The Canadian Coast Guard’s Kitsilano search and rescue station will be shut down as part of a massive round of layoffs underway at the federal Department of Fisheries and Ocean. Canadian Coast Guard officials met with staff at the Kitsilano station yesterday afternoon to discuss the details about the closure.
The Kits station is staffed by 12 crew and responded to almost 300 calls last year, many involving recreational boaters. The Kits station will be consolidated with the Sea Island hovercraft base, located 17 nautical miles from its current location at Vanier Park.
By May 17, I’m betting that you’ve found the time to occupy a Kitsilano patio, despite the occasional rainy set back. Kitsilano.ca wants your opinion on the best neighbourhood bar/cafe/restaurant patio.
We’ve put together a list of Kits patios based on reader comments from previous years. Please vote for your favourite patio below. If we’re missing one of your picks, add it by commenting.
I love spending Sunday mornings browsing the neighbourhood Farmers Market with a cup of coffee. While I do find the products expensive, sometimes biting into a heirloom tomato that has never seen the inside of a refrigerator is truly priceless.
This time of year the market is filled with all kinds of greens, including kale, collard greens, salad greens, mustard greens and more. If you are lucky, turnips, cucumbers, rhubarb, radishes, apples and other seasonal produce will also be available.
Prepared food vendors will also be at the market offering baked goods, granola, jam, olives and more.
The market is open from 10am-2pm in the parking lot of the Kitsilano Community Center at 2690 Larch Street (at W 10th).
Well, it’s that time of year again… the time in Kitsilano where everyone stops working and heads to the beach to enjoy the sun! The weather this past weekend was spectacular and let’s hope for more of the same for the long weekend.
In the Kitsilano real estate market, comparing detached and attached markets, we are seeing one consistent trend and two divergent ones:
1) Listing inventory is climbing in both markets, as is typical this time of year, with both markets showing inventory levels higher than anything we saw in 2011 or so far this year. If this trend continues, we may see inventory levels exceed the high levels of 2010. Combined with interest rates that are still near record lows, this Summer should provide some good buying opportunities.
2) Sales activity has been steady in the attached market, but read more »
At the beginning of May, the Vancouver Police Department announced that – in conjunction with other police departments across the province – they were going to be “targeting” high-risk driving during the month of May. VPD Staff Sgt. Jack Sarna was quoted in the article that the most common high-risk activity that he observes is distracted driving. The media focused on motorists, but “distracted driving” — in particular using a cell phone while driving — is a behaviour you can see in cyclists too.
On one day on my ride to work last week, shortly after the announced “crackdown,” I saw three motorists with cells to their ears as they drove by me on the bike route. On a ride home the very same week, I had to deal with two cars stopped at green lights because their drivers were looking down at their mobile instead of up at the light.
For some reason, the place I notice the most people on cell phones are those who have just dropped their kids off at one of the many schools that I drive by on my ride to work. They drop off little Johnny or Jane at school then reach for the phone as they pull away. Clearly “distracted driving” by motorists is a safety issue for cyclists.
But what about cyclists themselves? I occasionally see cyclists riding along, usually pretty slowly, with phones pushed up to their ears. Rarely I see the odd person texting. Last week (it was an odd week) I saw a guy remove his cycling jacket and stuff it into the backpack he was wearing while continuing to cycle along the bike route. It was both remarkable and frightening. Clearly these cyclists can’t react to sudden problems on the road with sufficient reaction time. And the path that they follow, meandering here and there as they maintain a generally forward motion, is hard for both bikes and cars that might want to pass or just avoid running into them.
Probably the biggest issue in “distracted cycling”, though is the issue of headphones. read more »
The Annual Khatsalano Music Festival is kicking it up a notch this year. I started to take more notice of this event when I heard that the West 4th BIA had turned to festival production powerhouse Brand.Live to produce this years Khatsalano Festival. Brand.Live is the team behind the growing Live at Squamish festival as well countless other community and music focused events under their well-managed belts.
Unfortunately I have no inside scoop to share with you on artists committed to this event, but I have a sneaking suspicion the line up will be some well known headliners sure to draw the Kits kids and outlying communities.
If you are as curious as I am, join the West 4th BIA and Zulu Records when they host the launch party for the Khatsalano Music Festival this Wednesday, May 16t at Zulu records. There will be live performances and the line up for the July 21 festival will be announced.
Urban Outfitters (now open) renovates 2199 West 4th Avenue.
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEKEND IN KITS
1) Get some grassy park real estate. If the weather plays as nice as the forecast promises, now’s the time to spread a blanket or build a tent. Gather a gaggle of friends. And get grilling.
2) Be nice to mums. Brunch them, lunch them, wine and dine them, clean something, repair something, shower them with spa gift certificates, home made crafts and cards, remember to say “I love you”…. Whatever your approach, Mum’s the word, Sunday May 13.
3) Explore a neighbourhood museum. Did you know that Hastings Mill Museum (now at 1575 Alma Street) used to be the iconic “Old Mill Store” that stood at the foot of Dunlevy Street for more than 60 years? In 1931 it was barged to its current location and reopened as a Vancouver history museum by the Native Daughters of BC.
Hastings Mill Museum is easily enjoyed in 1-2 hours and is conveniently right next to a park with playground. Filled with Vancouver memorabilia (an original full-size Hansom cab, Joe Fortes’ lamp, the first Vancouver city hall table), it’s only open weekends 1-4pm, but changes to summer hours June 15.
5) Browse Vancouver’s second Urban Outfitters now open in Kits. It’s finally here. The US retailer Urban Outfitters has opened doors (2199 West 4th Avenue) in the former Le Chateau Space, which was built in 1912 and formerly housed the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
The rewards for slug prevention with pots and copper: Hosta ‘Ghostmaster’. Photo credit: Meredith Brehaut
Things are growing now with the warmer temperatures and my garden is being invaded by the season’s first line of predators: slugs.
This year plants are further along than last year when the onslaught began. That means tougher foliage and hopefully less damage. I am out there in the mornings, hunting. Some species seem more vulnerable: brunneras, hostas, polygonatum, ligularia – all of these take a hit. I can easily collect over 100 slugs an hour.
I have tried the beer trap but am not satisfied with the numbers collected. I use slug baitupon occasion – perhaps it works but if I spread too much it attracts rodents. I don’t eat enough eggs to try crushed eggshells. I prefer just picking the slugs up – immediate gratification.
Even with my vigilance, the plants that are in the ground endure some slug damage. I have only ever found one reliable solution for perfect hostas read more »
The Canadian Coast Guard’s Kitsilano search and rescue station will be shut down as part of a massive round of layoffs underway at the federal Department of Fisheries and Ocean. Canadian Coast Guard officials met with staff at the Kitsilano station yesterday afternoon to discuss the details about the closure.
I love spending Sunday mornings browsing the neighbourhood Farmers Market with a cup of coffee. While I do find the products expensive, sometimes biting into a heirloom tomato that has never seen the inside of a refrigerator is truly priceless.
