Posts from — April 2009

The absence of the report on the Burrard Street Bridge lane closure trial in April 7 council package has prompted a flurry of e-mails from my friends in the cycling community.

I won’t know the details for sure until I see the report, when everyone else does. But here’s what I’m forecasting, based on conversations with Councillor George Chow, who is staying in close touch with the planning, and staff this week:

• the report will be up for the April 21 meeting, available online April 15;
• we will be having a two-lane trial, given the costs of a single lane reallocation trial;
• the implementation of the trial should be in time for Bike Month; and
• the communications will be much more effective than 1996, when council bailed out of the trial after six days.

In short, we’re on track, Gregor Robertson remains very committed to his campaign promise and we’re moving ahead.

Seagulls enjoying the feast: an unprecedented herring spawn in False Creek, on restored habitat created as part of the Olympic Village sustainability features.

Photos circulating at City Hall taken Monday show a gratifying victory for the city’s sustainability efforts at Southeast False Creek: herring spawn on the beach built adjacent to the Olympic Village. As photographer John Harper notes in his e-mail, “restoration doesn’t get any better than this.” Actually, this is brand new habitat, fabricated with fill from the site, boulders from the Sea to Sky Highway, careful plantings and two “predator poles” recycled from windfall created by the Stanley Park blowdown several years ago. Harper believes the spawn stretched for more than a kilometre.

Of course, herring spawned in False Creek in the past, but not for many years. Last year, very high coliform counts were recorded in the creek, which still receives raw sewage during heavy rain.

Herring roe on kelp in the intertidal zone off the Olympic Village development in False Creek.