{"id":12719,"date":"2012-08-08T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=12719"},"modified":"2025-04-08T23:37:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T06:37:33","slug":"malcolm-bromley-constance-barnes-interview-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/08\/08\/malcolm-bromley-constance-barnes-interview-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Malcolm Bromley & Constance Barnes Interview \u2013 Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Malcolm Bromley and Constance Barnes at the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Spacing Vancouver Editor Erick Villagomez and contributors Brendan Hurley and Yuri Artibise continue their lively discussion with Vancouver Park Board Commissioner (and recently announced NDP candidate for the Vancouver False Creek riding!) Constance Barnes<\/a> and Malcolm Bromley<\/a>\u2014General Manager of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation\u2014in this, the final installment of a four-part series focusing on the role of parks in the Vancouver. If you missed the first part, you can read it here<\/a>. Part two is here<\/a>. Part three is here<\/a>. A prologue excerpt looking at Emery Barnes Park is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Spacing:<\/strong> We hear a lot about the urban development side of things \u2014that\u2019s always at the top of the headlines\u2014 but parks are usually below the radar. What are some of the interesting projects that you have on the horizon?<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong>  One thing I would say is \u201cmove, move, move.\u201d When you hear mayor and council say Vancouver is the \u2018Greenest City<\/a>,\u2019 I want Vancouver to be known as the \u2018Most Active City.\u2019 It\u2019s working with all those different organizations. It\u2019s tying that in with Tourism BC<\/a> and Tourism Vancouver<\/a> and Coastal Health<\/a>. It\u2019s really about healthy people and looking at what we can do at the Park Board to make sure that we use every opportunity that we have to keep people moving.<\/p>\n

One of the cool things that I just did was bats. I got to put the bat houses up. So we have six bat houses<\/a> at three golf courses. We were handing out cans of Off! for mosquitoes, they were so bad because it\u2019s been so wet. So these bats house 300 female bats, and they come out at night and they eat half their body weight in mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

Spacing:<\/strong> <whistles><\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> I know, I like that, you get to eat half your body weight every day! <laughter>. I was making jokes because it\u2019s all female bats. 300 hundred female bats in there all day going \u201cAnd then… you know what he was doing?!?…\u201d <laughter><\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> I think that is the start of how to make our golf courses greener \u2014they are members of the Audobon Society<\/a>, which measures sustainability\u2014 making sure you have good practices for the environment. These are big tracts of green space in an increasing densifying city.<\/p>\n

If you go to England and other places, they are in the public trust<\/a>, and it is mandated that the public should have access to golf courses, to walk through them. If you are in England on a golf course, you can see a stoller go by, even during the British Open. They are safety issues, and you have to be reasonable, but we would like to explore making sure that those are both golf courses that in some of their practices are environmentally very friendly and that they are accessible as a bio-diverse environment for the public. That\u2019s an area we\u2019d like to explore and this [the bat houses] is a starting point.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the emerging areas along the Fraser River. It\u2019s kind of the last frontier if you think of development in Vancouver. It affords us an opportunity for access to water, but striking a balance between complementary needs. There is industry down there, and there is housing emerging, and there\u2019s recreational requirements. That\u2019s an area that will require creative problem solving. We will be part of that. People now demand access to water, access to green space in their community. The densification down there, I think will be an interesting project.<\/p>\n

Orphan spaces [are something] we are working with other city departments on. Pocket parks on little pieces of heretofore unused land. I\u2019ve been thinking and talking with Constance about our dog off-leash challenge. It\u2019s always a challenge to go into a park and say \u201cwe\u2019re going to take this corner and dedicate it to dogs,\u201d but we could find these orphan spaces that are just kind of parked out there. We have access to right of ways, that maybe they were thinking of building a road one day, but haven\u2019t. With a little fencing and a couple of trees and benches: Bingo! A pop-up dog off-leash area. Being creative utilises public spaces that are otherwise just sitting out there.<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> Also birds, we\u2019re doing birds. I\u2019m reading the Migratory Bird Day<\/a> proclamation this weekend [May 12, 2012]. Vancouver has more migratory birds that come here than anywhere else. I honestly didn’t realize how many species Vancouver gets, including our heron up here. We have six walks now, and we\u2019re building. This started as one with  Rob Butler<\/a>, who is a world expert birder.<\/p>\n

We are actually tying it into a full day of speaking, it\u2019s almost like a conference happening at the Vancouver Public Library. Vancouver Tourism came up with $5,000. We\u2019ve got all kinds of neat things happening. I didn’t realize how many birders are out there.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> It\u2019s one of the fastest growing activities.<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> It\u2019s huuuge! So we\u2019re looking at building on this, and it actually was Chicago, and Sahdu [Johnston, Deputy City Manager] who has an amazing history with birding is working on that. Each year we\u2019re going to build, and we\u2019re looking at actually having Vancouver host a huge birding convention. This year will be year two and we\u2019re going to build on it, so that hopefully next year we\u2019re going to do three days.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> And that spins off into our policy. We have to rethink the way we do things and be mindful of what we plant and how we prune. There\u2019s certain birds that live in trees, some live in bushes; they need certain conditions. We’ve worked really closely with the bird community to say \u201cteach us\u201d about our practices: what have we done well? what have we done not so well and should stop doing?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how those things spin off into other directions and opportunities. We have the Stanley Park Ecological Society<\/a> and some other partners. We don’t have to own or do everything. We have an interest in managing it, and ensuring it gets done; but if we can help somebody else do it with a little nudge, and support and resources, let\u2019s do it that way. Let\u2019s have this network of people that are engaged and own this stuff.<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> There\u2019s a big environmental piece too. Birds \u2014rather than using pesticides and stuff\u2014 are great for aphids. Pesticides are a tool to increase food production, increased profits for farmers and the prevention of diseases. If pests are ruining property, it’s best to call commercial pest control sydney<\/a> company. They’re great for all these different pieces, but again, we sit here at the Board, and people come forward with all these different stories, and the positives, and you just have no idea. You run thinking you are going to save a swimming pool, and the next thing you know, you\u2019re nailing up a bat house! Hey I got to use a drill \u201czzzzt, zzzzt\u201d It was great! <laughter><\/p>\n

Spacing:<\/strong> Given your roles, I\u2019d love to hear what your favourite Vancouver park is and why.<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> That\u2019s kind of a silly question for me! <laughter, as Emery Barnes Park was completed this year>  Even if I had another, I don\u2019t know if I would say it. <laughter><\/p>\n

Spacing:<\/strong> Second favourite?<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> You know, one that we didn\u2019t touch on, and where I work everyday \u2014and I don\u2019t know that I\u2019d call it a park\u2014 is the. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden<\/a>. That\u2019s my full time day job, I\u2019m Sales and Marketing Manager there. It\u2019s absolutely exquisite. it was the first one ever built outside China. Everything there came over from Suzhou, including the 53 artisans who built the space.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s got an amazing energy, the Tai Hu rocks, the Yun Wei Ting, all those pieces. I\u2019ve been there over five years, and it is an absolute secret. It\u2019s this gem, but it’s a secret, which is a shame, because we need the revenue <chuckles>. We have amazing programming. We have music in the summer\u2014the Enchanted Evenings<\/a> concerts. We have theatrical performances there.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> She\u2019s in the marketing department <laugher><\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> But we do so much. It\u2019s one of those things that I\u2019m upstairs in the office and I sometimes need to go downstairs and put my feet on those beautiful pebbles. It\u2019s definitely a favourite space of mine.<\/p>\n

Spacing:<\/strong> It’s wonderful.<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> It is; but I\u2019m kinda liking dad\u2019s park too! <laughter> I go there to sit and just reflect and I feel him. I definitely feel him when I\u2019m there. So it\u2019s a very cool thing.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> It\u2019s that emotional connection.<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> It is. He\u2019s right there and he\u2019s saying \u201cYeah, you did good\u201d or \u201cGee, you\u2019d better smarten up.” Either way, he\u2019s there. And i know my family goes there as well when they just need to touch base with pops.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> We need to celebrate our heroes, right?<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> We do, and he was definitely a hero. Absolutely.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> Well it\u2019s easy to say Stanley Park, because I\u2019d never seen it before, and there is so much for me to explore, and I live right there\u2014it\u2019s my backyard. I\u2019m right on the property line. But I\u2019d say for impact for me, it\u2019s the little Morton Park<\/a>, with the A-maze-ing Laughter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I live in the Denman\/Davie area, and I watch the world come to that park and everyone smiling. I cannot go by there and not smile. If I\u2019m having a bad day, even at the office, I\u2019ll walk down there. Little children and just about everybody is animated by that park, taking pictures, striking the poses. It\u2019s just so inspiring. That\u2019s why we are working hard with Vancouver Biennale<\/a> and others to keep it here, and the Board approved that, so we\u2019ll see a happy landing there. That place really makes me happy.<\/p>\n

Spacing:<\/strong> Do you have any closing thoughts you would like to share?<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong>  Thank-you. I would say thank-you to you for taking the time to come and talk with the Park Board because we don\u2019t have a lot of tragedy here, but we do a lot of really good work and I think we do grand, grand work. So I would just say thank-you, we\u2019re really appreciative to have you come and give us the opportunity to speak about what we do.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the norm, it really isn’t. We\u2019re not sitting here talking about something tragic, we\u2019re talking about really grand things that keep people happy and healthy and get them out to share their lives in great spaces.<\/p>\n

Spacing:<\/strong> Our pleasure.<\/p>\n

Malcolm Bromley:<\/strong> I also appreciate the opportunity and let your readers know that we\u2019re open. If they have ideas or thoughts, we are open. We need to manage expectations; we can\u2019t do everything, or everything at the same pace, but I want to hear everything. I want to hear creative ideas.<\/p>\n

If people have ideas about how to engage with us please let us know. I learned a lot from the open data community about the potential that has for us. I\u2019m sure some of your audience and readers have some fantastic ideas to help us make our good system better and better. We aspire to be the best in the world. That\u2019s something we talk about. If we can\u2019t do it, who can \u2014with all of the beautiful assets we have? Drop us a line<\/a>, send us an email<\/a>. Let us know.<\/p>\n

Constance Barnes:<\/strong> In addition to that, I\u2019d say to people \u201cDon\u2019 t be afraid to approach us.\u201d And if you’re kids, or if you\u2019re seniors, that\u2019s who we have to hear from. Don\u2019t be afraid, don\u2019t be scared, we’re one of you. Because even though it can be a little frightening, and a little overpowering \u2014we\u2019re all sitting around this big table\u2014 you know what, we\u2019re one of you. That\u2019s how I feel. So don\u2019t be afraid to come down, or pick up a phone (604-873-7000<\/a>) and let us know what you are thinking, because that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Another heartfelt thanks to Constance Barnes and Malcolm Bromley for taking to time to speak with me, to Brendan Hurley for recording the conversation, and Yuri Artibise for transcribing the interview.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Yuri Artibise<\/strong> is a public policy analyst and social media specialist. Through his Yurbanism<\/a> brand, he explores the \u2018Y\u2019 of urbanism by sharing ways to make our cities more livable, community-oriented places one block at a time. He currently works with PlaceSpeak<\/a>, an online location-based community consultation platform.<\/em><\/p>\n

Brendan Hurley<\/strong> is a local urban designer who focuses on planning for adaptive neighbourhood change. His recent work has been internationally focused, but is strongly rooted in his native Vancouver. Living and working out of the heart of downtown, he remains keenly focused on the region\u2019s development and history. Brendan is a regular contributor to Spacing Vancouver, but also consults as director of the UrbanCondition<\/a> design collective.<\/em><\/p>\n

Erick Villagomez<\/strong> is the Editor-in-chief at Spacing Vancouver. He is also an educator, independent researcher and designer with personal and professional interests in the urban landscapes. His private practice – Metis Design|Build<\/a> – is an innovative practice dedicated to a collaborative and ecologically responsible approach to the design and construction of places. You can also see some of his drawing and digital painting adventures at Visual Thoughts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

*<\/p>\n

Other Spacing Vancouver and Spacing interviews:<\/em><\/p>\n