Edit-a-thon Art history students edit Wikipedia pages to include Canadian women. P3 Refugee theatre Langara grad Carmen Aguirre brings refugee experience to E-books favoured Langara's library continues to expand its electronic resources Studio 58. P4 collection. langaravoice.ca PRODUCED BY LANGARA JOURNALISM STUDENTS | WWW.LANGARAVOICE.CA MARCH 16, 2017 * VOL. 48 NO. 35 * VANCOUVER, B.C. Red-light cameras rejected SE Marine and Knight to receive safety upgrades By LAURA BROUGHAM lans to improve safety at Vancou- P ver's intersection with the high- est collision rate do not include red-light cameras, despite evidence that they reduce accidents. With construction starting in June, Knight Street and SE Marine Drive will gain a new left-turn lane onto Knight Street Bridge, a new traffic light and will ban left turns onto Borden Street. The intersection, which saw 231 accidents in 2015, has the most crashes in Vancouver according to ICBC. Simon Goppel, a warehouse worker at Matrix Logistics Services Ltd., al- most got hit by a car at the notorious intersection earlier this month. “I was heading down the street and at this moment a fancy sports car drove with much too much speed, it almost killed me, I'm not kidding, it was driv- ing so fast there. Not obeying the red light or green light,” Goppel said, add- ing that it would help if drivers were fined. “It would be much safer [if] the car gets punished. The next time it will stop at the red light.” Transport Canada said red-light cameras can reduce the number of fatal red-light collisions by 35 per cent, but the intersection’s safety upgrade plans don’t include one. “Tt would be much safer [if] the car gets * nf punished. — SIMON GOPPEL, WAREHOUSE WORKER Bruce Taylor, a forklift operator for C2C Premium Seafood, has seen many near-accidents at the intersection. Like Goppel, he also thinks a red-light cam- era could help. “People after a while will know that camera is there,” Taylor said. “Little by little it will gradually decrease the num- ber of people that try to run red lights, or run the amber lights." Danielle Pope, public affairs officer for the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, said the intersec- tion’s layout with an overpass, on-ramp and merging traffic are a challenge. “The SE Marine Drive and Knight Street Bridge area is indeed busy with lots of traffic,” Pope said in an email. “It was not deemed suitable for a red-light camera. Relieving grief with yoga....P5 yoga program to help participants develop a feeling of serenity. sugii77ED PHOTO Senior gets centre built City honours South Van visionary with award By EVAN HAGEDORN Vancouver seniors advocate has been honoured with another award, this time from the City of Vancouver, for her drive to bring a seniors centre to Killarney. Lorna Gibbs, president of the South- east Vancouver Seniors’ Arts & Cultural Society was given 2017 Civic Volunteer Award for her work to provide seniors in southeast Vancouver with an activi- ties centre. After pursuing her vision for over a decade, Gibbs’ project received support from all three levels of govern- ment in 2014 and construction on the centre began in January. “When I retired I realized that [se- niors] needed somewhere to go, some- thing to do,” Gibbs said. “I started look- ing around here and there wasn't [a seniors centre].” Accessible by three major bus routes, the centre at East 49th Avenue and Killarney will offer on-site activities such as exercise and cooking programs as well as off-site excursions. The cen- tre will also be utilized by other senior societies in the area, such as the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House and the South Vancouver Seniors Hub. The two storey, 10,000 square-foot complex will encompass a dividable room for dining and meetings, on the first floor. The second floor will have ad- ditional meeting rooms, a lounge and a deck. Construction is on schedule for the centre to open in spring 2018, and will support the growing demographic of seniors in the area through community- based programs. Michelle Stebnicki, the adults and seniors programmer for the Killarney Community Centre, said decisions are still being made for who will manage the new facility. “We're not at the point right now where we're able to figure out who's go- ing to be running the community cen- tre,” Stebnicki said, adding that all the key organizations involved “are going to work together in order to make it as ac- cessible as possible and bring the best opportunities to seniors in the neigh- bourhood.” Lorna Gibbs, a South Vancouver resident, received a 2017 Civic Volunteer Award for her work to open a seniors centre in Killarney. &v4N HAGEDORN PHOTO Heart of community in limbo Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre may be uprooted By CHRISTOPHER THOROSKI fter being told by the city it could stay in its home, the Vancouver Park Board's oldest community centre is facing renewal and relocation consultations once again. The Marpole-Oakridge Community Centre — which went through more than three years of discussion with the Park Board and former city manager Penny Ballem about its location — was told in December that the new city manager wanted to protectively do an- other location review. “Obviously, I hit the roof because I thought we dealt with all that,” said Mike Burdick, president of the Mar- pole-Oakridge Community Centre As- sociation. Last June, the Park Board voted unanimously to upgrade the centre with new amenities in its current location at West 59th Avenue and Oak Street. But just before the new . ; year, the MOCA Mike Burdick PRESIDENT OF was told by NPA MOCA Park Board com- missioner Sarah Kirby-Yung that the new city manager, Sadhu Johnston, wanted to hold a location consultation. Burdick met with Johnston in late February to discuss this consulta- tion process and to share research the MOCA already gathered. “Tt’s smack dab in the middle of Marpole, within walking distance of all the densification that’s happening on Granville Street and...on Cambie Street,” Burdick said, defending the centre’s current location. “It’s ridiculous. There is no reason to relocate.” While the consultation will go ahead, Burdick feels confident the centre will be able to stay where it is. He and John- ston also agreed the process will include research on what amenities the com- munity centre should implement. For others, the centre’s location isn’t as important as what it offers. “['m not attached to the building,” said Vincent Wong, who has been go- ing to the centre for over forty years. “When the building has reached the end of its useful life, the building should be rebuilt.” Albert Leung, the vice-president of MOCA, believes the location just needs to be in the community’s best interest. “It is the community’s decision that we really have to respect,” Leung said. “That’s all that matters.”