There has been a lot of news lately about the sense of loneliness and isolation that many people experience in Vancouver, as a result of Vancouver Foundation research into that subject. Even though I was one of those interviewed by the foundation and even though I listed that as my number one concern, I was […]

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For Vancouverites, coming to Minneapolis is like radio nerds going to Signal Hill in St. John’s where Marconi sent the first wireless message or food crazies visiting Warwick, Quebec, where poutine was allegedly invented in 1957. Because it was here in Minneapolis that the transit mall was created, in 1968, as part of the effort […]

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I’ve never been to this city much beloved of urbanists, ranking right up there with Portland as the coolest place that is so much better than whatever city we are currently living in. So I’m waiting to be blown away. So far, wafting along pleasantly. We took light rail in from the airport to our […]

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The first stage of the Little Mountain project — the huge remake of the city’s oldest public-housing site, our Regent Park — got approval at council today after five painful years since the province first announced it wanted to sell the land and use the profits to replace the existing social housing on the site […]

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I first realized things were going to get awkward for the new Swiss Real tower back on Nov. 30, when I went to an urban design panel hearing for the tower. Although comments were generally favourable, something that several panel members worried about was the impact of the 420-foot tower on the Jameson House condo […]

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The city’s housing report is up here. Working on my overnight story. Your thoughts?

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Peter Ladner, many moons ago, suggested that Vancouver set a target of 2010 garden plots by the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver when he was on council. The city reached that goal, without fanfare, at some point. Now others are emulating the idea. London is setting a goal of 2012 plots for this summer and […]

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Gentle reader Frank Ducote pointed out that I’m creating havoc (just like mixing pedestrians and cyclists on the same path!) in a previous post by mixing discussions of the Granville Bridge greenway and the mandatory-helmet law together. Therefore, I declare this post to be open for helmet discussions only, where people can continue to tell […]

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Following up from yesterday, I did do a story on the Granville Bridge greenway, which doesn’t actually appear in any text of the city’s draft Transportation 2040 plan, but does appear in the “maps and graphics” section attached to it as one of the illustrations to suggest how future policies might look when carried out. […]

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Transit, transit, transit. It’s the story every day, as the region tries to figure out how to keep its veins and arteries unclogged while continuing to add 40,000 people a year. Today’s story: The tussle over park-and-rides, a part of the transit system that some of us don’t think about much. As Coquitlam Mayor Richard […]

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