The City of Vancouver spent more than $3,000 in late August to rip out sunflowers that were growing in a median south of the Burrard Bridge, a contentious decision that sparked internal conflict.
Staff disagreed about which department was in charge and whether the colourful plants should be removed at all, according to documents released under Freedom of Information.
“Rob [Sims, a parks maintenance sub-foreman] said someone has planted 6’ tall sunflowers in the median (I’ve seen them, they’re enormous),” said a July 9 email by engineering assistant Lysa Morishita to Linda Chow of the Streets Activities department. “He wanted to bring it to our attention that if they go and weed, and remove the sunflowers, we would probably receive complaints about it.”
Manager of Urban Forestry and Specialty Parks Alex Downie’s email later that day to Chow said: “The sunflowers that spontaneously appeared in the Burrard Bridge median are just starting to bloom. The tallest of these are between 5-6 feet tall, with other younger sunflower plants coming along here and there. There are 4-5 clumps of the taller ones. Although not ideally sited with regard to the shape of the median, they actually look rather nice.” The remaining two paragraphs were censored, because city hall claims they contained policy advice.
On Aug. 18, Chow emailed Downie, to say that an engineering department sightline analysis in July recommended trimming one of the sunflowers that “could potentially block the [traffic] signal.”
“They did not feel that the other sunflowers were an issue,” Chow wrote, adding that the recommendation was reviewed by transportation branch heads and supported by city engineer Jerry Dobrovolny. Chow’s message said that one sunflower had been removed.
Scott Edwards, the manager of the Street Activities Branch, chimed in with a message for director of parks Bill Harding and Cheryl Nelms, the director of project and quality management.
“Having had staff from the Transportation Division review this location, there is no sight line or safety related issues,” Edwards wrote. “Therefore, this work would be being completed only for aesthetic reasons. This is a busy area and proper lane closures should be reviewed, coordinated and approved by Transportation staff. This is normally coordinated by one of your superintendents and must include support from the bridge crews. We understand that no discussions have taken place for this lane closure.”
“I have no problem having your staff do this work,“ Harding responded, “just to let you know I have been getting increasing pressure from our GM [Malcolm Bromley] and the Board Chair [John Coupar] to have this work done and to get the median planted. I understand that this is under the jurisdiction of Engineering but we take the brunt of complaints because residents blame the Park Board for anything green. I also understand and support that this is not the right time to plant this or an [sic] median, I will contact the chair and inform him of the planting plan for the median.”
The work went ahead Aug. 20, with nine labourers and three sub-foremen, who billed for six hours work, and an equipment operator and truck driver who billed an hour each, for a total $3,062.36 charged to the streets horticultural budget. Two crew-cabs, one pick-up truck and a dump truck were deployed. It caused southbound traffic jams on the Burrard Bridge for much of the morning.
On the day of the operation, park board spokeswoman Daria Wojnarski claimed there were a “number of requests to remove the sunflowers and they were removed as part of the ongoing Engineering/Park Board streets horticultural maintenance program.” She did not explain how many complaints there were or where they came from, but indicated “staff will plant shrubs in the median in the fall once the rain starts.”
NPA Park Board chair John Coupar did not respond for comment. When he was running for re-election in 2014, Coupar complained there were as many people working in the city hall’s communications office as there were tending gardens in city parks.
“Our current city council and park board are destroying Vancouver’s proud heritage of fine horticulture and maintenance of our boulevards and many public green spaces,” said Coupar’s 2014 election campaign website.
The sunflower is, coincidentally, the symbol of the Green Party.
@bobmackin
