Marpole Safeway construction moving quickly

MAY 2013 — The redevelopment of the Marpole Safeway site is moving very quickly, as the storeys of the residential tower next to the new Safeway rise above Granville Street. The word on the street is that the new 55,000 sq ft Safeway may be open by Christmas 2013, though that has not been officially verified. Members and residents are hopeful, however, that the grocery store will reopen sooner than previously anticipated. [READ MORE]

Photo: James Neufeld

Milltown Marina @ Richmond Island

MAY 2012 — Milltown Marina is a joint partnership between the Musqueam Band and Bastion Development. They will be leasing Richmond Island from Port Metro Vancouver for the next 60 years, offering in-water slips and moorage, drystack storage, on-site repair and maintenance services, and a restaurant with patio. As part of habitat restoration, a new bird and wildlife habitat islet has been created at the mouth of Eburne Slough, which was dredged to allow for the marina's development. The Marina will be open and accessible to the public from Bentley Street, via car and pedestrian/cycle path. The Marpole BIA and members of the community worked with Marina Director Matthew Cote and the City of Vancouver on the public access and picnic area on the Marina site. Milltown Marina is scheduled to open in late summer 2013. [READ MORE]

Illustration/Rendering: Milltown Marina

Over 50 Businesses participated in 5th Annual Chinese Lion Dance Tour of Marpole

MAY 2012 — The fifth annual Chinese Lion Dance Tour of Marpole in February, in honour of the Chinese New Year of the Snake, was a success in spite of the light rain. More than fifty member businesses signed on to participate in individual blessings by the Lion, and offered the traditional lucky red envelope and lettuce offering to the Lion. The sixth annual Lion Dance has already been booked for February 6th, 2014. [READ MORE]

Photo: Marpole BIA

Proposed facility at historic Casa Mia worries homeowners

APR 2013 — Southlands homeowners don't want a care facility for seniors in their neighbourhood. They're afraid locating the facility at the historic Casa Mia estate would create a potential influx of traffic that would add to already busy streets. The residents believe such a facility would better suit Granville, Cambie or Oak streets, which have commercial zones, transit options and coffee shops. The city has identified Casa Mia for its significant heritage value but that doesn't guarantee protection from demolition or alteration. [READ MORE]

Milltown Marina & Boatyard Opening in June

APR 2013 — Vancouver's Milltown Marina and Boatyard in Marpole is slated for completion June 2013. Marina Director Matthew Cote said all approval has been granted after more than three years of working through the permit process, and construction is ramping up. The marina will feature a west coast-style waterfront Bar & Grill, be accessible by a pedestrian and bike path along the water, and includes a wildlife habitat islet at the mouth of the Richmond Slough. Milltown Bar and Grill will have a strong focus on value and be an "everyday place to eat and drink". [READ MORE]

Shannon Mews Demolition Video

APR 2013 — Shannon Wall Centre is under development. "It's goodbye to the Arthur Erickson houses on the Shannon Mews estate, as space is being created for new condos and apartments" says YouTube user, FlemishCat. FlemishCat is the channel of Vancouver journalist and writer-producer Katja De Bock. Details: shannonwallcentre.com

Marpole Oakridge Family Place (MOFP) 35th Anniversary Celebration: Join us "Under the Big Top"

APR 2013 — An evening of celebration on Thursday May 9, 2013 featuring: Vancouver Circus School's "Inner Ring" Performers, Guest Speaker - Keith Pattinson, TAPSNAP Interactive Photography, Fashion Show by local designer Nancy Perreault, 3 Great Feature Draws & prizes! Must be 19 years or older. Sponsored by: VanCity ,Westbank, Bluetree/Wesgroup , Polygon, MBIA, Fountain tire, Nancy Perreault, Dueck Auto Group on Marine, Bill Murray - Investors Group Financial Services Inc. Details: mofp.org.

marpolehistorical.ca Looking for Volunteers

APR 2013 — Marpole Museum & Historical Society is looking for Volunteers who have a keen interest in the history of Marpole who would like to get involved. We would love to hear from you. We need help with the gardening and fundraising events. Regular monthly meetings are held on the 4th Wednesday of each month except the months of July and August. Please visit marpolehistorical.ca or contact us at 604-261-0131.

Park Rangers Should Educate Before Ticketing

APR 2013 — Park rangers who hand out tickets to owners of off-leash dogs will be seen as "punishing" if rangers are not able to "educate" dog owners about areas where dogs can run off-leash. If you live in Marpole, such places do not exist contrary to the city's recommendation that such places should be "conveniently located." [READ MORE]

Marpole Oakridge Community Centre's First Ever Easter Carnival Organized By Youth Council Is A Success

MAR 2012 — For the first time the Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre hosted an Easter Carnival that was made possible by the community centre's youth council.

New proposed VIVA Vancouver Street Mural for Marpole

MAR 2013 — Below is a photo of the proposed VIVA Vancouver Permanent Street Mural that will be installed on West 66th Avenue in Marpole this spring. Please send your comments and feedback to the Marpole Business Improvement Area (BIA) on Twitter @marpolevillage or by email at marpolebia@marpoleonline.com.

SFU students design social media plan to help isolated Marpole seniors

MAR 2013 — A group of business students has created a social media plan to reduce the isolation of seniors living alone in Marpole. Last week, the students designed a "web" of coloured yarn in front of Marpole library on Granville Street near 70th Avenue, to symbolize both physical community connections and the Internet's interconnected web. Some think that social media is so fast paced that it's only suited for a younger generation, but SFU business student Joanna Kipp says no one is too old to learn the online world. More information can be found at Marpole Place's new blog at marpoleplacenh.blogspot.ca, its Facebook Marpole Place page and on Twitter at @MarpoleplaceNH. [READ ARTICLE]

Marpole transportation under examination

MAR 2013 — The city is hosting a workshop focused on Marpole's transportation and related land use issues March 6 as part of ongoing consultation for the Marpole Community Plan. Matt Shillito, assistant director of community planning, said "We're interested in people's thoughts around transit service and walking and cycling infrastructure, in particular areas of the community where we could do a better job of traffic calming." Staff also has ideas about additional bus service such as working with TransLink to get a bus link on West 70th Avenue between Granville Street and the Canada Line. Details are on the Marpole Community Plan page on the city website. [READ ARTICLE]

Marpole shipyard building quietly demolished

FEB 2013 — Earlier this month, Terry Slack, a fisherman for 65 years, was walking by the Fraser River waterfront near the corner of Hudson Street and West 77th Avenue when he noticed a two-storey wooden building that had once been used to repair ships, one that he had seen for decades, was missing. Although dating from about 1910, the building had not been placed on city hall's heritage preservation list since the list was created in the mid-1980s. The landowners, Canfor Corporation forestry giant, had applied for a demolition permit last fall which the city issued. "I'm concerned we've lost a lot of history in Marpole and the riverfront," said Slack. "The building should have at least been photographed by the city, and artifacts preserved." Slack and Claudia Laroye, director of the Marpole Business Association, believed the area was excluded from the Marpole planning process. [READ ARTICLE]

Photo: Dan Toulgoet, Vancouver Courier

Diversity in soccer

FEB 2012 — While the Marpole Soccer Club has always been predominantly Indo-Canadian, they aren't a South Asian team - they are culturally diverse. They promote all ethnicities to join and say it's the best way to learn about other cultures.

Chinese Lion Dance Tour 2013

FEB 2012 — The annual Chinese Lion Dance tour is scheduled to take place Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 11am along Granville Street in celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Snake.

Vancouverites share the limelight in international street art project

JAN 2013 — An international street art "experiment" aims to find out this weekend by placing two "limelights" on sidewalks at opposite ends of Vancouver's Granville Street — near its intersections with 68th Avenue in the south and West Hastings in the north. Limelight: Saturday Night was started in Glasgow by British artist Tristan Surtees and French architect Charles Blanc in 2010. It has since toured more than 10 cities on three continents. It's in Vancouver this weekend courtesy of the Marpole Business Improvement Association in partnership with Emily Carr University for Art + Design. [READ ARTICLE]

Pearson Dogwood Lands Policy Planning Program

JAN 2013 — The City of Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) are discussing renewal and expansion plans for the 10-hectare (25.4 acre) site of the George Pearson Centre and Dogwood Lodge, located between West 57th and 59th Avenue and Cambie and Heather Street. Open houses will be held at 601 West 59th Avenue, Vancouver on Thursday, January 31, 2013 from 5–8pm and Saturday, February 2, 2013 from 10am– 2pm. George Pearson Centre was built as a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1952. Currently, it houses 120 residents who live with a range of physical disabilities and includes a warm-water pool that is a valuable asset for rehabilitation. Dogwood Lodge provides complex care to 113 seniors. For more details see: vancouver.ca/pearson.

Limelight: Saturday Night

JAN 2013 — A public art presentation + artist talk by international artist duo, Sans façon. Sunday January 27th, 2013, 5pm - 7pm, at the Metro Theatre (1370 Marine Drive SW, Vancouver). Free admission. Refreshments will be provided. [DOWNLOAD PDF] For more details visit: limelightontour.blogspot.ca.

Excavation company digs deep to bring in new village

JAN 2013 — Excavation at Marpole's massive, mixed-use Marine Gateway development is reaching towards completion as Matcon Excavation & Shoring Ltd. is digging deep to bring in one of Vancouver's newest village areas. The scale of the excavation for the development, sited at where southwest Marine Drive crosses Cambie Street and next door to the Marine Drive Canada Line station, is only surpassed by the work Matcon performed at the 2010 Winter Olympic Village in False Creek. Excavation, which started in July 2012, is slated for completion by March 2013. Two twin residential towers, where all units pre-sold quickly, will mark the development. The North Tower will have 38 storeys and 234 suites completing in November 2014, while the South Tower with 29 levels and 180 suites completes in January 2015. A smaller, third tower measuring 14 storeys (plus a podium) will contain mainly office and commercial space. The complex retail outlets will include a T&T grocery store, coffee shops and banks plus an 11-screen movie theatre on-site. In total, the development will offer 820,000 square feet of residential condo, rental housing, office, retail and public space. [DOWNLOAD PDF]

Matcon Excavation & Shoring loads up 200 trucks daily as the site is prepared for one of Vancouver's newest village developments at the foot of Cambie Street by the Canada Line station

Vancouver police investigating brutal targeted stabbing outside Marpole Denny's restaurant

JAN 2013 — Vancouver police are investigating after a gang of masked men brutally stabbed a man outside a Marpole restaurant. Const. Brian Montague says that several masked men ambushed a 21-year-old Vancouver man as he exited a Denny's restaurant at Marine Drive and Ash Street at 4:30 p.m. Friday, stabbing him multiple times. The victim was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Montague says that one suspect was arrested in Richmond shortly after the attack. [READ ARTICLE]

Homeless man's death does not go unnoticed: Marpole fixture remembered fondly

JAN 2013 — Rick Hofs probably didn't want his life to end this way: alone and curled up in his sleeping gear outside the back door of a Marpole dollar store. He was only 49 - only, in the same way Mayor Gregor Robertson and Premier Christy Clark are only 48 and 47, respectively. So when Regina Luk showed up to her dollar store on the morning of Dec. 27 to see Hofs sacked out in his familiar place in the loading bay, she checked on his condition. [READ ARTICLE]

This small shrine honours Rick Hofs, a homeless man who died recently at age 49. Photograph by: Jason Lang, Vancouver Courier

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