What’s on tap for this week’s weather? Check our local weather coverage.
In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
On the sunny Tuesday morning of Oct. 6, two Columbian reporters and a photographer visited the growing tent city in the blocks surrounding the Share House shelter in west Vancouver.
The sidewalks in the vicinity of West 12th and King streets were lined with dozens of tents, bicycles, tarps, blankets and shopping carts. Days earlier, the city council had voted to lift a ban on overnight camping in public places. Although the law wouldn’t take effect until Oct. 21, word had clearly gotten around that in Vancouver, one could camp in peace.
We talked to several people who seem to represent a cross-section of the homeless community, including the chronically homeless, those who suffered a life-altering blow and those temporarily down on their luck.
Here’s a brief glimpse into their lives.
At just 11 years old, John Charles of Hockinson can proudly say he’s designed a collection for Nike.
And not just any collection, but one of six lines designed this year by kids in Oregon and Southwest Washington who have received medical care at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.
The Doernbecher Freestyle program unveiled the collections at an auction Friday evening, where the highest bidders took home the first sets of the one-of-a-kind collections. John’s three-piece collection went for $35,000 — the highest bid of the night.
All proceeds from the event and from retail sales of the gear — the collections will be available online and at select Nike retail locations, including Nike Portland, beginning Nov. 21 — benefit Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
“I never thought this was ever gonna happen,” John said Friday evening. The collection, he said, turned out “way better” than he ever thought it could.
“It’s crazy what they can do,” he said.
Sam Lanz and Jamie Butler are professionals when it comes to restoration work. Both help with such projects in their day jobs — Lanz with the Washington Conservation Corps, Butler with the Washington State Department of Transportation.
On Saturday, the two Woodland residents played the role of volunteers with dozens of others planting trees along the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail in Vancouver. Both were happy to devote a day off to the project, coordinated by the Vancouver Watersheds Alliance.
“I like being outside. I like planting,” said Butler. She also enjoys the company of other volunteers on such outings.
The planting was one of numerous events around the area Saturday that coincided with national Make a Difference Day. The celebration, now in its 24th year, encourages people to take part in community service and improve the lives of others. Millions of volunteers were expected to participate across the nation.
After a lot of work, a lot of waiting and a lot of prayer, school leaders said, Vancouver’s Seton Catholic College Preparatory High School began building its new home on Saturday.
A blessing and groundbreaking ceremony at the site marked a major milestone for the school that has operated in a leased office building since it opened in 2009.
“It is awesome to be here today,” said Ed Little, Seton Catholic’s founding president and current principal. “This has been a long time coming.”
The new 12-acre site, at Northeast 89th Street and 64th Avenue in Vancouver, will offer much more space than the school’s current location on Northeast 112th Avenue. The first phase of the new campus includes a two-story, 35,000-square-foot school building and a 9,000-square-foot gymnasium.
School officials say the new facility will serve 250 to 300 students when the first phase is complete. Seton Catholic’s current enrollment is 164, according to the school — and it’s bursting at the seams.
“Seton Catholic is a really special place, and this new campus is going to mean a lot,” said Tricia Roscoe president at Seton Catholic.
When Vancouver’s iconic mid-20th century Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay closes next weekend, Vancouver will have the fewest downtown rooms available since the 226-room Hilton Vancouver Washington opened 10 years ago.
On Nov. 1, downtown will be left with 485 hotel rooms, according to tourism officials who are working to relocate the conferences that were booked out through 2020 at the Quay. The room shortage isn’t expected to last for long, though. Not one but two hotels are planned for the stretch of waterfront west of the Interstate 5 Bridge.
This raises the question: Can this city — Vancouver, not B.C.; Washington, not D.C. — draw enough tourists to fill the 140 to 170 hotel rooms these projects would add beyond mere replacement of the Quay’s 160 rooms?
Probably, experts say.
“Is someone going to fly from Munich? Probably not,” said Portland-based urban planning consultant Michele Reeves, who often advises Vancouver’s downtown redevelopment efforts.
Regional travelers, however, might stop in Vancouver as part of a loop through the Columbia River Gorge, the coast and Oregon wine country, she said.
“We have a lot of people who don’t want to go to Portland, but want that urban feeling,” Reeves said.
She could see new Vancouver waterfront hotels serving business travelers and tourists alike, given that other hotel options, the Hilton aside, are “fairly dated.”
