For one, how approachable it is:
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The bar, tables and mobile chairs on the Comox Greenway make for an outdoor dining room and people-watching perch. How can you not stop for a chat?
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Secondly, how generous and trusting it is:
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These telescopes (yes, they’re free) have been mounted at Jericho Park as part of the newly redesigned foreshore where the war-time deck was removed. What a nice gesture. And while no doubt they’re sturdily built, the Park Board must assume they won’t be vandalized.
I hope it’s right.
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Thirdly, how rich a place it is and how it chooses to spend its money.
A rich city can afford to do this kind of thing. But only if its taxpaying citizens value the public realm and are prepared to pay for the common good will it actually do it.
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And then there’s its choice of art – how, in this case, it mixes sculpture and furniture.
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Michael Alexander was at Spanish Banks over the weekend:
Vancouver Biennale head Barrie Mowatt (pink shirt) and Brazilian sculptor Hugo França in front of two of the five art works França carved from driftwood brought from Squamish, as part of the Vancouver Biennale 2014-16 outdoor public art exhibit.
The exhibit will continue with many more public works by international artists, including China’s Wei Wei.
