Tag Archives: little mountain photos

A hole in the ground and other recent photographs of Little Mountain

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A quick synopis of the story so far…

In 2008 the British Columbia Government under Liberal Party Premiere Gordon Campbell and Housing Minister Rich Coleman sign a deal to sell British Columbia’s oldest and most successful social housing project to a foreign investment company named Holborn.

Holborn’s CEO named Joo Kim Tia, bought the 16 acre property for its land value and nothing else. Campbell and Coleman signed a confidential agreement with Tia that ensured that BC Housing would relocate and/or evict all of the tenants and deliver a wasteland to the new owner. Enough of THE SECRET DEAL – that the Community Advocates for Little Mountain (CALM) are currently fighting to reveal in BC Supreme Court – has been leaked, that there is speculation that the contract is without deadlines for paying the $300 million dollar debt, nor the rebuilding of the destroyed social housing, or any form of market housing on the site.

As a result Little Mountain has remained a nearly complete wasteland for the past 13 years. For this reason Holborn’s new slogan that “Great Stories Take Time To Write,” is particularly ironic, since the loss of Little Mountain, in housing and (most importantly) human terms was great.

What sort of person would look upon the trampling of a low income community for profit as a “great story?”

Scared into action. Holborn Properties digs a hole in the ground. Feeling the pressure by Jeremy Allingham of the CBC, David Chudnovsky of #takebackthemountain and their legal team to unlock THE SECRET DEAL, Holborn starts construction of one new building on a far corner of the site on Main Street. Photo by David Vaisbord March 2021.
Holborn erects a fence to protect their cute little building site at Little Mountain March 2021. Photo by David Vaisbord
These portapotties are for workers on numerous new projects that surround the vacant Little Mountain site. March 2021. Photo by David Vaisbord
Little Mountain March 2021. Holborn’s new display of shoes of former Little Mountain tenants. (Correction: Holborn had nothing to do with this site specific art project at Little Mountain) Photo by David Vaisbord
Little Mountain March 2021. Holborn provides a frame that highlights construction by rival construction companies on streets that border their empty lot. These many new condos will have unobstructed views of Little Mountain and Queen Elizabeth Park for decades to come. Photo by David Vaisbord
City of Vancouver stores traffic cones and other equipment along the fence at Little Mountain, March 2021. Photo by David Vaisbord
Little Mountain March 2021. Holborn’s story is a great one that starts with the destruction of a low income community and over a decade of neglect. Photo by David Vaisbord
Little Mountain March 2021. I like this cat tag better than Holbornlm.com web address. Photo by David Vaisbord
Little Mountain March 2021. Corner view of Holborn Estate Reserve Lands. Photo by David Vaisbord

The Little Mountain site, located in Vancouver B.C. has been the city’s largest urban wasteland for 13 years. It was created by the Holborn Group.

Stay tuned for the outcome of the BC Supreme Court decision (in April 2021) on the Holborn Group’s secret deal with BC Housing. Go to #takebackthemountain and show your support by signing our petition.

David Vaisbord

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The view of Little Mountain this morning.

Gallery

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This gallery contains 8 photos.

Every few months I walk a portion of the periphery of Little Mountain to add media to an experimental film I’ve been shooting for 7 years.  This film will string together a series of thousands of stills which played at … Continue reading →

Meeting #20 Modern Architecture slide show, UBC students & Massing exercise number ONE

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Meeting #20, was the first major “massing’ meeting of 2011.

This posting will have THREE PARTS, starting with the first part,
UBC Students show their ideas for re-development in a pre-meeting event:

UBC Student ideas for Little Mountain – Meeting #20 from David Vaisbord on Vimeo.

The second part is James Chengs Modern Architecture Slide Show:

Meeting 20: James Cheng’s Architecture Slide Show from David Vaisbord on Vimeo.

The third part is the complete meeting:

Meeting #20 – Complete Meeting from David Vaisbord on Vimeo.

Meetings 20 and 21 were formative community discussions on density at Little Mountain — without prior knowledge of the Holborn Group density plans.

The re-development of Vancouver is not a spectator sport.

Littlemountainproject.com

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OPEN HOUSE 2012: The Video

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For those who couldn’t attend, here’s two nights of recording combined into an eight minute clip:

Little Mountain Open House Jan 26 & 28 2012 from David Vaisbord on Vimeo.

Don’t forget to send your feedback to the city on line until FEBRUARY 10, 2012.
Check the Little Mountain site at Vancouver Planning for images of information boards presented at the Open Houses. Click on THIS LINK to got to ONLINE SURVEY.

Canal St East side - Little Mountain models

Canal St West side - Little Mountain models

A Tower Concentration in proposed development

Note: Click on the images to enlarge; then, click on “Full Size is 1440×1080” caption to go to maximum dimensions.

Little Mountain development at 37th and Ontario

Little Mountain development at 33rd and Ontario

Important to remember that an estimated 700 cars per hour will exit and enter from the site at rush hours, the traffic you see in this photo is the average flow at approx. 2am Sunday nights. A neighbour who works in childcare asked me yesterday, if the amenities, such as daycare, for preschool and after-school care especially, are in place for a development of this size? As a member of the Advisory Committee who has been to every meeting, I answered no. She has promised to attend a meeting.

Here’s a brief quote, as we contemplate the future of Vancouver, from a sociologist, named Robert Park:

“The city is man’s most consistent and, on the whole, his most successful
attempt to remake the world he lives in, more after his heart’s desire. The
city is the world which man created; it is the world in which he is
therefore condemned to live. Thus indirectly, without a clear sense of the
nature of his task, in remaking the city, man has remade himself.”

If you want to know more about cities and neoliberalism here’s a link to an interesting talk given by economist David Harvey in 2007 titled:
Neoliberalism and the City.

The Little Mountain Project

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