News Article: March 22, 2006
Party zone at crossroads
Georgia Straight
News Features By Charlie Smith
Publish Date: March 22, 2007
Vancouver resident Ned Jacobs learned a great deal about what makes cities work from his mother, famed urbanist and author Jane Jacobs. And when he hears about late-night drunken chaos in the Granville Entertainment District on weekends, he recalls what his mom had to say.
"She said mixed uses tame one another," Jacobs told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.
In her book Dark Age Ahead (Random House Canada, 2004), Jane Jacobs wrote that trying to control bad behaviour through zoning doesn't work. "What are actually needed are prohibitions of destructive performances," she wrote.
Ned Jacobs said he helped edit this chapter of his mother's book, which was called "Unwinding Vicious Spirals". The key, he suggested, is not to concentrate one type of business, such as the nightclub industry, in one area of the city. He said it's better to include different uses, then address unruly conduct in other ways.
The City of Vancouver adopted a different approach in the 1990s when it decided to concentrate bars and nightclubs in a new Granville Entertainment District, which was designated in the 700, 800, and 900 blocks of Granville Street. Former NPA councillor Lynne Kennedy was then the chair of the city's Liquor Licensing Commission.
"It was meant to be a variety of businesses and entertainment venues so that there would be something for everyone," Kennedy recently told the Straight.
At the time, the Capitol 6 Theatres were still operating on Granville Street. Neighbourhood pubs were limited to 125 seats. The Commodore Ballroom was in the process of being saved and restored. And the city capped the number of licensed seats at 1,000 in the three blocks.
Kennedy said the whole plan was "blown apart" when the provincial government loosened the rules regarding liquor licensing. That resulted in bar owners applying to increase the number of licensed seats. Meanwhile, the city started approving liquor applications on Granville Street north of Georgia Street.
"But the biggest problem was when the council of the day allowed the hours to go to 4 a.m.," she said.
Kennedy said the discrepancy in weekend closing hours between Vancouver (now 3 a.m. in the downtown core) and the suburbs (2 a.m.) resulted in hordes of troublemakers descending on Granville Street in the wee hours of the morning. However, John Teti, the chair of BarWatch, an organization of bar owners, told the Straight that closing hours have "absolutely nothing" to do with the mayhem on Granville Street. He blamed it on the lack of consequences for those who create trouble by starting fights or urinating in public.
"The way to straighten it out is to give the VPD the resources they need, whatever they may be," Teti said. "If they want cameras on the damn street, put cameras on the street. There shouldn't be a perception of privacy when you're in an entertainment district."
He also said that perhaps the city should launch a trial program in which parts of the street are cordoned off at certain times, so that only those with identification and who submit to weapons searches would be allowed through. "I'm sure that we would be more than willing to pay for the private security to man those ports of entry," Teti said. "Every bar has metal detecting. Every bar does scanning. Every bar has multiple cameras in it. The bars themselves are a safe environment."
Paul Teichroeb, the city's chief licence inspector, told the Straight that his staff had a "cursory look" last year at the idea of cordoning off parts of the street. "There were going to be significant costs associated with that," he said. "Then we've got other issues related to the other businesses as well. How do we control patrons that want to go to the other shops? Who do you prohibit from going into that area?"
He suggested that all of this added up to "huge logistical problems". Teichroeb said his office will be reporting back to council about the Granville Entertainment District next month.