Greg Dembicki pens a profile of Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts in The Tyee. He’s impressed.
Watts has bigger goals in mind, though, than pointing out the overlooked beauty of an urban centre that’s often viewed as a second tier community on the fringes of Vancouver. With Surrey’s population set to meet or surpass Vancouver’s by 2040, and a large-scale revitalization of the downtown core in the works, she’s intent on turning a Lower Mainland suburb into one of the province’s most important cities….
Perhaps a more serious setback for Watts’ vision, though, is a major lack of public transit options.
Watts says Surrey residents have only 25 per cent the level of public transit that Vancouver residents enjoy, a trend that supports urban sprawl.
Such figures don’t surprise Gordon Price, director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University. “You have an urban form that’s pretty much established on the idea that everybody will drive everywhere for everything,” Price says.
Escape from Commuterville?
Price traces Surrey’s transportation model back to an outdated assumption from the 1950s that people would live in suburban Surrey, and commute to metropolitan Vancouver. Price is concerned that provincial planners still view transit options through that lens, even though a booming job sector in the Lower Mainland means less people than ever are travelling long distances to work.
At the moment, the province is proposing a $1.1 billion Skytrain extension and the Gateway freeway expansion as the solution to Surrey’s transportation woes. By encouraging commuters to leave the city, Price warns the projects could “suck the oxygen” out of any plans for a new downtown core.
Mayor Watts has been lobbying for an integrated system of light rail transit in Surrey instead of a Skytrain extension, but she says the transportation minister has been unresponsive. She’s also concerned that Gateway hasn’t been properly integrated into a provincial plan that looks at all the transportation options for the municipality.
Though Watts acknowledges the setbacks, she still maintains a firmly optimistic position. And she seems determined to make it succeed. “In Surrey, we’re building a major city,” she says. “It’s not without its challenges but certainly there’s some amazing opportunities.”
Here’s my (not so) professional advice on how to improve Surrey in 5 easy steps:
1. Smaller blocks – Cut some blocks in half. They’re waaaay too long and unwalkable right now.
2. Replace the strip malls and surface parking lots with high density mixed use buildings that have underground parking. Increase the density along arterial routes like King George Hwy, Scott Road, etc…
3. Get streetcars running north-south and east-west along the existing grid.
4. Get some iconic modern architecture – Surrey has been a wasteland for some of the most dull and underwhelming architecture for decades. Encourage developers to build unique and exciting modern architecture. Having an international architectural competition for a new major building would be a start.
5. Get some more cultural venues like libraries, theatres, and museums.
There you go Surrey, I just solved all your problems because I’m a genius. Now send me a big fat cheque for my “Urban Improvement Consultant” services, and call me in 50 years when you’ve done all that.
🙂
They already beat you to it. See “City Centre Plan Update – Phase II, Stage 1 Results – Land Use Concepts and Proposed Public Consultation” here:
http://www.surrey.ca/NR/rdonlyres/2DE2DC35-AEBA-4433-BFD1-16A66AF45AF0/0/43D291C1ABC94BF084064E44E2DC2E15R159.pdf
Yeah, but “How to Improve Surrey in 5 Easy Steps” is a much better title than “City Centre Plan Update – Phase II, Stage 1 Results – Land Use Concepts and Proposed Public Consultation”
C’mon…who you gonna listen to? A committee of experts? Or some random guy on the internet?
I think the choice is clear, so I’ll expect that cheque in the mail any day now.
Also, I demand that King George Highway be renamed to Johnny Wilson Way.
That is all. 🙂
Surrey has so much potential. That area in the photograph alone could be used SO much better and be so much more beautiful. I hope they don’t fill the place with high rises, that would be sad. Interesting architecture at 4 to 6 level mixed use with underground parking would be fantastic. And maybe while they’re at it, they can take out a lane or two from KG Hwy and put in a greenway with light rail and safe cycling!
While reading this I realised my perspective/attitude about Surrey has completely changed in the last few years. It’s become about the truth rather than a dirty misconception. “Surrey” means something exciting to me now — not exciting today, but exciting for the future. I still won’t live there again, but I might actually go there for leisure!