Co-Editors: Susan Wright, Sharon Yandle
Contributing Editor: Karen Hausch
Production Editor: Robyn Chan
Contributors this Issue: Robyn Chan (RePlan Project Manager), Susan Wright (Henley Court), Charlie Richmond (Henley Court), Mendel Skulsky (False Creek Friends)

Your story ideas and news items are always welcome at [email protected]. Find this issue and all previous stories at falsecreeksouth.org/betweenthebridges.

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Promise Tracker

RePlan staff and Leadership have been reaching out to municipal parties and candidates for several months to highlight the issues facing our community and to propose meaningful policies that will extend leases and build new affordable housing on vacant land.

Throughout the election campaign, RePlan will track promises and commitments from political parties about False Creek South, lease extensions, and support for community land trusts (see our website for full responses).

COPE promises that “land this significant [False Creek South] shouldn’t be judged by which option makes the most money — it should be judged by which option delivers the most long-term public value: protecting existing co-ops and leaseholders, adding genuinely affordable housing, and building in real climate resilience for a neighbourhood facing sea-level rise.

The Green Party commits to “a plan and lease renewal framework… [that] would provide clarity: around replacement and retention of affordable housing; reasonable lease renewal terms and capex formulas that are financially sustainable for non-profits; certainty for infrastructure needs; placement and replacement of new building typologies where necessary” and “a community-engaged plan that renews aging housing and adds new homes while protecting affordability.”

OneCity states that “while redevelopment is being discussed with the community, leases should be renewed so that residents can invest in their buildings’ maintenance and have more clarity on the City’s plans to work with them and keep the community in place. Our commitment would also be to prioritize keeping people together with a staged approach to any redevelopment and swing housing to avoid displacement.”

TEAM for a Livable Vancouver “would negotiate in good faith with existing leaseholders, co-operatives and community housing organizations to secure the long-term future of affordable housing in False Creek South,” and “a transparent process involving residents, leaseholders, co-operatives, community housing organizations, the City and the broader public—not simply through a development proposal advanced from the perspective of the landowner.”

The Vancouver Liberals have committed to “automatic lease renewals for affordable housing on City land. That covers co-ops and extends to the non-profit and non-market housing that makes up so much of False Creek South. Renewal will be the default, so residents are not left waiting on a negotiation to learn whether they can stay.”

Vote Vancouver committed to “Work with the False Creek South Community Housing Trust to review City leases and develop a solution to maintain community and co-operative housing long-term” in their platform.

Key Questions

RePlan also asked each party running candidates in the upcoming municipal by-election to consider and respond to several Key Questions, including:

Party answers are being added as they are received; find them all on our website: https://www.falsecreeksouth.org/vancouver-votes-2026/

Heritage Vancouver Society is a frequent partner of False Creek South; HVS and RePlan have co-led tours highlighting the intangible and living heritage of False Creek South, and in 2024 HVS published a report on False Creek South as a cultural landscape.

This fall, Heritage Vancouver Society is offering two tours of historic Chinatown, examining the cultural heritage of Chinatown that extends beyond the buildings and architecture.

Anne Dodington writes, 

My family has lived in Fairview (near Choklit Park) since 2003, and we raised our daughter here. We enjoy taking urban walks almost daily and were interested in watching the Tyler Toews mural being painted at the south end of the Laurel Street overpass at 7^th Avenue.

As summer turns to fall, Circles in the Square is hosting new workshops to bring friends and neighbours together when it’s time to be indoors. Here are some events taking place in October.  Please join us.

TWO INTRODUCTIONS TO WRITING FOR CREATIVE FUN:

Join celebrated writer Marn Norwich as she previews her two masterclasses using improv games and creative expression to turn raw survival into literary art. Register at: [email protected] 

From Swipe to Script: Mine your dating disasters for literary manna
Tuesday, October 13,^,  6:30 – 8:30. 

Phoenix Writing: Using play to create text from your turmoil
Wednesday, October 14^, 6:30 – 8:30. 

TWO WORKSHOPS FOR INNER EXPLORATION:

Take time out for guided relaxation and spiritual discovery in these two offerings:  

An Invitation to Silence
Saturday, October 17, 2026 - 9:30 am - 2:30 pm

Experience this retreat from daily busyness into spacious silence — grounding you for conscious well-being, presence to others, and meaningful action. No meditation experience needed. 

Spirituality: Can We Talk?
Six Thursdays, October 15 – November 26, 10 am - Noon

Join a discussion group for spiritual discovery where persons of diverse backgrounds and contrasting spiritual paths, or no path at all, can enjoy conversation and contemplation on life’s big questions.

BUT WAIT; THERE’S MORE

Cuba and its Wonderful People
Travel writer Michael McCarthy will host another slideshow at Circles in the Square on Thursday, October 22^nd from 7 – 9 pm. He will tell us about his recent trip to Cuba, now a nation under blockade, but Michael's story and beautiful photos will be about his explorations in and near a village in eastern Cuba where he met the "most wonderful people." Enjoy his various side trips to a former Indigenous community, nearby towns and villages, beaches, and a long ride to Fidel Castro's birthplace, but it’s the Cuban people who are the stars of the show.

If you would like more information or to register for any of our events, please get in touch with me at [email protected] – or just drop by.

665A Market Hill in Leg-In-Boot Square, a few doors down the way from Convivial Café.

Earlier this year, the False Creek South Community Housing Trust received a grant from the Community Housing Transformation Centre to explore two key questions related to our existing housing:

To help answer those questions, we launched a co-op-wide survey to better understand what community members see as potential benefits and drawbacks to deeper co-op collaboration, supported by the CHT. The survey closed in July, and we have been hard at work analyzing the results.

The next step in the project is a series of workshops to go in-depth on some of the survey results, and think more, with community members, about the best opportunities for the co-ops and CHT to work together.

We hope to you can join us!

I am fairly well known as a promoter of heat pumps amongst residents in our condo complex as well as friends and Southwark Council. Why? We usually spend much of the shoulder season in London and the winter and summer holiday seasons in Vancouver. So I was recently interviewed by Dorothy Stein of The Salamander, a co-op publication of South London, prompted largely by the five heat waves they had there this summer and their concern over the need to keep cool.

Heat pumps are being promoted by the UK but until recently the only type most jurisdictions will allow are ones that heat only, and the majority do not actually realise that there are heat pumps that can also cool as well. So some education is in order these days and Dorothy asked me during an hour long interview to explain how this works and how we are doing it in Vancouver! And here is the story that she published:
https://www.salamandernews.org/2026-08-heat-pump-that-can-cool-londons-homes

I hope you enjoy it!

False Creek Friends Society, Georgia Strait Alliance, and Simon Fraser University Community Engagement Research Initiative (CERi) are building a new, interactive web map of False Creek, and we need your help! 

This mapping project will weave together stories, histories, lived experiences, and local knowledge from the many communities connected to False Creek, and bring these perspectives together with pre-existing scientific, environmental, and historic datasets. 

Community perspectives will be documented through participatory mapping workshops to understand how people experience and value False Creek, how the area has changed over time, and what hopes and concerns people hold for its future.

Since the newsletter’s inception we have been using an online tool called Mailchimp to send out Between The Bridges. While Mailchimp has served us well, we are trying something new! We have transitioned over to Beehiiv to manage email distribution to our newsletter recipients.

With any change, there may be some bumps along the way, so please let us know if you notice anything unusual by emailing [email protected].

Between The Bridges welcomes readers’ contributions of story ideas, events of interest, original photographs, and completed articles relevant to the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association’s goal to “promote an economically, social and culturally diverse neighbourhood with a friendly, positive and vibrant sense of community”. Signed articles reflect the views of their authors. For details go to:

http://www.falsecreeksouth.org/2021/01/between-the-bridges-contributor-guidelines/