardens increases the quality of city life.
5 votesIncentives are being considered for homes that are built sustainability and to be energy efficient.
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Change zoning to maximizing landscaping of back yards by disallowing garages and laneway houses.
Garages and laneway houses use up green space. Zoning should permit surface parking in rear yards provided the surface is grassy or otherwise landscaped.
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convert heat to FREE hot water
Encourage all those stores that vent their unwanted heat from A/C units as well as from coolers/fridges and freezers grocer types and pump that heat into hot water tanks! The technology is available "off the rack". Known as Fre-Heaters..we should be capturing all that vented heat and convert it into hot water. NEW stores should not have such old equipment and instead be encourage to convert at the time of building!
5 votesGreat idea. We’re looking for all kinds of ideas to encourage the reuse of waste heat. We will to understand opportunities to include these ideas in amendments to the building code.
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Tie air pollution permits to targeted pollution reduction plans
For those industries permitted to pollute (chicken and fish reduction plants, diesel exhaust from the port) tie specific targeted reductions as a condition of permit and monitor to assure results.
5 votesPollution permits are granted by Metro Vancouver, and the standards which must be adhered to have become more stringent and will continue to be reassessed.
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Day long transit lanes
[Submitted via mail by Penny Perry]
If transit were faster more people would use it and transit lanes allow the buses to make good time. Transit lanes must also make life easier for the bus drivers.
5 votesThis is a great idea that is outside City jurisdiction
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Foster a friendly ‘greening of the cities’ competition with other major west coast cities.
Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco all aspire to be greener cities along with Vancouver. Finding ways for the west coast cities to compete, share and inspire each other will have a positive effect in driving each other to achieve greater results more quickly and in the spirit of mutually beneficial competition. Perhaps an annual competition with progress indicators, for example.
5 votesThe “Greenest City in the World by 2020” is fostering this competition with cities globally, including those on our coast. Expanding it to a global outlook pits us against less industrialized cities, as well as cities in rapidly developing countries, and makes the contest much more interesting and challenging.
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City-sponsored "Sustainable Living" marketing campaign
Make it catchy, relevant, interactive, funny and shocking. Think of the new "Old Spice" marketing campaign impact. AWARENESS is key - people don't know unless you tell them. Focus on things like:
- civic engagement and participation
- community pride and unity
- alternative transportation
- connect our consumption habits to waste and wastewater output
- showcase local success stories
- encourage everyone to do their part
There's tons more we could cover, if you have ideas, share them in the comments!
5 votesThis idea is included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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Support locals to green under-served local parks
I lived next to Tatlow Park for many years (2nd ave at Macdonald). It's a stunning little park, with a daylighted stream, but it's actually pretty bare and has so much more potential to be beautiful. The city could provide matching grants if a local community self-organized to plant more native plants to further naturalize the park, or it could provide these plants at cost from a city-run nursury, and provide technical support to how to green the park in a way that balanced the needs of all residents. Our parks are beautiful but some could use more love, and…
5 votes -
Local Food Guide or Cookbook
The City should publish a guide to local foods. To be truly sustainable it must only include foods grown in sufficient quantity to feed everyone in the region (otherwise it's just elitism) and should exclude anything grown in greenhouses.
5 votesThe draft Greenest City Action Plan includes an action to create a local food information hub. This will not necessarily be a cookbook.
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Speed Bumps of every road
Speed Bumps slow down traffic. Not only will that create a friendlier pedestrian environment but it will make travel by bike lane (no speed bump) more competitive, time wise with car travel. The same thing also goes for skytrain. With car travel taking longer, skytrain will look like a more attractive option
5 votes -
Diaper recycling plant
Some stats : 27.4 billion disposable diapers are consumed every year in the U.S.
Over 92% of all single-use diapers end up in a landfill.
Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste.
No one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years, long after your children, grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren will be gone.5 votes
