general inflation was only 35% over those years

US Official Development Assistance (ODA), a widely used benchmark for comparing foreign aide, was US$186 per American in 2023. Canadian ODA was for that same year US$229 per capita. for the UK the figure was US$255 ourworldindata.org/grapher/fore...

They are finally killing the ostriches I cheer for the ostrich cull, not because I yearn for ostrich blood, but because I tire of society bending over backwards for cranks www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/8b64d4e...

that's quite the sticker

I do love the Translink Skytrain station direct bus maps

First Narrows seems the number one place to see a Vancouver octopus

Quite the striking streetscape

Very recent paper detailing how damaging "Buy American" clauses have been to public transit in the US. It recommends rolling them back in a targeted way to convince more international companies to build buses in the US. www.brookings.edu/articles/pay...

I have this creeping dread that the governments “Buy Canadian” policy is going to be embarrassing to hear out of the mouth of a world famous economist www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

This is deeply ironic and also true

🎵One of These Things Is Not Like the Others🎶

Kennedy Stewart is continuing his awful campaign to make local politics worse by moving toward ward systems vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/09/19/g...

Nice evening

The continued hostility among the progressive political class towards rearmament is baffling and frustrating. The Left has always had maybe the hardest time processing the fact that we are not American, but it’s more important than ever that they do so now that we are actually outside the wire

New followers lately are about one third randos, one third prestigious urbanists, and one third onlyfans bots

Nimbyism isn’t even necessarily an exercise in bad faith, even if the “I’m just against X+1, not X!” game can feel that way some times

There were some good views last night

What a great name to be known by

I couldn't think of a bigger way for any federal government to signal that it is fundamentally unserious than to back this nonsensical project

In this thread, people in Vancouver sound off about their favourite nimbys www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/...

it might seem unkind to jump all over a handful of people complaining about a new school near them being too tall or whatever, but you have to remember that the instinct of the political process and the planning profession has for decades been to treat such people are representative.

Vancouver planners spelled out the answer to this very clearly: Allowing larger laneway homes would be valuable for families, and planners believe that creating value is bad. Therefore homes sizes should be capped to be too small to be comfortable for families. council.vancouver.ca/20090616/doc...

in general I think more people should accept that not everything in a city has to be *for you* in order to be beneficial, the whole magic of cities is that they cater to lots of different people in lots of different situations

It’s sort of funny to read this answer if you realize that there are precious few people in the world who might know more about this specific question

They were from what I suspect treated in a manner no way out of the ordinary, which is why you should avoid traveling to the United States if it can be helped

It might just be the case that the transit connection I make most often is the False Creek Ferries at Granville Island, and it’s as often the easiest

Why is the flag at Vanier Park at half staff today? www.canada.ca/en/canadian-...

what on earth is it that linkedin is *doing* when it takes forever to load?

"Metro Vancouver's greenhouse gas emissions are still higher than they were in 2010, even as per capita carbon emissions decline"

A wee Amtrak train

Probably true in Canada and for more than just highways I would reckon

looking forward to such interactions with our dysfunctional school district

We have: a public who would rather trash a major export industry that employs many skilled Canadians rather than tell the nimbys to sod off

the meta-discourse comes quickly to my attention and I have to dig to find out what the actual event was

Bait fish in False Creek

trying to remember where I screenshotted this

Type-of-guy who thinks the PNE's attendance woes are due to not requiring masking and physical distancing anymore

Double Decker Elevated Railway

Reminds me I should go for a run

One of the refreshing things about reading planning documents from the 70s and 80s is that they’re just so much more honest about these things. So much more able to say ‘yes there are trade offs and we have judged this worthwhile’

My phone surfaced this photo so I’m going to share it with you

Big weird boat

ride bikes (and e-bikes and e-scooters) build bike lanes etc but don't be this asshole

I don't agree with the whole of this essay but it's worth a read.

A wee announcement to make:

McBarge Update

Otherwise, behold the cursed geography of the Canadian province most enthusiastic about high speed railways:

There’s a certain comfortable disregard for *the material* in evidence if you have this sort of reaction

“How Canada’s imports and exports have changed since Trump”