Important Info

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. 

About the Strathcona Business Improvement Association

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association (SBIA) is a not-for-profit society that plays an important role in business development, marketing, safety, and street enhancement in Vancouver’s historic Strathcona district through innovative programs, sustainability, advocacy, and strong partnerships. We view our work through a community economic development lens, aiming to innovate, explore, and expand beyond the work of a BIA, to support businesses to thrive in our commercial district, and improve the community for all.

The SBIA represents over 840 business and commercial property owners in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Strathcona neighbourhoods. Spanning 44 city square blocks, the SBIA designated area is roughly bound by Gore Avenue, Clark Drive, Railway Street, and Venables Street. The SBIA is a unique BIA in that over 60% of our members are industrial. Our vision is for Strathcona members to thrive in a mixed-use, inclusive, resilient and prosperous local economy. It is our mission to promote a strong local economy through advocacy, cultivating relationships, supporting business participation in the community, delivering innovative programs and fostering community leaders.

Strathcona is a place for everyone who does things differently. It’s a place that celebrates humanity, expanded worldviews, and challenging preconceived notions. We encourage the people and places that make up our community to maintain their distinct character, while understanding and appreciating what makes each other unique. We believe that everyone has a place in Strathcona, especially those who are unafraid to go against the norm. We embrace and advocate for all who establish their lives, identities and livelihoods here.

Learn more about our mission & vision, and programming.

The Opportunity

Responsibilities of the Role

About You

How to Apply

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

A New Chapter.

This summer, the Strathcona Business Improvement Association will say goodbye to our Executive Director, Theodora Lamb. On behalf of the Strathcona BIA Board of Directors and staff, we want to express our thanks, gratitude, and appreciation for all of Theo’s hard work these past three years. We hope our members will join us in wishing her warmth and well wishes as she embarks on a new professional chapter!

Under Theo’s leadership over the last three years, the SBIA has enjoyed significant progress and innovation in advocacy, placemaking, and community development on behalf of our 840+ members. 

Some of her contributions include:

• Advocacy to municipal staff and elected leaders on issues including commercial taxation, vacant storefront activation and policy, municipal policing, permitting, transportation and mobility, homeless encampments, rising graffiti rates, industrial land protection, and COVID-19 policy relief measures

• Developing a new district commercial brand through community consultation which resulted in a new Strathcona placebrand identity

• Developing a new partnership between the City of Vancouver, Vancouver Police Department, and other social service organizations to address issues of public drinking and its impact on community-serving retail

• Navigating COVID-19’s impacts on members through targeted, rapid communications, webinar events, matching grants, a safety patrol partnership with the Gastown and Hastings North BIAs, and participation in the COVID Community Response Network

• Launching a district-wide engagement campaign on safety and security across the district, capturing member priorities and preferred economic trade-offs

• Launching Crap Trapper, a social enterprise pilot project designed to address issues of human waste clean-up

• Expanding the SBIA sponsorship portfolio to build better relations with equity-seeking and social serving organizations based in Strathcona including the Eastside Culture Crawl, Indigenous Wellness Fair, and the WISH Drop-in Centre serving sex workers in the DTES

• Identifying and activating vacant storefront space in Vancouver society buildings as part of the SBIA and City of Vancouver partner-funded Chinese Benevolent Society Buildings and Community Serving Retail Study

• Creating the Strathcona Tax Empowerment Program (STEP) designed to help members navigate the property assessment appeal process and lighten the tax burden on business and commercial properties

Strathcona business leaders remain among the most creative, innovative, and resilient people I’ve ever had the honour of working alongside” reflects Theo. “I know the Strathcona BIA will continue to be led by strong and effective governors and that member needs remain in the capable hands of SBIA managers Sam Hamilton and Johanna Lauyanto.

Theo is moving on to new leadership opportunities with a well-recognized non-profit organization serving the Lower Mainland region.

“It has been a privilege to work with Theo and we are saddened to be losing her as our ED, but we know she’s moving on to accomplish great things in service to community” says Emma Carscadden, President of the Strathcona BIA.

In the meantime, the work to secure our next Executive Director is well underway and the Strathcona BIA Board of Directors looks forward to sharing more news regarding this soon.

Our vision is for Strtathcona members to thrive in a mixed-use, inclusive, resilient and prosperous local economy. Our mission is to promote a strong local economy through advocacy, cultivating relationships, supporting business participation in the community, delivering innovative programs, and fostering community leaders. As our members continue to run their businesses, oversee their properties, and navigate the challenges that COVID-19 continues to pose, the Strathcona BIA is here to support you. Don’t hesitate to reach out to info@strathconabia.com or phone us at 604-258-2727.

We all have a role to play.

We all understand the importance of having a clean and safe community with proper resources and programming to help keep our neighborhoods accessible, beautiful, and thriving. Taking action to tackle our climate emergency and lower our carbon footprint is an essential part of keeping our communities thriving. From an organizational level to an individual level, we all have a role to play in creating a sustainable and flourishing planet. 

At the Strathcona BIA, Environmental Sustainability is one of our six core values. It’s a lens that informs our programming and placemaking work, including things like community waste management, transportation advocacy, or implementing granting programs for our members that promote sustainable choices. As individuals, adapting small things in our daily routines like composting or opting to ride our bikes to work instead of driving are the little things that add up to a whole lot if everyone gets involved.

Doing our part to change some of our less eco-friendly habits not only contributes to a more sustainable planet but can actually help to restore our Mother Earth. Yes, we said restore the earth! 

It seems like a huge job, we know, but with 7.5 billion people sharing this planet and all making the extra effort, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched when you really think about it. Combining actions of individuals and bigger systems changes, together we can #RestoreOurEarth to build a better future.

For Earth Week we want to highlight some of the ways Strathcona contributes to a sustainable community. We also want to offer resources on what more you can do to help restore the earth.

For more information on how you can help be apart of the change visit earthday.org

Five Ways Strathcona Contributes to a More Sustainable Community

Reducing your carbon footprint can be as simple as discarding your old items the right way. Strathcona is home to North Star Metal Recycling, a company that will buy, sell and recycle scrap metal and other materials like batteries, wire, and cables. Located just off Powell Street near Clark Drive, North Star Recycling will take unwanted items ranging from appliances and household scraps to vehicle rims, motors and industrial metal. They will then repurpose the materials saving them from a potential lifetime in a landfill. 

Did you know that producing steel from recycled materials compared with virgin material saves 75% of the energy needed? We also learned from North Star that the 36 billion aluminum cans landfilled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million. Someday, we’ll be mining our landfills for the resources we’ve buried. 

For more information (and cool facts about metal recycling!) visit: northstarmetalrecycling.com

What does a custom awards producer have to do with sustainable energy? In our neighbourhood, a lot. 

Eclipse Awards is a business located in the heart of Strathcona that makes eco-friendly awards, plaques and trophies that help people feel recognized, appreciated, and celebrated. They have also dedicated their East Vancouver rooftop to solar panels that power their business. If that’s not incredible enough, all of the excess energy the business doesn’t use goes into the city’s power grid. 

For more information visit: eclipseawards.com

Owner, Toby Barazzuol, has not only established sustainability initiatives at his business, but helped pioneer sustainability programs within the Strathcona community as well. During his time as Strathcona BIA Board Chair, Toby helped establish a sustainability committee that looked at ways we could help businesses reduce their energy consumption, divert waste from landfill, and implement greening initiatives in the community. One of our long-standing programs that came from this work is Recycle in Strathcona, a community waste management program. 

Recycle In Strathcona is a comprehensive and cost-effective recycling service provided to SBIA members by Recycling Alternative and Shift Delivery. The program offers waste management services at exclusive rates for Strathcona BIA members. If your workplace only produces a small amount of waste, a zero-emissions trike pick-up option through Shift Delivery is available.

Other benefits include education and support for your staff, no long-term contracts, and flexible bin sizes and collection frequency to fit your needs. The more members that join this community recycling program, the more optimized the pick-up routes can be, lowering carbon emissions and the amount of truck traffic we see in our lanes and streets.

For more information visit: strathconabia.com/member-programs/recycle-in-strathcona/

The Strathcona Community Garden is located near Hawks and Prior Street and is a volunteer-managed space. The garden sits on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and is a space that is operated by the Strathcona Community Gardeners Society, a non-profit and leader in community-run ecological stewardship. The garden provides the neighbourhood’s residents an opportunity to grow their own plots of food, herbs, and flowers locally. The space provides rare inner-city habitat for wildlife. With over 200 individual plots, a greenhouse, a bee shed for bee-keeping, orchard, and wildlife habitat area, the space is a green oasis in the city.

For more information visit: strathconagardens.ca 

We know that a big part of tackling the climate crisis is changing how we move around the city and our communities. Strathcona is an eclectic mix of industrial spaces, hidden retail gems, and community spaces in the heart of East Vancouver, so it’s no wonder that a focus on accessibility is kind of our thing.

Walking, biking, or taking transit, are all great modes of choice for getting around in our well-connected community. Nine bus routes run through Strathcona, and it is considered a “walker’s paradise” with a walking score of 95. Strathcona also has some incredible bike paths throughout the district that will smoothly lead you to the rest of the city.

Resources and Opportunities

Check out some of these links to learn more about how you can make an impact and contribute to a sustainable community.

For Citizens

• Get inspired around all the ways you can take action this week and beyond at earthday.org. There will be plenty of live-streamed virtual events with a focus on this year’s Earth Day theme: Restore the Earth.
• On a local level, check out the City of Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, and learn how to get involved.

For Small Businesses

• Do you strive to create a positive impact in the world through business? Learn about how to measure your impact using impact assessment tools at an upcoming free B Corp 101 workshop by the BDC and Vancouver Economic Commission. Workshops dates are May 13 or June 10.

For Innovators

• Vancouver Economic Commission recently launched Project Greenlight, a program that connects enterprises with big challenges to innovators ready to build and pilot sustainable solutions. Learn more here.

For Industry Associations

• The Climate Change How-to Guide for Industry and Professional Associations is a great in-depth resource by the BC Council for International Cooperation with best practices for addressing climate change at the industry level.

A spotlight on our advocacy and partnership work.

Partnership is critical to successful advocacy on behalf of our business members. Some of these partnerships have recently been in the media spotlight. In this post you’ll find:

• Details on what we’re doing to address street disorder on the 700 & 800 blocks of East Hastings and what a new parklet on Princess Avenue has to do with it.

• How activating empty storefronts in Chinatown leads to big wins for Strathcona businesses.

• The lowdown on Oppenheimer Park and everything we know about its path to re-opening.

East Hastings Street Disorder

In Strathcona, the path to how we arrive at a healthy and safe commercial district is complex. In partnership with the City of Vancouver, Portland Hotel Society, VANDU, Vancouver Police and other stakeholders, we’ve been working 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 has emerged. 

The full scope of the pilot project was captured by Dan Fumano, in his article last week and includes quotes from his interview with Strathcona BIA Executive Director Theodora Lamb. The article also dives into more detail about the harm-reduction model behind the parklet.

About the Pilot Project

The pilot project involves a city-sanctioned parklet on Princess Ave where folks who have been occupying the bus stops in front of the Astoria Hotel can go to drink safely and legally. A city-sanctioned parklet means 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 drinking activity is monitored, people are supported, and business concerns are addressed. What comes next will be efforts to move activity from the Hastings bus stops to the parklet (where the PHS-run Drinker’s Lounge has been operating for 10 years) and ensure businesses and property owners around the parklet are fully heard and supported. If that’s you, stay tuned for more from the SBIA and the City of Vancouver.

We’ve heard loud and clear that more consultation is required and that our members, time and again, end up having to support the solutions to Strathcona’s complex social challenges on their own.

While we believe that Strathcona businesses will play a big role in solutions, the SBIA is doing everything in its power to ensure the advocacy work and heavy lifting does not rest on your shoulders, but on ours.

Additional Safety Measures

Meanwhile, our safety patrol team will be increasing their checks of the parklet starting this week and up to four times a day, seven days a week. Regular meetings will be scheduled with the VPD regarding parklet activity. Additional street cleaning resources will be directed to the area and, for those members in and around the parklet and who desire it,  regular communication will be set up. 

The Parklet is an imperfect solution. But we believe this group of unlikely allies, who first came together to address the concerns of businesses, have the attention of the right decision makers and a vision for a safer community.

If you’re a business or property owner operating in and around 111 Princess Ave and you want to ensure we don’t miss you in our outreach, please email us at info@strathconabia.com to be added to the parklet impact listserv.

Activating Vacant Storefront Spaces

You may have heard about Kam Wai Dim Sum opening up in Chinatown a couple weeks ago. Their reopening is part of a pilot project that the Strathcona BIA sponsors called the Community-Serving Retail Project. This project was launched to address vacant space in Chinese Benevolent Society Buildings, of which about 50 or so remain spread out evenly across both Strathcona and Chinatown BIAs. The first successful pilot landed in Chinatown, and there are several future locations underway, including in Strathcona. 

How This Initiative Works

This initiative is a partnership between the Strathcona BIA, Dunefield, and Youth Collaborative for Chinatown where the aim is to partner with Chinese Society Buildings and other non-profit buildings in Strathcona and Chinatown that have underused commercial space.  The project team supports the non-profit building owners with property management challenges, building and space improvements, and assists them with finding reliable tenants including restaurants, eateries, retail, and production businesses. It’s a remarkable story of storefront activation that is helping create affordable space opportunities for community-serving retail businesses in both Strathcona and Chinatown.

The funding for this project comes from the City of Vancouver, specifically, the DTES Capital Grants program which awards funds annually to community projects just like this. As an organization, we’ve had tremendous success in applying for these funds. As project sponsor, the funds flow through, not from, the Strathcona BIA – a registered non-profit society – to the project team for the pilot locations.

Do you want to start or expand a community-serving business in Chinatown or Strathcona, and are in need of affordable space and other support? Does your society or not-for-profit have underused commercial space that could accommodate community-serving business? Get in touch with us at info@strathconabia.com to learn more about the program.

Oppenheimer Park Reopening

Both Oppenheimer and Strathcona Parks have had their fair share of newsworthy headlines over the last few years. The work to de-camp Strathcona Park and house the residents currently living in its homeless camp is happening right now. 

If you’re wondering about Oppenheimer Park, when it will reopen, and what the plan is to ensure it remains the public green space it was always meant to be, you’re not alone. The Strathcona BIA reached out to Parks Board staff to get the low-down on what businesses in and around the park can expect in the coming weeks and months. According to Ian Stewart, Manager of Park Development with the Vancouver Parks Board, there is no firm reopening date set yet.

Stewart’s team is responsible for park development. They’ve been busy implementing a number of restoration improvements since the Park’s decampment last May. “We have embarked on a series of conversations with park users to determine how to ensure that a park reopening can be conducted safely, and best serve local residents who desire access to the park’s amenities” says Stewart. 

The Strathcona BIA has requested a meeting with Stewart and his team to discuss how local business members will be consulted about the Park’s re-opening. As soon as we know more, we’ll be reaching out to members regarding that engagement. 

If you’re a business or property owner operating in and around Oppenheimer Park and you want to be directly looped into the Park reopening news, please reach out to us at info@strathconabia.com to be added to an outreach list.

The Strathcona Business Improvement Association is looking for a Social Media Specialist to join our team.

Our ideal candidate is an expert copywriter, content creator, and social strategist who is excited to bring to life all that makes Strathcona vibrant and different from anywhere else in Vancouver. 

The Strathcona BIA values diversity, and encourages applicants of all gender identities or expressions, sexual orientation, colour, race, age, ability, religion, national or ethnic origin, citizenship, or family/marital status. 

This is a 15 hour per week remote work position for an ongoing long-term contract. Compensation details are included in the full job description. The deadline to apply is February 11, 2021.