midweek edition TUESDAY DEC. 28, 2010 Vol. 101 No. 104 • Established 1908 • East/West
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Curtains for 2010 Pooch on parade
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City may loosen reins on street food vendors Last year city offered 17 vendor locations Cheryl Rossi Staff writer
The city is considering allowing street food vendors to park on private lots and freedom to move around by next summer. A related report with recommendations is expected to go before city council within the next two months. Sadhu Johnston, deputy city manager, said the city is trying to balance safety regulations with a vibrant street food scene. Johnston expects staff to recommend the city allow street food to be slung on private lots as a pilot project, but he said it was too early to say how many lots would be recommended and how many vendors could park on a lot. David Jantzen, senior environmental health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said whether vendors on private property would be required to have commissary kitchens has yet to be discussed. The health authority requires mobile street food vendors to use approved com-
missary kitchens to prep their food, clean and store their carts. Potential kiosks with permanent connections to water and electricity may not need another kitchen, depending on their operations. But Michael Kaisaris, a partner in the wildly popular Re-Up BBQ, says finding a commissary kitchen wasn’t hard. Johnston wants better infrastructure for power and water than the individual garden hoses that service vendors in Portland, Ore., which has a lively street food culture. Vancouver city hall is also considering allowing roaming street food vendors akin to ice cream trucks, but how they would be permitted to use parking spots has yet to be determined. Last year the city offered 17 locations, most of them downtown, to street food vendors who sell a variety of food items. Johnston expects a similar number of new spots, again mostly downtown, to be up for grabs next year. See DEPUTY on page 4
Polar Bear swim still shocks Annual plunge celebrates 91st year Naoibh O’Connor Staff writer
Michael Kaisaris’ Re-Up BBQ offers street-level pulled pork.
photo Dan Toulgoet
Elvis turned up last year. So did Santa Claus, a family of Vikings, and a paleskinned guy wearing pink Speedos and pink swim cap encapsulated in a giant see-through plastic bubble. Others arrived in ordinary swimming gear. Few events attract such a
strange cast of characters, but each year, on Jan. 1, hundreds of similarly minded brave, or perhaps foolish, souls—seemingly impervious to falling temperatures and frigid water—appear at English Bay for the city’s annual Polar Bear Swim, which turns 91 in 2011. Sean Healy is among them. Healy, the supervisor of aquatics for the city, dons
a 1920s-style black swimsuit for his annual plunge into icy waters—he’s been a Polar Bear since 1992. “It’s a wonderful way to start the New Year. It’s an awakening experience,” he said. “But it’s shocking because it’s so cold.” The Vancouver Polar Bear Swim Club is one of the largest and oldest Polar Bear Clubs in the world. See EVENT on page 4
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