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NO RECIPE FOR FUNK The park across the street from my house has always been a great park. It’s only a single square block, but is densely used by families, kids, teenagers, dogs and dog-people, packs of Italian bocce-ballers, people drinking, and Latino guys singing and playing soccer. But it was closed for much of 2007. The city tore the shit out of the place: surrounded it with blue construction fence, ate up the field with huge machines, took down the playground, obliterated the bocce runs, and piled the benches in a corner. There was a certain amount of neighbourhood cynicism when the backhoes rolled in and stayed for months and months (extended by the civic strike). Was this some kind of quasi-gentrification scheme, needlessly prolonged so all the drinkers and kids would find somewhere else to hang out and never come back? But the park reopened right at the end of the year, and you know what? They did a really nice job. The whole thing is well designed, and in large part because of a thorough and sensitive public-consultation process. The new playground, the bocce area, the paths, the little bit of landscaping—everything is tasteful and well used already. And with any luck the new drainage will keep it from turning into the grassless mud pit that has been its traditional spring fate. There’s something a little different about the park, though, something that seems emblematic of Vancouver right now. Scattered all through it, ringing the grassy area and posted at every entrance, are 11 separate signs detailing exactly how you are required to behave. Pick up after your dog (max. $2,000 fine). Leash your dog—leash maximum: 2.5 metres (max. $2,000 fine). Park closed from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The bocce courts are for everyone to share (in English and Italian). Dogs must be kept a minimum of 15 metres away from the playground at all times (max. $2,000 fine). What? Good Lord, what are they talking about, 15 metres away from the playground? Is someone going to come out and measure? C’mon. It’s true that Bocce Ball Park (Victoria Park on the map, just off Commercial Drive) is definitely what some academic types might call “contested space.” It’s pretty small, and a lot of different people use it, which sometimes means conflict. People singing too loud at night. Dogs shitting in the playground. Hipsters getting in the way of the old Italian guys who want to gamble. Teenagers sounding intimidating. People passed out face-down. Any complex, multiple-user space has to have ways of mediating conflict, and there has certainly been lots of formal and informal discussion over who should be doing what in Bocce Park. But imposing ever-more-precise regulation is heading in exactly the wrong direction. These ultra-specific rules are bolstered by the all the other rules you can probably guess apply to a small urban park. No guns. No golf. No chainsaws. No 4 x 4-ing. But there is also a 2005 registry of other bylaws that apply to all Vancouver parks, of which most people are probably unaware. And all of them are “punishable on conviction by a fine of not less than $50 and not more than $2,000 for each offence.” Here’s just a quick sampling, lifted directly from the Parks Control By-Laws document:
I’ve just picked out a few especially dorky ones, standouts among a million other provisions and sub-sections detailing possible behaviours that might encumber, hinder, interrupt, remove, obstruct, occupy, interfere, travel, conduct, offend, sell, paint, post, affix, ride, break, light, displace, replace, contravene and so on. Okay, granted, I’m reading from bylaws, which always sound stupid and lawyered. But did you know that you’re not allowed to sit on a retaining wall, kayak, play guitar, gather in groups, address the public, sing or play football, except in designated areas unless you have written permission from the General Manager? And that you could be fined up to two grand if you do? Did you know that no park except Queen Elizabeth is designated as a Frisbee-throwing area? Joyce Courtney, a parks and recreation spokeswoman, assured the Vancouver Sun last year that the bylaws are just “rules of conduct,” there to “educate, inform and change behaviour.” So the rules are there, but they aren’t going to be enforced? Or they are exercises in governmentality, ready to be used when necessary? How creepy is that? People reflexively talk about Singapore as a crypto-fascist city, a place where you’re not allowed to chew gum. But how does it feel to live in a city where rules prohibit gathering in groups, playing football or singing in a park without permission? Nice place you got there, buddy. To get some clarity, I called Spencer Herbert, a Vancouver parks-board commissioner who is a good guy and a pal, and he reaffirmed this same position. He called the regulations “puzzling”: “They don't really bug me because they are not really enforced, and the public doesn't know they're there so it's not really hampering their freedom. But as they are not all really enforced it puzzles me why some of them are there. Some rules and regulations for protecting public space are absolutely necessary, but rules about not playing Frisbee anywhere unless you have the written consent of our general manager are pretty draconian… Some other rules seem pretty ridiculous.” So is all this just the kind of regulatory absurdity we are so familiar with in Canada? Is this just our postmodern future? You could argue that clear parameters are required in a diverse and dense urban environment where lots of people have to share space, that we need complex packages of rules to induce civility. But I just don’t buy it. The neurotic signage all over one little park is symptomatic of how so much of the Western world, but Vancouver in particular, is micro-managing its public space, fixating on controlling, mandating and governing the conduct of people (and dogs). The result is not just sanitized public space, but a social milieu so tightly clutched by bureaucrats that it can’t breathe. Much gets lost when there’s nowhere to throw a ball for your dog. Mary Brookes, who owns Sophie’s Pet Palace (“Where a Bitch is the Boss”) just around the corner from the park, said it perfectly: “What’s this world coming to, luv? These bylaw officers, they’ll target a park and then police it repeatedly: check that dogs are all registered, that they have the right length leashes, that they have correct tags on, that they are not running free, that they’ve had all their shots—it’s crazy. It’s been proven time and again that a neighbourhood is better and safer when there are people out walking their dogs, hanging around in the park watching their dogs run round. You pay attention to the neighbourhood. It’s a healthy community when people can be outside together and relax in the park without worrying about some bylaw or getting fined for something ridiculous.” The over-regulation of Vancouver’s parks is one thing, but it points to bigger, more pervasive and more troubling trajectories that are determining what kind of city is this going to be, and how its development will be governed. * * * The question I am asking is this: How can Vancouver develop some funk, some flavour? That shouldn’t be reduced to an aesthetic question, because it’s an inherently political issue. It’s about culture for sure, but also about ownership, public space, governance and control. I think about public space every time I am in Montreal. There’s a vibe there, a rhythm, a sensibility that somehow feels so much more urban and alive than Vancouver. Have you noticed how pretty much everyone who visits Montreal comes back and says, “Now, that’s a great city. That’s what a city is supposed to feel like”? Architecture is critical, for sure, and streets that were designed before the car, a Euro influence, a Francophone pace and style, people dressing well and a density of culture. But it’s a lot more than just attractiveness; it’s about a rich cosmopolitan urban experience that is simply lacking in so much of Vancouver. Clearly, Vancouver just doesn’t have the urban character of Montreal or even Toronto, let alone Paris or Havana or Buenos Aires. Something is missing or ignored here, and I don’t think there’s a simple answer to what that is. A confluence of factors is at play, all of which entwine, reinforce and rationalize one another. Tight control over public space, a swiftly-growing income gap, the spiraling housing market, bylaw and permitting red tape, a fixation on what tourists will encounter—all these things constrict public life, but they are hardly unique to Vancouver. We have more artists per capita than any other city in Canada, there’s a fantastic diversity of immigrant cultures, and we have a real network of defined, largely walkable communities. So what the hell’s the problem? How can this city get some flavour that doesn’t taste prepackaged?
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