THE TALK OF THE TOWN

/

What Do We Have For You This Month?

Welcome to “The Talk of The Town” for July, 2025. Click on the following links to find:

  • West End News & Notes: Pride Parade rerouted again, City manager clears general manager of complaints about CURV report, new Aquatic Centre plan approved with 25-metre pool, and more.

  • Word On The Street: Who’s opening, who’s closing, and who’s on the move.

  • West End Moments: Our community has many talented photographers, and we share their images that capture our lives and time.

  • Hidden Treasure Hunt: Be the first to email us identifying the location of this West End “Hidden Treasure” and win your choice of a $50 coffee shop gift card.

  • West End Street & Lane Names: Vancouver’s streets and lanes each has their own history. Here’s the story of Bidwell Street.

  • West End - Coal Harbour In The News: In case you missed anything, here are links to local news stories of interest to our community.

West End News & Notes

PRIDE PARADE AND FESTIVAL UPDATE
Parade Reverses Route and Party Returns To The Village

The Davie Village Pride Festival returns this summer following a six-year hiatus and takes place the same day as the Vancouver Pride Parade, Sunday, August 3.

the Vancouver Pride Parade (shutterstock Image)

The parade itself will have a new "reversed" route this year and will kick off at Concord Pacific Place, travel along Pacific Avenue, and end at the intersection of Pacific and Burrard — leading directly into the reimagined Davie Village Pride Festival.

The Davie Village Pride Festival is coming back after six years. Before it was shut down during the pandemic, the “cornerstone event” used to take place a couple of days before the parade. Now, it will serve as the finale celebration. 

The West End BIA, Vancouver Pride Society, and QMUNITY have collaborated to transform Davie Street, from Burrard to Jervis, into a "high-energy, inclusive celebration featuring live music, drag performances, DJs, and roaming entertainers." Festival-goers can also enjoy licensed lounges, extended patios, and local businesses that will spill onto the street.

The festival will also stretch into Nelson Park, offering an all-ages event and ASL interpretation from 2 to 9 p.m. Visitors will enjoy button pressing, colouring, and ribbon making, as well as artisans and community resources. Bands will also perform on the Concord Pacific Community Stage in the park.

NEW AQUATIC CENTRE APPROVED
The pool will be half the length it is now

Vancouver Park Board commissioners and Vancouver City Council have now both approved the recommended concept to build a replacement Vancouver Aquatic Centre near Sunset Beach, with a 25-metre, eight-lane lap swimming pool as its primary facility.

preliminary concept of the new Vancouver Aquatic Centre Pool. (Acton Ostry Architects/MJMA Architecture and Design)

In June, as part of the city’s quarterly capital budget update, council approved a staff recommendation to increase the project’s capital funding by $35 million, a net increase of $22.5 million for the 2023-2026 capital plan.

The project is anticipated to cost $175 million if it follows the current timeline of awarding the construction contract and beginning major construction work by the end of 2026.

Park board commissioners previously approved the 25-metre pool concept on April 1 of this year, but the final decision was left to City Hall, as funding approval was required.

“If we didn’t proceed with the direction that we received from our [park] board and this request today, this does put the project at significant risk of [not] being completed. We’re already earmarking shovels and ground at the tail end of 2026. And so sort of any delay on this project is really putting that at risk, which then means we wouldn’t be able to procure,” Steve Jackson, the general manager of the park board, told councillors during the June 18 public meeting.

The decision will disappoint the many swimming advocates who were opposed to the plan to replace the existing 50-metre pool with one half the size and asked city council to halt additional funding for the project as proposed.

Proposed Curve tower at 1075 Nelson.

CITY MANAGER CLEARS GM
Re: CURV REPORT

In April of this year Robert Regner, a former senior development planner for the City of Burnaby, filed a Code of Conduct complaint with the City of Vancouver relating to council’s decision in March to remove social housing requirements from the existing zoning for the proposed CURV apartment tower at 1075 Nelson Street. Instead of delivering social housing in the new building, the developer would make a $55 million cash payment to the municipal government. The cash-in-lieu payment will be used to deliver social housing elsewhere, according to the city.

According to Regner, his complaint against the city’s GM of Planning, Josh White, alleged that White acted contrary to the city’s code of conduct, regarding the expectation that staff “provide Council officials with information sufficient to enable them to carry out their civic functions.”

“The complaint provided details of specific significant facts that Mr. White omitted from his January 21, 2025 report recommending significant concessions from the existing zoning for the CURV apartment tower in return for a $55 million cash in lieu payment. Council approved his recommendations,” Regner said.

City Manager Paul Mochrie subsequently cleared White of all accusations made in Regner’s complaint. Read the CityHallWatch update here, which includes the original complaint and all publicly available responses from Mochrie, and Renger’s original letter of complaint, as published in CityHallWatch and The West End Journal, here.

Word On The Street

BOUQUET CAFE
Coffee & Flowers — Gotta Love It!

According to the clock on their website, in just over two months time this will be the new location of a combination café and flower shop at 1418 Robson, site of the new Landmark Robson development.

The saying “the earth smiles in flowers and runs on coffee” sets the tone for this family-run and somewhat unique new business.

ARC’TERYX
Outdoor outfitting giant taking over the old Roots location

It’s hard (actually impossible) to see what’s going on behind the mountainous hoarding on the north-west corner of Burrard and Robson, but all should be revealed soon.

Arc’teryx is a Canadian company based in the Coast Mountains, specializing in outdoor, athletic, and other active-wear products.

They have outlets around the world, including in Kitsilano, Park Royal, Richmond, and Coquitlam, so they’re a well-known outfitter to Metro Vancouver outdoorsy and sporting folk.

We have a call in to their marketing department to learn more about their plans for the new location. They currently have a store less than a block away at 813 Burrard.

ARE YOU READY? (JAMES GLAVE PHOTO)

WAITING FOR THAT SLICE
A long-promised pizza place is still cooking

Yes, we’re ready for a slice, and we have been waiting more than a year (maybe closer to two) as this sign has gone up and down a few times.

Calls to contractors whose signs have also appeared in that window, and local commercial rental agencies, have turned up no information.

Googling the phrase “A Slice of Joy” leads us to the Woodfire Pizza Company, which seems to only have a location in Islamabad. Searching for woodfire pizza brings us to Whistler Woodfire Pizza, whose proprietry tells us that they have no connection to whatever is planned for Denman. So we wait.

In the meantime, if you have any information, about this mystery, let us know at editor@thewestendjournal.ca.

West End Moments

Our community is blessed with many avid photographers, documenting moments that alarm, amuse, and inform. Click on each photo to see the story. Send your latest photos to editor@thewestendjournal.ca.

Hey Shutterbugs! Have you captured a unique West End moment that you’d like to share? Email it to editor@thewestendjournal.ca and it could appear on our Facebook page or next month’s issue.

Hidden Treasure Hunt

Our July hidden treasure. Click on the photo to enlarge, and zoom in to read the writing on the wall. (Dianne Macguire Photo)

IDENTIFY THIS PHOTO
And Win A $50 Coffee Shop
Gift Card

The first reader to contact editor@thewestendjournal.ca and correctly identify the location of this image will win a $50 gift card to their choice of Blenz, Delaney’s, Melriche’s, Waves, J.J. Bean, or Greenhorn Cafe.

So if you recognize this unique piece of art write in now! Only the winning response will be notified.

The answer, and the clue to the next contest, will appear in our August issue.

The photos and the information in the answers were originally published in TWEJ several years ago as part of our “Hidden Treasures” series by Vancouver author Dianne Maguire.

“The Triumph of the technocrat” by Reese Terris. (Dianne Maguire Photo)

LAST MONTH’S WINNER!
Congratulations Kent Stoltz

Reader Kent Stoltz correctly identified last month’s Hidden Treasure, “The Triumph of the Technocrat” by Reese Terris. It sits in front of the Lauren at 1051 Broughton, on the corner of Comox, built in 2014 as a multi-purpose dwelling for families and shelter aid for elderly renters under the SAFER program.

The design of the sculpture pays tribute to St. John’s United Church, which occupied the land from 1906, by including stain glass and wooden beams from the original building as part of the multi-surfaced piece.

West End Street & Lane Names

West End street names were established when CPR surveyer Lauchlan Hamilton laid out the street grid in the late 1800s, and — while some are contemporarily contentious — they have remained. In 2017 the City started naming eight of the lane ways that run east and west through the West End.

Edward Parker Bedwell.

BIDWELL STREET
Another Spelling Error

Last month we reported that Barclay Street should properly be called Barkley.

Another example of a typographical error gone viral, Bedwell Bay, on Indian Arm, was misspelled on the map by influential Vancouver land surveyor L.A. Hamilton.

Both the street and the bay are named in honor of Edward Parker Bedwell, who was the second master, under Captain Richards, of the survey vessel HMS Plumper (1837-1860) and was later master of its replacement vessel, the HMS Hecate, for which Hecate Strait is named.

An extensive telling of the life and times of Edward Parker Bedwell can be found in a 2018 newsletter of the Bathurst Historical Society, here.

West End - Coal Harbour In The News

Here’s your monthly roundup of local and regional news stories about the West End - Coal Harbour community.

SUPPORT YOUR WEST END - COAL HARBOUR COMMUNITY MEDIA

The West End Journal, including “The Talk of The Town”, is made possible by local advertising and monthly contributions from our Faithful Readers Circle. If you would like to support your community media, please visit our fundraising site here to contribute any amount from $5 a month up.

If you have a business in the West End / Coal Harbour neighbourhood, check out our advertising rates and information page here.

Thank you!
Kevin Dale McKeown
Editor & Publisher
editor@thewestendjournal.ca