AGM

A Year In Review

Our commercial district placebrand celebrates all the people and businesses that make Strathcona different and exceptional. Our marketing and promotional efforts over the last year have focused on unique campaigns across digital channels to continue building district brand awareness, promote district businesses and engage the local community, and create a culture of pride in the district among businesses and visitors alike. Through storytelling and place activations, we showcase what our members do to make Strathcona a vibrant and resilient community. Here’s how we’ve been bringing Strathcona to the hearts and minds of people across the Lower Mainland, communicating our unique strengths as a place to work, live, play, and invest.

Here’s the high-level breakdown of impacts we’ve achieved.

400 banners maintained

20K website visitors

96 unique businesses featured across digital channels

8 promotional campaigns

Dine Strathcona media coverage earned 13.4 million impressions

Launched inaugural Strathcona Brewery Week

54 original videos achieved 137K views

$24,825 invested in community sponsorships

Website and Directory

Our website showcases the distinct character of our commercial district and draws people in to discover something different in Strathcona. We continue to update our comprehensive member directory, featuring all the businesses in Strathcona across our varied sectors. The directory supports the digital presence and searchability of our member businesses online. In the last year our website had over 20,000 visits by over 9200 unique users. Our new website users are up 40% from the same period a year prior.

District and Member Features

We’re capturing and sharing more about our members through original photography, video footage, and digital storytelling content than ever before. In the last year we’ve featured 96 unique Strathcona BIA business members across our channels, which is up 33% from the previous year. In that time we’ve seen a 46% increase in followers on our Instagram channel.

We’ve put a strong focus on creating engaging video content, where we’ve had the most successful organic reach to new audiences. In the last year we created and published 54 original videos and Reels, and four collaborative Reels, across our social media channels. Our original video content achieved 137,121 cumulative views across our social platforms with an average engagement rate of 5.3% and the collaborative Reels with partner influencers reached 191,049 views. We also share and promote our members and the happenings in our business district on Twitter, where our tweets made over 67,400 impressions over the last year. A highlight of our member features is our Meet the Maker series, featuring artisans and makers across multiple sectors operating in Strathcona.    

Campaign Highlights

Our November 2021 Dine Strathcona campaign brought together 19 businesses in Strathcona’s hospitality sector to showcase the neighbourhood’s vibrant culinary scene while raising awareness and funds for H.A.V.E. Culinary Training Society. HAVE provides accessible food service training and employment opportunities to members of the community who face barriers to employment. The campaign launched with a media event for food and lifestyle media personnel and influencers, and resulted in 27 pieces of traditional media coverage, earning 13.4 million impressions or a publicity value of $124K. The social media posts about the campaign reached an estimated 647K people. In total over 1580 feature dishes were sold during the two week time-frame by participating businesses, which amounted to approximately $26,500 in cumulative sales. We were able to reach our goal of providing a $5000 community sponsorship on behalf of the Strathcona hospitality sector to HAVE Culinary Training Society, providing funding to enroll new students in HAVE’s training program and help secure job placements for new graduates in Vancouver restaurants.      

During the holidays we focused on lifting up our retail sector members through publishing unique Strathcona-based gift guides, and running a 12 Days of Giving campaign of amazing prize giveaways on our Instagram channel. We also partnered with BIA’s across Vancouver on the Gift Big, Shop Small, Stock Joy Charity Auction, where curated stockings of incredible gifts from each district were auctioned off in support of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.  

In January 2022, we featured Strathcona establishments with special offerings for the Lunar New Year. We partnered with three foodie influencers to produce creative Instagram Reels which reached over 190K unique accounts, with an engagement rate of 6.7%. This approach resulted in highly engaging content from diverse voices and celebrated the rich Asian heritage and culture in our community. 

In February we took part in the BIA-wide Love Your City campaign, which encouraged Vancouverites to get out to participating neighbourhoods, explore, and find LOVE in our city. MakerLabs in Strathcona helped produce custom sweethearts with messages of love and compliments that were hung up in every sub-district of Strathcona. We ran a popular local business district gift card scavenger hunt, using the hearts as hiding places and engaging audiences on social media with clues on where to find them.

For International Women’s Day we launched a Strathcona Women-Owned Business Directory and also interviewed several women entrepreneurs flourishing in Strathcona. The personal stories of these womens’ passion, hard work, and motivation behind their businesses were featured throughout the week in March on our social media channels. 

During Earth Week in April we shined a spotlight on two businesses in Strathcona doing great things in the way of slow fashion and environmentally responsible fabrics. Blackbird Fabrics offers a wide range of fabrics and supplies for sewists across the globe, with an emphasis on fabrics that are environmentally and socially responsible. Our Social Fabric is a non-profit fabric store tackling textile waste by selling donated deadstock fabric online and in-person. Our Instagram giveaway to these two businesses was one of our most popular of the year, earning over 2500 impressions and over 840 post interactions!

Throughout May we put an extra focus on highlighting member businesses in our Automotive sector. We have over 25 businesses in our community that assist with all types of motor vehicle needs. Through a creative video content campaign we shared about seven businesses in the automotive sector, bringing more attention to why Strathcona is one of the best areas in Vancouver for auto services. 

In June we launched a Strathcona Brewery Week campaign, a week-long showcase to celebrate the thriving brewery scene in Strathcona. It was a successful pilot with room to grow into an annual campaign that continues to strengthen Strathcona as a recognized brewery hub. The campaign earned coverage in Vancouver Is Awesome and The Georgia Straight, as well as over 120K impressions through a media partnership with Do604. New audiences were engaged through a Do604 giveaway, brewery trivia contest, Just Here For the Beer Radio podcast show, and engaging Reels created by the Strathcona BIA for each brewery.  

Throughout the summer we’ve been focused on promoting both member and community events in Strathcona, including the Powell Street Festival, musical concerts, Vancouver Mural Festival, and Bike to Shop.   

Community Sponsorships

Fostering a sustainable and flourishing cultural community is important to us. We continue to provide community sponsorships year over year so that other local organizations serving the economic resilience of the district are supported. For the 2021/2022 fiscal year those included The Powell Street Festival, Eastside Culture Crawl, Coldest Night of the Year, HAVE Culinary Training Society, HUB Cycling Bike To Shop, Monstercat Compound, Vancouver Japanese Language School, and Carnegie Outreach Centre for a National Indigenous People’s Day community initiative.

Looking Ahead

Since launching our commercial district placebrand in late summer of 2020, our marketing initiatives have been focused on building district awareness and targeting visitors to come discover the area and the businesses here. Investing in a strong commercial placebrand has been an important foundation of distinguishing ourselves from other districts and communicating our unique strengths as a place to work, live, play, and invest. As we continue to take measure of both member needs and the work of developing the economic vision of the district, our marketing efforts will continue to evolve and improve as we reflect on the target audiences and how we reach them. We plan to put more attention on developing campaigns that target workforce development and labour retention, as well as specific business sector retention, attraction, and investment programs. A strong place identity for our commercial district will continue to play an important role in these efforts, in addition to placemaking initiatives that continue to enhance and activate public space in Strathcona.

A Year In Review

A huge part of what we do at the Strathcona BIA is deliver on programs that improve maintenance, cleanliness, sanitation and safety across the district. Our programs have been developed to support the wellbeing of the businesses and people in the district, based on the needs and feedback we hear from members. Helping to keep our streets clean and safe, and buildings graffiti-free are part of our core services to Strathcona BIA members. We contribute to mural restoration and maintenance, and bring vibrancy to the community through funding new mural projects in Strathcona. This past year, we also supported members to make their own exterior property enhancements through our Safe and Welcome grant program to encourage a safer and more welcoming community for all. We continue to advocate for more resources and external sources of funding so that SBIA members alone aren’t being asked to address the cleanliness, sanitation, and graffiti challenges in the area. Some examples include graffiti abatement grants from the City of Vancouver and continued investment and accountability from the City for street cleaning resources.

Here’s the high-level breakdown of impacts we’ve achieved.

4600+ graffiti tags removed

2738 street cleaning hours

7000+ square feet of high-level graffiti removals

1640+ bags of garbage removed

12+ murals maintained

2220+ needles removed

$35,000 in graffiti abatement funding secured

5899 hours dedicated to community safety

46 private property debris pick-ups

40+ safety reports logged each day

Graffiti Removal & Graffiti Removal Pilot Program

Graffiti continues to be a challenge in Strathcona and across the city. Over the last year we saw the volume and size of graffiti increase and upper elevations of buildings and murals being targeted more often. This year we successfully advocated for and received another $35,000 in funding from the City of Vancouver to put towards graffiti abatement for a total of $70,000 over the last two years. With the help of the abatement grant we were able to add additional capacity to our graffiti removal program in May 2022. Working with our graffiti removal program service provider, Goodbye Graffiti, we added more capacity for removals through the summer months, with additional hours dedicated to a Strathcona-specific graffiti removal vehicle. 

Over the last year we removed over 4600 tags and 7000 square feet of high-level tags. In the first month of our pilot program we almost doubled our capacity, removing over 27,000 square feet of graffiti tags, compared to an average of 14,000 square feet of removals the months prior to the pilot. Reported tags are being removed faster which over time can help to deter prolific taggers from targeting our district as frequently. Strathcona BIA members continue to receive unlimited removals of tags 12 feet and under, and all labour, supply and removal costs are covered within the scope of the program, saving time and money for our members! 

Street Cleaning & Private Property Debris Pick-Up

We partner with Coast Mental Health, United We Can, and Mission Possible Maintenance to provide street cleaning services in the Strathcona BIA district. These impactful partnerships create inclusive job opportunities for local people in our community. Between all program partners, team members have picked up over 1640 bags of litter, and 2220 needles across the entire district over the last year, working over 2738 hours or an average of 52 hours per week. Our teams are here to keep the area clean and support members each day. 

Additional street cleaning funding is provided by the City through the 2022 Street Cleaning Grant Program. For the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona neighbourhoods, this results in additional micro-cleaning shifts each week across the district. This allows the Strathcona BIA to provide more resources to other sanitation programs like our Private Property Debris Pick-up program. We helped complete 46 private property debris pick-ups this last year and make daily reports to VanConnect for debris in lanes and on public property, saving members money in removal fees, plus their valuable time.

Community Safety

Members can call 604-789-4143, seven days a week from 8am to 6pm to reach our community safety team, who dedicated 5899 hours to enhancing safety for SBIA members, customers and community members over the past year. Everyday our compassionate patrol team is on the ground in the district, responding quickly to member needs and connecting with community members. The team currently divides their time between both vehicle patrols and foot patrols, and play a huge role in reporting debris and other maintenance-related issues throughout the district. The team works to keep the area clean and safe and spend their time responding to member calls for service, conducting hotspot checks through the district, assisting with emergency services and reporting debris and graffiti. The data and reports gathered by the team helps us to keep institutional partners accountable, and advocate for additional safety and sanitation resources where needed across the district. We are consistently working toward ensuring our approach to community safety is responsible, valued, and holistic.

Murals: Restoration, Maintenance, and New Projects

We’ve continued to invest in mural restoration and upkeep. We repaired and refreshed over 12 murals this year, and remain invested in ensuring murals in Strathcona are well maintained. We’re also excited to have brought new murals to the community in partnership with Vancouver Mural Festival and local property owners. At 1295 Frances Street, artist Caleb Ellison-Dysart created a mural piece called miskinâhk, an ode to Turtle Island, the name various Indigenous nations have always called “North America” since time immemorial. The artist hopes the mural will serve as inspiration to take care of Turtle Island and all its inhabitants, and to not forget our responsibility to the life around us. In total, four new murals came to Clark Drive this year as part of Vancouver Mural Festival, adding a whole new level of vibrancy to this corridor. In addition, our twelve tree planters in and around East Hastings were officially refreshed with a new mural design titled Sacred Mountains by artist Zac George. We are proud to be a part of supporting more vibrant murals throughout Strathcona, and in particular focusing on uplifting Indigenous artists and dedicating more visual space in Strathcona to their impactful work.

Safe and Welcoming Grant

In July of 2021 we launched the Safe and Welcoming grant, after hearing from members that more investment in environmental safety is a priority. The goal of the program was to help our members make safety and beautification investments that will attract people to the area and create a more safe and welcoming community for all. We approved close to $8000 in matching grants for eight separate projects, which resulted in a total community investment of over $19,000. From facade improvements, to new outdoor patio builds, to new awnings and signage, it was fantastic to see business and property owners take initiative to invest in these improvements with the help of the Safe and Welcoming Grant.

Call for Director Nominations

The Strathcona BIA Board of Directors actively works to build a thriving, mixed-use, and resilient local economy here in Strathcona. The Board of Directors is currently embarking on a strategic planning process, with core drivers of the process centred on member engagement and the future economic development of the district.

Who we’re looking for

We are currently seeking business members with particular experience and skills in governance and marketing. Members with a diversity of experience and interests in areas like placemaking, local economic development, community safety, HR, and a passion for Strathcona, are also encouraged to apply.

How we work

The Board can have between 8 and 12 directors. Following the 2021 AGM, the Board is currently made up of 10 board seats, and this number of directors will be confirmed at the 2022 AGM by a members’ resolution. All directors must meet the needs and expectations of the role and responsibilities as outlined in the Election Guidelines. There are five director seats up for election in 2022 (four directors have terms ending in 2022 and there is one vacancy on the board).

The length of a term for an SBIA Board Director is two years. Our meetings take place monthly for one and half hours over lunch and are currently hosted in person, with the option to join over Zoom. Board Members can be property owners, business tenants, or an authorized representative of an SBIA member property or business. Property owners must make up the majority of the Board per SBIA bylaws.

How to apply

Interested members can download the SBIA Candidates Package here or call the SBIA office to request a paper package for mail out. All nomination packages must be completed and received either by email or dropped off in person at the SBIA office, no later than noon on July 15, 2022. All candidates are subject to the Election guidelines (as laid out in your candidates package). Candidates are also required to comply with the procedures governing the nominations as set by the Elections Commitee. The Elections Committee is requiring that all candidates meet with a member of the Elections Committee and the SBIA Executive Director over Zoom or in-person in order for their nomination to be valid.

SBIA office: 1220 E Hastings St, Vancouver, BC, V6A 1S6

Hours: 9:30AM – 4:30PM Monday to Friday

Email: info@strathconabia.com

Phone: 604-285-2727

In the lead up to this year’s AGM we are sharing a series of reports with our business community on all that we’ve been up to in service to you, our members. Next up, COVID-19 Recovery and Placemaking.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to challenge our members and the community in diverse and extensive ways. Supporting our members through these challenging times has been the top priority for the Strathcona BIA. The Board has been working to apply a COVID-19 recovery lens to all board decisions and ensure that our programming and services support members through COVID-19 and facilitate recovery efforts. We have also continued to invest in placemaking initiatives in Strathcona to attract people to the area and bring new vibrant spaces that inspire and connect people.

COVID-19 Task Force

At the beginning of the pandemic we were the first BIA to join the COVID-19 Community-Coordinated Response Network, over 40 organizations operating in the Downtown Eastside working together to address the impacts of COVID-19. This group continues to meet and collaborate on ways to support the well-being of the community, expanding their scope of work to address other challenges such as heat wave weather events and the opioid crisis. Showing up as a community partner and building relationships with groups in the community who are working to create a thriving neighbourhood is integral to our success as an organization.

COVID-19 Communications

We’ve increased our direct member communications through COVID-19. We continue providing resources and information on available COVID-19 resources and business supports through our e-newsletter channel and social media channels. When new targeted grants came online to help hard-hit businesses or when new health order regulations were announced, we were quick to share about them with our members immediately, and we’ll continue to do so as long as the pandemic is impacting you and your operations.

COVID-19 Recovery Grant

We launched a COVID-19 Recovery Grant pilot program in September 2020 to support our business and property owners affected by the pandemic. Matching grants up to $1000 were used to help members manage unexpected expenses from COVID-19, attract customers, improve security, and invest in placemaking improvements. We were excited to award $15,620 to 22 Strathcona BIA members across multiple sectors and different sub-districts, for projects ranging from patio installations, to security fence upgrades, to bulk PPE supplies. The matching grants were put towards projects that resulted in a total investment of almost $50,000 in area improvements and recovery supplies.

Safe and Welcoming Grant

Building on the success of the Recovery Grant, in July of this year we launched the Safe and Welcoming Grant. We heard from members in our Safety Survey earlier in the year that more investment in environmental safety is a priority. Specifically, many members felt that improvements in things like lighting, street and crosswalk infrastructure, and more green space will have a large impact on the overall safety of the area. We took the learnings from the COVID-19 Recovery Grant pilot program and created this new grant program to provide members with the funding and flexibility to address their specific needs while also keeping a district-wide perspective. The goal of this program is to help our members make safety and beautification investments that will attract people to the area and create a more safe and welcoming community for all – small changes add up to big impact! Since the launch of the program, seven businesses have applied and are in the process of starting on safety and beautification projects. Applications continue to be accepted here. 

New Murals

We’re excited to have brought several new murals to the Strathcona neighbourhood this year in partnership with Vancouver Mural Festival and local property owners. Artist Sitji Chou created a mural piece called Ripple at Noble on 1001 Venables Street. The artist hopes the waves, lilies, and koi mingling in between will instill a sense of tranquility and whimsy to all who see the mural. Another piece includes Benjamin Stone’s bold new work at Container Brewing, titled No Arrival. A third mural at 603 Powell Street is part of the Black Strathcona Resurgence Project (BSRP). The BSRP is a project to reclaim Black visibility in Strathcona, an area historically populated by Vancouver’s Black community. The BSRP mural titled Watch Over this Child by artist Sasha Mbabazi, is a call to action to take responsibility for the wellbeing of each other. And the Thomas Cannell mural Give It Time, that we sponsored in 2020, has become a standout mural in the district and an East Hastings landmark. Public art has the power to help strengthen the connections between all who share space here, and we are so proud to be a part of supporting more murals for all to enjoy. 

We have also invested in mural restoration and upkeep. Last year, we repaired and refreshed the mural at 812 East Cordova, an amazing colourful mural depicting the Squamish Valley and Stawamus Chief Mountain, among others, and we remain invested in ensuring murals in Strathcona are well maintained.

Adding and Refreshing Tree Planters

The Hastings Urban Tree Planters are an urban greening initiative going since 2014 that responds to the lack of trees along some of the streets in Strathcona. The tree planters bring life to our streetscapes by adding greenery through resilient tree varieties and colour through vibrant murals on the planter exteriors. Over the years, the planters have provided a platform for many emerging artists, and this year we are honoured to dedicate this visual space for an Indigenous artist to create a statement-making impact along East Hastings. Following a selection process with Vancouver Mural Fest, we’re excited that the planter murals are in the process of being refreshed by artist Zac George. The design, selected in part through consultation with participants in the planter program, is called Sacred Mountains and we can’t wait to see it completed soon. We’ll also be adding four new planters to the 800 Block of East Hastings, expanding the total number of tree planters in the community to 16.

In the lead up to this year’s AGM we are sharing a series of reports with our business community on all that we’ve been up to in service to you, our members. Next up, Marketing, Promotions, and Sponsorships!

Last September, after months of engagement and brand strategy development, we launched our new commercial district placebrand for Strathcona. Our brand celebrates all the people and businesses that make Strathcona different and exceptional. Despite the challenges of COVID-19 to bring people together, over this past year we’ve managed to bring our new placebrand to life in the streets and across digital channels. Through storytelling and activations we showcase what our members do to make Strathcona a vibrant and resilient community. Here’s how we’ve been bringing Strathcona to the hearts and minds of people across the Lower Mainland, welcoming everyone to come as they are, whoever they are.

New Website and Directory

We launched a new website that showcases the distinct character of our commercial district and draws people in to discover something different in Strathcona. A comprehensive member directory features all the businesses in Strathcona across our varied sectors. Members can now easily access our program services and information about what we do on behalf of the district. Since launching the website it’s been visited 19,880 times by 6504 unique users.

District Banners

We continue to maintain 400 street pole banners across the district. The current wordmap design of place names on our banners leans into the diversity of the district of Strathcona. The refreshed design and colours bring vibrancy and pride of place to our streets.

#DoDifferent and Member Features

The inspiration behind our #DoDifferent hashtag are the stories of people and businesses in Strathcona doing things in their own unique and unexpected ways. Working with professional photographers and videographers, we’re capturing more original member portraits, behind the scenes photos, and video footage than ever before. We also amplify the content that our business members and community visitors share. We have featured a total of 72 unique Strathcona businesses across our social media channels in the last year. In that time we’ve seen a 56% growth in followers on our Instagram channel. As part of our focus to increase engaging video content, we’ve published two district promotional videos, three business feature videos, and 20 Instagram Reels. Our video content alone has reached 38,733 cumulative views across our social platforms.

Halloween Hop

In October 2020 we held our first ever Halloween Hop in partnership with the Strathcona Community Policing Centre, Strathcona Residents Association, and Raycam Centre. Eleven businesses and organizations in and around the 800 Block of East Hastings took part in this family-friendly trick-or-treat event. Local employees dressed up in fabulous Halloween costumes to safely hand out candy outside their businesses, and event-goers of all ages enjoyed some Halloween family fun.

Dine Strathcona

Our November Dine Strathcona campaign brought together 17 businesses in Strathcona’s hospitality community to showcase the neighbourhood’s vibrant culinary scene while raising funds to provide support for vulnerable individuals in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Participating dining establishments offered a feature dish throughout the two-week event period, with proceeds from each dish ordered donated to the WISH Drop-In Centre. In addition to dining in, Dine Strathcona encouraged people to order take-out and delivery options to accommodate the challenging health order restrictions on restaurants at that time. The campaign was covered by 32 media articles, and earned 9.4 million impressions from traditional media. By working with local food influencers, the social media related posts of the campaign earned 1.21 million impressions. Despite the timing of the health order restrictions, over 640 feature dishes were sold in the two-week time frame, which amounted to approximately $10,000 in cumulative sales.

Gift Big Shop Small

In December, to support our retail sector, we ran a Gift Big Shop Small campaign to support shopping locally for the holiday season. Customers were encouraged to spend $25 or more at three participating locations in order to win a $25 Visa card to support shopping local. Nine Strathcona businesses took part, and many happy customers enjoyed discovering all of Strathcona’s unique offerings for the holidays.

Love Your City

In February, Strathcona joined 15 other neighbourhoods across Vancouver to run the Love Your City Contest, a call to get out, explore our city, and find LOVE in our neighbourhoods. Event-goers could enter the city-wide contest by finding love related murals and installations in each neighbourhood and posting them to their Instagram profile. Plus, in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day we did a daily prize giveaway on our Instagram channel to local businesses and received over 2000 contest entries!

Automotive Sector Promotion

We have over 25 businesses in our community that assist with all types of motor vehicle needs. Our Automotive sector campaign in April highlighted five participating auto-sector businesses and supported them to run in-store and online contests to help engage existing and new customers. The campaign received 364 cumulative contest entries across the five businesses, featured original photography and quotes from sector employees on our social media, and helped solidify why Strathcona is one of the best areas in Vancouver for auto services.

Takeout Strathcona

In an effort to support our restaurant sector when Provincial health restrictions started up again in April and May of 2020, we ran a Takeout Strathcona campaign to encourage people to keep on supporting their favourite Strathcona dining establishments by ordering take-out and delivery. By raffling off gift cards to local restaurants through weekly Instagram contests, we encouraged new customers to discover the amazing dining options we have here. We showcased our favourite takeout items with fun weekly Reels on Instagram that earned over 15,000 impressions across our platforms.

Art Walk Strathcona

Strathcona is home to some of the most notable contemporary art galleries in Vancouver and across the country. In May and June we ran our inaugural Art Walk Strathcona campaign to celebrate our gallery sector. Strathcona’s galleries came together to bring a diverse selection of contemporary art from Indigenous and Canadian artists to the streets on billboards along East Hastings. Art Walk Strathcona invited people to take a self-guided walk to discover the billboard images, and explore the associated exhibitions taking place throughout May and June in Strathcona’s gallery district. In addition to the billboard campaign, we featured participating galleries on our social media channels, and created a transit ad for Art Walk Strathcona that reached communities across the Lower Mainland. Art Walk Strathcona reached over 20,000 users across digital channels.

PATIO

The Temporary Expedited Patio Permit program meant it was a patio season in Vancouver like no other. To amplify the patio dining experience and to encourage customers to dine on patios all summer long, Strathcona BIA joined 15 other districts for the promotional PATIO campaign, which included a city-wide contest to crown the best patios in the city. An online patio map featuring all the patios across Vancouver, including those in Strathcona, was distributed widely by several campaign media partners. People were encouraged to follow along @patiovancouver to enter daily contest opportunities. Over on our own Instagram channel we shared a steady stream of patio pics and videos to highlight the excellent patio options in Strathcona this year.

To learn more about the Temporary Expedited Patio Permit program visit our advocacy report.

Bike to Shop

Strathcona was a community sponsor of HUB Cycling’s Bike to Shop event in August, along with 20 other participating districts across Metro Vancouver. Nine local businesses in our neighbourhood signed up to offer sweet deals and delicious freebies to customers who biked to their shop during the event. To celebrate Bike to Shop in Strathcona we sponsored a Knowledge HUB outside of the Landyachtz Factory store where people could enjoy free basic bike maintenance, complimentary snacks, and giveaways from Strathcona businesses. 2245 people registered for the event, and many of those participants discovered businesses in Strathcona as a result.

Community Sponsorships

Fostering a sustainable and flourishing cultural community is important to us. We continue to provide community sponsorships year over year so that other local organizations serving the economic resilience of the district are supported. For the 2020/2021 fiscal year those included, The Powell Street Festival, Eastside Culture Crawl, Coldest Night of Year, WISH Drop-In Centre, and nəćamat Urban Indigenous Women’s Village of Wellness, a community wellness event for Indigenous women in Strathcona.

In the lead up to this year’s AGM we are sharing a series of reports with our business community on all that we’ve been up to in service to you, our members. Next up, advocacy!

In a year when our member businesses and organizations were navigating the unprecedented impacts and existing challenges made worse by the global pandemic, providing a collective advocacy voice on the wide range of issues impacting our members has never been more important. We’re consistently working with our members, government partners, and industry professionals to move the dial on a wide range of economic, social, and environmental actions for the benefit of our members.

Commercial Taxation

Rising property taxes continue to be one of the greatest challenges facing local businesses and property owners in Strathcona. For the third consecutive year, we held a Property Tax Workshop in January to help members navigate the property assessment appeal process, and a 2021 tool-kit was created to help the membership better understand and navigate property taxes. Many property owners experienced significant jumps in their taxes yet again this year, since despite protests from us and other BIAs, the Province decided not to apply the 70% reduction in School Tax as they did in 2020. We continue to advocate with other BIAs for commercial tax reforms and changes to the Provincial property valuation system and we’re lobbying for legislative change to achieve lower taxation and valuation on existing use, through new tools such as split assessments. 

Sanitation and Graffiti Removal

Through advocacy efforts by the BIA’s, the City approved additional funding for street cleaning programming City-wide, including $2.1 million in funding for the 2021 Street Cleaning Grant Program. We will continue to advocate for street cleaning resources, lane flushing, and debris removal to make sure the district is clean and welcoming for everyone. The City has also invested in animal and human waste removal services, basing this program off a pilot project initiated by the Strathcona BIA. These additional City-provided street cleaning services help offset our service costs, provide more targeted resources, and allow us to support members with more private property debris pick-ups. 

In partnership with other BIA districts across Vancouver we were also able to advocate for more funding to support the challenging rise of graffiti tags across our districts. We received $35,000 from the City of Vancouver for additional graffiti removal services through this advocacy effort. We will continue to raise the impacts graffiti has on our district and members.

To learn more about the impacts of our sanitation programming visit our Safety and Sanitation report.

Temporary Expedited Patio Permit Program

Quick, cheap, and cheerful patios have been a lifeblood for restaurants, cafes, and breweries over the past 18 months. In partnership with all 22 BIAs, we advocated for the creation of this program that allows businesses to apply for a free permit to set up a temporary patio, meaning food-sector businesses could be approved and up and running with a temporary patio in a number of days. Prior to this program this process could take several months of back and forth communications and headaches. To amplify the patio dining experience and to encourage customers to dine on patios all summer long, Strathcona BIA joined 15 other districts for the promotional PATIO campaign, which included a city-wide contest to crown the best patios in the city. Learn more about the campaign in our marketing and promotions report. 

The community has embraced the patios, in particular at breweries, where they weren’t permitted before. We’ve been liaising with our local breweries and the City to make sure they are able to share their insights on how to make the patios permanent moving forward. This decision will be going to City Council in September where we plan to wholeheartedly support this positive impact for the brewery sector. 

In Railtown, we helped navigate and obtain approvals for a Tailgate BBQ activation by Railtown Cafe to happen down the street from their cafe location. The three day event went off without a hitch in July, and it was fabulous to see community members, business members, and employees out in the sun, safely enjoying a delicious outdoor dining experience.

Community-Serving Retail Project

The Community-Serving Retail Project, running since 2017, is a collective initiative between the Strathcona BIA, Dunefield, and Youth Collaborative for Chinatown, with funding provided by the City of Vancouver. It’s mission is to partner with Chinese Benevolent Society Buildings and other non-profits in Strathcona and Chinatown to secure and repurpose currently unused or underused commercial space for affordable, culturally significant retail and businesses that support the community. With over 25 Chinese Benevolent Society buildings in Strathcona, this project has lots of potential in our district, and in the last year we’ve helped advocate for and received $216,725 in City funding for this project. 

Following a first successful pilot in Chinatown with the re-opening of Kam Wai Dim Sum, the project team is now working with the Vancouver Buddhist Temple in Strathcona. They are aiming to create a community-based kitchen in their large building that benefits small food entrepreneurs and supports the Temple’s mission and finances. The first activation has recently started at the Temple, with a small soup and cold-pressed juice business now cooking there for a short time, while also serving the community with food donations and giving workshops on affordable, healthy cooking. We’re excited to see the Temple continue to welcome more community-minded food startups!

Oppenheimer and Strathcona Park

We continue to advocate for our parks and green spaces so that the community can enjoy them. Our advocacy around Oppenheimer Park began back in 2019 when we called for the return of the park to its original purpose as a green and social space. Other calls for action included asking for more support from the City for more access to clean water, public washrooms, and street cleaning resources. When another encampment started in Strathcona Park in mid-2020, we joined an appeal for action along with the Strathcona Residents Association, Produce Row, and Strathcona Community Policing Centre. A phased reopening of both parks has finally happened in 2021, involving collaboration of multiple levels of government, new housing opportunities for vulnerable community members, and community input and advocacy efforts on how best to reimagine the use of these important green spaces.

Drinker’s Lounge Project

In March 2021, in partnership with the City of Vancouver, Portland Hotel Society, VANDU, Vancouver Police and other stakeholders, we worked towards a solution to help address public drinking in front of the Astoria Hotel on East Hastings and at adjacent bus stops. After almost nine months of conflict, difficult conversations, trial and error, meetings with city engineers, and hard advocacy work, a pilot project emerged. The pilot involves a city-sanctioned parklet on Princess Ave where folks can go to drink safely and legally. There are social-service supports on-hand, medical attention on site, and more attention from the City, the VPD, and the SBIA in ensuring that drink activity is monitored, people are supported, and business concerns are addressed. 

Since the launch of the pilot, a sense of community has emerged among people who use the space, and they have developed strong stewardship over the parklet area. Public drinking at the Astoria bus stops did not cease, however due to engagement by community groups and reporting by our Safety team, progress is being made, and we have noticed a stronger presence and support from the VPD when challenges arise at this location. 

This project is a story of unlikely allies and we must continue to work together towards a vision for a safer community.

In the lead up to this year’s AGM we are sharing a series of reports with our business community on all that we’ve been up to in service to you, our members. First up, safety and sanitation!

We remain as  committed as ever to delivering on programs that improve cleanliness and sanitation across the district. Helping to keep our streets clean and safe, and buildings graffiti-free is part of our core services to the Strathcona community. In the past year this has become more challenging, as the district continues to experience rising rates of graffiti. Advocating for more resources and new solutions was an important part of our work on these issues. 

Street Cleaning

We partner with Coast Mental Health, United We Can, and Mission Possible Maintenance to provide street cleaning services in the Strathcona BIA district. These impactful partnerships create inclusive job opportunities for local people in our community. Between all program partners, team members have picked up over 1000+ bags of litter and 2960 needles across the entire district in the last year, working over 2411 hours or an average of 46 hours per week. Our teams are here to keep the area clean and support members each day. 

Clearly, street litter is a big problem. Through advocacy efforts by the BIA’s, City Council approved additional funding for street cleaning programming city-wide, and allocated $2.1 million in funding for the 2021 Street Cleaning Grant Program. For the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona neighbourhoods this has resulted in an additional 18 micro-cleaning shifts per week. This allowed us to shift more resources towards specific areas of the district as well as our Private Property Debris Pick Up program. We helped complete 70 private property debris pick-ups this last year and make daily reports to VanConnect for debris in lanes and on public property, saving members over $10,000 in removal fees, plus their valuable time.

From Strathcona Pilot to City Service

A big point of pride for us this year was supporting the launch of the social enterprise, The Crap Trapper. Initiators Mark and Elwood saw a need in the community and stepped up to provide a valuable bio-waste pick-up service with support from the Strathcona BIA. Before this, no dedicated service existed for human and animal waste pick-up and removal, often leaving businesses on the hook to deal with this tough task on their own. The Strathcona BIA was a key player in identifying this need and called attention to this from the City. Since then, the program has not only expanded, but is now a City-provided and funded service that members can access through 3-1-1. Mark and Elwood joined forces with Mission Possible to continue to deliver the service, and Strathcona is benefitting from patrols, removals, and on-call service. While advocacy for more public washrooms continues, this has been a big win in improving sanitation across the district in 2021.

Graffiti Removal

Members have access to a comprehensive graffiti removal program through our contract with Goodbye Graffiti Vancouver (a Strathcona business!). In the last few years, the overall size of a graffiti tag within the SBIA district has increased by 70%. The number of calls Goodbye Graffiti receives from the SBIA and members for graffiti removal has doubled in the past 1.5 years. Through our program, we have removed 7,386 graffiti tags in the district over the last year. SBIA members receive unlimited removals of tags 12 feet and under. The program also helped to remove 4,595 square feet of high level tags, a new service being offered through the program. It takes Goodbye Graffiti around 30 minutes to remove a tag the size of a small car from a painted surface. For porous surfaces, a graffiti tag the size of a small car takes around 45 min to remove. All labour, supply, and removal costs are covered within the scope of the program. These time and money savings add up for our members! This program also helps prevent City bylaw infractions and potential fees for our property owners and businesses.

In partnership with other BIA districts across Vancouver we successfully advocated for and secured more funding to handle this challenging issue. We received $35,000, one of the highest amounts from the City of Vancouver, for additional graffiti removal services. This funding will enhance our ability to target graffitti and leverage your levy contributions even further.  As always, we also continue to think outside the box on solutions for the rise in graffiti tagging, with initiatives like meaningful mural art with respected local artists, working with the VPD to allocate more preventative resources, and connecting with other community partners to raise the impacts that graffiti has on our members, especially small businesses.

Community Safety

Members can call 604-789-4143, seven days a week from 8am-8pm to reach our safety patrol team who dedicated 6,126 hours to keeping members, customers, and the community safe over the past year. Everyday our compassionate patrol team is on the ground in the district, responding quickly to member needs and connecting with community members. The safety team is our most used program and we are consistently working towards ensuring our approach to community safety is responsible, valued, and holistic. With this in mind, we launched our first annual safety survey this year to better understand how Strathcona BIA members feel about safety in the neighbourhood. Advocacy, Environmental Safety, and Patrols emerged as the priority areas for investment. We received 64 completed surveys, representing 113 businesses and properties across Strathcona. We’re excited to build on this feedback and future engagement to develop a new and strong community safety model for the Strathcona BIA. Stay tuned for updates! 

Advocacy is an enormous part of our work in all of these areas. For more on our advocacy efforts and impacts read our advocacy report. 

Call for Director Nominations

The Strathcona BIA Board of Directors actively works to build a thriving, mixed-use and resilient local economy here in Strathcona. 2021 marks the third year of a five year strategic plan for the organization and the Board of Directors is currently focused on balancing the pressing needs of its members through challenges brought on by COVID-19.

Who we’re looking for

We are currently seeking business members with particular experience and skills in governance and marketing. Members with a diversity of experience and interests in areas like placemaking, local economic development, community safety, HR, and a passion for Strathcona, are also encouraged to apply.

How we work

The Board can have a maximum of 12 directors and all directors must meet the needs and expectations of the role and responsibilities as outlined in the Election Guidelines. There are seven director seats up for election with four incumbent directors running for a new term.

The length of a term for an SBIA Board Director is two years. Our meetings take place monthly for one and half hours over lunch and are currently hosted on Zoom. Board Members can be property owners, business tenants, or an authorized representative of an SBIA member property or business. Property owners must make up the majority of the Board per SBIA bylaws.

How to apply

Interested members can download the SBIA Candidate Nomination & Election Guidelines Package here or call the SBIA office to request a paper package for mail out. All nomination packages must be complete and received either by email or dropped off in person at the SBIA office, no later than noon on July 15, 2021. All candidates are subject to the Election guidelines (as laid out in your nominations package). Candidates are also required to meet with a member of the Elections Committee over Zoom to be eligible for election.

SBIA office: 1220 E Hastings St, Vancouver, BC, V6A 1S6

Hours: 9:30AM – 4:30PM Monday to Friday

Email: info@strathconabia.com

Phone: 604-285-2727