Last week, we held our annual holiday party at the BOB office. It was a fun night full of tasty food and lively conversation. Since we had everyone gathered together in a space that can only be described as ‘cozy’, we took the opportunity to acknowledge and thank a number of people who have helped make 2010 such a successful year for BOB.

The Supported Employment team honoured three employer partners: Impark, FROGBOX, and Recycling Alternative.  We also featured client Chris Foster, who spoke about his positive experience working with Recycling Alternative.

The Business Development team honoured some of the people they work closely with, representing the City of Vancouver and BC Housing.

Thank you to everyone who attended and gave donations. The warm clothing will be distributed to our clients at our next SHINE dinner.

We here at BOB wish everyone a joyous holiday season and all the best in 2011!

L to R: BOB Board Chair Linda Coady, Barbara Mount and Van Loudfoot from Impark, Andrew Bryson, Liz Charyna from BOB

L to R: BOB CEO Shirley Chan, Linda, Doug Burgoyne from FROGBOX, Andrew, Liz

L to R: Shirley, Linda, Kina Kenyon and Louise Schwarz from Recycling Alternative, Andrew, Liz

BOB Client Chris Foster (left) answers questions from Ada Mo-Williams of BOB (right)

L to R: Kira Gerwing from City of Vancouver, Linda, Helen Ma from the City of Vancouver, Shirley, Randy Clyne from BOB

L to R: Linda, Shirley, Rory Munro from BC Housing, Randy

The Hastings Corridor BIA Formation Committee is continuing its outreach to property owners, businesses, and other members of the community regarding the proposed creation of this new Business Improvement Area as deadlines approach at City Hall.  On September 9th the second of 3 public meetings held by the Formation Committee yielded a good turnout with lots of great discussion. Here is a collection of the most commonly requested information.

The proposed area would extend from Richards St. to Gore Ave encompassing a part of the city  that is currently bordered by 5 other BIAs but is noticeably lacking its own.

To the left is a map of current BIAs operating in Vancouver. The large green area at the top of the map (Downtown peninsula) is comprised of the Downtown Vancouver, Yaletown, and Gastown BIAs, with the two parallel strands to the west being the Robson St and West End BIAs) there is a gap between these areas to the west, Strathcona BIA to the east and Chinatown BIA just to the south of this proposed BIA area which has three possible names being put forth including: Hastings-Crosstown,  Hastings-Core, and Hastings-Portside BIA.

The timeline for this process began in April of 2009 and has been steadily unfolding since then, with numerous targets and goals met along the way. The process has been captured in these 2 tables to the left.

Moving forward, there will be a final survey sent to businesses and property owners in the proposed BIA area leading up to a 3rd public meeting which will be held on October the 5th at 4:30 PM here at BOB 163 E Pender St. We look forward to seeing you there if you are a business or property owner in this proposed area.

BIAs are paid for by a tax levy, but the budget and use of monies is not controlled by the City. The power to spend rests with the BIA itself as does the creation of appropriate programs that benefit the area. The proposed levy that the Formation Committee has suggested is at 70 cents per thousand dollars of property value for the nearly 200 properties this BIA would serve.  The average for BIAs added since 2004 has been 90 cents. See table below  for three examples of levies and budgets.

For a complete re-cap of the presentation on Sep 9th including more indepth budget details and other particulars go here: Hastings BIA Presentation Sep9’10

SOLEfood Open House Information Session
418 East Hastings Street
(Mah Benevolent Society of Vancouver, at Dunlevy Avenue)
Saturday, August 14, 2010
2:00pm – 4:00pm

This Saturday, August 14th, 2010, there will be a SOLEfood Open House Information Session regarding a possible second farm site at Union Street and Gore Avenue (the grass area adjacent to the via duct). The good folks at SOLEfood have requested feedback and input from neighbours on the project before they submit an application for the development permit

See the SOLEfood open house invitation for more details.

About SOLEfood: The SOLEfood Urban Farm Project is a non-profit social enterprise that trains and employs DTES residents in urban agriculture. The food grown is sold to restaurants and at Farmers Markets in order to achieve economic self sufficiency.

If you’re unable to attend but would still like to submit comments, questions or suggestions you can do so via email, phone or mail. Please send it to:

E-mail:   SOLEfood@unitedwecan.ca

Or via regular mail to:

Seann Dory & Doris Chow
39 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1M9
Phone: 604-837-1601

Over the course of one day in May of 2010, BOB held a community consultation in which residents, various representatives from government, governance bodies, community agencies and business leaders offered their input concerning the future role of BOB. Through a series of workshops discerning both the value of BOB and the potential areas in which BOB was perceived as being most useful the following was decided:

BOB was delighted with the community’s input, enthusiasm and encouragement at the May 12^th community consultation.  After further review with staff and the Board, BOB has determined its most valued role within the community is to remain a connector/convener for business opportunities within the inner city.

To this end, and complementing the activities of other inner city organizations, this means the following:

1. BOB will continue to support the connection of businesses to the inner city.
2. BOB will continue to support the connection of all levels of government to the inner city.
3. BOB will continue to maintain employment support programs.

We also heard from the consultation that it is not in the community’s best interest for BOB to initiate a social enterprise.  The rationale being that such a social enterprise would compete with existing services within the community and potentially undermine the role of BOB as a connector in the community.   It is not BOB’s intention to compete with other inner city organizations, but instead to complement and connect.

As mentioned in the consultation session, BOB faces many of the same funding challenges of other inner city organizations.   We have decided to pursue our activities on a transaction basis – fee for service, consulting and/or retainer.

In fulfilling BOB’s role in the community, we will increase community membership on the BOB Board by 3 members.  In addition, to further improve BOB’s role as a business connector, we will increase board membership with business representation by another 2 additional members.  We will make the additions gradually to facilitate adjustment and proper orientation with the organization.

Finally and most importantly, BOB will continue to support and encourage businesses that have shown a history of positive environmental, social or cultural sustainability.   BOB believes that positive economic development in the inner city is best developed by organizations that support principles of sustainability.

We think it is important to conduct additional community consultations to further refine this strategic direction.   These additional consultations will be conducted on a regular basis throughout the year.

We welcome your continued input.

-This response to the findings of the community consultation held in May 2010 is available as a PDF on the BOB Website.