Community needs more schools and childcare centres
Katie Mercer
Province
Larry Beasley discussed the results yesterday of a University of B.C. study of the False Creek North community that he designed while he was Vancouver’s city planner. Wayne Leidenfrost – The Province
Downtown living may be replacing the stand-alone home for Vancouver residents, but megaproject communities still have their kinks, according to a study of False Creek North released yesterday.
“Families do have their complaints,” said Larry Beasley, who spearheaded the study of the community he designed when he was Vancouver city planner.
“We’ve only been designing for families in high-density living in North America for 10 years. We still need to make more progress.”
The study, conducted by University of B.C. students, gauged the needs of residents living in the False Creek North community.
While more than 90 per cent of polled residents in the community expressed satisfaction with downtown urban living, the study suggests more needs to be done to accommodate families.
False Creek North was designed as a family oriented urban living community that nurtured suburban qualities not usually found in the inner city.
It’s partly because of this development that more families are returning from the suburbs to the downtown core, Beasley said.
Recent Statistics Canada figures show that of the more than 10,000 people living in False Creek North, 13 per cent are under 19 — that’s more children than in all of Point Grey. But raising children is a challenge in the community.
While the community boasts plenty of child-friendly green spaces for play, access to schooling and childcare facilities is a major roadblock.
Childcare centres are chock-full, with waiting lists close to 1,800 and up to two years long.
The only local elementary school, Elsie Roy, has been operating at full capacity since 2004, causing children to be bused to other neighbourhoods, some of which have reputations for lower-quality services.
Beasley said the city’s “unfinished business” could drive families away if more schools and childcare centres aren’t built downtown — and quickly.
Beasley warned the study is meant to identify the needs of residents, not solutions to problems it cites.
“This research is going to be useful to people in the community and to people in other cities who are going to be these inner-city communities.”