The following letter was sent to the Vancouver Courier in response to the article last week regarding dumpsters and laneways:
Editor, the Courier:
Re “Davie Village BIA Sick of Getting Dumpstered On”, Dec. 8.
The West End Residents Association agrees that we need to make our laneways more pleasant and livable and we would welcome a discussion with the City of Vancouver and the Davie Village Business Improvement Association on this issue. However, we believe that merely removing dumpsters and replacing them with pick-up of garbage bags without other measures would not be the best solution.
First of all, to blame garbage problems on binners is over-simplistic. Binners wouldn't exist if we as a society didn't throw away materials that should be recycled or re-used. If we remove the dumpsters and replace them with garbage bags, we will be increasing the amount of material that goes into landfills, unless an alternative way to encourage recycling and re-using is put into place. Binners provide a valuable social service by taking materials out of the landfill. Somehow, if dumpsters are removed, a way must be found to continue this service.
At the very least, a way to put out returnable bottles for pickup by binners (in a way that doesn't put their health and safety at risk and that puts pedestrian friendly uses of laneways as a priority) and a West End bottle recycling depot would be needed.
Second, if we are removing dumpsters merely to provide more parking spaces and easier access for deliveries, as the article states, then we won't have achieved much. Currently, West End laneways are used by automobiles trying to circumvent traffic calming measures. Removing the dumpsters without countervailing traffic calming in the laneways will just make it easier for cars to use our neighbourhood as a shortcut between the bridges and downtown.
Third, currently garbage and recycling pickup in the West End and downtown is uncoordinated and carried out by a number of different private companies operating on different schedules. If we institute multiple pick-ups of garbage bags without rationalizing this hodgepodge of a system, we will be decreasing our quality of life through increased vehicular traffic and air and noise pollution and making our laneways even less inviting for alternate uses. We need to repurpose our laneways as pedestrian-friendly environs. Outdoor cafes, community gardens, shade trees, benches are all possibilities.
For an example of what our West End laneways could become, just take a look at the Mole Hill laneway between Bute and Thurlow. A collaboration between the community, the Mole Hill Community Housing Society, the West End Residents Association, the City of Vancouver and others, it is a peaceful, green, laneway where children at play, community gardeners and service vehicles all peacefully coexist.
Terry Lavender
Director, West End Residents Association
