Renfrew-Collingwood Community News

News stories from the Renfrew-Collingwood community in East Vancouver


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February 2018 issue of RCC News is here

Happy Chinese new year! There is much to celebrate: Renfrew-Collingwood Community News will be 20 years old in 2019 and we will commemorate this milestone by revisiting some of the memorable community submissions over the years.

Get your latest issue of the RCC News at your local coffee shop, grocery store, library and community centre.

Or click on the cover image to view the new issue.

In this issue:

  • Get Involved page: Next info session on homeless housing at 4410 Kaslo, Feb. 6
  • INTERactive: A Valentine gift to get every heart pumping
  • Celebrating RCC News 20 Years: Strong Women
  • Collingwood Corner: The changing face of Joyce Street
  • Seniors and income tax
  • How to keep your new year’s resolution
  • Eating Out in RC: Boteco Brasil
  • History: Letter from 1958

Do you have a local story to tell or an event to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email rccnews-editorial@cnh.bc.ca.

The deadline for the March 2018 issue is February 10. We welcome story submissions from 300 to 400 words long. Accompanying photos must be high resolution in a jpg file at least 1 MB large and include a photo caption and the name of the photographer.


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Eating Out in RC: Pho 99 Broadway Tech Centre

2915 Hebb Avenue (at Renfrew)
604-255-3135

BY PAUL REID

Pho 99's Combo Roll plate. Photos by Paul Reid

Pho 99’s Combo Roll plate. Photos by Paul Reid

Greetings food fans. Let me tell you about one of the newer eateries in town, just opened on Easter of 2017. This is definitely the most modern pho restaurant that I have ever encountered. When later talking with manager and franchise owner, Mr. Khanh Tran, he explained to me, “There has been a change in philosophy with our generation, compared to the baby boomers before us.

“They would just cook the food and not pay much attention to the dining area. Now, the new generation wants to create an ambience and the atmosphere, to give the customer a full dining experience, one that is comfortable and relaxed.”

Seafood Noodle in Hot and Sour Soup

Seafood Noodle in Hot and Sour Soup

And that it was. My accomplice and I shared a Combo Roll plate ($7): one salad roll, a fried roll and a grilled minced pork roll. It comes with two delicious sauces. Mmm. I also ordered a large Seafood Noodle in Hot and Sour Soup ($10): with vegetables, squid, prawns and crabmeat. My accomplice had a small pho with chicken meat ($9).

The food arrived swiftly and I will just say that everything was oh-so delicious. Loved it!

Tran explained more about the pho-losophy. This is a meal about balance. All of the ingredients that you put in to the pho soup are there to balance one another out. The crunchiness of the bean sprouts balances with the soft noodles; the lime helps to cut through the fat; the basil goes well with the beef aroma; the hoisin sauce (that brown sauce on the table) can be added if you think the soup is too salty; the hot sauce and jalapenos are there for you to control the spiciness.

Pho 99’s broth takes a full 18 hours to get ready, which adds to that irresistible flavour. Yum!

Tran runs Pho 99 Broadway with his wife, his brother-in-law, Quy, and the full support of his entire family.

“This is Pho 99’s 10th location,” says Tran, “11 if you count the U.S. location,” Tran’s first restaurant.

A local hit with the students and staff of Broadway Tech Centre, Tran hopes to bring the best service and food that they can to our community.

“For us, the bottom line is the people. Did they have a great experience. In our culture, it is the honourable thing to give your guests the best that we can, to treat them as best as we can, and that is our philosophy here.”

Helping out the local community is also very important to Tran and his family, who were among the Vietnamese boat people forced to flee Vietnam. “We have begun working with a local nearby church, St. Jude’s, as well as to provide local high school graduates with ‘celebration vouchers’ for a job well done. We look forward to when the new business becomes more sustainable so that we will be better equipped to help our community even more.”

I suggest you visit Pho 99 and experience the new generation of pho restauarants for yourself. Bon appetit!

Copyright (c) 2018 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News


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City plans housing for homeless residents at 4410 Kaslo

TMH-4410-Kaslo

The paths around the current garden at 4410 Kaslo are heavily used by commuters as a thoroughfare to the 29th Avenue SkyTrain station and bus loop. Photos by Julie Cheng

Community garden near the 29th Avenue SkyTrain station slated to become Vancouver’s latest site for temporary modular housing

BY JULIE CHENG

Dec. 13, 2017, local residents packed the First Hungarian Presbyterian Church in the first of two information sessions to find out more about the temporary modular housing that the City of Vancouver has planned for 4410 Kaslo Street.

Currently a community garden, 4410 Kaslo is located across from the 29th Avenue SkyTrain station and Slocan Park. One three-storey building with 50 units is being considered there as housing for people experiencing homelessness.

Kaslo is the city’s fourth site planned for such housing, following sites in the Marpole neighbourhood and on Franklin and Powell streets in the Downtown Eastside.

Together the four sites make up roughly 200 out of the 600 new units of temporary modular housing that the city aims to place across Vancouver. The city is working on six to seven more sites, according to Abi Bond, director of affordable housing community services.

TMH-community-info-session-2017-12-13

Jennifer Gray-Grant of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House and Chris Taulu of Collingwood Community Policing Centre were among the many community members who attended the 4410 Kaslo information sessions.

Vancouver’s first temporary modular housing at 220 Terminal Avenue opened in February 2017 and has been a “big success,” says Luke Harrison, CEO of the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency. “It’s operating beautifully. There’s been no increase in crime. The residents have been good neighbours.”

Staff from Atira Women’s Resources Society will manage the Kaslo site and will connect its residents to support services such as health services.

Development permit timeline

December 13 and 14, 2017: Community information session to present project and gather feedback.

December 22, 2017: Public can provide input until December 22 via email (housing@vancouver.ca) or at the community information sessions.

January 2018: Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency applies for a development permit to build temporary modular housing at 4410 Kaslo Street.

January to February 2018: City and community partners hold another community information session to present the project and listen to feedback. Public has the opportunity to provide input for one week after the community information session via email (housing@vancouver.ca) or at the community information session.

February 2018: The city’s director of planning determines whether a development permit will be issued.

Spring 2018: Once approved, it takes about three months for construction to be completed.

For more information visit Vancouver.ca/temporarymodularhousing.

Current City of Vancouver temporary modular housing projects

Franklin Street – 39 units on a 18,913 square-foot lot

Powell Street – 39 units on a 21,203 square-foot lot

Marpole – 2 buildings of 39 units; total 78 units on a 65,198 square-foot lot

Kaslo Street – 50 units on a 20,139 square-foot lot

The building sizes for Franklin, Powell and Marpole are about 15,000 square feet for each 39-unit structure, according to Luke Harrison of the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency. The building planned for Kaslo would be closer to 25,000 square feet.

Did you know?
The 2017 Homeless Count in Metro Vancouver reports more than 2,100 people living in homeless shelters or on the street within Vancouver.