Neighbourhood Greenway: Tupper

Tupper is the most recent Neighbourhood Greenway to be developed, opening in the spring of 2008. Since then it has become a jewel in the neighbourhood and a focal point for Charles Tupper Secondary School and the surrounding community, transforming a closed portion of East 23rd Ave into a beautiful neighbourhood garden space.

As part of a Community Visions Workshop in 2005, students and local residents identified the closed portion of East 23rd Ave as a great opportunity for neighbourhood improvement. Plans to transform the street into a beautiful healing garden began to unfold by the fall of 2005. Over the next few years, Tupper staff, students and community members worked together with the Greenways staff to design the space.

Features include a culinary herb garden, outdoor classroom, bicycle path, walkways, wetland gardens, green spaces and pedestrian lighting. Construction was complete in the fall of 2007 and a community planting day finalized the greenway development in the following spring. The official opening of Tupper Neighbourhood Greenway was marked in June 2008 with a community celebration.

As with all Neighbourhood Greenways, the local community maintains the space. The group of volunteers involved with the Greenway since its inception formed an official non-profit organization: Tupper Integrated Neighbourhood Greenway Association, TINGA. The purpose of TINGA is threefold:

• to facilitate intergenerational and multicultural involvement in the stewardship of the Greenway
• to encourage its use and to promote and enhance social harmony within the richly diverse community
• to build collaborative relationships through various events involving members of the immediate neighbourhood and larger community

TINGA has successfully implemented a range of initiatives and student involvement is ever increasing. Students in Tupper’s Cook Training Program use herbs from the garden for their culinary classes while students in the Art Program worked with community members and a local artist to build five mosaic benches. The Tupper Tech Program designed and built a community bulletin board that was installed in the summer of 2010. Master Gardeners continue to work with students and community members to organize volunteer garden days throughout the year.

TINGA is always looking for more volunteers so consider getting involved! To learn more about the Tupper Greenway story, contact greenstreets@vancouver.ca or call 604-873-7204.

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