The City of Vancouver - Jury's Choice Award

The City of Vancouver has received the Jury's Choice Award from the Canadian Urban Institute's 2010 Urban Leadership Awards program, which has been paying tribute to individuals, groups and organizations that have made a profound and lasting impact on the quality of life in Canada's cities and urban regions.

The Olympics provided an incredible opportunity to promote the innovative steps Vancouver is taking in pursuing its goals in the area of urban sustainability, as well as to establish itself as a creative and vibrant city, and to identify itself to the world as a socially inclusive city that aims to include its inner city neighbourhoods in future development and civic decision-making.

Vancouver's achievements included:
• The Southeast False Creek project being named as one of the most sustainable communities in the world by the Canada Green Building Council, achieving a LEED for Neighborhoods Platinum Certification with the most points ever achieved by a development thus far. It also received a 2009 CUI Brownie Award for Best Overall Project at the Canadian Brownfields conference. It was not only the site of the Olympic Athlete's Village, but also includes standalone projects such as a seniors centre that will produce more energy than it uses, and an innovative energy utility that heats homes in the local area by recovering waste heat from sewage.

• As many as 300,000 people every night during the week partaking in numerous activities on the streets, many of which highlighted the creative potential of Vancouver's arts and cultural sectors, as well as thousands of volunteers who supported both the cultural and sporting activities. A number of public spaces were reconfigured to create large-scale staging areas for local arts, entertainment and cultural activities.

• Achievement of the City's transportation goals during the Games -- representing a 30% reduction in car travel and an average of more than 1.5 million people riding transit into and out of the City each day of the Games.
• Successful follow-through on the Inner City Inclusive Commitments made by the city and its partners. These included successful protection against the loss of housing during the games, inclusion of inner city groups in Olympic-related planning, and use of inner city businesses in Olympic and city contracting.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Urban Leadership Awards
• Canadian Urban Institute
• CUI
• Keeframe Productions