Mark is Founder and Director of Take Root. Take Root is a network of companies passionate about using real estate to do good through developing urban projects, managing properties, and investing in place making ventures.

Mark began his exploration of commerce and culture as an Imagineer with Disney, developing new theme park experiences. Later, he was the Director of User Research at ECCO Design in New York leading new product development for Fortune 500 clients.

He has a BS in Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management, both from Stanford University. He was a Mayfield Entrepreneurship Fellow and has served on the Vancouver City Planning Commission. He also currently serves on the board of the Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery.

The entire team at BOB would like to extend a very warm welcome to Mark and look forward to seeing his creativity, insight  and experience at work here in the  community!

ACME appears to be enjoying a bit of a brand resurgence here in Vancouver’s inner-city! For several months now, ACME Cafe has won the hearts of locals with fantastic sandwiches, pies and refreshments and has proven a great spot for working lunches. But just down the street at 108 E. Hastings hangs another ACME sign for an altogether different enterprise.

Recently taken over by local patron of the arts, David Duprey, the front of 108 W Hastings is hard to miss as the neon sign shines with a playful mix of neon blue, red, orange and yellow in a style that combines both a 1950s and 1980s feel (in my humble opinion). Duprey had the sign idea several months before ACME Cafe opened, for a location approved for one of the City’s Great Beginnings initiative facade improvement grants . The Great Beginnings initiative (along with other initiatives relating to the Downtown Eastside Revitalization program) has helped shine up several beautiful old buildings that had fallen into disrepair and disuse. Now, as is the case with Duprey’s 108 E. Hastings location, these buildings are filling up with entrepreneurial and cultural activities. Shops, restaurants, cafes and galleries are all able to take advantage of the affordable rents, newly painted and cleaned facades and enjoy the comfortable and spacious layouts of these classic buildings thanks to the vision and sweat equity of entrepreneurs like Duprey and the support of the City. The neon signs outside many of them are the real icing on the cake, but a very important icing. They celebrate the rich history of Hastings (and much of Vancouver) when it was the neon capital of Canada, rivaled only by Las Vegas itself! A reminder of the once vibrant and important role this neighbourhood played in our city, and an inspiring statement that a brighter future lay ahead.

So what does ACME mean? Rumored to be an acronym for A Company Making Everything, ACME is remembered by most for being the favorite brand of Wile E. Cyote. Employing the use of everything from rocket powered skis, to dynamite, to giant rubber bands, ACME supplied everything Wile E. needed in his endless quest to catch the Roadrunner or Bugs Bunny. In the 1930s though,  there was in fact a surge of businesses named either Ace or Acme, believed largely due to the fact that phone books and other directories began to be organized alphabetically. AAA being another obvious choice. The word acme itself is derived from the Greek word that means zenith or peak, and in the case of Warner Bros and Looney Tunes, is quite ironic. Poor Wile E. never had a venture half as successful as David Duprey or Acme Cafe.

If you have a business idea and need an affordable space, get in touch with BOB today. See our previous post for more information.

BOB Business and Social Enterprise Developer, Brian Smith,  has been asked to participate in the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City Working Group on the Green Economy.   The Group is being convened by the Vancouver Economic Development Commission (VEDC).

At the first meeting of the group, there were six identified priority areas for which the group agreed to establish sub-committees.  Each sub-committee’s first objective was to prepare a short document on the priority area for the next meeting on July 14th. This draft document is to outline the main opportunity in the specific area, along with 3-5 actions that could lead to green job growth. The Working Group will then research these recommendations and incorporate them into a draft implementation plan for the Greenest City initiative, which will be open for further comment by the entire External Advisory Committee.

The sub-committee that Brian has proposed and is interested in helping to steer concerns Community Economic Development.  This applies directly to the inner-city and people who have barriers to employment, but has positive implications in other neighbourhoods too.

In Brian’s words:

…CED is applicable across the City and, in turn, could benefit a variety of neighbourhoods, small businesses, social enterprises, co-ops and people. Given the City’s apparent commitment to the Greenest City initiative, I feel there is a good opportunity to advance some CED in Vancouver.  BUT, I need your help! So, please reply to BOB with your respective interest and time availability in helping to shape a CED strategy that can be included in the Greenest City Implementation Plan.

Cheers,

Brian

Please read Brian’s overview of the CED Sub-committee below:

Community Economic Development (CED) for the Greenest City

CED is a holistic approach to economic development involving the mobilization of resources from various economic and non-economic sectors in the community with the intention of building local capacity and local solutions.  It is particularly relevant to the world’s greenest city as it uses local resources, which generally are lower in carbon intensity, to find local and more sustainable solutions to local problems.  Integrating CED into the green economy strategies for Vancouver’s Greenest City ambitions compliments the more traditional macro-economic development strategies by integrating localized approaches with broader global outreach strategies. The benefits of a CED approach include:  local employment, local investment, increased local capacity and commitment, local spending in the local economy, and appropriate sustainable solutions to local challenges.

Goal: Foster green business development and associated job creation for Vancouver’s marginalized inner-city residents

Action 1: Apply a CED Lens to all programs and policies of the City, where each department, program, grant, expenditure from parks and social development to legal services and planning would eventually be able to articulate the social, economic and environmental impact of their work/business/purchasing.

Action 1a: Establish a City of Vancouver funded Community Economic Development Commission that would:

• work internally applying the CED Lens and externally facilitating CED on the ground;
• develop and implement procurement policy that directly benefits co-operatives, social enterprises and small businesses that are committed to hiring people with barriers to employment; and,
• educate community (NGOs, workers, and businesses) about realistic opportunities for green job and green business development

Action 1b: Institutionalize – as part of any development permit process, require  a Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) as a necessary component of all new developments (for local jobs, procurement, and/or training).

Action 2: Establish a green zone (may need an incentive attached) in the DTES for piloting green enterprise development projects.

Action 2a: Develop employment agreements with incentives for medium to large size green businesses to hire people with barriers to employment.

Action 2b: Establish and administer a green CED fund to facilitate green employment or business development projects in the inner-city;

Action 2c: By way of an immediate pilot project, establish, through the allocation of City-owned land, an Urban Farm Network that trains and hires people with barriers to employment

Action 3: Develop and direct education and training in green collar vocations to people with barriers to employment.

Please comment below or contact Brian directly at brian.smith@bobics.org to share your thoughts and ideas.

BOB is excited to participate once again in the Gaining Ground Summit taking place this October 4th to 7th here in Vancouver. The summit will explore the green economy, sustainability, building capacity, emerging theories of governance and industry collaboration, greentech/cleantech and other fascinating issues.

This year’s speakers include Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, Deputy City Manager for the City of Vancouver, Sadhu Johnston (who has contributed to leading sustainability policies in Chicago, Portland and now here) and Carol Sanford, an acclaimed speaker considered a leader of leaders. Her consulting clients include Fortune 500 businesses and emerging ventures such as Seventh Generation.

The Keynote speaker will be Jared Blumenfeld, currently the Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9.

About Jared Blumenfeld:

Jared Blumenfeld is the Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9—which includes California, much of the U.S. Southwest and Hawaii. With a background in international environmental law and an active career with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Jared was appointed in 2002 by San Francisco to build and lead its Department of Environment.

Under his leadership, San Francisco initiated landmark policy and laws, starting with precautionary principles and reaching into every area of urban practice. He believes that international and other broad-based frameworks are well-intentioned but produce limited on-the-ground results. During his tenure, San Francisco convened World Environment Day that brought 80 of the world’s largest cities together to define urban
sustainability and map strategies.

EPA Region 9 includes 47 million people, 4 of the 10 largest cities in the U.S., and 24 of the hundred largest.

Blumenfeld comes to Gaining Ground on Tuesday, October 4th to speak about the adoption of new technologies, measuring what’s happening, and the sweet spot where policy and stakeholder engagement merge. He will also lead a policy salon during the afternoon workshop portion of the program.

To register and for more information please visit: www.gaininggroundsummit.com

Lu’s Pharmacy is a groundbreaking pharmacy offering an innovative service as the first women’s only pharmacy in North America. It is a safe place, a professional place, and a welcoming place for any and all women residents of this city to purchase their prescriptions and health items. So let’s go party with the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective and raise some money for Lu’s!

Click here for more information on Lu’s Pharmacy.