From after-school programs to politics, what are New West millennials experiencing?

Editor's note: if you haven't yet read Part 1 or Part 2, make sure you do before diving into Part 3.

Alright, we've talked about housing, but what about all the other stuff that comes with moving to a new city? Making sure your kid gets into a school close to home, access to after-school programs, political engagement, a sense of community, and transportation—just to name a couple o'topics.

In Part 3 of Millennials of New West, we're looking at some of the other things that were top of mind for people when they decided to move here.

This time around, Neil Salmond of Quayside, Shawn and Meghan Sorenson of Downtown New West, Amanda Siebert of Uptown, Matthew Ward of Downtown New West, Jens Vent-Schmidt of Quayside, Rohan Singh of Downtown New West, and Kevin Schwantje of Downtown New West tell us about the experiences outside the home.

Transportation

This was easily one of the more popular topics that came up with pretty much everyone: whether it was walking, biking, taking the train, or having access to car share, the people we spoke to were able to get around for the most part. Being able to get around fairly close to home was important for pretty much everyone we spoke to.

“My wife has a license, but as a Londoner, just doesn’t like to drive at all … we don’t own a car; we have a Modo membership …so we have a car when we need it," explained Salmond, adding that they also live quite close to a SkyTrain station. Schwantje and Vent-Schmidt were also in similar situations if they needed a car, though Vent-Schmidt has his own vehicle. Singh drives his car for work but mainly gets around New West by foot or by transit; his wife also hates driving and has built much of her commuting around the transit system.

“Even though it’s got hills, I love walking around New West," says Siebert. "One of my favourite places to go is Queen’s Park, just walking along Queen’s Avenue,” though she did add that some of the infrastructure—roads around the city, for instance—felt outdated and could use some work. She also mentioned sometimes finding a commute along Stewardson Way tricky, especially if there was some kind of vehicle incident.

Vent-Schmidt also mentioned Stewardson Way—from the perspective of a cyclist. The Quayside resident will sometimes bike to work, which is at the University of British Columbia. (UBC)

Depending on the route, that could be a minimum of 30 kilometres to travel from Quayside to UBC.

"There are a lot of safe bike roads. The most dangerous areas are in Vancouver. They really need to get that stretch safe, and the second most dangerous stretch is Stewardson,explained Vent-Schmidt, adding that along Stewardson, there is a stretch where there is suddenly no space for bikes. "There is just a tiny sidewalk, and I’m like there with my kids. I’m terrified because there are big trucks. No one drives 50 [km/h.]”

Vent-Schmidt also talked about the disconnect between so-called Mainland New West and Queensborough. While you can take the Queensbourugh Bridge to get there, a vehicle incident on the four-lane bridge can spell disaster if you need to commute.

Vent-Schmidt is a fan of the Q2Q ferry but pointed out the scheduling isn't the greatest.

"I was going to take it the other day, and sadly it didn’t run over lunch … if I could, I’d build a bike and pedestrian bridge that connect the boardwalk to the other side, because we have all the amenities here. I live on the Quay, I have grocery stores, I have City Avenue. I do my shopping at the River Market,” says Vent-Schmidt.

Properly connecting Mainland New West to Queensborough has been a hot topic for a long time; at the Dec. 12 council meeting, staff were asked to look at the Q2Q ferry schedule after people became stuck on the roads in snowy weather late last month. At the same meeting, former New West Progressives mayoral candidate Ken Armstrong asked the current mayor and council to advocate for light rail transit to the area—a request that also came out of the previous storm.

New West is full of hills—and it's something Schwantje hopes the city will take into account if the city ever gets a bike sharing program. The downtown resident sold his car last year, which saves him at least $60 a month on parking—parking was not included in his rent.

He has his own e-bike to get around if needs to travel further.

“One of the things I hope that the new council does, which they’ve mentioned before, is an e-bike share program … the key point is it has to be e-bikes in New West, because it’s so hilly. People aren’t going to use a regular bike share here because it’s just not physically possible to ride a bike up some of these hills.”

City staff previously told The Anchor they hoped to have a business plan put together for bike and e-bike companies by the end of 2023.

Schools and programs for children

There were some tricky moments for the Sorensons as their child made the move from a Vancouver school to a New West school after they purchased a home in December 2021. They weren't actually sure if their daughter was going to get into a school in their catchment.

“We were moving over the winter break," explains Shawn, "[and] we were told by the [New West] school district that there was no room for her and that ... made us both pretty emotional in that we didn’t know where our child’s going to attend school.”

“And moving into a new city. Like, did we make a gigantic mistake moving here? If there’s not even any room for her to go to school, and now we just have to bus her somewhere or commute her somewhere," added Meghan.

While their daughter was able to get into a school in her catchment—finding out about a week-and-a-half before she had to start school, she did not get into French immersion.

“It’s not just getting into a local gym or a yoga studio, this is her whole life and it could be years and years' worth of her life, hours commuting her somewhere else,” explained Meghan.

Growth has been a challenge to keep up with in New West, particularly for those needing schooling or daycare for a child. Downtown New West—where the Sorensons live—recently lost 72 daycare spaces, which have been relocated to two other schools. And while there are plans to build another school in the downtown area, at least 33 children who were supposed to attend Qayqayt Elementary this school year have had to go to school elsewhere.

Vent-Schmidt said because this is a city with so many young families, he could only see the daycare issue becoming more of a problem. His older child went through a different lottery system, and his younger child was able to get into French immersion.

In the realm of summer programming, Salmond said he appreciated what his children were able to enjoy while school was out.

“Moody Park, Queen’s Park, the trees … summer was amazing. The kids go to summer camp for a week there, at Queen’s Park," explained Salmond. "They play in a forest all summer. The lights dappled through the trees, and [thinking] things like, ‘Wow, this is a nice way to spend your summer, kids.’ I love it.”

Things to do in New West

Green space and amenities like pools was another big topic for many of the folks The Anchor spoke to: while Salmond loved that his children were able to play at Queen's Park during the summer, he added it wouldn't hurt to have more parks for them to enjoy. When it comes to pools, he noted they have the option to go to the one at the Edmonds Community Centre.

Singh also mentioned green space, talking about the use what he and his neighbours called a "pocket park" in their former Brow-of-the-Hill neighbourhood—the same neighbourhood that had the most casualties during the 2021 heat dome.

Former Mayor Jonathan Cote noted in a separate interview with The Anchor that it's one of the places with the least amount of green space.

“It’s a neighbourhood of older wood frame apartment buildings, south-facing. It’s also a neighbourhood that has some of the lowest tree canopy in the city,” Cote previously told us, adding that the area’s demographics include older people, as well as those who are lower income.

For Ward, it's common for him and his wife to leave the city on a Friday or Saturday night to find something to do, adding that downtown New West has some untapped potential, with many of the spaces along Columbia Street underutilized.

“We’ll hop on the train and go downtown [sometimes]. It depends. If we want to have a nice, easy, close-to-home thing, it’s like [we can] walk down the river, go to Steel and Oak. There are some local options that we love, but the transit is so good that we can just go to downtown Vancouver, go to Port Moody, there’s lots of different places we can get to so quickly.”

Ward added he'd like to see a much better variety of options along Columbia Street.

“There’s also just so many wedding stores, and then there’ll be empty shops with nothing. You look at El Santo and it’s buzzing, and we love the deli [Gastronomia Italia] that just opened up. I definitely would love to see more because I think that people here in New West want that stuff.”

Politics

The range of political engagement was all over the map for participants, with some following topics more closely than others.

Siebert noted that some of the "nice-to-have" fixes related to roads and infrastructure could actually be the responsibility of multiple jurisdictions.

She did add that she appreciated some of the work the city was doing to ensure people were aware of New West's dark past.

"One of the things I made a point of doing when I moved here was learning about who lived here 100, 200 years ago, and I learned some horrifying things about the history of Poplar Island, so that to me has always been a sort of eerie thing that I appreciate that New West is a place where City Hall does sort of recognize there’s a lot of horrible things that happened here.”

Siebert cited the removal of the Judge Begbie statue from outside the New West Law Courts as an example of progressive thinking. While she said she observed people in the community being annoyed, she wasn't.

“I thought, ‘You know, good on city council for recognizing that here.' So, I’m proud to live in a city that is really open and diverse, too. I love that New West is LGBTQ-friendly, and a really a hub for that community.”

Schwantje says he overall believes there are issues at the city level that are being taken care of, but noted there were some qualifiers. As was the case with Siebert, he acknowledged some of the challenges required responses at the federal and provincial levels.

“Unfortunately, I have seen people overdose right on the sidewalk here in New West. I’ve even stayed with [them], called an ambulance before. Most of these issues are not exclusive to New West, and they’ve been all over BC. I saw an overdose in Clearwater,” he explains.

Singh, who follows politics closely, says he doesn't like the dichotomy he's observed between certain neighbourhoods, having previously lived in the Brow-of-the-Hill area for so long.

“One of my biggest beefs with the city is how much deference the city gives to Queen’s Park and single-family housing," said Singh. "There’s this constant refrain of ‘we’re in a housing crisis.’ Yet one neighbourhood has no social services, no social housing, very few services in general. It’s protected by this blanket of heritage, right? And the question I ask is, ‘Why is a city, why are people spending money in terms of staff and council time to protect heritage?’ Someone’s private property. If they want to do it, let them go ahead and spend their money to protect that. I don’t see why we spend funds on it.”

Singh adds there are certain kinds of housing missing from the city.

"The city took bold action on climate and protecting renters, but housing is more than deeply affordable and subsidized rentals. It’s more than supportive housing, right? That’s the missing middle, and we have this giant swath of land that is the least dense in the city. My big complaint is the city needs to stop giving Queen’s Park and single-family neighbourhoods preferential treatment. Why should other neighbourhoods pick up the slack on density?”

Despite this, he says the city is very different from what he first moved into in 2007, calling it "infinitely better," but with some caveats.

“It’s an interesting city that punches above its weight class in terms of the services offered and the things it can do. I think my frustration is … it’s always felt like it’s a city that’s been on the cusp of being great, and I don’t know what the missing thing is.”

Making friends

Some of the folks we talked to, including Salmond and Ward, mentioned how they were swayed by friends to give New West a try. But one interesting topic of discussion came up with Schwantje looking at making and retaining friendships in New West.

While he loves his neighbours, he's made some incredible friendships volunteering at the New West Farmers Market. Prior to volunteering at the market, he'd constantly leave the city to visit friends in Coquitlam or Vancouver.

"[Choosing to volunteer for the Farmers Market] was such a big change and it was one evening a week. ...I’m only there for the last few hours. Even that small little bit provided me with so much connection in the community. I made friends, I made connections with all the local businesses, all the vendors, and all the regulars that come to the market to see you.”

Schwantje says volunteering has done him plenty of good, adding that if you're able to dedicate even just a few hours a week, it can be a game changer.

“No matter where you live, it could be a townhouse, it could be a houseboat, could be an apartment building. There’s always community if you want it. If you look forward and you open up yourself to it, it’s there. It’s my feeling.”