Posted by Taraneh | August 22nd, 2011 | Leave a comment »
Connaught Park (the grassy expanse on West 12th Avenue between Larch and Vine ) will be renovated in order to rank among Vancouver’s Grade A playing fields. The park’s sports fields draw athletes from three neighbourhood high schools, a community school, the Meraloma Athletic Club, not to mention constant casual use from the sporty Kits community and their pets.
The essential upgrades will be rolled out over two phases, which will unfortunately result in lengthy closures. The fields will be closed twice for as long as 18 months each time as grass takes root. The cricket field, fastpitch diamond and soccer pitch will close from now until the fall of 2012.
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Posted by Taraneh | August 2nd, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The Vancouver Sun reports that swimmer Rebecca Sharp nearly gave birth 32 weeks into her pregnancy after being head-butted in the stomach at the Kitsilano Pool. Sharp is now calling for a crackdown on bad swimming behaviour.
“What happened last year was that a guy was in front of me and he got to the end … and he just did a tumble turn straight back,” she said. “He went straight into my stomach.”
Sharp said she was helped out of the pool and taken to a lifeguarding station where she waited for an ambulance to arrive, soaking wet and cold from the breeze.
“I was in a lot of pain,” she said, adding that she began having contractions.
She was taken to hospital, where a midwife was called just in case Sharp began to give birth.
“Eventually everything subsided,” she said.
“The baby was born on time and I had a girl; she’s wonderful.”
Obviously, swimming isn’t a contact sport. To Sharp, the rules for lane swimming are pretty simple. She compares it to driving saying:
“You give way, and then you move across and then you swim back the other way.”
Appropriate pool etiquette w/length swimming
So what is appropriate pool etiquette with length swimming? According to Sean Healy, the supervisor of aquatic services at the Vancouver Park Board, lifeguards are well aware that poor lane choice can lead to problems, and they work hard to correct bad behaviour in the pool.
The rules are simple: If slower swimmers are repeatedly passed, it’s appropriate for them to move down a level. In the case where faster swimmers are constantly passing people, they should move up a level.
Traffic at Kits Pool
When I’m at Kits Pool, the lifeguards seem very interactive and aware of lane traffic. Perhaps, if swimming is like driving, then the occasional merging incident is both unfortunate and inevitable. But maybe you’ve had a different experience? And it never hurts to brush up manners.
At last, the summer sun is out. What are some common pool rules that need reinforcing?
Posted by Taraneh | May 25th, 2011 | 17 Comments »
The long weekend marked the start of the first summer of the smoking ban, enacted September 1, 2010. Under the bylaw, smoking is now prohibited on beaches and in parks throughout Vancouver and a minimum fine of $250 can be issued to those who break the rules. Despite this, 24H Vancouver reports that over the long weekend, smokers in Kits lit up anyway. In fact, they openly defied the regulation.
While everyone agrees that smoking is unhealthy, even non smokers have come out against the park smoking ban. Some argue that while banning smoking in restaurants and other workplaces—places where non smokers and smokers coexist in a confined space—is a no brainer, banning smoking in a public outdoor space is too much. Opponents of the ban see the bylaw another paternalistic overstep from an already restrictive government.
According to 24H Vancouver, only five tickets have been issued since September 1. Vancouver Park Board chair Aaron Jasper emphasized educating smokers over fining them.
If the occasional smoker wants to light up outside and the Park Board isn’t really ticketing, perhaps there are non governmental ways of negotiating the smoking in parks issue. What do you think? Does Kits Beach need a smoking ban bylaw?
