How do you envision the Vancouver of the future?

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Flying cars and automated bike lanes? Yerba mate dispensers at every yoga studio?

The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association wants to hear your vision for the future, launching Re-Imagine Downtown Vancouver.

The initiative is asking for ideas about what the city core should look, taste, and feel like by the year 2040.

“We launched this as part of the 25th anniversary celebration for the DVBIA and we are looking to get feedback, input and ideas from the general public, visitors and anyone else about what downtown Vancouver should look like 25 years from now,” says President and CEO Charles Gauthier.

“We’ll look at them in about five or six months and start to seed the ones we think have the best prospect of succeeding,” he adds.

Gauthier says Re-Imagine is about dreaming big and inspiring new ideas for the city.

“It could be as easy as saying we need more bistro tables and chairs throughout the downtown area or we need more open space or green space. We don’t want to preclude anyone from making any suggestion they might want to make.”

This is the first time the DVBIA has consulted the public rather than just its members.

“It’s a great way to cast the net very wide and ensure that anyone who may have an idea that they’ve seen in another city, read about, saw on television or on the Internet can share it with us. We are interested in taking the best ones and implementing them or getting others to do that.”

Gauthier is hopeful other groups will move forward with some of the ideas sparked by the initiative.

“There’s a great book by an author named Peter Kageyama called For the Love of Cities. He talks about giving people permission to try different things in their cities because they can make contributions. You don’t need big organizations or the city to do all the things people think of — we’ve seen great ideas come up in the past because people get together and think they should be doing this because it would help make our city a better place.”

You can take part in Re-Imagine Downtown Vancouver by taking a short survey, sharing your ideas on Instagram and tweeting them using #rdtvan.

There will also be outdoor, public activations at festivals and events downtown over the next few months where you can weigh in.

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