{"id":9106,"date":"2012-05-04T17:21:39","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T00:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=9106"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:10:35","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:10:35","slug":"find-the-plaques-to-make-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/05\/04\/find-the-plaques-to-make-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Find the Plaques to Make History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fraser Street Stories Plaque.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Guest Feature by Michael Klassen<\/h4>\n

There’s evidence that our community connections are made more tenuous by modern urban living. There was a time when the neighbourhood school and local church stitched together the fabric of community. Today, a parent is just as likely to enroll their child out of the local school catchment as in, while our churches struggle to maintain their flocks in an increasingly secular world. It’s got so bad that the Vancouver Foundation is funding a study on our isolated lives<\/a>, and seeking ways to bring us closer.<\/p>\n

As a volunteer community organizer, I’ve seen what a struggle it is to get people involved in their own neighbourhoods. In Vancouver’s boroughs, there are many obstacles to making a connection with your neighbours \u2013 language and cultural barriers, poor urban design and lack of public space, distractions such as TV and internet, and yes, even the lowly remote control garage door opener. It’s possible that you could live in our city and never have any human contact with your neighbours.<\/p>\n

The times demand that we use our imaginations to strengthen communities, like building homes that have a stronger connection with the street<\/a>. With the internet we’re more connected than ever, yet we’re arguably more disconnected as communities at the same time. It’s likely we spend more face time with our smart phones and computer screens than talking face-to-face with friends or loved ones.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, after enjoying some New Year’s Eve revelry with fellow parents, I wrote exuberantly about how technology pervaded neighbourhoods in an essay titled The Last Desktop<\/a><\/em>. At the time, I asked how can we use devices like smart phones to create hyperlocal experiences. I saw the potential use for lamp standards along our streets \u2013 those hollow poles with a few wires dangling within \u2013 to act as digital beacons or bulletin boards.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the extreme industriousness of a fellow volunteer and community leader named Lilli Wong, we took advantage of a neighbourhood matching grant to create yet another project in our Fraser Street neighbourhood. It was a chance to revisit the idea of turning lamp standards into community listening posts. I discussed the idea of “digital placemaking” in a blog post<\/a> as the project got underway. Lilli ended up doing all the heavy lifting, including designing and facilitating a set of ten historical plaques. She would even enlist Vancouver historian John Atkin as a consultant.<\/p>\n

The finished product we dubbed as Vancouver Street Stories<\/a><\/em>. There are ten plaques in total \u2013 nine are along Fraser Street, and the tenth is nearby the Cedar Cottage Neighbourhood House (our non-profit partner) located on Victoria Drive. With the Street Stories project we had three goals:<\/p>\n