Charles J. Walter

Urban planning visionary Jane Jacobs, 89, died in Toronto on April 25. CBC Radio paid its respects to the Order of Canada recipient all day long with quotes and music in her memory.
Jacobs was an author of such books as The Death and Life of Great American Cities and one of the greatest urban planners of the 20th century. She is credited with saving New York City from the post-WW II big highway development binge of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Seattle did not listen to her and is regretting its decision to cut off its waterfront with six lanes of concrete.
She saved Vancouver as she spurred on a bright group of planners from UBC. Families and community activists who listened to her reasoning saved Vancouver’s waterfront and created urban livability. That civic highway fight was fierce. Those ‘60s activists are today’s virtuous elders and thanks to Jane Jacobs, Vancouver ranks consistently as one of the top three most livable cities in the world.
Jacobs made one last plea in her final days. She asked all those who would listen, to help the community at Eagle Ridge Bluffs in West Vancouver halt the overland highway construction and environmental disaster that is threatening. She supported a tunnel.
Whereas in the ‘60s it was the likes of the New York Port Corporation leading the highway-mania-at-all-cost campaign, in today’s Vancouver it’s the 2010 Olympics and multi-billion dollar land interests that are the driving forces behind BC’s headlong charge to the development garbage heap.
The Eagle Ridge Bluffs area is immediately adjacent to Horseshoe Bay and gateway to the Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, Squamish, the Pemberton Valley and of course Whistler Mountain. Eagle Ridge, an area of extraordinary beauty and environmental importance, is also being strategically challenged because it is the end of the Trans-Canada Highway.
What Jacobs so gallantly called to our attention in her last days was the failure of regional planning when highway construction destroys communities and environments. West Vancouver pleaded with the government of British Columbia and launched a legal challenge to an open cut versus a tunnel. Victoria could save the bluffs and wetlands and do something great for the future while Vancouver and the Whistler gear up for their biggest moment yet; the Winter Olympics. Huge amounts of tax money is being spent to make 2010 a success and the grim determination of the highways minister knows no limits before the altar of international glory and success. One might say hubris knows no bounds when challenged by community and one of the greatest community thinkers of our time.
What Jane Jacobs saw so clearly and wisely back in the ‘60s was that if you destroy one community you also start destroying your neighbouring communities and the effect can reach well beyond the immediate area. Planners make horrible mistakes when they don’t listen to the community. Look at Detroit, then take a look at New York. Which of the two cities, if you had a choice, would you want to live in?
Ever tough-minded Highways Minister Kevin Falcon says the overland route through these extraordinary wetlands and bluffs is really a matter of cost. Contractors say they will build “environmental crosswalks” for the rare amphibians in the wetlands so they can avoid being run over. The tunnel, Falcon says, is going to cost more to build than it would to blast through the bluffs.
A counter analysis by professionals within the community say the dollar difference is negligible. Further, if the difference is only money, the last federal Liberal government said it would pay the difference. Falcon did not take up this generous offer. Ottawa of course, having responsibility for the Trans-Canada Highway, major subsidies for BC Ferries and a big chunk of the 2010 Olympics, understands its responsibilities in the matter. The western terminal of Canada’s Highway 1 is becoming a 15 km parking lot from the Capilano River to Horseshoe Bay, each and every long weekend and throughout the summer tourist season.
There are also the safety issues of Highway 1 being used as a parking lot and air pollution from the thousands of stranded vehicles breaching air quality guidelines, core federal responsibilities.
What this comes down to is part of the International Olympic Committee’s development agreement with BC and Canada wherein it clearly states the Games are
“not to destroy community and environment” by expedience and Olympic development zeal but to enhance community quality of life. We can choose to make these the greenest Games ever.
Many people in the prosperous and well-educated community of West Vancouver have stepped up and are prepared to commit acts of civil disobedience to protect their neigbourhood. However, the broad middleclass concern of the Greater Vancouver region for its neighbours in West Vancouver is found wanting.
Vancouver is happy with all the Olympic benefits and Whistler is beside itself with glee. They’re a privileged lot out there up on those West Van hills, people say.
No matter that huge support for saving Burns Bog was centred in West Vancouver.
No matter that it was the same class of Vancouverites who fought to save East Vancouver from the ‘60s waterfront/highway development madness.
No matter that many wise and wonderful people from West Van fought for years to help the Haida save South Moresby as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The environmental, community and planning importance of Eagle Ridge raises the brilliant spirit of Jane Jacobs to make one last plea for community and the environmental integrity of the Eagle Ridge Bluffs in the face of unnecessary highway construction and social disruption.
No matter what, the highway opponents are here to teach a lesson in what is right for families and community and what is not and simply ugly. And the rest of the Greater Vancouver communities stand by to watch as reasonable caring families and their kids, to protect their community and the rest of the GVRD, put their bodies in the way of poor, out-dated planning with minimal community input.
It took great courage and miraculous tenacity for Jane Jacobs to save New York and Vancouver 40 years ago. In April, she tried again with all her strength, one last time, to stop urban destruction of the Eagle Ridge Bluffs.
If only the city of Seattle had listened? If only Victoria will listen in time? It’s really a question of defending community and environment. Let’s respect the wisdom of our elders such as Jane Jacobs and UBC’s Walter Harwick.
Even Premier Campbell is a former mayor of Vancouver, has a degree in urban land economics, and knows better than most how easily a great city can be destroyed by poor planning. Campbell has sold BC to the world for 2010. Let’s not also sell out our great urban legacy as one of the top three most livable cities in the world. Thank you Jane Jacobs.
www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/04/25/jacobs060425.html
www.eagleridgebluffs.ca