Downtown newspaper boxes flipping to ‘free little libraries’

Where once downtown Vancouver residents and visitors could find free newspapers, they will now find books to share.

The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and students from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts have collaborated to convert 11 old newspaper boxes into “free little libraries,” miniature lending libraries where people can take, borrow or donate books “in the spirit of community sharing.”

DVBIA president and CEO Charles Gauthier said the project is just one of a number “placemaking” initiatives the group is promoting — other projects have seen the revitalization of laneways and the decoration of electrical boxes — with an eye toward making public spaces more welcoming, engaging, safe and uplifting.

The project was conceived of by a DVBIA staffer, Gauthier explained, who noticed that a number of newspaper boxes on downtown streets were going unused. “She ran with it,” he said. She pitched the idea only two months ago, and now it has officially launched in 11 locations. “It shows how simple sustainability can be.”

“It really fit well with our sustainability (goals). And more and more of our members want things like this. It’s about creating ties and links in our community. Our downtown ... has a fairly dense living population,” he said.

Last year, they installed a comic book library and pop-up park features — colourful chairs and tables, for instance — in an open walkway running from Cordova to Hastings Streets between the Terminal City Club and the Vancouver Club.

“It was very popular,” he said.

The free little libraries can be found at the intersections of Alley Oop laneway and Granville Street, Seymour Street, West Hastings Street, and West Pender Street, and in Ackery’s Alley laneway behind the Orpheum Theatre and at Perch patio spaces.