Jens von Bergmann
@jensvb.bsky.social
š¤ 9331
š„ 584
š 1952
Data, analysis, visualization,
#CensusMapper
, transportation cyclist. šVancouver, BC
Interesting how this interacts with coupling up and other living arrangements, for contrast here are age-specific headship rates.
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1 day ago
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Carl T. Bergstrom
3 days ago
Best explanation of the liar's dividend that I've ever seen.
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Great building and unit layout. A couple other distinction between living in Europe vs North America I can't help but notice. š§µ
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3 days ago
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Tom Davidoff
4 days ago
I recently had the chance to chat with
@wazaroff.bsky.social
who is running for mayor. He is smart, has great judgement, and spends his time providing affordable housing for those who need it. He would make an excellent mayor.
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Oh The Urbanity!
5 days ago
I appreciate
@1alexhemingway.bsky.social
ās consistent advocacy for non-market housing without downplaying market housing or the broader supply shortage. By covering not just zoning but also suppressed household formation, this is pretty much the gold standard for left-YIMBYism.
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Julia M. Rohrer
7 days ago
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Nice. This should fit nicely into the 3FSR 400-800m TOA annuli. And in the anticipated 6 storey village zoning and some of the area plans whenever that zoning change happens.
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6 days ago
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Damien Moule
8 days ago
From the Metro Toronto Planning Board's 1959 draft Official Plan (voted down by Metro Council). You could not say something this obvious in Toronto's Official Plan anymore.
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New data release of the National Address Registry out today, good to see continued development, and it's getting better with each release. Here all properties with mailing address in Vancouver.
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8 days ago
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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt
8 days ago
New piece! For the second time in three years, Metro Vancouver has raised development charges just after another level of government lowered taxes on new housing, capturing the savings instead of lowering total costs. Read Metro Van Strikes Again here:
www.missingmiddleini...
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Your regular reminder that the province intervened in municipal land use regulation because cities have and are very inclined to continue to strongly curb the right to build housing for people. (And that the soft approach that leaves cities a lot of wiggle room has failed.)
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9 days ago
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Finally found some time to play with Meta's new image segmentation model. (Special thanks to
@kylewalker.bsky.social
for making it super-easy.) Just open the map view and tell it what to find. First example: cars. Quite impressive for foundation model without additional training.
9 days ago
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New quarterly population projections are in today, quick update looking at BC. Net interprovincial migration turned positive again, but net overall migration including international migration turned negative for the first time since COVID due to strong net NPR outflows.
10 days ago
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Good take. Being clear about concepts matters. A lot of our housing discussions go sideways because people arenāt precise about the concepts they are talking about about. And the seemingly simple concept of āvacant homeā is a prime example where things go wrong frequently.
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10 days ago
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Alex Hemingway
11 days ago
There's been a flurry of housing policy announcements in recent years, but much of it is less than meets the eye. In a new report for
@bcpolicy.bsky.social
, I outline why BCās housing crisis and shortage is solvableāand key structural changes we still urgently need.
bcpolicy.ca/housing-cris...
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This is why BCās housing crisis hasnāt been solved yet
The magnitude of the housing shortage is huge, the problems chronic, but the housing crisis is solvable. Throughout the province and country, the housing crisis is marked by high rents and prices, ...
https://bcpolicy.ca/2025/12/16/housing-crisis/
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GRIDS Vancouver
11 days ago
I'm going to be voting for William Azaroff as OneCity's mayoral candidate in February; I think he's the best chance we have at a mayor who will be great on housing. I'd strongly encourage you to join the party and do the same.
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Late to comment on the RMS data release from last week, but wanted to update this graph on turnover and note that increased vacancy rates and easing rents have enabled more people to move (in most markets). Which is good.
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11 days ago
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Stephen Jacob Smith
15 days ago
Consultants contracted by Minnesota found that an eight-story single-stair building with 6,000 sq. ft. per floor (building 4) has dramatically lower fire risk than a same-height code-compliant two-stair building with a larger floor plate (building 1)
www.dli.mn.gov/sites/defaul...
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Great framing by
@kevinerdmann.bsky.social
. This part too.
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14 days ago
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Westside Backyard
15 days ago
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Your regular reminder that it takes a ginormous amount of privilege to claim that our low-density neighbourhoods are "working". (Old data, but story did not change.)
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Vancouver SFH Affordability Estimator
Who can afford to live in Signle Family Zones?
https://mountainmath.ca/affordability
15 days ago
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Nathan Lauster
15 days ago
Back-to-back CBC British Columbia news items. BC has too many people living in cars because they can't find housing. Think I'm going to stick with the province on this one. RV fire:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Metro Van mayors:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
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There was this narrative that cities kind of wanted more housing, and just needed a bit of nudging from the province to get over the hump... Good to see that not all munis are on board with winding back the clock.
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15 days ago
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Report on SenĢÔḵw progress from my morning ride into downtown, the crane for the second tower is getting taken down and now only serves the small round structure between tower two and three.
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15 days ago
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Saloni
18 days ago
Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
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Nathan Lauster
16 days ago
More broadly here,
@jensvb.bsky.social
and I explore solid v. liquid views in demography. Do people move on conveyor belts, so local projections can be based on on-off levers? ā Or do people move in streams, so they flow over a landscape & pool & settle in the containers available? ā
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William Azaroff (he/him)
17 days ago
According to
@thetyee.ca
, Iām a housing CEO who used to make indie chess movies and rom-coms. Honestly? Fair assessment. We talked about running with
@onecityvan.bsky.social
, fixing our housing deficit, and why directing is actually great prep for City Hall.
thetyee.ca/News/2025/12...
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William Azaroff, Who Builds Non-Profit Housing, Runs for Mayor | The Tyee
One of two nominees for the OneCity mayoral candidacy, the Strathcona resident also draws from arts industry experience.
https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/12/09/William-Azaroff-Interview/
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Nathan Lauster
18 days ago
Will the suburb of Surrey REALLY surpass Vancouver's population within the next couple of years? Maybe. But
@jensvb.bsky.social
and I lack confidence in demographic projection assumptions, which ignore the key issue: housing and where it's likely to land.
homefreesociology.com/2025/12/08/t...
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The Trouble with Municipal-level Population Projections
Co-authored by Jens von Bergmann and cross-posted at MountainMath Are people liquids or solids? Trick question: theyāre kind of both. This matters in terms of how we track people and project their ā¦
https://homefreesociology.com/2025/12/08/the-trouble-with-municipal-level-population-projections/
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My simple test for city housing policy: 1) Do you support turning a parking lot and grocery store next to skytrain into lots of homes, and 2) do you support making it easier to build more non-market housing throughout the city? Votes are in and only One City of Vancouver party supports both 1 & 2.
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18 days ago
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Recently StatCan started producing municipal level population projections. While that sounds good in principle,
@lausterna.bsky.social
and I explain why the StatCan projections are problematic. And we illustrate this using Surrey and Vancouver projections as an example.
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The trouble with municipal-level population projections ā Mountain Doodles
StatCan is now providing municipal level population projections, and we explain why thatās likely going to cause problems.
https://doodles.mountainmath.ca/posts/2025-12-07-the-trouble-with-municipal-level-population-projections/
18 days ago
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Abundant Housing Vancouver
19 days ago
Council will decide on Vancouver's Social Housing Initiative tomorrow (Tuesday). It is exactly what is needed RIGHT NOW. The need is obvious, with 73% of low-income renters spending too much on rent, not to mention crowded households due to the housing shortage. So why NOW? 1/5
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Nathan Lauster
22 days ago
Good deep dive into landlord-tenant disputes here, with criticism of how the RTB arbitration process is working. Most arbitrators are probably harried public servants doing their best, but I am reminded that Dallas Brodie prominently touted her time as an RTB arbitrator in her bio, and I shudder.
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Ivan the K ā¢āļø
22 days ago
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Reviving this fun format from a couple of years ago with updated data.
22 days ago
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Josh White
22 days ago
I spoke to Dan Fumano about proposed actions to address costs affecting development viability to help unlock new housing supply. Prices and rents are dropping, which is good, but costs need commensurately go down if we are to keep building housing.
vancouversun.com/opinion/colu...
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City of Vancouver eyes changes to make housing development more viable
City of Vancouver staff are proposing a series of changes to make housing development more viable in a challenging market.
https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/city-of-vancouver-eyes-changes-to-make-housing-development-more-viable
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Nathan Lauster
22 days ago
Just found old notes from hunting for my first Vancouver apartment when I got my UBC job, circa 2005. 1BR 4th & Stephens $1,000 1BR 11th & Alma $950* 1BR 10th & Blanca $910 1BR 7th & Vine $850 1BR Broadway & Larch $1,110 (I wrote "expensive" here) * this is where I ultimately ended up.
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Just finished listening to this episode, great wrap up of the incentives series explaining our inability to view some things holistically and make effective tradeoffs. It does not have to be this way.
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22 days ago
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Without downloading any new pics, describe your vibe for today using an image from your gallery
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22 days ago
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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt
23 days ago
This is really wonderful to see! CMHC is now releasing data on development charges across Canada. Must read piece.
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We built this city on⦠development charges, and itās been rock and roll
Development charges are an important consideration in creating housing supply. Learn how CMHCās data highlights the wide variation in development charges across municipalities and helps explore options to fund municipal infrastructure.
https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/observer/2025/we-built-this-city-development-charges
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Asking rent data out from StatCan today for Q2 and Q3 2025.
25 days ago
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Sorry, in Vancouver that requires a rezoning. There will be a hundred speakers at the hearing with some opposing it because they fear it will gentrify the neighbourhood, some who oppose it claiming it will bring transients into their quiet hood, and a few in favour because they want a fun city.
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25 days ago
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Neat. ggplot for python producing interactive graphs.
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25 days ago
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Yonah Freemark
26 days ago
Downzoning was used by cities around the world to preserve neighborhood aesthetics & protect property values. New evidence from Chicago in
@findingspress.org
⬠shows downzoning's effects over several decades: āMassive drop in housing construction āHigher home prices āIncreased racial segregation
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Downzoning Chicago: How Local Land Use Policy Has Reduced Housing Construction and Reinforced Segregation | Published in Findings
By Yonah Freemark, George Kisiel. Downzonings were used by US cities in the postwar period to preserve neighborhood character. These land-use policies were associated with lower housing supply, higher...
https://findingspress.org/article/147490-downzoning-chicago-how-local-land-use-policy-has-reduced-housing-construction-and-reinforced-segregation
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Uytae Lee
27 days ago
Excited to share a new video I produced with Urbanarium on their Decoding Timber Towers competition, which challenged teams to design 8ā20+ storey buildings out of wood! Check it out here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ42...
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Did these designs crack the code to wood towers?
YouTube video by About Here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ42KhybIUk
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Amina
27 days ago
Interesting use of street-level graphics to transform a cross-walk into a data visualization in the Tuzla Municipality of Istanbul, to depict the stark and devastating figures of the number of people killed and injured (20,000) over the last 10 years at cross-walks across the country.
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Jeff Allen
28 days ago
Recently made a few maps of the new Finch West Line 6 + surrounding land-use More here:
schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/maps-of-line...
#toronto
#transit
#maps
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Saloni
29 days ago
I had a lot of fun making this choropleth map of property sales prices in Germany. Predictably, big cities have the highest property prices. This pattern is typical now.
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Another great paper demonstrating the effects of new housing on the rest of the housing system. Reminder that the vast majority of moves are moves into old housing, focusing on the affordability of new housing is missing the forest for the trees. (Also congrats Limin and
@justintyndall.bsky.social
!)
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29 days ago
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Yet another reason why this should pass. So that we donāt have to go through the same stupidity every time we rezone one social housing project at a time. (Also, spot zoning one project at a time is no way to run a city.)
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29 days ago
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Great news, Vancouverites doubled up more between 2021 and 2024, so based on that baseline we now need fewer homes to accommodate future population growth! Metro Vancouver still working hard to coordinate the worsening of our housing shortage...
about 1 month ago
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