Features

 

 

It's time for Micro-Apartments

on Columbia Street

By Duncan DeLorenzi

L, this current housing crunch we
should be building more and smaller
apartments for those of us who are on
the other end of the housing market;
renters: Downtown New Westminster
would be a perfect place to begin
designing and constructing a series of
micro-apartments. First off, the location
is close to Douglas College could thus
potentially be a great location for full-
time students who are not necessarily
from the area but still need a place to
live while they are attending college.
Secondly, an influx of younger,
hipper—albeit poorer— people would
be a boon to New Westminster’s
downtown core. Ever since I moved to
this city in 1986 the downtown area has
been a dumpy, skid row type of place
that I don’t really go to except when
I’m using the SkyTrain or shopping for
camping gear at the Army and Navy.
Since Expo 86 the New Westminster
SkyTrain station has attracted drug
dealers and lowlifes from all over the
lower mainland, though to be fair, the
area has been cleaned up somewhat in
recent years.

Mayor Wayne Wright and his
Royal City Council have undertaken
various projects to induce life into
the downtown core, including
implementing the downtown heritage
revitalization agreement—a bylaw
which has resulted in the restoration
of the old BC Electric building at 774
Columbia, now the new home of the
Salvation Army. They have also issued
permits and variances to developers to
build more condos in the area, and, as
part of the Central Valley Greenway
expansion, introduced a bicycle
lane and back-in angle parking on
Columbia Street. This latter project was
undertaken in order to slow down and
reduce automobile traffic on Columbia
by diverting it to either Front or Royal
Streets, and therefore increase the foot
traffic downtown. So far, I think this
particular exercise has, in fact, had
favourable results. However, once
TransLink’s Gateway project goes
ahead, and Front Street is widened to
include the controversial north Fraser
perimeter road, vehicle traffic through
the downtown core may increase yet
again. But that’s another story.

Anyway, the idea of having a
series of well-designed, creatively
and architecturally innovative, energy
efficient micro-apartments downtown
just might be the thing that the area
needs to help rejuvenate it. And I’m
talking strictly rental units here! This

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“Small, affordable rental units would attract college
students, artists, and others with fixed or lower incomes.”

type of housing would most likely
attract people who would actually live
and spend time in the area, as opposed
to the wealthy condo owners who most
likely only see New Westminster as a
bedroom community or a stepping stone
into Vancouver. Small, affordable rental
units would attract college students,
artists, and others with fixed or lower
incomes. A mix like this actually living
in the downtown area would inevitably
help in providing a stronger base for the
restaurants, cafes, book stores, and other
small businesses that are struggling to
make a go of it on Columbia Street.
Imagine if you were a college student
living in a 300 square foot apartment

in downtown New West. Most likely
you would spend a fair amount of time
outside of your place, studying perhaps
in the school library, working out in

the school or community gym, or just
hanging with friends at Starbucks.
Living close to school and transit, you
wouldn’t need a car to get around so
you would likely find yourself shopping
locally and finding nearby sources of
entertainment. By virtue of actually
living in the area where you spend most
of your time, you’d be helping to foster
a stronger sense of community.

This is exactly what the downtown
area of New Westminster needs. A
study that came out about two years
ago showed that New Westminster is
the second most “walkable” city in the
greater Vancouver area—second only to
Vancouver’s downtown West End. This
is mainly due to New West’s uptown
area where there is a relatively compact
plethora of rental apartments which
supply a steady market for the small

businesses there. The same thing could
happen in downtown NW if a large
number of affordable, higher density
apartments were constructed there. In
the jargon of politicians, this kind of
project would be a “win-win” situation
all around.

Since the early 1990s the average
house size has been on the rise all
across North America (in fact the
average house size has doubled since
the 1950s). With a growing economy
people want more toys, and bigger
houses to store them in. That’s all well
and fine if we desire nothing more
than to continue on this road of ever-
expanding capitalism, but here and now,
in the twenty-first century, I believe
most of us are just a little smarter than
that and we’re just about ready for a
collective shift in our thinking. The