English Bay bistro worries residents

On Monday (April 28), the Vancouver park board will vote on a staff recommendation for a design concept for a planned bistro at English Bay. However, Aaron Jasper, a director of the West End Residents Association, said a lot of the concerns he has with the proposed bistro haven’t changed from when he assailed the lack of public input in the process 15 months ago.

Jasper is a long-time resident of the neighbourhood. He told the Straight that WERA has already signed up to speak at the Monday park-board meeting, when commissioners will consider a concept for the redevelopment of the concession at the foot of Denman Street. If approved, the bistro design—with both take-away and table-service components—would go to public consultation.

“Part of it is process,” Jasper said. “What do they plan in terms of public consultation? Is this the one and only opportunity next Monday, and then they will consider that two thumbs up? The public should really have a chance to express its views. We do have concerns about the commercialization of the beaches.”

At the January 15, 2007, park-board meeting, commissioners awarded a $59,000 contract to Acton Ostry Architects Inc. for architectural services to develop a new bistro. On that cold evening, Jasper was the only speaker, and he spoke against the privatization of public space, claiming it could bar access for lower-income families.

For COPE commissioner Spencer Herbert, who voted in favour of awarding that initial contract, there are two issues: the building footprint and the operating agreement with the private operator of the facility. He said the latter would dictate the affordability of the bistro’s food.

“When this proposal first came to us, we had [NPA commissioner] Marty Zlotnik saying, ”˜Go eat McDonald’s if you want concession-type food at a decent price,’ ” Herbert said by phone. “We cried foul, and what we are seeing now is them coming back, having put a concession in. It should have been there in the first place.”

Zlotnik did not return a call by the Straight ’s deadline. However, NPA park-board chair Korina Houghton told the Straight the bistro will “complement” the area.

“We are talking about English Bay, and Denman and Davie have a variety of different levels of restaurants with different types of choices, and this would just be one more of those,” Houghton said. “And quite frankly that facility is old. It was built in 1954, so it is time for a redo on it.”

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