midweek edition WEDNESDAY, DEC. 1, 2010
Vol. 101 No. 96 • Established 1908 • West
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Have a very Minty Xmas! Soccer sensation
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Park board may close washrooms and cut cleaning Commissioner calls for more council cash Sandra Thomas Staff writer
The park board may close some washrooms year-round, not just during the winter.
photo Dan Toulgoet
Anyone visiting a city park next year might want to take along a roll of toilet paper and a bottle of disinfectant. The toilet paper will come in handy if the washroom in the park is closed due to proposed park board cuts and your child is forced to go in the bushes. Since the board is considering reducing the frequency of cleaning washrooms outside the Downtown Eastside, the disinfectant will come in handy. According to a recent park board staff report, closing washrooms in some parks and cutting back on cleaning could save the board $300,000 of the $1.03
million budget shortfall it’s facing in its 2011 operating budget. The city has a $20 million budget shortfall and is asking each of its departments to find ways to cut costs. City council wants to keep the upcoming residential tax increase to two per cent, a goal that means cuts to services across the city. Green Party park board commissioner Stuart Mackinnon says council should increase the number of washrooms in Vancouver instead of closing them by forcing cuts to park board services. “What are young families with children and older people going to do if they’re at a neighbourhood park with no washroom?” asked Mackinnon. See PARK on page 4
City councillor floats downtown public square plan Coun. Suzanne Anton notes popularity of gathering spots during Olympics Cheryl Rossi
Staff writer
Imagine a block in the middle of downtown where you could sit and drink a coffee in the sun. NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton does, and she planned to champion her vision of a public space at city
council Tuesday afternoon, after the Courier’s press deadline. Anton, the lone NPA councillor, wants staff to hold consultations about turning the 800 block of Robson Street between Howe and Hornby streets into a public square. “To me one of the essential elements of a good public square
is chairs and coffee,” Anton said. She says Vancouver lacks a central focus and gathering spot similar to the squares she’s visited in Europe and Asia. “The Olympics demonstrated how much people love being downtown and love being with each other,” Anton said. “Certainly, there’s an opportunity
right now because that little piece of street has be closed for nearly a year now, first of all for the Olympics and more recently for the renovations to the courthouse complex there.” Anton said she’s talked informally to representatives of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Down-
town Vancouver Business Improvement Association, the Vancouver Public Spaces Network and Mary McNeil, the Liberal MLA for Vancouver-False Creek, and she said all are keen to explore the idea, as are cyclists she messaged on an email list. See TRANSLINK on page 4
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