From The Tyee — Vancouver, VanCity, downtown residents collaborate to create a “centre for economic and social innovation" in old cop shop

Illustration: Nancy Mackin

Vancouver Island University Community Planning Prof Don Alexander in The Tyee. The re-purposing of what was the infamous Main Street police station and drunk tank and its transformation into a neighbourhood centre for economic and social innovation modelled after Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation. 

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At the corner of Main and Hastings in Vancouver's poorest yet fast changing neighbourhood stands the city's former police headquarters, empty since 2010. What should be the next life for the building has been the subject of brainstorming, debate and protest in recent years.

The outcome now taking shape -- what is officially called 312 Main: Vancouver's Social and Economic Innovation Centre -- represents something of a compromise between the desires of city hall, which wanted purely a tech incubator, and the social justice driven vision of Bob Williams and his allies at VanCity credit union, where Williams was until very recently a board member, and the Jim Green Foundation, which Williams chairs. Read more: At Main and Hastings, a Radical Rebuff to the Rich Takes Shape | The Tyee

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From The Sidewalk Ballet February 2013: From socialinnovation.ca: The Centre for Social Innovation is a social enterprise with a mission to catalyze social innovation in Toronto and around the world. We believe that society is facing unprecedented economic, environmental, social and cultural challenges. We also believe that new innovations are the key to turning these challenges into opportunities to improve our communities and our planet. Read more: The Sidewalk Ballet: The Centre for Social Innovation And its Jane Jacobs DNA