It's taken over two decades and many serendipitous events to create an organization providing joy and optimism to Vancouver residents. We have now hit our stride and are becoming more effective every month.

How BLC began

The first BLC community started in 2005 on E 8th Ave between Commercial Drive and Victoria Drive. The car traffic was very busy with commuters racing to avoid the intersection at Broadway and Commercial Drive. This dark cloud had a silver lining. The neighbours in the 1700 and 1800 blocks on E 8th Ave got together to lobby the City for a solution. This meant most of the neighbours knew each other and they maintained an email list of the residents. They were able to convince the City to put in a cul de sac on 8th Ave at Grandview Hwy.

The City also put in a pocket park but explained there was no operational budget so the neighbours had to maintain the park.

Growth

The 8th Ave community held street parties and kept an email list for other socializing and security issues. When my wife and I moved into the neighbourhood shortly after the cul de sac was put in, the 8th Ave community held a party to welcome us. My wife was retired by then and took on the responsibility of organizing the planting and annual clean up of the pocket park at the cul de sac. She also loved making baby quilts for the neighbours.

In 2018, when I retired, I started collecting the recycling that the City does not pick up. This is mainly plastic bags, batteries, light bulbs, small appliances, styrofoam, and e-waste.

The BLC concept

At Christmas in 2022, to thank me for years of recycling, my neighbours gave me a wonderful thank you card and $500 of gift cards to stores on Commercial Drive. That’s when it hit me how we could help other neighbourhoods build their own communities. We just needed to help them get started. I used the gift money to get bins and bags for other weekly pop-up recycling stations along Commercial Drive.

Learning about neighbourhoods

I did door knocking at all the houses on 1st Ave thru 7th Ave from Commercial to Victoria and got lots of support for pop-up recycling stations and learned about the traffic issues. I was also able to make a list of fun community issues.

I also visited all the shops and services on Commercial Drive from 1st Ave to Broadway. I was amazed at the variety of businesses when I went door to door. The owners, managers, and staff were eager to talk about how our community could be improved.

Community Engagement

Recently I was able to work with the Trout Lake Community Centre on Earth Day events where we collected bags of recycling and then added a weekly pop-up recycling station every Sunday afternoon from 2 - 4 pm. It was such a great success that I am also now running a pop-up recycling station at Britannia Community Centre every Friday afternoon from 2 - 4 pm.

In the summer of 2025 we expanded our pop-up recycling to be near farmers markets. It's great fun to chat with residents throughout Vancouver. We've added Patio Chats with sticker stations, spreading joy and optimism.

The Future 

We have gained a great deal of experience and expertise and are now ready to help all of Vancouver. All we need are volunteers who want to have fun and spread joy and optimism in their own neighbourhoods.

Here are some of the skills and materials we can share with you.

• • Patio Chats - Fun discussions with your neighbours
  • Sticker stations - Colourful ways to get discussions started
  • Pop-up recycling - easy way to meet neighbours
  • Door knocking for residences - let us help you get your commuinity list started
  • Door knocking for shops & services - what are their concerns? They are the heart of our business community.
  • Good News newsletter - submit news items about your community

Your Next Steps

1. Be sure you opt-in to the Good News newsletter so you can keep up-to-date. Click Join.
2. Visit us at one of the Patio Chats where we have pop-up recycling and sticker stations to see how fun and easy it is to do community engagement.
3. Make an internal commitment to make a difference. Volunteering for just one Patio Chat in your neighbourhood is important. 
4. Make a donation. Even a small donation makes a difference, especially if you can donate annually.