Closing Point Grey Rd

City of Vancouver is proposing to close off the Point Grey Road to commuter traffic or to reduce it to one-way, Westbound, street.

Point Grey Road is an important part of regional transportation infrastructure used for over two and a half million commuting trips each year.  It connects the second-largest employment hub in the metro Vancouver area with Downtown, the North Shore and further communities.

Workers, students and residents of neighbourhoods West of Kitsilano are about to face increased commuting time and more congestion while the residents of Kitsilano away from the Golden Mile can expect  more traffic on their streets.  Transit passengers will have fewer bus stops and more time spent on a bus as it attempts to crawl through traffic bottlenecks.

Demystifying water rates in UEL - within 5% of Vancouver rates

Recently, there has been a lot of chatter west of Blanca on the subject of water rates, markups and general confusion surrounding water rates.


Below you will find a comparison of water rates between the City of Vancouver (CoV) and the UEL.

UEL has two water rates:  one is a peak rate for Jun-Sep period -  $1.3185 per cubic meter, the other is an off-peak rate for the rest of year -  $1.0544   per cubic meter (CM). (source: UEL Admin, 2010 rates)

This translates to a "blended" rate of $1.14 per 1 CM of water in UEL.

A four person household living in a bungalow in UEL uses 555.5 cubic meters of water per year according to UEL water bills. 

Therefore, such household pays $374.21 per year for the water, or $1.03 per day.

Compare that against the CoV.

CoV charges $2.01 per 100 cubic feet of water (2010 figures).  1 cu.ft. = 0.028317 CM so the CoV charges $0.71 per 1 CM of water.

At a first glance it looks like UEL residents pay 61% more for their water - $1.14 vs. $0.71 per cubic meter.

BUT, do not despair ...

.... CoV is also charging a "meter charge" per quarter.  Meter charges depend on the diameter of the water pipe and were set as follows in 2010 (they are higher now):

17mm = $26

20mm = $26 

25mm = $31

http://vancouver.ca/fs/treasury/utility/meterRates.htm

Typical household is connected to a 25mm pipe.

Thus a compareable household in CoV would pay $232.51 for water and $124 for "meter charge".

A grand total of $356.51 in CoV vs. $374.21 in UEL, a 5% difference.

PEDESTRIAN CROSSING ON BLANCA AND 8th - $250,000 to install traffic lights

Following their traffic study, the City of Vancouver declined our request for installations of a marked pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Blanca St. and 8th Ave.

LOCAL ELECTIONS ON NOVEMBER 19th

In two months UEL residents will be electing their representatives for the Community Advisory Council (CAC) to advise the UEL Manager on issues related to the quality of life and tax impacts on UEL residents.


The last three years highlighted a number of areas that could be improved going forward.  The following three stand out: 
- communication with UEL residents,
- UEL governance and administration, and
- our taxes and UEL finances.

History question - "Little Australia"

Dear Neighbours
Our neighbourhood is often called "Little Australia".  Do you know of any resources that would help me in preparing a short background on this name?  In my research to-date I came accross two conflicting "stories";
One story talks about Australian troops being stationed between Blanca and what is now a Pacific Spirit Park during the WWII and this leading to the name "Little Australia".  
Another common opinion was of a builder in the 1960's that developed this area and named three streets, "Adelaide", "Queensland" and "Tasmania" leading to the name "Little Australia".
If you had any references that I could follow-up on and create a "definitive story of the name - Little Australia" I would be very grateful.
Thank You

Neighbourhood Photos - call for your submissions

Dear Neighbours
UEL Community webpage does not have any pictures of our neighbourhood.  Please be so kind and forward (council@uelcommunity.com) your favourite shots to the UEL Council for consideration.
Let's show off our neighbourhood.