Meet local City of Langley council candidate Nathan Pachal, get a free cupcake

This coming Saturday near Douglas Park in Downtown Langley, some of my election campaign volunteers and I will be giving away free cupcakes from a gourmet Downtown Langley bakery. Please stop by and say hello. Besides getting a tasty cupcake, I will be there to answer any questions you may have about my campaign or my vision for the City of Langley.

Here are the details:

When: Saturday, September 20th from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Where: Around Douglas Park at Douglas Crescent

More information is on Facebook. We’ll be there rain or shine.

Brydon Lagoon should not be left to disappear

When people talk about what they love about their communities, they talk about its people, and its people-friendly and natural places. The City of Langley has many of the right ingredients to be the jewel of the South of Fraser, but due to limited investment in enhancing people-friendly and natural places, isn’t living up to its full potential. In some case, the City might even be letting some of these ingredients fall by the wayside.

The City of Langley is cut in half by the Nicomekl Floodplain. Not many cities are as fortunate as Langley to have this sort of natural asset in the heart of their community. Someone ask me why enhancing our park system was one of my priorities if I was elected to City Council.

Brydon Lagoon, located in the Floodplain, is a popular location for both people and wildlife thought it has been slowly filling-in over the years. The Langley Field Naturalists have mentioned that over the last 25 years, the depth of Brydon Lagoon been halved.

The Field Naturalist have noted their concerns about Brydon Lagoon for some time; I have a City of Langley memo that shows this has been happening since at least 2000. Unfortunately addressing Brydon Lagoon has not been a top priority for council. With this in mind, it is no surprise that the fish kill happening this summer.

While Brydon Lagoon is a popular destination for both people and waterfowl today, if the City does not invest in the preservation of the Lagoon, only mosquitos with be interested in Brydon Lagoon in the near future.

As I mention in a previous post about the pond, the City of Langley commissioned a study by Dillon Consulting. The consultants made some recommendations about what could be done to prevent the further deterioration of the Lagoon.

Normally we have no members of the public at Park and Environment Advisory Committee meetings. Last Thursday night, the meeting was packed with people concerned about the Lagoon. Many had concerns about the Dillon report recommendations as they believed it would not address the conditions that lead to this summer’s fish kill. Even with the recommendations fully implemented, they believe that further kills could occur due to the shallowness of the Lagoon.

I put forward a motion that was adopted by the committee to form a workgroup with select members from community groups like the Langley Environmental Partners, the Langley Field Naturalists, Ducks Unlimited, plus Langley City staff and Dillon Consulting to find a path forward.

Brydon Lagoon is an important part of the Nicomekl Floodplain Park System, it is a part that I believe needs to be invested in. This is one of the reasons why I’m running for City Council.

Surrey Leading the Way on Pedestrian Safety

Last December, I posted about the book Urban Street Design Guide by the National Association of City Transportation Officials. This book is a highly graphical, paint-by-numbers guide to designing streets for 21st century cities. Along with the book, there is also an accompanying website which presents the same information.

One of my concerns is pedestrian safety. When it comes to signalized intersections, left and right hand turns create the most of risk collision.

With most currently signalized intersections, pedestrians and motorist get the “go” signal at the same time. Because of this, some motorists do not see pedestrians who have just started walking into an intersection. Other motorists try to make turns on a fresh green light to beat other traffic. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost been mowed down as a pedestrians crossing at these intersections.

One of the recommendations in the Urban Street Design Guide is to create “Leading Pedestrian Interval” timing.

A Leading Pedestrian Interval (LPI) typically gives pedestrians a 3–7 second head start when entering an intersection with a corresponding green signal in the same direction of travel.

LPIs enhance the visibility of pedestrians in the intersection and reinforce their right-of-way over turning vehicles, especially in locations with a history of conflict.

Surrey recently changed the operation of one of their traffic signals at University Drive and Old Yale Road in their Downtown. The City has installed signs at that intersection reminding motorist to yield to pedestrians, and also introduced a LPI to give pedestrians a head start into the intersection.

I hope that this spreads to other intersections in Surrey, and communities in the South of Fraser and Metro Vancouver where there is a history of pedestrian/motorist conflict.

Over the last little while, Surrey has really started to put a concerted effort into making roads more accessible for all users. I commend the City for trying out new ideas. With the municipal election coming up, I hope the citizens of Surrey will vote for councilors and a mayor that will continue to supports Surrey's quest to become a more accessible community. It wasn't always this way.

Township’s Age-Friendly Strategy misses the forest for the tress

One of the major shifts happening in the demographics of Canadian cities is that populations are aging. Over the next few decades, Canadian cities will not only see an absolute increase in the amount of older people, but those older people will represent a larger slice of the overall population. This means that municipalities need to rethink everything from how they are designed to the services they deliver.

Successful cities will need to need to look at everything they do through the lens of accessibility.

Today most cities are designed around mobility. These cities are designed to get people in cars quickly from point a to point b.

A city designed around accessibility tries to connect people with the things they want to do. This could be going to working, school, shopping, or to a park. It’s a subtle, but important difference. An accessible city is designed to give people who are full mobility and people with limited mobility equal access. People with limited mobility can include children, teenagers, people with disabilities, seniors, and people with limited income.

As we age, our mobility becomes increasingly limited. In a mobility-focused city, this means that as we age, our opportunities to participate in society decreases.

Most of the Township of Langley’s built-form is mobility-focused. If you don’t own a car or are able to drive, you’re ability to thrive in the Township of Langley is limited. Recognising this, the Township of Langley commissioned an Age-Friendly Community Strategy Plan. The draft was presented to Township Council yesterday.

The Strategy focuses on:
Outdoor Spaces & Building
Transportation
Housing
Respect & Social Inclusion
Social Participation
Community & Information
Civic Participation & Employment
Community Support & Heath Service

When I was reviewing this strategy, it struck me as odd that the authors seemed to brush over the fact that accessible communities need mixed-use town centres. Communities built around mixed-use centres are 80% of the way to becoming fully accessible. This is why, for example, Downtown Langley has a large population of older people.

Some of the recommendations made in the Age-Friendly Strategy would be hard to implement without having mixed-use centres, or would have their effectiveness reduced.

For example, if the Township increased the amount of age-friend programming at its community centres, but people still needed to drive to the centres, the effectiveness of that programming would be limited.

The strategy recommends encouraging active living. Mixed-use centre, which tend to be walkable, naturally allow people to live a more active life. Communities designed for driving reduce active living.

How age-friendly is a park with age-friend elements such as benches, washrooms, and wide paths if there are barriers to get to that park? For example, it might take an hour to get there by any other mode than driving.

The Age-Friendly Strategy is a good plan, but it is the icing on the cake. The Township really needs to bake the cake first. This means building accessibly-designed communities with mixed-use centre that can incorporate the great recommendation contained in this strategy.