B.C. government says there's no plan to make the 8th Avenue detour bus-only during the 4-month Broadway road closure for subway construction. At times, there's bumper-to-bumper congestion spanning blocks, with #TransLink buses bunching. #vanpoli #vanre dailyhive.com/vancouver/ea...

If the suburbs are building >75% of homes as apartments, Vancouver should be at ~100%. This is just how cities naturally grow, including Metro Vancouver.

we must resist the tyranny of cranks

...and we've already built the first one. • 3 Stories • 4 Bedrooms / 2.5 Bathrooms • 8 Weeks Manufacturing • 3 Weeks Install • 2 Weeks Finish Out

That is a verbose way of saying "all products". Anyway, Canada should have a persistent trade deficit, we're nation-building here. Onward and, especially, upward! www.theglobeandmail....

With annual numbers in, let's check in on how far Vancouver is falling behind the rest of Metro Van in building apartments! 1/4

It shouldn't cost $200M in this day and age but we should've started a long time ago too; it's better late than never. There's limited road space and it's critical to maximize the use of that space. That means making buses, which carry a lot of people, faster.

We're not ready for our aging population, part 42.

Can this be right? miners today can sell gold for 2030 delivery at $6,000/oz? Seems like a great deal for them. www.barchart.com/futures/quot...

Telling people there’s no plan for infrastructure (after passing a 10-year capital plan), no plan to pay for it (after passing an interim funding- growth strategy) & no plan for managing growth (while opposing an OCP update to mange growth) is not only misleading, it’s fearmongering. #newwest

Council approved the residential-over-industrial rezoning 320-360 West 2nd Ave. Marianne Amodio made quite the impressive opposition presentation to this industrial rezoning. I'd like to have the bibliography for it. But,...

I missed that this happened, but it looks like Ontario did a more ambitious version of BC's transit-oriented law, but forgot to explicitly outlaw height limits. BC's is lower density & doesn't require zoning (only requires not rejecting a rezoning because of height/density).

I would say prominent former planners don't support anything unless it's their idea, but I think the truth is more like they support solutions in theory and oppose everything in practice.

Hold on a second, I remember someone writing an article about the opportunity to mix high rise residential on top of light industrial in areas close to transit and amenities… www.vancouverisawesome.com/opinion/lett...

The $113-million mess of a community centre I wrote about this week is 100% funded from “development charges.” It is going in a neighbourhood with zero population growth. In part, these charges are a tax on newcomers to subsidize existing wealthy homeowners. globalnews.ca/news/1163476...

If you're tired of tipflation, head to Sweet Cherubim. All three tip options were set to 10%!

Vancouver council is back in session today Which means they are once again only providing real-time updates on city business to a single website that's under investigation for child exploitation They've stubbornly defended their approach Which reaches approximately 50 people

Granville Island when?

Walkable, compact neighborhoods like this are illegal to build in most North American cities (outside Greenland).

New from me: A brief for @rooseveltinstitute.org on the logic of YIMBY policymaking and its applicability to other domains. What principles underlying the YIMBY agenda are transferrable to thinking about energy, healthcare, and other areas? Short 🧵 to follow. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

"Urbanists have many heroes and heroines. Typically the person on the pedestal is articulate, observant and imaginative, telling stories that give us the sense of a better city. Jan Gehl, Jane Jacobs and Janette Sadik-Khan, to start with the J’s, are all sought out..."

With end of year starts in from CMHC, Metro Vancouver housing construction continues to hold up perhaps surprisingly well under the circumstances. One theory: devs are front-running fee increases & the drop-off will be more violent when it does come. 1/2

I don't get what they're selling for $130k if they're leasing the space, the kitchen equipment and tables?

Maybe having a 2/3 of GDP positive net international investment position just isn't really that special, but it's interesting what a small group of not that similar countries have one, although I guess debt discipline is a common thread for some. www.ft.com/content/b...

Another example of the absurdity of our system of zoning and neighbourhood control is when NIMBYs can fight and block *daycares* in neighbourhoods. A daycare within walking distance is the best thing ever.

I'm all for sidelining zero-sum reactionaries, but equating non-0 sum thinking with leftism is obviously wrong. Not believing that govs will deliver the most positive-sum isn't the equivalent to zero-sum. Spend 10 minutes in left housing discourse & you'll find plenty of zero-summers.

“A plan to partially demolish a 139-year-old church has set off an uproar in a Cabbagetown neighbourhood.”Yes, but so do a few brightly coloured strollers on a porch so let’s get this built, Toronto.

My reproduction with ACS (using rentgrs for housing costs and incearn for earnings) is not quite as tight but still pretty remarkable

Seems like successive changes have really borked the immigration system, to the point that international students don't want to bother coming in enough numbers to fill the reduced caps. cdhowe.org/publication/...

Our piece on single stair: a crucial change that is slowly coming to Canadian cities By me and @johnlorinc.bsky.social

From 1980: openyls.law.yale.edu/entities/pub...

Worth reading the article but this is an incorrect headline. The story here is that inclusionary zoning is unfeasible, even at 6.5 FSR. This is the same thing that happened in Portland where IZ for 20+ unit buildings led to more 19 unit buildings (IIRC). Slap an equal tax... 1/3

$10 million withheld from Toronto's Housing Accelerator Funds. Congratulations to all of the councillors who confidently assured their colleagues that this wouldn't happen when they refused to allow sixplexes in their wards. www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/media-newsro...

I'm glad CBC hosted a debate for a mayoral nomination, and they ask tough questions. It's good to be raising the profile of the upcoming municipal elections, they don't get enough attention (from voters), & encouraging open nomination races! www.cbc.ca/listen/cb...

I (conditionally) disagree with Tal here. Being ground-oriented isn't as important as it seems, because zoning & building code highly favour larger homes in ground-oriented & not in apartments/condos. But that's changing in a way that can challenge the supremacy of townhomes. 1/5

While we are not satisfied with the answers from staff on viability here, we are cautiously optimistic that a proposal for small-lot apartments coming this Summer will be better, and good enough to help keep downward pressure on rents... youtu.be/oaxpdez3gAo... 2/9

Sophie Ngo and her husband spend three hours every day driving between Richmond and Vancouver just to drop off their two kids at different daycares. It is the only way they can find care. "I don’t know why it’s so hard," she says. She is right. vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...

Fun little programming note for Vancouver political nerds: @cbcstephenquinn.bsky.social and I will be hosting a live OneCity mayoral debate between Will Azaroff and Amanda Burrows tomorrow on the Early Edition. Tune in around 8:10! (we'll have a podcast version as well)

#vanpoli crossover

Today is the last day to join @onecityvan.bsky.social and be eligible to vote in the mayoral nomination that’s being held this month.

cc @rebeccaleebligh.bsky.social @wazaroff.bsky.social @kareem42.bsky.social 3 Legs of the stool needed to unlock our sustainable and accessible future city: ✅ Single Stair Building Codes ◻️ Small Lot Apartment Zoning ◻️ Affordable Elevators @sightline.org @uytaelee.bsky.social

NEW VIDEO: North America’s Elevator’s Problem Elevators are absolutely essential to modern cities..... and it turns out North America kind of sucks at them. We partnered with @sightline.org to look into the many issues plaguing our elevator industry, and what it might take to fix it.

Where do you get enough biomass to power 15% of the grid? www.forbes.com/sites/kensil...

OneCity's mayoral candidates, William Azaroff & Amanda Burrows, interviewed on the Cambie Report.

and that's *with* spiral staircases, and without sprinklers.

This year the BC government set the wealth test for the HOG at above $2M, while renters get income tested at around $65k (adjusted net family income) for the full tax credit and get less money than the HOG for e.g. my condo. (Yes, this is my annual call to get rid of the HOG)

A heck of a chart: in every single one of the 10 major US cities that built the most housing between 2017 and 2023, rents for older, existing units fell—often by quite a bit.

Anybody get a good sub-4%, non-insured (low ratio), 5 year fixed rate offer lately? The best I've found (other than insured-only offers) is from Vancity.

Congestion pricing is working. The cameras are staying on.