Another census blitz and another complete misinterpretation of the results by some. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen all kinds of headlines about how the suburbs are growing the fastest. In Metro Vancouver, Surrey is always listed as growing the fastest. Conservatives, in particular, seem to delight in propagating this kind of interpretation, [...]

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Those of you following my tweets Sunday know that the COPE annual general meeting continued what has now been 10 years of struggling over where it wants to put itself on the political spectrum. The meeting split almost evenly between the two contenders for external co-chair, with 145 votes for RJ Aquino and 141 for [...]

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Although many of you will know this already, thanks to the instant world, I wanted to note the news that flashed out yesterday about former councillor Jim Green. Green, who is an essential part of Vancouver history with his battles and ingenious ideas for building social housing, creating banks, redeveloping Woodward’s and more, had a [...]

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New councillor Adriane Carr is bringing a motion to council on a topic much beloved by the various groups that have sprung up in opposition the last few years to various redevelopments, towers, rezonings and so on. Those groups have made the point, or tried to, that there is lots of capacity in existing city [...]

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The SFU Urban Studies program presents two public talks by Scott Bernstein, President, Center for Neighborhood Technology, and our Visiting Fellow in Urban Sustainable Development. Details of these talks are noted below and in the posters attached. “If Not Now, When? How Making Economic Progress Count Accelerates Public and Private Infrastructure Investment in Cities and [...]

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It was a strange week last week, as various mayors from around the region talked about TransLink with the kind of critical commentary usually adopted by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Why would a group that nominally has some control over TransLink be criticizing their own creature? Because they feel as they don’t have much control [...]

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A lengthier interview here than any of us have done locally, with lots of fodder to ponder as Brent Toderian gives a tour of the city and his thoughts on city management to a reporter for Atlantic Cities. For those looking for a city-planning consultant, by the way, I note that Brent has now set [...]

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I reported before Christmas that many municipalities on the coast are scrambling to alter their long-term guidelines for building on the coast following a provincial report that upped the estimate of how much the sea will rise in the next hundred years. Word was just issued this week in Vancouver that, as an interim guideline, [...]

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The discussion continues. Re: Recent Stories and Blog posts on the firing of Brent Toderian, City of Vancouver Director of Planning We are recently retired Assistant Directors of Planning who worked with five Directors, including Brent, and many City Councils. Brent worked tirelessly to address the urgent issues of sustainability and affordability, while maintaining Vancouver’s [...]

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Time to nerd out, people. For those of you not up at 6 a.m. to get the first wave of census news, here’s the link. A few of my thoughts before I open the floor to all of you: – Isn’t it odd how so many people are high-fiving each other over having MORE PEOPLE [...]

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