In order to deal with the current unsustainable pattern of growth and development, the City of Vancouver is advocating intensification as a means for developing more complete communities. Promoting this strategy to the public may, however be problematic when there is little or no empirical evidence documenting the outcome or experience of intensification. To better understand the issues, challenges and opportunities associated with using intensification to create complete communities, the City of Vancouver's experience with this strategy was analysed, across a range of planning initiatives within which intensification policies were deployed. Through the use of interviews and a case study comprising an analysis of several City policies and initiatives, the benefits, costs, and barriers of intensification were documented. In total 18 people were interviewed which included City Staff, councillors, developers, and members of planning organizations. This process revealed what the City has been able to achieve through intensification, the lessons they have learned and the direction this strategy must take in the near future in order to create more complete communities. To date, the City has had the most success with intensification when it has been applied to existing multi-family neighbourhoods or to the redevelopment of industrial lands. As a result, the City has been able to create new neighbourhoods that have many of the characteristics of a complete community. However, when this same process is taken to existing single family neighbourhoods, it is met with opposition as a result of the public's resistance to change and the conflicting views regarding intensified urban living. Despite this failure, Vancouver's experience has provided a number of valuable lessons regarding how intensification can be used to create more complete communities. For example, there are a number of conditions that must exist in order for intensification to be promoted, which relate to the planning, market, and political environment of an area. Once these conditions are in place then, strategies should be developed to ensure that intensification is designed to be responsive to a community's needs. Finally, Vancouver's experience with this strategy reveals that the best way to understand what a community needs and what tradeoffs they are willing to make in order to create more complete communities is through a political process that involves a consensus approach to planning and public discussion. The findings of this thesis indicate that the success of future intensification initiatives lies in the City's ability of making intensified urban living fashionable. To do this it will be imperative to establish a common understanding of its limits and benefits by learning from past experiences and by building on the successful intensification initiatives that have occurred. Once this is done, the City can then use the successful examples of intensification to educate the public about how it can be used to create complete communities.

Greenways are linear open spaces, sometimes called "Green Links" which connect parks, Nature preserves, cultural features, historic sites, neighbourhoods, schools and shopping areas. They are often located along either natural corridors like ocean fronts, rivers, stream valleys, ridgelines, or built landscapes such as rail rights-of-way converted to recreational use, canals, trails, scenic roads, lanes or dedicated or shared streets. In the city of Vancouver there is a great opportunity to establish a link between Trout Lake, located in East Vancouver, and False Creek, located in the heart of Vancouver. The mission for this thesis project is to design a greenway connecting Trout Lake to False Creek with special focus on ecological enhancement and stormwater management. The Route itself has already received citywide support in City Plan approved in 1995. The Greenway, as indicated in the report, will connect Trout Lake to False Creek via the Grandview Cut. With city policy supporting the greenway, the bulk of the thesis is incorporating ecological enhancement and stormwater management into the design. Stormwater from the Trout Lake watershed will be brought to the surface, cleaned through biofiltration by wetlands, and used to sustain a stream, which flows year round to False Creek. By design the stream will be able to support a number of fish habitat, such as Coastal Cutthroat, Coho Salmon, and the endangered Salish Sucker, to name a few. As the Greenway reaches False Creek Flats there is an opportunity to daylight (bring to the surface) two of Vancouver's historic lost streams: China Creek, and Brewery Creek. The study begins with a series of large-scale context analyses, looking at how the proposed Grandview Greenway fits into the city of Vancouver as a whole. The analyses include topography, hydrology, watershed boundaries, utilities, openspace, circulation, structures, zoning, and how cultural views and perceptions of the environment have changed over the past 50 years. Trout lake watershed in its built form is the next area of focus. Starting at the individual lot, an analysis of the current condition is identified as it relates to stormwater management. Suggestions are made to increase the amount of groundwater infiltration, while reducing the amount of surface runoff collected in the watershed. Runoff calculations for the watershed illustrate the limits to the proposed system ie. the maximum size of wetland needed to store and treat all stormwater runoff before it enters Trout Lake, and the minimum flow the creek will require during summer dry periods. All calculations support the feasibility of the proposed greenway in its entirety. Route options are explored to connect the stream to the Grandview Cut, followed by the detailed design of the Grandview Cut to accommodate the stream, pedestrians, cyclists, the existing rail line, and wildlife. Once in the False Creek Flats, route options are once again explored to link the stream to False Creek. Now in the industrial section of the greenway route, the form of the stream changes from a model of a natural system to that of an urban canal. This allows the system to accommodate more water, while using less total land area. China Creek Park is the next detailed design focus. The goal is to daylight China Creek through the park and connect it to the Grandview Greenway system. It is proposed that for this section of the greenway, the initiative be entirely derived through community groups as well as special interest groups, rather than by the City of Vancouver. What is proposed is at a smaller scale with less intervention to the Landscape. The final stage of the proposed greenway is the estuary as it enters False Creek near Science World. Detailed design shows how the canal enters False Creek and how it relates to Science World, the Sea Wall, and to the proposed Sustainable Community of Southeast False Creek.

Industrial land use and economic policy created by the City of Vancouver between 1968 and 1991 is analysed within a context of economic restructuring to illustrate how these types of policies may be improved. Within this time frame, the City of Vancouver had three distinct periods of policy development that were largely delineated by local political and economic factors. The first period was characterised by a liberal-based civic party in control of the local administration, a healthy urban economy, and a post-industrial sentiment that did not support the industrial community and resulted in a significant decrease in the city's supply of industrial land. In the second period, an increasingly left of centre local government was forced to contend with the poor economic conditions of the early 1980s; consequently, the industrial sector and the economy as a whole received considerable attention and support from the local government. The third period was characterised by the re-birth of post-industrialism and a right of centre administration with little interest in economic planning or maintaining an industrial sector in the City of Vancouver. The main lessons to be drawn from this policy analysis are (1) that the modern economy will continue to change rapidly and generate significant consequences and challenges for civic governments, (2) there are benefits to planning for the future rather than simply accommodating change as it happens, (3) the short sighted agendas of politicians need to be tempered by an assessment of the long term consequences of policy development and implementation, (4) there needs to be co-operation between the region's numerous public bodies to ensure complementary policy development across municipal boundaries, and (5) governments need to be proactive and engage in economic planning during both growth and recessionary economic periods in order to embrace new economic opportunities as they arise, mitigate the negative consequences that change often generates, and help produce strategic visions for planning purposes.

The project began with a comprehensive investigation to discover and define the crucial elements of design in high density housing that foster a strong and rich sense of community. Both historical precedents and current Vancouver projects were studied to determine their attitude toward community in dense housing situations. I found the designs that were most successful in preserving a traditional sense of community demonstrated a far greater respect for one's individuality. They provided a strong frame for variable urban living, which reflects the pluralism of urban life. The program for this thesis was a live/work community and one live/work building within that planned community. The site for this exploration was South-East False Creek. The resolution of my proposal began with developing a new housing fabric, a prototype that could be used at South-East False Creek or in other areas of the city. The fabric I developed is a more intimate, finer slice of the existing Vancouver city grid. By maintaining some of the critical dimensions of Vancouver's city grid, the design of the new fabric can either fit into the existing grid or occur next to it. The community plan provides several distinct adjacencies for the buildings: live side, work side, park side and street/parking side. My concern with the design of the building was to identify a set of possibilities that are inherent in the community fabric, which show the diversity of the building itself as well as the flexibility of the space within the units.

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Since the early 1990s, the Vancouver Police Department has embarked upon coproductive service arrangements with various geographic communities throughout the city of Vancouver. Through the vehicle of storefront crime prevention offices (CPOs), local communities and the police are working in partnership to problem-solve around local crime and safety issues. Three models of crime prevention offices have emerged: ethnic-specific, police-run, and community-run. This thesis focuses on a case study of the community-run model—community crime prevention offices (CCPOs). Through participant observation, key informant interviews, analysis of policy documents and a review of the respective literatures on community policing and community crime prevention theory and practice, the present case study was examined. Key informants revealed basic partner expectations. The community expect the police to be accessible to the offices through their physical presence and by ongoing two-way communications regarding community crime-related concerns. The police, in return, expect the CCPOs to provide a conduit through which community needs and priorities can be communicated to them. Each partner brings to the office function different responsibilities. The community is responsible for maintaining adequate levels of community support for office programs and services. The police provide a set level of human and material resources to all crime prevention offices. Much has been written on the rationale behind the "community-police partnership" era. However, less has been written about the effective implementation of such partnerships. While the main thrust behind the formation of CPOs has been occurring since 1994, there are still no clear guidelines set regarding partner roles and responsibilities. The future viability of CCPOs is predicated on the mutual accountability of both the community and the police. Future steps could be taken to ensure the responsibility of both partners in this process: 1) a partnership agreement should be implemented between the community and the police to clarify expectations and role contributions; 2) accountability measures should be in place to reflect partner expectations and roles; 3) the police, as public servants, should address the resource inequities which exist among CCPOs; 4) the community should ensure CCPO programming is responsive to broad-based community need; and 5) ongoing efforts should be made to enhance partner communication. CCPOs have proven to be a vehicle of great promise. CCPOs are an interesting coproductive blend of community self-help and police re-organization along community policing lines. By first addressing their commitment to each other as partners, and attending to some of the weaknesses in this present partnership configuration, a more effective partnership will result. Such a partnership will better serve their mutual goals to enhance the safety and livability of Vancouver neighbourhoods.

In 1959 the St. James United Church Drama Group was created by Gwen Crowe and Eileen Oliver. This group is now called The United Players of Vancouver; it resides at The Jericho Arts Centre. Over the span of nearly forty years there have been many changes. The group has altered its name three times and its main location twice; the membership transforming it from a small group of friends to a semi-professional company of some reputation. The purpose of this study is to document the history of this company and its development into an important, innovative part of Vancouver's community theatre. Material for the thesis was obtained primarily through archival files kept by The United Players of Vancouver. Materials included handbills, programs, letters, minutes of meetings, membership lists and accounts. Personal interviews of people involved in the executive of the company along with newspaper clippings were important sources of information. There were some difficulties associated with researching the formative years of the company. The archival information is not available for the years 1959 to 1964 and many of the original members have died or moved away. The majority of information has therefore come from the recollections of Gwen Crowe, a founding member of the United Players. This thesis covers the general history of the United Players of Vancouver, the role of this theatre within its community, and the possible future of the company as seen by its members, especially Andree Karas, Artistic Director for the last thirteen years.

The Canadian urban cultural mosaic is made up of many different ethnic groups. These groups came to Canadian cities over time and used different means to help themselves in the adaptation process, to a new way of life. These groups included not only those from around the world, but those who migrated within the borders of Canada, seeking new and better lives in urban locales. This paper will explore the issue of urban migration in the years following the Second World War and the concomitant means used in the adaptation process. Although the experience of overseas immigrants will be examined for issues of contrast and comparison, this paper will specifically explore the experience of Canadian Aboriginal people. As natives moved to Canadian cities in the decades after 1945, Aboriginal friendship centres sprung up across Canada to assist them in adapting to, what was to them, a totally alien culture. This paper will explore the friendship centre phenomenon, particularly the role of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre - the largest of its kind in North America. How and when the friendship centre grew, who was involved in its formation and growth, and what import it had on incoming native people to Vancouver, will be the main issues considered in this work. Although some primary and secondary sources were used in research, the lack of such sources has led me to rely on oral interviews for information for this project. Since the interviews were conducted with surviving founders of the Vancouver Friendship Centre, the use of such first hand information has proved most valuable and insightful. The Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre played a key role in the adaptation of the native to big city life. The centre started small, grew, changed with the times, and provided much valuable assistance to natives seeking help at a time when they often had no place else to go.

This thesis examines the Vancouver Peretz Institute Library, a Yiddish language library housed in a secular humanist Jewish community centre. The organization provides supplementary schooling for children, and holds seniors' groups, adult classes, and special events. In this thesis the organization's library is placed in the context of Yiddish library history, the history of the Yiddish secular school movement, and the mainstream Jewish community in Vancouver. Attention is given to the organization's founding in 1945, and its creation of the library in 1976, as well as its relationship to the Vancouver Jewish community and other organizations in the Yiddish cultural movement, such as YIVO and the National Yiddish Book Center. The school's philosophy was highly influenced by the Holocaust and its destruction of much of Yiddish-speaking Jewry; by the left-wing affiliations of many members and much of the Yiddish cultural community; and by the emergence of McCarthyism in Vancouver's Jewish community. The library emerged from the personal vision of a member who is a Holocaust survivor, Paulina Kirman. Although never heavily used, and although financial difficulties are a constant factor in the organization, the library has been maintained due to the institute's attachment to Yiddish culture. The future of community Yiddish libraries such as this one is examined in light of technical and social factors, including cataloguing and preservation difficulties and the development of a Yiddish literary canon. Finally, the Vancouver Peretz Institute Library is placed in the context of the larger issue of the role of Yiddish in modern Jewish identities. Although usage of the Yiddish language is in decline, the continuation of this library illustrates the symbolic role which it continues to play in the imagination of Diaspora Jews. The marginality of Yiddish appeals especially to those with emotional connections to secular, left-wing, and other minority Jewish identities.

The primary objective of this thesis is to examine the opportunities and constraints for transforming "contested" public space into "shared" place in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. This examination is informed by: a literature review of public space theory; a review of City of Vancouver policies pertaining to public space conditions in the Downtown Eastside; a case study of community-driven public realm initiatives in Pioneer Square in Seattle, Washington; personal experience both working in, and observing conditions in the Downtown Eastside, and a review of current initiatives in the area that are working towards improving the public realm in the area while building consensus between opposing community groups. This research indicates that public spaces play an important role in the everyday lives of city dwellers, particularly for those who, due to homelessness and poverty, rely on public space for recreation and socialization, and in many cases, to live. However, as the central city is becoming an increasingly attractive place to live for middle and upper income households, conflicts can ensue over who has the "right" to use the public realm. What often occurs is the exclusion of the poor and marginalized segment of the population to "make way" for amenities that serve higher income residents and visitors. Conditions in the Downtown Eastside have deteriorated, yet at the same time, development both within and around the area has created distrust and hostility between different community groups. However, recent initiatives are working to make improvements while building trust between different, often hostile community groups. Ideally, planning for the public realm should have a significant amount of community involvement and control. The case study of Pioneer Square indicates that this is possible, although a sufficient amount of trust and consensus is needed from the outset. While the Downtown Eastside possesses many attributes which provide opportunities for public realm improvements, planners from outside the community should play a significant role in any initiatives, due to the lack of consensus and tension between community interests.