commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/how-... Good to see YIMBYism and ranked ballots (STV) being supported hand-in-hand. I’d also agree that a good electoral system leads to better outcomes, including housing outcomes, like this pro-housing upzoning result.

Minimum depth requirement for a commercial space only makes sense if you're trying to regulate small businesses out of existence. We need more small spaces, like <200sqft that don't cost an arm and a leg to rent.

Completely unrelated, but this little shop wouldn’t be compliant in new construction in Seattle where retail mandates a 30’ depth for some arbitrary reason. Zoning codes and city planners do not know how to make good buildings.

A very important point from kendal Renters are part of a community too. Grinds my gears when someone says that an apartment is going to disrupt, or often you hear destroy, a “residential” neighbourhood. What is an apartment, but not a residence? A rental is a place to live.

In WW2, once you sank the submarine that happened to have surfaced due to depth charge damage, you would stop firing at the life rafts and pick up the POWs. The US is treating these people worse than they did Wehrmacht soldiers fighting for the Nazis.

Thanks to Common Wealth Canada and Ken Yang for putting this on, along with Janning, Martin, and @1alexhemingway for being excellent panelists Lots of good discussion on the importance of revenue neutral tax shifts to improve productivity, spur economic growth, and reduce costs

What happens when you downzone? Our new open-access research paper in @findingspress.org investigates effects of decades of downzoning in Chicago. Findings: —Downzoned areas added 1/7th of the new units as comparable non-downzoned areas; —Downzoned areas became more white & were more expensive.

Hope to see you there tonight. Panel on tax and housing policy policy at SFU.

BC Electoral Reform Committee has released their report. Includes a recommendation for a citizen's assembly on electoral reform and consultation with local government on the appetite for electoral reform in local elections (such as ranked ballots) www.leg.bc.ca/committee-co...

Our design also suggests that 701 assistance is linked: - To more complex zoning! - With greater adoption of quotas on permits, and of inclusionary zoning! - To more bargaining for community benefits, where we leverage newspaper reports!

Tom is an excellent housing economist (PHD, Applied Economics, Wharton) and a good friend. Very excited to see him and his coauthor publish this today. A great hire for any organization looking for detailed housing analysis.

Why are many U.S. cities building less? Why have they insisted on a "thicket" of regulations that make housing hard to build? In a new #EconJMP with Beau Bressler (beaubressler.github.io), we study how much of the answer lies with a forgotten federal program that taught cities to restrict growth

www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna... IMO, Crime perception is up in particular due to homelessness being dispersed further into the community after the OS4 enforcement changes. Leon was in really rough shape when I was downtown for a haircut today. I'll spare the graphic details.

Discovering a vice tonight. Very good stuff.

This is cowardly.

Municipal corruption has been a huge issue in many times and places in U.S. history (Tammany Hall etc.). But in terms of presidents, Trump is by far the most personally corrupt ever, and it’s not even debatable. Shame on the Beeb. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Kelowna Transit Supportive Corridor document was presented to council today. I prefer concentric TOAs to linear paths, and providing increased flexibility instead of a fair bit of rigidity (on the built form and mandating commercial in some circumstances) but it’s decent.

Check out this high quality (and unique) new build ATC in Neuvo Vallarta. All the intersections are U or Roundabout so the centre-running nature works. 4 lane road, 2 lanes per side. Level crossings or good curbing for smoothness. Very popular with shoppers and tourists. Bad trees for shade.

Grocery stores do not have 30-40% margins this is silly. If you want to talk about food costs you need to begin with supply management. Still require top quality, without supply controls.

WATCH: If you really STILL don’t understand how car-dependent suburbia is HEAVILY SUBSIDIZED by downtown & all the urban parts of your city, please watch this EXCELLENT video by #NotJustBikes helped by #UrbanThree & @StrongTowns.org. And then please SHARE it as much as possible. youtu.be/7Nw6qyyrTeI

In today’s least surprising local news, speed display signs aren’t enough to make our roads safer.

Ogopogo spotted in Bucerias!

Credit to the majority. Webber, Cannan, Dyas are an unlikely alliance making the wrong vote here. www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/... By far the most affordable (and environmental) large building Kelowna has ever had. Subsidized units. Mass timber. Frustrating to see them vote to reject.

New dry supportive housing, for people who've been sober for >60 days and have completed detox and treatment. With peer-supported coaching, referrals to other services, and help with independent living skills to prepare for transitioning into long-term housing. cheknews.ca/b-c-announce... #yyj

No coincidence that Montreal has a very different infrastructure funding model, better zoning and building codes, and, frankly, infrastructure investment that is tied to better housing performance and community planning.

Important work from @russilwvong.bsky.social on the “zoning tax” that our regulatory barriers are adding to the cost of housing. While directly reducing supply cost it’s important, it’s important to look at the indirect friction and implicit costs of supply morehousing.substack.com/p/zoning-tax

Stop the presses! Next week, the Victoria Regional Transit Commission will consider the option of creating a one-seat (direct) ride from downtown Victoria to YYJ and on to Swartz Bay. This would be achieved by altering the 72 line and re-routing it to YYJ. Thoughts? Would you take the bus to YYJ?

This is real. A government agency calling Americans performing their democratic right of protest “imbecilic morons.” This Trump regime is a poison and never should have gotten power. A total disgrace.

The biggest corruption scandal is the entirety of the Trump family’s profit off the admin. The Epstein files scandal is something else

I really hope Canada can avoid importing what is going on in the UK

calgary.citynews.ca/2025/11/14/c... I’m sure other cities will appreciate getting Calgary’s HAF money when it is clawed back.

Legalizing sports betting was a huge mistake.

Really good planning from Victoria that we should copy as a 97x or 97a. Rerouting the terminus, after UBCO, to YLW along with signal priority and queue-jumping along the way.

After hearing from a friend that municipal STV is ranked #92 in a section of resolutions at the BCNDP convention….it appears that BC is stuck in plurality block hell for the foreseeable future.

The “smaller tree inside of a tree” approach to me hanging my parents’ Christmas lights. About as high as I can get with a ladder and pole.

People want to be with other people. A recent event showcased the wisdom of William H Whyte, and I ask: why don’t our public spaces follow his lead? www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/art-...

Stats Can reporting a 9.3% unemployment rate in Kelowna. Highest since June 2020.

Charestiste Posted this on Twitter. @charestiste.bsky.social Complete depolarization. Rutland to the right of upper mission (arguably) is a first. Dilworth and Glenmore likely decided this. I can’t believe how red south central is too.

“I think my community should welcome outsiders and newcomers seeking a better life” and “I think we should only build new housing for the kind of people who actually deserve it” are fundamentally incompatible beliefs.

Poll-by-poll results from the 2025 federal election are finally out: elections.ca/res/rep/off/...

Here’s my humble pitch: we stop calling Vancouver’s housing market a “slowdown” or “slump”, implying that it was a great time before. And instead, consider that after three years of similar numbers, acknowledge a new reality that everyone should adjust to.

After too many companies, politicians, media, and institutions pretty quickly bent the knee to Trump, today a whole bunch of voters didn’t.

i'm indifferent to the yacht tax but am heavily invested in the government keeping its promise to act on DCs. initial chatter around the budget suggests that this is not happening

Allowing single-stair apartment buildings is becoming a key indicator of whether a jurisdiction is innovation and evidence-based, or risk-averse and business-as-usual. The correct answer is to allow single-stair buildings, by the way. #Calgary #Vancouver

It’s a win for ranked ballot. The plebiscite was the Yukon’s first in a hundred years, and though non-binding, sends a clear message that Yukoners want electoral reform! Total Yes 10,186 Total No 7,944 GRAND TOTAL 18,130

The Yukon is having a plebiscite tonight on electoral reform, and currently ranked ballots have 60% support with lots of votes left to come in electionsyukon.ca/en/plebiscit...

www.castanet.net/news/BC/5815... I’m holding out hope that people won’t want municipal political parties. Not sure if that’s a realistic assumption.

Meanwhile, in the far-left progressive bastion of ... entire State of Utah: "The plan shows 3,100 miles of paths. The network would come within a mile of 95% of Utahns, connect to 33 school campuses, 31 state/national parks, and 74 high-capacity transit stations." www.sltrib.com/news/2025/10...

A quick explainer on Montreal’s election: The urbanist Projet Montréal party of outgoing mayor Valérie Plante has lost the election to the opposition Ensemble Montréal. Projet deserves a *lot* of credit for Montreal’s transformation in the past 10 or 15 years to be more bike/pedestrian-friendly.

Great article on the bottlenecks to building better apartments in Canada. If you ask a random Canadian on the street they will tell you they want shorter high-rises, taller low-rises, and more livable apartments with cross-ventilation. Yet politicians and policymakers force the opposite.