Vancouver benefits from an amazing natural backdrop, with the North Shore mountains, forests, and connection to water around the city. However, through its past colonial actions, the City of Vancouver has removed almost all of the pre-existing natural environment, along with the narratives of these lands’ Indigenous stewards, and we now rely on human-built systems to sustain ourselves.

Much of the city's public life, and how we collectively experience our own communities, occurs on streets, parks and plazas. This connection with public spaces has been recently and vividly highlighted by the pandemic, with inclusive access to these spaces becoming more important than ever before. Streets are a critical component of these public spaces, but the amount of space given to public life, sustainable transportation and rainwater management is limited, and our transportation networks remain centred around cars.

• With over 30% of the city dedicated to streets and 11% of parks, how can we reimagine these lands to better serve our collective needs?

• How can we rebalance our relationship to nature and retroactively re-shape the city based on ecological principles and acknowledging local First Nations values and traditional knowledge?

• How can we transform “publicly controlled spaces and places” so they are centred on equity and in direct partnership with local Indigenous communities?

• How do we restore the city’s natural systems, water cycle and biodiversity?

• How do we create more opportunities for recreation and strengthening community cohesion?

• How do we manage the effects of climate change, including more frequent and intense storms, sea level rise in low lying areas, drought and heat island effect, and threatened drinking water supply?

Join us at the fifth event of The Future We Want: The Change We Needseries as we discuss the stewardship of Vancouver’s public realm, a major contributor to our identity. A panel of local and international thinkers will offer their insights on the future of the streets, places and spaces that shape Vancouverites’ everyday experience of their city. Please bring your ideas to contribute as well, as we continue on with Planning Vancouver Together.

Speakers

More speakers to be confirmed. Watch this space!

Zahra Ebrahim is a public interest designer, civic entrepreneur, and leader. She is the co-founder and CEO of Monumental, a partnership with Kofi Hope focused on creating fair and just cities and institutions, in support of an equitable recovery from COVID-19. 

Gil Penalosa is the founder and chair of the board of the successful Canadian non-profit organization 8 80 Cities. He is also chair of the board of World Urban Parks, the international representative body for the city parks, open space and recreation sector.

Alyssa Schwann co-directs a landscape architecture and public art practice undertaking research, design, and advocacy in the areas of cultural landscapes, landscape conservation, and ecological wisdom. Her professional experience includes practice in Canada, Britain, and the Netherlands, with projects in North America, Europe, and North and South Africa. She is also a public policy researcher working with northern tribal and territorial governments. In 2013/2014, she was named an Action Canada Fellow. Alyssa is based in Vancouver, BC, and Berkeley, CA, USA. 

T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss' diverse heritage includes Skwxwu7mesh, Sto:lo, Irish-Métis, Hawaiian and Swiss. An artist, she has extensive experience producing various formats of media art for almost 30 years, and works as an ethnobotanist with traditional training by Indigenous elders. 

Presenter

Lon LaClaire –  General Manager of Engineering Services, City of Vancouver

Lon LaClaire is the General Manager of Engineering Services and has worked at the City for 23 years. With annual budgets totaling over $500 million and 2,200 staff, he is responsible for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of this world class city’s public works infrastructure. His department is also mandated with a variety of planning and regulatory functions and plays a central role in the day-to-day functioning of the city. As the largest city department, Engineering delivers a complex array of essential public services while implementing an ambitious policy agenda to become the greenest City in the world. 

Moderators

Meg Holden – Professor and Director, SFU Urban Studies

Meg Holden is professor and director of the urban studies program and professor in the department of geography at SFU. Meg is an urban environmental pragmatist. Her engaged research program examines urban policy, planning and social aspects of sustainable development intentions and transitions in cities and communities, with foci in value-based measurement and indicators, community well-being and livability, neighbourhood housing, planning and experience, and local democracy and justice.

Andy Yan – Director, The City Program at SFU

Andy Yan is the director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. Born and raised in Vancouver, Andy Yan has extensively worked in the non-profit and private urban planning sectors with projects in the metropolitan regions of Vancouver, San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and New Orleans. Andy is a registered professional planner with the Canadian Institute of Planners. He is also an adjunct professor in Urban Studies at SFU as well as an adjunct professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.

About the Series

The future we want will not be achieved by applying the solutions of yesterday to the challenges facing our city and communities today. In collaboration with Simon Fraser University, the City of Vancouver presents The Future We Want: The Change We Need — a free, online, interactive dialogue series that brings together new and varied perspectives and ideas to shape the transformative social, economic and physical changes we need.

This series will invite knowledge keepers, thought leaders, changemakers and community members to discuss, deliberate and share their thoughts on the future of the City of Vancouver. These dialogues will contribute to the Planning Vancouver Together planning process, informed by policy analysis, scenario development and public engagement, to create a new, long-term strategic citywide plan looking to 2050 and beyond. 

Each of the six conversations in this series will address the biggest challenges standing in the way of achieving our goals; and new ideas – big and small – to help unlock our collective potential as a truly just, resilient, sustainable, affordable and culturally vibrant Vancouver.