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!

Hastings Racecourse has offered BOB and our sister charitable organization Fast Track to Employment, the opportunity to put on a great FUNdraiser on June 6th!

Get ready to win ridiculously amazing prizes in our raffle.  Enjoy a 3 course meal.  And all in a lovely Marquee Tent beside the track with crazy racing horses speeding by.

We have celebrity judges who will eye up your beautiful hats  (think Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison is ‘My Fair Lady’) with a delicious prize going to the winner.   Not a hat person?  No problem!  The event is perfectly enjoyable without one.  We will have a few hat making supplies available.  Remember..  Bring extra moola or cheques for buying raffle tickets.  You’ll have multiple opportunities to to win door and raffle prizes from great places such as:

• Fairmont Pacific Rim
• 4 Seasons Hotel Vancouver
• John Fluevog
• Blue Olive Photography
• Silks Restaurant
• SFU Woodwards Theatre
• London Drugs
• Nester’s Food Floor at Woodwards
• JJ Bean
• Calabash Bistro
• Out To Lunch Catering
• and more!

You can help the team at BOB and FTE continue doing what we are passionate about- working with local residents and businesses to see positive change happen in Vancouver’s inner city and Downtown Eastside- by joining us on this fun day.

Tickets are selling for $60 and can be purchased by dropping by the BOB office at 163 East Pender on weekdays between 10am and 4pm or purchase them online at https://tickets.firehallartscentre.ca/TheatreManager/1/online

We look forward to seeing you there!

This post was originally published on the Greening the Inner-City Blog.

Over the recent years many thinkers and planners have foreseen the likely transformations of our urban and suburban communities as costs related to resources, building materials and other logistics force us to think on our feet and adjust. I recall one author even wrote a book titled “The End of Suburbia”. Actually it was a documentary now that I come to think of it. As potential challenges such as peak oil, loss of arable land, energy and water scarcity and other logistical (and social) hurdles continue to present themselves on our horizon, authors like James Howard Kunstler, Jeremy Rifkin,  and numerous scholars agree that we may need to rethink our systems and our approaches and reassess much of our infrastructure and planning as we look ahead. Vancouver has been recognized as one of the more progressive and community focused cities in North America but even we may see some major physical transformations should these challenges come to a headwaters in the next 50 years. Though I do write with the focus of BOB in mind, I’m also a geographer, so I’m inspired to look at these issues very much from the perspective of a geographer.

In the case of Vancouver our physical geography and some astute urban planning has already helped to create a clean density that we’re celebrated and noted for now, and if we continue to go dense out of necessity or desire we will likely need to maximize urban spaces. Enter the deconstruction industry and the restoration economy.

A great little video on Treehugger.com about a social enterprise in Bristol UK was sent to me from Brian here at Building Opportunities with Business (who got it from Toby Barazzuol at Eclipse Awards). The Bristol Recycling Project collects donations of unused lumber, and either finds a way to put it back into the market or reconstitutes them into products like shelving and furniture. This is a service that has developed in relationship with the deconstruction industry and the restoration economy. The restoration economy is an idea put forth by author Storm Cunningham in a 2002 book entitled (you guessed it) The Restoration Economy. Along with William McDonough’s book Cradle to Cradle, it was considered a landmark environmental book at the beginning of this decade. In short, or rather to summarize but a brief aspect of it, think of it like this. Instead of blowing up a building into a million fragments and trucking them off to the landfill, we can slowly deconstruct it and utilize as much of the materials as possible in other developments. It’s like my father-in-law (an incredibly accomplished engineer who has worked on numerous high profile projects around the world) always says, “The most sustainable building is the one already built”. Well, the logic of the restorative economy says the next best thing may be recycling all those materials as best as possible into a new format. Plus it creates jobs and stimulates the economy.

Reclaimed wood has been utilized by social enterprises and businesses in BC and specifically in the inner-city Tradeworks Training Society uses reclaimed wood for many of their products. But much of this reclaimed wood is from Pine Beetle infested lumber considered below market standard due to its blueish tint. Conversely, much of the wood used by the Bristol Wood Recycling Project comes from buildings that have been recently deconstructed or found lumber, and as other cities around the world begin to rethink their urban design many structures may need to come down in order for more efficient designs to go up. Buildings will also need improvements, retrofits and other maintenance, like our beautiful heritage buildings here in Vancouver. There’s little doubt that a large market potential for the restorative industry exists in Vancouver. As recent improvements along the Hastings Corridor (a result of the Great Beginnings and Hastings Renaissance Program) attest, we Vancouverites value the historical architecture of the inner-city. Many of these old buildings need a little love and elbow grease as time does take its toll, but they shine up real good.

But where is Vancouver’s inner-city in regards to a similar project like the one in Bristol? Well, it has been discussed, and there are still people in the community who believe a similar deconstruction social enterprise might be successful here. We do have a proud history as an enterprising lumber town after all.

Is it a matter of timing though?

As construction of high density buildings becomes more expensive, eating into the bottom line of those projects, and as space becomes less available in our city perhaps reclaimed materials from deconstruction will present an affordable and accessible option for developers? And that in turn may likely create more demand for deconstruction and restorative work, more space to develop, and perhaps contribute to more affordable housing prices? Someone would probably have to write a thesis as opposed to a blog post to really answer some of those questions. But this is a place for ideas and conversation after all.

It’s some food for thought as we look to the future of this city and our inner-city’s urban design. By looking at the Bristol Wood Recycling Project and other similar enterprises we can perhaps better imagine the choices that may present themselves to us down the road.

-Wes-

Sid Sawyer from VanCity accepting an award from Shirley Chan

BOB was pleased to be a part of two great events that took place this past week. In fact, we were so busy with them that we haven’t had time to blog about them until now! On March 22nd BOB honored our donors and partners with a luncheon at the Shebeen Whisk(e)y house at the Irish Heather. Beautiful crystal awards from Eclipse Awards International were presented to 11 donors (and one BOB team member) while everyone enjoyed the fantastic food prepared by the Irish Heather’s kitchen. The awards, and the respective recipients, were categorized as such:

Foundation Partner Award

Their generous donations provided the foundation from which BOB could grow and develop into what it has become today.

Bell      Millennium     VanCity

Leadership Partners Award

These partners and donors took the initiative, showed leadership and helped BOB to grow. They were crucial in helping us achieve our $100,000 fund raising target through their large donations in the final months.

Joe Segal, Michael Audain, Bob Lee, Vancouver Eastside Educational Enrichment Society (Hendrik Hoekma), VanCity Foundation, Edgewater, VANOC, Alex Lau (Golden Properties)

Bob Lee, with wife Lily and son Derek. Thank you to the Lee Family (including Carol Lee who is not in photo but was at the event) for your continuing generous support.

Community Partners Award

Largely comprised of members of our Board, these partners were the first to give to BOB and played a crucial role in ensuring that support would extend throughout the community. Their, time, intellect and financial make them invaluable and essential partners.

Hendrik Hoekma accepts an awared on behalf of VEEES from BOB's Board Chair Lee Davis

Lee Davies, Linda Coady, Fred Leonard, Chris Gora, Central City Foundation, Michael Geller, Home , Toby Barazzuol, Shirley Chan, Barry and Lynn Fenton, Maureen Collier

Government Partners (Recognized but not awarded fancy trophies!)

Our government partners provided longstanding support, through the Vancouver Agreement and were there with us through all our success.

Western Economic Diversification, MHSD (The Province), City of Vancouver, members of the Vancouver Agreement.

A special award was given to Liz Charyna in celebration of her leadership over the past 3 years at BOB! Congrats Liz!

KALEIDOSCOPE

The winner of Vancouver's Coolest Person 2010 is Jenn Christenson. The award, designed by Eclipse Awards International (A local Strathcona business) was presented to the graphic designer at Kaleidoscope by organizer and MC, Wes Regan.

Then on March 27th BOB and our friends partied it up at Kaleidoscope. This new annual event had its inaugural launch at the Rickshaw Theatre to an enthusiastic crowd. Kaleidoscope celebrates entrepreneurialism while raising awareness of social and environmental issues. Proceeds from this year’s Kaleidoscope went to BOB and the Canadian Mental Health Association, while awesome prizes were donated by John Fluevog ($250 Gift Card to the Gastown store), Steve Cole ($320 worth of tattoo time with him at Sacred Heart Tattoo), Saul Good Gift Co. with a fantastic gift basket and (once again) a beautiful crystal trophy from  Eclipse Awards was awarded to the Coolest Person in Vancouver, which was randomly drawn from ticket stubs. Bands who performed this year included Spoon River, The Left, Rodney Decroo and His Convictions and Boombox Saints. If there was a Kaleidoscope award for best dancer Liz Charyna would’ve won that too!

Spoon River delight the crowd at the first annual Kaleidoscope

Thanks to all our friends and partners for an incredible week and for being a part of all the work the BOB team does.  We look forward to many more action packed weeks and months.

It was just announced that Steve Cole of Sacred Heart Tattoo will be doubling his prize giveaway at Kaleidoscope from $160 to $320 dollars worth of tattoo time!! And with that I’ll launch into a quick reminder that Kaleidoscope, a celebration of art, culture and entrepreneurial spirit in the DTES is happening this Saturday at the Rickshaw Theatre, 257 E 4th Ave from 7:00 pm to 10:00 Pm. Other prizes include a georgeous gift basket from Saul Good Gift Co. an Award for the Coolest Person in Vancouver 2010 form Eclipse Awards International and a $250 gift card from Fluevog (Vancouver’s favorite shoemaker)

A reminder that tix are $10 and are available at Red Cat, Scratch and Zulu records or you can pay by donation at the door.

WHY DID WES AND HIS FRIENDS FRASER AND LEX DO THIS? Well…let me be disarmingly personal for a moment if I may. In the 3 months that I’ve been with Building Opportunities with Business I have been so impressed by the work that goes on here, by the office culture, the leadership that the management team shows and the work ethic that the staff have. The projects and people that I’ve been introduced to have inspired me and given me hope. The Canadian Mental Health Association and many other organizations at work in Vancouver’s inner-city help people who are most at risk of losing their livelihoods and ending up in a self destructive cycle. Mental health, is  a serious issue and one that has impacted the DTES (particularly in light of one particular mental health facility closing down some 20 years ago).

Why a celebration of entrepreneurial spirit in the DTES? Because as important as it is for our government leaders to address these social issues and help to improve our communities it is also up to us. Entrepreneurs who take a chance on inner-city neighbourhoods, who put their creativity, their elbow grease and their cash into a venture in the inner-city deserve to be recognized; they too can have a powerful positive impact on the community through their actions, and through their success. They show leadership and take initiative, they create opportunities for residents and other businesses here in the DTES. Those are the kinds of people who strengthen community capacity. So by having these companies donate a prize it’s a way to promote them and recognize them, by having the proceeds go to non-profits and charitable organizations we recognize the work that goes on from that end too. We celebrate them both and celebrate art, music and life along with them!

So naturally a combination of the two made sense, and that is what Kaleidoscope is all about. That, and having fun listening to great bands and enjoying a drink with friends in a cool venue. If this sounds like something you might enjoy then come on down this Saturday 7pm to the newly reopened Rickshaw Theatre at 257 E. Hastings. We would love to see you there.

Wes