The Oxford English Dictionary defines an aphorism as “a pithy observation that contains a general truth” – something akin to long time Creek resident Graham McGarva’s summary of the challenges facing False Creek South: “To stay the same, we have to change.”
Like those in many Vancouver neighbourhoods, False Creek South residents like things pretty much the way they are, where people can enjoy a home in the city free from a cramped, cheek-by-jowl existence. Some may well worry that further development could undermine the Creek’s highly liveable neighbourhood.
This is especially true considering that False Creek South is not, nor has ever been, a low-density neighbourhood. Superimposing the land area that houses our 6,000 residents onto areas that actually are low density, especially RS1 – the traditional one family, one house zoning – actually shows mid-density.
That it appears otherwise reflects the original brilliant design of a community without roads. Freed from the car-dominant culture that demands so much land to support it – streets with as many as 6 lanes for driving and parking consume 30% of the land in the city – False Creek South can house many more people than it otherwise could. The area consumed by bike and walking paths is, by comparison, almost negligible. But if, unlike the old single-family neighbourhoods, we are already at a higher density, why should we look to add more?
First, as our community recognized some years ago, our needs have changed over time. Back in the day, the City’s focus on family housing in the Creek reflected the post-war baby boom that, by the 70’s, had created an inordinate number of young adults starting families and looking for homes.
As those families settled in, the new community became increasingly stable. The False Creek South Neighbourhood Association, created at the outset, institutionalized its many activities, including annual clean-ups, caroling in the Square, winter solstice events, barbecues in the summer, and the physical, moral and often financial support of numerous local initiatives. The integration of people with a range of incomes, age and housing types, including the influence of shared living inherent in the co-ops, created a social solidarity that, time and again, has brought us together as a community.
Many early residents had initially seen False Creek South as a short term or stopping place before moving on to the then-norm of buying a house. But either at the beginning or over time, the co-op and virtually all strata leases with the City were pre-paid in full, and even recognizing that new or extended leases would require another significant capital outlay, living in a stable and inviting neighbourhood lessened the appeal of the single-family house.
In the result, while most children grew up and moved away, many of their parents stayed – and grew older. The community built primarily for families gradually evolved to one of much greater single occupancy than ever envisioned. A number of elders now live in units that don’t work for them anymore – particularly those in townhouses or apartments with stairs. In our two largest co-ops and several stratas, this one physical barrier and the absence of smaller, single floor alternatives, have driven a number of long-term residents out of the community they helped build.
For the co-ops in particular, the shortage of one-bedroom units combined with long internal waiting lists means their single members aren’t able to “right-size”, while new families that otherwise could occupy larger units languish on the waiting lists. Other reasons – most especially the looming end to leases – have profoundly affected individual home ownership; a severely limited mortgage amortization period results largely in strata unit sales to those who are downsizing and can pay cash. Those are not young families. The snowball effect for both co-ops and stratas is the further aging of the Creek.
Vancouver has changed, and False Creek South is increasingly out of step with the city’s age and diversity demographics and our shared need to address reconciliation. This, in turn, limits our access to the city’s multicultural energy and the usual amenities of urban life that are of particular importance to the young. Leg-In-Boot Square, for example, originally intended to be a centre of activity ringed by retail shops and services, has gradually morphed into a failed plaza. The question then becomes not “We have to change” but, for a variety of reasons, “We need to change.”
Secondly – and more importantly – the needs of the city have changed over time. Housing no longer bears any meaningful relationship to the incomes of almost all of this region’s wage and salary earners. And, as everyone knows, some in the population have no homes at all. Even ongoing City attempts to provide needed housing result in very few truly affordable units relative to those that are unaffordable. Most residential land is privately owned, a commodity subject to the rules of the market and the profit imperative, and acquiring private land is a very expensive operation.
The City owns most of the land in False Creek South and has no intention of selling it. But the City would be remiss if, in the midst of a housing crisis, it did not want more affordable housing on the land that it owns. (It would be even more remiss to use this land as a cash cow to finance mainly unaffordable development here or elsewhere and, in so doing, forego the retention and expansion of affordable housing in an established, viable neighbourhood.)
There is probably not another neighbourhood in the city that is, and has been, on the record to welcome more housing – especially, and essentially, truly affordable housing. Sad to say, despite almost 10 years of intensive community efforts, the availability of unoccupied land and the demonstrated community and city-wide need for more affordable housing, not one new unit has been built and likely will not be built until there is a definitive answer to the question: What is the City’s long-term plan for the future of False Creek South?
*
Third in the series, The Solution, Not The Problem by the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association. Next: If we do need to change, how can we stay the same?