As I’ve remarked a couple of times, I’ve seen a revolution unfold in Vancouver the last couple of years — something I thought I’d never see. That revolution is powered by a new generation of people who’ve gotten interested in housing and who have made it a mission to lobby for new development as a […]

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I stumbled across this touching story just by prowling through Vancouver’s open bids, where I saw a call for someone to manage a house in Kitsilano to provide affordable housing. I found out the story behind the story by talking to neighbours and reading the will of a man called Eric Pierce, who left his […]

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Well, it was another exciting week in Vancouver civic politics, as the Non-Partisan Association, after weeks of roller-coaster drama, chose its mayoral candidate: the soft-spoken and unassuming-seeming Ken Sim. That came as a surprise to everyone, including Sim himself, it seemed, on Sunday night. All the spin and whispers up to then had indicated that, […]

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Here in Vancouver, we’ve all heard about international parents buying property for their children while said children go to university locally. So we know that’s a thing. But I heard more than one story over the past few years about Canadian parents doing the same. In fact, one friend of a friend from Alberta bought […]

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Catching up here after many weeks, where I’ve been slowed down by a combo of too much election news and killer colds and coughs. But here we are, in what is surely one of the stranger municipal election cycles of the last 50 years. (Counting out Nanaimo here, whose problems seem to go far beyond […]

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No one will ever accuse Ian Gillespie of running short of ideas. The latest from the man who is building both Vancouver House (high-end, sold offshore, unusual building next to Granville Bridge) and, someday, a mix of social and market housing on the Stanley/New Fountain Gastown site — he has formed a non-profit that will […]

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We often focus on the big drivers of housing costs. But, behind those, there are many other smaller drivers — like the way your property is assessed. This past year, housing non-profits had their properties assessed as though, any moment, their buildings could be torn down and replaced with market-condo towers. That could never happen, […]

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There are so many issues wrapped up in the Northeast False Creek plan — which is supposed to become a neighbourhood of 10-12,000 people, with a jazzy new waterfront, a new park, 1,800 units of affordable housing in the 20-per-cent requirement for same, historic redress for the Chinese, black, and Indigenous communities — it’s hard […]

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It’s going to be a long campaign season (election day is Oct. 20, folks) because of the very open elections that will be happening in Vancouver and elsewhere, as numerous mayors announce they won’t run again and all but two Vision incumbents on council have bailed. So, in the ongoing saga, here’s the latest: Two […]

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I know some of you in my Twitter/blogverse are interested in this topic. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy launches global campaign to promote land value capture CAMBRIDGE, MA – The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is launching a global campaign to promote the adoption of land value capture, a policy approach by which communities recover […]

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