Culture City Informer

one large windmill palm and three mini ones grouped at each corner of the garden. Sure, they don’t offer much shade or release much oxygen, but these palms serve a much more important purpose: making your relatives from Manitoba jealous. And honestly? I can’t think of a better use of our tax dollars.

Obviously, the new addition to the beach district was a hit, because what kind of party pooper do you have to be to get mad about free-ass palm trees? From there, Pinkowski and the Palm Society (band name alert!) became hungry for more. They relocated palms from the Vancouver Aquarium to Sunset Beach; they rescued unwanted palms (adopt don’t shop!) from developer sites and took them down to the sand where they’d be happier; they discovered palm trees in planters on the deck of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre—a gift from Vancouver’s sister city of Odesa, Ukraine, of course, because what do you get the city that has everything—and set them free. We owe a debt of gratitude to these palm vigilantes and their noble cause of creating picturesque beach days for all.

All told, the Society has sponsored 100 palm trees in the neighbourhood over the past three decades. But their enthusiasm for building a beachier beach has inspired others to plant palms, too, and today, there are more than 200 windmill palms in the English Bay area alone, with plenty to be found on properties elsewhere. (Pinkowski estimates 10,000 in the Lower Mainland.) But wherever you find them, you’re a glance away from being transported to a tropical paradise. One look at a palm on the front lawn of a South Granville historic apartment complex or gracing the boulevards of Yaletown and you are instantly taken away to the balmy shores of the exotic, intoxicating West End.